January 31, 2014

Ex-El Paso County Judge Anthony Cobos arrested again, accused of fraud in New Mexico

Former El Paso County Judge Anthony Cobos was arrested at his home this morning on two counts of fraud out of New Mexico, the U.S. Marshals Service announced.

Details were not immediately available. Cobos was arrested at his El Paso home by federal marshals from El Paso and New Mexico, as well as members of the Dona Ana County Sheriff's Office.

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Cobos pleaded guilty last year to federal corruption charges stemming from his time as the county's top elected official.

U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo sentenced him to four years in prison on Jan. 3, and Cobos was scheduled to surrender to the federal prison system Feb. 11.

More at http://www.elpasotimes.com/latestnews/ci_25030332/source-ex-el-paso-county-judge-anthony-cobos .

January 31, 2014

CPS Removed a Dallas Family's Kids, and the Home-School Community Is Pissed

For a full and detailed account of what Christina and Trevor Tutt have experienced over the past four months -- a run-in with CPS, the removal of their children by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, an ongoing legal fight to get them back -- read this.

It's a one-sided narrative compiled from third-party accounts that, given the Tutts' public silence and the black box that is family court, is basically impossible to verify. But this much is clear: Texas' home-school community is pissed.

"What we really have here today is abuse of a Christian family," Tim Lambert, president of the Texas Home School Coalition, declared at a press conference on the steps of the Old Red Courthouse on Wednesday.

There was abuse at the hands of Associate Judge Graciela Olvera of Dallas County's 256th Family District Court, who ordered them removed, and abuse by two unnamed CPS workers (identified here) who justified the removal by falsely claiming the children were in imminent danger, Lambert said.

More at http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2014/01/texas_home_school_tutt.php .

January 31, 2014

The Hightower Report: Why are NFL cheerleaders booing their teams?

Let's turn now to the Wide, Wide, WILD World of Sports.

The big story at this time of year, of course, is the Super Bowl, that multi-multi-million dollar showcase of super-paid superstars, billionaire owners, taxpayer-financed sports palaces, extravagant corporate skyboxes serving deep-fried caviar, and TV ads running $4 million for a 30-second spot. But behind the scenes of this big money sports extravaganza is a sordid secret of illegal cheating.

No, not the use of steroids. Rather, this scandal is about the NFL's use and abuse of cheerleaders. Astonishingly, these glamorous, athletic, and very hard-working ladies – who bring sideline pizzazz to the show and are used by owners to promote the team brand and ticket sales – are paid less than the beer hawkers on game day, less than McDonald's crew members, and way less than minimum wage. Yes, that's illegal, which is why some Raiderettes (the popular cheerleaders of Oakland's NFL team) have filed a lawsuit for wage theft against the owners.

Overall, pro-team cheerleaders get $70 to $90 per game. That's for a 12-hour game day, plus uncompensated practice sessions that routinely run a grueling six hours, and mandatory promotional appearances. The teams nickel-and-dime the women by shorting their hours, and they even illegally fine their pep-leaders for such nonsense "transgressions" as bringing the wrong pom-poms to practice. And no health care for a job that puts you at constant risk of injury.

More at http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2014-01-31/the-hightower-report-why-are-nfl-cheerleaders-booing-their-teams/ .

January 31, 2014

Chris Christie Champions Horrendous Company Running Horrible Texas Detention Center

"Community Education Centers" sounds like a perfectly lovely company, right? Far from it. In Texas, CEC runs the Polk County immigrant detention center which is routinely deemed one of the nation's worst. While people wait for asylum in the United States, numerous groups have found that they live in horrendous conditions in an ICE-licensed facility.

"I've visited a bunch of detention facilities in Texas, and that's by far the worst," said Bob Libal, director of Grassroots Leadership, a prison reform group. "Inadequate medical care, poor nutrition, lack of access to legal services, absence of meaningful programming, and a willful neglect of those who are imprisoned there plague the Polk detention center." Those observations were made in 2012 and 2013.

Thousands of miles from Texas, a man who puts the 'bully' in 'bully pulpit' serves as CEC's greatest advocate. Maybe it's that Christie served two years as a registered lobbyist for CEC. Maybe it's that the company's long-time senior vice president, Bill Palatucci, is one of Christie's closest friends. Such a close friend, in fact, that rumors swirled about Christie appointing him to deceased Sen. Lautenberg's seat. Palatucci's political involvement with Christie would have been far from new: he chaired the governor's 2013 re-election campaign and co-chaired the inauguration committee. "There is probably nobody more important to Chris Christie's political operation than Bill Palatucci," former New Jersey GOP chairman Jay Webber said last month. It was Palatucci's stepping down from CEC in 2012 that has allowed him to get increasingly involved in Christie's political team.

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Do these inhuman conditions sound like something Chris Christie would approve of or willingly ignore in his own state? Unfortunately, yes, and even more unfortunately, yes he has.

More at http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/14746/chris-christie-champions-horrendous-company-running-horrible-texas-detention-center .

January 31, 2014

Texas GOP Lt. Governor Candidates Are Empathy-Challenged

By Carol Morgan

At 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, a brain-dead and pregnant Marlise Munoz was finally removed from life support at the John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. Everyone knows the details. Marlise was 14 weeks pregnant when she was found unconscious in her home. She had made it known to her family that she did not wish to be on life support, yet a Texas law written and passed by a group of mainly-GOP legislators in 1999, superseded her wishes.

