South Texas Chisme

Former Travis County Sheriff goes looney tunes over the air waves

2009-11-21T09:52:00.002-06:00

Raymond Frank, who served as Travis County sheriff in the 1970s and lost a bid for reelection to the office in 2008, has been fined $10,000 by the Federal Communications Commission for broadcasting radio signals from his Westlake-area home without a license.

Frank, 84, responded to the FCC notice of his violation by saying that as a citizen of the Republic of Texas, his broadcasts within the boundaries of the Republic were not bound by FCC rules or the laws of the United States, according to a forfeiture order issued Nov. 9 by the FCC.

San Antonio cop should be in deep trouble for DWI

2009-11-21T09:39:00.003-06:00

He was banned from driving patrol cars, yet he was driving an undercover vehicle. He may have been on duty, and yet he was over the limit.

A San Antonio police officer who killed a motorist while responding to a call three years ago was charged with driving while intoxicated Friday after wrecking an undercover police car, internal police documents obtained by the San Antonio Express-News show.

Officer Winder Amedalio Morales, 33, who reportedly was banned from driving patrol cars following his involvement in a 2006 collision that killed a 25-year-old man, told arresting officers Friday he was returning the city vehicle to a police substation after finishing working an undercover drug buy when he crashed.

Sheriff Garcia wants another Harris County jail

2009-11-21T09:32:00.000-06:00

Sheriff Adrian Garcia on Friday repeated his call for a new jail and booking center to reduce overcrowding in Harris County's downtown lockups.

The county has about 11,500 inmates in jails designed to hold 9,337 people. The county has also shipped another 1,000 prisoners to jails in Louisiana and other Texas counties.

On Tuesday, Commissioners Court is scheduled to consider County Budget Officer Dick Raycraft's recommendation that his office, the sheriff's department and the Public Infrastructure Department tackle the jail problem. The result, Raycraft said, could be a recommendation to the court in June to put a jail bond measure on the November 2010 ballot.

Border Network for Human Rights upset with ICE audits

2009-11-21T09:26:00.002-06:00

"We are saddened and disappointed that two years after the disastrous 2007 immigration raids that tore apart families and penalized American businesses, the federal government is once again adopting a shortsighted enforcement-only approach to immigration policy," the group said in a prepared statement.

The group also said the federal government should concentrate its efforts on fighting crimes along the border such as drug trafficking and gang activity instead of "harassing hardworking families and business owners."

Audits have got to be better than raids. Enforcement has got to be part of the solution. But, just a part.

State Commission on Judicial Conduct suspends 2 El Paso judges

2009-11-21T09:24:00.002-06:00

The state Commission on Judicial Conduct on Friday suspended indicted El Paso judges Regina Arditti and Sissy Hernandez.

Both will continue to receive their salaries.

State grand jurors charged them a day earlier with violating a misdemeanor Texas law that prohibits judges from engaging in nepotism.

Cameron County is sending inmates to Robstown

2009-11-21T09:13:00.001-06:00

Prisons are big business.

The Cameron County Commissioners’ Court on Friday approved a contract with LCS Correctional Services Inc. that will allow the county to transfer nearly 100 inmates to the company’s privately run detention center in Nueces County.

Investment firm, SBOE member disagree on donations

2009-11-20T09:02:00.001-06:00

State Board of Education member Rick Agosto has accused an investment company of incorrectly reporting that it gave him more than $1,000 in gifts before it sought a lucrative contract with the board. But the company has insisted that its disclosures are generally correct and said in letters to the Texas Education Agency that the disagreement may partially result from differences in accounting.

Agosto, a San Antonio Democrat, denied that he accepted golf, football tickets, dinners and entertainment from AEW Capital Management, a real estate investment firm.

"Mr. Agosto disputes all of the items on the AEW report," said Julie Crothers, Agosto's public relations representative.

Hidalgo County Commissioner's criminal woes worsen

2009-11-20T08:51:00.002-06:00

Hidalgo County Commissioner Sylvia Handy is expected to return to court Monday to face new charges in connection with an ongoing tax fraud and illegal hiring case.

A superseding indictment handed down against her last week alleges the elected official paid a third illegal immigrant woman with taxpayer money to perform housekeeping and babysitting services in her home.

The new allegations come seven months after federal prosecutors first accused her of a similar scheme involving two other women and nearly double the total she purportedly stole from county coffers to almost $220,000.

Former La Joya principal charged in theft

2009-11-20T08:49:00.001-06:00

Former Juarez-Lincoln High School principal Jimmy Gonzalez has been arrested on felony theft charges in connection with a school district police investigation.

