Archive for the ‘Texas’ Category
Texas rejects new trial for killer despite affair between judge and prosecutor
The question of whether a romantic relationship between a judge and prosecutor is unfair won’t be decided by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
The issue in the capital murder case of Charles Dean Hood roiled the legal community last summer, but the Court ruled Wednesday it would not consider the issue because defense attorneys did not raise it initially.
Defense attorney David Dow called the decision by Texas’ highest criminal court “gutless.”
In Pictures: America’s 10 Biggest Megachurches
- Four of the ten are in Texas.
- Seven of the ten are in the south.
- As you may have guessed, there’s a father and son whose churches are on the list.
Texas tells schools to teach Bible literacy but not how
Vanda Terrell is still getting used to saying it.
“Let’s open our Bibles,” the veteran Plano ISD teacher tells students daily at two public high schools in the district. And it’s legal for her to do it. A new state law requires that Texas public schools incorporate Bible literacy into the curriculum.
But the law provides no specific guidelines, funding for materials or teacher training. So high schools are left scrambling to figure out what to teach and how to teach it. A handful of North Texas districts are offering an elective class, but most are choosing instead to embed Old and New Testament teachings into current classes.
Such broad parameters leave one of the most controversial topics in public schools virtually unregulated, say religious scholars and confused educators. They warn that the nebulous law may have thwarted its purpose – to examine the Bible’s influence in history and literature.
“Asking a school district to teach a course or include material in a course without providing them any guidance or resources is like sending a teacher into a minefield without a map,” said Mark Chancey, an associate professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University and author of the report “Teaching the Bible in Texas Public Schools.”
Obama’s plan to speak to schoolchildren ignites furor in Dallas-Fort Worth
A groundswell of parent opposition to President Barack Obama’s speech next week to students on the importance of education has forced many North Texas school districts to question whether to air it live in classrooms.
Obama announced the speech weeks ago, but opposition and concerns spread rapidly Wednesday morning through conservative social networking Web sites and radio talk shows.
By midday, local school districts say, they were inundated with hundreds of phone calls from parents urging them to not show Obama’s speech at school.
Some parents threatened to keep their children home from school if the video was aired.
Dallas leads nation in repeat teen births
AUSTIN – Dallas leads the nation in the percentage of teen births that aren’t the mother’s first delivery, a nonpartisan national research group finds in a new report.
Dallas had the highest percentage of teen births that are repeat births – 28 percent – among 73 major U.S. cities in 2006, the latest year for which city-level data are available.
Texas has the highest repeat rate of any state – 23 percent of teen births. And five of the 15 worst-ranked cities are in Texas, according to the group Child Trends, in a report to be released Wednesday.
This guy is running for governor
My jaw dropped about three times in the first 30 seconds of this rally.
Credit: Barry’s blog
West Texas field reads: ‘Say no to Obama!’
LUBBOCK — A former art teacher used his West Texas field to carve out a protest about the Obama administration’s proposed overhaul of the health care system.
Sam Bates recently plowed some weeds and left behind the message “Say no to Obama!” that’s best viewed from the air.
Bates said he had some “free time” and wanted to offer his unhappiness with what’s been going on in Washington.
“This is a sign of frustration,” Bates told KCBD-TV on Monday.
“You know, it’s not so much Obama, but just some of the things he’s done recently with the health bill he’s trying to pass through, and it’s just as much Republican and Democrats fault in the House and the Senate that won’t stand up to some of the things. That’s basically what’s frustrated me,” Bates said.
The Obama administration has been pushing its proposal to reshape the $2.5 trillion health system.
Bates said he dug out his message for the benefit of pilots flying in and out of Lubbock.
“I thought, maybe some pilots flying from here to Dallas would get a good chuckle,” he said.
Bates said his friend who is a crop duster helped him put aerial photos of the field on the Internet.
The sign in the lake bed will disappear when the season changes.
“Once winter hits it will kill these weeds, and who knows, maybe next year I’ll have something else,” said Bates.
Sin in America: Researchers attempt to find who’s good and who’s not
WASHINGTON (CNS) — How much sin is in America?
It depends on where you live, according to four Kansas State University geography researchers.
In what researcher Thomas Vought described as a not-too-serious study meant to garner attention at a convention of geographers in Las Vegas as much as to contribute to understanding the habits of people around the country, the foursome found that the South — encompassing an arc from North Carolina through Louisiana — was most prone to the traditional seven deadly sins.
And the least sinful areas?
The Midwest and western Appalachia, the study’s findings showed.
You’ll find west and north-central Texas in the study.
Lubbock County removes judge’s racially charged posters
County Judge Tom Head defended on Friday potentially offensive posters that commissioners removed from a public bulletin board he maintained in the courthouse.
He intended the posters, including one that contained racially stereotyped descriptions of Obama supporters, to spark conversation about modern issues, he said.
“Nobody’s ever said anything to me, personally,” Head said. “Apparently it’s performing its task now, because somebody got emotional about it.”
Commissioners removed the posters, saying the county faced bigger issues and did not need a new distraction.
Head said he began posting to the bulletin board five to six years ago. Most of the postings reflected his socially and politically conservative views, and he intended for people who held different views to contact him, he said.
McCay removed a series of printouts that began with a short narration of a person contemplating waking up, putting on an Obama T-shirt and then abusing drugs, robbing a store and hitting his wife.
A sheet of mug shots of mostly black men wearing Obama shirts had been tacked beneath the narration. Another printout suggesting no mug shots would show a criminal wearing a shirt supporting a Republican president hung beneath the pictures.
Full LubbockOnline.com Article
Obese Texas inmate hides gun in his flabs of fat
HOUSTON – An obese inmate in Texas has been charged after officials learned he had a gun hidden under flabs of his own flesh.
