TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalSt. Edward’s University receives $20 million donation
Pat and Bill Munday of Austin have donated $20 million for scholarships to St. Edward’s University, the largest gift in the history of the private Catholic school.
The Mundays were already the university’s most generous donors, and the latest gift brings their contributions since 2003 to more than $36 million. Their previous donations included $13 million in 2011 for a library and learning center; the Munday Library is scheduled to open in the fall.
“Through their extraordinary generosity and commitment to providing young men and women educational opportunity, Bill and Pat Munday have made it possible for St. Edward’s to continue its mission of providing talented students access to higher education no matter what their financial circumstances,” George E. Martin, president of St. Edward’s, said in a statement.
The $20 million raises the university’s endowment to $76.8 million and will spin off scholarship awards worth about 25 percent of tuition to as many as 150 students a year, the university said.
More at http://www.statesman.com/news/news/st-edwards-receives-20-million-donation/nWPXt/ .
Report: Pantex could furlough 2,500 workers under sequestration
The Pantex Plant would furlough up to 2,500 workers for three weeks if Congress and the administration don’t reach an agreement to avert automatic cuts triggered by sequestration, according to a report released by Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee.
The sequester is scheduled to begin on March 1 under the Office of Management and Budget Contract and would automatically cut $85 billion in fiscal 2013 spending, unless Congress acts, according to the report.
Pantex, where the nation’s nuclear weapons are assembled and dismantled, employs more than 3,000 workers.
More at http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2013-02-14/report-pantex-could-furlough-2500-workers-under-sequestration .
Ted Cruz, Texas's New Senator, Gets Schooled Over His Chuck Hagel Campaign
There are few Senatorial chapters more infamous than Joe McCarthy's months-long screed against the purported communists infiltrating the American government during the 1950s. The man's grating, acidic line of questions and insinuations have long stood as the apogee of paranoia within Washington.
Indeed, McCarthy's purported search for the closet communists have set the lowest bar for Senatorial decorum, and the man has, rightly, been lambasted ever since. His actions spawned rebuke from all sides. After Joseph Welch's timeless reproach -- "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" -- the questioning, and McCarthy's political career, shriveled. McCarthyism -- the ignorance, the condescension -- has been largely avoided in the seven decades since.
Fortunately, Texas Senator Ted Cruz is here to make sure that McCarthy's memory carries forward to another political generation. And, thanks to Bill Nelson, the senior senator from Florida, we can be assured that Welch won't remain the lone individual willing to castigate those without standing, and without decency.
For those who've not followed, Cruz has spent the last week channeling the ghost of McCarthy, blasting baseless accusations at Chuck Hagel, the former Republican senator and President Obama's nominee for Secretary of Defense. The freshman senator seems intent on wringing some sort of Islamist bent from Hagel, parsing verbs and phrases and looking, exegetically, at every single interview and financial source the former senator has ever crossed.
More at http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2013/02/ted_cruz_nelson_hagel.php .
Undocumented immigrant attends State of the Union as Texas Rep. Marc Veasey’s guest
Julieta Garibay felt overwhelmed with emotion in the hours before Tuesday night’s State of the Union speech. As someone brought illegally into the U.S. as child, the longtime Texas resident said she hopes to put a human face on a hotly debated immigration issue.
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Garibay, who now lives in Washington, D.C., said she lived in Texas for 20 years after being brought from Mexico when she was 12. Garibay graduated from Dallas Community College and from the University of Texas-Austin with a masters degree in nursing. She said she worked as a waitress and babysitter during school.
However, she is unable to put her professional degrees to work. Nursing positions require her to provide her immigration status, which she cannot do. Instead, she works as an activist in the immigrant-rights group United We Dream.
Rep. Marc Veasey, a Fort Worth Democrat who invited Garibay to witness Obama’s annual speech at the Capitol, expressed similar hopes. Veasey said many immigrants just want to be with their families.
More at http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2013/02/undocumented-immigrant-attends-state-of-the-union-as-texas-rep-marc-veaseys-guest/ .
Public's help sought to repaint Obama mural at Breakfast Klub in Houston
Houston artist Reginald Adams and The Breakfast Klub restaurant are again inviting the public to help paint a newly redesigned mural of President Barack Obama.
The event is scheduled to begin about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday with tracing the image onto the wall across the street from the popular midtown restaurant at Alabama and Travis.
Public painting is expected to begin about 7:30 p.m., organizers said.
The mural was defaced in the early hours of Jan. 28 for the second time in recent months.
