TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalLouisiana woman indicted for alleged role in $4.85 million scheme against elderly Bullard resident
A Louisiana woman has been indicted for her alleged role in conducting a scheme that took over $4.85 million from an elderly Bullard resident.
Monica Ruiz, 44, of Shreveport, was indicted in federal court for wire fraud, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Cox.
The indictment states that Ruiz misrepresented herself to take money from the victim.
The court information alleges Ruiz said she had been in a coma, had brain surgery, was falsely arrested and imprisoned, was in a car accident, had a kidney transplant and bribed a judge and prosecutor.
Read more: https://tylerpaper.com/news/crime/louisiana-woman-indicted-for-alleged-role-in-4-85-million-scheme-against-elderly-bullard-resident/article_488cf308-2e73-11eb-b986-db6830ff7dea.html
Republicans plan to set up local party in Zapata County
ZAPATA, Texas – Republicans in Zapata County are so buoyed by the local results of the presidential election race they plan to start a GOP party.
President Trump shocked political observers by winning in the sparsely populated border county by 2,032 votes, or 52.2 percent, to 1,820 votes, or 47.1 percent, for Joe Biden.
“I was surprised. I knew we were going to have higher numbers than we have had in the past, but I did not expect the win. I was pleasantly surprised. It was exciting,” said Anna Holcomb, a Latina and Zapata County Republican who was featured in a New York Times article about the result.
“We are so excited we are trying to start a Republican Party here. We do not have one. We have called the Republican Party and they are going to come and meet with us to tell us what we need to do in order to recruit people and make this party grow and be strong.”
Read more: https://riograndeguardian.com/republicans-plan-to-set-up-local-party-in-zapata-county/
Note: Zapata County is in the 28th congressional districts which was considered "safe" for Democrats. In the 2020 general election incumbent representative Henry Cuellar received 58.3% of the vote, while Republican Sandra Whitten received 39% and Libertarian Bekah Kongdon received 3%.
Trevino: 2nd causeway for SPI is a top legislative priority
BROWNSVILLE, Texas – Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr., has confirmed that finding the money to build a second causeway to South Padre Island is one of the Rio Grande Valley’s top legislative priorities for the 87th session.
The new session will be gaveled in on Jan. 12, 2020, and in readiness, Valley leaders are honing their legislative agendas.
Supporters of the second causeway project received a boost recently when state Sen. Juan Hinojosa, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance and a member of the Senate Committee on Transportation, said the time is now to find the funding.
“It is most definitely one of our priorities,” Treviño said of the second causeway project, at a recent news conference.
Read more: https://riograndeguardian.com/trevino-2nd-causeway-for-spi-is-a-top-legislative-priority/
Note: Obvious typo in the article. The new session will begin in January 2021.
Parler is filled with coffee shop talk for Nazis
by Josh Edwards, Nacogdoches Daily SentinelI spent almost a week wading though the hate, lies and propaganda on the social networking site Parler in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
Why would I subject myself to this? you might be asking. Am I that much of a glutton for punishment?
No. I did it so you don’t have to or at least so you know what you’re getting yourself into if you make the move to Parler from Facebook or Twitter. Since Twitter began fact checking President Donald Trump, much to the chagrin of many of his supporters, conservatives have been flocking in droves to Parler. The site is essentially a Twitter clone that bills itself as a “free speech social network.”
The site is being billed as a Facebook or Twitter replacement for good, sound minded, hardworking conservatives. It’s not. It is a hotbed of radicals who want nothing more than to radicalize you too. Don’t be fooled. The problem here is not with the conservative slant of the site. There’s nothing wrong with that. The problem is the Nazis and conspiracy theorists.
Read more: https://www.dailysentinel.com/social_media/article_4aab45f6-615b-5b58-9d01-6b0b2d6e172c.html
Revealed: The Truth About What Really Killed Stevie Ray Vaughan
By Colin P. CahoonI opened my eyes to the sight of the ground rushing toward me. The pilot yanked back on the cyclic stick, inducing sickening Gs as the helicopter clawed toward the sky. We roared past the crash site, just feet from impact.
