tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84514780438029455462024-03-19T04:56:14.044-05:00Texas WeekTexas Week with Rick Casey airs each Friday at 8PM on KLRN Public Television in San Antonio. Episodes will also be available online following the broadcast.Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.comBlogger480125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-37030015285375579822016-10-21T16:43:00.001-05:002016-10-21T16:43:43.532-05:00Race for Bexar County sheriff<iframe width="512" height="376" src="http://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/2365872719" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" seamless allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Early voting for the Nov. 8 election begins Monday. Tonight, we focus on one of the most competitive local contests – the race for Bexar County sheriff. We hear from the top two candidates.Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-30785617892784616852016-10-21T00:00:00.000-05:002016-10-21T14:48:55.366-05:00Making America great — for everyone<iframe width="512" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4p-r8XUCaOs?rel=0&showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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It’s been quite a week for police news. <br />
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The lead story Wednesday on the front page of the San Antonio Express-News was headlined, “Trump says S.A.’s mayor should be feeling shame.” <br />
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The reference, of course, was to a phalanx of San Antonio police who were assigned to guard Trump during a recent fundraising trip here. <br />
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<a name='more'></a>The Trump campaign posted video of the officers in red Trump “Make America Great Again” caps as they said goodbye to the presidential candidate at the airport. <br />
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The wearing of political caps while on duty and in uniform is clearly against police policy, as admitted by police union President Mike Helle. <br />
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Helle did ask that the officers not be severely punished and got his wish. <br />
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While six supervisors received written reprimands, 17 officers were assessed only counseling. <br />
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That, plus a mild public spanking by Mayor Ivy Taylor, who said on Facebook she was “deeply disappointed” by the officers’ actions. <br />
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It was this that apparently drew Trump’s ire, as expressed at the end of a 12-minute fawning interview Tuesday with Joe Pags, a nationally syndicated conservative talk show host based at WOAI in San Antonio. <br />
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“You can imagine if they put on a crooked Hillary hat, that would have been just fine,” Trump said when Pags brought up the disciplinary action.<br />
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“Right,” said Pags, who appears to know Mayor Taylor only a bit better than Trump, who assumed she was a man. <br />
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Exactly a year ago the Clinton campaign put Taylor’s name on a list of Texans who had endorsed her, only to suffer public embarrassment when Taylor’s office quickly announced that she had done no such thing and would not do so. <br />
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Not only has Taylor said she wants to honor San Antonio’s mayor’s office as a nonpartisan position, but she is very aware that she won her office with solid support from the city’s conservative North Side precincts. <br />
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She would neither wear a Hillary hat in public, nor look the other way if SAPD officers did. <br />
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Last week’s news featured several positive police stories.<br />
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The Los Angeles Police Department held an awards ceremony that for the first time honored officers with a “Preservation of Life” medal. <br />
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It goes to officers who, often at some risk to themselves, de-escalate potentially violent situations. <br />
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Milwaukee has a similar awards program, as does Philadelphia, which has given out 44 “Medals of Tactical De-escalation” since last December.<br />
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This week the president of one of the nation’s largest police organizations, the International Association of Chiefs of Police,” issued a formal apology “for the actions of the past and the role that our profession has played in society’s historical mistreatment of people of color.”<br />
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That reminded me of a story told to me years ago by the late Ray Hildebrand, a San Antonio cop for 27 years. <br />
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He recalled as a rookie patrolling the East Side in the early 1960s with a storied veteran named Wild Bill Weilbacher.<br />
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Hildebrand said Weilbacher one afternoon took him inside a bar, where without provocation he cold-cocked a black man who was peacefully nursing a beer.<br />
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“I think it was a test,” Hildebrand said. “He wanted to see if I would rat on him.”<br />
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The apology issued on behalf of the police chiefs did not mention current conditions or controversies. <br />
<br />
But clearly work remains, as we are reminded by a local story in the news. <br />
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Mayor Taylor’s Police-Community Council met this week for the first time in public at Sam Houston High School, not far from the site of the bar Hildebrand spoke of. <br />
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At the meeting Chief William McManus announced that two-thirds of officers have body cameras now, and the rest should get them by early summer. <br />
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He also said all officers will receive training in implicit bias.<br />
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It’s all part of making America great — for everyone.Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-33613374993205537182016-10-20T11:03:00.000-05:002016-10-20T11:03:14.564-05:00Battle for Congressional District 23<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="376" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="http://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/2365866448" width="512"></iframe>
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Congressional District 23 is a swing district with a large Hispanic population. It is also the largest in Texas. No one has won the district in back-to-back elections since 2004. This year is a rematch between the former incumbent, Democrat Pete Gallego, and current Republican Congressman Will Hurd. We discuss issues in the race.Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-34993247782331818242016-10-14T00:00:00.000-05:002016-10-14T10:38:26.230-05:00Until you talk to your daughters, you have no idea<iframe width="512" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2lLYt7XKJms?rel=0&showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Normally I don’t use this forum to comment on national events or controversies. <br />
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They draw plenty of comment without me. <br />
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Besides, San Antonio and Texas offer fertile fields that are much less plowed.<br />
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But now comes the release of the extraordinary tape in which Donald Trump is caught celebrating the fact, he says, that as a “star” he can do anything he wants with women without fear of retribution, including grabbing their crotches. <br />
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But I’m not here to talk about Trump. <br />
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<a name='more'></a>A major segment of the response to him is from male Republican leaders who tell us that as the fathers or grandfathers of daughters, they are shocked and offended by Trump’s comments. <br />
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As the father of two daughters in their mid-20s, I feel a need to explain to these men what is wrong with their statements. <br />
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First, I hope that I would be just as outraged if I were childless or the father of sons. <br />
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Second, there is more than a hint of chivalry in the statements, a suggestion that they have special standing to take a position as protectors of young women. <br />
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They have no idea.<br />
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I suggest that they talk to their daughters or granddaughters about the world in which they live. <br />
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I asked my daughters to list for me some Trumpian incidents they had experienced. <br />
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They were pleased to do so. <br />
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I’m afraid I have time for only a small sample. <br />
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One was groped at the age of 8 on the playground by three older boys. <br />
