Tuesday, July 29, 2014

WHAT IS YOUR DREAM!?

Pussy Riot members take Kremlin to European court of human rights Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova demand compensation over their 2012 arrest, trial and imprisonment Share 690 1 inShare 12 Email Alec Luhn in Moscow The Guardian, Monday 28 July 2014 12.59 EDT

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jul/28/pussy-riot-kremlin-european-court-human-rights

The Coolest Gma!

COMING UP WED 3:50 PM Pregnant Despite Vasectomies & Tied Tubes

How 57,000 Immigrant Children Will Impact Midterms

If Men Were Women

'PERSONHOOD' AGAIN ROILS COLORADO POLITICS by AUSTIN RUSE 25 Jul 2014


http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/07/25/Personhood-Roils-Colorado-Politics-Once-Again

Greg Abbott, We’ll Kick Your Ass Out

Deirdre Delisi: How to solve the Texas traffic problem


http://trib.it/1o89SQw via @TribTalkTX

Analysis: Shuffling the Senate Decks, a Little Early by Ross Ramsey July 25, 2014

Analysis: Shuffling the Senate Decks, a Little Early

Some legislatures base committee assignments — who gets to serve on which panel, who gets the controlling middle seat and so forth — on seniority or party. In Texas, while there are some provisions for seniority and whatnot, committee assignments are ultimately up to the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the House.

Assignments are subject to fiat and caprice and power politics, in other words — something like the folkways you came to love or hate in the pecking order back in high school.

Good assignments make senators important. Bad ones can undermine their mojo for years.

Now, a combination of early resignations and new assignments has complicated things in the Senate, giving big jobs to legislators who have to wait six months before they know whether they will still hold these positions. They’ve got power, but they are temps.

The committee lineups will be set again at the beginning of the regular session in January. But there has been a burst of activity this summer, particularly in the Senate.

House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, filled a couple of gaps out of necessity, but Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a lame duck, took one last shot at reshaping the Senate, shuffling assignments and making changes that could arguably have been left to his successor.

Of the two main contenders for his job, Dan Patrick — the Republican who defeated Dewhurst this year in a runoff — would love to hand control of the committees to the conservatives whose politics match up closest with his own. The other candidate, Leticia Van de Putte, would be expected to put more of her fellow Democrats in control with a couple of moderate Republicans tossed in for spice, if only because there aren’t enough Democrats to go around.

Those chances will come in January. Dewhurst raised the stakes by naming people to jobs that they will hold for only six months, and only while the Legislature is mostly idle.

The Senate is a smaller body — with 31 members to the House’s 150 — and each empty seat leaves a more significant hole. For instance, two Republican state senators, Tommy Williams and Robert Duncan, have resigned, the former to become a vice chancellor for the Texas A&M University System and the latter to become the chancellor of the Texas Tech University System.

Their exits have left two major committees, Finance and State Affairs, leaderless and opened two seats on the 10-member Legislative Budget Board. Finance writes the state budget, a process already well underway in advance of the legislative session. State Affairs handles general but major state issues, and could safely have been left without a leader until the session.

But the budget board’s powers peak when the full Legislature is absent — when the state needs to make spending decisions that normally would be the province of the House and Senate. Really big stuff still requires everyone, but adjustments and surprises — moving money around to allow the state police to put $1.3 million a week into border security, for instance — are handled by the budget board.

The board also will vote before the year’s end on the rate of growth allowed in the next state budget — on how much the Legislature can spend without a supermajority vote. That growth number figures heavily into both practical and partisan calculations of what the state ought to be doing and what it ought to be spending over the next two years.

Dewhurst added three Republicans to the panel this summer, replacing Duncan and Williams and sacking Sen. Judith Zaffirini, a Democrat, to put a Republican in her place. Straus’s budget board appointees remain in office, but three of them will not return after the elections. He replaced them without touching their other assignments. Straus said this month that he had not given committees any real thought and would not do so until after the elections.

Dewhurst, who will leave office in January, showed no such restraint. He assigned new chairmen to three other committees, forcing his successor to accept his choices or to alienate colleagues who just won temporary promotions. It is a subtle difference but, in a chamber that runs on relationships, an important one.

Just the way it was in high school.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/07/25/analysis-shuffling-senate-decks-little-early/.

Lawmakers Push to Consolidate Women's Health Programs By Alexa Ura | July 20, 2014


http://apps.texastribune.org/politics-of-prevention/

Attorney General's brief PDF (298.9 KB) download

http://s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/documents/7-28-14_-_14-50196_Appellants_Brief_FM.pdf

Attorney General's brief
PDF (298.9 KB) download

AG Files Brief Supporting Same-Sex Marriage Ban by Eli Okun July 29, 2014

AG Files Brief Supporting Same-Sex Marriage Ban

*Correction appended

Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office filed a brief on Monday arguing that Texas’ ban on same-sex marriage is constitutionally sound and a matter for voters, not courts, to decide. 

The brief was filed with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where the state is appealing a state district court judge’s February ruling that the ban is unconstitutional. The case pits two same-sex couples against Gov. Rick Perry, state Health Commissioner David Lakey and Abbott, who is also the Republican nominee for governor.

Federal district court Judge Orlando Garcia ruled against a 2005 state constitution amendment banning same-sex marriage and against similar state laws passed in 1997 and 2003.

“Without a rational relation to a legitimate governmental purpose, state-imposed inequality can find no refuge in our United States Constitution,” he wrote in February.

Abbott’s office contends that a same-sex marriage ban meets the Equal Protection Clause’s prescription that laws “be rationally related to a legitimate state interest.” The state argues that promoting opposite-sex marriage encourages the birth of children “in the context of stable, lasting relationships” in a way that same-sex marriage could not.

More fundamentally, the brief says, the courts should not overrule Texas voters' decision in 2005 to define marriage in the state constitution as “solely the union of one man and one woman.”

Regardless of the court’s legal authority to strike down same-sex marriage bans, the attorney general argues, democracy would be better served by allowing voters to decide.

The brief also argues that the state doesn't need to prove that same-sex marriage is detrimental to the state interests, but simply that opposite-sex marriage is more beneficial. The state says a ban on same-sex marriage does not contradict the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Supreme Court rulings or the country’s history and traditions.

The Texas case is one of several challenges to state same-sex marriage bans that have cropped up across the nation since the Supreme Court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act last spring. Many of the challenges have moved quickly through the judicial system, and it is expected that the Supreme Court could take up one or more of the cases in its upcoming term, potentially issuing a ruling on same-sex marriage bans as early as next spring.

Correction: A previous version of this article mistakenly described Orlando Garcia as a state district judge. He is a federal district judge.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/07/29/ag-office-files-brief-supporting-same-sex-marriage/.

Castro Invites Perry to Discuss Border With Texas Reps by Julián Aguilar July 28, 2014

Castro Invites Perry to Discuss Border With Texas Reps

Weeks after sending President Obama a letter asking him to meet and discuss the illegal immigration influx in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry received his own invitation asking for the same.

In a letter on Monday, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, asked Perry to meet with the entire Texas congressional delegation to talk about the border and to “help set a more positive tone.”

The invitation is the latest salvo in a tense back-and-forth between Castro and Perry that escalated after the governor’s decision to send up to 1,000 National Guard troops to the Rio Grande Valley to assist law enforcement in border-security operations.

