Tag Archives: Texas News

Does Texas childrin have to lurn much in there home skoolin?

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The Texas Supreme Court will tackle home schooling in Texas this week in a case pitting home schooling advocates against the El Paso Independent School District.  The case involves Michael and Laura McIntyre from El Paso who have been home schooling their 9 children since at least 2004.  Allegations were that the children were mostly singing and playing instruments and that little or no actual education was occurring because the children were going to be raptured at the second coming.  The problems were somewhat confirmed when one of the McIntyre children ran away from home in an attempt to actually get an education.  The school district was unable to confirm what level of education the girl had received and she was place in a school almost 2 years below her age level.  That prompted El Paso educators to make some attempt to determine what was going on at the McIntyre’s “home school.”  They were rebuffed at every turn with the McIntyres being assisted by the various home schooling associations, and truancy charges followed.  The McIntyres sued, predictably claiming that their religious freedom had been interfered with by the state attempting to make sure their children were getting some basic education.  The El Paso Court of Appeals found that no parents have an absolute constitutional right to home school their children completely free of any state supervision, regulation or requirements.  The McIntyres appealed to the Texas Supreme Court which will hear arguments this week.  The Washington Post has the full story.

Pope Francis Reaches out to Texas Teen

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Pope Francis has been conducting video teleconferences with parishioners around the world.  He recently connected with a Texas teenager who claims to have lost a soccer scholarship when the school found out he was an undocumented alien.  ABC News has the full story.

Soccer aficionado Pope Francis took a page from his favorite sport’s handbook recently in his message to a young man in McAllen, Texas, who had shared his story of adversity during an ABC News virtual audience with the pontiff via satellite.

Ricardo Ortiz, 19, of Houston, told Pope Francis on Monday that he’d lost a soccer scholarship to college once the school had found out he was not a U.S. citizen.

“They informed [me] that I wasn’t able to attend the university of my dreams,” he said. “I ended up going to a community college, started working full time, started supporting my family.”

When Ortiz was around 17, his father had an accident and nearly lost his leg. He was not able to work.

Thankfully, due to the 2012 immigration law Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Ortiz attained a work permit and held down after-school jobs.

“That happening impacted my life in a very deep way. I had to become the breadwinner of the family. I had to be the person that supported our family,” said Ortiz, whose family had then grown with three younger brothers. “I never lost faith. I never lost the strength that my father and mother gave me.”

Eventually, his father was able to return to work and Ortiz was able to graduate high school, where he’d picked up soccer in his junior year and excelled. On Monday, he asked the pope what was the solution to the world’s problems.

Pope Francis, a well-known avid soccer fan, expressed admiration for Ortiz and told him Monday that “the match is played between friendship in society and enmity in society.”

“We are all created for friendship in society. All of us bear responsibility for everyone else,” the pope said. “And each one has to make a choice in his or her heart. And we have to help that choice to be made in the heart. Escaping it through addiction, through violence, does not help. Only closeness and giving of myself, all that I have to give, the way you gave everything you could as a boy, when you supported your family. Don’t forget that.”

Whataburger Prohibits Open Carry

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Whataburger will continue to prohibit the open carrying of firearms in its restaurants despite the new Texas law which authorizes open carry.  The policy will be enforced in the company’s nearly 800 restaurants.

Preston Atkinson, Whataburger’s president and CEO, said customers who are licensed to carry concealed weapons will still be allowed to do so, but visible carrying of firearms will not be allowed.  According to a statement published on the company’s website.  While attempting to assuage potential backlash from the Second Amendment absolutists, Whataburger has made it clear that open carrying of firearms will not be tolerated at its restaurants.

Whataburger supports customers’ Second Amendment rights and we respect your group’s position, but we haven’t allowed the open carry of firearms in our restaurants for a long time (although we have not prohibited licensed conceal carry). It’s a business decision we made a long time ago and have stood by, and I think it’s important you know why.

But first, as a representative of Whataburger, I want you to know we proudly serve the gun rights community. I personally enjoy hunting and also have my concealed carry license, as do others at Whataburger.

From a business standpoint, though, we have to think about how open carry impacts our 34,000+ employees and millions of customers. We serve customers from all walks of life at more than 780 locations, 24 hours a day, in 10 states and we’re known for a family friendly atmosphere that customers have come to expect from us. We’re the gathering spot for Little League teams, church groups and high school kids after football games.