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They said, “Show me yours and I’ll show you mine,” and pulled up her dress. <br />
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She was too scared to tell anyone.<br />
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At the age of 12 a man in his late 20s found her in the stacks at the library. <br />
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He kissed her on the lips. <br />
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She ran away and hid behind the circulations desk. <br />
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“I didn’t freak out until that night,” she says.<br />
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At the age of 19 she was groped by a man on a long plane ride who was masturbating. <br />
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She still kicks herself for not calling the flight attendant. <br />
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If you find yourself criticizing her for that, you are blaming the victim. <br />
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She has, several times, had men refuse to leave her college dorm room or her apartment when she asked them to. <br />
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“It led in one case to sleeping somewhere else, and in another to threatening him a tiny bit with a kitchen knife,” she says.<br />
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My other daughter offers evidence that it’s not only American men. <br />
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She attended college and graduate school in Great Britain and traveled widely in Europe. <br />
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She now lives in New York, where she says getting pawed in crowded bars is inescapable. <br />
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“Only recently have I gotten the courage to start telling bouncers about problematic men,” she says. “It feels so normal that I regularly forget that I can get a guy kicked out of a bar for grabbing my butt or putting his hand up my skirt.” <br />
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Once in a London pub a young man grabbed her buttocks. <br />
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When she loudly chastised him, he said, “You know, most women would take that as a compliment.”<br />
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Then there was this: “I was much more aggressively assaulted by a grown man in a club in 2013 — in the way that Trump so charmingly described.”<br />
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And two weeks ago, this: “I was on the subway and fell asleep briefly, waking up to a man staring at my face with his hand high on my thigh. <br />
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I instinctively elbowed him hard and got off at the next stop. <br />
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But no one on the train car even blinked an eye.”<br />
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All their girlfriends have similar stories or worse. <br />
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In other words, the issue is much bigger than Donald Trump and his Mad Men notion of reality. <br />
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What to do about it? <br />
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As I say, the first thing is to talk to your daughters and granddaughters. <br />
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I think you’ll find that they, like my daughters, have given a lot of thought to the matter.<br />
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But I would sure appreciate hearing this from some of our political leaders, both Republican and Democrat: <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
As the father of sons, I pledge that should I ever hear of them saying or acting in any way approaching what Mr. Trump dismisses as locker-room talk, I will make sure that they inherit not one penny from the millions I expect to make as a lobbyist or making speeches when I leave office. <br />
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Not one penny!</blockquote>
Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-78073203409778435532016-10-10T12:15:00.001-05:002016-10-10T12:15:56.113-05:00UTSA’s new course of black feminism<iframe width="512" height="376" src="http://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/2365860876" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" seamless allowfullscreen></iframe>
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UTSA Professor Kinitra Brooks has drawn national attention with a course on black feminism, titled "Black Women, Beyoncé and Popular Culture." The course is based on the star's most recent hit album, "Lemonade," and the acclaimed video released with it. One of those trendy, hip courses designed to help your GPA? It seems not. Professor Brooks promised it would be difficult.Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-5429740691521805602016-10-07T00:00:00.000-05:002016-10-07T00:00:05.747-05:00Voter fraud and suppression are Texas traditions<iframe width="512" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5Lmz8evdqQM?rel=0&showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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In this year’s controversy over Texas’ voter ID laws are met two of the state’s great electoral traditions. <br />
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One is the suppression of votes of minority citizens. <br />
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The other is election fraud. <br />
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<a name='more'></a>Interestingly, according to the Handbook of Texas, a great historical resource, the first effort to suppress the political power of ex-slaves after the Civil War was, of all things, election fraud.<br />
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“The first attempt to end local Republican rule where blacks had a decided majority was in Harrison County, where the so-called Citizen's Party, formed in 1878, managed to upset the county Republicans by stuffing ballot boxes and using intimidation,” according to the Handbook. <br />
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Similar efforts spread to other counties, especially in East Texas.<br />
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In other parts of Texas, the target was Hispanic citizens. <br />
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For example, according to the Handbook, “… organizations such as Dimmit County's White Man's Primary Association, established in 1914, disfranchised Mexican Americans in local elections.”<br />
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In 1902, the Legislature established the poll tax statewide. <br />
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The argument for it: fighting voter fraud. <br />
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It’s effect was clear: to limit voting by overwhelmingly poor blacks and Hispanics. <br />
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When repealing it was put on the ballot as a constitutional amendment in 1963, about 10 million were disenfranchised by it.<br />
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Voters rejected the amendment to repeal the poll tax. <br />
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It was ended in federal elections the following year by Congress, and in all elections in 1966 by the U.S. Supreme Court.<br />
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The most blatant racist voter suppression was codified by the state Legislature in 1923 when it passed a law prohibiting Negroes from voting in the Democratic primary. <br />
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The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down the law as a violation by the state of Texas of the constitutional right to equal protection. <br />
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But it hinted at another route, and Texas took the hint. <br />
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In 1935 the high court unanimously upheld a rule promulgated by the Democratic Party itself that excluded blacks. <br />
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The party was, said the Supreme Court, a private organization with a right to decide who could belong. <br />
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A considerably different Supreme Court would overturn that decision in 1944.<br />
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Voter fraud is also a great Texas tradition. <br />
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Perhaps most famous is the stench surrounding Lyndon Johnson’s election to the U.S. Senate in1948 by 87 votes out of nearly a million. <br />
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Legend has it that a very late count of Box 13 in Jim Wells County provided 200 phony votes to put LBJ over the top.<br />
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But in the second volume of his exhaustive biography of Johnson, Robert Caro wrote this: <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
As for San Antonio — San Antonio where Lyndon Johnson ‘rode the polls’ on Primary Day himself to oversee the vast West Side — Johnson’s deputies on the West Side themselves boast of the votes that were ‘switched’ for him there, and the estimate most frequently given is 10,000. </blockquote>
Ballot box stuffing, vote switching, dead people voting in alphabetical order — this is the stuff of Texas legend. <br />
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Missing from the legends are large numbers of voter fraud by impersonation. <br />
