April 27, 2017

John Wiley Price jury will go to 7th day of deliberations in attempt to break impasse

The John Wiley Price jury ended its work Wednesday without a verdict, the day after a federal judge instructed it to keep working after jurors said they couldn't reach a consensus on some counts.

Jurors will resume on Thursday for a seventh day of deliberations to decide whether Price is guilty of some, none or all of the 11 counts against him.

The jury also is deciding whether Price's chief of staff, Dapheny Fain, helped her boss by lying to the FBI and conspiring with him to defraud the IRS.

A third defendant, Kathy Nealy, will be tried later on bribery charges.

Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2017/04/26/john-wiley-price-jury-will-go-7th-day-deliberations-attempt-break-impasse

April 27, 2017

Feds raid televangelist Benny Hinns Grapevine offices

GRAPEVINE -- U.S. Postal Service inspectors and IRS investigators were searching the offices of televangelist Benny Hinn in Grapevine on Wednesday.

NBC 5 reported that “a large number of agents” were seen carrying boxes in and out of Hinn’s offices, beginning at about 9 a.m. Reporters from WFAA and Fox 4 also reported seeing federal agents executing a search warrant.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service referred questions to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of Texas, which was “unable to confirm or deny if there is an investigation,” spokeswoman Lisa Slimak said.

Requests for comment from Hinn’s office have not been answered. According to Hinn’s website, he was in Paris.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/northeast-tarrant/article146961764.html

April 27, 2017

FBI, DPS raid several city, county government buildings in Laredo

The FBI carried out searches across the state Wednesday as part of a public corruption probe centered on Laredo and Webb County.

The investigation appears to focus on Dannembaum Engineering, a firm with offices in several Texas cities that has taken on high-profile contracts Laredo.

The buildings searched included Laredo City Hall, the City Hall Annex, the Public Works Department, the offices of Webb County Precinct 4 Commissioner Jaime Canales and the offices of Dannenbaum Engineering in Laredo, San Antonio, Houston and McAllen. The front door to the Dannenbaum Engineering office on McPherson Road in Laredo had been removed by the FBI.

FBI spokeswoman Michelle Lee confirmed that agents were present at the offices of Dannenbaum Engineering in Laredo and in San Antonio, as well as the City of Laredo offices. She also confirmed that that Webb County Precinct 4 Commissioner Jaime Canales's offices were the only commissioners' offices where agents were present.

Read more: http://www.lmtonline.com/local/article/FBI-DPS-descend-on-city-hall-county-courthouse-11100280.php

April 27, 2017

Bill waives penalty for underage drinking

A unanimous Texas Senate approved a bill Wednesday that would waive prosecution for underage drinking by a victim or witness who reported a sexual assault.

“We’re trying to encourage more sexual assault survivors to come forth and seek help,” said Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, author of the bill.

Under Senate Bill 966, those who report an assault to a doctor, police officer or university Title IX coordinator could not be prosecuted for underage possession or underage consumption of alcohol — generally Class C misdemeanors that carry a fine but no jail time — if the drinking occurred during a sexual assault.

SB 966, which next goes to the House, was part of a package of Watson bills designed to encourage the reporting of sexual assaults. Other bills that have passed the Senate, but are awaiting House action, would make it easier for college students to report sexual assault and dating violence, protect victims and witnesses from being punished for conduct code violations if they report a crime, and require all universities to adopt specific sexual assault policies.

Read more: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/legislature-digest-bill-waives-penalty-for-underage-drinking/oArNbOG4INltjjqJDdmpbO/

April 27, 2017

Dallas police officers, firefighters rail against mayor's handling of pension crisis

DALLAS — After a gunman fatally shot five police officers amid a peaceful protest here last summer, city officials appeared at memorial services and on international television to speak about solidarity and support for first responders.

Less than nine months later, hundreds of Dallas police officers stood at City Hall on Wednesday morning and said Mayor Mike Rawlings and some of his fellow City Council members have turned their backs on the people who risk their lives to protect residents and their property.

“We want to make sure the citizens, the people in the United States, know that Dallas is not being run the way they thought it was after July 7,” said Dale Erves, a 33-year veteran of the police department who retired in 2015.

Scores of Dallas Police Association members and their supporters, clad in white “Support Dallas Police and Fire” T-shirts, marched to City Hall to protest Rawlings’ calls for residents to oppose a legislative fix to the rapidly failing first responder pension fund.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/04/26/dallas-mayor-takes-heat-his-approach-pension-crisis/

April 27, 2017

Hillary Clinton as the Straw of Hope for Texas Democrats

Hillary Clinton carried three congressional districts that reelected their GOP congressmen. Is that good news for Texas Democrats?

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton triumphed over Republican Donald Trump last year in three Texas congressional districts that, on the same ballot, reelected their respective GOP congressmen. Clinton’s party seized the result as evidence of a potential Democratic comeback in the 2018 elections. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee put on its hit list the three districts—Pete Sessions’ Thirty-second district in Dallas, John Culberson’s Seventh District in Houston, and Will Hurd’s Twenty-third District, stretching from San Antonio to El Paso.

