TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalDA: Cancer foundation records not public
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, has lost her first attempt to obtain records from the foundation that supports the state’s troubled cancer agency.
Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg has ruled that the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Foundation is not a governmental body and is not subject to the state public information act.
However, Davis hasn’t given up. She filed Senate Bill 895 designating the foundation a governmental body that is subject to the state law.
The foundation has been swept up in the controversy surrounding the state agency that mismanaged three of its largest grants, totaling $56 million, and remains under criminal investigation. The foundation was created to raise money to supplement the salaries of the agency’s top executives, who have since resigned in the wake of the controversy.
More at http://www.statesman.com/news/news/da-cancer-foundation-records-not-public/nWdFP/ .
Lawmakers upset at being turned away at Governor’s Mansion
Lawmakers angrily lashed out Thursday at DPS chief Steve McCraw over security policy at the Governor’s Mansion after several were turned away when they tried to get into a reception with their legislative ID cards.
“Is this not enough to get into the Governor’s Mansion?” an irritated state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, asked McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, as he held up his DPS-issued badge. “It’s good enough for us to get into the Capitol.”
Turner made the remarks at a House Appropriations Committee meeting on Thursday.
Turner, chairman of a Texas Black Legislative Caucus conference that visited the white-brick mansion on Monday, said he was stopped at the mansion gate and required to undergo a background check before he was allowed inside. Other black House members complained they were subjected to the same treatment.
Rep. Helen Giddings, D-Dallas, said she was offended and left. Turner said state Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, also turned away.
State Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, said she used her Texas legislative badge to get into the White House when she visited Washington. But at the mansion, the same badge “was not good enough,” she said.
More at http://www.statesman.com/news/news/lawmakers-upset-at-being-trurned-away-at-governors/nWdDB/ .
[font color=green]I forgot that we aren't at N*****head![/font]
Peregrine boss Wasendorf starts serving 50-year jail term
Source: Reuters
Russell Wasendorf Sr., the former chief executive of Peregrine Financial Group, has begun serving a 50-year sentence at a federal prison in Indiana for bilking $215 million from customers of the failed futures brokerage.
Wasendorf, who turned 65 on Monday, arrived on Wednesday at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, which was once the home of convicted former Illinois governor George Ryan, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Now known as Inmate #12191-029, Wasendorf had been locked in a county jail in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, since he confessed in July to stealing from tens of thousands of clients over a period of two decades.
A federal judge in January sentenced Wasendorf, who had tried to kill himself just before the fraud was uncovered last year, to 50 years behind bars, the maximum allowed by law.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/28/us-peregrine-wasendorf-transfer-idUSBRE91R1FB20130228
Wasendorf tried to commit suicide before the fraud was uncovered. He has been ordered to make restitution of the $215 million according to foxbusiness.com.
Court hears ex-BP CEO tape
NEW ORLEANS — Once the object of ridicule and focus of outrage after the 2010 oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, former BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward made a cameo appearance Wednesday in a trial to decide how much blame the company must shoulder for the disaster.
Hayward didn’t attend in person. Instead, he showed up just briefly on a videotape in what may be his only appearance in the courtroom.
Hayward, who famously said, “I’d like my life back” at the height of the disaster, isn’t expected to take the witness stand in the high-stakes trial.
Hayward did testify in person before Congress and gave a videotaped deposition for this trial, but his role may be limited here by his lack of direct knowledge of the drilling operations on the Deepwater Horizon.
More at http://theadvocate.com/home/5303396-125/court-hears-ex-bp-ceo-tape .
Libbey, USW agree to terms after layoff announcement
No severance pay and little relief were the results of negotiations on behalf of Shreveport Libbey Glass employees which ended Wednesday.
United Steelworkers representative David Broussard said he brokered the best deal he could for the 160 to 170 union employees set to be laid off as Libbey ends certain production lines at the local plant. Still, he came up short of what he hoped to achieve.
“They’ve done our employees a gross injustice by not giving them severance pay. It’s not uncommon to give severance pay in these situations,” Broussard said. “We put as much pressure on them as we could.”
Libbey and the USW agreed to 500 hours of pay for plant employees already eligible to retire — those over the age of 60 with 30 or more years of service to the company — who were willing to do so now.
More at http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20130227/NEWS05/130227045/Libbey-USW-agree-terms-after-layoff-announcement?nclick_check=1 .
Beeville jail officials smuggled cell phones to help prison gangs (Raza Unida and Aryan Brotherhood)
A 2009 traffic stop in Corpus Christi led to a four-year investigation that revealed jail officials smuggling cellphones that helped two rival prison gang leaders work together to organize murders, home invasions and drug trafficking.