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Journalist Laura Starecheski reported in the Texas Tribune this week that during a legislative hearing on Texas’ new voter ID law the attorney general’s office presented a report on election fraud from the previous eight years.<br />
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Only one case involved a voter at the polls, the kind that could be prevented by voter IDs. <br />
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That’s one out of more than 86 million votes cast during those years. <br />
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The report didn’t give details, so Starecheski tried to reach the fraudulent voter. <br />
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He didn’t want to talk, but his mother did.<br />
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What happened, she said, was that her son went to the polls and gave his name. <br />
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The poll worker found his name on the voter list and told him to sign next to it and go vote. <br />
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But the name belonged to her late husband, who had the same name.<br />
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It was a mistake, the mother said. <br />
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Her husband had died some time earlier and shouldn’t have been on the list.<br />
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So there you have it: In the ID law currently in controversy and in court are both sides of two strong Texas traditions. <br />
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But does it relate more to voter fraud or voter suppression? <br />
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History holds the answer.Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-86037008638870734782016-10-05T18:25:00.001-05:002016-10-05T18:25:18.277-05:00Texas House District 118 race<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="376" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="http://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/2365854161" width="512"></iframe>
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This week we begin our election-year tradition of interviewing candidates in competitive races on the November ballot.<br />
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In January, Republican John Lujan surprised many by winning a special election for state representative in the traditionally Democratic South Side House District 118. Now he faces Democrat Tomas Uresti, a member of a powerful political family. They face each other on our set.Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-75096435496265397832016-09-30T00:00:00.000-05:002016-09-30T11:53:52.160-05:00Should we be scared of Syrians moving to Texas?<iframe width="512" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/56SqM0BR2co?rel=0&showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Whenever Gov. Greg Abbott, Sen. Ted Cruz or presidential nominee Donald Trump warns of the dangers of admitting Syrian refugees into Texas and the United States, a curious thing happens to me. <br />
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I hear in my head the national anthem.<br />
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A swell of patriotism? <br />
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No, a clang of irony. I’ll explain in a bit.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Here are some sound bites that cue the music:<br />
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Gov. Abbott: “Despite multiple requests by the state of Texas, the federal government lacks the capability or the will to distinguish the dangerous from the harmless, and Texas will not be an accomplice to such dereliction of duty to the American people.”<br />
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Sen. Cruz: “Congress should act to prevent Americans who have traveled abroad for training from returning here, and to stop the flow of refugees from hotbeds of terrorism in the Middle East that President Obama is determined to bring to our country.” <br />
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And Donald Trump: “Altogether, under the Clinton plan, you’d be admitting hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East with no system to vet them, or to prevent the radicalization of their children.”<br />
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Gov. Abbott last November responded to terrorist attacks in Paris by declaring that Syrian refugees would no longer be allowed to move to Texas for fear they weren’t being properly screened. <br />
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The federal government made clear it would simply bypass state government and give resettlement money directly to the church groups and nonprofits that do great work in helping refugees find their place in American society. <br />
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Attorney General Ken Paxton sued but a federal judge squelched it. <br />
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Paxton has appealed.<br />
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Now Abbott has given the feds an ultimatum that Texas will withdraw from the process in January unless the feds jump through Texas-designed hoops.<br />
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Meanwhile the Syrians keep coming, and will continue to do so in January. <br />
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So should we be scared? <br />
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The conservative Heritage Foundation looked at the screening process for Syrians, which is tougher than for any other nation. <br />
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It begins with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees recommending candidates for resettlement in the United States. <br />
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Of about 23,000 Syrians recommended by the end of last year, about 2,000 have been accepted.<br />
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That comes after a process that lasts 18 months to two years. <br />
<br />
It involves screening by more than a dozen U.S. and international agencies, plus intensive interviews. <br />
<br />
So far, not a single Iranian has been arrested for terrorist activities here, though two Iraqis in Kentucky were. <br />
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“It is worth noting,” says the Heritage Foundation, “that these are the only two individuals who slipped through the screening process.” <br />
<br />
It added that the U.S. “has made constant improvements to the program.”<br />
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Why so few? <br />
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Well just possibly because any terrorist plants who could fool this system could likely fool our normal visa system in less than 18 months to two years. <br />
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What’s more, only 2 percent of refugees admitted to the United States are single men of military age.<br />
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No wonder religious groups and nonprofits have stood up to pressure from state agencies to shut down their refugee programs. <br />
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They know these people to be some of the world’s most vulnerable people, mainly families escaping the horrors of the Syrian civil war and life under the likes of Assad or the Islamic State. <br />
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Eight Protestant leaders wrote in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this week: “In the face of violence, we will show moral courage and increase our welcome for individuals fleeing persecution.”<br />
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Nearly every religious group in Texas has urged Abbott to reverse himself. <br />
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Among them: Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Unitarians, Baptists, Episcopalians and 43 Texas rabbis.<br />
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That’s right: Rabbis are not as afraid of Muslim refugees as some of our tough-sounding politicians are, politicians who often proclaim their faith. <br />
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Which takes me back to the Star Spangled Banner. <br />
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The politicians give an ironic note to the anthem’s rousing close: “And the home of the brave.” <br />
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The rest of us can bring it back on key.Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-78179854818787843932016-09-23T00:00:00.000-05:002016-09-23T00:00:16.534-05:00How election laws require some logistic gymnasticsAt least twice a decade I’m glad I’m not Jackie Callenen.<br /><br />This year, I’m particularly glad. <br /><br />Callenen is in charge of running the November election, in which more than half a million citizens of Bexar County will help elect a president, five members of the House of Representatives, 11 members of the Texas Legislature, 14 judges, a sheriff and a few other officials. <br /><br />I am not foolish enough to predict who will win all these offices, but I will predict this: <br /><br />The mechanics of the election will not go perfectly. <br /><br />
