South Texas Chisme

Texas allows company with filthy track record to care for psychiatric patients

2009-07-11T09:23:00.003-05:00

Republicans love their cronies as much as they hate providing services to the citizens.

A private prison company's history of filthy conditions, sexual abuse, suicides and riots in some of its Texas lockups isn't stopping the state from paying it $7.5 million to run a new psychiatric hospital near Houston.

Lawmakers inserted an earmark into the state budget to fund the future Montgomery County facility starting in 2011. But they said they didn't know until this week that the county had selected the GEO Group to operate it, although GEO lobbyists were pushing for it as early as February.

Crony. Crony. Crony. Crony.

Bend over North Texas. Allstate is raising rates.

2009-07-11T09:21:00.002-05:00

North Texas homeowners insured by Allstate will see their rates increase an average 6.2 percent beginning next month under a rate plan filed by the company with the Texas Department of Insurance.

A spokesman for Allstate, the second-largest property insurer in Texas, said Tuesday that the increase is primarily driven by broader severe weather activity across the state and higher costs to rebuild after fire, wind and hail losses.

Severe weather activity or greed? I'm thinking partly cloudy with massive waves of greed.

Company holding water rights hostage

2009-07-11T08:22:00.001-05:00

Exelon Energy's plans to build two nuclear reactors near Victoria may be on hold, but it hasn't stopped the power company from reserving the rights to 75,000 acre-feet of precious Guadalupe River water for another year — and maybe longer.

The deal, which the Chicago-based energy behemoth inked with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, has worried some Victoria-area residents.

You mean those residents who want to be able to drink water.

Brownsville ISD Superintendent wants an open hearing

2009-07-11T07:56:00.001-05:00

The hearing on the proposed termination of Superintendent Hector Gonzales will take place in open session Aug. 3-5, attorneys for Gonzales and the BISD Board of Trustees decided Wednesday.

In a pre-hearing conference, the attorneys decided the hearing will take place on Brownsville Independent School District property but did not choose a location, district counsel Mike Saldaña said. Gonzales' attorney, Ruben Peña, said the superintendent's decision to have the hearing in open session "speaks for itself." Gonzales has long maintained he has done nothing that would justify his firing.

Perry names Gail Lowe to head SBOE

2009-07-10T10:44:00.001-05:00

So much for Cynthia Dunbar.

Gov. Rick Perry on Friday appointed Republican Gail Lowe of Lampasas as the new chairwoman of the State Board of Education. Lowe, publisher of a Lampasas newspaper and a member of the board for seven years, will replace fellow Republican Don McLeroy, who was forced to give up the chairmanship after failing to win Senate confirmation during the legislative session this year.

Gail is part of the theocracy crowd.

Several state Board of Education members are encouraging public school districts to use a particular Bible curriculum that some experts predict will land them in court if they do.

"It's absolutely jaw-dropping," said Mark Chancey, a professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University, referring to the e-mail circulated by state Board of Education members Terri Leo, R-Spring, Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, and Gail Lowe, R-Lampasas.

Was the Dunbar appointment a trial ballon?

2009-07-10T10:27:00.005-05:00

I think so. But, who's is it? Perry's or Dunbar's?

Cynthia Dunbar, an outspoken conservative on the State Board of Education, said Thursday that she wasn’t sure whether she would accept if Gov. Rick Perry asked to appoint her as chairwoman.

"I’m honored, of course, to be considered," Dunbar, a Houston-area lawyer, said Thursday.

Oh, don't be coy. That batsh*t crazy crowd seems to be loving it.

A new poll indicates that Gov. Rick Perry has surged ahead of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison among Texans who plan to vote in the Republican Party's gubernatorial primary next March, but a mass of voters remains up for grabs.

Perry won the support of 38 percent of respondents in a poll released Thursday and conducted last month by researchers at the University of Texas, compared with 26 percent who backed Hutchison. The poll found 34 percent of those planning to vote in the primary are undecided or planning to support someone else.

With only 38% on Perry's side and 34% undecided, it's hardly a cakewalk for Perry.

Update: Perry names Gail Lowe of Lampasas.

Gov. Rick Perry on Friday appointed Republican Gail Lowe of Lampasas as the new chairwoman of the State Board of Education. Lowe, publisher of a Lampasas newspaper and a member of the board for seven years, will replace fellow Republican Don McLeroy, who was forced to give up the chairmanship after failing to win Senate confirmation during the legislative session this year.

UTSA police chief resigns over sexual harassment complaint

2009-07-10T10:20:00.001-05:00

An employee's complaint of sexual harassment and a hostile work environment led to the resignation earlier this month of University of Texas at San Antonio Police Chief David Hernandez, according to an investigation summary released Thursday.