We’ve had many customers and employees tell us they’re uncomfortable being around someone with a visible firearm who is not a member of law enforcement, and as a business, we have to listen and value that feedback in the same way we value yours. We have a responsibility to make sure everyone who walks into our restaurants feels comfortable. For that reason, we don’t restrict licensed concealed carry but do ask customers not to open carry in our restaurants.

Red (who has enjoyed a good Whataburger since that fateful day his Dad first took him to a Whataburger in Victoria) will be ordering a No. 1 Combo with cheese and no onions and an unsweet iced tea for the drink in celebration of Whataburger showing some spine.

Countdown to Jade Helm, Cont. – Or How Obama is Coming to Take Away our Women, Children and Most Importantly Guns

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Conservative Paranoia over Jade Helm has not subsided according to a recent article in the Washington Post.   For some reason Bastrop continues to be the epicenter for the conspiracy theorist wackos convinced that Obama is coming for them – as if he didn’t have more important things on his plate.  Anyhow, the stalwarts of the Bastrop Republican Party apparently remains convinced that they have but days to live in a free society before the jack booted thugs (read U.S. Military) of the Federal government crack down.  Fortunately, not everyone in Bastrop is bat shit crazy.

The office of the Bastrop County Republican Party is in an old lumber mill on Main Street, with peeling brown paint and a sign out front that captures the party’s feelings about the Obama administration: “WISE UP AMERICA!”

Inside, county Chairman Albert Ellison pulled out a yellow legal pad on which he had written page after page of reasons why many Texans distrust President Obama, including the fact that, “in the minds of some, he was raised by communists and mentored by terrorists.”

So it should come as no surprise, Ellison said, that as the U.S. military prepares to launch one of the largest training exercises in history later this month, many Bastrop residents might suspect a secret Obama plot to spy on them, confiscate their guns and ultimately establish martial law in one of America’s proudly free conservative states.

They are not “nuts and wackos. They are concerned citizens, and they are patriots,” Ellison said of his suspicious neighbors. “Obama has really painted a portrait in the minds of many conservatives that he is capable of this sort of thing.”

Across town at the Bastrop County Courthouse, such talk elicits a weary sigh from County Judge Paul Pape, the chief official in this county of 78,000 people. Pape said he has tried to explain to folks that the exercise, known as Jade Helm 15, is a routine training mission that poses no threat to anyone. . . . “I’m sensitive to the fact that some of our Bastrop residents are concerned, and I’m confident that they are very sincere about their concerns,” Pape said. “But how did we get to this point in our country?”

How indeed?

Rick Perry’s “Texas Miracle” Coming Under More Fire

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The Wall Street Journal seems fixated on debunking Rick Perry’s claim to have led the state through the Texas Miracle.  As Red has repeatedly pointed out, when big oil is up, Texas is up and vice versa.  We would all like to take credit for a robust economy, but sometimes it’s just location, location, location.  Still one has to wonder if the WSJ’s continually bagging on Perry’s signature accomplishment signals a tough road ahead for the former Governor.  And of course, the WSJ has to slip in the inconvenient fact that Perry remains under indictment.

As Mr. Perry prepares to announce an anticipated second run for president on Thursday, the “Texas Miracle” is looking less impressive amid falling oil prices that have led to thousands of job cuts in his home state. That has created an opening for challengers to say Mr. Perry’s jobs record was attributable more to good timing—namely the hydraulic-fracturing oil-and-gas boom—than to the business-friendly mix of low tax rates and light regulations that he has frequently cited.

Texas lost more than 25,000 jobs in March according to state figures, its first monthly net decline in more than four years, after adding nearly 458,000 jobs in 2014, more than any other state. It bounced back in April but still only added 1,200 new jobs, far below other large states.

Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ – Though the Streams are Swollen

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The recent flooding resurrected the practice of a real life cattle drive for some modern day cowboys in Liberty County.  Approximately 500 head of cattle had to be rescued from a small dry island of land.  The drive took the herd straight through downtown Dayton to the amusement and fascination of local residents.  The Houston Chronicle reports on the step back in time.

It was a scene lifted straight from the sepia-tinged film of an old Western – a harrowing rescue of hundreds of cattle through floodwaters, herded onto dry land and through town to safety.

But there were cars and boats here to carry the calves too small to tread water. And in town there were people – hundreds of them – snapping enough pictures and video on smartphones to stir up a viral sensation.

It was a distinctly Texan success story after a hard week in Liberty County, where road flooding along the Trinity River trapped residents in at least 600 homes last week. On Sunday, downtown was full for the show.

