Category Archives: State news

State news

So much for Texas ethics reform

Gov. Greg Abbott wanted the Texas Legislature to improve the state’s ethical conduct rules.

The first-term governor didn’t get anything close to what he wanted. Indeed, the just-concluded legislative session drew some barbs from members of the Texas Ethics Commission. And when those guys ding you, well, you’ve been dinged.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/12/brief-june-12-2015/?mc_cid=d31223e1d7&mc_eid=c01508274f

It appears that the Legislature went the other way. According to former Ethics panel chairman Jim Clancy, some bills awaiting Abbott’s signature “scare me to death.”

One of them makes it easier for political spouses’ financial statements to be hidden. According to the Texas Tribune, the bill repeals an earlier reform aimed at requiring such disclosure.

Nicely done, legislators. Just kidding, of course.

The Texas ethical code is pretty loose as it is. Lawmakers can leave public office and move directly into lobbying positions, where they can persuade their former legislative pals to back bills in the best interests of the new lobbyists’ clients. Cooling-off period? Forget about it.

The governor can try again in 2017 when the next Legislature returns. He’ll have logged some time in office. Perhaps he can use that time to persuade his friends in the Legislature that he really means it.

Reform, improve and tighten the state’s ethical code, or else. What’s more, Gov. Abbott, make the “or else” mean something.

 

State news

Frenship teacher pops off, loses job

It just had to be a teacher from a school in West Texas to spout off about the incident in McKinney.

The teacher was fired from the Frenship Independent School District for suggesting in a social media post that perhaps we ought to re-segregate our public schools to avoid future melees like the one that erupted in McKinney, the one that got the police officer into so much trouble after he roughed up a bikini-clad 14-year-old girl.

http://www.everythinglubbock.com/story/d/story/frenship-teacher-fired-over-imnotracist-post-on-fa/34216/f-pcZK7edkG8vHHlyFVANg

That didn’t set well with Karen Fitzgibbons, a teacher at Bennett Elementary School, who said the officer, Eric Casebolt, shouldn’t have quit. “The blacks are the ones causing the problems and this ‘racial tension,” Fitzgibbons wrote on Facebook.

Alrighty.

But there’s more. “I’m almost to the point of wanting them all segregated on one side of town so they can hurt each other and leave the innocent people alone,” Fitzgibbons also said. Her posts included the hashtag #imnotracist.

You got that last part? She says she’s not a racist. You know, my experience suggests that when people have to say they aren’t racist, well, that suggests something else.

The story is well-known. Casebolt responded to a pool party fracas that got out of hand. He wrestled the girl in the bikini to the ground, then pulled his service pistol on some boys who had come close to the action; the boys weren’t armed.

And, oh yes, the kids are mostly black; Casebolt is white.

Here we go … again.

Then a teacher from out here among us in West Texas shoots off her proverbial mouth.

Nice going, Ms. Fitzgibbons.

 

business news, State news

Abbott: Texas’s newest job poacher in chief

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been called the state’s latest “job poacher in chief,” picking up where former Gov. Rick Perry left off.

I beg to differ on one specific point. It’s a matter of style.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/11/brief-june-11-2015/

Perry made waves when he boarded airplanes and flew to states — such as California — to make a big show of luring companies away from those states and relocating in Texas. He grandstanded and pranced, donning hard hats and talking to the media about how Texas is a better place to do business than those states governed by those dreaded Democrats.

I took him to task for the manner in which he sought to “poach” those jobs.

Greg Abbott, though, is doing it differently. He’s more low-key about it.

He recently sent a letter to the head of General Electric, based in Connecticut. He told the CEO that Texas’s tax environment is much friendlier than Connecticut’s. The Texas Legislature just approved a legislation aimed at giving tax breaks to companies; meanwhile, Connecticut keeps heaping greater tax liability on business owners.

The Abbott approach is far less in-your-face than the Perry approach.

I don’t begrudge any state governor who seeks to boost his or her state’s business community by luring big-ticket firms from other locations.

The optics of such a mission, though, do matter.

 

State news

Call him a ‘former police officer’

Eric Casebolt no longer patrols the streets of McKinney, Texas, on behalf of the McKinney Police Department.

He quit today, just a few days after being video recorded roughing up a 14-year-old bikini-clad girl in a disturbance that erupted from a pool party.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/texas-officer-seen-in-viral-video-has-resigned-police-chief/ar-BBkTiMU

How does a pool party melee become cause for someone to give up a career for which he once was cited for excellence? It’s because the officer overreacted to the max when the kids didn’t do as he instructed him. His muscling of the girl to the ground was bad enough; then he drew his service pistol out on unarmed boys who had joined the ruckus.

Oh yes. Most of the kids are black; the officer is white.

One blogger, writing for the Dallas Morning News, wondered if such an incident would have occurred had the girl been a “blue-eyed blonde.”

