October 3, 2018

Hundreds of private medical records found scattered on Midtown sidewalk in Houston

HOUSTON — Several prominent Houston-area hospitals are notifying patients about a breach after medical records were found scattered on a sidewalk in Midtown by a KHOU 11 employee.

KHOU 11 News launched an investigation after discovering the hundreds of documents contained private information that included patients’ names, dates of birth, diagnoses, treatment, medication lists, vital signs and admission dates.

The records involve approximately 1,800 patients of MD Anderson Cancer Center, LBJ Hospital, Memorial Hermann Hospital, Children’s Memorial Hermann, and TIRR Memorial Hermann.

The records were stolen from the trunk of a medical resident’s locked vehicle in July, according to officials with UTHealth.

Read more: https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/hundreds-of-private-medical-records-found-scattered-on-midtown-sidewalk/285-600214249

October 3, 2018

'This is not Sin City': Houston City Council votes to ban sex robot brothel

HOUSTON -- Houston City Council members voted unanimously Wednesday to ban a sex robot brothel set to open soon near the Galleria area. The ordinance allows the business to sell the sex robots but not to allow customers to use them inside the business.

The vote followed a citywide uproar after the controversial business announced plans to open the brothel on Richmond. It would have been the first such business to open in the United States.

"I know there's some people that will sit there and say, 'What does the City of Houston have to do with any of this?'" said Councilman Greg Travis. "And the answer is 'We're not getting into your bedroom, but don't bring it into our district. Don't bring it into our city. This is not a good business for our city. We are not Sin City.'"

The owner of the brothel told KHOU 11 they are analyzing the decision today and talking to their lawyers.

Read more: https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/this-is-not-sin-city-houston-city-council-votes-to-ban-sex-robot-brothel/285-600443399

October 3, 2018

Army Corps set to propose hurricane protection plan for Houston

By Kiah Collier, Texas Tribune


Later this month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will recommend a multi-billion-dollar plan to help protect the Texas coast — the Houston area in particular — from hurricanes. When it will become a reality, however, is anyone’s guess.

The more than 200-year-old agency — in partnership with the Texas General Land Office — embarked on the largest study in its history in 2014 to determine how best to guard the Bayou City and other coastal communities from devastating storm surge.

Four years later, the agency has devised four proposals for the Houston area; it will announce which one it thinks is best on Oct. 26 and open a 75-day public comment period, according to Kelly Burks-Copes, a project manager at the Army Corps’ Galveston District.

The plans are distinctly different — one of them has an alternate variation — but all include a mixture of new levees, improvements to existing levees and seawalls and the installation of so-called “navigation” gates, which would be closed ahead of storms to protect densely populated areas southeast of Houston and the city’s port — home to the largest refining and petrochemical complex in the nation, which saw significant flooding during Hurricane Harvey — from the deadly swells generated by a hurricane’s strong winds. That storm surge can result in major flooding even before a storm makes landfall.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2018/10/03/army-corps-set-propose-hurricane-protection-plan-houston/


A "coastal spine," also called the Ike Dike, pictured here, is among several storm barrier concepts the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may recommend for the Houston area. Graphic by Todd Wiseman

October 3, 2018

Baptist Leader Fired After Alleged Cover Up of Rape Accusations Will Now Teach 'Christian Ethics'

Baptist Leader Fired After Alleged Cover Up of Rape Accusations Will Now Teach ‘Christian Ethics’ Course


Paige Patterson, the former leader of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary who was fired after a woman came forward to accuse him of discouraging her from reporting a rape allegation, has a new gig.

Religion News Service reports that Patterson will be taking part in a week-long seminar later this month in which he’ll be teaching a class called “Christian Ethics: The Bible and Moral Issues.”

Patterson, who also came under fire earlier this year for encouraging an abused woman to stay with her husband and for making a “joke” about a “very attractive” teenage girl during a 2014 sermon, will be teaching the class alongside Southern Evangelical Seminary President Richard Land.

“We believe that there are a lot of people who would like to hear from him about living the Christian life in America,” Land explained to Religion News Service in justifying his decision to bring Patterson aboard. “I believe he’s an asset to evangelicalism and we’re looking forward to it.”

Read more: https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2018/10/baptist-leader-fired-after-alleged-cover-up-of-rape-accusations-will-now-teach-christian-ethics-course/

October 3, 2018

Denmark plans to ban sales of gas-powered cars by 2030

Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Denmark will ban the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines by 2030, the government announced on Tuesday.

"Diesel and petrol cars in Denmark must be the past. The future is green," Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said, according to Euractiv.

"In just 12 years, we will prohibit the sale of new diesel and petrol cars. And in 17 years, every new car in Denmark must be an electric car or other forms of zero-emissions car," Rasmussen added.

