Guns on campus bill scheduled for Texas House vote

AUSTIN, Texas —

One of the top pro-gun bills before Texas lawmakers this session was green-lighted Monday for a House floor vote this weekend, and a top backer predicted approval there for the plan to allow concealed weapons permit holders to carry their handguns into college classrooms.

The Calendars Committee scheduled the floor vote for Saturday in the House. Getting the bill even that far is a significant development for supporters of an issue that erupted into one of the most contentious of the session two years ago. In 2011, the issue died without a vote in the House despite a majority of member signing on in support.

This year, the House version of the bill would eliminate the current ban on concealed weapons at colleges and universities, but it still allows public schools to ban weapons if they first meet with students, faculty and staff to consider their input. Private schools would be allowed to opt in.

Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Van, one of the primary authors of the bill, said the opt-out language has softened opposition from higher education officials who worry that allowing guns on campus will increase campus violence and suicide. He said he expects the House will approve it but declined to discuss its prospects in the Senate.

More at http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/education/guns-on-campus-bill-scheduled-for-texas-house-vote/nXbfZ/ .

The pol ad allowed to run when Pres. Obama came to Dallas was as tasteless as the one when JFK visit

The pol ad allowed to run when Pres. Obama came to Dallas was as tasteless as the one when JFK visit

Editorial cartoonists: Perry, Dewhurst attacks on Sac Bee’s Ohman, “unAmerican.”

Texas AG Greg Abbott Bans Same-Sex Benefits In Cities, Counties & School Districts

Attorney General Greg Abbott, in an ironic twist of timing, has struck down the ability of cities, counties and school districts to offer domestic partner benefits.

By almost any measure, today was a landmark day for the GLBT community, with all eyes focused on basketball player Jason Collins, the first and only gay working professional athlete in any major sport. However, that announcement, hailed by many in the NBA community, is being bookended in Texas with Abbott's decision that benefits cannot be created since the state cannot create a legal status identical or similar to marriage.

Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, requested the decision. In his November letter, Patrick noted that Texas voters went to the polls back in 2005 to specifically define marriage as a state between one man and one woman.

"Unfortunately, the plain language and clear legislative intent is either being ignored by a growing number of local governmental entities or these entities don't believe this Texas Constitutional provision applies to their decisions," Patrick wrote.

More at http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2013/04/abbott_same_sex_benefits.php

Cross-posted in LGBT Civil Rights and Activism (Group).

Texas AG Greg Abbott Bans Same-Sex Benefits In Cities, Counties & School Districts

Attorney General Greg Abbott, in an ironic twist of timing, has struck down the ability of cities, counties and school districts to offer domestic partner benefits.

By almost any measure, today was a landmark day for the GLBT community, with all eyes focused on basketball player Jason Collins, the first and only gay working professional athlete in any major sport. However, that announcement, hailed by many in the NBA community, is being bookended in Texas with Abbott's decision that benefits cannot be created since the state cannot create a legal status identical or similar to marriage.

Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, requested the decision. In his November letter, Patrick noted that Texas voters went to the polls back in 2005 to specifically define marriage as a state between one man and one woman.

"Unfortunately, the plain language and clear legislative intent is either being ignored by a growing number of local governmental entities or these entities don't believe this Texas Constitutional provision applies to their decisions," Patrick wrote.

More at http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2013/04/abbott_same_sex_benefits.php

Cross-posted in Texas (Group).

Hurricane season begins early … on Saturn

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The Cassini spacecraft has captured some fantastic imagery of a hurricane at the north pole of Saturn.

Such a hurricane would defy categorization on Earth. Its eye, alone, is 1,250 miles wide. Hurricane Sandy, the largest hurricane on record in the Atlantic basin, was about 1,000 miles across its entirety.

And the Saturnian monster (wait, has The Weather Channel named it yet?) has winds of 330 mph at its edge. That would be something like a Category-bazillion on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.