We’d done it! We’d re-created the Stevie Ray Vaughan helicopter crash. It made sense now. I could see it all so clearly. Stevie Ray Vaughan never saw it coming at all.
Stevie Ray Vaughan, perhaps the best rock/blues guitarist of my generation, was 35 when he died in a helicopter crash near Elkhorn, Wisconsin, shortly after midnight on August 27, 1990. I was only a few years younger than that when my boss, a seasoned aviation lawyer, dropped a new litigation file on my desk. Although still a “baby lawyer” at the blue-blood, Dallas law firm where I worked, I was older than most of the firm’s junior lawyers as a result of flying helicopters in the Army for five years before law school. The file landed on my desk because of my flying experience. I had over 1,000 hours of helicopter flight time under my belt, most of it in the same model helicopter that flew into a ski slope on that fateful night in 1990, killing Vaughan and everyone else on board.
My boss lingered at my door for a moment as I flipped through the file.
“This is the Stevie Ray Vaughan case,” I said, my curiosity piqued.
Read more: https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2020/08/revealed-the-truth-about-what-really-killed-stevie-ray-vaughan/
Dallas COVID-19 Czar Is 'Deeply Concerned' About the Next Few Weeks
One day away from Thanksgiving, the city of Dallas’ COVID-19 czar says he is “deeply concerned” about patient demand pushing the region’s hospitals beyond their capacities. Dallas County incurred several days in a row of more than 1,800 new COVID infections. With hospitals filling up, healthcare leaders are nervous about having enough staff to handle the coming surge of COVID patients in addition to standard seasonal demands. Dallas County is joining many others across the country in anticipating what appears to be a harsh winter.
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, the trauma service area that includes Dallas-Fort Worth has only 9 percent of its total hospital beds available and just 6 percent of its intensive care unit beds. Under normal circumstances, one in three beds is empty at this time of year. “We are deeply concerned about overwhelming healthcare capacity,” says Dr. Kelvin Baggett, the COVID-19 czar who is keeping his eye on the data. “They are overburdened and have combated this for over eight months now.”
While hospitals can expand and convert space for additional beds, the limiting factor becomes the staff. While he didn’t have a total number, Baggett says he’s receiving reports from area hospitals that caregivers are catching the virus in the community and having to call in. Unlike earlier in the year when only certain areas of the country were experiencing surges, the entire U.S. is setting records for new cases. That means no traveling nurses or physicians can act as a release valve for the hospitalizations stacking up in Dallas and elsewhere.
“Nationally, the strain put on the healthcare capacity is creating a staffing demand that has escalated tremendously,” Baggett says. “We have to consider the burden we are placing on our healthcare heroes and not do anything avoidable to put them more at risk.”
Read more: https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2020/11/dallas-thanksgiving-covid-19-report/
Man Who Pulled Down Kalispell Ten Commandments Monument Found Guilty
The 30-year-old Columbia Falls man who chained a granite slab engraved with the Ten Commandments to his truck and yanked it into a busy Kalispell street was found guilty of felony criminal mischief on Monday and now faces up to 10 years in prison.
Anthony Craig Weimer stood trial in front of Flathead County District Court Judge Amy Eddy, who ruled on the case from the bench. Eddy found Weimer guilty of the only count he was facing and scheduled his sentencing for Jan. 21. Felony criminal mischief carries a punishment of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.
According to Eddy’s written findings, Weimer admitted to chaining the monument to his truck and pulling it into Main Street on June 27, dragging it several feet and then leaving it in the southbound lane of traffic directly in front of the Flathead County Justice Center at 920 S. Main Street. Several people witnessed the incident and the monument, which is one of several granite slabs on display at the old courthouse building at 800 S. Main Street, suffered significant damage. A trust company has paid Flathead County $14,475 to cover the potential cost of repairs.
