TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalBeaumont's Battleship Texas dreams are still afloat
Bringing the only remaining American vessel to serve in both World War I and World War II, The Battleship Texas, to dock in Beaumont’s waters is not off the table.
And Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of The Battleship Texas Foundation Bruce Bramlett came to a Beaumont City Council workshop last week to share financial information and again pitch the ship as an asset to the city.
The ship currently is moving to a shipyard in Galveston where repairs will be completed.
“There's only one piece of this puzzle left and it is the one (that) has been most present on my mind since this all started,” Bramlett said. “Where will the new home of the Battleship Texas be? It is the most critical question I believe we face as an organization because if we get this wrong, there will be no turning back.”
Read more: https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Beaumont-s-Battleship-Texas-dreams-are-still-16658606.php
Beshear proposes $10 million for Louisville park expansion
LOUISVILLE, KY. -- In another preview of his upcoming state budget plan, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said he will propose devoting $10 million to support an expansion of Waterfront Park into western Louisville.
The 22-acre park expansion will connect downtown and West Louisville along the Ohio River in the state's largest city, officials said Tuesday. The total cost of the expansion is $50 million.
“For so many people in this city, Waterfront Park is not just a place, it’s an experience," Beshear said. “It’s the backdrop for some of their happiest moments with family and friends. It’s time that this experience is accessible to all members of the Louisville community.”
Beshear will submit his budget proposals to the legislature early next year.
The park expansion site will be in the Portland neighborhood within West Louisville. The expansion will include plazas, gardens and an observation pier at the river’s edge that can accommodate events, performances and other gatherings.
Read more at: https://www.kansascity.com/news/business/national-international/article256246907.html
Oregon governor calls for special session to protect renters
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — With winter coming and federal funds drying up, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said Tuesday she'll call a special session of the Legislature Dec. 13 to approve state funding for rental assistance and extend eviction protections issued because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is clear that a state solution is needed to address the urgent and immediate needs of Oregon renters,” Brown said.
Brown is proposing that protections be extended for everyone who has applied for rental assistance, that landlords be paid in full for the rent they are owed, that up to $90 million in additional rental assistance be provided to low-income tenants through the winter and an additional $100 million be provided to transition from pandemic-related emergency rental assistance to long-term, locally delivered eviction prevention services.
Brown said she is working with federal officials at the U.S. Treasury and the White House to secure additional federal emergency rental assistance funding for Oregon.
Read more: https://theeagle.com/news/national/oregon-governor-calls-for-special-session-to-protect-renters/article_70fa1319-3044-5fb4-8bb4-ba7c5e31725d.html
(Bryan-College Station Eagle)
Kansas Attorney General Schmidt accuses KU, KSU of violating new vaccine exemption law
TOPEKA -- Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has notified Kansas State University and the University of Kansas that both were in violation of a new state law broadening access to religious or medical exemptions to federal COVID-19 vaccination mandates.
Schmidt forwarded a letter, obtained by the Kansas Reflector, to KU chancellor Doug Girod, KSU president Richard Myers and Kansas Board of Regents president Blake Flanders asserting both universities deployed “intrusive written application materials when evaluating an employee’s request for exemption.”
Methods at KU and KSU violate a law adopted Nov. 22 during a special session of the GOP-led Kansas Legislature and signed the next day by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, Schmidt said.
Schmidt, a Republican and a candidate for governor in 2022, previously warned that he would issue cease-and-desist notices, but hadn’t identified targets of that effort. No other individual letters regarding the state law on vaccination mandates have been sent by the attorney general, an official said.
Read more at: https://www.kansascity.com/news/coronavirus/article256227152.html
Big 12 fans roast OU president for 'more notice' comment about Lincoln Riley departure
Big 12 fans were stunned when reports surfaced in July that Oklahoma and Texas planned to leave the conference for the SEC. Just days later, the schools made it official.
While the Sooners and Longhorns won’t leave for the SEC until 2025, their plans first became public in a Houston Chronicle story. Less than a week later, the schools informed the Big 12 they would sever ties.
The speed with which Texas and Oklahoma dumped the Big 12 hasn’t been forgotten by fans. That was especially true Monday when coach Lincoln Riley left the Sooners for a job with Southern California, and Oklahoma president Joe Harroz said, “we would’ve liked more notice.”
Even though the Sooners’ plan to leave the Big 12 and Riley bolting for USC are not a perfect comparison, some fans and media members saw hypocrisy in Harroz’s statement.