Does this end the episode? Probably not. Casebolt likely won’t be prosecuted for any crime, as no one was injured in the disturbance. However, the eyes of the community will be focused sharply on how officers react in the future.

Let us chalk up yet another incidentĀ — and add it to the list of reasonsĀ local policeĀ must build trust in the communities they swear to “protect and serve.”

 

State news

Would a blue-eyed blonde get this kind of treatment?

Rudolph Bush has posted a great blog for the Dallas Morning News.

I encourage you to read, then pass it on. Share it. Reflect on it.

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2015/06/a-shame-for-mckinney-and-for-all-of-us.html/?fb_action_ids=10206940919266011&fb_action_types=og.shares&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B884608638297404%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.shares%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

He writes about the McKinney incident north of Dallas in which a police officer, Eric Casebolt, reacts rather aggressively while trying to break up a fight at a neighborhood pool party.

He wrestles a 14-year-old African-American girl to the ground. The girl is wearing a bikini. She’s crying out for her mother. He pulls his gun on other youngsters, none of whom was armed with anything other than a loud mouth. The incident got out of control.

Bush asks a most pertinent question in his blog. “But itā€™s impossible not to wonder how different a scene this would have been if these kids had been white instead of black. Would Casebolt have dared to drag a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl to the ground screaming ā€œON YOUR FACE!ā€ at a pool in an affluent suburb?

“If your answer is yes, let me know the next time that happens.”

Officer Casebolt has been suspended by the McKinney Police Department.

Bush asks further: “Itā€™s impossible not to wonder how we have failed to get the message from Baltimore and from so many other places. What is it going to take to avoid images like the ones that came from McKinney … ?”

Read his blog. It’s worth your time.

 

legal news, State news

Let’s now await high court ruling on gay marriage

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott knows when the Legislature has finished its work and there’s no need for “overtime.”

Thus, he has nixed the idea of a special session to deal with same-sex marriage, which legislative conservatives wanted to do.

To what end? Beats me.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/08/abbott-no-special-session-same-sex-marriage/

Texas already has approved a constitutional amendment that says, by golly, marriage should involve a man and a woman. The amendment came on top of an existing statute that said the very same thing.

Now the stateĀ is awaiting — along with 49 other states — a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that well could render all of that action moot. The court is going to decide, more than likely, whether states’ bans on same-sex marriage violate the federal Constitution, the one to which all state governments must adhere.

Texas legislators considered a bill that dealt with religious freedom, a bill that resembled legislation approved in Indiana, but which attracteded a torrent of protest from gay-rights groups. The Indiana bill would have allowed businesses to deny serving same-sex couples on the basis of business owners’ religious convictions. Critics said the bill, in effect, permitted business owners to discriminate openly.

The Texas bill didn’t pass. Legislators, though, did approve a bill that, according to the Texas Tribune says this — and you’ll have to follow it closely to understand it: The bill protects those from being from forced to “solemnizeĀ any marriage or provide services, accommodations, facilities, goods or privileges for a purpose related to the solemnization, formation or celebration of any marriage if the action would cause the organization or individual to violate a sincerely held religious belief.ā€ The bill awaits action from Gov. Abbott.

Hey, all of this could be tossed aside if the high court rules that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees every American “equal protection” under the law, regardless of who they love or intend to marry.

I’m pretty sure that covers Texas.

 

national news, political news, State news

Rick Perry: Governors make better presidents

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Rick Perry actually makes sense when he extols the virtues of governors seeking the presidency of the United States.

That doesn’t mean in the least that I intend — at this moment — to vote for him if lightning strikes and the Republican Party nominates him in 2016. I’m going to keep an open mind, though, as the campaign progresses. Honest. I will.

But in his campaign rollout speech in that sweltering hangar in Addison, Perry said that governors are those with actual executive experience.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/05/perry-stakes-defining-contrast-on-executive-experi/

He ought to know. Perry served as Texas governor for 14 years — even though it seemed much longer, at least in my eyes. He made a lot of executive decisions during his time as governor. Some of them were good decisions, even though I need some time to think of them.

He goofed on a few as well, such as the one he made requiring junior high school girls to be vaccinated for sexually transmitted diseases. The Legislature overrode that order in 2011, which of course is an action that Perry never mentions while campaigning for president.

Back to the point.

Perry’s assertion that governors make better presidents seems to have some merit. He said, according to the Texas Tribune: “The question of every candidate will be this one: When have you led?” Perry added, posing the same query that is a regular part of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz‘s 2016 stump speech. “Leadership is not aĀ speechĀ on the Senate floor. Itā€™s not what you say; itā€™s what you do.Ā And we will not find the kind of leadership needed to revitalize the country by looking to the political class in Washington.”

My only question, though, is this: Does he include former Govs. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton among those who did well as president?

