June 4, 2013

Corpus Christi jury awards security officer $25 million in injury lawsuit

CORPUS CHRISTI — A Corpus Christi jury has awarded a Corpus Christi man $25 million after he was assaulted in 2008 at an uptown building.

Leo Davila, a night security officer for American Bank Plaza, was patrolling the plaza’s loading dock Sept. 9, 2008, when he was confronted by a man who tried to break into the building, said Robert Hilliard, one of Davila’s attorneys.

When Davila tried to stop the man, he attacked Davila. Davila sustained brain injuries, crushed facial bones and blindness, attorney Ruben Herrera said.

Davila’s attorneys, Hilliard and Thomas J. Henry, argued during last week’s trial that American Bank Plaza’s management company and owner should have installed a security gate that would have prevented the assault.

More at http://www.caller.com/news/2013/jun/03/corpus-christi-jury-awards-security-officer-25/ .

June 3, 2013

Man Stung To Death By Swarm Of Killer Bees

MOODY (June 1, 2013)--A man has been stung to death by a swarm of African Killer bees.

The victim was riding a lawn mower when he bumped a brush pile hiding a bee hive.

He was stung several times and ran to a neighbors house for help.

-snip-

McLennan County Chief Deputy Matt Cawthon said the man was completely covered in the bees and was killed almost instantly.

More, including video, at http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/Man-Stung-To-Death-By-Swarm-Of-Killer-Bees-209818421.html .


From KCEN: A family mourns today after a 62-year-old Moody man, Larry Goodwin, was killed by Africanized bees yesterday.

Family members said there wasn't any skin visible that hadn't been stung by the killer bees.

June 3, 2013

Fort Worth Employee Claims Racial Discrimination in Lawsuit--"We freed y'all,"

A black city employee in Fort Worth claims he was cheated out of promotions, stereotyped, and subjected to racial slurs, including one in which another employee told him, “We freed y'all.”

The allegations come in a civil rights lawsuit filed in Tarrant County District Court last week by an employee of the city parks department, Darrenn Foreman. See the lawsuit here.

In February, the lawsuit claims another employee “in response to a directive to perform a task, resisted and said, 'We freed ya’ll.’”

City spokesman Bill Begley said the city generally does not comment on pending lawsuits.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/FW-Employee-Claims-Racial-Discrimination-209953911.html

Cross-posted in Texas Group.

June 3, 2013

Fort Worth Employee Claims Racial Discrimination in Lawsuit--"We freed y'all,"

A black city employee in Fort Worth claims he was cheated out of promotions, stereotyped, and subjected to racial slurs, including one in which another employee told him, “We freed y'all.”

The allegations come in a civil rights lawsuit filed in Tarrant County District Court last week by an employee of the city parks department, Darrenn Foreman. See the lawsuit here.

In February, the lawsuit claims another employee “in response to a directive to perform a task, resisted and said, 'We freed ya’ll.’”

City spokesman Bill Begley said the city generally does not comment on pending lawsuits.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/FW-Employee-Claims-Racial-Discrimination-209953911.html

Cross-posted in African-American Group.

June 3, 2013

Justice for George! Killers of San Antiono River Walk duck still on the loose

The hunt is on in San Antonio for two men seen on security video killing George, the city’s beloved red masked duck.

The two thugs, believed to be tourists, kicked and beat George to death on the night of May 29. After the beating, one of the men is seen on camera tossing George’s carcass into the river.

George was a fixture on the San Antonio River Walk. He made a name for himself because of his friendliness and his ability to work tourists over for scraps of food. He boldly walked up to people on the street and at their tables.

Everyone wanted to feed George or pose in a picture with him. He was a River Walk celebrity.

More at http://digitaltexan.net/2013/state/justice-george-killer-san-antionos-favorite-duck-loose/article54150/ .

June 3, 2013

Rats Needed to Keep the Keystone Pipeline Rolling

Photo by USFWS Mountain Prairie

The Keystone Pipeline people just can't seem to win. First there are the landowners and environmentalists down this way objecting to the pipeline hauling the sticky black tar sands through their property. Then the Native Americans are furious because they feel the federal government isn't negotiating properly with them about running the pipeline through their property. Now, there's an endangered beetle standing in the way, and the only way to safely move that beetle population and get the pipeline laid in Nebraska is going to stink. Seriously. It will take lots of dead rats.

The insect in question is the black and orange American burying beetle aka, the giant carrion beetle aka Nicorphorus americanus. It's a beetle that feeds and breeds on dead meat (Yep, nothing puts an American burying beetle in the mood to get it on like a nice dead piece of vermin.)

Anyway, the beetle has been on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Endangered Species List since 1989 and the path of the pipeline runs right through American burying beetle stomping grounds, it seems. You can almost hear the folks over at TransCanada Corp. - the ones building the 1,179-mile pipeline to transport tar sands oil from Canada to refineries along the Texas Coast - collectively smacking their heads on their desks in exasperation. However the federal agency gave them an out, albeit a kind ratty one, according to Bloomberg.