<a name='more'></a>And Callenen, probably Bexar County’s best election administrator in modern times, will receive more criticism for the glitches than she will praise for her overall performance.<br /><br />Elections in major cities never go perfectly. <br /><br />The logistics are simply too complex. <br /><br />What’s more, they are dependent on hundreds of volunteers who happen to be human. <br /><br />Inevitably, mistakes will be made.<br /><br />But this year Callenen’s already difficult job is made even tougher by two court cases. <br /><br />With Callenen’s office coming up hard against a deadline to get ballots out to our troops around the world, both court cases are still in process. <br /><br />One involves whether a candidate will be on the ballot. <br /><br />The other, a federal lawsuit over voter ID, involves both what training Callenen will give the people running the polling places, and what information she will give the public about proving they are eligible to vote. <br /><br />Today let’s take just the first case. <br /><br />It is particularly silly. <br /><br />It involves the election to replace State Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, who resigned last year because of illness. <br /><br />A special election was held last August to fulfill McClendon’s turn. <br /><br />It was, practically speaking, meaningless since the winner of the special election would have to be re-elected in November to actually exercise any power. <br /><br />The Legislature meets only every other year and the next session isn’t until January.<br /><br />Special elections, very low-turnout free-for-alls in which Republicans, Democrats and independents share the same ballot, often yield unusual results. <br /><br />In this case, Laura Thompson ran as an independent and got into a run-off. <br /><br />She then beat businessman Lou Miller by 50 votes with a micro-turnout of just 1.29 percent of registered voters.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Barbara Gervin-Hawkins beat former City Councilman Mario Salas in a runoff to win a place as the Democrat on the November ballot. <br /><br />Neither had run in the meaningless special election.<br /><br />Thompson then decided to run in November as an independent, which required collecting 500 signatures. <br /><br />It had been determined that she hadn’t turned in enough qualified signatures, but the Texas secretary of state’s office overruled that finding.<br /><br />But this week, the Bexar County Democratic Party went to court in Austin, arguing that it could show that a sufficient number were disqualified to void her candidacy even though she has virtually no chance of winning. <br /><br />Democratic officials expect 10,000 Democratic voters in the district to vote a straight ticket. <br /><br />No Republican is on the ballot. <br /><br />It’s inconceivable that Thompson, whose special election runoff count was all of 635, will be able to overcome that advantage for Gervin-Hawkins.<br /><br />Bexar County spent money on the election and runoff to choose someone to be a powerless legislator for a few months. <br /><br />And now Callenen is on hold waiting for a court decision to determine whether that hopeless candidate will be on the ballot.<br /><br />Callenen as ever follows the law even as it makes her job more difficult. <br /><br />But she does have a proposal. <br /><br />If the state must elect people to meaningless interim seats in the Legislature, at least it could tweak the law so that no runoff is required. <br /><br />Oh, and she says the county shouldn’t have to pay for those elections. <br /><br />The state should.<br /><br />Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-53598376551928149122016-09-16T00:00:00.000-05:002016-09-16T00:00:09.414-05:00Gated community planned in historic neighborhoodFirst let me admit my bias. I consider the term “gated community” to be suspect from the start. Sort of like “gentlemen’s club.” <br /><br />I don’t think establishments where men pay to watch women take off their clothes, gyrate around poles and perhaps give lap dances cater exclusively or even mainly to gentlemen.<br /><br />And while there may be a few gated real estate developments that actually develop into communities, I think the basic form constitutes an assault on communities.<br /><br />
<a name='more'></a>Communities bring people together. <br /><br />Walls — as the current presidential campaign persistently reminds us — are built to keep them apart. <br /><br />Up to this point, gated developments in San Antonio have been suburban. <br /><br />The crown prince of these is The Dominion. <br /><br />Built in the early 1980s, it appealed to San Antonio’s new money by attempting to appear old. <br /><br />At its swank country club, the walkways featured a succession of different stones, to make it look as though they had grown organically through the decades. <br /><br />And the walls of the clubhouse were coated to produce a patina to make them look weathered. <br /><br />The club even brought in an expert from Houston to offer etiquette lessons to teach the ways of old money to the new. <br /><br />She was a bit flummoxed when a well-known businessman asked for a way to inform his dinner guests that he was serving them a particularly expensive vintage of wine. <br /><br />It was not a question old money would have asked. <br /><br />Nor did old San Antonio money — ensconced for generations in Alamo Heights, Olmos Park and Terrell Hills — feel the need for the Dominion’s guarded gate. <br /><br />That was, at least in San Antonio, something for suburbanites who felt more insecure. <br /><br />And in what may be a healthy sign, there haven’t been a great number of gated developments built lately. <br /><br />But this week the Express-News alerted us to plans for a new gated development on the eastern edge of the historic Monte Vista neighborhood, just north of downtown. <br /><br />Last month the city’s Planning Commission drew little notice when it approved plans for La Marquesa Estates, 52 single-family homes on a tight 9.2-acre tract, gated and presumably walled off from its neighbors.<br /><br />It’s at the corner of Shook and Kings highway, not exactly a high-crime area. <br /><br />Perhaps the developers believe buyers will want to be shielded from the denizens of their most prominent across-the-street neighbor: Trinity University. <br /><br />Or perhaps they figure that if a developer can sell unwarranted fear to win a Republican presidential primary and perhaps the White House, they can use it to sell at a premium new houses in a peaceful old neighborhood. <br /><br />Not surprisingly, the neighbors are not amused. <br /><br />One referred to it as a “neighborhood atrocity.” <br /><br />Others just talked about how inappropriate it is. <br /><br />Councilman Roberto Trevino, an architect, told the Express-News it “doesn’t sound like a good fit to me, either,” an admirable bit of understatement from a politician. <br /><br />City Council does not have the power to overrule the developer-oriented Planning Commission on this sort of matter. <br /><br />And the developer won’t have to go to the council for a zoning change as long as each single-family house sits on a lot larger than a modest 4,000 square feet.<br /><br />But because the development is in a historic neighborhood, the developers must take their plans to the City’s Historic and Design Review Commission to obtain a “certificate of appropriateness.” <br /><br />It’s hard for me to imagine how the commission could find that a development design based on suburban queasiness could be appropriate in a placid urban neighborhood.<br /><br />But if the historic review board rejects the concept, unlike the Planning Commission they can be overruled by City Council. <br /><br />Stranger things have happened, but I have to strain to think of what.<br /><br />Perhaps we may see a “gentleman’s club” open on the campus of nearby Trinity Baptist Church.Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-59205724280248964412016-09-12T10:29:00.001-05:002016-09-12T10:29:43.289-05:00<iframe width="512" height="376" src="http://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/2365830982" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" seamless allowfullscreen></iframe>
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After two years of often bitter negotiations and a court fight, San Antonio’s police union has overwhelmingly ratified a new contract. City Council will vote on that contract next week, but not without controversy. City Manager Sheryl Sculley, who set a goal to reign in inflationary healthcare costs, joins us to discuss the contract and related issues.Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-32484499467075886612016-09-09T00:00:00.000-05:002016-09-09T12:43:17.572-05:00Mexican-American scholars in uproar over textbook<iframe width="512" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rTB9fboRCEI?rel=0&showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Two years ago, Mexican American educators, activists and officials persuaded the Texas State School Board to seek submissions for a textbook on Mexican American history. <br />
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They couldn’t have imagined that this Tuesday they would be traveling to Austin for a hearing on the sole submission, a 507-page tome titled “Mexican American Heritage.”<br />
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Or that they would be asking the state board to toss it in the trash bin.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Nor could they have imagined that the person publishing the book and writing part of it would be a former member of the State Board. <br />
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Cynthia Dunbar was a Houston-area member of the state board from 2007 to 2011. <br />
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She stirred controversy beyond her attempts to change curricula in conformity with her belief that God wants, and the founders intended, for the United States to be a Christian nation.<br />
