TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalEncentus backing out of cannabis banking in Oklahoma
One of the few banking options for Oklahoma medical marijuana businesses says financial challenges have forced it to back out of the industry less than a year after taking on its first cannabis-connected clients.
Tulsa-based Encentus Federal Credit Union last month sent a letter to its clients that “we are not equipped to service the business accounts of our Medical Marijuana businesses.”
Encentus board chair Jana Hallman told the Tulsa World on Friday that nine business accounts will be closed by Oct. 31 due to the change.
“Upon significant review and research, we have come to realize that we do not have the staff nor the software sufficient to maintain the business activity,” Hallman wrote in the Aug. 26 letter.
Read more: https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/marijuana/encentus-backing-out-of-cannabis-banking-in-oklahoma/article_e6aaf690-b7dd-5c59-84e2-b122fe2c3ce7.html
China-Australia rift deepens as Beijing tests overseas sway
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s ban on Chinese telecoms giant Huawei’s involvement in its future 5G networks and its crackdown on foreign covert interference are testing Beijing’s efforts to project its power overseas.
In its latest maneuver, China sent three scholars to spell out in interviews with Australian media and other appearances steps to mend the deepening rift with Beijing _ a move that appears to have fallen flat.
In a recent press conference at the Chinese Embassy in Canberra, Chen Hong, the head of Australian studies at East China Normal University, accused Australia of acting as a “pawn” for the United States in lobbying other countries against Huawei’s involvement in the nascent 5G networks.
“Australia has been in one way or another, so to speak, pioneering this kind of anti-China campaign, even some kind of a scare and smear campaign against China,” Chen said. “That is definitely not what China will be appreciating, and if other countries follow suit, that is going to be recognized as extremely unfriendly,” he said.
Read more: https://oklahoman.com/article/feed/9961910/china-australia-rift-deepens-as-beijing-tests-overseas-sway
10th Circuit Court of Appeals: Free the nipple
A ruling out of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver has set a precedent that is sure to result in a lot of pearl-grabbing while screaming, “Won’t somebody please think of the children.”
It’s now legal for women to go topless in Oklahoma, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico — the states under the jurisdiction of the 10th Circuit Court — after the city of Fort Collins has decided it won’t appeal the lower court’s decision to end the prohibition of public exposure of breasts by women and girls over 10 years old to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to NBC News.
The decision is a victory for Free the Nipple, an international group pushing for women’s equality. The 10th Circuit Court made its decision based on “negative stereotypes depicting women’s breasts, but not men’s breasts, as sex objects.”
The city of Fort Collins argued that it didn’t want women “parading in front of elementary schools or swimming topless in the public pool,” which seems like the kind of thing that would only happen out of protest if they didn’t change the law. Denver and Boulder allow female toplessness and have had no such cases, according to NBC.
Read more: https://www.okgazette.com/oklahoma/chicken-fried-news-free-the-nipple/Content?oid=6616940
Judge: Lawsuit over forced labor at chicken plants can move forward
Alawsuit against a multibillion-dollar company brought by three men who were forced to work for free in chicken processing plants can move forward, a federal judge has ruled.
The men’s claims alleging racketeering, labor law violations and human trafficking are sufficiently plausible for the case to continue, the judge wrote in an opinion and order earlier this month.
The class-action lawsuit, filed in October 2017 in the Northern District of Oklahoma, alleges Jay-based Christian Alcoholics & Addicts in Recovery — or CAAIR — and Simmons Food Inc. forced men to work for free under threats of being sent to prison if their work was unsatisfactory. The suit accuses the organizations of fraud because the men did not receive the rehabilitation or treatment they were promised.
Instead, they were required to work for more than 40 hours per week.
Read more: https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/judge-lawsuit-over-forced-labor-at-chicken-plants-can-move-forward/
Rural Hospital Closures Affect The Whole Community, But There Are Ways To Slow The Trend
Rural Texans often face disadvantages when it comes to health care. Doctors are in short supply and hospitals are located far away from many residents. The Washington Post has reported that, until recently, one doctor in Van Horn served as the primary physician for people living within an 11,000 square mile region in West Texas. Health experts say something must be done because problems in the health care system have ripple effects throughout the community.
Dr. Jane Bolin is a professor of health policy and management, and deputy director of the Southwest Rural Health Research Center at Texas A&M University. She says some people have to drive for hours for even basic medial care. But it’s even more problematic when emergency care is far away.
“When there is no rural hospital close by, it, in turn, can lead to devastating effects on the entire community,” Bolin says. “It definitely has an impact at all levels, on community and regional life.”
Bolin recently co-wrote an article for The Conversation US, showing how a number of rural hospitals in Texas are “near collapse.” She says that happens when the hospitals don’t make enough money from patient bills to pay for what it costs to run the hospital.
