TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalHouston police investigate bomb threat made to court
The Houston Municipal Courts Building has returned to normal operations following the report of a bomb threat Tuesday afternoon.
John Cannon, Houston Police Department spokesman, said the call came in at 2:30 p.m.
Jose Soto, a municipal courts spokesman, said some citizens were asked to evacuate several courtrooms and employees were asked to check their work areas for anything out of place.
Building security and staff searched the building and no explosive device was found. Houston police arrived shortly afterward and conducted a second sweep, with the same result. The all-clear was given at 2:45 p.m., Soto said.
Source: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Houston-police-investigate-bomb-threat-made-to-4476685.php
President warns Texas that massive resistance to Obamacare implementation will hurt residents
President Obama said massive resistance from states including Texas has complicated efforts to implement to his signature health-reform law.
“It’s harder,” Obama said at a White House press conference today. “There’s no doubt about it.”
States including Texas have refused to create their own “exchanges” to offer lower-cost health insurance options for uninsured residents. The 2010 health-reform law requires the federal government to create substitute “exchanges” if states refuse.
Responding to a question about Texas and Florida, Obama said the states’ resistance creates additional work for federal officials and hurts residents in those states.
More at http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2013/04/president-warns-texas-that-massive-resistance-to-obamacare-implementation-will-hurt-residents/ .
Three schools in West will have to be demolished
WEST, Texas — The West Independent School District board of trustees learned Monday that three of its four schools will have to be demolished in the wake of the April 17 fertilizer plant explosion.
The district's high school, intermediate school, and most of its middle school were damaged by the blast.
A construction company that has reviewed the three schools told trustees that only the gymnasium at the middle school can be repaired; the other structures must be rebuilt.
The estimated price of the repairs was not available.
More at http://www.kvue.com/news/local/Three-schools-in-West-will-have-to-be-demolished-205387621.html .
Cruz Breaks With Senate Tradition While Criticizing Colleagues
In his short time at the Capitol, Senator Ted Cruz, a freshman Republican from Texas, has shown little regard for long-standing rules of decorum. But on Friday, he publicly discussed the closed-door dealings of the Senate Republican Conference — and trashed his colleagues in the process.
Stopping by a Texas meeting of the Tea Party-aligned group FreedomWorks, Mr. Cruz called many of his colleagues “squishes,” forced to stand on conservative principles by the uncompromising stands of a triumphant trio of Republican “constitutionalists”: himself and Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
At stake was the gun control legislation that the Senate dragged down this month. At issue for Mr. Cruz might be his exposure of a series of closed-door luncheons in which fellow Republicans took the three to task for announcing in advance that they would filibuster every single vote on the gun measure, including the simple motion to take up and begin debating the bill. Such meetings are expressly off the record.
“We’ve had probably five or six lunches with a bunch of Republican senators standing up and looking at Rand and Mike and me and yelling at the top of their lungs — I mean really upset,” he told the group to laughter and titters, according to a video posted by a Tea Party blogger and promoted by the liberal group People for the American Way. “And they said: ‘Why did you do this? As a result of what you did, when I go home, my constituents are yelling at me that I’ve got to stand on principle.’ I’m not making that up. I don’t even bother to argue with them. I just sort of let them yell.”
More at http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/cruz-breaks-with-senate-tradition-while-criticizing-colleagues/?hp .
Republican Factionalism and Tea Party Activists
Summarizing the study, Rapoport makes three core points:
1. Tea Party activists are not Republicans.
2. Tea Party activists aren't nearly as concerned about winning.
3. Attempts to bridge the gap between establishment Republicans and the Tea Party are doomed to fail.
Further, early in her piece, Rapoport notes that "Republicans are now reliant on the Tea Party." Bolstering this point, The New York Times today reported that Texas Senator Ted Cruz had "shown little regard for long-standing rules of decorum," "publicly discussed the closed-door dealings of the Senate Republican Conference [a big taboo]," and "trashed his colleagues in the process."
Above text written by Edward Garris at http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/13438/ted-cruz-and-tea-party-wag-republican-dog .
The abstract of the study from the College of William and Mary states:
Plan to sink I-35 underground in downtown Austin
AUSTIN -- It’s a new idea to sink I-35 underground, from Lady Bird Lake to 15th Street in downtown Austin.
According to local newspaper Community Impact, the vision from Austin architect Sinclair Black would cost around $550 million to build, and would generate more than $4 billion in property tax revenue and property values.
