TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalThis is not what Vladimir Putin wanted for Christmas
Vladimir Putin won’t find many great presents under the Christmas tree this year.
Orthodox Christian religious leaders worldwide are weakening an important institution that gave him outsize power and legitimacy.
The Russian Orthodox Church is being broken up, and an independent Ukraine Orthodox Church will be established. The Ukrainian flock soon will be led not by the Moscow-based church and Patriarchate, but rather by its own independent church and youthful leadership. Ukraine and its political class are suddenly freed from an influential Russian institution that has been fiercely loyal to Putin.
This was not on Putin’s Christmas list. Instead, the news is like a lump of coal in his stocking.
Read more: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/opinion/article223378975.html
State legislators gain power to officiate weddings
ALBANY — If you're in the market for a wedding officiant, you can now consider having your local state legislator perform the ceremony.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed off on legislation on Friday night authorizing state senators and members of the state Assembly to officiate civil ceremonies. Religious officials and select civil officials — including the governor, mayors, county executive and judges — are currently able to solemnize a marriage in New York.
"There is no reason not to extend this privilege to members of the New York state legislature," reads the legislative memorandum.
The new law takes effect immediately, and prohibits legislators from receiving compensation for officiating at nuptials.
Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/State-legislators-gain-power-to-officiate-weddings-13485464.php
This could get interesting if a gay couple requests to be married and are refused by a legislator. Would the refusal be considered discriminatory and could the couple sue the legislator? 
Cuomo blocks five-year capital plan proposal for SUNY & CUNY
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has again vetoed legislation that would have likely made more capital funding available for the state’s public colleges.
The proposal would have required the governor to include five-year capital plans for the state and city university systems in his budget proposal, which the bill memorandum argues would ensure the college facilities would receive the funding they need. The legislation was shot down by Cuomo in 2015 and 2017.
The governor’s veto message was not immediately available on Friday evening, but in 2017 he explained that his opposition stemmed from the financial burden of the legislation.
The state last adopted a five-year capital plan for the higher education system in the 2008-2009 budget, which included a $550 million maintenance appropriation for SUNY and $284.2 million for CUNY.
Read more: https://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/285329/cuomo-blocks-five-year-capital-plan-proposal-for-suny-cuny/
Kara Eastman seeks a rematch in 2020; Rep. Don Bacon questions early announcement
After a month and a half recess from the campaign trail, Democrat Kara Eastman is back.
Eastman — who tried to blaze a new path for Nebraska Democrats but ultimately fell 2 percentage points short on Nov. 6 — announced Thursday that she will seek a rematch against Republican Rep. Don Bacon in the Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District.
Bacon noted that he has not yet been sworn into his second term and questioned Eastman’s early announcement.
But Eastman, 47, said she announced her candidacy early in the interests of transparency and to quell rumors.
Read more: https://www.omaha.com/news/politics/kara-eastman-seeks-a-rematch-in-rep-don-bacon-questions/article_4d603e36-8088-53f1-ab47-e3f103b39061.html
Kansas Lawmakers Get Plum Committee Roles For Switching From Republican To Democrat
Two Kansas state senators who earlier this week jumped from Republican to Democratic ranks have been rewarded with choice committee assignments.
The assignments given to the former moderate Republicans, Sen. Barbara Bollier of Mission Hills and Sen. Dinah Sykes of Lenxa, make them key players on two of the most contentious issues awaiting the Legislature — school spending and Medicaid expansion.
Bollier is now the top Democrat on the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. Before her party switch, she was the panel’s vice-chair. But Republican leaders stripped her of that rank last summer for endorsing a Democratic candidate for Congress.
“This isn’t about me, it’s about Kansans,” Bollier said. “I just want to get to work.”
Sykes is trading up on the Senate Education Committee. She’ll go from being a rank-and-file GOP member to the senior Democrat on the panel. That puts her in the thick of negotiations over how to end years of litigation over school funding.
Read more: https://www.kcur.org/post/kansas-lawmakers-get-plum-committee-roles-switching-republican-democrat#stream/0
Report: Kansas Must Fix Troubled Child Welfare System
African-American children are much more likely to land in the Kansas foster care system than white children. A report from Strengthen Families Rebuild Hope, a coalition of organizations and people who have experience with the foster care system, concluded that Kansas falls in line with national trends. But the disparity in Kansas, with black children 75 percent more likely than white children to be pulled from their homes, has gotten worse in the past two years.
Coalition member Tara Wallace said that reflects the strain of having a record number of kids in foster care in Kansas. “At the rate we’re going,” she said, “this situation is only perpetuating itself.” Wallace is the president of the Topeka chapter of the Kansas African American Foster Care/Adoption Coalition. She joined five former foster youth, representatives of social workers and the ACLU, the foster parent organization FosterAdopt Connect, the Kansas Association of Community Action Programs, Kansas Appleseed and other individuals with past or current experience working in child welfare to form the coalition’s steering committee.