“We view 2018 as a real opportunity to win more seats here in Texas,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said recently on Overheard with Evan Smith on KLRU-TV in Austin. “We don’t just raise money in Texas. We spend money in Texas. What we raise here stays here, and we bring in more. What we saw in the last election, with at least three members being re-elected in districts where Hillary Clinton won, some of the investments over time and registrations are paying off.”

On the top line, the three districts look like a surge of Democratic voters: 81,000 more than President Obama received in his 2012 election and almost 38,000 fewer votes for Trump than 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney. But the anomalous Clinton/Trump isn’t a good measuring stick—partisans of both sides deeply disliked the opposition’s candidate. Also some Republicans were not going to vote for Trump for many of the same reasons that the party turned against uncouth Republican gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams in his 1990 contest with Democrat Ann Richards. Rabble-rousing Trump with his “grab them by the pussy” remarks were not terribly unlike Williams joking that bad weather is like rape—“relax and enjoy it”—and his promise to “head and hoof” Richards and “drag her through the mud.” Richards won that election, but so did Republicans Rick Perry for agriculture commissioner and Kay Bailey Hutchison for state treasurer.

But winning the districts will be far more difficult than Democrats believe. Although Clinton carried his district, Hurd won reelection despite the DCCC spending $1.1 million on behalf of Democrat Pete Gallego and $1.9 million against Hurd, according to statistics compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Neither Clinton’s victory nor the DCCC’s spending carried the day for Gallego.

Read more: http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/hillary-clinton-straw-hope-texas-democrats/

April 27, 2017

Trial of former U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman on corruption charges delayed until next year

Former U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman's trial on federal corruption charges has been pushed back to next year.

The trial, originally scheduled to begin June 5, will now kick off on Jan. 29, 2018, according to an order issued Wednesday by Chief U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal.

Stockman's lawyer had requested the delay last week, asking the judge to put off the trial until "at least January 2018." The motion to push back the trial had been unopposed.

The lawyer, Richard Kuniansky, said he needed more time to review 142,378 pages of evidence, apparently gathered by the government over the past three and a half years. Kuniansky said he may need the help of a forensic accountant and paralegal.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/04/26/steve-stockman-trial-corruption-charges-delayed-until-next-year/

April 27, 2017

Texas House approves sanctuary cities bill after 16-hour debate

Source: Austin American Statesman

After more than 16 hours of debate, the Texas House at about 3 a.m. Thursday voted 93-54 to approve the bill to ban so-called sanctuary cities, the common term for jurisdictions that decline to assist federal immigration enforcement.

Along the way, lawmakers cried, fought and traded horses on the Texas House floor, and the bill was amended to be more in line with the goals of hard-line conservatives.

Calling it the defining showdown of this legislative session for their constituents and wearing black in protest, outnumbered Democrats had lined up scores of amendments and planned to fight Senate Bill 4 late into the night.

But almost all of their amendments were defeated, and tea party-aligned Republicans countered by introducing measures that would make the bill stricter, restoring some elements that were stripped out by a House committee after being approved by the Senate.

Read more: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/texas-house-approves-sanctuary-cities-bill-after-hour-debate/VZyjpje1bCUN3Qp8RTj4yH/

April 27, 2017

Bill to License Baby Jails as Child Care Facilities Clears First Legislative Hurdle

The private prison companies that run detention centers for immigrant kids and their mothers have a problem: They can’t legally hold families for an extended period in Texas unless they are licensed as child care facilities. The Texas Legislature has a solution, though. On Wednesday, a Senate committee advanced legislation that would simply lower the state standards for family detention centers. The prison firms could skip all the burdensome regulations that other child care facilities must deal with.

“The point of the bill is to slap a license on the family detention center without substantially changing their operation,” said Bob Libal, executive director of Grassroots Leadership, an immigrant rights group. “It’s an attempt to maintain and expand the system of for-profit family detention.”

Family detention centers are used by the federal government to hold immigrant mothers and children who arrive at the U.S. border seeking asylum while their cases are processed. Two of the nation’s three facilities are in Texas, and both are run by private prison corporations. The two can hold about 3,200 detainees.

Critics, including the Texas Pediatric Society, say the facilities cause depression and anxiety and can impede development in children.

Read more: https://www.texasobserver.org/family-detention-baby-jails-texas/

April 27, 2017

Texas Republicans Vote To Allow Immigration Questioning of Children

Almost all Texas Republicans in the House voted to allow police officers to question children about immigration status during Wednesday’s heated debate on so-called sanctuary cities.

The vote was cast during debate on Senate Bill 4, which could jail local law enforcement officials who refuse to assist enforcing federal immigration law or enact such policies. Under the version of SB 4 that passed the Senate earlier this session, local law enforcement agencies are prohibited from enacting policies that stop officers from questioning detained individuals about immigration status.

The initial House version of the bill limited the scope of police authority, only allowing cops to interrogate about immigration status when individuals are under arrest. However, Representative Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, on Wednesday added the “detention” language back to the House bill.

Representative Diego Bernal, a San Antonio Democrat who called SB 4 “show-me-your-papers legislation” earlier in the debate, then attempted to add an exemption for children to that section of the bill.

Read more: https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-republicans-vote-to-allow-immigration-questioning-of-children/