“I invite you to meet with the entire Texas congressional delegation (which you have not done in several years), at your earliest convenience, to work together to get Congress to pass the supplemental funding necessary to stem the flow of minors making the dangerous trek while treating humanely the tens of thousands of children who have arrived in our great state,” Castro wrote.

Perry’s office could not be immediately reached for a comment.

The invitation, which a Castro aide said is open-ended and would accommodate Perry’s schedule, is as much a push for Perry to meet with Texas lawmakers as it is a response to his accusation that Castro misunderstood the governor’s intent when he decided to deploy the National Guard.

In a letter on Wednesday, Perry accused Castro of misunderstanding “the very positive role the Guard will play in tackling the border security crisis,” the Houston Chronicle reported. Castro had called Perry's decision “militarization” that would send the wrong message to children at the border. 

Castro said in his invitation that he was disappointed the governor chose to visit the border and “pose by mounted machine guns as if on a trophy hunt.”

Should Perry accept, the clock is ticking on a meeting. In Washington, lawmakers have less than a week before adjourning for their August recess. At least one lawmaker has said that adjourning for more than a month without passing legislation concerning the border crisis could send a bad message to smugglers, and that without more funding, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and the Customs and Border Protection would run out of resources later this summer.

Castro’s invitation comes days after his Republican colleagues from Texas sent a letter to Obama urging him to enforce immigration laws and to “stop the surge of illegal entries.” Every Republican from Texas — 24 representatives and two senators — endorsed the letter, which asked the president to suspend his deferred action policy and stop “catch-and-release” policies that give “convicted criminal immigrants and illegal immigrants a free pass.”

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/07/28/castro-invites-perry-talk-border-texas-reps/.

Melissa Jeltsen A Look Back At The Trial That Made Rape A War Crime Posted: 07/29/2014 2:02 pm EDT

Bruce Springsteen & Jimmy Fallon: "Gov. Christie Traffic Jam" ("Born To ...

Friday, July 25, 2014

The Controversial Felony Murder Case of The Elkhart 4: Should Teens Be Sentenced to 50 Years in Prison? Jul 25, 2014, 3:16 PM ET By JUJU CHANG, ELY BROWN and LAUREN EFFRON JUJU CHANG More From Juju » Correspondent LAUREN EFFRON More From Lauren » Digital Producer via NIGHTLINE

http://abcnews.go.com/US/controversial-felony-murder-case-elkhart-teens-sentenced-50/story?id=24710849

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Working in the Underground Economy SHARE Undocumented immigrants lack workplace protections. http://ti.me/1nLdmMA

Life and Death on the Border SHARE For those attempting to cross the Southwest border, the passage can be perilous. http://time.com/immigration-images-from-the-border-and-beyond/

Child-migrant crisis: Will Obama help rally Democrats to back a GOP plan? ( video)

Child-migrant crisis: Will Obama help rally Democrats to back a GOP plan? ( video)

Obama will take executive action on immigration after summer, adviser says

Obama will take executive action on immigration after summer, adviser says

eva-longoria-immigrant

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/24/eva-longoria-immigrant_n_5618882.html

Houston Equal Rights Ordinance could be on November ballot

Houston Equal Rights Ordinance could be on November ballot: The city council passed the "HERO" ordinance back in May 2014, which ensures equal protection for gay and transgender Houston residents, but on July 25th, the council was forced to take a second look

Chris Isaak - Soundstage PBS Live - Complete Show

The Brief: Mr. Perry Goes to Iowa (Again) by John Reynolds July 24, 2014

The Brief: Mr. Perry Goes to Iowa (Again)

The Big Conversation

The Rick Perry Presidential Watch has revved up in a big way. The latest news there is that the Texas governor will spend another weekend in Iowa soon for a set of appearances before Republican and conservative groups.

Des Moines Register political reporter Jennifer Jacobs wrote on Wednesday that Perry will be in Iowa, the site of the influential presidential caucuses, on Aug. 9-12. Among the highlights are a headlining speech at the Aug. 11 Story County GOP Dinner and an Aug. 9 appearance in Ames at a summit of Christian conservative activists. A full roster of GOP 2016 presidential hopefuls are expected at the latter event, including U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

Jacobs noted that Perry was just in Iowa over the weekend to, as the Washington Post put it, "rave reviews from local conservatives." The Dallas Morning News' Wayne Slater suggested on Wednesday that the visit could end up being a good gauge of the conservative grassroots' approval of Perry's recent get tough stance on border security.

Perry, meanwhile, spent Wednesday defending his decision to send up to 1,000 National Guard troops to the Texas-Mexico border to back up existing border security efforts by the DPS. One of his critics, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, had accused Perry of militarizing the border with his deployment of Guard troops.

In a letter to Castro obtained by the Houston Chronicle, Perry wrote, “Your comments indicated a basic misunderstanding about the very positive role the Guard will play in tackling the border security crisis. ... The Texas National Guard is made up of our friends, our brothers, our sisters, our mothers, and our fathers. They are our neighbors from around the state, and they care deeply about the safety of our communities.”

The Day Ahead

•    The House Select Committee on Child Protection meets at 10 a.m. in the John H. Reagan Building to discuss ways to strengthen the foster care and CPS system in the state. It is the first legislative hearing to convene since news of the drowning of two foster children earlier this month. (agenda)

•    The Joint Interim Committee to Study Human Trafficking meets at 10 a.m. in La Joya to hear ideas on how to combat human trafficking along the Texas border. (agenda)

Trib Must-Reads

Texplainer: Does AP U.S. History Contain Common Core?, by Morgan Smith

Study: Gay Marriage Would Boost the Texas Economy, by Edgar Walters

Elsewhere

States Against E.P.A. Rule on Carbon Pollution Would Gain, Study Finds, The New York Times

Granger calls for ‘compassionate but tough solutions’ to border crisis, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Cruz warns House colleagues: Don’t let Democrats fool you, The Hill

Insurers owe millions in refunds to Texas policyholders, Austin American-Statesman

Drivers in Dallas, across state pay price for aging highways, The Dallas Morning News

Texas lawmaker wants legal ruling on slot-machine like devices, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Lawmakers wrangle over state’s incentives policies, Austin American-Statesman

After death of Texan in Gaza, lone soldiers continue fight, Houston Chronicle

Quote to Note

“We need our borders protected. We need a lot of things, but what we don’t need is more people at the trough. These people are not coming in with a good, Christian heart. Most of them are criminals, anyway.”

Thomas Rolland, during a constituents meeting with state Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, where the conservative lawmaker was criticized for his call for compassion for unaccompanied migrant children coupled with stiffer border security

Today in TribTalk

Crossing the border into 2016, by Jim Henson and Joshua Blank

Trib Events for the Calendar

•    The Texas Tribune Festival runs from Sept. 19-21 at the University of Texas at Austin. The next round of participants has now been announced, a list headed by Dan Patrick, state Rep. Sarah Davis and Houston ISD Superintendent Terry GrierAct now!

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/07/24/brief/.

