Category Archives: Texas News

Rick’s Legacy of Failure in Healthcare

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Thanks largely to flailing presidential candidate and former governor Rick Perry, Texas has the worst healthcare record in the entire nation.  The Dallas Observer reports that Texas is the only state that still has more than 20% of its population without healthcare coverage and ranks only ahead of Oklahoma and Louisiana in the quality of healthcare provided to its citizens.  All so Rick could score points in his futile attempt to grab the presidency and presumably work to ruin the healthcare system of the rest of the nation.

The state comes in third to last in the overall ranking, ahead of only Louisiana and Oklahoma, which is the rough equivalent of beating a couple of asthmatic 4-year-olds in a foot race. Similarly, Texas falls significantly below the national average in such categories as patient safety, healthy living, HIV/AIDS, nursing homes, etc. Not only that, in many cases it has fallen further below the national average than it was in the past, which either means that care has gotten worse (unlikely but possible) or that other states have gotten better faster (more probable).

So, what specifically are Texas’ biggest failures? Of the 200-odd categories, Texas fares worst in “New AIDS cases per 100,000 population age 13 and over” (489 percent below the national average); “Hospital admissions for uncontrolled diabetes without complications per 100,000 population, adults” (383 percent); and “Avoidable admissions for hypertension per 100,000 population age 18 and over” (332 percent).

Rick’s Reeling Run

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Former Gov. Rick Perry’s quickly fading Presidential campaign took another hit on Monday with the departure of Sam Clovis, his Iowa campaign chairman. Clovis, a right-wing talk radio host, professor and failed U.S. Senate candidate gave warm regards to Perry, but left with the feeling that all is not right in the Perry camp.   “I feel bad for the campaign and I feel bad for Governor Perry because I think he’s a marvelous human being, he’s a great man and it was my honor to be a part of this, but it was just time to move on.”  Clovis indicated that the move to stop paying campaign staffers came as a surprise to him.  Other campaigns will likely be quick to snap up Clovis, who is considered to be one of the premier GOP political operatives in the state.

Clovis said he has been approached by “several” other campaigns since Perry stopped paying his staff earlier this month. He said he expects to be working for another candidate within days. “I’m going to go where there’s the best fit.”  Clovis considered working for  Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas), Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump, before signing up with Perry.  Look for Clovis to settle in with either Cruz or Trump.

Is Ken Paxton Also Just a Bad Lawyer?

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Ken Paxton’s already shaky legal legacy took another hit this week when newspapers across the state began examining his role as an ad litem attorney for two children of Tanner Hunt – one of the children of Ray Hunt who killed himself in 2011.  According to the San Antonio Express-News, Paxton was an ineffective if not possibly corrupt ad litem attorney for the two young girls.  Paxton attempted to settle their claims to a multi-million dollar trust for $750,000 and would have had them disclaim inheritance rights to the larger Hunt oil family fortune.  Paxton appears to have been in way over his head in attempting to protect the rights of his clients.  Either that or something else was going on.  But either way, Texas’ top lawyer again has shown that he is simply not up to the job – whatever it is.

 Tanner Hunt, son of Dallas oil billionaire Ray Hunt, texted the mother of his two young daughters in fall 2011 for a picture of the girls in their Halloween costumes.

The next day, he took a Glock pistol, pressed it to his chest and fired a single shot, an Austin police report states.

At age 31, he left behind a $200,000 estate and no will, records show.

His daughters stood to inherit not only that estate but had potential inheritance claims on a $2 million trust that had been established for their father and possibly other trusts created by their great-grandfather, legendary wildcatter Haroldson Lafayette “H.L.” Hunt, who died in 1974.

But the following year, state lawmaker Ken Paxton was appointed attorney ad litem in Tanner Hunt’s probate case. He later put forth a settlement that called for Tanner Hunt’s daughters to receive just $750,000, which Paxton would invest for them — if they relinquished any claim on any further inheritances from the Hunt family.

That settlement was rejected by the girls’ mother, Crystal VanAusdal. It ultimately was replaced by a more generous, confidential settlement after the mother filed a motion asking the judge to recuse himself.

Red thinks there may be more.

Is Art Briles a Liar?

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USA Today remains on the case of soon to be embattled Baylor Head Football Coach Art Briles.  In a press conference, Briles denied any knowledge of the trouble and violent past of Sam Ukwuachu who was dismissed from the Boise State program after attacking his girlfriend.  Washington Coach Chris Petersen calls Briles out on that one.  According to Petersen, he personally called Briles to inform him about the potential danger with Ukwuachu.

Washington head coach Chris Petersen issued a statement Friday saying that he informed Baylor’s Art Briles about why defensive end Sam Ukwuachu was dismissed at Boise State.

“After Sam Ukwuachu was dismissed from the Boise State football program and expressed an interest in transferring to Baylor, I initiated a call with coach Art Briles. In that conversation, I thoroughly apprised Coach Briles of the circumstances surrounding Sam’s disciplinary record and dismissal,” said Petersen, who was Boise State’s coach at the time.

Briles said in a news conference Friday morning that he had no knowledge of Ukwuachu’s violent past at Boise State.

Fire Art Briles Now!

