October 21, 2014

Activists plan to show graphic video of live abortions on JumboTron on Alamo grounds

San Antonio, Texas -- Ohio-based activist group Created Equal plans to show live video footage and photographs of abortions near the Alamo on Wednesday.

The group, along with locally based Love of Truth Ministries, will show the abortions live on a projection screen, which they classify as a "JumboTron TV," as well as answer questions and hand out brochures near the historic shrine, said executive director Mark Harrington.

Harrington warned that the images are graphic, and parents should to find an alternative route when traveling with children throughout the event from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

"It's not something we choose to do, and frankly I would be willing to stop showing the photos if the killings would stop," he said. "If it saves one life here at this campus or at The Alamo, then it is worth exposing this, or maybe offending some people's feelings."

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Activists-plan-to-show-live-abortions-at-Alamo-5837468.php

October 21, 2014

Tutoring firm owners plead guilty to defrauding Dallas and Fort Worth ISDs of nearly $3M

Florine Mati and David Mbugua used to run tutoring companies in the Dallas area.

On Tuesday, they pleaded guilty to defrauding the Dallas and Fort Worth school districts out of about $3 million worth of tutoring. U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul D. Stickney accepted their pleas: guilty to one count each of conspiracy to make false, fictitious or fraudulent claims. Mati and Mbugua each face up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine, and they’ll have to pay restitution. They’ll be sentenced in February.

Mati, a former DISD teacher, and Mbugua formed four tutoring companies a few years ago: Diverse Learning, Wise Links (also known as Champions Mind), Boost Academy and Avenue Academy. They received state approval to tutor low-income students at schools that had failed to meet federal academic standards. The outside tutoring was required by the federal No Child Left Behind law.

The former business partners did not appear to make eye contact or talk to each other Tuesday morning, when they entered their guilty pleas in U.S. District Court. They’re being held in custody.

Read more: http://educationblog.dallasnews.com/2014/10/tutoring-firm-owners-plead-guilty-to-defrauding-dallas-and-fort-worth-isds.html/

October 21, 2014

Gov. Rick Perry announces two new Ebola treatment facilities: UT Southwestern and UTMB in Galveston

Gov. Rick Perry announced Tuesday that UT Southwestern Medical Center will head up one of two designated treatment centers for Ebola patients in Texas.

“The goal of these facilities is to rival the most advanced facilities in the world,” the governor said at a news conference at the Dallas hospital. “I don’t think there is a better institution in the world” than UT Southwestern.

The state’s other treatment facility will be at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

UT Southwestern will staff and provide other expertise for the treatment facility, but it won’t be on the hospital’s campus in Dallas’ Medical District. Instead it will be housed in a building at Methodist Health System’s continuing care facility at 401 Campbell Road in Richardson.

Read more: http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2014/10/gov-rick-perry-announces-two-new-ebola-treatment-facilities-ut-southwestern-in-dallas-and-utmb-in-galveston.html/

October 21, 2014

Barfield pleads guilty to embezzling $1.8 million from David Dewhurst campaigns

The former campaign manager and long-time political adviser to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst pleaded guilty Tuesday to embezzling nearly $1.8 million from Dewhurst’s campaign accounts for five years until his theft was uncovered in late 2012.

One-time Austin political consultant Kenneth “Buddy” Barfield faces a maximum sentence of 28 years in prison on three charges, including wire fraud, falsified tax returns and theft of campaign funds from a candidate for federal office.

Barfield, now residing in Alabama, entered the plea before U.S. Magistrate Mark Lane in federal court in Austin. He refused to comment after leaving the courtroom.

“While working on behalf of the David Dewhurst Campaign and Dewhurst for Texas, Barfield knowingly and intentionally engaged in a scheme to defraud the entities of campaign dollars for his own benefit,” a plea agreement signed by Barfield stated.

Read more: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2014/10/barfield-pleads-guilty-to-embezzling-1-8-million-from-david-dewhurst-campaigns.html/

October 21, 2014

Kimberly-Clark to cut up to 1,300 jobs

Source: AP

DALLAS — Kimberly-Clark plans to eliminate up to 1,300 jobs as part of restructuring efforts aimed at reducing costs and making its business more efficient.

The consumer products company behind brands such as Kleenex and Huggies has 58,000 workers worldwide, according to its website. That means the cuts would amount to about 2 percent of its workforce.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. said Tuesday that it anticipates restructuring costs between $130 million and $160 million, after taxes. The company foresees between $120 million and $140 million in savings by the end of 2017.

The restructuring is expected to be completed by the end of 2016.

Read more: http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2014-10-21/kimberly-clark-cut-1300-jobs#.VEalABbuPoE

October 21, 2014

Hidalgo County Dems swap Davis for constable in push card

On first day of early voting, turnout higher than 2010


EDINBURG — A voting guide the Hidalgo County Democratic Party distributed in Precinct 4 omitted Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis.

The guide asks voters to cast their ballots for either the entire Democratic ticket or the Democratic nominees in various state and local offices. In three of Hidalgo County’s four precincts, Davis, a state senator from Fort Worth, is included. But she was bumped in the Precinct 4 editions to make room for Constable J.R. Gaitan, the only Democrat who appears on one but not all county ballots.