Read more: https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/rural-hospital-closures-affect-the-whole-community-but-there-are-ways-to-slow-the-trend/
Residents Try To Save Texas' First Black City, But Some Worry It Might Be Too Late
Many Texas cities have neighborhoods that have been changed by gentrification recently: Bishop Arts District in Dallas and East Austin are just some examples. And now, Houston’s Independence Heights – considered Texas’ first black city – could face a similar fate.
Houston Chronicle reporter Sarah Smith, who reported on Independence Heights, says the threat of gentrification has motivated residents to fight against it. They don’t want its historical significance to be lost through new development.
Black families started settling in Independence Heights in the early 20th century.
“It was black-run with black landowners, and they didn’t have to face the worst of Jim Crow segregation with redlining because they were, themselves, running the show,” Smith says.
Residents voted to incorporate the city in 1915, but then annexed it to Houston 14 years later for access to better municipal services. But Smith says they never got those services.
Read more: https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/residents-try-to-save-texas-first-black-city-but-some-worry-it-might-be-too-late/
Jury trial begins in Ford v. Reagor in Lubbock federal court
A jury trial began Wednesday in a Lubbock federal court to decide how much money former car dealer Bart Reagor owes creditor Ford Motor Credit Co.
The trial will continue Thursday morning.
Phillip Coode, a dealer credit supervisor with Ford Credit and the sole witness expected to testify, spent hours adding the amount owed through six dealerships, then subtracting the amounts credited toward the debt through a liquidation earlier this year of Reagor Dykes’ collateral and other funding sources.
The total came to $53,759,450.96.
Around $36 million of the debt is from vehicles sold out of trust while the dealership was still in operation, Coode testified. Vehicles sold out of trust were subject to Ford Credit’s security interests, but proceeds were not sent to the creditor.
Read more: https://www.lubbockonline.com/news/20191002/jury-trial-begins-in-ford-v-reagor-in-lubbock-federal-court
Abbott Vows To 'Unleash' State Resources If Austin Doesn't Change Its Homelessness Rules By Nov. 1
Gov. Greg Abbott says he's prepared to "unleash the full authority of every state agency" if Austin doesn't address issues surrounding homelessness by Nov. 1.
In a letter to Mayor Steve Adler, Abbott said Austin's revision of its homelessness rules presents a public health and safety concern – and that he could marshal state resources to clean up encampments and possibly increase patrols of Department of Public Safety troopers in "areas that pose greater threats."
https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1179451847196790784
Adler maintains the city is enforcing its laws, which prohibit aggressive behavior, drug use, defecation and other behaviors in public and that that behavior has been magnified by "the memes" and posts online.
He also reiterated that the ordinances haven't created more homeless people – they've just brought people out of the shadows – and said he understands the concern on the part of the governor and Austinites writ large.
Read more: https://www.kut.org/post/abbott-vows-unleash-state-resources-if-austin-doesnt-change-its-homelessness-rules-nov-1
Gov. Abbott (along with Sens. Cornyn and Cruz) are looking to distract voters from the Trump crisis and GOP incompetence.
Colleges got $60M-plus from OxyContin family
BOSTON (AP) — Prestigious universities around the world have accepted at least $60 million over the past five years from the family that owns the maker of OxyContin, even as the company became embroiled in lawsuits related to the opioid epidemic, financial records show.
Some of the donations arrived before recent lawsuits blaming Purdue Pharma for its role in the opioid crisis. But at least nine schools accepted gifts in 2018 or later, when states and counties across the country began efforts to hold members of the family accountable for Purdue’s actions. The largest gifts in that span went to Imperial College London, the University of Sussex and Yale University.
Major beneficiaries of Sackler family foundations also included the University of Oxford in England and Rockefeller, Cornell and Columbia universities in New York, according to tax and charity records reviewed by The Associated Press.
In total, at least two dozen universities have received gifts from the family since 2013, ranging from $25,000 to more than $10 million, the records show.
Read more: https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/education/article/AP-Exclusive-Colleges-got-60M-plus-from-14488348.php
Texas candidates make the cut: Here's what to know ahead of October Democratic debate
Texans Julian Castro and Beto O'Rourke will once again take the presidential debate stage as the candidates face off for the fourth time in October.
The Democratic debate is being held at 7 p.m. CDT, 6 p.m. Mountain Time on Tuesday, Oct. 15, Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. The one-night event will feature a crowded stage of 12 candidates, including O'Rourke and Castro, who remain in single digits in the national polls.
The two last debated in September in Houston where gun control was a focus in the wake of the mass shootings in El Paso and Odessa.
The Ohio debate will be the first since the formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump was launched. The inquiry and the whistleblower complaint against the president are sure to be talking points this time around.
Read more: https://www.caller.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/02/who-third-democractic-debate-2019-julian-castro-beto-orourke/3832069002/
(Corpus Christi Caller-Times)
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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
Member since: Sun Aug 14, 2011, 03:57 AM
Number of posts: 112,168
