Category Archives: Texas News

Ethics Reform Not Interesting the Legislature

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Gov. Greg Abbott heavily emphasized ethics reform in his state of the state address in February.  The push for reform came in the wake of contracting scandals at the Texas Dept of Health and Human Services and revelations that former Gov. Rick Perry’s business development funds had created almost no new jobs in Texas.  Months later, the reality is that almost nothing is getting done to push ethics reform through the Legislature.  The Texas Tribune reports on the little that has been done and the heavy lifting that remains.

Right now, with no scandal raging in Texas, lawmakers have moved only a few ethics bills. One, House Bill 681, would take government pension benefits away from officeholders convicted of certain felonies like bribery, embezzlement and perjury.

Another, House Bill 1690, would take prosecutions of state officeholders away from the public integrity unit of the Travis County district attorney’s office. Republican legislators are convinced that the lawyers and juries in the state capital are biased against conservatives. And the current district attorney’s messy drunken driving arrest two years ago only added fuel to that fire. That bill is part of a deal to close House-Senate differences before the end of the session; its chance at passage is pretty good.

But the contract and income disclosures that Abbott wanted remain undone. Those would require lawmakers to reveal contracts and business relationships with government contractors that currently go undocumented. Lower limits on how much money lobbyists can spend on lawmakers without identifying those lawmakers is stuck. And the Legislature’s expected attempt to force political nonprofits to reveal the sources of their money — so-called dark money legislation — hasn’t moved. That would have been law two years ago without a veto from then-Gov. Rick Perry.

Other loose ends have been kicked around this session without threatening, so far, to become law:

• Prohibiting lawmakers and staff from lobbying for one or two years after they leave the state payroll

• Barring elected officeholders from working as lobbyists

• Requiring officeholders to file their required personal financial disclosures in searchable online form instead of on paper

• Requiring lawmakers to report pension and other income they currently don’t have to list

• Prohibiting lawyer/officeholders from accepting referral fees or requiring them to report the fees they do receive.

Some of those provisions are in Senate Bill 19, which is the most likely vessel for an ethics showdown. It could make it all the way to a negotiating room where senators and representatives can work out a compromise bill or, in the alternative, suffocate ethics legislation many of them privately disdain but feel they publicly have to support.

That bill’s bumpy ride tells the tale of ethics legislation this year. It was 14 pages long when it started. A Senate committee chewed up and spit out nine of those. The full Senate added enough amendments to bring the page count back to 18. It has some of the promised stuff in it, and some odd bits, like a provision that would require candidates to take drug tests. (Maybe they’ll discover something that enhances the performance of elected officials.) And SB 19 could accommodate near every proposal promoted as ethics reform, if enough lawmakers are willing.

Time is short. A House committee has the legislation now, and has until the end of the week to send it to the full House, which in turn has to act on it by May 26.

Bike Gang Shootout Results in Mass Arrests

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The lunch time biker gang shoot out at Twin Peaks Restaurant in Waco has resulted in almost 200 arrests.  KWTX in Waco reports that the aftermath of the bloody Sunday shootout will continue for months as police and prosecutors sort out what happened when at least five biker gangs clashed.

All arrested suspects have been charged with engaging in organized criminal activity but some could face more charges as the investigation continues.

The nine bodies of gang members who died in the Sunday afternoon parking lot shootout at Waco’s Twin Peaks restaurant had been taken to various morgues for autopsy.

Bullet-riddled vehicles left behind by customers and employees still sat in the parking lot between Twin Peaks and Don Carlos restaurant but were being moved to forensic laboratories for investigation Monday morning.

At least two bikers were arrested in the early morning hours on Monday as they rode into town but their identities and charges were not made public.  Local law enforcement officers said they remain on edge in an effort to prevent any more violence.

Rival motorcycle gangs turned a local restaurant into a shooting gallery Sunday afternoon and when the gunfire was over, nine people were dead and 18 were injured.

Early Monday, law enforcement had turned their attention to the risk of additional bike gang members looking to retaliate, and initiate further violence in the Waco area.

The fight apparently erupted over a long brewing conflict between the Bandidos and the Cossacks.

The Anti-Gay Crowd Aint Going Down Without a Fight

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Texas AG Ken Paxton will not give up easy and Red suspects neither will his Tea Party cohorts.  Marriage is only for straights and the Gays can feel whatever they want, but don’t try to walk down the aisle in Texas.  RawStory recounts Paxton’s recent interview on CNN.

“My job as attorney general and the job of the Legislature is to really follow the will of the people and enforce the laws that we have,” he remarked. “This is both in statute and in our constitution. So, that’s my job, and that’s the job of the Legislature.”

But the attorney general was not willing to say that the state would follow the Supreme Court if it decided to rule in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage later this year.

“Aren’t you saying that the gays and lesbians in your state are not as valued at heterosexuals because they can’t form into a union?” Camerota asked.

“All the Legislature has done in the past is try to reflect the values that have been in this state and this country for over two centuries,” Paxton insisted.

