Dark Money Hearing Centers on Transparency, Free Speech by Aman Batheja May 1, 2014

Dark Money Hearing Centers on Transparency, Free Speech

• by Aman Batheja, The Texas Tribune
• May 1, 2014

Nearly a year after Gov. Rick Perry vetoed a bill that would have forced some tax-exempt, politically active nonprofits to disclose their donors, a hearing in the Texas House on Thursday showed that it remains as divisive a concept as ever.

The House State Affairs Committee heard testimony on the issue of “dark money,” the term for political spending done by nonprofits falling under 501(c)(4) of the tax code. Panelists in favor of disclosure said Texans should know who is funding ads attempting to influence how they vote.

“Texas does not limit restrictions," said Jim Clancy, chairman of the Texas Ethics Commission, adding, "The defense mechanism that the public has is the transparency of who is making that contribution and knowing who is standing behind the measure.” 

Critics argued that requiring advocacy organizations to disclose their donors would be used for retaliation purposes. Several cited the recent case of Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, who resigned following criticism over a $1,000 donation to a campaign in support of banning gay marriage in California.

“If they can’t win on the merits of their ideas, they are attempting to win through oppression and official intimidation,” said Michael Quinn Sullivan, who runs Empower Texans, a network of organizations that includes a 501(c)(4) that has spent heavily in recent election cycles. “That is a wrong path for the people of Texas.”

Sullivan was not invited by committee Chairman Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, to speak at the hearing, so he voiced his views at a press conference earlier in the morning. He and the leaders of several other conservative groups accused Cook of not being interested in a full airing of the issue.

Yet testimony at the hearing included some critics of mandating disclosure of dark money spending, including Russell Withers, general counsel and a policy analyst for the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute. Withers told the committee that there was no justification for private organizations to follow the same rules required of candidates and elected officials.

“I don’t think the public is particularly concerned with who paid for the ad,” Withers said. “I think the ultimate issue is in the marketplace of ideas. The public decides for themselves once they hear the message.”

Cook expressed bafflement at Withers’ argument, questioning why voters should be prevented from having information that could help them put a political message in context.

“I’m glad to have the dissenting view because I think a debate is healthy, but I am just struggling with the logic,” Cook said.

State Rep. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, argued that voters would be interested to know if a group spending heavily in favor of a candidate was funded by overseas gambling interests hoping to have laws changed so they could build casinos in Texas.

Clancy offered a scenario of a group called Moms for Healthy Kids trying to influence Texas elections.

“That’s great as long as it’s being paid for by moms,” Clancy said. “If it’s paid for by Michael Bloomberg, then that’s a different situation — someone out of state with a lot of money who has an agenda. “

Ahead of the hearing, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz weighed in on the issue via Facebook, describing the kind of disclosure laws under discussion as “pernicious.”

“Today the Texas Legislature is holding a hearing on requiring outside groups to disclose their donors to engage in political speech,” Cruz wrote. “That would be a disastrous policy that would unconstitutionally chill free speech.”

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/05/01/dark-money-hearing-focuses-transparency-free-speec/.

Will Cold Shoulder From National Group Affect Davis' Chances?

• by Ben Philpott, KUT News, The Texas Tribune
• May 1, 2014

This week the head of the Democratic Governors Association said the Texas governor's race isn’t in the top tier of races his group will be financially backing in 2014. What will that lack of support mean for Wendy Davis' chances here?  

 

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/05/01/will-cold-shoulder-national-group-affect-davis-cha/.

Tennessee just became the first state that will jail women for their pregnancy outcomes

Tennessee just became the first state that will jail women for their pregnancy outcomes

TribCast: Executions, Land Management and Allegations by Reeve Hamilton April 30, 2014

TribCast: Executions, Land Management and Allegations

• by Reeve Hamilton, The Texas Tribune
• April 30, 2014

Ross, Reeve, Jim and Terri talk about what a botched execution in Oklahoma means for Texas, the state's history with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and allegations regarding the business practices of attorney general candidate Ken Paxton.

Download audio file

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/04/30/tribcast-executions-land-management-allegations/.