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In 2008, Dunbar wrote that if Barack Obama was elected, a massive terrorist attack within six months would be planned “by those with whom Obama truly sympathizes to take down the America that is a threat to tyranny.” <br />
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She added that Obama would use the attack as an excuse to declare martial law.<br />
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This week, a committee of eight Hispanic scholars and educators issued a 54-page critique of the book submitted by Dunbar. <br />
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It alleges many errors of fact and omission. <br />
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It also, they say, is infused with considerable bias. <br />
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They cite a multiple of examples, but one stands out. <br />
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It is worth quoting at some length: <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Stereotypically, Mexicans were viewed as lazy compared to European or American workers. Industrialists were very driven, competitive men who were always on the clock and continually concerned about efficiency. <br />
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They were used to their workers putting in a full day’s work, quietly and obediently, and respecting rules, authority, and property. <br />
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In contrast, Mexican laborers were not reared to put in a full day’s work so vigorously. <br />
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There was a cultural attitude of ‘mañana,’ or ‘tomorrow,’ when it came to high-gear production. It was also traditional to skip work on Mondays, and drinking on the job could be a problem. <br />
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The result was that Mexican laborers were seen as inferior and kept in low-paying, unskilled jobs that did not provide a pathway upward.</blockquote>
I don’t know what would be worse: Hispanic students reading that passage, or Anglo students. <br />
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Dunbar has objected that the passage was intended to portray the prejudices Mexican Americans had to overcome. <br />
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But the first sentence doesn’t identify the way Mexicans were viewed as false, and the rest of the paragraph presents those stereotypes as fact.<br />
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I wonder if that includes passages describing the Chicano civil rights movement as adopting “a revolutionary narrative that opposed Western civilization and wanted to destroy this society.”<br />
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Dunbar considers the critique as unfair and not constructive.<br />
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“It would seem like the logical thing would be to call and talk to people calmly and work together instead of doing this horrible hit piece, character assassination,” she told the Austin American-Statesman this week.<br />
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Having moved to Virginia and served as state co-chair for Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign, Dunbar is now a national Republican committee woman pumping for the candidate who called Mexicans rapists and declared a Mexican-American judge could not be fair. <br />
When she angrily says, “We want our country back,” it’s not a message that is hard for first, second and third generation Mexican Americans to decode. Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-45992143765918959502016-09-06T14:24:00.000-05:002016-09-06T14:24:15.647-05:00Bexar County DA attacks vaccinations<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="376" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="http://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/2365835000" width="512"></iframe>
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Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood stunned many San Antonians this week by appearing in a video asserting forcefully that vaccinations cause children — including his son — to contract autism.<br />
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The video was produced by an anti-vaccination group. In this program, we hear responses from two San Antonio epidemiologists.Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-87844656767716988172016-08-29T10:42:00.002-05:002016-08-29T10:43:10.526-05:00Controversial police contact ratified<iframe width="512" height="376" src="http://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/2365830982" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" seamless allowfullscreen></iframe>
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After two years of often bitter negotiations and a court fight, San Antonio’s police union has overwhelmingly ratified a new contract. City Council will vote on that contract next week, but not without controversy. City Manager Sheryl Sculley, who set a goal to reign in inflationary healthcare costs, joins us to discuss the contract and related issues.Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-20978298219797545572016-08-19T19:56:00.002-05:002016-08-19T19:56:43.335-05:00State representative visits 55 schools<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="376" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="http://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/2365827120" width="512"></iframe><br />
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State Rep. Diego Bernal visited all 55 public schools in his district this summer. He met with principals and teachers and asked them how the Legislature could help them do their jobs better.<br />
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His hope was that he could persuade his legislative colleagues to provide some of those things. Hear what Bernal has to say about his plans.Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-80345684071384991462016-08-19T13:55:00.001-05:002016-08-19T13:55:48.114-05:00Why has Baylor continually mishandled rape cases?<iframe width="512" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TdgrQ3rrJlw?rel=0&showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Last year’s rape scandals at Baylor University focused on what appeared to be a pattern of protecting football players from the consequences of criminal acts. <br /><br />An investigation this year commissioned by the university was so troubling that it led to the firing of legendary football coach Art Briles and the demotion of University President Ken Starr. <br /><br />But Baylor’s mishandling of rape cases for years has gone beyond the protection of football players. <br /><br />
<a name='more'></a>This week the Houston Chronicle reported on 12 alleged rapes at Baylor, as recent as last year and as far back as 2004. <br /><br />The newspaper interviewed five of the victims, and read lawsuit filings involving the rest. <br /><br />The article detailed complaints ranging from a failure to provide counseling or even basic information to the victims, to campus police officers seeming to attempt to talk them out of filing charges. <br /><br />Nothing was done to help the victim avoid encountering her rapist on campus — often a traumatic event in itself. <br /><br />Baylor officials say they have greatly improved their training, their counseling services and their investigative methodology. <br /><br />But it makes you wonder where they have been. <br /><br />Campus rape has been an issue for decades. <br /><br />And for decades, colleges and universities have been shamed for discouraging women from reporting rapes, for trying to avoid bad publicity for fear of frightening away students and their parents.<br /><br />But 20 years ago, San Antonio’s University of the Incarnate Word was already dealing with it well. <br /><br />On a Sunday night in September, 1996, a freshman reported that she had been raped by a 21-year-old man brought on campus by another student.<br /><br />The young woman admitted that she and the man had imbibed a bit too much tequila together, and that she had allowed herself to be alone with him. <br /><br />The two had even been seen acting affectionately together. <br /><br />That, of course, would have been taken by some officials as an indication that the sex was consensual. <br /><br />But that’s not how Incarnate Word staff reacted. <br /><br />They took her seriously. <br /><br />They had the man taken downtown for questioning by police and a member of the residence hall staff took the woman to the hospital for an exam. <br /><br />The next day, rather than hush the incident up, Renee Moore, acting dean of student life, sent a memo to all dorm rooms. <br /><br />It gave the details of the incident without naming names. <br /><br />It asked students to be careful, and announced that the alleged rapist had been banned from the campus. <br /><br />The purpose of the memo, Moore wrote, was “to inform the community of this unfortunate incident so that we can provide support to one another and have access to accurate information.” <br /><br />She added that campus ministers and counselors were available to any students who wanted them. <br /><br />Then the Logos, the student newspaper, devoted a front-page story to the rape, and University President Lou Agnese wrote a column about it. <br /><br />The message to students was that they would be taken seriously if they reported a rape, and that they would not be put on trial themselves, even if their behavior was questionable. <br /><br />Incarnate Word officials did not come to this way of handling campus rapes by being saints. <br /><br />A few years earlier they had handled a similar situation poorly. <br /><br />But they learned from their mistakes.<br /><br />And it’s not like they were the norm. <br /><br />At the same time, the University of Texas at San Antonio was being sued for a botched rape case in which a campus cop, during a five-hour grilling, repeatedly asked a student if she had experienced an orgasm during the rape. <br /><br />UTSA admitted he asked her that, but presented “expert” opinion from two other officers that this was an appropriate question. <br /><br />It wasn’t, of course, even if the woman had been drunk. <br /><br />But this woman had been abducted after class and raped at gunpoint.<br /><br />But that was 20 years ago, and UTSA responded by mending its ways. <br /><br />What, in heaven’s name, is Baylor’s excuse? <br /><br />Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-8718044045565203742016-08-15T11:51:00.001-05:002016-08-15T11:51:24.958-05:00City’s latest plan to handle growth<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="376" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="http://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/2365823549" width="512"></iframe>
