TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalLupe Valdez, Andrew White, Jeffrey Payne make pitches for governor at North Dallas Democratic forum
Three Democratic candidates for governor warned voters Sunday that incumbent Republican Greg Abbott is too radical for Texas.
"We're being led by a bunch of extremist people who are focused on fringe voters, while ignoring the rest of us," Houston businessman Andrew White told participants at a Democratic Party forum in Far North Dallas. "They ignore the scientist on every issue that matters."
White is the son of former Texas Gov. Mark White, who died last year in Houston.
"When my dad was governor, he made the tough decisions that made Texas better," White said. "We don't have leaders like that today, so I decided to step up and get involved."
Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2018-elections/2018/01/28/lupe-valdez-andrew-white-jeffrey-payne-make-pitches-governor-north-dallas-democratic-forum
Texas Republican Party votes to censure House Speaker Joe Straus
The Texas State Republican Executive Committee voted Saturday to censure House Speaker Joe Straus (R), saying he has obstructed the party’s conservative agenda.
The vote was 44-19 to censure the speaker, who is not seeking re-election, surpassing the threshold requirement that two-thirds of the 64 SREC members — two from each of the 31 Senate districts, plus the chair and vice chair — approve the resolution for it to be enacted.
State Party Chair James Dickey and Vice Chair Amy Clark cast the decisive votes. Without them, the 42 votes for censure would have fallen one vote shy.
“This is a very unusual case … and this could have consequences for the party,” said Dickey, before making the dramatic announcement that he and Clark would vote for the censure, ensuring the Texas GOP’s repudiation of one of its most powerful elected officials.
Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/texas-republican-party-votes-censure-house-speaker-joe-straus/QIMtpKAjuSBRQVMWa5qUUM/
Mosque arson anniversary brings questions of faith, unity
VICTORIA -- As the flames of arson illuminated their tears, members of the Victoria Islamic Center paced the sidewalk surrounding their burning mosque and prayed for understanding.
"I was shaken," Abe Ajrami, a Victoria resident and mosque member, said, recalling the night of Jan. 28, 2017.
For center president Dr. Shahid Hashmi, a Victoria surgeon, the building's destruction was akin to losing a patient - an experience he still struggles with after decades of practice.
"Why is there hate? Why is there all this? And why would (someone) do something like that?" Hashmi said. "Then you sit there and think about it, and then your faith tells you, 'It's a test.'"
Read more: https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2018/jan/27/mosque-arson-anniversary-brings-questions-of-faith/
Kentucky's 'worst' water system might be only weeks away from collapse
Representatives of the Martin County Water District described a system on the verge of financial catastrophe at a state hearing Friday, saying the district would effectively collapse within 60 to 90 days without an immediate influx of cash.
Kentucky’s Public Service Commission, the state agency that regulates most utilities, held a hearing in Frankfort to consider the district’s application for an emergency rate increase of nearly 50 percent for its 3,500 customers.
Without additional revenue, the district will soon miss payroll and “when we do, all our employees will quit,” said John Horn, chairman of the Martin County Water Board.
The Eastern Kentucky water district made headlines recently when it shut off water to thousands of customers for days, or in some cases weeks, when an intake pump and service pipes froze during frigid weather earlier this month.
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article196902209.html
Kentucky House GOP chief of staff who signed secret sex harassment settlement resigns
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Ginger Wills, the top House Republican staffer who along with former House Speaker Jeff Hoover and others confidentially settled complaints of a woman on the House GOP staff last fall, has resigned.
House Republican Whip Kevin Bratcher, of Louisville, confirmed Friday that Wills had submitted her resignation this week. He said it was effective either Friday or Monday.
"She resigned. I don't know why other than she just said she was looking for other things and it was time to move on," Bratcher said.
Bratcher said Wills had been chief of staff for the past year. The job, according to the Legislative Research Commission website, paid $120,750 per year.
Read more: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/26/kentucky-gop-chief-staff-resigns-jeff-hoover-scandal/1070485001/
Health advocates and state officials want to raise Kentucky's cigarette tax by at least $1
FRANKFORT, Ky. — As Kentucky continues to lead the nation in cigarette smoking – as well as in cancer rates and tobacco-related deaths – health advocates are launching an effort to boost the state's cigarette tax by at least $1 a pack, a move they say is proven to reduce smoking.
"We are the cancer capital of the country," said Ben Chandler, chairman of a group called "Smoke Free Tomorrow," a coalition of nearly 150 health, business and advocacy groups. "We need to cut the smoking rate. We need to cut the cancer rate."
Chandler said he believes Kentuckians would be shocked to realize tobacco, containing the highly addictive drug nicotine, takes a greater toll in Kentucky than opioid addiction.