Why is a Chinese River Running Blood Red? | News 92 FM | Official Site for Houston News, Traffic, Weather, Breaking News

Why is a Chinese River Running Blood Red? | News 92 FM | Official Site for Houston News, Traffic, Weather, Breaking News

Texas Betrayed: Abbott, Perry and the Cancer Fund Scandal

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Drinking Water Systems Draw Federal Concerns by Neena Satija July 23, 2014

Drinking Water Systems Draw Federal Concerns

More than 310 public drinking water systems in Texas — nearly 4.5 percent of the state's regulated public water systems — have quality issues that haven’t been adequately addressed, federal officials told the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality this year. That is the highest percentage in the nation, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. 

Most are small public water systems, like mobile home parks, serving a few hundred people or fewer. But a few are larger and serve thousands. 

TCEQ officials say the federal estimate is outdated and high; by their account, about 4 percent of systems have issues that need more attention. The agency said it has dramatically stepped up its enforcement in the past year, training more staff and pursuing more than 100 public water systems in recent months for clean water violations.

Still, the EPA’s concerns and additional data suggest that keeping up with the 7,000 public water systems subject to state regulation in Texas has been a huge challenge. The TCEQ's enforcement division now has 107 full-time employees, compared with 117 in 2007, though its annual expenses have stayed relatively constant at about $5.5 million. 

“There could be more resources brought to bear,” said Robert Doggett, general counsel for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which serves border regions where many public water systems have committed clean water violations.

Some districts have the money to fix their water issues, Doggett said. “Others are poor, and they don’t have the money and expertise, and they need help. Either way, it’s a problem, and why hasn’t the state agency done much about it?”

In an email, TCEQ spokesman Terry Clawson said, "Texas’ drinking water systems face a wide array of challenges in meeting the public health protection standards aimed at ensuring safe drinking water."

In its March letter to the TCEQ, the EPA wrote that an alarmingly large number of systems in Texas had problems that took the TCEQ too long to seriously address. Dozens have not been compliant with clean water law for close to five years, according to the EPA.

A separate EPA review done in 2012 found that nearly a quarter of public water systems in Texas had committed significant violations of water law — either because of unhealthy levels of contaminants, or because they failed to test water properly and frequently enough. That’s a higher percentage of violations than in other large states, such as California, where 8 percent of water systems had committed significant violations.

Many of the systems with the most severe problems are in remote areas and serve only a few dozen people. Their water resources have naturally occurring contaminants like arsenic that are enormously expensive to remove. Operators also constantly change or are hard to reach, making regulation by the state particularly difficult.

That appears to be the case, for example, with "Cyndie Park II Water Supply Corp.," which serves just over a dozen households in a Nueces County colonia. The water comes from portions of the Gulf Coast Aquifer that have high levels of arsenic. Long-term human exposure to arsenic has been linked to liver, prostate and many other types of cancer.

For more than 10 years, the TCEQ has regularly cited Cyndie Park II WSC for providing water with dangerously high levels of arsenic as well as coliform — microorganisms that could indicate the presence of disease-causing bacteria such as E. coli. It has also sent dozens of notices in recent years alleging that the system is not routinely testing its water or reporting test results to the state. But there was no apparent improvement; last fall, arsenic levels were at 15 micrograms per liter, according to EPA data; the federal limit is 10.

In 2011, residents were asked on three separate occasions to boil their water because of problems with the system, according to state data. The agency sued Cyndie Park II WSC in 2012 and demanded $150,000 in fines, but never received a response.

“None of us here drink the water,” said Robert Burleson Jr., a retired resident who lives with his wife on a fixed income. “We don’t cook with it. All we do is shower and wash dishes.”

Burleson said he spends about $10 per week on water jugs in Corpus Christi, 17 miles away. That’s in addition to the water bill he pays Cyndie Park II WSC. “That’s about all anybody can afford out here,” he said. The median annual income for area households is less than $30,000.

Burleson used to serve as president of the water cooperative’s board, but quit — with the rest of the board members — a few years ago out of frustration. “Nobody had any money” to fix the arsenic problem, he said. “I had engineers do work on it and put in for grants and stuff, but we never got anything.”

Nueces County received $150,000 from the TCEQ to install an arsenic removal system that will come online in the next few months. But County Commissioner Joe Gonzalez said many other problems remain, including water lines that are cracking and ready to break. Water service was out for nearly a month last year because of such issues, he said. Some of the $150,000 remains and will be used to fix the water lines, but more is needed.

Gonzalez said that his long-term goal is to provide residents with a new supply of water. Along with arsenic, other contaminants and high salt levels consistently plague the groundwater that supplies the colonia and other nearby residents today.

Planning, design and construction costs to connect to a larger public water supply system that relies on cleaner surface water would be around $1 million, and the county plans to apply for grants from the state. But it will likely be years before any construction begins.

“We try to do what we can with the money we have, but sometimes those grants are hard to come by,” Gonzalez said.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/07/23/texas-lags-behind-addressing-drinking-water-proble/.

Robert Durst Turns Himself in to Police in Houston | News 92 FM | Official Site for Houston News, Traffic, Weather, Breaking News

Robert Durst Turns Himself in to Police in Houston | News 92 FM | Official Site for Houston News, Traffic, Weather, Breaking News

Loyal dog stands guard over companion - MyFoxAustin.com | KTBC Fox 7 | News, Weather, Sports

Loyal dog stands guard over companion - MyFoxAustin.com | KTBC Fox 7 | News, Weather, Sports

Selfies4 Reform

Monday, July 21, 2014

This Is How Behind Low-Income Children Can Be When They Enter Kindergarten The Huffington Post | By Rebecca Klein Email Posted: 07/16/2014 12:19 pm EDT Updated: 07/16/2014 12:59 pm EDT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/16/kindergarten-risk-factors_n_5589450.html

Coming Soon: Condoms That Kill HIV? | News 92 FM | Official Site for Houston News, Traffic, Weather, Breaking News

Coming Soon: Condoms That Kill HIV? | News 92 FM | Official Site for Houston News, Traffic, Weather, Breaking News

Perry: Up to 1,000 National Guard Troops Headed to Border | News 92 FM | Official Site for Houston News, Traffic, Weather, Breaking News

Perry: Up to 1,000 National Guard Troops Headed to Border | News 92 FM | Official Site for Houston News, Traffic, Weather, Breaking News

BEWARE ALERT: Houston Man Allegedly Posed as Veterinarian | News 92 FM | Official Site for Houston News, Traffic, Weather, Breaking News

Houston Man Allegedly Posed as Veterinarian | News 92 FM | Official Site for Houston News, Traffic, Weather, Breaking News

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Prison (HBO)

HERE LIES THE REPUBLICAN PARTY #GOPFUNERAL

Texas Cities Pushing Back on Border Surge by Gilad Edelman and Terri Langford July 21, 2014

Texas Cities Pushing Back on Border Surge

City Councilwoman Heidi Thiess of League City swung into action shortly after she saw media reports of Central American children sleeping in cramped detention centers along the Texas-Mexico border.

Thiess sat down and wrote a city resolution barring any immigrant from being housed on an emergency basis in League City, a city of 91,000 southeast of Houston. It passed this month by a 6-to-2 vote.