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San Antonio’s mayor and City Council this week voted on an extensive plan to deal with as many as a million new residents over the next 25 years.<br />
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But was the plan strong enough to deal with issues of sprawl and protection of the environment? Hear from two councilmen who took opposing positions during the deliberations.Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-58248198004235647062016-08-12T00:00:00.000-05:002016-08-15T10:58:53.622-05:00Kaine says he and Clinton taking Texas seriously<iframe width="512" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uR1EjrHdr6Y?rel=0&showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Vice-presidential candidate Tim Kaine visited Austin this week and stirred the hearts of some Democratic activists by telling them that he and Hillary take Texas seriously.<br />
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"This team, the Clinton-Kaine team, we are serious about Texas," Kaine said, speaking to a gathering of about 300 local campaign officials and volunteers. <br />
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"We are very serious because we know the kind of work that you do.”<br />
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The Texas Tribune reported that he amplified the thought: <br />
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<a name='more'></a>“The first meeting we did, we brought it to Austin to show, hey, we’re going to go after Texas, and it's big and it's complicated and it's hard, but we're serious about this." <br />
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It was enough, reported the Dallas Morning News, to “create some buzz.” <br />
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Could the phrase “Battleground Texas” lose the bitter irony of the millions of dollars sucked up two years ago by a political organization of that name in Wendy Davis’s humiliating loss to Gov. Greg Abbott? <br />
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In short, no. Actions speak louder than words. <br />
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Kaine spent about 15 minutes speaking to the volunteers. <br />
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The rest of his overnight visit consisted of high-dollar fundraisers in Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth. <br />
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He also had a few words with waiting reporters. <br />
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The Clinton-Kaine team is using Texas the same way national Democrats have for the last 40 years — the period since a Democrat, Jimmy Carter, carried the state in a presidential race. <br />
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They come here not to sow, but to reap. <br />
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Texans had exported $11.5 million to Clinton’s campaign by the end of June, and Kaine hoped to pick up a couple of million more. <br />
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That is, of course, taking Texas seriously — but not in the sense that the volunteers understood Kaine’s remarks. <br />
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For a reality check, here is how you know if a national campaign is starting to take you seriously.<br />
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The Clinton campaign called up Democratic leaders in Georgia and Arizona this week to say hundreds of thousands of dollars are on the way to hire field organizers in those states, which have been reliably Republican for decades. <br />
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That’s serious enough, though the Washington Post reported there were no plans for more expensive television advertising. <br />
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One difference between Texas and those two states: Polls on average show Clinton trailing Donald Trump by less than one point in Arizona and actually leading him in Georgia. <br />
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By contrast, it’s not clear that national organizations see Texas as worth polling at this point. <br />
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Another factor is Texas’s size. <br />
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As the nation’s second most populous state, with 19 widely-spread television markets, Texas would be a very expensive state in which to run a full-fledged campaign. <br />
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While the benefits of turning the nation’s second-largest state blue are staggering, the odds of success will have to justify the expense of trying. <br />
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Getting to that point will not be accomplished by the Clinton-Kaine team or its successors at the top of the ticket. <br />
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It will only be done by Texas Democrats themselves, and they haven’t been able to elect a statewide official since 1994 — four years before this year’s youngest voters were born. <br />
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So when Tim Kaine said he and Clinton were taking Texas very seriously, Democrats should remember this: He has a reputation for being very nice.Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-64882352474416722242016-08-11T09:59:00.001-05:002016-08-11T09:59:30.562-05:00Fate of long-sought police contract<iframe width="512" height="376" src="http://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/2365818351" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" seamless allowfullscreen></iframe>
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We may learn as early as next week whether members of San Antonio’s police union have ratified the long-sought collective bargaining agreement with the city of San Antonio. The agreement was being celebrated in mid-June. But this week, a member of City Council announced that he couldn’t. Hear from Councilman Rey Saldana about why he isn’t signing on.Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-19843361632655739912016-08-05T15:18:00.003-05:002016-08-05T15:20:24.754-05:00Lamar Smith says panel protects scientific inquiry<i>NOTE: This is a response from Congressman Lamar Smith concerning Rick Casey's <a href="http://texasweek.blogspot.com/2016/07/congressman-investigates-global-warming.html" target="_blank">July 29, 2016, Last Word column</a> about a U.S. House Committee issuing subpoenas over global warming matters.</i><br />
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<b>by Lamar Smith </b><br />
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This opinion piece attacked the Committee on Science, Space and Technology’s oversight of the effects of Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s climate change investigations. Mr. Casey’s piece included a number of incorrect assertions that I write to correct.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The actions by the state attorneys general are undoubtedly having an effect on scientists, researchers and those engaged with our nation’s scientific enterprise. It is this chilling effect that the science committee is investigating.<br />
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The actions of the attorneys general are a direct attack on the scientific debate surrounding climate change. Their theory is that somehow Exxon Mobil and other fossil fuel companies were privy to conclusions about climate change well beyond the knowledge of the rest of the world’s scientists and that the company did not disclose these conclusions. This is preposterous. As former New York Attorney General Dennis C. Vacco pointed out recently, “Exxon Mobil has been open,” publishing “extensive research over decades that largely lined up with mainstream climatology.”<br />
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Congress has a clear need to conduct oversight. Our nation’s privately funded research and development program is under attack by two powerful officials in New York and Massachusetts. At the behest of environmental extremists, the attorneys general have declared themselves judges over the validity of scientific findings of those who disagree with those extremists.<br />
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My committee’s primary goal is to protect and promote scientific inquiry and free speech. Contrary to Mr. Casey’s assertions, the committee’s investigation into the actions and effects of the attorneys general and activist environmental groups is aimed not at protecting any single corporation. Instead, it is an effort to protect the First Amendment rights of all companies, nonprofit organizations and scientists, along with their ability to fund and conduct scientific research free from intimidation and threats of prosecution. <br />
