March 14, 2013

George P. Bush raising money for Texas race in Connecticut

The complete story at http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2013/03/all-in-the-family-george-p-bush-returns-to-ancestral-turf-for-cash/ .

March 14, 2013

Refusal to Expand Medicaid May Cost Texas Employers $448 Million in Fines

Governors who refuse to expand their Medicaid programs for the poor may cost employers in their states as much as $1.3 billion in federal fines, a study found.

A clause in the 2010 health-care overhaul penalizes some employers when their workers aren’t able to obtain affordable medical coverage through the company. Employers can avoid those fees if their workers qualify for Medicaid as part of an expansion that as many as 22 states have rejected, according to a report today by Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc.

Without Medicaid, a “shared responsibility” payment of as much as $3,000 may be triggered for each employee who can’t get insurance through their company. In Texas, the largest state to refuse to increase Medicaid, employers may be liable for as much as $448 million in fines, the study found. In Florida, where the legislature has refused an expansion supported by Governor Rick Scott, employers may pay as much as $219 million.

“A lot of businesses have taken the position that they oppose a Medicaid expansion because it would increase their taxes,” Brian Haile, senior vice president for health policy at Jackson Hewitt in Parsippany, New Jersey, said in an interview. “The irony of this, or the paradox, is that the opposite may be true, at least for some businesses in some states.”

More at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-13/refusal-to-expand-medicaid-may-cost-employers-1-billion.html .

March 14, 2013

Happy Pi Day!

[font color=green]Courtesy of a Towelie with a BS in Mathematics![/font]

March 14, 2013

El Paso woman burns face while smoking with oxygen mask

A 62-year-old woman received serious burns to her face when oxygen from an oxygen mask ignited while she was smoking Wednesday evening at her home in Northeast El Paso, Fire Department officials said.

The woman had burns to her face, eyes and nasal passages, officials said. Soon after 7 p.m., firefighters went to the woman's home in the 5200 block of Bastille Avenue.

The woman was taken to William Beaumont Army Medical Center in critical condition. Her name was not released.

Firefighters remind residents that is it dangerous to smoke where oxygen is being used because oxygen is very flammable.

Source: http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_22785962/el-paso-woman-burns-face-while-smoking-oxygen

March 14, 2013

Austrian steelmaker announces $700M plant at Port Corpus Christi

PORTLAND — Austria’s largest steel-maker has settled on the Port of Corpus Christi as the site of a new $700 million iron ore processing facility fired by natural gas.

The region bested 17 other locations in eight countries in competition for Voestalpine’s plant, the biggest direct investment in its 75-year history, company officials said Wednesday.

It chose the San Patricio County site for its access to cheap shale gas, a deepwater port, local political support, and Texas’ “different approach” to carbon emissions standards, company officials said.

Texas leads the nation in carbon dioxide emissions and has been fighting stricter greenhouse gas standards imposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

More at http://www.caller.com/news/2013/mar/13/700m-iron-processing-plant-will-anchor-la-quinta-p/ .

[font color=green]The plant is supposed to bring about 150 permanent jobs.[/font]

March 14, 2013

Texas Senate approves university merger

The Texas Senate on Wednesday approved passage of Senate Bill 24, merging the University of Texas at Brownsville and the University of Texas-Pan American into a single, larger university in the Rio Grande Valley that includes a medical school.

The bill passed on a 30 to 1 vote.

Passage by more than a two-thirds majority gives the new university access to the Permanent University Fund, something neither UTB nor UTPA had alone. The PUF was established to use a portion of Texas oil and gas revenues to fund higher education in the state.

The Texas House of Representatives will take up its version of the proposal, House Bill 1000, Tuesday in the House chamber.

More at http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/article_16fe2aa0-8c50-11e2-a86a-0019bb30f31a.html .

March 14, 2013

Obama: Keystone XL pipeline not major jobs creator

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has told House Republicans he's still weighing a decision on the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to Texas. At a closed-door gathering with the Republicans on Wednesday, Obama said jobs numbers and other benefits touted by supporters are probably exaggerated, but he did not rule out a decision to approve the pipeline, according to participants.