“What about homosexuals who fall in love? What should they do?” the CNN host pressed.

“They have — they can do whatever they want,” Paxton shrugged. “But the reality itself right now in Texas was defined by the people of Texas overwhelmingly as between a man and a woman. And that’s the law of Texas, it’s in our constitution, it’s in our statutes.”

“I mean, they can’t really do whatever they want as you’ve just said,” Camerota shot back. “Do you understand why gays in Texas would feel that is discriminating against them?”

“They can feel how they want,” Paxton replied. “The reality is the voters of Texas have passed the law as it is.”

Ten bucks says that even Tea Party crazed Texas would not vote the gay marriage ban into the Constitution today.

Drought in Doubt?

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Current U.S. Drought Monitor

The current drought gripping much of Texas since its official beginning in October or 2010 has relaxed somewhat.  The Fort Worth Star-Telegram nods approvingly at indications that the almost five year drought is easing.

None of the state is in exceptional drought, the most serious category, which is noted by maroon splotches on the drought map.

West of Fort Worth, Palo Pinto, Young and Stephens counties, which had been stuck in exceptional drought, improved dramatically over the last week. They’re still in severe drought but conditions are definitely trending in the right direction. Lake Palo Pinto, which was hovering around 10 percent a month ago, is now full.

“It looks like we’re headed in the right direction,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Lamont Bain. “We’ll see what this weekend rain brings.”

Meanwhile, California is drying up and blowing away.  Red isn’t planting wheat just yet.

The Inmates are Running the GOP Asylum

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The embarrassing fallout from the Jade Helm 15 conspiracy theorists of the Texas Tea Party continues to mount.  The International Business Times reports that 32% of GOP primary voters nationwide actually believe that Jade Helm 15 is a secret plot of the federal government to take over Texas.

Hey morons, listen up!  In case you hadn’t noticed, the federal government already controls Texas and has for over 150 years now and has over 50,000 troops stationed here to boot.  We tried to secede once and it didn’t work.  And if the number is 32% nationwide, one can only imagine what it is in Texas since this is the nest.  What is troubling is that these are the people that have an outsized say in how this state is governed since winning the GOP primary is tantamount to election in any statewide office.  Unbelievable.

A conspiracy theory that the U.S. military is plotting to invade Texas and impose martial law has gained some traction among Republicans. A poll by Public Policy Polling released on Wednesday found that 32 percent of GOP primary voters nationwide believe that the federal government is in fact trying to take over Texas.

The conspiracy centers on an exercise the Department of Defense is planning to conduct, known as Jade Helm 15, across several Southwestern states including Texas. It’s not uncommon for the Pentagon to conduct practice missions with troops, but this one is large-scale and meant to simulate entering a hostile country.

Pointing to briefing documents the military had provided the public to explain the exercise, a group of conspiracy theorists began arguing that it wasn’t an exercise at all, but an excuse for the military to deploy troops in order to take over Texas, seize guns, arrest political opponents and impose martial law. The conspiracy theories gained more traction after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to send the Texas State Guard to monitor the U.S. military’s movements. And Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is running for president, was criticized for further stoking the fire after he asked the Pentagon to clarify their intentions and said the concern was justified because no one trusts the administration.

But it didn’t appear to give Cruz a boost among those who believe the conspiracy theory. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was leading among the Texas-takeover believers, winning 23 percent of that constituency compared with Cruz’s 18 percent.  

Well, there is a silver lining.  At least Ted Cruz is not benefitting from pandering to these nut jobs.  One can only imagine the anguished looks of disappointment on the faces of these fools, when they realize that the jack-booted thugs of the federal government haven’t actually come to take away their women, children and most importantly guns.

UT President Turns Down Money

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The Bryan-College Station Eagle reports that incoming UT-Austin President Gregory Fenves is turning down a salary offer of $1,000,000 because of concerns over the impact of such a salary in times of belt-tightening and budget cutting.  Lest ye feel too sorry for Fenves – don’t.  He apparently will still make in the neighborhood of $800,000 with bonuses and deferred pay.

Emails show the incoming president of the University of Texas at Austin declined a $1 million salary offer because he was concerned it could upset students and faculty at the school that has been stretched for funds in recent years.

“With many issues and concerns about administrative costs, affordability and tuition, such a salary will affect the ability of the president to work with the Texas Legislature on matters important to the university,” Gregory Fenves said in an email to Pedro Reyes, the UT System’s executive vice chancellor for academic affairs.

Fenves warned that the proposed paycheck would draw “widespread negative attention from students and faculty because of budget constraints seen in the last five years.” His email was obtained by the Austin American-Statesman through an open records request.

Fenves is expected to receive his requested base salary of $750,000 a year, making him an outlier in a field where salaries generally push north of seven figures.

Michael Young, who became president of Texas A&M University on May 1, is the highest-paid leader of a public academic institution in Texas. His total annual compensation is $1.4 million, including $1 million in base salary.