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<i>Rep. Lamar Smith represents the 21st district of Texas in the House of Representatives and is chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.</i>Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-76593782016204226192016-08-05T00:00:00.000-05:002016-08-05T17:48:03.072-05:00The right way to create magnet schools <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PYV-PR7Ejsc?rel=0&showinfo=0" width="512"></iframe>
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Recent announcements of two new magnet schools in the San Antonio Independent School District make me wonder why the English language doesn’t give us a word that means the opposite of nostalgia. <br />
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Let me take you back two decades, to the first time the school district established a set of magnet schools — at least that’s what they called them.<br />
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It was not the most glorious period in the district’s history. <br />
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<a name='more'></a>The district hadn’t produced a National Merit scholar in decades. <br />
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Laboring to meet state mandates to serve children who were behind grade level, the district had no programs to serve what I called “advantaged children.” <br />
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Definition: Children who had been read to every night since before they could talk. <br />
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I mentioned to a former school board member, the late Andy Mireles, that the district didn’t seem to want those. <br />
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He explained that they didn’t want any children whose families would question board members on such matters as how principals were chosen and contracts were let.<br />
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But in the mid-1990s, a divided board had hired a reform-oriented superintendent by the name of Diana Lam. <br />
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Before long they tried to fire her but then-Mayor Bill Thornton successfully rallied support for her. <br />
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But he couldn’t get the board to work with her. <br />
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In May of 1995, Lam’s father died in her native Peru. <br />
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She flew down for the funeral, missing her first board meeting in her two-year tenure. <br />
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A few days before that meeting, someone posted an addition to the agenda: Each of the district’s eight high schools would become host to a magnet school.<br />
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There had been little or no planning or consultation with the schools principals, no budget for additional costs, no discussions with experts, no partnerships lined up with the private sector.<br />
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Instead, each board member decided the themes for their schools’ “magnets.”<br />
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Themes ranged from arts and humanities to health professions. <br />
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Because there had been no process, citizens were forced to try to figure out for themselves the rationales. <br />
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A prominent rumor in the case of the West Side’s Lanier High School was that its magnet program, a grandly named “International School of Banking and Finance” was that board member Tom Lopez hoped for employment in that field.<br />
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Some of these programs still exist, though few if any thrived.<br />
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Contrast that board with the current one, led by the estimable Patti Radle. <br />
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It hired an ambitious, non-traditional superintendent in Pedro Martinez, and has backed him fully in planning a variety of innovative initiatives. <br />
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In the past two months he and the board have announced two new magnet schools.<br />
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One is called an “accelerated learning academy,” which will run from pre-K through high school. <br />
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Aimed at producing high-performing students, the non-traditional school will open this month. <br />
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To create it, SAISD partnered with Trinity University and its premier teacher-training program. <br />
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It has raised money from a consortium of foundations that previously had supported mainly charter schools. <br />
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More than $1 million a year will go to scholarships for involved Trinity students and for stipends for “mentor teachers.” <br />
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For its principal Martinez was able to woo Kathy Bieser away from her position as head of Northeast ISD’s highly regarded International School of the Americas.<br />
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More recently Superintendent Martinez announced a new hi-tech magnet at the old Fox Tech High School. <br />
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Advanced planning in this case included partnering with Rackspace and with Tech-Bloc, an emerging power in San Antonio that expects to find internships and after-school jobs for the students in nearby technology shops.<br />
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It also meant obtaining a multi-million-dollar grant from Charles Butt and H-E-B. <br />
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About $2.5 million will be used to convert two old shop buildings into state-of-the-art technology centers. <br />
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The grant will also fund hiring a new principal well in advance of the school’s opening next August. <br />
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A thousand students have already applied for the Advanced Learning Academy* — making hope for the future far outshine nostalgia for the past.<br />
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<i>*CORRECTION: a thousand students applied for the Advanced Learning Academy, not the hi-tech high school as originally stated.</i><br />
<br />Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-46379187090767843582016-08-01T09:57:00.002-05:002016-08-01T09:57:32.790-05:00Tensions between minorities and police<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="376" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="http://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/2365813715" width="512"></iframe><br />
<br />
Painful videos of black men, some unarmed, being shot by police have raised the temperature. Recent assassinations of officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge have tightened tensions more.<br />
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As an African-American mother, Ivy Taylor believes black lives matter. As mayor of the nation’s seventh largest city, she also is concerned about the effectiveness, safety and morale of police. She joins us this week.Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-20200265212845223652016-07-29T00:00:00.000-05:002016-08-05T15:24:17.947-05:00Congressman investigates global warming investigators <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="288" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HKWbE-13iNo?rel=0&showinfo=0" width="512"></iframe>
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Mild-mannered San Antonio Congressman Lamar Smith faced some solid stiff-arming this week from the attorneys general of Massachusetts and New York. <br />
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Two weeks ago Rep. Smith, chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, sent extraordinary subpoenas to both attorneys general. <br />
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<ul>
<li><i><a href="http://texasweek.blogspot.com/2016/08/lamar-smith-says-panel-protects.html#more" target="_blank">Response from Rep. Lamar Smith </a></i></li>
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<a name='more'></a>He demanded that they turn over any and all correspondence, emails and other records concerning their staff’s communications with environmental organizations in connection with an investigation into Exxon Mobil. <br />
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On Tuesday, both Massachusetts AG Maura Healey and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman told Smith they had no intention of complying. <br />
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Both AGs are investigating allegations that as early as 25 years ago Exxon scientists knew — and even published scientific papers acknowledging — the role of fossil fuels in promoting possibly “catastrophic” climate change. <br />
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Yet the corporation reportedly cut back on its research budget in the 1990s and started doling out millions to so-called “think tanks” and other organizations engaged in climate change denial.<br />
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For example, according to a spokesman for the Chicago-based Heartland Institute, Exxon Mobil gave the self-described “nonprofit research organization” $736,500 between 1998 and 2006.<br />