Although this is the first time the Cassini spacecraft has imaged the north pole (in visible light), scientists believe this storm has been spinning for years.

More at http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2013/04/hurricane-season-begins-early-on-saturn/ .

Plaintiffs seek an erection; judge says strippers must wear bikini tops

San Antonio, Texas--In the case of the “itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikini top vs. the (more) itsy bitsy teeny weeny pastie,” the larger covering has won.

In a court opinion laced with double entendres, Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery on Monday denied a request by strip clubs to prohibit the city of San Antonio from enforcing a new ordinance requiring entertainers to cover more of their breasts.

“The court infers plaintiffs fear enforcement of the ordinance would strip them of their profits, affecting their bottom line,” the judge wrote. “Conversely, the city asserts these businesses contribute to reduced property values, violent crime, increased drug sales, prostitution and other sex crimes and therefore need to be girdled more tightly. Plaintiffs, and by extension their customers, seek an erection of a constitutional wall separating themselves from the regulatory power of city government.”

The ruling doesn't end the lawsuit filed in January by 13 strip clubs, who allege the city is infringing on constitutional rights to free expression. A trial still could take place unless the clubs find a way to appeal or settle with the city.

More at http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Judge-says-strippers-must-wear-bikini-tops-4472354.php .

Man arrested in secure area of Love Field struggled with officers, said “Jihad” repeatedly

A Garland man who Dallas police found inside a secure area of Love Field airport on Sunday night struggled with responding officers and said “Jihad” repeatedly, according to police documents.

Ruben Martinez Jimenez, 36, was arrested on a misdemeanor trespassing charge. He is being held on $250,000 bail, according to jail records. That’s an unusually high bond for a misdemeanor charge.

Officers were dispatched to an airport hangar about 6:20 p.m. Jimenez had entered the property through a fence, police said.

“This area is readily accessible to planes and fuel,” police documents said.

More at http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2013/04/man-arrested-in-secure-area-of-love-field-struggled-with-officers-said-jihad-repeatedly.html/ .

[font color=green]Was Loonie Louis Gohmert correct about the radical Muslims infiltrating from Mexico? [/font]

Rep. Kolkhorst: “Texas has never jumped into any federal program”

Rep. Lois Kolkhorst is riding point for the red team that is trying to keep Texas from doing the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare.

It’s a delicate role, which is perhaps why the Brenham Republican tried to wrap herself in Texas tradition in a final interview I did with her Friday morning for a story in Sunday’s paper about how the clash over Medicaid expansion is coming down to two competing philosophies — hers and Houston Democratic Rep. Garnet Coleman’s.

“Slow approaches are always better,” Kolkhorst said. “Texas has never jumped into any federal program. We have declined to take the Race to the Top money [for] our school districts, we made that decision. We didn’t jump into CHIP first and we didn’t jump into Medicaid back in the ’60s first. We’ve always taken the slow approach and it seemingly has led to a place where we’re the state that leads the economy right now in the nation.”

<<<snip>>>

More problemmatic, though, is Kolkhorst’s suggestion that Texas dragged its feet in participating in the Children’s Health Insurance Program, created by Congress in a 1997 budget-balancing law, and Medicaid. Medicaid was created in 1965 when a Texan president, Lyndon B. Johnson, signed into law a bill creating both the state-federal program for the poor by that name, and the federally administered Medicare program for seniors.

More at http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2013/04/kolkhorst-tx-has-never-jumped-into-any-federal-program.html/ .

[font color=green]Except what Kolkhorst says isn't true. In the regular sequence of state government decision-making, both programs were authorized by the Legislature at its next regular session. With biennial sessions, Texas often takes a couple of years to react to new federal laws. That’s what happened with Medicaid, which was passed by the Lege in the ’67 session and commenced in September of that year. And it happened with CHIP, which was passed in the ’99 session and signed by Bush.

As a resident of Brenham, I'm so disappointed that I didn't have any other choices to vote for in the 2012 election. [/font]