La Joya school district police arrested Gonzalez last week after investigators found he allegedly asked employees to file fraudulent time sheets and asked them to give him the money, Police Chief Raul Gonzalez said. The former principal also allegedly sold a computer owned by the district to a former school employee.

What a guy. Did he actually think his plan would work?

Brownsville City Commissioners under fire for meeting

2009-11-20T08:47:00.001-06:00

Three Brownsville city commissioners who attended an early November meeting not opened to the public maintain that they did not violate the Texas Open Meetings Act.

The Nov. 5 meeting was called to discuss the implementation of the city’s master plan called Imagine Brownsville. The commissioners asserted that no decisions were made and that the City Commission would have the final word on the plan’s implementation.

Bendover. Allstate is raising rates.

2009-11-20T08:30:00.001-06:00

Home insurance rates will jump an average 9.8 percent next month for thousands of Allstate customers.

The increase will start Dec. 17 as policies come up for renewal and affect 143,000 customers of Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance. It's the Allstate unit's second increase this year.

Greed is revered in Texas.

Why was juvie detention center metal detector off for 3 years?

2009-11-20T08:23:00.001-06:00

The metal detector at the Harris County Juvenile Detention Center used to screen juveniles who have been arrested has not been used since the division moved to its current facility at 1200 Congress three years ago, three Juvenile Probation Department employees told the Houston Chronicle.

The revelations came amid an investigation into the circumstances that enabled a 16-year-old boy to allegedly smuggle a handgun into his cell at the downtown juvenile detention center earlier this month.

Headline is like question ' Are you still beating your wife?'

2009-11-20T08:17:00.002-06:00

'Committee says U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes not being investigated'

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Standards of Official Conduct has notified U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, that the committee is not investigating him.

Last year, the Friends of the Border Patrol submitted a complaint to the committee, which looks into allegations of ethics violations, asking for an investigation into the role Reyes' office had in requesting help from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to obtain the release of his wife's kidnapped relative in Juárez last year.

Some think the House Ethics Panel is a joke.

The ethics committee is notorious for its bipartisan ability to dodge and defer investigations that might cast House members in a bad light.

The ethics panel unanimously cleared Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo, of any wrongdoing for having a friend testify before the Small Business Committee — of which he is the ranking member — at a hearing on renewable fuels without disclosing that the friend and his wife are business associates in renewable fuels plants.

El Paso judges indicted

2009-11-20T08:12:00.002-06:00

A state grand jury indicted two El Paso judges on Thursday, alleging they violated nepotism laws by hiring each other's relatives.

Suspended state district court judge Manuel Barraza and District Court Judge Regina Arditti are charged with one count each of "prohibition applicable to trading," or nepotism. Arditti and Barraza were elected to $140,000-a-year judgeships in November 2008.

Barraza has more woes.

FBI agents arrested [Manuel] Barraza, 54, that day and a federal grand jury indicted him on suspicion of trading judicial favors for money and sex. Charged with three counts of mail fraud, deprivation of honest services and making a false statement to federal agents, he is scheduled to stand trial Nov. 2 in U.S. District Court.

Perry's primary is more important than a man's life

2009-11-20T08:08:00.001-06:00

Seems that way to me.

"Rick Perry continues to play politics with the death penalty. He should have accepted the recommendation of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute the death sentence of Robert Thompson. It would not surprise me if Rick Perry one day replaces the members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles who voted in favor of clemency for Thompson, just like he replaced his own appointees on the Texas Forensic Science Commission in the midst of their investigation into the Todd Willingham case. Rick Perry is using the death penalty issue to endear himself to right-wing voters in the upcoming Republican primary, but his actions do not reflect the priorities of mainstream Texans who are increasingly concerned about the fairness of the Texas death penalty system", said Scott Cobb of Texas Moratorium Network.

BISD athletic director gets pissy with trustee

2009-11-20T07:56:00.003-06:00

After arguments in the state’s 444th District Court, Judge David Sanchez granted [BISD Athletic Director Joe] Rodriguez’s attorneys authority to take [BISD trustee Catalina] Presas-Garcia’s deposition concerning documents she provided to Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos on Oct. 15. Attorneys scheduled the deposition for Dec. 7.

"It’s a shame," Presas-Garcia said after the hearing. "They have the documents at the DA’s office and the Rodriguezes know what’s in the documents. This is not new for them."

The order also directs Presas-Garcia to produce at the deposition any documents she provided to Carlos Quintanilla of the Hispanic action group Accion America and "any documents in her custody or control that were ever removed or taken from (Rodriguez’s) office or files without his consent; and, any documents relating to (Rodriguez) obtained from the Brownsville Independent School District."

