TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalEMILY's List puts Gwen Graham over $10M mark in total fundraising
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gwen Graham posted a major haul in her new campaign finance reports thanks to a $400,000 cash infusion from EMILY’s List, a Democratic-leaning group that supports the campaigns of pro-choice women throughout the country.
That six-figure donation went to the former Congresswoman’s political committee, Gwen Graham for Florida, on July 17. In all, Graham’s new reports showed $732,700 in contributions for the reporting period covering July 14 through July 20 — $630,100 in committee cash with another $102,600 in hard money fundraising for her campaign account.
Other major donations in the committee report include a pair of $50,000 checks from Jacksonville law firm Pajcic & Pajcic and Wagmore Foundation president Gladys Cofrin, as well as a $25,000 contribution from Pensacola-based political committee Good Ideas for Government.
The campaign cash showed nearly 1,250 contributions with more than 1,100 of them coming in from small-dollar donors chipping in $100 or less.
Read more: http://floridapolitics.com/archives/270080-emilys-list-puts-gwen-graham-over-10m-mark-in-total-fundraising
Downtown Daytona hotel destroyed by fire
DAYTONA BEACH — A fire that had appeared out instead spread up the walls of the Bayview Hotel on Friday and incinerated the three-story hotel as firefighters battled for hours to keep the flames from spreading to nearby buildings.
The blaze was reported at 4:55 a.m. in the hotel at 124 Orange Ave. and firefighters doused the fire — which started and was initially contained in the boiler room — within about 30 minutes, according to a release from the Daytona Beach Fire Department.
But the fire reignited about 7:50 a.m., a fire official said. It spread from the boiler room in the back of the building to the rest of the three-story concrete hotel, gutting it as flames burned through the roof and smoke churned out of the windows. It’s not clear why the fire reignited. The second blaze was contained just after noon.
Built in 1924, the building was left in “imminent danger of collapse” and officials condemned the structure, said Susan Cerbone, city spokeswoman.
Read more: http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20180727/downtown-daytona-hotel-destroyed-by-fire
Nurse stole more than 10,000 tablets of painkillers, other meds from Spring Hill rehab facility
SPRING HILL — Hernando County Sheriff’s deputies on Wednesday arrested a nurse after they said she stole a long list of painkillers and other medications from the rehab facility where she worked.
Ashley Taylor, 33, faces 15 charges, including 12 counts of possession of a controlled substance, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Spring Hill Health and Rehab Center reported the theft Tuesday and identified Taylor as a suspect.
Taylor told deputies she ordered extra medication from the pharmacy so patients wouldn’t miss their dosages, deputies said. Those drugs included Percocet, morphine, codeine and alprazolam, commonly sold as Xanax.
The nurse cooperated with deputies, they said, and told them she’d been struggling for years with a drug addiction that began with an injury.
Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/Deputies-Nurse-stole-more-than-10-000-tablets-of-painkillers-other-meds-from-Spring-Hill-rehab-facility_170323656
Bitcoin could rescue Rockdale's future
Strike up the band and have it play “Happy Days Are Here Again.” Loudly!
In what can only be rivaled in Rockdale’s business history by the 1951 “Alcoa’s coming” announcement, work is well underway at the former smelter site to accommodate a high-tech business which is estimated to bring 300 to 500 jobs to the area.
While a formal announcement has not yet been made, multiple unimpeachable sources have confirmed the project for The {Rockdale} Reporter.
It’s called “bitcoin mining.” What’s that? See separate story and don’t expect to understand all of it.
What’s important is that bitcoin miners understand it. And they do.
Read more: http://taylorpress.net/news/article_96d4a6f2-8fb3-11e8-976f-37199e65b951.html
Wisconsin Legislator Finally Pays State Over Stolen Sign
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican state Rep. Dale Kooyenga is finally repaying the state $30,000 for stealing a protester's sign after a newspaper questioned why he hadn't followed through on a promise to do so.
Donald Johnson filed a lawsuit last year accusing Kooyenga of stealing an anti-Republican sign Johnson had placed in the state Capitol. State attorneys in April agreed to pay Johnson $30,000 to settle the lawsuit. Kooyenga promised he would reimburse taxpayers.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Friday that after three months Kooyenga still hadn't paid. Less than half an hour after the story was published a Kooyenga aide said he would pay by the end of the day.
State officials say Kooyenga paid Friday afternoon with a cashier's check.
Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/wisconsin/articles/2018-07-27/wisconsin-legislator-finally-pays-state-over-stolen-sign
Gary Johnson Mulling Run for US Senate
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Former Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson is considering jumping into the race for the U.S. Senate in New Mexico, raising the profile of a race that Democrats seeking to capture the majority in Congress had seen as a safe seat.
Johnson consultant Ron Nielson told The Associated Press on Friday that the former governor is "strongly considering" running if Libertarian candidate Aubrey Dunn quits the race as expected.
"He is weighing it over right now," Nielson said. "He doesn't want to get into a race he can't win."
Aubrey Dunn's son, attorney Blair Dunn, told the AP that his father was dropping out of the race and would release more details on Monday.
Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/new-mexico/articles/2018-07-27/gary-johnson-mulling-run-for-us-senate-in-new-mexico
Happy Spa employee arrested for prostitution
Denison Police said one woman was arrested Thursday following an investigation into alleged prostitution at the Happy Spa massage parlor.
Lt. Mike Eppler said the department’s Special Crimes Unit began investigating the business, which is located in 1200 block of South Austin Avenue, approximately two weeks ago after officers were notified of potential illegal activity at the establishment. Officers subsequently arrested a 58-year-old woman in connection with the investigation.
“Right at this point, she’s the only one we’ve got a case on,” Eppler said Friday. “We don’t yet know if others may be charged or not.”
Citing the ongoing investigation, Eppler said he could not provide additional details pertaining to the matter. It wasn’t immediately clear when the Denison establishment first opened, but Eppler said he understood it to have been operating for less than a year and said it had closed down at least once in that time, before subsequently reopening.
Read more: http://www.heralddemocrat.com/news/20180727/happy-spa-employee-arrested-for-prostitution
I suspect that a few people in Denison will be less happy now.
Trump's Economic 'Miracle' May Have Already Peaked
In declaring that the U.S. economy has entered a new era of faster growth, President Donald Trump is dismissing signals from financial markets and the outlook of economists from Wall Street to the Federal Reserve.
Flanked by his top economic advisers, Trump delivered remarks on the South Lawn of the White House on Friday to celebrate a report that the economy expanded in the second quarter at the fastest pace in four years. He said the economy is on track to reach an annual growth rate of more than 3 percent.
“These numbers are very, very sustainable. This isn’t a one-time shot,” he said. “Everywhere we look we are seeing the effects of the American economic miracle.”
Investors don’t seem as impressed. The dollar fell, stocks were little changed and Treasuries gained Friday after the Commerce Department reported that gross domestic product grew 4.1 percent, slightly short of the consensus estimate. The president had built up expectations by predicting on Thursday that the data would show the economy in “terrific shape.”
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-27/trump-claims-victory-as-gdp-grows-at-fastest-pace-since-2014
Chile's President Washes His Hands of Blame for Nation's Credit Downgrade
President Sebastian Pinera wanted to make one thing perfectly clear about Moody’s Investors Service’s decision to downgrade Chile’s credit rating: It’s not my fault.
“The reaction of the rating agency is due to things that happened in previous years,” Pinera, who took office March 11, told reporters Friday. “As you well know, our government is correcting those reasons.”
Moody’s reduced Chile’s senior unsecured debt ratings to A1 from Aa3, citing a gradual and broad-based deterioration in the country’s credit profile. Public debt has more than doubled to 23.6 percent of gross domestic product in the past eight years, while social pressures to improve education and health-care pose a “major challenge” to any attempt to restrain fiscal spending.
Despite those pressures, Pinera was adamant that Chile would stabilize debt levels.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-27/president-washes-his-hands-of-blame-for-chile-s-credit-downgrade
Cruz, O'Rourke will debate later; but this week were on the same team
Washington -- Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke both played a big role crafting Congress’s sweeping military improvement plan this month — a package that inspires rare political unity of Capitol Hill.
Now each man faces an awkward political decision over the battle to pay for their much-hyped advancements — an issue that still bitterly divides the two parties in Washington.
Texas is home to roughly 160,000 military service members, and Cruz and O’Rourke spent months working on a defense policy plan tailored to the service personnel needs. The final product includes an order for 77 F-35 aircraft, which are assembled in Fort Worth, plus the largest pay increase for service members in recent history.
But Cruz and O’Rourke are also in the middle of a closely-watched U.S. Senate race that’s pushing them into their partisan corners as Congress considers how to fund the defense plan.
Read more here: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article215586095.html
Profile Information
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: 112,150