The plan to ban internal combustion vehicles still needs parliamentary approval and will go up for a vote next week.

Read more: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2018/10/03/Denmark-plans-to-ban-sales-of-gas-powered-cars-by-2030/2881538546126/

October 3, 2018

Kansas Democrat Sharice Davids outraises GOP's Kevin Yoder with $2.7 million haul

WASHINGTON -- Kansas Democrat Sharice Davids outraised incumbent GOP congressman Kevin Yoder by more than $1.6 million over the past three months, a strong sign of Democratic enthusiasm in a race that could determine which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives.

Davids, a lawyer and amateur mixed martial arts fighter, is Kansas’s first openly gay, Native American nominee for Congress.

She raised more than $2.7 million since the end of June, a total that appears to shatter records for a Democrat in the suburban Kansas City congressional district where Davids is challenging Yoder.

Yoder raised a hefty $1.1 million in the same quarter, a record for a Republican in Kansas’ third congressional district. He has nearly $1.3 million cash on hand going into the final weeks of the campaign.

October 3, 2018

Democrats charge Republicans, Ron DeSantis with exploiting Pulse victims in attack ad

The Republican Party of Florida continues to hammer away at Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum.

However, the Democrats are claiming that their counterparts went too far with one image in their latest spot: a Spanish-language salvo, “Miseria,” spotlighting Gillum’s ties to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and “the extreme left.”

That image, asserts Democrats, means that Republican Ron DeSantis should apologize, and the ad should be taken down.

The ad continues the general election agitation on the right against the so-called socialism of the Democratic ticket (per the voiceover, “Andrew Gillum owes himself to Bernie Sanders. Gillum is financed by the extreme left and under a cloud of corruption.”)

Read more: http://floridapolitics.com/archives/276388-rpof-gillum-extreme-left

October 3, 2018

Flagler's shrinking Democratic Party gets a pep rally

Andrew Gillum’s Sunday appearance in Palm Coast was a surprising event. The Democratic candidate for governor spoke to a crowd of about 400 at the Flagler County Democratic Party’s Blue Barbecue.

Remember, Donald Trump won Flagler County by 20 percent. Democrats, who had the most registered voters in Flagler as recently as 2011, now claim no more than 31 percent of registered voters. Republicans have 41 percent. In a county with partisan elections for county commission, exactly zero Democrats are running for commission this year. The former swing county now is deep red.

What’s more, this is a county that Gwen Graham won with 42 percent of the vote during the Democratic primary.

In short, Flagler is not remotely Gillum Country.

Read more: http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20181002/lane-flaglers-shrinking-democratic-party-gets-pep-rally

October 3, 2018

Sparks fly as Nelson, Scott debate

Republican Gov. Rick Scott repeatedly accused three-term Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of being a do-nothing incumbent while Nelson repeatedly accused Scott of dishonesty on Tuesday during the first face-to-face debate in their nationally watched U.S. Senate race.

They clashed on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, the toxic algae and red tide problems plaguing Florida’s coastal and inland waters and other issues during a one-hour meeting at the studio of Spanish-language Telemundo 51. Each sprinkled a few sentences of Spanish into their remarks, but they mainly debated in English for a broadcast that was to air Tuesday evening with Spanish translation.

Scott frequently mentioned Nelson’s more than 40 years in a variety of public offices and at least twice suggested the 76-year-old senator was “confused.”

Nelson said the election is about “trust and integrity” and at one point told Scott: “Governor, you just can’t tell the truth.”

Read more: http://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20181002/sparks-fly-as-nelson-scott-debate

October 3, 2018

Poll: It's a tied race for Florida governor

Time to reel back the insanely premature chatter about Andrew Gillum starting to leave Ron DeSantis in the dust in Florida's governor's race.

On the heels of a Sept. 20-24 Quinnipiac University poll showing Democrat Gillum leading Republican DeSantis by 9 percentage points, a new Mason-Dixon poll shows Gillum drawing 46 percent support and DeSantis 45 percent.

The Sept. 24-27 survey of 815 likely voters (MoE +/- 3.5 percent), was conducted for Leadership Florida and the Florida Press Association to qualify candidates for their debate Oct. 24. Also included in the telephone survey were Reform Party nominee Darcy Richardson and no party affiliation candidates Ryan Foley, Kyle "KC" Gibson, and Bruce Stanley, who, combined, earned 3 percent support in the survey.

Mason-Dixon found DeSantis leading among men by 15 percentage points and Gillum leading among women by 14. They each drew 41 percent support among independent voters.

Read more: https://www.tbo.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/10/02/poll-its-a-tied-race-for-florida-governor/