The employee told UTSA and UT System officials that Hernandez repeatedly made sexually suggestive comments and jokes toward the employee, according to the report. Hernandez also allegedly made inappropriate gestures toward the employee during open meetings and when the two were alone, and touched the employee inappropriately on more than one occasion.

Hernandez declined to comment, but told investigators he considered the employee a friend and would joke around with the employee in the office.

Apparently, the employee did not consider such actions 'friendly'.

Will there be high speed rail between El Paso and Denver?

2009-07-10T10:17:00.000-05:00

El Paso leaders have welcomed an announcement that Texas is partnering with New Mexico and Colorado to take an initial step in developing a high-speed rail corridor between El Paso and Denver.

High-speed rail is characterized by trains that operate at speeds of at least 110 mph.

Congress has authorized up to eleven high-speed corridors across the U.S. but currently only 10 corridors have been designated. The Texas-New Mexico-Colorado partnership is seeking the 11th designation and will be applying for federal funds to conduct a viability study. The three states will submit the joint pre-application for funds Friday.

Disgraced Hidalgo Commissioner gets a break in court

2009-07-10T10:12:00.001-05:00

A federal judge has dismissed a civil claim that Hidalgo County Commissioner Sylvia Handy unjustly fired an employee who helped build the ongoing criminal case against her.

Maria Ybarra, a former human resources coordinator in Handy’s office, lost her position in February after working with the FBI.

While she maintains that cooperation led to her firing, she agreed to drop her witness intimidation claims, saying that the allegation should be prosecuted criminally, her attorney Fernando Mancias said Thursday.

Or, since the charge will be investigated as a crime, maybe not so much.

Houston Mayor says quick resolution of racist, sexist graffiti hampered by union rules

2009-07-10T10:05:00.003-05:00

Oh, come on! Don't EITHER side make this about unions.

Rules meant to assure due process for firefighters suspected of wrongdoing have the potential to slow the investigation, White said. Also, rules requiring that promotion decisions be based largely on test scores make it difficult to put the best leaders in place, he said.

Thursday’s news conference marked White’s first public discussion of Tuesday’s vandalism at Fire Station 54 at Bush Intercontinental Airport that targeted the firehouse’s only two female members, one white, one black. Firefighters Jane Draycott and Paula Keyes have said the vandalism has made them fear for their safety.

White termed the incident “shameful,” and assured that it will have career-ending, and possibly criminal, consequences.

...

Despite White’s claims for the department’s diversity, a recent survey found 97 percent of its 4,015 noncivilian members are men, and 61 percent of the men are white.

See previous posts.

Republicans don't get to pick Federal judges anymore

2009-07-10T09:57:00.002-05:00

Republicans lost the presidential election in 2008, but they refuse to give up the power to appoint Federal judges in Texas.

Although the state’s Republican senators have a committee to evaluate who will replace former Judge Samuel B. Kent, no candidate will be nominated without the consent of a delegation of Democrats from the House of Representatives, a White House spokeswoman said Thursday.

Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison will provide consent to the White House on all judicial nominations, as outlined in Article 2, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, Cornyn’s spokesman Kevin McLaughlin said Thursday.

The senators also will use a 31-member Federal Judiciary Evaluation Committee to review applications for the judgeship, which will be moved from Galveston to McAllen.

At the request of the White House, however, Texas Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have engaged in a process that involves interviewing potential candidates for federal judge, U.S. attorney and U.S. marshal, Gannet Tseggai, a spokeswoman for the Obama administration, said.

Complaint filed over police action at Chico's Tacos

2009-07-10T09:09:00.004-05:00

El Paso has a non-discrimination ordinance making it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. In addition, the US Supreme Court decriminalized homosexual behavior by over turning a Texas law. Apparently, El Paso police officers are completely ignorant about discrimination law.

A security guard asked 5 gay men to leave Chico's Tacos in El Paso after two of the men kissed. Two El Paso police officers made matters worse.

[Carlos] De Leon [who was part of the group of 5 ejected from the restaurant] said the officer told the group it was illegal for two men or two women to kiss in public. The five men, he said, were told they could be cited for homosexual conduct -- a law the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas.

...

El Paso police Detective Carlos Carrillo said a more appropriate charge for what happened at Chico's Tacos would probably be criminal trespass.

Let the education begin.

After prompting from his lawyer and former Police Chief Richard Wiles, Diaz de Leon on Thursday submitted a complaint to the El Paso Police Department's Internal Affairs Division. Police, meanwhile, have admitted handling the situation poorly. The restaurant owners and security company, All American International Security, have remained silent.