More at http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Public-s-help-sought-to-repaint-Obama-mural-at-4276049.php .
Perry ending California trip empty handed--so far
Texas Gov. Rick Perry wrapped up his high-profile recruiting trip to California on Wednesday without having persuaded any businesses to relocate to his state — at least not yet.
On a conference call with reporters from Laguna Beach, the Republican said he spent his four days meeting with entrepreneurs and business leaders and held a reception for more than 200 California companies that have expressed interest in moving to Texas. Such relocations can take time, but Perry also offered no details on prospects, much less concrete announcements.
In a small but heavily publicized media campaign last week, a privately funded marketing firm produced radio ads in California featuring Perry and denigrating that state's taxes and regulation while touting the Texas business climate. A progressive Texas political action committee responded Tuesday with radio ads in California taunting Perry.
Perry said on the call that "this isn't about bashing California; it's about promoting Texas." But he went on to offer a few digs. When asked if Texas' light regulatory rules have contributed to a high number of worksite deaths, the governor said he thought it had more to do with high-risk oil and gas industry jobs prevalent in his state.
More at http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/texas/perry-ending-california-trip-empty-handed-_-so-far/nWNWL/ .
Mexico’s President Presents Crime-Prevention Plan
MEXICO CITY – President Enrique Peña Nieto launched Tuesday a national plan to address both the effects and the root causes of the gangland violence blamed for 70,000 deaths in Mexico over the past six years.
“Yes, it’s possible” to achieve peace, he said at an event in the central city of Aguascalientes.
Peña Nieto, who took office Dec. 1, established Tuesday a federal interdepartmental commission that will attempt to coordinate government efforts to repair the social fabric in areas that suffer the most violence.
The various official entities involved in the initiative have a combined annual budget of 118.8 billion pesos ($9.35 billion).
More at http://laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=681714&CategoryId=10718 .
Billionaires Slim and Gates Push Technology to Reduce Hunger
MEXICO CITY – Billionaires Carlos Slim and Bill Gates said they planned to use their foundations to promote research and the development of agricultural technology to increase farmers’ productivity and reduce hunger among the world’s poor people.
“Helping poor farming families increase production in a sustainable way, and sell more crops, is the most effective way to reduce hunger and poverty over the long term. This has been proven in Mexico, India, Pakistan, Brazil, China, and many other countries over the last half century,” the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Fundacion Carlos Slim said in a statement posted on the Mexican billionaire’s Web site.
Mexico’s non-profit International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, or CIMMYT, will be at the center of the effort to improve farmer’s productivity, the foundations said.
“Mexican and international researchers have worked for decades to develop higher-yielding, more resilient seeds for maize and wheat, and to introduce better agricultural practices that help farmers be more productive” at the CIMMYT, the foundations said.
More at http://laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=681633&CategoryId=12396 .
Progressive PAC buys anti-Perry ads in California
AUSTIN, Texas—A progressive Texas political action committee taunted Gov. Rick Perry's recent California trip in radio ads broadcast there on Tuesday, calling him "Governor Oops" and dismissing as "snake oil" Perry's promises of tax breaks for businesses that relocate to Texas.
The small ad buy was in response to Perry's highly promoted and publicized trip this week to California, where he says he is trying to convince companies to move. A privately-funded marketing firm featured Perry in ads last week that denigrated California taxes and regulation and touted the Texas business climate.
In the Lone Star Project ad on Tuesday, a male voice with a Texas drawl apologizes to Californians with blues music playing in the background.
"Well, it looks Rick Perry got out again and Governor Oops is running around selling snake oil and talking about big tax breaks if you move your business to Texas," the 30-second ad said. "Check the fine print. About the only people who get those are the ones who hand him big campaign cash."
More at http://www.elpasotimes.com/texas/ci_22573849/progressive-pac-buys-anti-perry-ads-california .
Nugent on State of the Union: ‘Yawn’
Rocker Ted Nugent wasn’t all that impressed by President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech on Monday.
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“I’m so glad somebody is going to bring about world peace and save the children,” he said.
<<<snip>>>
Nugent further added that he wasn’t impressed by Obama’s approach to climate change.
Obama said that if Congress failed to pass legislation to address the issue, he would direct his cabinet “to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.”
Said Nugent: “Thank God he brought up global warming. I was starting to get concerned.”
Not my favorite source: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Nugent-Obama-guns-State-of-the-Union/2013/02/13/id/490117
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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Current location: Bryan, Texas
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