San Antonio provides ideal location for possible Sriracha expansion By Kolten Parker | April 29, 2014 | Updated: April 29, 2014 4:03pm

http://www.chron.com/news/local/article/Lawmaker-San-Antonio-at-top-of-list-for-Sriracha-5438609.php

H.S. Bars 10 Students From Prom for Showing Too Much Skin By Beth Greenfield, Shine Staff | Parenting –

https://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/h-s--bars-10-students-from-prom-for-showing-too-much-skin-182719680.html

Wendy Davis' Campaign Furious Dem Guv Group Won't Prioritize Texas DANIEL STRAUSS – APRIL 29, 2014, 5:58 PM EDT

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/wendy-davis-dga-top-pickup-texas

Houston a Focal Point as Advocates Target Sex Trafficking by Ashley Hickey, Medill News Service April 29, 2014

Houston a Focal Point as Advocates Target Sex Trafficking

• by Ashley Hickey, Medill News Service, The Texas Tribune
• April 29, 2014

WASHINGTON — As a new survey shows large counties across the U.S. identifying human sex trafficking as a major problem, lawmakers and advocates have pointed to Houston as a critical city in their efforts to address the issue.

Thirty-three Texas counties were among 400 polled in a nationwide April survey of county sheriffs and police departments that revealed 48 percent of counties with more than 250,000 residents consider human sex trafficking a major problem. Nearly 90 percent of those counties said sex trafficking is a problem to some degree. The poll was released Tuesday by the National Association of Counties.

Human sex trafficking can refer to the recruiting, harboring, transportation or receipt of people for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Children, some as young as 12, are often the victims.

“Human trafficking is modern day-slavery,” said U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, who has co-authored a bill with U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., that aims to reduce demand for domestic sex trafficking and provide aid to trafficking victims. The House is expected to vote on the bill in May.

The bill would impose a $5,000 fine on anyone convicted of crimes related to trafficking and establish a fund within the Treasury Department to collect these fines and use them to award grants to organizations providing support to victims. 

Every year as many as 300,000 children in the U.S. are at risk for sexual exploitation, including sex trafficking, according to a 2011 Justice Department report.

Poe, a former judge who co-founded the Congressional Victims’ Rights Caucus, said that Houston is a hub for sex trafficking and is often a starting point for victims to be taken to other areas of the country.

The city’s proximity to the border and seaports make it a hub, according to Texas-based nonprofit Children at Risk, an advocacy and research organization that focuses on human trafficking in Texas. Robert Sanborn, president and CEO of the organization, said more must be done to end the demand that fuels trafficking.

“There are a lot of things we can do  — raise awareness, go after traffickers and put them away, treat the victims,” Sanborn said. “But the only way to really end it is end demand.”

Sanborn says Houston could decrease demand by continuing to push for stronger regulation of sexually oriented businesses such as strip clubs and massage parlors, where minors are often hidden away and victimized.

Increased police presence on internet sites selling adult and escort services can also help decrease demand, Sanborn said, citing success the Dallas Police Department has had posting ads warning that such sites are being monitored for anyone advertising services involving children.

In his March 20 testimony before the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee in a hearing on human trafficking, Houston Police Department Chief Charles McClelland spoke of the seriousness of this issue in Houston and measures his department is taking to address it, including the formation of a human trafficking unit intended to consolidate police resources for better tracking, quicker response and more thorough, focused investigations.

The public also has a role to play in alerting authorities to suspicious businesses that could be a front for a sex-trafficking operation, Sanborn said, many of which will have a combination of features like blacked-out windows, multiple video cameras, stickers supporting the local chamber of commerce and an iron gate behind the front glass door. These features may or may not indicate a sex trafficking operation, but Sanborn encourages the public to report them to local authorities.

“The best thing the public can do is call the city council and county commissioners, and be specific that these places need to be shut down,” Sanborn said. “The more pressure that gets put on the city council, the more action we see out of our police department.” 

And would-be traffickers and purchasers notice when the police take action.

“If they hear people are getting arrested and the police are engaged in this, that really has an impact on demand,” Sanborn said. “We have to make it difficult and a shameful experience where you have to jump through lots of hoops and obstacles to buy and you’re afraid.”

During a panel discussion on the issue Tuesday at the National Press Club, a trafficking survivor identified as Jessica M., 29, of California said her tale of abuse began when she was 11 years old and took her all over the country.

“I was even trafficked in front of the White House on K Street,” she said.

Jessica, who now mentors other victims of sex trafficking, spoke of the “recurring nightmares” and “shattered self-worth” she and other victims experience, adding that it is painful to hear victims referred to as “child prostitutes.”