“We’re not able to take care of our own veterans? We can’t take care of our own homeless and indigents here?” Thiess, a 43-year-old business owner, said, adding that the resolution was directed at the federal government, not at the immigrants. “But we are apparently ready to print money to take more from taxpayers to take care of an influx of hundreds of thousands of people who are illegal here who think they’re going to get a free pass.”

As the number of children crossing the Mexican border into the United States — most originally from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador — has risen to more than 57,000 since October, the long-simmering tensions over immigration have reached a boiling point, around the country and in Texas, which accounts for more than half of the country’s border with Mexico. Two Texas counties — Tom Green and Galveston — have passed resolutions similar to League City’s.

Legal specialists say the resolutions are unenforceable because immigration issues are the purview of the federal government and not state, county or municipal governments. Local leaders acknowledged that the measures were largely symbolic, a way to telegraph their unhappiness with the unresolved immigration issue to federal officials.

“They’re frustrated," Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, a Republican, said of the residents pushing for the measures. “Everybody has been talking about immigration for going on a decade, and they see the border as not being secured.”

Some immigrant rights advocates have a different explanation.

“What it really comes down to is xenophobia and racism,” said Amelia Ruiz Fischer, a lawyer at the Texas Civil Rights Project, a nonprofit law firm that works on issues including immigration. “That might sound like a pretty extreme way to characterize it, but why else would you not want children who are not public safety risks and who are fleeing their countries trying to save their lives — why else wouldn’t you want them housed?”

Fischer likened the recent resolutions to the efforts of Farmers Branch, a Dallas suburb, to keep undocumented immigrants from renting housing in the city. The city lost its eight-year battle when the U.S. Supreme Court in March declined to hear the case.

Officials have defended the recent measures by pointing to fears of disease epidemics. The resolution in Tom Green County warns that “the United States is at risk for epidemics of serious diseases and viruses that the nation has not seen in years.” Mayor Tim Paulissen of League City said he became concerned about the risk of disease after hearing media reports of “documented cases” of tuberculosis and scabies in Texas facilities housing the children.

Carrie Williams, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said there have been only three cases of tuberculosis reported among the undocumented children who have come into Texas. More than 1,000 cases are reported annually in Texas.

She also said that while there have been cases of scabies among the children, “it’s not outside the norm of what we would expect and not exotic to the United States.”

Fischer dismissed speculation about potential epidemics as “factually inaccurate.”

“The whole disease thing is just another link to the xenophobia,” she said. 

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/07/21/texas-cities-pushing-back-border-surge/.

Perry Will Activate Up to 1,000 Guard Troops

Perry Will Activate Up to 1,000 Guard Troops

Gov. Rick Perry will announce Monday that he is activating up to 1,000 National Guard troops to help beef up security along the Texas-Mexico border, two people with knowledge of the decision have confirmed.

Perry’s office announced Sunday that he would hold a news conference at 2 p.m. to “make an announcement regarding border security.” Perry will be joined at the briefing by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Texas Adjutant General John Nichols and Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, according to one of the people familiar with the plans. The Texas Tribune will livestream the announcement. 

“The governor will activate up to 1,000 National Guard Troops to bolster existing forces along the border,” the person said.

The McAllen Monitor first reported the decision on Sunday. The newspaper quoted Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa and an internal memo, which told of a slow build-up of troops over the next month, from another official’s office. Hinojosa did not immediately return a phone call.

The decision to send National Guard troops comes amid a huge surge of unaccompanied minors and families from Central America. The memo cited by the Monitor said the presence of Guard troops would not amount to a "militarization of the border." It said the troops would concentrate their efforts on combatting the smuggling of people and drugs from the border to points north.

But news of the National Guard activation was already sparking partisan tensions in South Texas.

“All these politicians coming down to the border, they don't care about solving the problem, they just want to make a political point,” Hinojosa told the Monitor.

Likewise, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, said the state should focus on humanitarian relief, not more law enforcement.

"We should be sending the Red Cross to the border, not the National Guard," Castro told The Texas Tribune in a text message. "These children are not trying to evade border patrol and there's no reason to confront them with soldiers."

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/07/21/perry-activate-1000-guard-troops/.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Gov. Rick Perry to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops to RGV - The Monitor: Home

Gov. Rick Perry to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops to RGV - The Monitor: Home

THE REID REPORT, 7/16/14, 2:42 PM ET A conversation with Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro 07/15/14 03:06 PM—UPDATED 07/18/14 03:51 PM

http://on.msnbc.com/1jPEtr0

Beer Run Bobby - Oldies Show

Beer Run Bobby - Oldies Show

Fifty Shades of Grey UnOfficial Trailer Valentines 2015

"Fifty Shades of Grey" FIRST Teaser Trailer - DETAILS!

The Real 50 Shades of Grey documentary

A Primer On The Border Crisis -- Its Causes, Its Politics And The Bickering Among Lawmakers Published July 20, 2014Fox News Latino


http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2014/07/20/primer-on-border-crisis-its-causes-its-politics-and-bickering-among-lawmakers/

Former Public Transit Bus Converted Into Mobile Shower For Homeless In San Francisco Published July 20, 2014Fox News Latino

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/07/20/former-public-transit-bus-converted-into-mobile-shower-for-homeless-in-san/

THE XX FACTOR WHAT WOMEN REALLY THINKJULY 15 2014 12:32 PM The Democrats’ Brilliant Idea for How to Stop Unnecessary Abortion Clinic Regulations 3.9k 387 1.3k By Amanda Marcotte

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/07/15/women_s_health_protection_act_a_brilliant_bill_to_protect_women_s_abortion.html?utm_source=nar.al&utm_medium=urlshortener&utm_campaign=FB

Lava Mae Launch

18-Pound Lobster Returns to Sea

18-Pound Lobster Returns to Sea: An 18-pound lobster caught off the coast of Massachusetts has been returned to sea. The lobster was caught by Joby Norton, the owner of Mullaney’s Fish Market in Scituate, Mass., in an offshore trawler. “We’ve had people come in who wanted to buy him for...

Friday, July 18, 2014

Video Playlist: Collaborating to Plan Common Core Lessons for ELLs By Lily Jones July 18, 2014 12:27 pm

https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2014/07/18/common-core-lessons-for-ells-nea/?utm_content=buffer776bb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

HERO on Public Affairs Public Access

Student Fundraises Online To Pay For College After Parents Cut Her Off For Being Pansexual The Huffington Post | By Tyler Kingkade Email Posted: 07/15/2014 11:34 am EDT Updated: 07/16/2014 12:59 pm EDT


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/15/kate-koenig-fundraises-college-tuition_n_5587966.html

University Of Phoenix Facing Federal Review AP Posted: 07/14/2014 11:26 pm EDT Updated: 07/14/2014 11:59 pm EDT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/14/university-of-phoenix-review-federal_n_5586335.html

Gender-Neutral Bathrooms Are Quietly Becoming The New Thing At Colleges The Huffington Post | By Kim Bellware Email Posted: 07/18/2014 2:41 pm EDT Updated: 4 hours ago

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/18/gender-neutral-bathrooms-colleges_n_5597362.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Documentary Nelson Mandela The Fight For Freedom - Documentary BBC

Jackson Lee: We Need to Re-Think US International Flights | News 92 FM | Official Site for Houston News, Traffic, Weather, Breaking News

