September 21, 2015

Texas attorney challenges alleged corruption in Hearne via popular blog

The small town of Hearne in Robertson County, and more specifically its city government, has attracted the attention of an attorney who's made it his aim to shine a light on what he says is evidence of crime and corruption there.

Ty Clevenger, a graduate of Texas A&M and Stanford Law School who has practiced law in Bryan and most recently in the Dallas area, has been writing about the city of Hearne since 2012 on his blog, lawflog.com.

Comments from readers posts range from supportive to skeptical of the claims he makes about the city -- alleged violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act, refusal to comply with public information requests and altering the utility bills of a citizen who criticized officials being just a few of them.

Clevenger says he writes his blog because the best way to "get the system to work" is to put it under a spotlight and "force it to do what it should be doing in the first place."

Read more: http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/texas-attorney-challenges-alleged-corruption-in-hearne-via-popular-blog/article_4c7c52ef-0811-5133-b55f-50e282dc29af.html

September 21, 2015

Higher Ed: Liberal Arts, Democracy, and the Media

What happens when you mix together liberal arts and democracy and then throw in a little media coverage? You get a fascinating discussion about the intersection of those three storied institutions.

In this week's episode of our podcast Higher Ed, KUT's Jennifer Stayton and Southwestern University President Dr. Ed Burger discuss how liberal arts learning habits can help us navigate our democracy - especially when political discussions in the media sometimes seem more contentious than civil.

This week, Ed and Jennifer talk politics - or more specifically, they talk about talking about politics. They also hash out the solution to the latest math puzzler about truth-tellers and liars. How can you tell them apart? Click here to hear the solution and their whole discussion.

This episode was recorded on August 5, 2015.

http://kut.org/post/higher-ed-liberal-arts-democracy-and-media

Soundcloud at:

http://cpa.ds.npr.org/kut/audio/2015/09/stayton_berger_higher_ed_liberal_arts_democracy_and_media_final_mix.mp3

September 21, 2015

Syriza voted back into office amid mass abstention in Greek election

With over 93 percent of the vote counted early Monday, Greece’s Syriza had returned to power in Sunday’s snap election called last month by the party’s leader, former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Tsipras returns to office based on a political program that is, at least on the surface, diametrically opposed to the platform upon which Syriza first swept into office in January of this year. Then, the party won the election based on promises to overturn the austerity measures imposed by the European Union and international finance capital as the condition for two previous bailout agreements. Now, Tsipras returns to office to implement the even more onerous austerity measures dictated in the “memorandum of understanding” he accepted as the condition for a third bailout deal.

The election was the third time Greeks have been called to the polls this year. Last January, they elected Tsipras and Syriza based on the widespread belief that they would battle against austerity. Last July, they went to the polls a second time, voting overwhelmingly against austerity in a referendum called by the Syriza government, only to have Tsipras turn around within barely a week and accept the austerity terms dictated by the so-called “troika”—the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank.

The repudiation of the popular will expressed in the referendum was only a further step in Syriza’s renunciation of its anti-austerity electoral platform, which began almost the moment it won the election last January. Within less than a month after taking office, it had signed an agreement with the EU pledging not only not to roll back any of the previously imposed austerity measures, but to craft new ones based on the hated memorandum of understanding it previously vowed to defeat.

Read more: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/09/21/gree-s21.html

September 21, 2015

Donald Trump Just Isn’t Sure If He Wants To ‘Get Rid’ Of All The Blacks Or Not

On Sunday, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump defended his refusal to correct one of his bigoted fans’ assertion that not only is the President a Muslim who isn’t an American, but that we need to “get rid” of every single Muslim. But it’s OK — the billionaire isn’t quite sure what he would say if someone wanted to deport black people, either.

“You are running to be the president of the United States of America,” CNN’s Jake Tapper told Trump. “This man said — quote — ‘We have a problem in this country and it’s called Muslims.’ You are not responsible for what he says, but this is raw unvarnished ignorant bigotry.”

Trump complained that people expected him to do the “politically correct” thing (most of us call it the “right thing”) by correcting his obviously bigoted follower, arguing that there really is a Muslim problem.

“Are you trying to say we don’t have a problem?” Trump asked Tapper. “I have friends that are Muslims, they are great people, they are amazing people. And most Muslims, like most everything, they are fabulous people, but we certainly do have a problem. I mean, you have a problem throughout the world.”

Read more: http://www.ifyouonlynews.com/politics/donald-trump-just-isnt-sure-if-he-wants-to-get-rid-of-all-the-blacks-or-not-video/

September 21, 2015

5 Reasons Why Obama Is “Worst Dictator Ever” as Texas Survives Operation Jade Helm

On September 15th, Operation Jade Helm came to an end. You wouldn’t have known it though; there was no announcement on Fox and nothing was mentioned on the Right Wing Blogs. You would think that this great victory of Texas over the United States of America would have been on Fox News as a breaking story, but not a word was uttered. Operation Jade Helm 15 was just supposed to be another military exercise, like every other one that came before it that no Republican cared about ever, until there was a black president.

