TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalFederal judge orders payment $1.5M settlement from partner that went to bankruptcy court later
AMARILLO -- A $1.5 million court settlement once on the shoulders of both principals in Wallace Bajjali Development Partners now falls to one to repay.
A federal judge Wednesday ordered Costa Bajjali to pay a $1.5 million judgment based on a 2012 court settlement with a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission receiver that he and his former business partner, David Wallace, failed to pay by Dec. 31.
Wallace and Bajjali each abandoned their Sugar Land development company in January, causing the cities of Amarillo and Joplin, Mo., to cancel multimillion-dollar contracts for development with the firm.
Since the company dissolved, at least 11 state and federal civil lawsuits against them have reignited or been filed.
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The SEC’s appointed receiver, Thomas L. Taylor III, filed suit in January, asking a federal judge to enforce a settlement he reached with Wallace and Bajjali in 2012.
That settlement dealt with the developers’ role in an alleged Ponzi scheme related to a failed radio network, BizRadio.
Read more: http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2015-04-22/federal-judge-orders-bajjali-pay-15m-settlement
Follow-up: Dallas County grand jury declines to indict officers who killed man holding screwdriver
A Dallas County grand jury has declined to indict two officers who shot and killed a mentally ill man holding a screwdriver last June.
The shooting initially caused some grumbling mostly among local protest groups, but the reaction went national following the family’s release of body camera footage showing the confrontation escalate within seconds. The secret panel’s decision ends the threat of criminal prosecution of the officer, but they could still be held civilly liable by the family.
“The family is obviously severely disappointed,” says attorney Geoff Henley, who is representing the family of 38-year-old Jason Harrison, which filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit in October. “But this isn’t going to affect our case. We’ll continue to move forward.”
In fact, says Henley, the officers involved — John Rogers and Andrew Hutchins — are scheduled to be deposed tomorrow, says Henley. Both are on active duty and were awaiting the grand jury’s decision concerning the fatal shooting, which was captured on a body-worn camera video and released by the family last month.
Read more: http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/04/dallas-county-grand-jury-declines-to-indict-officers-who-killed-man-holding-screwdriver.html/
Related thread:
Dallas police shoot mentally ill man holding screwdriver
http://www.democraticunderground.com/107823946
Vietnam 40 years on: how a communist victory gave way to capitalist corruption
Early one morning in February 1968, when the fighting in central Vietnam had reached a new level of insanity, a group of South Korean soldiers swept into a village called Ha My, a straggly collection of bamboo huts and paddy fields about an hour outside the city of Danang. They were from a unit called Blue Dragon, which was fighting alongside the Americans, attempting to suppress the communist uprising.
For weeks, they had been herding farmers and their families into a crowded compound that the Americans called a “strategic hamlet”. By taking the farmers out of their villages, they hoped they could starve the communist guerrillas of food and shelter. And for weeks, the farmers and their families had been escaping, trailing back to Ha My, loathing the captivity of the strategic hamlet, needing to farm their land. Now, the Blue Dragon soldiers had had enough.
In the hour that followed their arrival, the Koreans herded the waking villagers into small groups and then, methodically, opened fire. An hour later, they had killed 135 of them. They then burned their homes and bodies, and bulldozed the whole mess into mass graves. For years the truth lay buried, too.
Now there is a monument to that massacre, built 30 years later at the expense of Blue Dragon soldiers who came back offering genuine remorse. But there is something wrong. The monument stands proud, as big as a house, with ornate roofing that shelters two collective tombs and a large gravestone carrying the names of the adults and children who died. But there is no explanation for their deaths.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/apr/22/vietnam-40-years-on-how-communist-victory-gave-way-to-capitalist-corruption
Chile's Calbuco Volcano Erupts For First Time in Over 42 Years; Concerns Rise for Contaminated Wate
Chile's Calbuco volcano erupted for the first time in over 42 years on Wednesday, creating a remarkable scene of smoke plumes and ash shooting into the sky. A second eruption Wednesday night blasted red-hot rocks skyward and produced an extraordinary display of volcanic lightning.
