December 13, 2014

Coup for museum or bad taste? Display of UT sniper’s gun raises ire

WASHINGTON — For the past week, Charles Whitman’s rifle has sat in its new home: a glass case at the National Museum of Crime and Punishment.

But to the last living cop who stopped Whitman’s 1966 shooting spree atop the University of Texas tower, the rifle doesn’t need to be displayed — it needs to be destroyed.

“The dadgum thing should be put in a smelter and done away with. End of story,” said Ramiro Martinez, a retired Austin police officer who confronted Whitman on the 28th floor of the tower.

The Remington Model 700 rifle that Whitman used to kill 16 people and wound 32 others on Aug. 1, 1966, is the museum’s newest addition. Housed in a 28,000-square-foot facility, the museum sits near a hub of activity in downtown Washington.

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20141212-coup-for-museum-or-bad-taste-display-of-ut-snipers-gun-raises-ire.ece

December 13, 2014

North Texas congressman Joe Barton: College Football Playoff needs to expand, 'will fail every year'

A North Texas congressman once critical of the BCS already wants to see some changes to the new College Football Playoff.

Rep. Joe Barton, a republican who represents the 6th Congressional District of Texas, said the new playoff is a good start but isn't broad enough to include enough top teams, according to an interview on the ESPN/ABC News podcast "Capital Games."

Last week, the inaugural College Football Playoff included the top four teams of the selection committee's ranking. Baylor and TCU, ranked No. 5 and No. 6, respectively, were left out.

"The system as they have it now is going to fail every year because with five so called power-conference plus the major independents, you can’t squeeze all that sausage into the sack," he said on the podcast. "There's going to be a few teams left out."

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/college-sports/headlines/20141212-north-texas-congressman-joe-barton-college-football-playoff-needs-to-expand-will-fail-every-year.ece

December 12, 2014

OSHA says 3 men killed in Thanksgiving Tower fire were using torch to repair water tank

The three workers who died in a fire under Thanksgiving Tower on Thursday were using a torch to repair a 30-foot-deep water tank, according to federal authorities.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said in a statement Friday that the men were Texas HVAC employees whom Best Mechanical Inc. hired to clean four water tanks in the lower levels of the tower.

The storage tank they were working in — part of the building’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning system — caught fire as the workers used a torch to cut away its rusted and corroded components, according to the OSHA statement.

-snip-

But Dallas Fire-Rescue Assistant Fire Chief Ted Padgett said Best Mechanical hasn’t had a valid permit to welding or cutting since December 2009. He also said Thanksgiving Tower’s permit for welding, cutting and hot work expired in March.

Read more: http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2014/12/osha-says-3-men-who-died-in-fire-under-thanksgiving-tower-were-using-torch-to-cut-through-water-tank.html/

December 12, 2014

Fort Worth ‘pastor’ threatens ‘faggots’ with death

As marriage equality spreads and cities like Plano pass nondiscrimination ordinances, LGBT bigots are becoming more venomous.

Pastor Donnie Romero of Stedfast Baptist Church in Fort Worth is preaching that gays should be put to death.

The website for the church does not list an address, so it’s unknown whether this is a real congregation. In a video the church released, Romero is posed at a podium against a blank wall.

“I’m not going to let these dirty faggots in my church,” he says on a video he released. “They’re all pedophiles.”

Read more: http://www.dallasvoice.com/fort-worth-pastor-threatens-faggots-death-10185960.html

Cross-posted in the Texas Group.

[font color=green]It would be fitting for people who are LGBT friendly to show up at church on Sunday and leave lumps of coal in the offering plate.[/font]

December 12, 2014

Fort Worth ‘pastor’ threatens ‘faggots’ with death

As marriage equality spreads and cities like Plano pass nondiscrimination ordinances, LGBT bigots are becoming more venomous.

Pastor Donnie Romero of Stedfast Baptist Church in Fort Worth is preaching that gays should be put to death.

The website for the church does not list an address, so it’s unknown whether this is a real congregation. In a video the church released, Romero is posed at a podium against a blank wall.

“I’m not going to let these dirty faggots in my church,” he says on a video he released. “They’re all pedophiles.”

Read more: http://www.dallasvoice.com/fort-worth-pastor-threatens-faggots-death-10185960.html

Cross-posted in the LGBT Group.

[font color=green]It would be fitting for people who are LGBT friendly to show up at church on Sunday and leave lumps of coal in the offering plate.[/font]

December 12, 2014

Dallas Voice LGBT Texan of the Year: Michael Sam

Last January, if you weren’t a college football fan, you’d probably never heard of Michael Sam. Today, just 12 short months later, everybody knows who he is: the first openly gay man drafted into the National Football League.

Sam, born Jan. 7, 1990, in Galveston, grew up in nearby Hitchcock, Texas, first taking to the football field at Hitchcock High School. Sam has said in previous interviews that at first, football was just a way to escape what he has described as an unhappy childhood. But by the time he graduated from high school, football had become his pathway to a much brighter future.

