South Texas Chisme

El Paso whistleblower gets reward. Finally

2009-11-28T07:59:00.002-06:00

Jurors have awarded $100,000 to a Fire Department official who blew the whistle on alleged malfeasance, including falsification of training records.

The plaintiff, Alan Parsons, sued the city after his superiors removed him from a supervisory role at the department training academy and reassigned him to headquarters.

Parsons, 48, claimed that the city reassigned him because he reported departmental violations to the Texas Commission on Fire Protection in April 2007.

Good on you, Alan Parsons. You didn't shut up.

Nueces County is #10 - for benzene

2009-11-28T07:53:00.002-06:00

Nueces County ranked 10th among all U.S. counties for the highest amounts of industry-released benzene in 2007, the latest data available from the Environmental Protection Agency.

A pilot study last year by Texas A&M University found alarming levels of benzene in the blood and urine of Hillcrest residents. The study has been contradicted by a refinery-hired consultant, who speculated a methodology error caused the readings to be too high. The levels were 14 times higher than those found in a study of benzene factory workers.

#10 or #1, neither is very good. The 2007 study showed a problem.

Say goodbye to San Juan's city manager

2009-11-28T07:35:00.001-06:00

San Juan city commissioners accepted the resignation of City Manager Tony Garza on Tuesday night.

City officials emerged from a nearly half-hour executive session Tuesday to unanimously approve a recommendation from special attorney Gustavo Acevedo for "an agreement in principle" with Garza for him to step down from his city manager post.

The Dallas Morning News stands up for Open Meetings Act

2009-11-27T08:17:00.001-06:00

The Open Meetings Act helps keep public officials accountable, spelling out prohibitions on secret deliberations. Violating the act is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $500 and six months in jail.

For city councils and other government bodies, avoiding these consequences is pretty simple: Don't schedule secret meetings or make decisions behind closed doors.

Amazingly, the Texas Municipal League and some Texas cities have decided that's too much to ask.

The league, which is funded with taxpayer dollars, has passed a resolution seeking a law that would strip the teeth out of the Open Meetings Act. Additionally, officials from more than a dozen cities across the state plan to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law.

FUNDED WITH TAXPAYER DOLLARS? Sorry for the shouting.

El Paso Medical Examiner provided questionable résumé

2009-11-27T07:45:00.002-06:00

Nobody in an official position bothered to check the guy's résumé?

Dr. Paul Shrode, who for years has fought allegations that he lied on his résumé and is underqualified to be chief medical examiner of El Paso County, finds himself the target of a new state complaint.

The latest to bring accusations against Shrode is David Fisher, a Central Texas watchdog of county medical examiners. Fisher has tracked Shrode through his career from Houston to Lubbock to El Paso. A vocal critic of state standards for county medical examiners, Fisher said Shrode is one of many medical examiners in the state who are unfit to practice.

Fisher this week filed a complaint against Shrode with the Texas Medical Board. He alleges that Shrode violated state law by falsifying his résumé to obtain the job of chief medical examiner of El Paso County.

Fisher said Shrode falsely claimed to have a law degree and did not disclose that he had failed the board certification exam in pathology.

Hidalgo County Comissioner may be going back to jail next week

2009-11-27T07:32:00.000-06:00

A federal judge could decide as early as next week whether to revoke or permanently alter the conditions of Hidalgo County Commissioner Sylvia Handy’s bond, her attorney said.

Pre-trial monitors filed a motion Wednesday asking the court to review the elected official’s release after allegations surfaced that she tried to bribe a witness in her ongoing criminal case.

See previous posts.

It's Thanksgiving.

2009-11-26T07:24:00.001-06:00

I am thankful for friends, family and all of the goodness life has offered me. How about you?

Looks like Galveston paid too much for destroyed beach houses

2009-11-26T07:11:00.002-06:00

Sales contracts for the first 23 beach-front properties whose owners completed buyout agreements with the city show wide disparities between the values set by private appraisers and those listed by the Galveston Central Appraisal District. On average, the city paid 89 percent more for the houses damaged by Hurricane Ike than the appraisal district said they were worth before the storm.

On average. Hmm. I'll bet somebody made out like a bandit. Emphasis on 'bandit'. Others maybe not as much.

Del Rio has a new police chief

2009-11-26T07:07:00.001-06:00

City council members Tuesday night unanimously confirmed the appointment of Mark A. Crosby as the interim chief of the Del Rio Police Department.

Crosby's appointment becomes effective with the resignation of DRPD Chief Waylon Bullard on Friday, Dec. 4.

Alice area companies get teensy slap on wrist from TCEQ

2009-11-26T07:02:00.002-06:00

You couldn't call it much. Just a reprimand. After all, endangering lives with pollution or causing enormous grief and suffering with pollution driven illness is nothing compared to the rights of a corporation to do whatever it pleases to make a buck.

CPS Energy executives get a reprieve

2009-11-25T08:14:00.001-06:00

CPS Energy trustees took no action Wednesday morning after deliberating for nearly 11 hours over the fate of several top executives connected to a nuclear cost estimate — much higher than expected — that was kept from the utility's board and the City Council.