Read more at: https://www.kansascity.com/article256221567.html
'Unbecoming': Family angered over Kansas City chief's remark at fatal police shooting scene
Family members of Cameron Lamb are outraged with Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith’s description of him as a “bad guy” minutes after he was fatally shot by a police detective, saying the comment illustrates larger issues with police culture that need to be addressed.
Det. Eric DeValkenaere shot and killed Lamb, 26, while he was backing his pickup into his garage on Dec. 3, 2019 at 4154 College Ave. DeValkenaere was found guilty earlier this month of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in the killing.
The chief arrived at the crime scene shortly after the shooting unfolded. An audio recording recently obtained by The Star through a public records request captured Smith saying: “Everyone is good, house is clear. Bad guy’s dead.”
Laurie Bey, Lamb’s mother, said she was “shocked” to hear her son described that way by Kansas City’s top cop. She said the gut reaction that Lamb was a bad guy demonstrates that Kansas City police are all too willing to immediately accept as fact the early accounts of other officers in police shootings.
Read more at: https://www.kansascity.com/news/article256242447.html
Group hopes to amend Missouri constitution to enact ranked-choice voting
An effort to do away with partisan primaries in Missouri and replace them with a "ranked choice" method got a big boost last week, receiving roughly $670,000 from a Virginia-based nonprofit hoping to put the idea on the 2022 statewide ballot.
A group called Better Elections is pushing an initiative petition that would amend Missouri's constitution to allow all voters to vote for any candidate in a combined primary.
The four candidates in the primary with the most votes would advance to the general election, regardless of party. Then in the general election, voters would be allowed to rank those four candidates from first choice to last — or just vote for their first choice.
The change would apply to elections for statewide office, the Missouri General Assembly and U.S. Congress. Two versions of the initiative petition have been approved by the Secretary of State's Office to begin collecting signatures.
Read more: https://www.newstribune.com/news/news/story/2021/nov/30/group-hopes-to-amend-missouri-constitution-to-enact-ranked-choice-voting/896428/
(Jefferson City News Tribune)
As debate over sheltered workshops heats up, MO doubles down on paying people with disabilities less
A new Missouri law allowing employers to continue paying some people with disabilities less than minimum wage has positioned the state at the forefront of a national debate over disability rights in the workplace.
Part of a wide-ranging piece of legislation signed by Gov. Mike Parson in July, the rule directs the state to develop its own version of a federal program that allows wages as low as pennies per hour.
Roughly 5,000 employees work at facilities with subminimum wage certificates in Missouri – called sheltered workshops because workers are kept separate from others. Missouri has the second-highest number of sheltered workshops in the country, with 95 operating locations.
Though the New Deal-era law that governs such employment was considered progressive when it was enacted, it has come under increasing criticism in recent years.
Read more: https://thebeacon.media/stories/2021/11/24/sheltered-workshops-missouri-bill/
(Kansas City Beacon)
Lawmakers file complaint against Rep. Aaron Coleman after second arrest in recent months
A group of Democratic lawmakers filed a complaint Monday against Rep. Aaron Coleman (D), seeking formal discipline after the embattled legislator was arrested Saturday morning for the second time in as many months.
Meanwhile, prosecutors in Johnson County successfully increased Coleman's bond in a separate domestic battery case after his arrest over the weekend for alleged driving under the influence.
It is the second such complaint filed against Coleman and it will trigger a special Kansas House committee to probe its charges. At the conclusion of the investigation, the panel can recommend he be expelled, censured or that no action be taken.
It was the latter option legislators opted to take after examining Coleman's alleged behavior prior to his election as a legislator, including allegations of harassment, bullying and stalking.
Read more: https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/11/29/complaint-filed-against-kansas-rep-aaron-coleman-following-dui-arrest/8797468002/
(Springfield News-Leader)
Ahead of session, lawmakers scrutinize Missouri social studies standards, school boards
Missouri lawmakers trained their focus Tuesday on how school boards interact with the public and the ways in which history is taught in schools.
For over three hours, the Joint Committee on Education discussed how social studies curriculum makes its way into the classroom, raising questions about whether the Sept. 11 attacks are taught and once again debating whether critical race theory is present.
“Missouri’s history education is a bit anemic,” said Rep. Doug Richey, an Excelsior Springs Republican and chair of the committee. “We are not teaching history in a way that is as robust as it ought to be, in my estimation.”
Tuesday’s hearing primarily focused on the learning standards that outline the concepts that students must be taught within social studies. There are upwards of 600 learning standards overall, said Tracy Hinds, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s deputy commissioner for the division of learning services.
Read more: https://missouriindependent.com/2021/11/30/ahead-of-session-lawmakers-scrutinize-missouri-social-studies-standards-school-boards/
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