The volcano sent ash more than 6 miles skyward, increasing concerns that the dust could contaminate water, trigger respiratory illnesses and halt more flights.
The first blast surprised Chilean emergency officials, who were left with only minutes to issue an alert.
Parts of Argentina reported heavy ash falling after the eruption. According to analysis by Argentina's meteorological service, the ash cloud was shot as high as 40,000 feet.
Read more: http://www.weather.com/news/news/chile-calbuco-volcano-eruption-evacuations-alerts
Women that broke record eating three steak dinner reports drawback - Warning.
[font color=green]Yep, epic diarrhea! 
Sorry about that folks.[/font]
Molly Schuyler — the California competitive eater who inhaled three 72-ounce steaks and accompanying side dishes in record time Sunday in Amarillo — sees a doctor every three to six months.
“They say my health is perfect, no joke. They take blood tests, everything,” Schuyler said by phone Thursday.
She didn’t talk to two Lubbock gastroenterologists who say there can be a bunch of problems from gorging that much food in a short time.
“I can’t believe that somebody can do any of this. I just can’t believe it,” Hamed Altamimi, a gastroenterologist at Southwest Gastroenterology, said of competitive eating.
Read more: http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2015-04-23/eating-three-72-ounce-steaks-not-recommended-doctor#.VTmcTZPy3SI
GOP Generation Y Fund Probably Won't Be As Active This Cycle As It Was Last Cycle
In 2008, when Aaron Schock declared his leadership PAC-- the GOP Generation Y Fund-- was open for business, Schock was the youngest Member of Congress and he claimed the PAC was meant to help elect more young Republican Members. Last cycle Schock raised $782,233 and distributed 510,404 to Republicans to House seats. Electing "young" Republicans, however, doesn't seem to have been on his mind. Among recipients of his largesse were elderly conservatives like, to whom he handed out checks in $5 and $10 thousand increments:
• John Mica (FL-72 years old)
• Brian Babin (TX- 67 years old)
• Mike Kelly (PA-67 years old)
• Mike Simpson (ID- 65 years old)
• Richard Hanna (NY- 64 years old)
• Tim Walberg (MI-64 years old)
• Dan Benishek (MI- 63 years old)
• Fred Upton (MI- 62 years old)
• Bruce Poliquin (ME- 62 years old)
• Doug Lamborn (CO- 61 years old)
• Bradley Byrne (AL- 60 years old)
• Mike Coffman (CO- 60 years old)
• Glenn Grothman (WI- 60 years old)
• Ted Yoho (FL- 60 years old)
Tonight the whole Illinois GOP delegation is holding a fundraiser for Darin LaHood, a state Senator, the son of long-time Rep. Ray LaHood and the Establishment pick to replace Schock as the congressman from IL-18. His father was a sensible moderate but LaHood the Younger is a far right sociopath who has been endorsed by all the extremists and teabaggers in the area.
Meanwhile, it's worth noting that Dayne LaHood-- yes, a relative-- was Schock's district chief of staff and is one of the crooks the FBI just subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury investigating how Schock and his staff were able to bilk the government and taxpayers out of so much money.
The last Democrat to represent the 18th was James Meeks-- back when FDR was still president. Six Republicans followed Meeks, including Minority Leader Robert Michel (1957-1995) and, of course, Ray LaHood (1995-2009, when Obama appointed him Secretary of Transportation). Monday was the last day of filing and the primary is July 7; the special election is September 10. LaHood is certainly seen as the front-runner for both the primary and the general. Donald Rients and Mike Flynn are the other Republicans in the race and Rob Mellon and Adam Lopez are the Democrats in the deep red, very gerrymandered district (PVI is R+11). So, will Aaron Schock be there tonight? He still has plenty of campaign cash. But is it considered to toxic for Republicans to accept?
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2015/04/gop-generation-y-fund-probably-wont-be.html
Citizens Medical Center in Victoria to pay $23.5 million to end lawsuit
VICTORIA -- Citizens Medical Center, three cardiologists and the U.S. Attorney General's office agreed to settle a lawsuit Monday, now five years in the making, for $23.55 million.