The board came out of executive session shortly before 1 a.m. to announce that it would continue deliberation Monday.

“The seriousness of this issue warrants that this board takes care, takes caution,” Chairwoman Aurora Geis told the sparse crowd that waited. “People's lives are at stake.”

Gene Locke turns into a Republican in his run against Parker

2009-11-25T08:00:00.004-06:00

How else do you explain the gay bashing and the 'tax and spend Liberal' rhetoric?

Former City Attorney Gene Locke launched the first major attack ad of the mayoral runoff campaign Tuesday, releasing a radio spot that seeks to paint City Controller Annise Parker as a poor steward of taxpayer dollars in her 12 years as a City Council member and fiscal watchdog.

“Can Houston really afford Annise Parker as our next mayor?” a female narrator asks in the spot, which goes on to note the double-digit growth in the city's budget over the period she has been in office and various votes she took for fee increases or against budget cuts.

Christian Archer must be very proud.

The Galveston County Daily News calls out Ron Paul for hypocrisy

2009-11-25T07:56:00.001-06:00

[Ron Paul's] speech, delivered Saturday at the Galveston Country Club, included a message about keeping the federal government out of the pocketbooks of ordinary folks.

What’s ironic is that West Ender residents had lobbied relentlessly — and successfully — for what has to be the most breathtaking entitlement program approved in response to Hurricane Ike.

The federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program was not designed to compensate owners of expensive houses that end up on or near the public beach.

But, in Galveston, that’s exactly what it’s being used for.

Chávez declining to run for Shapleigh's seat

2009-11-25T07:48:00.001-06:00

A state Senate seat that has opened up for the first time in more than a decade has only one taker as of Tuesday.

State Rep. Norma Chávez, D-El Paso, bowed out from a possible run for the seat that state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh will vacate after the 2010 election.

She will instead run for reelection in District 76.

"I had to decide what was best for the citizens in my House district, what was best for El Paso and what was right for my family and me," she said in a statement.

Chávez's announcement means former county attorney José Rodríguez remains the only official candidate in the state Senate race.

Sometimes people in the same party do work together.

Allowing 'trusted' truckers to cross border invites drug smugglers

2009-11-25T07:44:00.001-06:00

That's a big 'duh'.

Turnover at CPS Energy

2009-11-24T08:57:00.002-06:00

CPS Energy's board of trustees is expected to announce significant personnel changes today on the heels of an investigation into why high cost estimates for the utility's proposed nuclear project were kept from the board.

“We are very concerned about the lack of disclosure of material information by certain CPS Energy employees,” Mayor Julián Castro said Monday after a closed-door session of the board lasting nearly five hours. “There will be changes at CPS Energy.”

You lie, you should lose.

Greg Abbott screws retired Texas teachers out of bonus

2009-11-24T08:46:00.001-06:00

25,000 retired Texas teachers get the finger instead of $500 bonus checks.

Are you surprised? El Paso is 2nd safest US city.

2009-11-24T08:39:00.001-06:00

Just don't cross the border.

A new ranking shows El Paso moved up to the second-safest large city in the nation even while a vicious drug cartel war has turned Juárez into one of the deadliest cities in the world.

El Paso trailed only Honolulu for the lowest crime rate for cities with more than 500,000 population in an annual publication released Monday by CQ Press. The ranking is based on crime data for 2008.

Civic leaders lauded the rating, saying it counters a negative perception that El Paso is a violent place because of the killings across the border.

Even more trouble for Hidalgo's Sylvia Handy

2009-11-24T08:29:00.000-06:00

A federal court has ordered Hidalgo County Commissioner Sylvia Handy remain on 24-hour home lockdown and could send her to jail amid allegations she tried to bribe a witness in her ongoing criminal case.

Prosecutors said Handy offered $500 concert tickets to the family of an illegal immigrant who worked in her home days after she was indicted in connection with giving the woman a job.

See previous posts.

Mercedes Mayor in disbelief over vote to gut the Open Meetings Act

2009-11-24T08:25:00.003-06:00

The executive director of the Texas Municipal League said Monday that the resolution seeking to lessen jail-time penalties for violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act did pass with "overwhelming" support at the nonprofit organization’s annual conference.

Frank Sturzl disputed the belief of TML board member Mercedes Mayor Joel Quintanilla and Mercedes City Commissioner Ruben Guajardo that the resolution failed.

"The city officials must be very confused," Sturzl said Monday.

When you think that governments ought to be run in the dark, that would be confusing to people who think that government is for the benefit of its citizens.

The Corpus Christi Caller Times goes after Rockport Mayor, Todd Pearson, who wants to run Rockport away from public view.

The intent of the law is to stop public officials from handling public business away from the public eye. Citizens have a right to witness the arguments for and against legislation, and to try to influence the process. If city council members e-mail each other or talk privately about city business and come to agreement in that way, citizens are cut out.