Jackson Lee: We Need to Re-Think US International Flights | News 92 FM | Official Site for Houston News, Traffic, Weather, Breaking News

Planned Parenthood Set to Open Ambulatory Surgical Center in Dallas Andrea Grimes by Andrea Grimes, Senior Political Reporter, RH Reality Check July 16, 2014 - 1:31 pm

http://rhrc.us/1kwhHPD

Couple Sued for Too Many Garage Sales Closes Up Shop | News 92 FM | Official Site for Houston News, Traffic, Weather, Breaking News

Couple Sued for Too Many Garage Sales Closes Up Shop | News 92 FM | Official Site for Houston News, Traffic, Weather, Breaking News

Answer Sheet Why so many kids can’t sit still in school today

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/07/08/why-so-many-kids-cant-sit-still-in-school-today/?tid=pm_local_pop

Abbott Stands By Transparency Record Some Say is Mixed by Terri Langford July 17, 2014

Abbott Stands By Transparency Record Some Say is Mixed

Ask Texas Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial hopeful Greg Abbott about his record on providing the public greater access to government records and he will tell you it is one worth bragging about. He has aggressively pursued open records training for state and elected officials, and been honored for his work keeping Texas government transparent. 

“There really is no attorney general who’s had a greater proven record of achieving more transparency and more openness than myself,” Abbott told The Texas Tribune in an interview last week.

But open government advocates find the transparency record of the state's longest-serving attorney general to be much more varied, especially in light of recent rulings that kept both the locations of facilities storing dangerous chemicals and details about compounding pharmacies that produce execution drugs out of view.

“It is definitely mixed,” said Joe Larsen, a First Amendment attorney for Sedgwick LLP in Houston and a board member for the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, which promotes government openness.

Texas’ open records law and companion open meetings statute are among the nation’s more robust, and the attorney general, whose office also defends state agencies in civil actions, wields absolute authority in deciding public access cases. In many other states, disputes about public records are referred to the courts, or else the attorney general has a much more limited decision-making role.

“The Public Information Act is powerful and the [Texas] AG has dominion over it,” said Nicole Casarez, a communications professor at the University of St. Thomas who will teach constitutional law at the University of Houston Law Center this fall. “It’s a big part of his job and his legacy.”

Since Abbott stepped down from the Texas Supreme Court and successfully ran for attorney general in 2002, he and his staff have gone to great lengths to make sure elected officials and government employees who handle records requests know how to comply with the Texas Public Information Act.

Both are now required to take open government training, thanks to Abbott. And he’s fought against some of the worst public records scofflaws in the state, like the city of Dallas, which his office has called a "notorious" repeat open government offender. 

In 2005, three years after taking office, Abbott was awarded the Texas Freedom of Information Foundation’s James Madison Award for his efforts. Abbott has also said he would like the attorney general’s office to have greater authority so that its lawyers could criminally prosecute agencies that refuse to abide by the Texas Public Information Act. Currently, his office can only take such action if invited to do so by the local district attorney's office.

Larsen and Casarez both praise Abbott’s office for the transparency progress, lauding him for pushing back when medical officials tried to inappropriately hide basic health care information by declaring the information private under HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

They also point to how Abbott prevailed after years of challenges made by members of Alpine’s city council who believed their emails to one another did not violate the Texas Open Meetings Act.

“That’s a real feather in his cap,” Larsen said of the Alpine case.

But there are other decisions, particularly in this past year, that not everyone in the transparency camp favors.

Just ask KXAN-TV reporter Brian Collister of Austin, who, while working at another station a few years ago, recruited other broadcast stations in the state to jointly request reports detailing Texas Department of Public Safety troopers' “use of force.” Collister thought the request would be a slam dunk.

In 2001, a trial and appeals court had sided with the San Antonio Express-News, which was seeking the same type of report from local police. Typically, police personnel records are protected from disclosure. But the newspaper proved that the records were kept outside the personnel files for other reasons, and were therefore releasable.

Abbott’s office ruled on the DPS use-of-force request in November. The decision said that because the agency’s use of force and firearms discharge logs were part of officers’ personnel records at the agency, they could not be released.

“We wanted to know if officers are getting in trouble or maybe they’re not,” Collister said. “There is no way now. There’s a shield around them, and we can’t find out anything.”

Larsen considers the use of force decision a critical low in Abbott's transparency record.

“That was really bad,” he said. If police departments were not already doing so, he said, they would now make sure that their use-of-force reports were kept within personnel records, and not subject to disclosure.

Another case — one involving Gov. Rick Perry's memos when deciding whether or not to grant clemency to Cameron Todd Willingham, who was accused of killing his three three children by setting the family's Corsicana home on fire in 1991 — is still pending. 

Willingham was executed in 2004 but maintained his innocence up until his death. In 2010, the Texas Forensic Science Commission released a report saying the evidence used to convict Willingham was based on "flawed science." 

Media requests for legal memos — known as "clemency memos" — given to Perry by his counsel were denied after Abbott's office determined they were confidential. The Houston Chronicle sued over the matter.

Years earlier, in 2003, The Atlantic obtained "clemency memos" written by Alberto Gonzales, who had been the legal counsel for former Gov. George W. Bush. The magazine obtained these memos through a public information act request from the state archive because no one from Perry's office objected to their release, which would have prompted an open records decision from the newly installed attorney general, Abbott. 

"I think the clemency memos in the Todd Willingham case, people had an interest in seeing those," Casarez said. 

Larsen and Casarez also point to two more recent decisions that suggest there’s a flip side to Abbott’s openness record.

For decades, the Texas Department of State Health Services has released information about the storage of hazardous or “Tier II” chemicals to the public. But the agency had second thoughts about its procedure after last year's explosion in the town of West, and the subsequent requests from media outlets for the information. The health department asked Abbott’s office for guidance.

In May, Abbott agreed with DSHS that the agency should not release the information to the public, saying it never should have been released by DSHS in the first place.

“On the title of the law itself, it includes the word confidentiality, and so anyone and everyone who sees that law understands that that law is intended to keep that information confidential,” Abbott said. 

In another May decision, Abbott’s office eventually sided with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which has tried and failed previously to keep information about the compounding pharmacies providing lethal injection drugs for executions secret.

In previous decisions on the same issue, Abbott’s lawyers informed the state prison system that it had not proven the harm caused by releasing a pharmacy’s name.

TDCJ was finally able to win its case two months ago after getting DPS Director Steve McCraw to write a one-page note saying that “some of the threats” to the Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy near Houston, which was publicly named as a lethal injection drug provider, “should be taken seriously.”

“The issue people really want and need to know about these [execution] protocols is: What drugs are being used to effectuate the death penalty?” Abbott said. “That information is still widely open.”

Abbott told the Tribune that he stands by the hundreds of decisions made by his office, including the most recent ones making headlines, like the Tier II chemical storage decision.

And he insisted that the cases in the past year that news organizations and open records advocates disagree with do not signal a move to keep more records secret as the November gubernatorial election nears.

“Actually, what you’ve seen over the past year is greater access to public information,” Abbott said. “I’m continually pushing for greater transparency.”

Disclosure: The University of Houston is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Texas Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here. 

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/07/17/abbotts-transparency-record-mixed/.

