Texas News and Events

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by TexLex
I heard it was a male non-intern public official. Unfotunately, my brain is addled due to sick baby and I can't remember who the guy was supposed to be. The story has the wifey walking in on them. Nice.

Same story then. Craigslist post looks like it was removed, but there is a "reporter" there trolling for info on it. A bit of googling reveals that Secretary of State Connor is the alleged other party.

http://austin.indymedia.org/newswire...5577/index.php

[Austintatious]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
Same story then. Craigslist post looks like it was removed, but there is a "reporter" there trolling for info on it. A bit of googling reveals that Secretary of State Connor is the alleged other party.

http://austin.indymedia.org/newswire...5577/index.php

The only surprise is that the story has taken so long to make it from a widely accepted Austin fact to state-wide gossip.

[evenodds]

Originally posted by Austintatious
The only surprise is that the story has taken so long to make it from a widely accepted Austin fact to state-wide gossip.

Wonkette has a photo from the anti-anti-gay protest at the Gov's Mansion:

I thought this was an interesting case:

Plaintiffs win suit but no money for underage abortion
A jury Wednesday awarded no money to a woman and her father who sued an osteopath for performing an abortion while she was a minor without notifying the parent.

Ninety percent of the blame was assigned to the woman for using a fake identification indicating she was not a minor, the panel decided.

Beach bound? Better keep your clothes on

New Braunfels may ban beer bongs on rivers

Houston Endowment Inc. has contributed $30,000 to the Harris County district clerk's effort to restore and preserve historic records dating to 1836.

The $53,375 now collected falls far short of the $800,000 the office estimates it needs to prevent the records from decaying beyond repair.

Donations can be sent to the Houston Bar Foundation Preservation Project, P.O. Box 3552, Houston, TX 77253.

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by evenodds
Wonkette has a photo from the anti-anti-gay protest at the Gov's Mansion:

Ix-nay on the outing-ay.

The duel of the tongue vibrators Spree - news story.

GALVESTON -- A federal judge has fined attorney Anthony Griffin nearly $18,000 for filing a lawsuit the judge termed an attempt to "legally extort money" from the Galveston Independent School District.

Good Ole Judge Kent....my favorite quote, "[Judge Kent] said the money the district spent on the Boone lawsuit "does not come from a magic money tree."

And in other news:
Ralph Nader went to court Monday to win a place on the Texas presidential ballot after falling short in a petition drive.

Any comments from former students?

Student sues college, ex-professor, claiming brutal sexual harassment

A federal lawsuit accuses a former law school professor, known for his public commentary on legal issues, of forcing a former student to have sex, sodomizing her and threatening to share her sexually with other faculty members.

The accusations led the faculty of the South Texas College of Law to vote last year to recommend that the board of directors strip Neil McCabe, 56, of his tenure, college President and Dean James Alfini said.......

The lawsuit, filed April 23, claims discrimination and harassment under Title IX of the 1972 federal Education Amendment and seeks an unspecified amount in damages from the college and McCabe.

McCabe filed a defamation of character lawsuit Jan. 15 in state civil court accusing Fredericks of stalking him after he broke off their sexual relationship............

"If she thought we were bluffing, we assume she has been disabused of that notion," the letter says. "If she does not want to expose herself, her family and friends to discovery, she must do as requested."...............

The lawsuit accuses McCabe of taking advantage of Fredericks when she was emotionally vulnerable and "began a campaign of control and manipulation of Fredericks under the guise of helping her with her personal and family problems."........

Finally he forced her to have sex, often in his office, and "he brutally and forcibly sodomized her when she was `bad,' " according to the lawsuit.

Deputy found guilty in Toys for Tots scheme
By DALE LEZON

The president of the Harris County Deputies Organization was convicted Monday of theft in what prosecutors said was a scam to convince donors that their contributions would be given to the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program.

County Sheriff's Deputy Ed Christensen, 51, was found guilty of theft between $1,500 and $20,000. Christensen denied the allegations, saying telemarkerters and their subcontractors hired to raise money duped him and the union.

State District Judge Don Stricklin sentenced Christensen to four years' probation. He already told Christensen to resign his post as union president and to stay away from union headquarters.....

