December 3, 2014

Gov. Perry orders action on immigration, urges Congress to help Texas secure border

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday urged Congress to give the state the needed resources to secure the state’s border with Mexico and at the same time ordered state agencies to use E-Verify to check the employment eligibility of current and potential employees.

“It is clear now more than ever that Congress must finally pass a bill that dedicates the necessary resources to securing our border, once and for all,” Perry said at a press conference. “Without border security, immigration reform is a fruitless exercise”

With Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw standing by his said, Perry said the state is doing everything to secure its 1,200-mile border with Mexico.

“Until Congress acts, we need to use every tool at our disposal,” he said.

Read more: http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2014-12-03/gov-perry-orders-action-immigration-urges-congress-help-texas-secure-border#.VH9lfRbuPoE

December 3, 2014

Deion Sanders files defamation suit against ex-wife

Broadcaster and Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders has filed a defamation suit against his ex-wife, Pilar Sanders, also known as Pilar Love El Dey.

The suit accuses Pilar Sanders of publishing false statements on social media that accuse him of multiple crimes, including child abuse, spousal abuse, assault and attempted murder. The suit also references defamatory statements it said she made on TV in a recent appearance on The O’Reilly Factor.

The suit, filed Nov. 24 in Collin County, seeks damages of $200,000 to $1 million as well as other relief to which he may be entitled.

“The property and rights involved are unique and irreplaceable, so that it will be impossible to accurately measure, in monetary terms, the damages caused by the defendant’s conduct,” the suit states, adding that the losses are likely to exceed Pilar Sanders’ financial worth.

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20141202-deion-sanders-files-defamation-suit-against-ex-wife.ece

[font color=green]I'm surprised that Deion's lawyers did not have something inserted into the divorce decree that prohibited such conduct. In my opinion there is not very much anyone could same to defame Deion since he already achieved that himself.[/font]

December 3, 2014

Texas A&M prof part of team developing potentially life-saving coagualant, 'hydrogel'

A team of researchers that includes Texas A&M, MIT and Harvard professors has developed a new injectable substance with soldiers in mind that could prevent bleeding deaths and revolutionize the way emergency responders save lives away from the battlefield.

Akhilesh Gaharwar, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Texas A&M along with professors from Cambridge created a biodegradable gelatin, "hydrogel," a substance bolstered by microscopic silicate discs that speed up the coagulation of a bleeding wound and drastically decreases the amount of time it takes for blood to clot, which improves the odds for a patient's survival in the critical hour of treatment after an injury.

The team published its findings in the ACS Nano scientific journal and has been supported by the U.S. Army Research Office.

Although the product is still in its early testing stages, Gaharwar said in a press release that he envisions the material being pre-loaded into syringes that soldiers carry with them into combat situations in order to be prepared should they experience an injury where it would be difficult to apply pressure and a tourniquet would fail to stop the bleeding.

Read more: http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/texas-a-m-prof-part-of-team-developing-potentially-life/article_47d7fed3-7f64-51e3-980f-a619e015d4b4.html

December 3, 2014

Former Bangs police chief sentenced to probation

BANGS, Texas - The one-time Bangs police chief who had one of his officers remodeling his home while the officer should have been on patrol has been sentenced to probation, court records show.

Troy Grusendorf, 45, pleaded guilty to one count of abuse of official capacity in a Brown County court Nov. 24. District Judge Stephen Ellis sentenced Grusendorf to five years’ deferred adjudication and a $1,500 fine.

-snip-

During an investigation into allegations of misconduct involving Grusendorf, Bangs Mayor Eric Bishop previously had said that on one occasion, Grusendorf had an officer drive him in a police car to the Home Depot in Brownwood. On the way back, they received a call for service in Bangs, but Grusendorf ordered the officer to ignore the call and drive him home instead.

After discovering that the city apparently was paying to have Grusendorf’s home remodeled, Bishop said he turned the investigation over to the Texas Rangers.

Read more: http://www.reporternews.com/news/local-news/crime/former-bangs-police-chief-sentenced-to-probation_31558341
(Abilene Reporter-News)

[font color=green]For taking advantage of the public dole, the chief is no longer on the public dole.[/font]

December 3, 2014

OSHA to fine Pro Steel Buildings in scaffolding deaths of three employees

As its investigation into the August electrocution deaths of three Hardin County workers continues, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has announced one citation and a $7,000 fine against the workers' employer.

Samuel Anderson, 20, Trevor Riddick, 26, and Gary Worthman, 31, employed by Silsbee-based construction company Pro Steel Buildings, died Aug. 8 when the scaffold they were moving came into contact with a 7,260-volt power line. The men were erecting a metal building at Streamline Well Testing off U.S. 69.

OSHA in October flagged Pro Steel Buildings for a violation of the federal standard that states, in this case, scaffold should not be within 10 feet of a power line.

-snip-

One of Anderson's family members told The Enterprise in August that the workers were instructed to move the scaffolding from Streamline's main building to the construction site through a specified path. The three opted to take a shortcut, the relative said.