I’ll answer my own query: Probably not.

State news

Now it’s a McKinney, Texas, cop under fire

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Oh, brother. Here we go … again.

A McKinney police officer has been suspended after he roughed up some unarmed juveniles at a swim party in the suburban community north of Dallas.

It’s been caught on video. It’s made the rounds. Gone viral, in fact.

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Officer-suspended-after-video-shows-violent-6312510.php

The video shows the officer detaining kids at the swim party. At one point, he forces — and this is quite interesting — a bikini-clad girl to the ground; when the girl gets up, the officer pulls his service revolver out of its holster, thenĀ puts the gun away after several seconds.

Yep, it’s fair to wonder out loud: Did the officer actually think the girl was packing heat wearing, um, a bikini? He ended up putting his knees on the girl’s back, restraining her while waiting for backup to arrive.

Here’s where I ought to mention that the officer is white, almost all the kids are black.

One of the girls involved in the disturbance is heard to yell at the officer thatĀ he “isn’t going to be a cop no more.” There were other terrible things said in the melee, including an apparently racist rant from an adult bystander.

The resolution of this incident has all the earmarks of another ugly chapter being written.

State news, Uncategorized

Another PR bombshell falls on City Hall

It’s becoming almost like a trivia game down at Seventh Avenue and Buchanan Street in downtown Amarillo.

Which public-relations nightmare has causedĀ the most sleepless nights for senior city administrators and council members?

Is it the revelation that the police department withheld from the public that a rapist was running loose?

How about the tempest over the way animal control officers were disposing of unwanted or abandoned pets?

What about the hiring of a traffic engineer who, it turns, out had been under investigation for alleged misdeeds at his prior place of employment?

Let’s add the latest SNAFU to the list. It involves water bills sent the other day to about 12,000 residential customers in southwest Amarillo that, to be charitable, didn’t accurately reflect actual water usage. Utility customers who normally pay about $55 per month for water and sewer use received bills, in some cases, of more than $300.

In the interest of full disclosure, my water bill was not among those affected by the serious misfire.

The city fired eight of its 11 water meter readers on the same day, creating a situation that made it impossible for utility employees to read all the meters, forcing the city to “estimate” water use; residents became furious with the size of their water bills.

This is the best part: The week the water bills went out, the phones went on the fritz at City Hall, meaning residents couldn’t call in to register their concerns or ask questions about their sky-high water bills. Some residents are quoted in the media as believing the phone mess-up was not a coincidence. How does the city persuade an irate constituent that it was?

Wow! I almost don’t know what to say about this.

And on top of all that, we hear from the city’s official spokeswoman, who said: “You know, sometimes when you’ve got someone on the other line going, ‘I need answers!’ you’re just going to make up an answer.”

Holy crap! That is precisely the kind of thing you might think to yourself, orĀ whisper to your colleagues, but you damn sure don’t say such a thing out loud … to the public.

To paraphrase theĀ famed astronaut Jim Lovell: Amarillo, we’ve got a problem.

 

national news, political news, State news

HRC sharpening her blades for campaign

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Hillary Rodham Clinton ventured into the belly of the Republican beast to, shall we say, beat the daylights out of Republicans for what she insists is a systematic effort to keep Americans from voting.

Good job, Senator/Mme. Secretary.

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2015/06/hillary-clintons-political-cynicism-shows-even-when-shes-right.html/

Dallas Morning News blogger Jim Mitchell called her speech at a historically black university an exercise in “cynicism.” He also thinks Clinton is correct when she ticks off the ways GOP politicians who now are running — or are about to run — for president of the United States seek to disenfranchise voters.

She wants to enact an automatic voting law that affects any U.S. citizen who turns 18. She wants to expand the early-voting window to 20 days before an election. She made both points during her talk at Texas Southern University. However, as Mitchell noted in his blog, neither plan has a chance in hell of being enacted — at least not in the near future.

I particularly liked how Clinton went after former Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed a law that a federal judge said discriminated against minority voters and how the then-governorĀ applauded when the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act.

Yes, her speech was aimed at African-American voters — which Mitchell cited as a symbol of her cynicism. What’s the problem? That’s part of her “base,” just as the TEA party constituents are a part of the GOP base. That’s what politicians do when they run for their party’s presidential nomination: they go for their respective bases.

Clinton also took aim at the bogus allegation of widespread voter fraud, which politicians in many states have contended is occurring. Sure, a tiny number of voters cast ballots illegally. Is it a widespread epidemic, as has been described by some observers? Not even close.

We’re heading for a raucous campaign. Ten GOP politicians have declared their intention to run for president, along with four Democrats. The number of Republicans is sure to grow, perhaps by at least double the number in the race at the moment; one or two more Democrats might emerge as well.

Let’s all hold on. We’re heading for a rough ride.