“Don’t call us prostitutes,” she said, noting the term doesn't acknowledge the abuse the victims suffered and suggests consent was involved.

“Children cannot consent to sex,” Poe said. “They aren’t prostitutes. They are victims of a crime and need to be rescued.”

The Medill News Service is a content partner of The Texas Tribune and is providing reports from Washington, D.C.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/04/29/houston-focal-point-fight-against-sex-trafficking/.

Lawmakers Urged to Reform Parole With Technology by Cathaleen Qiao Chen April 29, 2014

Lawmakers Urged to Reform Parole With Technology

• by Cathaleen Qiao Chen, The Texas Tribune
• April 29, 2014

The solution to saving money on the state prison system may be more spending on technology, experts and lawmakers mused at a Tuesday panel on criminal justice policy. 

In light of Georgia's success using new technologies in parole and probation, experts at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative Austin-based think tank, are urging Texas lawmakers to follow suit. Reforming the methods of community supervision for nonviolent offenders, they said in a report published in conjunction with the panel, could reduce incarceration costs and recidivism. 

Georgia uses a voice recognition technology that allows low-risk offenders to check in with their parole officers through self-reporting. The state also eliminated parole offices in favor of virtual workspaces. With the technology, along with GPS monitoring and increasing the amount of time officers spent with their cases because they no longer have physical offices, parolees were much less likely to be revoked to prison or arrested for a new offense, the report said. Ninety-seven percent of offenders supervised under voice recognition successfully completed parole and those under cell phone-based GPS electronic monitoring were 89 to 95 percent less likely to be revoked. 

“The offenders are one of the biggest advocates of our system,” said Michael Nail, the executive director of the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles. “They feel that they now have a stronger relationship with their parole officers.”

Nail, a panelist, said that in the three years since implementing the reforms, which also included conducting parole hearings via teleconference, parole officers increased contact with offenders by 22 percent.

The report by Marc Levin and Vikrant Reddy, policy analysts at the TPPF's Center for Effective Justice, recommended that Texas lawmakers consider not only Georgia’s efforts but also new methods of risk assessment and alcohol detection aimed to stop substance abuse. 

Aside from following Georgia's lead, the report recommended developing risk assessments that would help officials determine what kind of monitoring would work best for individual parolees. Such a screening would predict the likelihood of recidivism and assign the appropriate level of supervision for each offender. 

The report also suggests using additional tools to help parole officers detect alcohol over a telephone or through the sweat on an offender's ankle. Texas parole officers already use an ignition interlock device that prevents a car from starting if a second-time DWI offender's breath indicates a higher-than-allowed alcohol content after the parolee blows into a machine attached to the dashboard. 

“If Texas can move more low-level, nonviolent offenders from incarceration into community supervision, the benefits to taxpayers would therefore be considerable,” the report said. “Technology may provide that opportunity.”

But Carey Welebob, a panelist who runs the community justice assistance division at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said the standardization of technologies at the state level might not be feasible or appropriate for Texas.

“It’d be challenging because we’re such a diverse state,” Welebob said. “It’s really going to depend on the local department and what their needs are.”

Welebob said that whereas Georgia's parole system is centralized, Texas is the opposite. Some counties, she said, may be paperless, while others rely on older technologies.

Texas already has made progress in terms of using technologies like using video conferencing for parole hearings, Welebob said. And the state, she said, uses a constantly evolving assessment process to sort offenders on parole as low, medium or high risk for revocation. 

Still, Welebob and the other panelists agreed that there is much to be done to improve parolees' success. Sixty-two percent of all Texas inmates return to prison within three years of their release. In 2012, incarcerating one offender cost the state $50.04 per day — and that’s a low estimate, according to the report. 

Spending on criminal justice totals more than 6 percent of the state’s general revenue budget, said state Sen. José Rodríguez, D-El Paso, the final speaker on the panel.

Rodríguez highlighted recently approved legislation relating to community supervision, including Senate Bill 2340, passed in the 81^st legislative session, which authorized counties to use an electronic monitoring system that saves money and preserves jail cells for dangerous offenders. He also discussed a bill that has failed in the last two sessions that would allow certain nonviolent offenders to be released under electronic monitoring or house arrest. 

“We have a lot of work to fix in this field,” Rodriguez said. 

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/04/29/lawmakers-urged-reform-criminal-justice-technology/.