“This concept is kind of new and fresh,” said North Austin resident Roderick Smothers, who avoids driving on the interstate when he commutes to work at Huston-Tillotson University. “Getting on I-35 is one of the things I avoid doing every day."
The plan, which is one among many the City of Austin is considering, would turn the existing interstate from Lady Bird Lake to 15th Street into parks and mixed-use development.
More at http://www.kvue.com/news/Plan-to-sink-I-35-underground-in-Downtown-Austin-205327331.html .
Most Texas government workers got no pay raise from 2009 to 2012
[font size=2]This fake movie rating is part of the Texas State Employees Union's pitch to the 2013 Legislature for pay raises for state workers.[/font]
Pay raises for Texas government workers are extremely rare of late, an employee group maintains. "Most state employees did not receive any pay raise from 2009 to 2012," the Texas State Employees Union says on a union web page.
The last across-the-board raises took effect in 2008. Otherwise, lawmakers gave most employees a one-time, one-month bonus of $800 each in 2009 and legislated consecutive raises for more than 34,000 other workers in 2009 and 2010.
We rated this claim as True, concluding that a bonus is not a raise and noting that research undertaken at our request by the Texas state comptroller's office suggests that no more than 14 percent of workers across most state agencies got a merit raise any of the three cited years. Even if one assumes, perhaps improbably, that a completely different set of workers got each year’s merit raises, less than half of agency workers would have gotten those pay bumps.
http://www.politifact.com/texas/article/2013/apr/29/most-texas-government-workers-got-no-raise-2009-20/
Water fund bill dies in Texas House
AUSTIN — A plan to transfer $2 billion from the Rainy Day Fund to create a water infrastructure bank failed Monday because the author broke a parliamentary rule about when such a bill could be considered.
The error was pointed out by House Democrats who were frustrated that the Republican-controlled Legislature was ready to spend the Rainy Day Fund on water projects, but not on restoring funding cut from public education.
Conservative Republicans welcomed the measure’s failure because it saved them from having to make a politically difficult vote. Tea party members called the bill’s spending reckless and fiscally imprudent.
Earlier Monday, Gov. Rick Perry had called on lawmakers to tap the Rainy Day Fund to create the State Water Infrastructure Fund to meet the state’s water needs. The fund would have established a bank to help state and local authorities build $53 billion in water projects over the next 50 years.
More at http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2013-04-29/water-fund-bill-dies-texas-house .
Feds: Dallas Military Contractor Falsified Bills
A Dallas company that has received millions of dollars in U.S. military contracts has agreed to pay $750,000 to settle allegations it charged taxpayers for work it never did, according to court records.
Crash Rescue Equipment Service, Inc. fraudulently billed the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps for overhauling emergency vehicles, according to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Company attorney Jim King said new owners bought CRES in 2007, discovered the work had not been properly done. and reported it to the government.
"We didn't hide anything," he said. "We said, 'We need to make amends' and we did."
More at http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Feds-Dallas-Military-Contractor-Falsified-Bills-205285291.html .
[font color=green]It's nice to see that the new owners did the honorable thing and reported the false claims.[/font]
‘Pants on fire’ for Perry’s claim that Obama ignored letter on border security
Gov. Rick Perry ‘s recent comments claiming President Obama hasn’t responded to an inquiry for more border security aid from three years ago has been declared outright false by one fact-checking website.
Perry made the comment to Wolf Blitzer during an appearance on CNN’s “The Situation Room” at the beginning of April. He told Blitzer “the president hadn’t called up the governor of one of the largest states who has the longest border with Mexico and said, ‘Governor what do you think we need to do about the issue of immigration?’ I would be open to that conversation any day.”
He noted he’d given Obama a letter in 2010 on the tarmac of an Austin airport about the issue and hadn’t received a response.
Politifact deemed Perry’s comment as “pants on fire” lie. The fact checking website found that a follow up letter had been delivered to Perry several days later by current CIA Director John Brennan, who was at the time, an assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism. Politifact said the letter didn’t address a lot of Perry’s concerns written in his letter, but noted the Southwest Border Security Act Obama signed several days after his Texas visit that provided more security along the border.
More at http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2013/04/texmessage-pants-on-fire-for-perrys-claim-that-obama-ignored-letter-on-border-security/ .
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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: 112,065