Read more: http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/OSHA-to-fine-Silsbee-company-in-workers-5930511.php

December 3, 2014

Donna campaign manager pleads guilty to vote-buying with cash, cocaine

McALLEN – A campaign manager pleaded guilty Monday in connection to a 2012 vote-buying scheme that tried to sway voters with cash and cocaine to pick certain Donna school board candidates, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Francisco “Frankie” Garcia, 47, of Donna, copped to one count of conspiring to buy votes and one count of vote-buying during the 2012 general election, court records show.

Garcia, who worked as a campaign manager for four school board candidates, is the latest to admit guilt. Five other politiqueras, or paid campaign workers, have also pleaded guilty for their roles in the vote-buying, records show.

Prosecutors have not disclosed the names of the candidates.

Vote-buying may have also extended to the 2012 primary election. One of the politiqueras, Veronica Saldivar, testified at her court hearing Sept. 26 that she had worked for Pct. 1 Commissioner A.C. Cuellar Jr., who beat Joel Quintanilla in the primary with 57 percent of the vote.

Read more: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/valley/article_8d183fe4-79db-11e4-a509-af841bd3f26e.html

December 3, 2014

Texas County Clerks Prepare for Same-Sex Marriages

Same-sex couples in Fort Worth may have to travel to Dallas to obtain marriage licenses if a federal judge lifts his stay of a ruling striking down the state’s same-sex marriage bans.

Meanwhile, the Bexar County clerk said he’s prepared to keep his office open 24 hours a day to accommodate same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses, including those from surrounding counties where clerks may decline to issue them.

Last week, plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit challenging Texas’ marriage bans asked U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia to lift his stay of a February decision striking down the bans. If Garcia lifts the stay, it could create a window for same-sex marriages to occur in Texas before Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott can seek a new stay from the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is set to hear oral arguments in the case on Jan. 9.

Jeff Nicholson, chief deputy for Tarrant County Clerk Mary Louise Garcia, a Republican, said Tuesday he consulted with the DA’s office about the issue after receiving an inquiry from a citizen.

Read more: http://www.texasobserver.org/texas-counties-prepare-for-same-sex-marriages/

December 3, 2014

Wild West town of Langtry slowly riding into the sunset

LANGTRY — When a town has more historical markers than families, the handwriting is on the wall. For the dozen hardy souls who remain in this remote settlement made famous by a certain Old West judge, there are few illusions about the future.

“If it hadn’t been for that old reprobate Roy Bean, there wouldn’t be a town of Langtry,” said Jack Skiles, 83, who was born and raised here, but soon may be moving on.

More than a century after his death, Bean remains enigmatic, a meld of fact and Wild West fiction, a figure who still draws 40,000 tourists a year to the museum at the Langtry visitors center.

Many decades ago, Skiles, author of “Judge Roy Bean Country,” interviewed elderly people who had been Bean’s contemporaries during his reign as the self-declared “Law West of the Pecos.”

Read more (including photo gallery): http://www.chron.com/news/local/article/Wild-West-town-of-Langtry-slowly-riding-into-the-5927769.php#photo-4390979

December 3, 2014

Statue of Obama found on Mars – no, really (actually, not really)

Well, if Kim Kardashian's naked butt on the cover of "Paper" magazine doesn't break the Internet, this surely will.

In a story that literally offers everything for both internet political trolls and conspirators alike, UFO conspiracy theorists have spotted a statue of President Barack Obama on Mars.

The "statue" – which, by the way, is just a weird-looking rock like it always is when these things are "spotted" in NASA photos – was ID'd by the internet's favorite "weird stuff on Mars" locators, UFO Sightings Daily.

Gander in amazement at the photos of the rock above, then keep clicking to see other rocks that conspiracy theorists thought looked like stuff (sorry, there's not really that cat on Mars).

http://www.chron.com/news/strange-weird/article/Statue-of-Obama-found-on-Mars-no-really-5930309.php

[font color=green]Now for the illegal alien jokes to come back in vogue.[/font]

December 3, 2014

Ted Cruz could struggle to raise funds for presidential run

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz’s ambitions are clear. He’s a frequent visitor to Iowa and New Hampshire. He’s building a campaign staff.

But to make a serious White House bid takes serious money — at least $20 million by the time the first ballots are cast in early 2016. And that could be a challenge.

Although the Texas Republican is popular at conservative gatherings, Cruz has shown only modest success as a fundraiser. Like Ron Paul and Sarah Palin, he can probably count on showers of cash from enthusiastic legions of small-dollar donors, and that’s an important start.

But many major GOP donors and bundlers want nothing to do with a tea party agitator — particularly business interests dismayed by the federal-spending brinkmanship Cruz has advocated. That could limit his ability to elbow aside well-funded rivals.

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20141201-ted-cruz-could-struggle-to-raise-funds-for-presidential-run.ece