Springtown man sentenced to 15 years in prison for assault, kidnapping of gay man (GRAPHIC WARNING)

Springtown man sentenced to 15 years in prison for assault, kidnapping of gay man (GRAPHIC WARNING)

Obama will unveil immigration order Thursday night; Texas Republicans pre-denounce it

WASHINGTON — President Obama will unveil executive orders on immigration Thursday night. The White House just announced the timing on its website, and on Facebook, in a video featuring Obama leaning on his desk in the Oval Office.

“Washington has allowed the problem to fester for too long,” he says, vowing to use his lawful authority to improve the current system.

The announcement will be streamed online at 8pm ET at WhiteHouse.gov/Live and presumably, major news outlets will televise it, as well.

“Our immigration system has been broken for decades — and every minute we fail to act, millions of people who live in the shadows but want to play by the rules and pay taxes have no way to live right by the law and contribute to our country,” wrote White House press secretary Josh Earnest. He called the impending action “a step forward in the President’s plan to work with Congress on passing common-sense, comprehensive immigration reform.”

Read more: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2014/11/obama-will-unveil-immigration-order-thursday-night-texas-republicans-pre-denounce-it.html/

Rick Perry, David Dewhurst and Joe Straus agree to extend border ‘surge’

Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus announced a funding agreement Tuesday to extend the state police and National Guard enforcement initiatives on the Mexican border through August.

The deal, signed by Perry, Dewhurst and Straus and subject to approval by the Legislative Budget Board at its Dec. 1 meeting, would transfer $86.1 million to pay for the continued presence of Texas Department of Public Safety officers, Texas Parks and Wildlife wardens and National Guard troops on the border.

The largest chunk of the diverted money would be $47.9 million from the Texas Department of Transportation’s general revenue bond debt service. Another $17.58 million would come from the Texas Public Finance Authority bond debt service, $13.7 million from disaster funding, and $7 million from Emerging Technology Fund revenues.

“Texas has proven beyond any doubt that this border can be secured, even if the federal government refuses to take the steps necessary to do so as required by the Constitution,” Perry said in announcing the agreement. “This agreement will ensure the hardworking men and women from DPS, the Texas National Guard and Texas Parks and Wildlife, who have been working with local and federal partners, have the resources they need to maintain a robust law enforcement presence along the border until the Legislature can act.”

Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/perry-dewhurst-and-straus-ink-deal-to-extend-borde/nh9g8/

Woman sentenced for threatening to kill Obama

Source: AP

HOUSTON (AP) — Federal authorities say a Houston woman has been sentenced to nearly two years in prison for mailing a letter that threatened the life of President Barack Obama.

Fifty-six-year-old Teddy Bear Paradise was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Houston. Paradise, formerly known as Denise O'Neal, pleaded guilty in August to threatening the life of the president.

Prosecutors say she admitted to sending the letter addressed to Obama telling him she was traveling to Washington, D.C. to kill him. They say she later told two Secret Service agents of her intention and that if she couldn't commit the act herself, she would hire someone else to do it.

She will remain in custody until it's determined at which U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility she will be incarcerated.

Read more: http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2014-11-18/woman-sentenced-threatening-kill-obama#comment-355721

Tab for new Travis civil courthouse: $294 million

The Travis County Commissioners Court on Tuesday heard the first cost estimate for building a new civil courthouse downtown: $294 million.

The county could place a bond measure worth $276.8 million before voters as early as May and pay the remaining $17.5 million with debt that doesn’t require voter approval and cash from county funds. The cost may be whittled down by 2 to 3 percent in the coming weeks, consultants said.

Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/tab-for-new-travis-civil-courthouse-294-million/nh9gr/ (subscription required)

Rick Perry criminal case can proceed, judge rules

Source: Austin American-Statesman

A state district judge refused to throw out the criminal charges against Gov. Rick Perry, ruling Tuesday that special prosecutor Michael McCrum had been properly appointed to the case.

Perry’s legal team argued that the charges must be voided because special prosecutor Michael McCrum did not properly take his oath of office when he began working on the governor’s case, negating every act performed over the past 15 months — including the indictment accusing Perry of abusing the powers of his office.

Senior District Judge Bert Richardson disagreed.

“This court concludes that Mr. McCrum’s authority was not voided by the procedural irregularities in how and when the oath of office … was administered,” Richardson’s order said.

Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/judge-declines-to-toss-out-gov-perry-charges/nh9kk/

Ted Cruz blasts e-fairness as “massive national sales tax;” calls Obama “angry and defiant”

WASHINGTON– Sen. Ted Cruz joined other opponents of an online sales tax plan on Tuesday, calling it a giveaway to Amazon, Best Buy and other big retailers at the expense of consumers and small start-ups.

“The last thing we should be doing is pass a massive new national sales tax,” he said, joining a number of conservative House members and others who oppose the Marketplace Fairness Act. “Don’t mess with the Internet.”

The bill would let states and cities collect sales taxes from online sellers, even if those businesses have no physical presence in their jurisdiction. The change could generate $340 billion in state and local tax revenue over a decade.

Speaker John Boehner, a longtime opponent of an online sales tax bill, said this month that he won’t let it move forward this year.

Read more: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2014/11/ted-cruz-blasts-e-fairness-as-massive-national-sales-tax-calls-obama-angry-and-defiant.html/

University of So. Maine Becomes “Administration of So. Maine” as Students Protest Faculty Firings

Earlier this year, it looked as if the University of Southern Maine might become one of the rare places where students and faculty would be able to hold the line against the yet more looting by the bureaucratic classes. The woes besetting the USM are a microcosm of how higher education expenses are escalating as a result of administration feather-bedding and vanity projects. When those prove to be too costly, it’s the faculty and students that bear the brunt of the expense-shedding. As Lambert wrote in March:

Like so many other institutions in this, our neoliberal land of opportunity, universities have become infested with rent extracting parasites. Were I to say “We call those parasites administrators,” that would be wrong; surely there are administrators who are caring, competent, necessary, and neither over-paid nor corrupt [1]. That said, university administrators are not, by definition, central to any university’s mission: Teaching and research, performed by professors, are. Therefore, it seems odd, or not, that we don’t look to the university administrative layer for budget savings first. But that’s what we’re doing. We’re feeding the tapeworm instead of freeing the host from infestation. The protests against budget cuts at the University of Southern Maine (USM, in Portland, ME) provide an excellent case study.

State: Harrison County voters rights’ impeded

MARSHALL — The Secretary of State’s Office warned Harrison County’s elections administrator she was impeding the rights of voters because she failed to meet certain ballot deadlines, an email sent from the office shows.

Keith Ingram, director of the elections division, sent an email Sept. 25 to Harrison County Elections Administrator Becky Dotson inquiring about the lateness of domestic military, overseas civilian and overseas military ballots for the Nov. 4 election.

“We believe you have not met certain deadlines and requirements under federal law and the Texas Election Code,” Ingram wrote. “In failing to perform the duties of your office, you are failing the voters of Harrison County and abusing the rights of voters and impeding the free exercise of those voting rights.”

Ingram told Dotson in the September email that the Secretary of State’s Office was giving her three days to contact the office and report the status of 12 mail ballots for Federal Post Card Application voters and county residents.

Read more: http://www.news-journal.com/news/local/state-harrison-county-voters-rights-impeded/article_237d51f6-175d-5d52-a177-8718a5edbfaf.html