Every single Republican news and opinion outlet insisted that this was an invasion of Texas by the rest of the country, because we hated their freedom. Right up until it happened, then suddenly Fox quit covering it.

Clearly Obama failed his role as Dictator Muslim Atheist in Chief, since Texas still exists and is not named New Iran. Here are some of the highlights:

1: ZERO guns were confiscated during the operation. This was the entire point of the thing, right?
2: ZERO heterosexual people were forced into government mandated gay marriages. We knew this was coming right after they lost their guns.

Read more: http://www.ifyouonlynews.com/politics/5-reasons-why-obama-is-worst-dictator-ever-as-texas-survives-operation-jade-helm/

September 21, 2015

How Jeb Bush blocked Trump’s push for casino gambling in Florida

Jeb Bush said during last week’s Republican presidential debate that Donald Trump wanted casino gambling in Florida. Donald Trump said “I did not.”

“I promise, if I wanted it, I would have gotten it,” Trump told Bush during the exchange. Bush replied, “No way, man.”

But the fact is, Trump wanted it and didn’t get it under the Bush administration, despite donating money to the state Republican Party and Bush.

“The bottom line is Donald Trump was interested in casino gambling in Florida, I can tell you that for a fact,” said former Florida House Speaker John Thrasher, who said he met with Trump twice and talked about the issue, once in New York and once in Trump’s Palm Beach Mar-A-Lago resort. Thrasher, now president of Florida State University, said during both meetings Trump pushed for Florida to sign a compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida to allow casino gambling.

Read more: http://www.mystatesman.com/ap/news/national-govt-politics/how-jeb-bush-blocked-trumps-push-for-casino-gambli/nnjf4/

September 21, 2015

Dallas County DA Susan Hawk fends off allegations of financial misconduct

Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk has frequently attempted to misuse public funds, a former high-ranking prosecutor said Sunday, adding that she was fired last week because she refused to comply with Hawk’s demands.

But Hawk’s first assistant, Messina Madson, who is running the office while Hawk is on leave for depression treatment, denied the allegations and dismissed them as a false attack by a recently-fired employee. She said she terminated Cindy Stormer, who oversaw the budget in her role as administrative chief, because of poor job performance.

“It is unfortunate that Mrs. Stormer is choosing to distort the facts and attack our office, and specifically attack Judge Hawk while she {is} unable to respond,” Madson said in a statement Sunday.

The allegations against Hawk come just before she was scheduled to return from her leave of absence to battle a “serious episode of depression. The district attorney has been off work for seven-and-a-half weeks and was expected to come back Tuesday, though it’s likely that date could get pushed back as she consults with treatment experts about when she’ll be ready to go back to work.

Read more: http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/09/dallas-county-das-office-fends-off-allegations-of-financial-misconduct.html/


Earlier threads:
Friends, colleagues say Dallas County DA Susan Hawk spent time in drug rehab March 27. 2015
Dallas County DA absent for three weeks; addiction rumors start swirling August 23, 2015
Dallas Democrats: DA Susan Hawk ‘needs to do her job or resign’ August 24, 2015
Dallas County DA Susan Hawk takes leave to battle depression August 25, 2015
Dallas County DA Susan Hawk is at Texas facility for depression treatment August 26, 2015
Dallas County DA Hawk battled paranoia, had ‘break with reality,’ friend says August 27, 2015
Update: Dallas DA may remain out of office longer than announced September 15, 2015

September 20, 2015

Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp signs new five-year contract

COLLEGE STATION -- The Texas A&M University System and Chancellor John Sharp finalized a new employment contract Saturday that will give him an almost $400,000 annual pay raise, according to officials.

While the full details of the contract were not immediately available Saturday, Sharp will receive a $900,000 annual base salary for the next five years. Board of Regents member Phil Adams served as board vice chair in 2011 when Sharp first took the reins of the system and said the pay raise from $507,300 was long overdue.

"I've been here a long time and John Sharp has been outstanding," Adams said. "If there's a better chancellor in the country, I don't know who he or she is."

Regents authorized board Chairman Cliff Thomas to negotiate an employment agreement with Sharp during a regular meeting in September.

Read more: http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/texas-a-m-university-system-chancellor-john-sharp-signs-new/article_f3d24da9-0cc5-5d98-bfde-b26e8abcb175.html

[font color=330099]As far as I'm concerned he might as well have been a Republican. He was the comptroller that began the push to privatize state services and also made cutbacks in other state agencies while he was in office. The fact that he has landed a cushy job when so many others lost their jobs because his nonsense makes me want to .[/font]

September 20, 2015

These guys couldn't handle the breeze...

September 20, 2015

Black Lives Matter & Police Lives Matter protesters briefly shut down I-35 in downtown Austin

Protesters shut down a section of southbound Interstate 35 Saturday around 1 p.m. as they walked onto the highway near downtown Austin.

Police created a barricade and escorted protesters off I-35. The incident stopped traffic for about 10 minutes.

Black Lives Matter and Police Lives Matter groups held demonstrations at the state Capitol on Saturday.

Protesters appeared to walk to the interstate from the Capitol. Police said they could not confirm what group the protesters were a part of.

Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/protesters-briefly-shut-down-i-35-downtown/nnjQJ/