While about 1,400 people died from drug overdoses in 2016, tobacco causes about 8,900 deaths each year in Kentucky, where a quarter of the population smokes, he said.
Read more: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/life/wellness/health/2018/01/22/kentucky-raise-cigarette-tax-tobacco/1014117001/
Indiana man leaves behind Miracle Whip, Hamburger Helper and a rollicking obituary
Jean Lahm's father "lived to make people laugh," she told the Chicago Tribune.
"For sure, the obituary matches his personality," Lahm said.
His parting gift — his obituary, posted on Geisen Funeral Home's website — has kept that laughter going.
The piece details the basics: that Terry Wayne Ward, 71, of DeMotte, Ind., was a husband of 48 years, father of three and grandfather of seven. But also that he had accumulated about 3,000 rolls of black electrical tape from his time as a lineman — he gave "39 years of begrudging service" to "AT&T (formerly Ameritech, formerly formerly Indiana Bell)." He knew hot sauce could be put on anything and hated "uppity foods" like hummus — unless it was called "bean dip," in which case he loved it.
The Vietnam War veteran had "zero working knowledge of the Kardashians" and knew automobiles were never to be purchased new.
Read more: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2018/01/27/indiana-man-leaves-behind-miracle-whip-hamburger-helper-and-rollicking-obituary/1071407001/
Bevin's War on Public Education
The difficulty of the state’s financial woes cannot disguise the fact that Gov. Matt Bevin is waging a war on public education. He has made it clear through his words, his policies and, now, his budget proposal that he intends to cripple public education in Kentucky.
This is blindly ironic considering that public education is the most enduring, proven return on investment that government can make.
But rather than find other sources of revenue — even the easy stuff, such as legalizing gambling and marijuana, or raising the cigarette tax — Bevin is zealously sticking to the conservative trope of cutting, cutting and cutting more. I once predicted the realities of governing would strike Bevin (whom I expected to be), a pragmatic businessman, and he would govern more centrally than he would campaign.
I was totally wrong.
Of course, I didn’t factor in his political ambitions and desire to prove his conservative stripes to national, conservative donors.
Read more: https://www.leoweekly.com/2018/01/bevins-war/
Louisville Youth Detention Center Fails on Basic Services, Report Says
Children in Louisville’s juvenile jail don’t have enough teachers, doctors or mental health professionals, a review of the facility found.
The Center for Children’s Law and Policy conducted a study of conditions at the Louisville Metro Youth Detention Center last fall. The facility houses youths who have been charged with a crime in Louisville and ordered by a judge to be detained while their cases are pending.
The consultants raised questions about whether the detention center’s understaffed school violated federal laws, and said having no qualified mental health professional on staff “jeopardizes the safety of young people with mental illness.” A physician is only on site two mornings a week, and nurses give most of the medical care.
“There is no question that the majority of youth at LMYDS suffer from both extensive psychiatric histories as well as substantial trauma histories,” the report said. “Their behavior on the units can be extremely challenging. Absent adequate numbers of on-site mental health professionals, youth workers are left to figure out how to manage their behavior.”
Read more: https://www.leoweekly.com/2018/01/youth-detention-center-fails-basic-services-report-says/
Bevin to coal country -- no help for you
While Donald Trump bamboozled Eastern Kentucky voters by promising to bring back coal jobs, his mini-me, Gov. Matt Bevin, has thumbed his nose at that part of the state, hoping it won’t notice.
Watch this city slicker work.
His budget proposal, released last week, lists 70 state programs that would get “no state funds” for the period of two years, or basically until he’s up for re-election. They include cuts to Mining Engineering Scholarships, Robinson Scholars (a program that helps Eastern Kentucky youth receive a higher education), Kentucky Coal Academy at Kentucky College and Technical School, Appalachian Learning Disabled Tutoring, Coal County College Completion Scholarship and several agricultural programs.
The budget is disastrous to some of the most-vulnerable citizens of the state. Eastern Kentucky — or Coal Country, as it is called — is not known for its wealth and economic stability. Read any story about the area and it is rife with tales of its devastating poverty. This is the poverty that Republicans like to pretend doesn’t exist in America or that exists only until those bootstraps can be pulled. It’s deep, unsettling and generational poverty.
Bevin is sticking a knife in the back of the coal country voters who helped get him elected, voters who have repeatedly been ridden bareback by politicians promising the sun and delivering nothing but extended and exacerbated poverty.
Read more: https://www.leoweekly.com/2018/01/bevin-coal-country-no-help/
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
Home country: United States
Current location: Bryan, Texas
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