The report released Thursday morning echoes concerns brought up by a task force examining Kansas foster care and a recently filed federal lawsuit that alleges Kansas has rendered children in its care effectively homeless with frequent moves. Strengthen Families Rebuild Hope recommended Kansas better support struggling families with improvements to safety net programs such as food stamps and cash welfare. “Families are on this tightrope,” said Becky Fast, a coalition member who heads the National Association of Social Workers’ Kansas chapter. “When you don’t have food assistance, cash assistance, that our state used to provide, that often knocks them off.” Learn more about this story from the Kansas News Service.
(AP version)
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A new report by a coalition of legislators and advocates says Kansas must fix its troubled child welfare system now or more vulnerable children will suffer. The Kansas City Star reported Thursday's document details problems ranging from racial disparities in children removed from their homes to children lingering in state custody too long. The group spent the past year hosting town halls. A recent review of the Kansas Department for Children and Families also exposed high caseloads, alarming turnover and lack of timely training. At the same time, a record number of children have been in foster care. Among the coalition's recommendations is to improve funding for food stamp benefits and other programs targeting needy families. It advocates for keeping more children in their homes and addressing the racial disparity.
http://kansaspublicradio.org/kpr-news/report-kansas-must-fix-troubled-child-welfare-system
(no more at link)
Anchorage Assembly sends alcohol sales tax to April ballot
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA -- A proposal to set a 5-percent sales tax on alcohol to fund services that address homelessness and substance abuse will go before Anchorage voters next year.
The Anchorage Daily News reports the Anchorage Assembly voted last week to send Mayor Ethan Berkowitz's alcohol tax proposal to the city's ballot in April.
Berkowitz's administration says the tax would raise about $13 million that could fund homeless shelters, storage for property seized at illegal camps, a mobile intervention team and a treatment center.
Business owners say the tax unfairly places the burden of the city's complex problems on retailers and residents.
Read more: https://www.kansas.com/news/business/article223505710.html
Report shows small Grand Lake community missing more than $370,000
BERNICE — A forensic audit of the community of Bernice shows its assets of over $370,000 in 2016 plummeted to nothing in two years.
The Grand Lake community of 562 residents hired a Tulsa-based company, Workman Forensics, to review its cash accounts, credit card expenditures, traffic citation deposits and the decrease in the community’s net assets.
Leah Wietholter, Workman Forensics managing director, presented the five-member board of trustees a draft of a forensic audit on Monday during a regular town meeting. The draft showed the General Fund Investments in 2016 totaled $371,863.90 and in 2017 and 2018 the balance of the General Fund investments was zero.
Throughout the two-and-half hour meeting, Wietholter detailed unauthorized expenditures and a traffic citations account where the numbers don’t add up.
Read more: https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/state/report-shows-small-grand-lake-community-missing-more-than/article_f4ce4514-aaf9-5609-991a-6a755257ab39.html
Chinese citizen charged with trade secrets theft in Oklahoma
TULSA (AP) — Federal prosecutors said Friday that a Chinese national employed by an Oklahoma petroleum company has been charged with stealing trade secrets.
Authorities said Hongjin Tan, 35, is accused of stealing trade secrets from his unnamed U.S.-based employer that operates a research facility in the Tulsa area.
An affidavit filed by the FBI alleges that Tan stole trade secrets about an unidentified product worth between $1.4 and $1.8 billion to his employer to benefit a Chinese company where Tan had been offered work.
Authorities say Tan allegedly downloaded hundreds of computer files, including research reports, regarding the manufacture of a "research and development downstream energy market product."
Read more: https://newsok.com/article/5618511/chinese-citizen-working-in-oklahoma-jailed-on-federal-theft-of-trade-secrets-complaint
Prague hospital runs short of supplies as financial troubles deepen
PRAGUE — Less than two years ago, a group of investors and managers said they could give four struggling rural hospitals a chance to thrive, with new buildings and new services to attract patients.
On Tuesday, nurses at Prague Community Hospital told their city council that they are reaching into their own pockets to buy supplies like toilet paper and are diverting patients to other hospitals because they don't have a working CT scanner or the equipment necessary to run basic blood tests. A nurse practitioner said she had to put off her own medical care after she found out she didn't have health insurance, even though premiums had been deducted from her checks.
At the standing-room-only special meeting, registered nurse Becky Podest choked up while describing the hospital's financial condition, which she said had worsened under management company Empower HMS.
“The company that's running us is not allowing us to get any supplies,” she said. “Without supplies, I can't take care of my people, so I'm asking for help from anyone.”
Read more: https://newsok.com/article/5618304/prague-hospital-runs-short-of-supplies-as-financial-troubles-deepen
Related article:
Late paychecks hit 'lives and livelihood' of KC-based rural hospital chain's (EmpowerHMS) employees
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211585660
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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Current location: Bryan, Texas
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