Abbott Stands By Transparency Record Some Say is Mixed

Abbott Stands By Transparency Record Some Say is Mixed

Ask Texas Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial hopeful Greg Abbott about his record on providing the public greater access to government records and he will tell you it is one worth bragging about. He has aggressively pursued open records training for state and elected officials, and been honored for his work keeping Texas government transparent. 

“There really is no attorney general who’s had a greater proven record of achieving more transparency and more openness than myself,” Abbott told The Texas Tribune in an interview last week.

But open government advocates find the transparency record of the state's longest-serving attorney general to be much more varied, especially in light of recent rulings that kept both the locations of facilities storing dangerous chemicals and details about compounding pharmacies that produce execution drugs out of view.

“It is definitely mixed,” said Joe Larsen, a First Amendment attorney for Sedgwick LLP in Houston and a board member for the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, which promotes government openness.

Texas’ open records law and companion open meetings statute are among the nation’s more robust, and the attorney general, whose office also defends state agencies in civil actions, wields absolute authority in deciding public access cases. In many other states, disputes about public records are referred to the courts, or else the attorney general has a much more limited decision-making role.

“The Public Information Act is powerful and the [Texas] AG has dominion over it,” said Nicole Casarez, a communications professor at the University of St. Thomas who will teach constitutional law at the University of Houston Law Center this fall. “It’s a big part of his job and his legacy.”

Since Abbott stepped down from the Texas Supreme Court and successfully ran for attorney general in 2002, he and his staff have gone to great lengths to make sure elected officials and government employees who handle records requests know how to comply with the Texas Public Information Act.

Both are now required to take open government training, thanks to Abbott. And he’s fought against some of the worst public records scofflaws in the state, like the city of Dallas, which his office has called a "notorious" repeat open government offender. 

In 2005, three years after taking office, Abbott was awarded the Texas Freedom of Information Foundation’s James Madison Award for his efforts. Abbott has also said he would like the attorney general’s office to have greater authority so that its lawyers could criminally prosecute agencies that refuse to abide by the Texas Public Information Act. Currently, his office can only take such action if invited to do so by the local district attorney's office.

Larsen and Casarez both praise Abbott’s office for the transparency progress, lauding him for pushing back when medical officials tried to inappropriately hide basic health care information by declaring the information private under HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

They also point to how Abbott prevailed after years of challenges made by members of Alpine’s city council who believed their emails to one another did not violate the Texas Open Meetings Act.

“That’s a real feather in his cap,” Larsen said of the Alpine case.

But there are other decisions, particularly in this past year, that not everyone in the transparency camp favors.

Just ask KXAN-TV reporter Brian Collister of Austin, who, while working at another station a few years ago, recruited other broadcast stations in the state to jointly request reports detailing Texas Department of Public Safety troopers' “use of force.” Collister thought the request would be a slam dunk.

In 2001, a trial and appeals court had sided with the San Antonio Express-News, which was seeking the same type of report from local police. Typically, police personnel records are protected from disclosure. But the newspaper proved that the records were kept outside the personnel files for other reasons, and were therefore releasable.

Abbott’s office ruled on the DPS use-of-force request in November. The decision said that because the agency’s use of force and firearms discharge logs were part of officers’ personnel records at the agency, they could not be released.

“We wanted to know if officers are getting in trouble or maybe they’re not,” Collister said. “There is no way now. There’s a shield around them, and we can’t find out anything.”

Larsen considers the use of force decision a critical low in Abbott's transparency record.

“That was really bad,” he said. If police departments were not already doing so, he said, they would now make sure that their use-of-force reports were kept within personnel records, and not subject to disclosure.

Another case — one involving Gov. Rick Perry's memos when deciding whether or not to grant clemency to Cameron Todd Willingham, who was accused of killing his three three children by setting the family's Corsicana home on fire in 1991 — is still pending. 

Willingham was executed in 2004 but maintained his innocence up until his death. In 2010, the Texas Forensic Science Commission released a report saying the evidence used to convict Willingham was based on "flawed science." 

Media requests for legal memos — known as "clemency memos" — given to Perry by his counsel were denied after Abbott's office determined they were confidential. The Houston Chronicle sued over the matter.

Years earlier, in 2003, The Atlantic obtained "clemency memos" written by Alberto Gonzales, who had been the legal counsel for former Gov. George W. Bush. The magazine obtained these memos through a public information act request from the state archive because no one from Perry's office objected to their release, which would have prompted an open records decision from the newly installed attorney general, Abbott. 

"I think the clemency memos in the Todd Willingham case, people had an interest in seeing those," Casarez said. 

Larsen and Casarez also point to two more recent decisions that suggest there’s a flip side to Abbott’s openness record.

For decades, the Texas Department of State Health Services has released information about the storage of hazardous or “Tier II” chemicals to the public. But the agency had second thoughts about its procedure after last year's explosion in the town of West, and the subsequent requests from media outlets for the information. The health department asked Abbott’s office for guidance.

In May, Abbott agreed with DSHS that the agency should not release the information to the public, saying it never should have been released by DSHS in the first place.

“On the title of the law itself, it includes the word confidentiality, and so anyone and everyone who sees that law understands that that law is intended to keep that information confidential,” Abbott said. 

In another May decision, Abbott’s office eventually sided with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which has tried and failed previously to keep information about the compounding pharmacies providing lethal injection drugs for executions secret.

In previous decisions on the same issue, Abbott’s lawyers informed the state prison system that it had not proven the harm caused by releasing a pharmacy’s name.

TDCJ was finally able to win its case two months ago after getting DPS Director Steve McCraw to write a one-page note saying that “some of the threats” to the Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy near Houston, which was publicly named as a lethal injection drug provider, “should be taken seriously.”

“The issue people really want and need to know about these [execution] protocols is: What drugs are being used to effectuate the death penalty?” Abbott said. “That information is still widely open.”

Abbott told the Tribune that he stands by the hundreds of decisions made by his office, including the most recent ones making headlines, like the Tier II chemical storage decision.

And he insisted that the cases in the past year that news organizations and open records advocates disagree with do not signal a move to keep more records secret as the November gubernatorial election nears.

“Actually, what you’ve seen over the past year is greater access to public information,” Abbott said. “I’m continually pushing for greater transparency.”

Disclosure: The University of Houston is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Texas Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here. 

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/07/17/abbotts-transparency-record-mixed/.

Fact Check: Dan Patrick at the Republican Convention by Alexa Ura July 17, 2014

Fact Check: Dan Patrick at the Republican Convention

With help from the Washington Post’s fact-checking platform Truth Teller, we’re analyzing the speeches that Texas’ candidates for governor and lieutenant governor gave at their respective state political party conventions.

Here, we focus on some of Republican state Sen. Dan Patrick’s remarks at his state party convention in June. 

While addressing thousands of delegates in Fort Worth, the GOP’s lieutenant governor nominee largely focused on border security and immigration. Watch below as Truth Teller analyzes Patrick’s speech and incorporates fact checks aggregated by the Tribune and the Post. Patrick did not respond to multiple requests to clarify the claims he made during the speech. 

Hispanic sentiment on border security

“[Hispanics] are with us on securing the border.” —  IT’S COMPLICATED

A June 2013 survey conducted by GOP pollster John McLaughlin found that a majority of Hispanics support strengthening border enforcement.