Perry Baptized Anew in Historic Creek by Jay Root April 29, 2014

Perry Baptized Anew in Historic Creek

• by Jay Root, The Texas Tribune
• April 29, 2014

Before he launched his bid for the presidency three years ago, Gov. Rick Perry drew thousands of worshipers to an air-conditioned stadium in Houston, where Christian conservative activists prayed for the nation and the soon-to-announce candidate proclaimed his faith in God. 

Perry is still said to have his eyes on the White House, but the religious event he staged last month was nothing like the flashy “prayerpalooza” at Reliant Stadium in 2011.

With only close friends and family looking on, the born-again Christian governor was baptized outdoors, in the spring waters once used to wash the sins off Sam Houston, the first elected president of the Republic of Texas and one of the most colorful political figures in American history.

When Houston emerged from Little Rocky Creek near Independence, Texas, in 1854, he was reported to have proclaimed, “I pity the fish downstream.”

There’s no word yet on what Perry said after he was dunked, but his office confirmed that the ceremony took place last month. And the pastor whose congregation still uses the creek for baptisms recounted the governor’s subsequent visit to the nearby church, where he said Perry played a soulful hymn on the organ and soaked up the rich local history.

“Gov. Perry has a deep and abiding faith in God,” Perry spokesman Felix Browne said in a written statement. “Like many people of faith, the governor wished to reaffirm his commitment in a way that holds great personal meaning.” 

Though Perry’s recent expression of faith took place away from the media spotlight, the governor has not shied away from pushing religion into the public square.

In 2005, he stirred controversy by using a Fort Worth evangelical Christian school to stage a bill-signing ceremony where he affixed his signature to legislation restricting abortion and a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. A few years later, in the midst of a punishing Texas drought, Perry issued an official proclamation calling on Texans to pray for rain. 

Perhaps Perry’s boldest and most overt melding of politics and religion came a week before he announced for president in 2011. An estimated 30,000 worshipers flocked to Houston for his modern-day revival, called “The Response,” a boisterous prayer meeting with gospel music and Christian rock, emotional sermons and a clear boost for Perry in the days leading up to his announcement.

Over the ensuing months, religious overtones reverberated through the campaign, like the moment when Dallas megachurch preacher Robert Jeffress called eventual Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s Mormon religion a “cult.”

Then, right before he flamed out for good, Perry provoked public derision and private turmoil inside his campaign for running a TV ad perceived as anti-gay that highlighted his Christian faith while lamenting that “gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.”

The "Strong" ad was a final indignity in a campaign already on the ropes after Perry’s infamous "oops" moment, when the governor famously forgot — during a nationally televised debate — the third federal department he wanted to shut down. 

Perry is again flirting with a run for the White House, but he seems to have tamped down his notorious Texas swagger a bit. He’s taken to wearing comfortable loafers instead of cowboy boots, sports studious black glasses and comes off as more of an elder statesman than the Tea Party rebel he channeled in 2010 and 2011. Last week, he told CBS This Morning that his 2012 run was a “humbling experience,” but said he learned and grew from it.

"I think how people respond when they've been knocked down is a better reflection of their character than if everything is all blue sky and the wind behind your back," he said. "I've had the wind in my face. I've been knocked down, and I'm ready to move on." 

Perry’s recent baptism appears to be in keeping with his new, lower-key approach, but it could also signal spiritual preparation for another national political endeavor. He chose the exact same creek where Houston, who lived in the Texas Governor's Mansion nearly a century and a half before Perry moved in, became a God-fearing Baptist.

Houston served as governor of Tennessee in the late 1820s and then became the first elected president of the Republic of Texas in 1836, after helping lead Anglo settlers to victory in their war of independence from Mexico. When Texas became a state, Houston represented it in the U.S. Senate and later became governor. In 1861, the pro-Union governor famously refused to pledge loyalty to a Confederate Texas and was promptly replaced. 

Houston, at the urging of his Baptist wife, was baptized in Little Rocky Creek on Nov. 19, 1854, by Rev. Rufus Burleson, the founder of Baylor University. The creek has served for well over a century as the natural baptistery for Independence Baptist Church, founded in 1839 and considered the oldest continuously operating Baptist church in Texas, said the church’s pastor, Phil Hassell.

The creek has suffered from the lingering Texas drought and these days is often covered with algae and lily pads. So before Perry went to be baptized, Hassell said he asked the local volunteer fire department to spray off the gunk to clear a good spot for the Texas governor.