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USA Today excoriates Baylor Head Football Coach Art Briles for taking in Sam Ukwuachu when there was strong evidence that he was a danger to the young women on campus.  Ukwuachu was dismissed from Boise State after viciously attacking his girlfriend.  The sad tale came to an end when Ukwuachu was convicted after raping a Baylor student.  If Briles knew all this and let young women at Baylor be exposed to Ukwuachu then he is indeed a scumbag who should be fired immediately.

When Art Briles recruited Sam Ukwuachu to Baylor University, he turned every female on campus into a potential victim. When Briles’ superiors signed off on bringing the talented defensive end to Waco, they tacitly approved of putting students in harm’s way.

It was all right there in the most basic of investigations into Ukwuachu’s exit from Boise State, when he was dismissed from the program in May 2013 because he attacked his girlfriend. Despite the clear warning signs of violent behavior, Baylor had brought Ukwuachu into their community because, by golly, he sure could help the pass rush. Five months later, all that had really changed about Ukwuachu’s tendencies was the venue.

On Thursday, in a district court in Waco, Ukwuachu was found guilty of sexually assaulting a former Baylor women’s soccer player, who was 18 and in her first semester of college in October 2013 when the big-shot football transfer twice her size attacked her.

Maybe if she had been warned that the Baylor football player in her tutoring sessions once became so crazed during a domestic dispute at Boise that he broke a window, she wouldn’t have even been in position to be in his apartment that night. Maybe if Briles, athletics director Ian McCaw and school president Ken Starr had looked at his background and realized Ukwuachu didn’t belong at Baylor, she wouldn’t have had to go get a rape kit the next morning.

Wonder What Ted Thinks of The Donald Now?

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Sen. Ted “Canadian Bacon” Cruz (TP-Texas) has practically fallen over himself in his attempts to alternately praise and avoid criticizing Donald Trump.  One might think that Cruz was positioning for a Vice-Presidential nod from the Grand Old Party, but that clearly is not his style.  And anyone willing to take the firebrand Cruz on as a second banana certainly gets what he deserves.

But a new poll commissioned by a group called the Texas Bipartisan Justice Committee shows that Trump is eating at Cruz’s house.  The Florida-based Gravis Marketing firm conducted the poll.  And it’s really bad news for TC.  In June, Cruz sat at 20% in the Texas Politics Project poll.  Now Trump is at 24%, while Cruz is 8 points back with 16%.  What will Ted do?

It’s even worse for JEB!!!!$$$$$? who is in 4th place with 9% behind a guy whose brother and father didn’t pave the way to the White House for him.  Meanwhile Rick Perry’s flagging hopes took another hit.  In June, Perry was a respectable second with 12%.  He now polls at 4% in the state that he ruled for 14 years.  It now seems only a matter of time until the fat lady serenades Rick with a rousing “Adios Mofo.”

Texas Border Town Has Reasonable Response to Illegal Immigration

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While GOP frontrunner Donald Trump continues to bloviate and propose absurd solutions to the undocumented alien problems in our country, others are trying to do something about the humanitarian crisis that unrest and instability in Central America is creating on the southern border.  The Guardian takes a long look at how McAllen has responded to the large numbers of Central American refugees that have landed in their midst.

While Trump and his ilk want to wash their hands of the problem by constructing a supposedly impenetrable wall and deporting lawful U.S. citizens, the reality is that much of the current crisis has been caused by families and children fleeing the widespread drug gang violence in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras.  And who is consuming those drugs?  And who is providing the guns that fuel the violence? Sensible drug law reform in the U.S. would go a long way towards solving the problem.  Stopping the flow of weapons into Mexico and Central America would probably help too. But that makes way too much sense to ever make into the Tea Party ranting that passes for public discourse in the GOP presidential battle currently being won by Trump.

Only Ten?

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Houston Press has published its list of the 10 most embarrassing Houstonians.  Try as he might, Red didn’t make the list.  At PIH we feel that any such list that does not include Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) is woefully inadequate.  Paradoxically, we feel that any list that has radical right-wing talk radio racist blowhard Michael Berry as the most embarrassing Houstonian is spot on.  No doubt the shameless self-promoting Berry will wear his No. 1 ranking as a badge of honor – a la Dan Quayle – someone of similar intellectual firepower.

Lone Star Rail District Moving Forward

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The Lone Star Rail District plans to connect San Antonio and Austin by efficient and time effective rail service seems to moving slowly towards reality. LSRD officials are seeking $500,000 in funding from the San Antonio City Council to begin planning work in the Alamo City.  The LSRD plan includes improving the existing Union Pacific rail line between San Antonio and Austin for passengers at an estimated cost of $800 million. But LSRD first has to build a $1.6 billion freight line east of San Antonio to divert freight traffic.  Funding for the rail line improvements is expected to come from state and federal grants as well as the private sector.  LSRD also needs assurances from municipalities along its route from San Antonio to Georgetown that they will pay for continued maintenance and operations of each stop.

LSRD envisions transported 20,000 people each day and reducing traffic on I-35 by 18,000 vehicles.   The plan includes 16 stations with six in the San Antonio, one in New Braunfels, one in San Marcos, one in Buda/Kyle and the rest in the Austin-Georgetown corridor.

Red took the train from Austin to San Antonio exactly one time – with his mother when he was 5.  Red didn’t ride on a train again until he was 20 years old and taking a train from New Jersey into New York City.   The average European could not imagine a 15 year gap in train trips.