“Because of the large number of candidates, both statewide and countywide, we were just unable to fit all candidates while still focusing on our local candidates,” county Democratic Chair Ric Godinez wrote in an email.

“For example, to highlight Gaitan (who runs only in Precinct 4) we had to sacrifice space for one of the statewides,” he wrote. “Because Battleground Texas was pushing Sen. Davis primarily with plenty of literature, we felt we could get more coverage and bang for our buck for the entire Democratic Ticket (you will notice even in this piece, as in all our pieces, we are encouraging voters to make a straight party vote) while focusing on our local candidates in that precinct.”

Read more: http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/hidalgo-county-dems-swap-davis-for-constable-in-push-card/article_ac5aa05c-58cc-11e4-8f75-001a4bcf6878.html

October 21, 2014

Texas teen arrested for smuggling meth in Jesus candles

Police in Louisiana arrested a 19-year-old Texas man for smuggling methamphetamine mixed in with wax inside 48 candles depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.

Officials arrested Jose Antonio Rodriguez-Lara of Houston while conducting a traffic stop of an El Expresso commercial passenger bus on Interstate 12 in Baton Rouge on Thursday, according to a news release.

Rodriguez-Lara has been charged with distributing and manufacturing Schedule 2 drugs, a felony that could land the Houston teenager up to 10 years in prison.

Officers with the Baton Rough Police Highway Interdiction Unit, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program and the Drug Enforcement Agency were involved in the investigation.

http://www.chron.com/news/local/crime/article/Texas-teen-arrested-for-smuggling-meth-in-Jesus-5834847.php#photo-7024554

[font color=green]Praise the Lord.[/font]

October 21, 2014

Davis blasts Abbott for not saying if he’d defend ban on interracial marriage

AUSTIN — Greg Abbott, who frequently notes that his role as attorney general is to advocate for state laws, prompted heated debate Monday after wavering on whether he would have opposed bans on interracial marriages.

Democrats quickly criticized his response, while supporters lambasted the question and said Abbott was doing what voters expected.

The GOP candidate for governor was asked the question in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News editorial board. In light of Abbott’s legal defense of the Texas ban on same-sex marriage, he was asked if he might years ago have fought to preserve the law that prohibited black and white Texans from marrying.

Abbott pointed out that such laws were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court decades ago.

“And all I can do is deal with the issues that are before me,” Abbott said. “The job of an attorney general is to represent and defend in court the laws of their client, which is the state Legislature, unless and until a court strikes it down.”

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/state-politics/20141020-davis-blasts-abbott-for-not-saying-if-hed-defend-ban-on-interracial-marriage.ece

October 20, 2014

Federal jury sides with whistle-blower against Dallas-based Trinity Industries; damages over $800M

Source: Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON — In a case that could trigger a wholesale re-evaluation of the safety of a guardrail system used on highways and interstates across the country, a federal jury in Marshall, Texas found against Dallas-based Trinity Industries Monday, finding that the company knowingly defrauded the government of $175 million since 2005.

Brian Farber, spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration, said Monday’s ruling has triggered a review of whether federal funds can be used to continue buying the guardrail component sold by Trinity, and that a safety review prompted by recent concerns about its performance continues as well.

“The Federal Highway Administration will evaluate the findings of the Trinity case and consider whether it affects the continued eligibility of the ET-Plus,” said Farber, using the brand name for the guardrail cap sold by Trinity. “Separately, the FHWA continues to review the Trinity guardrail service record. We have asked all states to immediately share any crash information involving the Trinity ET-Plus guardrail end terminal. To be clear, our number one priority is safety and we will take a data-driven approach to ensure safety on our highways.”

The actual amount Trinity could owe is much higher. The federal False Claims Act, the statute under which whistle-blower Josh Harman brought his suit, states that a guilty party will pay three times whatever damages are proved at trial, plus in many cases attorneys fees and additional fines that Harman’s lawyers say could top $200 million.

Read more: http://bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com/2014/10/dallas-based-trinity-industries-hit-with-175m-verdict-total-damages-could-near-1-billion-in-guardrail-case-brought-by-whistle-blower-josh-harman.html/

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*ETA: Edited headline so that the damage amount was not truncated.

October 20, 2014

Dallas businessman Sam Wyly files for bankruptcy over $300 million forfeiture

Source: Bloomberg News

Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) — Sam Wyly, the U.S. businessman who may have to forfeit as much as $400 million after being found liable for using offshore trusts to hide stock holdings and make illegal trades, filed for bankruptcy.

Wyly, blaming “massive costs” from a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission probe and litigation, yesterday listed assets and debt ranging from $100 million to $500 million each in a Chapter 11 petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas, where he lives.

The SEC, which sued Wyly in 2010, is Wyly’s second-biggest creditor, with a “disputed” claim of $198.1 million, according to the court papers. Wyly listed the Internal Revenue Service as his biggest creditor, saying the size of that debt, also disputed, is unknown.

Other debts include a $20,000 grant commitment to the Third Church of Christ, Scientist in Dallas and $383.20 in membership dues for the Dallas Country Club, Wyly said in his filing.

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/business/business-headlines/20141020-dallas-businessman-sam-wyly-files-for-bankruptcy-over-300-million-forfeiture.ece