To build the pipeline, the TransCanada people will have to trap and relocate the beetles using frozen dead rats. They'll have to thaw the rats at least three days for "maximum pungency" according to the protocol released by USFWS. The dead, smelly rats must then be placed in five-gallon drums and the smell - it's really important that these things smell as rotten as a dead rat can possibly smell - will basically act like a dinner bell for the beetles. The beetles will climb on in the bucket - buckets should be placed about a mile apart - and they'll settle in for a nice meal.

More at http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2013/06/rats_needed_to_keep_the_keysto.php .

June 3, 2013

A Dallas Church is Having Trouble Firing Its Allegedly Lying, Thieving, Pot-Smoking Pastor

The trustees of 92-year-old Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in South Dallas realized they'd made a mistake almost as soon as they'd hired Calvin Wayne Thomas to tend their flock. His first sin was a minor one, coming during an early meeting to discuss church business that Thomas presided over like a dictator, refusing to open the floor to discussion

Things went downhill from there.

Next, trustees say, came the nepotism, which was blatant and unapologetic. Soon after that meeting, Thomas installed his son-and-law and another family member, both of whom had verbally committed to joining the church just days before. Then, he shut out the church's finance committee, eventually deposing its chairman. Then, trustees learned of his arrest for marijuana possession. This had happened during a traffic stop in August 2012, a month after trustees voted to hire him but two months before he was officially installed. (In the arrest report, police list his occupation as "bus driver.&quot

The case was dismissed after Thomas agreed to pay a fine and perform community service, but trustees were miffed that he neglected to mention it. Had they known, they probably would have chosen a different pastor since "this type of criminal offense presents a morality concern compounded with your failure to disclosure (sic) this information to the Board and the Church," the church's attorney would later write.

Worst of all, Thomas just wasn't a very good minister. Of the first dozen Sundays in 2013, he preached just six and never performed a baptism despite a long list of candidates. Meanwhile, attendance plummeted.

More at http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2013/06/church_having_trouble_firing_a.php .

June 3, 2013

BP to spend $1 billion in Alaska’s North Slope

WASHINGTON — BP is set to announce Monday that it will sink $1 billion into revving up crude production from Alaska’s declining North Slope, weeks after the state decided to give the oil industry a $750 million annual tax cut.

The British oil giant plans to add two drilling rigs to its Prudhoe Bay field, bringing the count up to nine, the highest in about six years. New well work and drilling, along with upgrades of existing facilities, could support 200 new jobs, the company said.

Separately, with the agreement of its working interest partners at Prudhoe Bay, including ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp., BP will begin evaluating another $3 billion in additional development projects in the field’s west end.

The prospective development could include the construction of drilling pads and expansion of existing ones, possibly facilitating the drilling of more than 110 wells, following two to three years of appraisal and engineering work.

More at http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/06/02/bp-to-spend-1-billion-in-alaskas-north-slope-2/ .

June 3, 2013

Generation out of luck

Analysis: Gary Lapon

COLLEGE GRADUATION is supposed to be a time of celebration--a time for graduates to look back on years of hard work and achievement, and forward to a bright future filled with promise.

Yet the class of 2013--the young women and men who were submitting college applications in the fall of 2008 as the world financial system came to the brink of Armageddon following the collapse of Lehman Brothers--are facing a future of further uncertainty and diminished prospects.

They are the latest entrants into what has been dubbed the "lost generation"--so-called because the high rates of unemployment and underemployment its members endure at the start of their working lives drag them down throughout their working lives, making it more and more difficult to maintain the standard of living of their parents.

Only half of recent graduates have been able to find a full-time job that makes use of their degree. Yet all are still left with the bill from college, with the average student loan burden nearing $30,000. With the number of new graduates expected to outstrip the number of new jobs requiring a degree over the next several years, this trend will only get worse.

If the current priorities of big business and the politicians who serve them continue to set the agenda, millions of young people will be robbed of their hopes for the future.

More at http://socialistworker.org/2013/05/23/generation-out-of-luck .

June 2, 2013

UnitedHealth Spurns Obama Exchanges as Rules Stall Profit

nitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) will offer coverage in just a dozen of the U.S. health-care law’s new insurance exchanges, in the latest sign big insurers see little gain from quickly plunging into the new markets.

The country’s largest health insurer is taking a conservative approach to the online markets set to open in states Oct. 1, Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hemsley told investors yesterday at the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. conference in New York. The company’s plans reflect its concern that the first wave of newly insured customers under the law may be the costliest, Hemsley said.

UnitedHealth will “watch and see” how the exchanges evolve and expects the first enrollees will have “a pent-up appetite” for medical care, Hemsley said. “We are approaching them with some degree of caution because of that.”

The approach offers another hurdle for state and U.S. officials trying to meet the technical challenges involved in the exchanges, where millions of uninsured may seek coverage under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. While local insurers and Blue Cross plans will fill the gap in most states, the for-profit companies would have provided added choice, said Sarah James, a Wedbush Securities analyst in Los Angeles.

More at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-31/unitedhealth-spurns-obama-exchanges-as-rules-stall-profit.html .