Because of its religious heritage, the Ten Commandments monument has been the source of some controversy in the last decade, with one legal challenge prompting supporters to buy six additional non-religious monuments to place near the Ten Commandments in order to gain protection via “cornerstone of law” provisions. The Fraternal Order of Eagles gifted the monument to Flathead County in June 1950.
Read more: https://flatheadbeacon.com/2020/11/24/man-pulled-kalispell-ten-commandments-monument-found-guilty/
North Dakota Supreme Court denies governor's legislative appointment
North Dakota's Supreme Court has stopped Gov. Doug Burgum from appointing a state representative to a Bismarck-area House seat won by a deceased candidate.
In the unanimous ruling issued Tuesday, the court said "the Governor does not have statutory or constitutional authority to make an appointment to fill the vacancy in this case. He has not established a clear legal right to performance of the acts he seeks."
The governor earlier this month sued the secretary of state, the Legislature and the District 8 Republican chairman, asking the court to preclude them filling the seat won by David Andahl, 55, of Baldwin, who died Oct. 5 from COVID-19 but still won 36% of the vote.
Burgum sought to appoint Washburn coal executive Wade Boeshans, citing a constitutional provision that “The governor may fill a vacancy in any office by appointment if no other method is provided by this constitution or by law.”
Read more: https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/north-dakota-supreme-court-denies-governors-legislative-appointment/article_84747f20-ad26-5cc6-93c9-089a7017aded.html
Wyoming lawmakers to delay start of 2021 session due to COVID-19
Wyoming legislative leadership officially voted to delay the start of the 2021 legislative session until later this spring on Tuesday, though a specific date for when lawmakers will convene – or what the session will even look like in the age of COVID-19 – remains an open question.
The decision to delay the two-month general session has been a topic of discussion since earlier this fall, when cases of COVID-19 began to spike around the state. Though lawmakers weighed numerous options to try and make it happen on time – including limiting the public’s access to the building – numerous logistical and health concerns ultimately proved impossible to overcome in time for the session’s scheduled start on Jan. 12.
Instead, lawmakers will meet for a single day in January to clear business mandated by the Wyoming Constitution, delaying the rest of their work until later in the spring. At this point, however, an exact start date remains uncertain.
“The plan is for an abbreviated January session and to reconvene later in the first or second quarter of 2021, depending on the public health situation and other factors,” Legislative Service Office Director Matt Obrecht wrote in an email following the vote. “[The Legislature] might set some tentative dates before January 12 or the might wait until after the adjournment of the start of the General Session to set that date. Desire was to remain as flexible as possible to respond to the public health crisis and the needs of the state.”
Read more: https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/wyoming-lawmakers-to-delay-start-of-2021-session-due-to-covid-19/article_9355f6ce-8675-5e7e-a191-d6bddfbc11da.html
Montana adds 1,045 COVID-19 cases, 6 deaths in Thursday update
Montana added 1,045 more cases of COVID-19, and six deaths due to the virus, according to the latest update to the state’s mapping and information website.
Nearly 60,000 Montana residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and the state has tallied a total of 658 deaths. Almost half of all the deaths in the state have occurred in November.
The following counties added deaths in Thursday’s update:
Cascade with two (72 people total)
Yellowstone with one (120 people total)
Lake with one (13 people total)
Missoula with one (42 people total)
Ravalli with one (13 people total)
There were 15,947 active cases of COVID-19 across Montana, as of Thursday, with 455 people hospitalized due to the virus. In the latest update on the status of Montana’s hospitals, six of the state’s 10 large hospitals reported having a limited number of beds available as new daily cases have continued to average more than 1,000 over the past week. The virus has hospitalized a total of 2,534 people, according to the state’s tracking website.
Read more: https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana-adds-1-045-covid-19-cases-6-deaths-in-thursday-update/article_6162d943-d679-5e33-8d7d-1c52a089ee71.html
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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