Twenty-five-year-old George Vera was charged with possession of a firearm in a correctional facility after he told a guard at the Harris County Jail about the unloaded 9mm pistol. The Houston Chronicle reported Thursday that Vera was originally arrested on charges of selling illegal copies of compact discs.
The 500-pound man was searched during his arrest and again at a city jail and the county jail, but officers never found the weapon in his rolls of skin. Vera admitted having the gun during a shower break at the county jail.
Tattood Texan Librarian Calendar
A fundraising activity for the TLA LIBRARY DISASTER RELIEF FUND, this calendar showcases the charms and often concealed art of 18 women of the Texas library community. As members of the Texas Library Association, these women volunteered to reveal their ink and share some of their stories for the well-being of our state’s libraries.
Who’s in it? The Tattooed Ladies represent both urban and rural libraries; public, school, and academic libraries; and the state’s geography from El Paso to the Gulf Coast and from North Texas to the Rio Grande Valley. You’ll meet seasoned professionals and passionate lay advocates, retired librarians and library school students. Libraries thrive on and promote diversity and freedom of expression. The Tattooed Ladies of TLA calendar is a testament to both.
Fifth Annual “Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report”
Here’s the report, but below are the cities with the ten best drivers.
Top Ten Overall
Top Ten with One Million Plus Residents
Austin Church Allows Pets
AUSTIN (KXAN) – City Community Church is a place where everyone is welcome at Sunday service, including four-legged friends.
The church meets at the La Zona Rosa bar on Fourth Street in Downtown Austin every Sunday morning. It is a heavenly haven for people and their pets.
“That’s part of our philosophy,” said Robby Forsythe, City Community Church Pastor. “We want to be a blessing. Everyone is welcome. We decided people can bring their dogs too.”
The Canine Christ Connection started when church members began handing out snacks and dog treats to joggers and their pets on Sunday mornings. Then those pet owners started asking if they could bring their dogs to service.
Protect The Texas Jaguarundi!! He’s Cute!!
Ever heard of the jaguarundi? Neither have we.
Perhaps that’s because this unique type of cat that lives along the Texas border with Mexico is endangered. Perhaps it’s because nobody really cares. We’re guessing it’s a bit of both, but that doesn’t mean every animal shouldn’t have some human in their corner pulling for them.
WildEarth Guardian, a non-profit environmental organization, recently waged war in the form of a lawsuit in Houston federal court against Ken Salazar, Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, demanding that he put a conservation and survival plan together for the animal. After all, the organization argues, the cat has been listed as endangered since 1976, plenty of time to create such a plan as required under the Endangered Species Act.
Two types of the endangered species call south Texas their home, the Gulf Coast jaguarundi and the Sinaloan jaguarundi. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, they are larger than a domestic cat and have small ears, long, narrow bodies with short legs and flattened heads and tails. They generally look more like an otter or a weasel than a cat. They make their homes, according to the lawsuit, in the “dense thorny mesquite, cacti and cat claw thickets of southern Texas.”
The 10 Best Burgers in Texas
This list seems a bit biased towards the southern parts of Texas, and I only noticed one DFW place on the list.
Back-to-Back Team State Championships – All by herself.
Bonnie Richardson, from tiny Rochelle, Texas (population 600), has accomplished what no other Texas high school track and field athlete has ever achieved: back-to-back team state championships – by herself.
Richardson captured first in the long jump (17-04.50), second in the discus (126-09) and first in the high jump (5-8) on Friday for a total of 28 points. Returning to Myers Stadium on the campus of the University of Texas on Saturday, Richardson placed third in the 200 (25.78) and fourth in the 100 (12.51) for a two-day total of 38 points – two points better than second-place Cayuga in Class A.
In her typical laid-back fashion, Richardson didn’t get too excited.
“My family already did the math,” Richardson said while waiting for her celebratory prime rib sandwich at Red Robin restaurant. “They were jumping up and down; it was kind of embarrassing.”
Since Rochelle High School has no track, Richardson – this year’s entire girls’ track team – practices at nearby Brady High School, where there are gas stations and a Wal-Mart.
New Texas License Plate
AUSTIN — Texans soon will have a new way to identify their vehicles, with the first digitally produced license plates they chose themselves.
The Texas Department of Transportation began shipping the new, general-issue plates to all 254 county tax offices this week. They should be in stock no later than June 12.
Texans chose the Lone Star Texas plate last year from among five designs. The plate design received 455,878 of the more than 1.1 million votes cast, according to TxDOT.
I’m not much of a fan of the new plate, I prefer the older one that had more white in it; mainly because it avoids any weird color clash depending on the color of your vehicle. But at least they are more environmentally friendly:
The digital process creates a more environmentally friendly plate, eliminating the use of 484 gallons of paint thinners and 396 gallons of ink annually, and the energy to power huge ovens that dried the plate ink.
Notice there’s an extra digit.
You Are What You Eat
We purchase refrigerators the way we fill them: out of necessity—to preserve the milk; to keep the greens from wilting. But from the right vantage point, an open fridge is the perfect staging grounds for a discussion of consumption. And if the aphorism holds true—if we really are what we eat—then refrigerators are like windows into our souls. It’s that sentiment that’s at the heart of Mark Menjivar’s inventive exploration of hunger, “You Are What You Eat,” for which he photographed the contents of strangers’ refrigerators. As you can see, whether it holds neatly ordered rows of labels-out condiments or zip-locked stacks of shot-and-gutted buck meat, there’s almost certainly a narrative to a fridge’s arrangement.
View the complete photoset at Good.is
There are a lot of Texas refrigerators in this collection, it’s easy to spot the Mrs Baird’s Bread bags. Oh, and the frozen snake is darn interesting.