The survey found that 57 percent of Hispanics support increased enforcement on the border to prevent undocumented immigrants from entering the country illegally. A small majority of Hispanic adults — 51 percent — support enforcing the border with additional fencing, police, surveillance drones and other measures.

Meanwhile, a poll conducted by Presente.org, which supports comprehensive immigration reform, and political opinion researchers at Latino Decisions produced different results.

When it comes to comprehensive immigration reform, their June 2013 poll found that Latino voters “firmly oppose” excessive enforcement, border security and punitive measures. A large majority agreed that the federal government should focus on border security while creating a pathway to citizenship. Additionally, about 73 percent of those polled said federal immigration officials should not increase the number of immigrants they send to jail or detention centers. 

Gang members in Texas 

“We have 100,000 gang members here in the state of Texas we believe who are here illegally.” — FALSE

Patrick seems to be referencing a Texas Gang Threat Assessment released by the Texas Department of Public Safety in April 2014, which provides detailed information on the types of gangs that reside in the state.

While the report found that the total number of gang members in Texas “may exceed” 100,000, it did not specify whether the individuals entered the country illegally.

The report specifies that the Partido Revolucionario Mexicano gang, which is listed in the second tier of “significant gangs” in the state, is largely made up of Mexican nationals who are mostly “illegal aliens.” But the report does not specify how many individuals who entered the country illegally are part of the gang.

Undocumented inmates

“In four years, we had 143,000 hardened criminals we arrested and put in our jails that came here illegally.” — FALSE

Patrick’s claim is likely based on a 2013 public safety threat overview by the Texas Department of Public Safety that includes concerns about "criminal aliens," who "may not be affiliated with the cartels and gangs but act alone to commit crime in Texas."

The report identified a total of 141,982 "unique criminal alien defendants" who were booked into Texas county jails from October 2008 to December 2012. But the definition of "alien" in the report includes all individuals who are not U.S. citizens or residents, regardless of whether they entered the country legally or illegally.

Releases of convicted "criminal aliens"

“And what did Obama do? He released 36,000 of them back into our communities, including 193 murderers across the country — 79 percent went back into San Antonio.” — IT’S COMPLICATED

Patrick’s claim seems to stem from two reports from the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative think tank. The reports prove that parts of his claim are correct, while others are not.

Citing a document prepared by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, the center reported in May that ICE officials released 36,007 convicted “criminal aliens” in 2013. These individuals were released while “awaiting the outcome of deportation proceedings” or afterward, according to the report. Of the 36,007 individuals, 193 had homicide convictions.

As for the “79 percent” Patrick said were released in San Antonio, that part of the claim is false. What Patrick said could indicate that 79 percent of the 193 murderers were released into San Antonio or that 79 percent of the 36,000 released went back to San Antonio.

The former would be false because the report provides no specifics on the location of the 193 murderers. If he meant the latter, it gets a bit murky.

The first portion of Patrick’s claim refers to the May report about the 36,007 releases. Those cases were different from the ones cited in a previous report that said 67,879 immigrants were released after being “encountered” by ICE officials — often in jails. Those individuals were released instead of being processed for immigration removal charges. The earlier report found that 79 percent of “criminal aliens” encountered at the San Antonio ICE field office — 28,680 out of 36,228 — were released.

In his remarks, Patrick seems to mix up figures from the May report from the Center for Immigration Studies with numbers from an earlier report. The Patrick campaign did not respond to several requests for clarification about this claim.

Number of unaccompanied minors

“Right now, we have a crisis of nearly 70,000 unaccompanied alien … children who have come into Texas in the last several months.” — FALSE

There has been a dramatic surge in unaccompanied minors entering the country illegally in recent months, but Patrick’s claim here is much larger than estimates released by federal officials.

Government officials estimated that as many as 70,000 unaccompanied children will cross the border into the U.S. by the end of 2014 — not that 70,000 children have already crossed into Texas. More recently, officials increased that estimate to 90,000 children.

The estimates for Texas specifically are much smaller. During a recent U.S. House Homeland Security Committee field hearing, U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, said more than 50,000 unaccompanied minors had crossed the border since October, with nearly two-thirds crossing in the Rio Grande Valley. U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector have reported more than 37,000 apprehensions of unaccompanied minors since October.

No publicly available estimates have indicated that 70,000 unaccompanied minors entered the country through Texas in recent months. 

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/07/17/truth-teller-dan-patrick-at-republican-convention/.

Patrick, Van de Putte Hone Their Immigration Messages

Patrick, Van de Putte Hone Their Immigration Messages

As the recent surge of Central Americans entering the country illegally through Texas’ border with Mexico has drawn national attention, it has also become a major talking point for the 2014 candidates for lieutenant governor.

And while state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, and state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, have distinct differences on immigration and border security, political observers say they each have advantages as the issue remains at the forefront.

Van de Putte has indicated that the state should secure the border by providing local law enforcement with ample resources to ensure "that troopers can focus on catching criminals, not kids” while calling for immigration reform at the federal level to get to the root of illegal immigration.

At the same time, she has also talked about the humanitarian crisis Texas is facing and the importance of properly aiding the tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors coming to the state as they flee violence in their home countries.

"I support our border community leaders in their call to put political rhetoric aside, deploy resources to stop criminals at the border, and provide targeted aid to assist them in providing care and shelter to refugee children," she said in a previous statement.

Since announcing his candidacy for lieutenant governor, Patrick has made immigration and border security major components of his political platform. He has called for reinforcing the border’s security year-round — not just during surges of illegal immigration — before considering any sort of immigration reform.

When it comes to discussing the current situation at the border, Patrick has said it's important to separate the “innocent children” from the “gang members who are coming under the cover of this” increase in unaccompanied minors, but he has recently emphasized that the state cannot bear the expense of caring for all immigrants.

"We do care about the poor and disenfranchised," Patrick wrote on his Facebook page last week. "However, we cannot afford to take care of the entire world and every person who wants to come to America legally or illegally."

Mark P. Jones, a political scientist at Rice University, said that the two approaches to the issue work for each candidate but that they must each deal with different challenges.

“Van de Putte has to walk more of a tightrope because she has to balance sympathy and concern for the welfare of these children without being seen overly soft on border security,” Jones said.

Van de Putte recently wrapped up a three-day stint in the Rio Grande Valley, in which she toured the Customs and Border Protection immigrant detention facility in Brownsville and met with state and local leaders to discuss the ongoing response to the border surge.

She also described the undocumented immigrants’ plight as something that hits close to home for her, likening it to her own family's move to the United States during the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century.

“They didn’t come for economic opportunity; they came because their businesses were being burned, because their families were being killed,” Van de Putte told the McAllen Monitor’s editor, Carlos Sanchez, during an interview on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Jones said that while Patrick can be successful in stressing border security, he must avoid making the “same type of unforced errors” Republicans have previously made when some of their comments have sounded anti-immigrant.

Rick Perry is a good example of … being able to go down there and be on message, focused on border security,” Jones said.

Patrick, who said he will be visiting the border “very shortly,” has been previously criticized for describing the influx of undocumented immigrants as an “illegal invasion,” and he has been quoted saying that undocumented immigrants bring “third-world diseases” like leprosy and tuberculosis into the U.S.