Mac Richard, pastor of Lake Hills Church in Austin, presided over the baptism ceremony, according to the governor’s office.

Richard did not return a phone call Monday.

Hassell said Perry asked that it be a strictly private event, but afterward he stopped by the church and local Baptist museum before taking a tour of the town. Hassell showed the governor around the tiny church, where he got to see the pew in which Houston had carved his initials and those of his wife, Margaret Lea Houston.

“He had his parents with him and his sister and a couple of guests, just a few. It was very low key,” Hassell said. “I never met him before, but he was personable, kind of down to earth.”

While at the church, Perry played a gospel hymn on an 1874 pump organ, which makes sound with the help of foot-operated bellows.

“It’s not easy to play a pump organ. You’ve got to move your feet while you play,” Hassell said. “I thought he played well.”

Former Perry aide and speechwriter Eric Bearse said he wasn’t surprised that Perry renewed his faith in a private, intimate ceremony. 

“Baptism is a very personal expression of faith,” Bearse said. “He has a deep and abiding faith, and it influences his view of the world and how he lives his life, but not every expression of faith is meant to be a public ceremony.”

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/04/29/perry-baptized-anew-historic-creek/.

Supreme Court's Air Pollution Ruling Goes Against Texas by Neena Satija April 29, 2014 33Comments

Supreme Court's Air Pollution Ruling Goes Against Texas

• by Neena Satija, The Texas Tribune
• April 29, 2014

_{*Correction appended}

Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout.

The state of Texas, which has fought the federal government over several environmental regulations, lost a major battle Tuesday, as U.S. Supreme Court justices ruled in a 6-2 vote to reinstate a regulation that aims to limit the effects of air pollution across state boundaries.

Texas was one of a number of states, joined by industry and labor groups, that had sued the Environmental Protection Agency over the Cross-State Pollution Rule in 2011.

Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling means that Texas and 26 other "upwind" states in the South, Midwest and Appalachia will have to reduce some of their emissions that contribute to air pollution in East Coast states like New York. Coal plants are among those likely be the most affected, particularly as they are already dealing with new limits on their carbon dioxide emissions.

"This is a big decision," said David Spence, a professor of business and law at the University of Texas at Austin who specializes in federal environmental law. "It's one of many things that is putting pressure on coal-fired power."

He added that the EPA, whose attempts to regulate cross-state air pollution date back to the Clinton administration, has gained some clarity. Nearly 15 years of legal challenges to such rules are now over; the only way they could change now is if a presidential administration orders the EPA to go in a different direction.

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality spokesman Terry Clawson said the agency is disappointed with the ruling. But, he added, “we’re encouraged that the court clearly acknowledged … the complexity of the interstate transport problem.”

In their legal challenge of the rule, industry and labor groups had argued that the EPA's consideration of cost-effectiveness in deciding how states should limit their emissions was unfair. Texas added that the agency had not given states enough time or guidance to follow the new regulations.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals had agreed and ordered the EPA to go back to the drawing board. But the Supreme Court reversed the court’s decision and dismissed both complaints, calling the agency's use of cost-effectiveness "permissible, workable, and equitable."

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the majority, added that nothing in the Clean Air Act requires the EPA to give the extra guidance or time that Texas had insisted was necessary to follow the rules. “EPA is not obliged … to postpone its action even a single day,” she wrote.

Environmental groups hailed the ruling as a victory for clean air, noting that the EPA estimates the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule would save 30,000 lives a year. But Texas and other states that challenged it, including Louisiana and Alabama, said it would devastate their economies. Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Supreme Court’s swing vote on many issues, and Chief Justice John Roberts, one of the court’s most conservative justices, joined the court’s four more liberal justices in ruling in favor of the EPA.

Abbott has sued the EPA multiple times. A federal court dismissed a lawsuit last year that challenged the agency for taking over Texas’ greenhouse gas permitting program. The state lost another lawsuit protesting the EPA’s definition of greenhouse gases as a danger to public health and welfare, and the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.

The fate of another challenge by Texas and industry groups to EPA regulations will soon be decided. The Supreme Court heard arguments in February against the agency’s greenhouse gas permitting rules and will issue a ruling in the coming months.

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

_{*Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to the United Mine Workers of America as an industry group.}

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/04/29/texas-loses-fight-against-epa-air-pollution-rule/.