Dan Patrick Knew About Secret Tea Party Taping of Legislators

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The Texas Tribune reports that the Texas Rangers will be investigating the American Phoenix Foundation’s practice of secretly taping Texas Legislators.  The right-wing group has apparently been taping the lawmakers to find out if they are conservative enough and ostensibly to use the videos to support campaigns of Tea Party primary opponents for incumbent Republicans.

But the real news is that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick knew about the surreptitious videos and simply chose to not tell anybody about it.

A senior staffer for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was told by DPS about the secret tapings but senators were not told of it at the time “because no senators were believed to have been targeted by the group.” One senator, Houston Democrat Rodney Ellis, said Monday, “I would have preferred to have known if it was a possibility.”

In the words of Al Czervik, “Now I know why tigers eat their young.”

UT Students Take Aim at Jefferson Davis Statue

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A long-simmering controversy over the prominent place of honor that a Jefferson Davis statue occupies on the South Mall at UT-Austin seems to finally be boiling over.  Unknown persons have recently defaced the statue after repeated calls to remove it from the campus have gone unheeded. The phrases “Davis must fall” and “Emancipate UT” have been written on the statue.  The statue of Davis is curious at best, since he had no obvious ties to Texas other than the fact that Texas was part of the Confederacy.  The statue does note his other service as a Colonel in the U.S. Army, U.S. Secretary of War and as a U.S. Senator but none of those facts would support placement of the statue on a university campus in Texas.  And certainly would not support placement of the sculpture at the top of the campus’ most scenic mall seemingly coupled with a statute of George Washington.  At least it has been on the UT Campus since the 1930’s and was installed at a time when the school was completely segregated.  It seems likely that Davis was placed there as a memorial to the cause of keeping the “coloreds” in their place – a cause that was winning at the time.  In contrast, the current effort to build more and more memorials to the Confederacy defies understanding as anything but the dying throes of that same lost cause.  Although claiming to honor their “heroes” – the proponents of such Confederate worship are in denial of the fact that they honor traitors to their country whose leadership led millions to die in a futile effort to preserve chattel slavery and a dying way of life.  Red acknowledges that there were uncountable acts of heroism on the battlefield by Confederate soldiers – but that heroism is tainted by the cause in which those sacrifices were made.  Not all causes are worth celebrating or remembering by public memorialization.

Nonetheless, the controversy has resulted in massive media coverage in the U.S. and elsewhere. Even The Guardian (U.K.) has reported on the growing brouhaha over glorifying the inept former Confederate President.

Pity Jefferson Davis, if you will. Vandals have defaced the Confederate president’s statue on the University of Texas campus, most recently with the words “Davis must fall” and “Emancipate UT”. Student leaders are also seeking to remove the statue from the Austin campus.

“We thought, there are those old ties to slavery and some would find it offensive,” said senior Jamie Nalley, who joined an overwhelming majority of the student government in adopting a resolution in March supporting his ouster.

But as students take aim at Davis, the number of sites in Texas on public and private land that honor the Confederacy is growing – despite the opposition of the NAACP and others. Supporters cite their right to memorialize Confederate veterans and their role in Texas history, while opponents argue the memorials are too often insensitive or antagonistic, while having the backing of public institutions like UT.

Blue Bell Bombshell – It’s Gonna Be a Long Hot Summer

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In the wake of news that Blue Bell was aware of listeria contamination in its ice cream plants, the Brenham-based company has indicated that it will be months before its products return to the shelves.  KTRK reports that the problems at Blue Bell started well before the reported listeria outbreaks this year.

Blue Bell ice cream had evidence of listeria bacteria in its Oklahoma manufacturing plant as far back as March 2013, a government investigation found. The Texas-based company continued to ship ice cream produced in that plant after what the Food and Drug Administration says was inadequate cleaning.

The FDA on Thursday released results of its investigations into Blue Bell’s plants in Oklahoma, Texas and Alabama after a Freedom of Information request by The Associated Press. The most extensive violations were found in Oklahoma, where the FDA listed 17 separate positive tests for listeria on equipment from March 2013 through February 2015.

The FDA would not say who conducted the tests, but it noted that Blue Bell sent “presumptive positive” listeria samples to a third party for confirmation on at least two occasions in 2014. The auditors re-tested the samples and came back with the same results.

Blue Bell continued to have presumptive positive listeria results in the Oklahoma plant even after the daily cleaning and sanitizing treatments of equipment and facilities, the FDA wrote Blue Bell in the report. Neither Blue Bell nor the FDA has said why the Oklahoma plant was not closed after repeated findings of listeria. FDA officials have so far declined to discuss the report or the history of the testing.

After the test results were made public, Blue Bell CEO Paul Kruse said in a statement it would be “several months at a minimum” before its ice cream is back in stores. The company had said earlier that it expected to be back up and running this month.

Blue Bell spokesman Joe Robertson said today the company was aware of the findings. “We thought our practices were proper. In hindsight they were not.”

Well, duh!