“Oh my goodness – you couldn’t even park a car all the way through Dayton,” Liberty County sheriff’s Capt. Ken DeFoor said of the crowded streets in the town of about 7,400 northeast of Houston. “It’s not every day you see a cattle drive going through a major highway going through downtown. You see that in the movies, but you don’t see that in real life any more.”

Ted Cruz Against All Spending – Except When it Might Cost Him Votes

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Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) will apparently support federal funding to help Texans affected by the recent disastrous flooding.  When the good citizens of New Jersey and New York needed such funds after Hurricane Sandy, the good Senator was not so understanding.  He claimed that the relief bill was loaded with pork (a dubious claim in light of the history of such measures) and voted against it.  But when it comes to protecting his base in Texas, Cruz will apparently have no qualms about federal money pouring into our fair state.  That evil federal money will soon start to flow and you can bet Cruz will be claiming credit.  The Washington Post reports on Cruz’s hypocrisy.

Sen. Ted Cruz showed his support for federal disaster relief in the wake of devastating floods in Texas last week — two and a half years after voting against a disaster relief bill for victims of Hurricane Sandy, which devastated the East Coast in 2012.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Cruz said that it appears as though the disaster money will come through due to the magnitude of the floods, which killed 15 people in Texas.

“The governor has entered a disaster declaration, which is the first step in federal emergency relief,” Cruz said. “There are a series of federal statutory thresholds that have to be satisfied initially. It appears that those thresholds will be satisfied by the magnitude of the flooding.”

Bring Your Textbooks, Notebook, LapTop, Pens and .38 Special

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The Texas Tribune reports that the conservative quest to have more guns on Texas campuses is still alive.  Despite repeated admonitions from university administrators across the board (except shamefully for John Sharp at Texas A&M), the Legislature is more interested in kowtowing to its extreme right wing than doing what is in the best interests of our state universities and their students.

Campus carry legislation lived to fight another day as a last-minute deal saved Senate Bill 11 just before a midnight deadline in the House to take initial votes on bills originating in the Senate.

The dramatic scene occurred close to 11:30 p.m. The House had just spent 30 minutes considering a point of order raised by San Antonio Democrat Trey Martinez Fischer. With about 100 filed amendments awaiting debate, many had already started writing the obituaries for the legislation that would require public colleges and universities to allow concealed handgun license holders to bring guns on campus.

 

The Dam Will Hold – For Now

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A dam near Midlothian appeared to be on the edge of failure, but WFAA reports that it will hold for the time being.

Engineers and builders at Padera Lake in Midlothian say it was a close call, but an earthen dam won’t breach after all. They are still waiting on official word from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The National Weather Service expected the levee to break Wednesday morning. U.S. Highway 287 was being prepared to close near Kimble Road in case the road became flooded. Up to 15 feet of water was possible.

Stephanie Parker with the Ellis County Emergency Management Agency told News 8 that people living near the dam were notified of the potential break, and livestock was moved to higher ground.

Officials had been trying to slow down the process for several days, as rain added more water to the small lake. They were draining it from the bottom of the dam Monday morning, as soil was seen eroding and water was spilling over the top.

Houston Hammered

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Red will confirm that Houston was indeed hammered last night and into the early morning.   CNN can fill in the details.  When woken by Mrs. Red this morning at 3 am, Casa Rojo was completely surrounded by water.  Around 5:30 Red was pretty sure it was going to flood, but the rain stopped.

“We got hammered,” Houston Emergency Management Coordinator Rick Flanagan told CNN’s “New Day,” echoing sentiments by many others in the region in recent days. “We had cars that were stranded, mobility was stopped … signals didn’t work. It was just a madhouse.”

It still is. While the sun appeared Tuesday, more rain remains possible. And even though some parts of Houston were “high and dry,” others were not, Mayor Annise Parker said.

 

“The sun is shining out here right now and the city is slowly getting back to normal, but this is a little bit of a situation of a tale of two cities. Much of Houston was unaffected by the weather, but the parts that were affected by the weather were very severely hit,” she told reporters.

Underpasses, patches of highways and areas near waterways such as the San Jacinto River, Cypress Creek and Buffalo Bayou, already strained by weeks of heavy rain, remain inundated.

“The defining feature of Houston is the small rivers that run through the city,” Parker said. “Many of them went over their banks and began to flood neighborhoods.”

The result of the flash floods and river overruns is “lots and lots of abandoned cars” and large pools of standing water, making for a logistical and traffic nightmare in the United States fourth most populated city.

The mayor said that as many as 4,000 properties in Houston may have suffered “significant damage,” although the assessment is complicated by all the water.

Image of worst high-water spots from http://www.chron.com.