Police Chief Allen was grilled by the city council.

Allen responded that one of the two officers sent to the restaurant was not very experienced, but he promised to look into better police training. Allen also released a statement late Thursday that said police officials made incorrect statements about the law and that local government has a responsibility to ensure that people are served without fear of discrimination.

"We will be looking at (diversity issues) in roll-call training," Allen said at City Hall. "... The department will not tolerate any discrimination based on sexual orientation, race or anything else."

TPA bloggers catch SBOE fiddling with Social Studies

2009-07-09T09:13:00.003-05:00

Vince over at Capital Annex has 'Barton’s Review Of Social Studies Standards Lacks Much To Be Desired (Including Actual Facts)' and '“Expert Panel” Reviewing Texas Social Studies Curriculum Not All Experts' and Texas Kaos has 'Wing Nut Alert ! Students Endangered by Religious Right "Experts"'.

Today's Dallas Morning News covers the story, too, noting that the Republicans want to remove coverage of non-white Americans and label everything 'republican'.

Civil rights leaders César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall – whose names appear on schools, libraries, streets and parks across the U.S. – are given too much attention in Texas social studies classes, conservatives advising the state on curriculum standards say.
...

Barton, a former vice chairman of the Texas Republican Party, said that because the U.S. is a republic rather than a democracy, the proper adjective for identifying U.S. values and processes should be "republican" rather than "democratic." That means social studies books should discuss "republican" values in the U.S., his report said.

As always, check the Texas Freedom Network.

Perry's got money and Palin to fight KBH

2009-07-09T09:04:00.002-05:00

$9.3M vs $8M so far.

Gov. Rick Perry announced Wednesday that he managed to raise $4.2 million in the last nine days of June, giving him $9.3 million to begin his expected GOP primary campaign against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

As for the benefit of Sarah Palin, you'd have to ask the batsh*t crazy crowd. They love her. The pundits and the polls say quitting the governorship has hurt Palin. I don't buy that for a minute. The batsh*t crazy crowd doesn't care about those polls, independents or a basic resume. Palin is one of their own. That's what counts.

Why are they still building that d*mn fence?

2009-07-09T08:06:00.001-05:00

The No Border Wall coalition has warned that an extra 700 miles of border fencing could be built as a result of a Senate amendment to a Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill.

“This is why the fight is not over. Even in places where the wall is ‘finished,’ more will be built if these are signed by President Obama,” said No Border Wall coalition spokesman Scott Nicol.

Why have Democrats abandoned us?

El Paso police ignorant of their own anti-discrimination law

2009-07-09T07:44:00.002-05:00

Two gay men kissed at a Chico's Tacos restaurant, prompting guards to eject them and a police officer to endorse their ouster.

...

[Carlos] De Leon [who was part of the group of 5 ejected from the restaurant] said the officer told the group it was illegal for two men or two women to kiss in public. The five men, he said, were told they could be cited for homosexual conduct -- a law the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas.

That same year, the El Paso City Council approved an ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation by businesses open to the public.

...

El Paso police Detective Carlos Carrillo said a more appropriate charge for what happened at Chico's Tacos would probably be criminal trespass.

Apparently, the El Paso police department does not understand anti-discrimination law.

El Paso city attorney clears Susie Byrd's ethics complaint

2009-07-09T07:37:00.001-05:00

The city attorney's staff has dismissed an ethics complaint against West-Central city Rep. Susie Byrd. It alleged a conflict of interest over her vote to purchase property in Northeast El Paso for a new Sun Metro bus terminal.

James Ratcliff, who filed the complaint, said he was dissatisfied with the ruling and still believed Byrd made an ethical misstep.

New Corpus Christi city council to look at revised ethics code

2009-07-09T07:31:00.001-05:00

After several meetings, Ethics Commission Chairman Jim Cramer said, a draft of the rule is more stringent than before. It hasn’t been officially approved by the commission and Cramer said he didn’t want to discuss it until it goes before the council July 28.

But he said the suggested new ethics code is likely to include an adaptation of a rule passed recently in San Antonio that prohibits council members from accepting free travel, lodging and entertainment.

Kent's kingdom moved to McAllen

2009-07-09T07:25:00.003-05:00

You may remember former Judge Kent who thought he was the Emperor of Galveston.

The state’s oldest federal bench, which remains vacant after the resignation of U.S. District Court Judge Samuel B. Kent, will be transferred from Galveston to McAllen, officials said Wednesday.

The move apparently was the result of a weekend meeting that ended Monday among federal judges presiding in the Southern District of Texas, which includes Galveston County.