Rodriguez sounds like a first class bully. Villalobos sounds like a sports fan.

ICE audits instead of raiding 161 Texas businesses

2009-11-20T07:51:00.004-06:00

Raids rough up people. Audits rough up businesses. Hmmm.

Federal officials are auditing 161 Texas companies suspected of employing illegal immigrants, including 60 in the South Texas area, the government announced Friday.

More here.

The Obama administration has said it wants to crack down on employers who ignore immigration laws to obtain cheap labor, a seeming departure from the much-criticized workplace raids that focused on workers and tore apart communities.

CPS still having trouble vetting employees

2009-11-19T08:18:00.001-06:00

CPS officials admit that the case of a North Texas supervisor, who didn't disclose her arrests on charges of drunken driving and assaulting her husband with a lamp, gives them pause.

"Yes we are, obviously" concerned, CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins said Wednesday. "All employees are required to report these incidents – required to. It is not a suggestion."

Who would think that a violent person might lie?

No dumping of treated sewage into popular Texas lakes

2009-11-19T08:13:00.001-06:00

Why was there even a question about that?

Senator Hutchison explains it all to you

2009-11-19T08:10:00.002-06:00

Why did she keep her senate seat after saying she was resigning? That's so easy. No need for her to explain. KBH thought she would just waltz into the governor's mansion. Now the polls indicate she's likely to lose her primary fight. What else is there to say?

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is using robo calls and radio commercials to make sure her supporters know she's still in the governor's race, and that she decided to stay in the Senate “at risk to my political future.”

Whaa? Risk to her political future?

Here's a headline I never expected to see in Texas

2009-11-19T07:54:00.002-06:00

'Parole board urges Perry to spare Houston killer'

Was this a Texas parole board?

Texas' Board of Pardons and Paroles on Wednesday recommended that Gov. Rick Perry spare the life of Houston killer Robert Lee Thompson, who is scheduled to be executed tonight in Huntsville.

A Perry spokeswoman did not indicate when the governor, who has voluntarily commuted only one death sentence in his tenure as chief executive, might rule in the case.

More woe for Galveston if census shows low population

2009-11-19T07:51:00.001-06:00

Of particular concern was that the numbers within that range are all below 50,000, a benchmark for federal housing and transportation funds. That’s about $4 million a year.

Galveston’s leaders conceded that the city would not have 50,000 people when the census is taken in April. However, they wanted to get as close to that number as possible, hoping that federal agencies would give the city another 10 years to recover its population — and its eligibility for federal funds.

One might say that it's better for people to live out of harm's way.

Republicans wish Hispanics would disappear

2009-11-19T07:30:00.006-06:00

At least the Republicans on the State Board of Education do. When Republicans wish, they make it 'real' by wholesale denial. Why not make Hispanics in textbooks disappear? Wave a wand, click your heals and make it so.

State Rep. Norma Chavez told Texas education officials Wednesday that Hispanics deserve a more prominent role in the state’s social studies curriculum.

And, she said, members of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus will be watching as the State Board of Education continues to define the curriculum standards that will determine what will be taught in history classes over the next 10 years.

A vote on new curriculum standards is not expected until March.

Revisions to the state's social studies curriculum came under scrutiny several months ago when a pair of expert reviewers suggested that Cesar Chavez, a prominent labor leader, and Thurgood Marshall, the country's first black Supreme Court justice, did not merit the attention they received in history books.

Our kids deserve to know about all role models. While we're at it, science knowledge is required, too. How else can our children make our country a better place to live?

More here.

Guess what a Houston homophobe is doing for the Mayor's race?

[Dave] Wilson also said he is concerned that [Annise] Parker, if elected, would become a gay and lesbian cultural icon and an inspiration to others to enter politics.

Hide the babies, the State Board of Education is meeting

2009-11-18T10:51:00.001-06:00

Topics to be discussed for social studies range from which historical figures should be covered in classes to what role Christianity and the Bible played in the founding of the nation. Three board members aligned with social conservative groups have already called for more coverage of religion in U.S. government and history classes.

In addition, Hispanic leaders are expected to urge the board today to include more coverage of Hispanics in the social studies standards.

Board member Mary Helen Berlanga, D-Corpus Christi, said there are many examples of “stereotypical Tejano omission or lack of historical fact within the proposed social studies curriculum.”

They don't believe in separation of church and state.

Texas Medical Board slaps doctors' wrists

2009-11-18T10:22:00.000-06:00

'Texas Medical Board disciplines 75 doctors'. Big whoop.