The county-owned hospital agreed to pay the federal government $21.75 million, of which the U.S. will then pay $5.98 million to the three doctors - Dakshesh-Kumar Parikh, Harish Chandna and Ajay Gaalla.
The hospital agreed to also pay the doctors' attorneys $1.8 million within 10 days.
With the current lawsuit and one settled in 2012, the doctors will have netted almost $14 million from the hospital.
Read more: https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2015/apr/20/citizens-to-pay-235-million-to-end-lawsuit/
[font color=green]The CEO of Citizens recently left the hospital after a no-confidence vote among the physicians practicing at the hospital. The orthopedic surgeons at the hospital threatened to leave if the CEO did not resign.[/font]
$6 billion highway plan has Houston's I-45 congestion in cross hairs
Texas transportation officials have unveiled a bold plan to reconfigure a major interstate through downtown Houston that would place lanes below ground level, alleviate congestion and give the city a dramatic face lift.
The Texas Department of Transportation estimates the cost to expand and realign Interstate 45 at more than $6 billion, a price that would include changes to Interstates 10 and 69. A portion of I-45 near Minute Maid Park, where the Houston Astros play, would be “depressed,” allowing for the possibility that a large public park or some other green space could later be built on top of it.
The project must be vetted by several state and federal agencies before any work can begin, which could be at least five years away.
Houston motorists have long bemoaned interstates with too few lanes, pitches and curves that slow drivers and stymie traffic flow, and narrow configurations that can make drivers feel like canned sardines.
Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20150423-6-billion-highway-plan-has-houston-s-i-45-congestion-in-cross-hairs.ece
5 Video Games Censored For Being Too Christian
Bible Fight
You can't turn on the news these days without listening to someone with a pizza place or a tire store or something beating their breast about how Christians are being driven from America. They are under attack! For the most part the rest of us just roll our eyes and get on with our day because we know you can't claim to be an oppressed minority when you make up 78 percent of the population.
Here's something weird, though... for many years Christianity actually was heavily suppressed in one major aspect of American life; video games. See, games in the '80s and '90s were made in Japan, where they are way less lung up on this whole monotheism thing and are therefore much more comfortable dropping Christian symbolism into games. However, Nintendo of America, who for all intents and purposes controlled the home video game market here through the 16-bit era, had a strict "no religion" policy on every release. As a result every ounce of Christ was blasted from an emerging artistic medium, and as so many over-zealous Christian like to claim it was indeed because they were afraid of offending people and losing market share.
So this one's on me, Christians. Here's five times you were absolutely right about the Lord being censored.
Illusion of Gaia was one of those SNES RPGs that wasn't Final Fantasy, and it's generally only remembered by the more hardcore adventure nerds despite being a stellar title. In the town of South Cape you find a building labeled a school, but as you can clearly see from the screenshot above it's meant to be a church. In the original Japanese release that large statue was actually a crucifix. The teacher is also pretty obviously meant to be a monk. It's a minor part of the game, but significant. As is...
Read more: http://blogs.houstonpress.com/artattack/2015/04/5_games_censored_for_being_too_christian.php
Missing child's body found near Kemah marina
Photo By Family handout
The Coast Guard, along with local officials from Kemah, Seabrook and Nassau Bay, are looking for the 5-year-old, who was reported missing at about 5 p.m. Wednesday near the edge of the pier.
The body of a 5-year-old girl was found Thursday morning in the water a day after she vanished from the Kemah Boardwalk Marina.
The body of Fiona "Kitty" Carroll was discovered about 9 a.m., according to the Kemah Police Department.
Police said Kitty had been reported missing about 6 p.m. Wednesday on Dock H. She was last seen playing on the dock while her father was working on his boat nearby.Then it was discovered she was gone.
The Galveston County Sheriff's Office along with the Galveston Police Department dive team searched more than seven hours for the child but were unable to find her.
Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/houston/article/Search-continues-for-missing-child-in-Kemah-6218781.php
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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
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