Rockport Mayor Todd Pearson claims that officials are “unduly burdened” by the “onerous” criminal penalties in this law. But that burden is intentional. When public officials feel comfortable to the point of not watching what they say, the law gets broken. Public officials have nothing to fear if they follow the law.

Bill White in, Tom Schieffer out

2009-11-24T08:22:00.001-06:00

Good riddance to the the Bushbot.

As a result of that Sunday afternoon meeting, Democratic candidate Tom Schieffer — who was a Bush administration ambassador to Australia and Japan — announced Monday that he will withdraw from the race for governor to clear the path for White. Schieffer urged other Democrats in the race to drop out and join him in support of White.

“We simply must get behind one candidate who can unite the Democratic Party and offer a credible alternative to the Republicans,” Schieffer said. “Bill White is that candidate.”

The mayor then held a City Hall news conference to say he will consider running for governor and make an announcement by Dec. 4.

Kay Bailey domino effects.

It's Monday TPA blog roundup time. Enjoy!

2009-11-23T13:34:00.001-06:00

The Texas Progressive Alliance as Thanksgiving week begins brings you this week's highlights from the blogs.

The Texas Cloverleaf clues you in on why you can't breathe in Denton County-- gas drillers!

WCNews at Eye On Williamson has some Thoughts on Straus' Interim Charges - including topics like feral hogs, blogging, and transportation.

On Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS, TXsharon summarizes the Barnett Shale Emissions Meeting in Fort Worth.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme would like the sun to shine on city doings even if city officials don't.

Justin at Asian American Action Fund Blog is delighted that Hank Gilbert has enlisted Geeyung Li as APIA Outreach Director and thus has the first Asian American senior staffer of the campaign.

With Farouk Shami's entrance into the race, McBlogger thinks it's now down to two real candidates. Find out who they are.

WhosPlayin discusses how two cities within one school district have vastly different expectations for the district when it comes to construction.

Neil at Texas Liberal offered information about when it is you should thaw your turkey. He also offered information about having a vegetarian Thanksgiving if that is your thing.

The Kay Bailey-Rick Perry cage match is a front in the war for control of the Republican Party going on throughout the country. Battles like the one in NY-23 last month are gearing
up in a D-FW-area state Senate district in Texas, and a US Senate race in Florida, and likely all points in-between. Find out more at Brains and Eggs.

Over at Texas Vox, Public Citizen Energy Policy Director Tyson Slocum urges the EPA to use the Clean Air Act to fight global warming.

nytexan at BlueBloggin is worn out with political buzz words, especially Socialism, The New Buzz Word. Americans are amazingly ignorant about civics, types of governments and the world around them. Knowing whats going on around us, and researching facts is, after all, boring and unnecessary when we have news soundbites. And, I am not only speaking about the talking heads on Fox. Yes, here in America, we even outsource our thought process to main stream media and whatever tickles their fancy at any given moment.

Libby Shaw, over at TexasKaos, reports on the circular firing squad that is today's Texas Republican Party in her posting, Tea Party Candidates to Challenge Texas Republicans . Give it a read.

TxDOT planning to sneak in more toll roads

2009-11-23T03:35:00.002-06:00

Lawmakers might have left the Capitol earlier this year without getting much done when it comes to transportation. But they were clear on one point: They wanted the Texas Department of Transportation out of the business of building privately financed toll roads.

The Texas Legislature beat back attempts to extend the authority for so-called comprehensive development agreements – 50-year contracts with private companies that agree to build roads in return for toll revenue – and the department's ability to enter into the contracts expired Aug. 31.

But less than six months later, state highway bosses may have found a loophole. And the Dallas area, already home to more toll roads than anywhere in Texas, probably is the place where they will try it first.

I hope somebody in the Texas Legislature is getting really angry about this.

Victoria Advocate pushes creationism

2009-11-23T03:27:00.003-06:00

Here's some mushy logic for you.

The United States was built on God and the money even says "In God We Trust," so incorporating creationism into the school curriculum seems a natural step, proponents say.

How about this one.

Many children grow up in less-than-ideal circumstances and hearing a bit more about religion could be a good thing, [Victoria housewife Rosie Johnson] added.

No, Rosie. There's this thing called separation of church and state. By the way, what religion should teachers be teaching? Your religion or theirs?

Then there is the paid, think tank drivel.

People often argue that evolution is science and creation is religion, but that isn't the full truth. Both are belief systems about the past, said Gary Bates, chief executive officer of Creation Ministries International, a ministry geared to support the church and proclaim the Bible's truth, according to the group's Web site.

Apparently, Gary can't distinguish between a belief and science. Neither can his buddies in the Republican party.

McNeil to challenge Adkisson for Bexar County Commissioner's slot

2009-11-23T03:16:00.001-06:00

Former City Councilwoman Sheila McNeil has confirmed the worst-kept secret in local politics: She intends to challenge Precinct 4 County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson in March's Democratic primary.

“It's pretty official,” McNeil said, adding she plans to make a formal announcement soon.

McNeil said she recently solicited a poll by Wilson Research Strategies, a company based in Washington, D.C., to assess her chances in a potential showdown with Adkisson and found the poll numbers encouraging.