Nebraska Republican Rep. Lee Terry said Obama appeared "conflicted" on the pipeline, saying many of the promised jobs would be temporary, and that much of the oil would likely be exported. But Terry said Obama also indicated that dire environmental consequences predicted by pipeline opponents were exaggerated.

Terry, who supports the pipeline, said he wished Obama's comments were less negative, but he was still hopeful the project would be approved.

Read more: http://www.kvue.com/news/national/197893481.html

March 14, 2013

Texas House members target payday loan industry

Two state lawmakers want to make public the backers that provide the capital for companies in the payday loan industry.

Citing a need for greater transparency, Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, and state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, filed companion measures — House Bill 3033 and Senate Bill 1715 — to force payday loan operators and title lenders to disclose their financial backers in order to provide more information — and therefore, better protection — to Texans who take out short-term, high interest loans.

Rodriguez said it is possible — though he cannot know for sure because he doesn’t have the information — that nefarious behavior could be taking place behind the scenes with third-party lenders. Meanwhile, the industry rejected Rodriguez’s assertion and said lenders should be allowed to protect their trade secrets.

“We’ve been trying to find out who the big money interests are that benefit from these lenders’ predatory practices,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “Until we know who is really behind the curtain, we won’t make legislative progress to rein in the worst abuses.”

More at http://www.statesman.com/news/news/texas-house-members-target-payday-loan-industry/nWrJX/ .

March 14, 2013

Texas bill would require drug test for benefits

AUSTIN, Texas —

Wendy Davis was 18 and pregnant when she lost her job at Dresser Industries in Dallas. To pay the bills, she did what many laid-off workers do: She collected unemployment benefits for a few months.

Thirty years later, state Sen. Wendy Davis, now a Harvard-educated Democrat representing Tarrant County, on Wednesday spoke against a proposal to target laid-off workers with government-sponsored drug tests.

"I've been on unemployment," Davis said in a nine-minute confrontation with the bill's sponsor, Sen. Tommy Williams, during a hearing in the Senate Economic Development Committee. "I just can't imagine, Sen. Williams, what it would have felt like for me to have been subjected during that period of time to a drug test simply because I was on unemployment benefits."

Williams, a Republican from the Woodlands, described his proposal as a way to help the state maintain a competent workforce.

More at http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/labor/bill-would-require-drug-test-for-benefits/nWqYM/ .

March 13, 2013

Ted Nugent Is In Hog Heaven After "Machine Gunning" Feral Pigs In Texas

It appears the only thing Ted Nugent likes more than guns is attention. The 70s rock icon is in hog heaven after what he calls a "win win win", of saving the environment, feeding the hungry and inflaming the "haters". Over the weekend he told XM radio host Brett Winterble,

"I took my machine gun in the helicopter - in the Texas hill country - me and my buddy 'Pigman' ... his name is 'Pigman' - I'm the swine czar. I killed 455 hogs with my machine gun. i did it for Bill Maher and all those other animal rights freaks out there."

Sport hunting from helicopters in Texas is illegal, but according to Texas Department of Agriculture, "private hunters are now allowed by the State of Texas to pay for the right to perform as the gunner and shoot feral hogs from a helicopter as part of a feral hog depredation program."

Texas has a feral hog population of over 2 million. They are responsible for damage to property, crops, and livestock at an estimated annual cost of $500 million, but if this isn't sport hunting, it has to be the most popular government program ever among conservatives and gun activists. Still, Nugent says he is doing Texas a favor saying, "We saved the environment from the destruction of these out-of-control pigs and I'm not talking about Washington D.C. or San Francisco ... I'm actually talking about actual pigs."

More including photos at http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/13214/ted-nugent-is-in-hog-heaven-after-machine-gunning-feral-pigs-in-texas .

Cross-posted in General Discussion.