The very next evening, four GOP Republican candidates vying for the Lieutenant Governor’s seat displayed an insensitive and uncaring attitude toward this poor woman and her family. The initial question in the KERA Texas Debates was: “Should John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth have removed pregnant, brain-dead Marlise Munoz from life support?

All four men stated that Marlise Munoz should still be on life support. They criticized the courts for their ruling.

The most uncaring response came from David Dewhurst: “I’m a strong believer in the sanctity of life. This baby had passed 20 weeks, this baby could have been born, and so I think it was decided wrong. … If I’d been in that judge’s shoes, I would have ruled differently…and permit this baby to be born.”

More at http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/carol-morgan/2014-01-30/texas-gop-lt-governor-candidates-are-empathy-challenged .

[font color=green]My favorite line of the article is, "Why do we continue to allow Texas Republican lawmakers to practice gynecology without a medical license?"[/font]

January 31, 2014

Woman who interrupted debt discussion ID'd as candidate for U.S. Senate (Kesha Rogers)

The woman who interrupted a moderated discussion Wednesday evening between two national leaders was Kesha Rogers, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn's seat.

Rogers caused a stir and briefly derailed a discussion between Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, co-chairs on the committee to solve the nation's debt crisis in 2010, when she began yelling from the back of the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center.

The interruption came nearly an hour into the event, when Simpson was talking to moderator Andrew Card, George W. Bush's chief of staff, about the distrust in Washington between Democrats and Republicans. The three had been discussing contributors to the national debt, such as health care and Social Security, and what would need to be cut and changed to reverse the trend.

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"No one is going to trust you guys, because you are sacrificial leaders and they're sacrificing the population," Rogers yelled. "What they're doing right now, this policy was tried at Nuremberg."

More at http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/article_536bb036-ccdf-518c-b6dd-4cabcaf8e85f.html .

[font color=green]As most of our viewers in the Texas Group know, Rogers is a LaRouche supporter and is running on a platform calling for President Obama's impeachment and repeal of the ACA. She won the 22nd district Democratic primary in 2010 and 2012, but received tepid support from the party organization.

I recommend reading the rest of the article since she is a U.S. Senate candidate. The other candidates in the Democratic primary are David Alameel, Harry Kim (not the character on the 90s Star Trek spinoff Voyager), Maxey Scherr and Michael Fjetland. The winner of the primary will probably face the incumbent John Cornyn in the general election. I've noted messages from Scherr and Alameel in my email recently.[/font]

January 31, 2014

Astrodome named national landmark

The endangered Astrodome was thrown a possible lifeline as the National Park Service named the world's first domed athletic stadium to its National Register of Historic Places.

The designation granted Thursday does not prevent Harris County from demolishing the building, but does open federal and state tax incentives for rehabilitation. The stadium, opened in 1965, long was called the "eighth wonder of the world."

"We'd say, 'hey great!' but it doesn't impede our ability as far as demolition goes," said Joe Stinebaker, spokesman for Harris County Judge Ed Emmett. "The Dome's status is in limbo. No decision to demolish it or rehabilitate it has been made."

In November, 53 percent of voters turned down a proposed $217 million bond issue to redevelop the Dome, which lost its major clients when the Houston Astros moved to Minute Maid Park and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo relocated to the nearby Reliant Stadium.

More at http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Dome-named-national-landmark-5193081.php?cmpid=bna&cmpid=bna .

January 31, 2014

Battle of the brands: A newspaper war in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS – The pirate flag hanging in the New Orleans Advocate's office in downtown is something of an inside joke – a hammy reminder of the startup paper's unlikely insurgency against its entrenched competitor, The Times-Picayune.

Other symbols of the year-old paper's inchoate status are of the more banal variety – the unkempt entrance, desks crammed into an office no bigger than a McMansion living room, one unisex restroom serving the entire staff.

Seven blocks away, the Picayune's new headquarters boasts the aesthetics of a well-funded dotcom. The loft-style newsroom occupies the penthouse floor of a commercial high-rise with a ground-level mall. With large windows encircling the office, the staff has a gorgeous view of the Mississippi River.

"We wanted to create a new culture and environment, and we wanted a physical space to facilitate the changes," says Ricky Mathews, president of NOLA Media Group, which publishes the Picayune.

More at http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/01/27/new-orleans-newspaper-war/4580561/ .

January 31, 2014

Goldman Suchs!

There are four consecutive threads in Late Breaking News that portray Goldman Sachs in a negative light. Is that some type of DU record?

Please also feel free to comment whether you agree or disagree with the thread title.

January 31, 2014

Spicy bud: Peppers and over 5,000 pounds of pot seized in downtown San Antonio drug bust

SAN ANTONIO — You've heard of laced drugs, but a big rig driver pulled over in downtown San Antonio on Thursday allegedly had a brand new concoction: poblano peppers and pot.

The driver, delivering the spicy buzz of about 5,076 pounds of marijuana, was pulled over at 4th and Broadway streets around 1 a.m. in an all-white 18-wheeler, police said.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration assisted San Antonio Police with the bust because of the large amount of suspected drugs, and towed the truck and trailer to a lot on Zarzamora Street to determine the contents in the truck.

Investigators said the driver was heading north from Harlingen but it was unclear where he was going.

More at http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Peppers-and-pot-in-downtown-drug-bust-5189588.php .