Patrick has said he is concerned about addressing the issue of the “hardened criminals” who are entering the country illegally. He has repeatedly said that his comments related to diseases that immigrants may carry are based on official reports, not his opinion.

“I’ve been criticized about these comments in the past, but it’s now all coming back to fruition,” Patrick said Tuesday in a radio interview. “This is not being anti-immigrant; it’s not anti-Hispanic. This is about law and order.”

Van de Putte has taken issue with some of his comments, calling his language inappropriate.

Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Brownsville who studies border issues, said both candidates have positioned themselves on these issues in line with their parties' national stances while giving themselves a tool to further appeal to Texas voters by upholding their local party’s stance.

For Patrick, this means pushing Texas Republicans’ more hardline stance on immigration. For Van de Putte, it’s about pushing for border security while being a good neighbor to Mexico.

In the end, it seems Van de Putte and Patrick have little to lose while talking about immigration and border security issues when it comes to their voting base, Correa-Cabrera said. But depending on how successfully they drive home their messages, she added, they could bring “indecisive” or independent voters into the ballot box.

Less than four months ahead of Election Day, both candidates are working with similar war chests to spread that message. Van de Putte is holding onto $1.1 million cash on hand while Patrick is working with $946,982 in the bank, according to the most recent campaign finance reports.

“More than attract or make people change their minds, this [issue] will mobilize,” Correa-Cabrera said. “That’s the possible impact of an aggressive campaign focused on this issue when it's a big issue in the United States, but especially in Texas.”

Disclosure: Rice University is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Texas Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/07/17/lt-gov-candidates-hone-their-immigration-messages/.

Fact Check: Van De Putte at the Democratic Convention

Fact Check: Van De Putte at the Democratic Convention

We are using The Washington Post’s Truth Teller fact-checking technology to analyze the speeches given by Texas’ candidates for governor and lieutenant governor at their respective state conventions.

Here, we focus on some of Democratic state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte’s remarks at her state party convention, held in June in Dallas.

During her keynote address to delegates, Van De Putte criticized her Republican opponent, state Sen. Dan Patrick, and his votes in the Senate. Watch below as Truth Teller analyzes Van de Putte’s speech and incorporates fact checks aggregated by the Tribune and the Post.

Investment votes 

“He took vote after vote, sometimes the only dissenting vote, against investing in jobs, roads, bridges and water.” — TRUE 

Asked to provide evidence for this claim, the Van de Putte campaign cited several bills from the 2013 legislative session.

The first, HB 1025, transferred funds from the state’s general revenue fund to the Texas Department of Transportation. It also appropriated $2 billion from the state’s Rainy Day Fund to the state’s newly created Water Implementation Fund for projects to help meet the state’s need for water amid an extended severe drought.

The Senate Journal shows that Patrick was among three senators who voted against the measure. The Patrick campaign did not respond to requests for comment on Van de Putte’s claim.

Van de Putte’s campaign also pointed to a bill she authored, SB 475, which related to municipalities' authority to ask local voters to reauthorize taxes to fund road improvement and maintenance projects. Patrick was among the four senators who voted against the bill, which was eventually passed and signed into law.

As for the "only dissenting vote" part of her claim, the Van de Putte campaign flagged SB 1476, which created a program to assist veterans hoping to start a business. The Senate Journal for April 18 shows that Patrick was the sole vote against considering the bill, and he was the only “nay” vote against the bill during its final reading in the Senate.

Vote against veterans program

“Dan was the only vote, the only one in the entire Senate that voted against a veteran entrepreneurship program, a program that assists veterans … in successfully starting up their own businesses.” — TRUE

In this claim, Van de Putte's campaign said she is also referring to SB 1476, which was introduced by state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, to create the program under the Texas Veterans Commission.

Patrick spokesman Logan Spence told PolitiFact that the senator voted against the bill “because it expanded the state’s bureaucracy with a new function that would be more efficiently absorbed in a different agency.”

Legislators eventually passed the bill, which Gov. Rick Perry signed into law.

School finance vote

“He voted for cutting more than $5 billion for Texas neighborhood schools, resulting in nearly 11,000 teachers losing their jobs and increasing class sizes.” — TRUE

Amid a major budget shortfall in 2011, state lawmakers looking to stretch the dollars available to write a two-year budget cut $5.4 billion for public education.

Van de Putte’s claim that Patrick voted in favor of the budget bill that included the massive cuts to Texas’ public education system is true, according to the Senate Journal.

The cuts would eventually lead a coalition of school districts to sue the state, arguing that the school finance system and the Legislature’s cuts violated the Texas Constitution, which requires that schools be funded appropriately.

The second part of her claim is based on figures reported by several news outlets and confirmed by the Texas State Teachers Association. TSTA spokesman Clay Robison told the Houston Chronicle in December 2013 that the massive cuts to public education led schools to lay off about 11,000 teachers. 

Equal pay vote

“He voted against equal pay for equal work for Texas women.” — TRUE

During the 2013 legislative session, state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, introduced a bill that would have made Texas law mirror protections outlined in the federal Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. It sought to extend the statute of limitations for women who want to sue employers over unfair pay.

Current state law requires disparate pay claims to be filed within six months after the discrimination began. Thompson’s proposal would have allowed such claims to be filed when discrimination is discovered.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, a state senator, sponsored the bill in the Senate, where it eventually passed by a slim margin with Patrick among the “nay” votes.

Legislators passed the bill, but Gov. Rick Perry vetoed it. Van de Putte has said she would push for similar legislation in the next legislative session if elected lieutenant governor.

Patrick told news outlets earlier this year that he believes men and women should be paid equally, but he does not support equal pay legislation. He said the “government shouldn’t be calling the shots” when it comes enforcing equal pay.

Perry and Medicaid

“Our hard-earned tax dollars go to California or New Jersey, because our governor refuses to find a Texas way to insure those without health insurance and expand Medicaid.” — IT’S COMPLICATED

Texas Democrats often criticize Republican leaders for their staunch opposition to expanding Medicaid — the joint federal-state insurer of children and the disabled — to cover low-income, uninsured adults under the federal Affordable Care Act. Democrats claim Republicans are leaving federal dollars on the table by forgoing expansion.

If Texas had expanded Medicaid to cover young adults under President Obama’s health reform law, the federal government would have covered 100 percent of the cost for three years, eventually reducing its coverage to 90 percent.  (The federal government currently provides Texas with $60 in matching funds for every $40 the state spends on Medicaid services.)

To pay for the Medicaid expansion in states like California and New Jersey, the federal government is using taxpayer dollars raised from residents in all states, regardless of whether that state expands Medicaid and receives the federal funds.

Texas would have received about $100 billion in federal funds over 10 years, but it would have had to pay out $15 billion from its own pocket for the expansion.

Republicans have said the increase in state spending that would be required to finance an expansion outweighs the financial incentives the federal government would provide. Gov. Rick Perry has called the Medicaid system “broken” and has said it should be reformed instead of expanded. More recently, he called the ACA’s Medicaid expansion provision “federal blackmailing.”

Perry directed the state’s Health and Human Services Commission to request a federal block grant that would allow the state to reform the program. 

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/07/17/truth-teller-leticia-van-de-putte-democratic-conve/.

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