Federal officials announced the results of the investigation Wednesday — 32 people indicted including 17 corrections officers and two inmates of the McConnell State Prison in Beeville as well as former employees and inmates. As of Wednesday morning, three of the 32 had not been arrested.
“Illegal cellphones defeat the purpose of incarceration,” said Kenneth Magidson, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas. “This is where they are supposed to do the time, not the crime.”
Last year, 13 Raza Unida gang members and their leaders, who were in prison, were prosecuted and sentenced on charges of racketeering, assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder that was organized at the McConnell Unit. One of the leaders was sentenced on Aug. 18, 2011 to life in prison.
More at http://www.caller.com/news/2013/feb/27/operation-prison-cell-reveals-beeville-jail-cell/
[font color=green]This is from the area I was raised as a child. For some reason, the local press at mysoutex.com in Beeville is not carrying this story online even though it is being mentioned in several other newspapers throughout the state. What gives? 
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Ex-hand surgeon Brown changes his mind on bankruptcy
Michael Brown, the former Houston hand surgeon in the midst of multiple legal battles, filed a motion to dismiss his bankruptcy claim only a month after it was filed.
Brown filed under Chapter 11 on Jan. 23 in a Miami federal court, records show. He is embroiled in a high profile divorce with his estranged wife, Rachel Brown, was recently accused of choking a flight attendant and is in the middle of a lawsuit filed by a team of doctors, who are connected to him and his businesses.
The motion to dismiss filed Feb. 24 contends that Brown was misled to believe reorganization under Chapter 11 would help bring a close to "divorce-related issues." His new attorneys also argue that filling such a petition "endangers the business and leaves it vulnerable" to a small group of doctors and former president of the company, who are also involved in a legal dispute with Brown.
<<<snip>>>
A group of so-called "breakaway doctors" in the motion and Brown have been involved in a lawsuit for about a year. Their petition states that Brown's company owes millions in unpaid bills while the surgeon made million-dollar purchases of real estate and two yachts. Various media outlets reported that bought an $8 million beachfront property in Miami before filing for bankruptcy. Brown's motion to dismiss states that his companies in that case are estimated to be valued in the millions of dollars.
More at http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Ex-hand-surgeon-Brown-changes-his-mind-on-4313625.php .
Kilgore College police used pepper spray on losing Navarro players
KILGORE (AP) - Leaders of a Dallas-area junior college have defended their basketball team after police used pepper spray on the squad following a loss.
Navarro College district president Richard Sanchez denies that his players were unruly after an 88-78 loss Saturday at Kilgore College.
Kilgore spokesman Chris Craddock said Wednesday that Navarro players made threats and two officers discharged pepper spray when the team refused to return to the locker room. Craddock says the officers remain on the job and the investigation continues.
Navarro athletic director Roark Montgomery says all 15 players and three coaches suffered some pepper spray effects and police were too aggressive. Several players applied cooling foam to their skin.
Source: http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20130227/NEWS01/130229839
[font color=green]Did the Kilgore College police receive their training from this guy?
Asarco smelting stacks in El Paso to be demolished April 13
Unless the weather doesn't cooperate, the Asarco smokestacks will be demolished at dawn on April 13 -- a Saturday.
Demolition workers will cut a notch in a section of the stacks that faces Interstate 10, a slot in the back and another gap in the middle. Then, when the all-clear is sounded, explosives will be detonated and the 825-foot and 612-foot stacks will fall simultaneously.
Details of the demolition were outlined Tuesday at a public meeting at the El Paso Main Library in Downtown. About 50 people attended and a few expressed concerns about the safety of the demolition.
For more than a century, the American Smelting and Refining Co. processed metals, including toxins such as lead, copper and zinc, on the site just west of Downtown along the Rio Grande.
More at http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_22676208/asarco-stacks-set-fall-april-13 .
[font color=green]Interstate 10 will be closed for a short time when the stacks are demolished.[/font]
Reports of rare superbug jump in US, CDC says
Source: NBC News
A sharp jump in the number of rare but potentially deadly types of a superbug resistant to nearly all last-resort antibiotics has prompted government health officials to renew warnings for U.S. hospitals, nursing homes and other health care settings.
The move comes just as researchers in Israel are reporting that people colonized with dangerous CRE -- Carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae -- can take more than a year before they test negative for the bacteria, making it more difficult to control -- and raising the risk of wider spread.
Reports of unusual forms of CRE have nearly doubled in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported this month. Of 37 cases of rare forms of CRE, including the alarming NDM -- New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase -- 15 have been reported since last July.
“This increase highlights the need for U.S. health care providers to act aggressively to prevent the emergence and spread of these unusual CRE organisms,” the CDC said in a health advisory.
Read more: http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/27/17105852-reports-of-rare-superbug-jump-in-us-cdc-says?lite
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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: 112,069