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A little bit about the Heartland Institute: <br />
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Before taking up climate change denial, the Heartland Institute mainly focused on denying problems with big tobacco. <br />
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One 1999 letter to a Philip Morris executive thanked the company for its support and asked for an increase because Heartland “does many things that benefit Philip Morris' bottom line.”<br />
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A fun footnote: San Antonian Jeff Judson, who ran against State Rep. Joe Straus earlier this year, served on the Heartland board of directors for years. <br />
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He is still listed on its website as a senior fellow.<br />
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The seriousness of Heartland’s “research” and scientific discourse may be judged by its 2012 billboard argument against climate change. <br />
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The 2012 billboard featured a scary photo of Unibomber Ted Kaczynski with the message: “I still believe in Global Warming. Do you?”<br />
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The New York and Massachusetts attorneys general are investigating whether Exxon, later Exxon Mobil, misled the public and their investors by downplaying the consequences of gasoline and other carbon fuels, despite the evidence presented by their own scientists.<br />
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Exxon Mobil has denied the charge.<br />
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“The great irony here is that we’ve acknowledged the risks of climate change for more than a decade, have supported a carbon tax as the better policy option and spent more than $7 billion on research and technologies to reduce emissions,” a spokesman told the New York Times last month. <br />
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But the potential parallel to the tobacco companies, who were found to have lied about the harms of tobacco despite what their scientists told them, must concern Exxon Mobil. <br />
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Lawsuits by states led to $246 billion in judgments against tobacco companies.<br />
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Representative Smith denies he is riding to Exxon Mobil’s rescue. <br />
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He has accused the attorneys general of hiding “their coordination with environmental groups.” <br />
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He said these groups seek “to act under the color of law to persuade attorneys general to use their prosecutorial powers to stifle scientific discourse, intimidate private entities and individuals, and deprive them of their First Amendment rights and freedoms.”<br />
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Exxon Mobil, like tobacco companies before them, argue that their public statements on scientific matters are protected by the First Amendment. <br />
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The attorneys general have responded that speech is protected, but fraud isn’t.<br />
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Ironically, Smith’s accusation that the states’ investigations are intended to “stifle scientific discourse” echoes charges made against Smith himself. <br />
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Last year Smith geared up a committee investigation, including massive subpoenas, of scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration after they published a paper in the Journal Science rejecting the notion that global warming has slowed. <br />
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Smith said a couple of whistleblowers said the study was rushed for political reasons. <br />
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To the scientists and to some of Smith’s congressional colleagues, the subpoenas were a fishing expedition, and an act of intimidation. <br />
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Apparently for Smith, scientists are suspect. Corporations aren’t. Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-5963748947447300682016-07-25T09:25:00.001-05:002016-07-25T09:25:50.290-05:00Mexican Cartel boss found guilty in San Antonio<iframe width="512" height="376" src="http://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/2365809376" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" seamless allowfullscreen></iframe>
<br><br>
For the past two weeks San Antonio’s federal courthouse has been flooded with tales of gruesome murders and widespread bribery of government officials. But why was the dirty laundry of the vicious Zeta Cartel in Mexico being displayed in San Antonio, and what lessons should we draw from it? Hear from two Express-News reporters who covered the story.
Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8451478043802945546.post-8748124920007702392016-07-22T00:00:00.000-05:002016-07-22T00:00:10.748-05:00Respected judge fired, and no reason givenExpress-News columnist Gilbert Garcia told a disturbing tale this week about a good judge who was forced off the bench. <br /><br />It wasn’t, as far as we can tell, because Judge Oscar Kazen was caught selling judicial rulings in exchange for auto repairs — the pathetic cause of the last untimely departure of a Bexar County judge. <br /><br />Nor has Kazen been involved in any other public controversies. <br /><br />
<a name='more'></a>In fact, his specialty mental health court has received considerable praise as part of remarkable advances here in the handling of mental health cases. <br /><br />In fact, we don’t know for sure why Kazen was fired by his boss, Probate Judge Kelly Cross. <br /><br />She didn’t return phone calls from Garcia and she told me county policy prohibits her from commenting on personnel policies. <br /><br />If the county has a policy that bars elected officials from explaining to their bosses, the voters, why they replaced a respected judge of one of the nation’s best mental health courts with one of her employees, Commissioners Court ought to consider changing that policy. <br /><br />She also didn’t tell Kazen why he was fired. <br /><br />Judge Cross coldly delivered the message two ways: first, by email, then by dispatching a process server who went to Kazen’s home and handed a formal termination letter to his wife.<br /><br />So why does Cross have the power to fire Kazen? <br /><br />Bexar County has two probate courts whose responsibilities include committing people to the state hospital who are considered to be a danger to themselves or others. <br /><br />Nearly a decade ago, probate Judge Tom Rickhoff, a week after winning re-election, announced that he would no longer handle mental health cases — shifting the entire burden to the other probate judge, Polly Jackson Spencer. <br /><br />Spencer came to work closely with Leon Evans, the executive director of the Center for Healthcare Services, the county’s mental health agency. <br /><br />He arranged to pay for a case worker in her court to design treatment plans of therapy and medication for persons, some of whom had been repeatedly sent to the state hospital. <br /><br />Judge Spencer could then in effect put them on probation on the condition that they get the help they needed.<br /><br />The result, says Evans, was a 60 percent reduction in repeat commitments. <br /><br />But Judge Spencer’s docket became so overloaded that six years ago Commissioners Court agreed to set up a specialty court under her, presided over by an associate judge. <br /><br />Spencer chose Kazen, who had served for years as a county court-at-law judge but had lost a primary election by seven votes. <br /><br />Spencer, a Democrat, did not run for re-election two years ago. <br /><br />2014 was a non-presidential election year, when Republicans tend to win judicial elections. <br /><br />Out of 30 contested races, only one Republican lost, Art Rossi, a lawyer with a background in family law and commercial litigation. <br /><br />Judge Cross hired him as her staff attorney, and now has replaced Judge Kazen with him.<br /><br />Cross has the authority to hire whomever she wants for the job, but by giving no reasons she is encouraging speculation. <br /><br />Columnist Garcia talked to sources in the probate system who regret the loss of Kazen’s experience and mental health expertise. <br /><br />Some observers told Garcia they see it as Cross giving Rossi a leg up toward replacing Judge Rickhoff, who says he won’t run for re-election two years from now.<br /><br />One factor is that Republican Cross is replacing Democrat Kazen with a fellow Republican. <br /><br />But the courthouse culture of judges is not the partisan battleground that you see in Congress.<br /><br />When a good judge of either party loses an election, other good judges of both parties grieve it. <br /><br />One long-time Republican judge I talked to called Cross’ action a “rookie move.” <br /><br />“Associate judges ought to be left alone if they are doing a good job,” the judge said. <br /><br />What’s more, she “put a target on her back” when she runs for re-election two years from now.<br /><br />I think the judge is right. <br /><br />Judges have enough patronage in hiring staff. <br /><br />By removing a highly respected judge in a specialized field for an untested associate, she is putting at risk the welfare of some of our community’s most vulnerable citizens. <br /><br />That should be an issue two years from now when Judge Cross runs for re-election.<br /><br />Texas Weekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13393619811397084067noreply@blogger.com1