Sam accepted a scholarship from the University of Missouri and quickly became a standout player for the Mizzou Tigers. At the end of his senior season, Sam was named the Southeastern Conference’s co-Defensive Player of the Year and a member of the All-SEC First Team. He was also named a semifinalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award, the Hendricks Award, and the Lombardi Award.

Early projections had Sam going in the third or fourth round of the 2014 NFL draft. Then Sam came out as a gay man.

Read more: http://www.dallasvoice.com/lgbt-texan-year-michael-sam-10186127.html

Cross-posted in the LGBT Group.

December 12, 2014

Dallas Voice LGBT Texan of the Year: Michael Sam

Last January, if you weren’t a college football fan, you’d probably never heard of Michael Sam. Today, just 12 short months later, everybody knows who he is: the first openly gay man drafted into the National Football League.

Sam, born Jan. 7, 1990, in Galveston, grew up in nearby Hitchcock, Texas, first taking to the football field at Hitchcock High School. Sam has said in previous interviews that at first, football was just a way to escape what he has described as an unhappy childhood. But by the time he graduated from high school, football had become his pathway to a much brighter future.

Sam accepted a scholarship from the University of Missouri and quickly became a standout player for the Mizzou Tigers. At the end of his senior season, Sam was named the Southeastern Conference’s co-Defensive Player of the Year and a member of the All-SEC First Team. He was also named a semifinalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award, the Hendricks Award, and the Lombardi Award.

Early projections had Sam going in the third or fourth round of the 2014 NFL draft. Then Sam came out as a gay man.

Read more: http://www.dallasvoice.com/lgbt-texan-year-michael-sam-10186127.html

Cross-posted in the Texas Group.

December 12, 2014

Top Lawyer at State Health Agency Resigns Over Contract

Jack Stick, the top lawyer for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, is resigning his post amid a crumbling state contract with data warehouse 21CT.

The commission’s Office of Inspector General, or OIG, has been under scrutiny for the way it decided to award a highly sought-after contract to the company to store and sort the sprawling health agency’s data into searchable, cataloged material. The state tentatively awarded the contract to 21CT outside the formal bidding process, Janek has said. The contract, originally set at $20 million, is about to expire, and the OIG had proposed a $90 million, three-year extension.

"Contractors have raised issues about the procurement for this project,” Kyle Janek, the agency's executive commissioner, said in a statement Friday. “I've looked into those concerns, and I'm not comfortable with the process used so I've withdrawn the request for state approval to extend the project and notified the OIG.”

As the agency considered which company to hire, Stick, who had worked with 21CT before, suggested there might be overlap in the new data project and services the company provided, Janek has said. In September, Janek, Stick’s boss and a Gov. Rick Perry appointee, defended Stick’s work ethic and professionalism.

Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2014/12/12/top-lawyer-state-health-agency-resigns-over-contra/

December 12, 2014

Judge Allows Texas' Ban on Same-Sex Marriage to Continue

A judge on Friday declined to lift a stay that is preventing same-sex marriage in Texas.

U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia of San Antonio ruled in February that Texas' same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional. Anticipating an appeal from the state, Garcia also immediately issued a stay to keep his ruling from going into effect. In November, the plaintiffs in the case — two same-sex couples who want to marry — asked Garcia to lift his stay. On Friday, Garcia declined to lift the stay.

“Such action would only be temporary, with confusion and doubt to follow," Garcia wrote in the ruling on Friday. "The day for finality and legal certainty in the long and difficult journey for equality is closer than ever before."

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in same-sex marriage cases from Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana on Jan. 9. More than 30 states, and the District of Columbia, allow same-sex marriage.

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/12/12/judge-declines-life-stay-same-sex-marriage-ruling/

December 12, 2014

Islands of the Oil Kings: Part 2 -- A fortress of power built to last

Main photo: The private residence owned by the Bass family on San Jose Island. Perry Bass built the home for his uncle Sid Richardson in 1938. (G.J. McCarthy/Staff Photographer)

When Franklin Roosevelt left the private Texas islands of oilmen Clint Murchison Sr. and Sid Richardson, the 165-foot presidential yacht Potomac cruised up the coastline to Galveston and Roosevelt’s first meeting with Lyndon Johnson. Almost immediately, work began on a new home for Richardson on his island, San Jose, then known as St. Joseph, or St. Jo for short.

Under the ownership of Richardson and his heirs, Fort Worth’s Bass family, five presidents would visit St. Jo.

Richardson’s nephew and partner, Perry Bass, was there to greet four. He missed welcoming Franklin Roosevelt ashore by a few brief weeks.

In May 1937, the presidential yacht sat anchored in the channel behind San Jose, within sight of the docks of Rockport and Port Aransas.

Read more: http://res.dallasnews.com/interactives/oilkings/part2/index.html