All that activity on the border has made for a heavy case load. If the post had stayed in Galveston, Susan Criss was a front runner to take it.

[U.S. Rep. Gene] Green’s pick for the position would have been Criss, based on how she handled litigation from the 2005 BP explosion in Texas City, he said.

“I watched how she handled that BP case, and I thought she did a great job,” Green said. “That’s the complexity of litigation you get in federal court.”

Now the valley reps have a say.

Houston firefighters hear racist radio message

2009-07-09T07:07:00.005-05:00

First there was the sexist and racist graffiti aimed at firefighters found in a secure location. Now this.

Racist comments transmitted on the Houston fire department's radio frequency Wednesday were made by someone outside the department who hacked into the system, authorities said.

"Someone or some group hijacked seven to eight seconds of airtime of a public safety radio channel Trac 2," Fire Chief Phil Boriskie said. "The statements that were made were morally offensive."

The women who were the target of racist and sexist graffiti correlate increased harassment to their entry to the Bush airport detail.

[Jane] Draycott, who is white, said the act was no isolated incident, citing less sensational but still shocking discriminatory acts dating back as far as two years, when she joined Station 54.

[Paula] Keyes, who is black, said this was the first time she’d been harassed. An eight-year veteran of the department, she only joined the station three months ago.

Why is such behavior tolerated in the Houston fire department? Will Houston stand up and clean up? Clearly the station 54 command promoted the harassment and the city provided no clear alternatives.

Draycott described the litany of incidents over the past two years: her shower’s cold water being disconnected so she was subsequently scalded; vandalism in the women’s restroom that included urination on the toilet seats, sink and walls and snipping of wires to the speaker that alerts firefighters to emergency calls; and a colleague saying he didn’t want to sit with “the riffraff” when declining to sit at her table.

She also described superiors forcing her to take and score highly on exams after being off work for extended periods while her male coworkers who were off longer did not have to demonstrate such re-entry skills.

She said she made frequent complaints about the abuse, but it never changed.

Trooper was on duty, not in uniform when arrested for domestic violence

2009-07-09T07:02:00.003-05:00

What was he doing out of uniform when he was supposed to be on duty? Is it hard to fit family violence into a busy trooper schedule?

The Department of Public Safety trooper charged with assault/family violence was on duty when he was arrested Monday night, a DPS spokesman said.

But Efrain Montemayor, 40, of Harlingen was not in uniform when he was arrested by Harlingen police, Austin DPS spokesman Tom Vinger said Wednesday.

Texas kids don't need to know anything about health

2009-07-08T02:23:00.001-05:00

Health class will no longer be a state requirement for high school students this fall, making Texas one of the few states in the country with no required health education, officials said.

Education Commissioner Robert Scott announced the move in a recent letter to school districts, causing some to worry Texas students will miss out on critical topics like alcohol awareness, sex education and basic nutrition.

“It was very surprising to a lot of people,” said Diana Everett, executive director of the Texas Association for Health Physical Education, Health, Recreation and Dance. “We’ve all been in shock.”

Republicans do not believe in public education anyway.

Houston firefighters confronted with racism and sexism

2009-07-08T02:20:00.001-05:00

Racist and sexist epithets scrawled across a firehouse door greeted two female firefighters as they reported to work Tuesday — just weeks after City Council authorized sensitivity training to restore harmony in the department.

The discovery happened about 6:30 a.m. at Fire Station 54 at Intercontinental Airport, a station that the president of the Houston Black Firefighter’s Association said previously has suffered vandalism in the women’s quarters.

“This is a very painful day,” said Executive Assistant Fire Chief Rick Flanagan. “This is without a doubt an act of hate. ... It is so distasteful, so painful, so despicable. We have the full support of the police department, and we have asked them to expedite this investigation.”

Somebody's in real trouble now.

FBI probe snares Waller Justice of the Peace

2009-07-08T02:17:00.001-05:00

The 46-year-old [Justice of the Peace DeWayne] Charleston is accused of conspiring and committing federal program fraud, joining a growing list of Waller County officials swept up in a FBI corruption probe that began four years ago.

No charges for El Paso ISD superintendent

2009-07-08T02:08:00.002-05:00

A grand jury did not believe that El Paso Independent School District Superintendent Lorenzo García assaulted one of his principals.

It decided not to indict García in a May 22 case in which Barron Elementary School Principal Mary Helen Lechuga said he struck her on the head in front of dozens of witnesses.

...

Lechuga filed a police complaint against Garcia after he "tapped" her on the head when she did not raise her hand to high-five the superintendent at a district celebration.