LINK

Here's Something That Doesn't Happen Every Day...
Jun 25, 7:47 am ET

HOUSTON (Reuters) - An exploding vending machine turned the coolant freon into phosgene, a poisonous gas used as a chemical weapon in World War One, and forced the evacuation of 10 people from a Texas hospital, officials said on Thursday.
A food service employee was working on the refrigerated soft drink machine at the Park Place Medical Center in Port Arthur, Texas, when a small explosion and fire occurred inside it on Wednesday morning, Port Arthur Fire Marshal Mark Mulliner said.

"When freon gas from the cooling system came into contact with the heat from the fire, it changed composition to a phosgene gas," Mulliner said.

Phosgene irritates the lungs, eyes, mouth and nose and, in strong enough concentrations, causes fatal amounts of fluid to build up in the lungs.

Ten people on the third floor of the hospital were evacuated for several hours while the area was ventilated, said Heather Ross of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Two firefighters were kept in the hospital overnight for observation, Ross said.

"We were fortunate one of our officers who was first on the scene had some familiarity with phosgene and quickly evacuated the area," Mulliner said.

Ross said state Homeland Security officials had to be notified of the incident because of phosphene's possible use as a chemical weapon.

Mulliner said the incident appeared to be a "freak accident."

"I've been here 27 years and I've never seen anything like this," he said.


Linky Loo

Justices: Fetus is not a 'person'

Aug. 30, 2004, 7:19AM

Texas high court rules 8-1 the parents of a stillborn baby can't sue hospital

By JANET ELLIOTT - Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN - The parents of a stillborn child cannot sue medical practitioners for negligence because a fetus is not a "person" or "individual" under state laws, the Texas Supreme Court has ruled.

The court in an 8-1 ruling overturned a decision of the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth that Tara Reese could sue a Fort Worth hospital for the mental anguish she suffered after her baby died in utero in 1998.

Lawyers for Reese had urged the court to follow 37 other states that allow wrongful-death claims for stillborn children. Texas is one of 10 states that do not recognize such claims.

The Texas Legislature in 2003 passed the Prenatal Protection Act, which defines "individual" to include an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization to birth. But lawmakers then said that physicians or other licensed health care providers could not be sued if the death is the result of a lawful medical procedure.

Chief Justice Tom Phillips, writing for the majority, said the parties "do not contend that this case involved anything other than a lawful medical procedure, so this case would not be covered even if the new statute were applicable."

According to the opinion, Reese went to the Fort Worth Osteopathic Medical Center emergency room in her seventh month of pregnancy, complaining of a racing pulse and dizziness.

She alleged that the doctors were negligent in caring for her and the fetus.

Phillips said the court was following its 1987 decision in Witty v. American General Capital that held the Legislature did not intend to include a fetus when it enacted the wrongful-death and survival laws in 1860 and 1895. The court said Reese could pursue a claim against the hospital for the injuries she sustained.

Justice Steven W. Smith dissented. He said the case was too important to be resolved solely on the basis of prior case law.

Jerry Bullard, a lawyer for Reese and her husband, Donnie Reese, said he was disappointed in the ruling.

"The court missed an opportunity to re-examine and overrule Witty as it applies to viable unborn children, restore sanity to an area of jurisprudence that is morally and legally repugnant, and bring Texas into step with those states that recognize the personhood of the unborn child," Bullard said.

Earl Harcrow of Fort Worth, who represents the hospital, said he thinks the court did the right thing.

"That's what the law has always been," Harcrow said. "The court of appeals tried to change it, but the Supreme Court did not go along with that."

Woman pleads guilty to giving drugs to unborn child AMARILLO -- A woman pleaded guilty today to delivering crack to her unborn son, avoiding trial in a case that could determine the boundaries of a state law intended to protect the unborn.

As part of her plea agreement, Tracy Ward, 30, retained her right to appeal, said her attorney, Joe Dawson. The deal averted trial over the question of whether a mother's actions can be prosecuted under a law that classifies a fetus as an individual.

Ward, who admitted smoking crack cocaine in the days leading up to her son's birth in early November, will be sentenced Wednesday. She faces between two and 20 years in prison on the second-degree felony charge of delivery of a controlled substance to a child.

Truth and Consequences - Sometimes in the game of cops and robbers, telling your story is no defense

Denise Crawford looked at her new client and saw a defendant more desperate than most. After six months in jail, Desmond Haye had been ushered in for trial as a young man without much defense -- or even a defense attorney, for that matter.
State District Judge Jeannine Barr delayed the trial for two days, but Haye's first lawyer never showed up. Exasperated, she wound up appointing Crawford to defend him in June 2003.

A former prosecutor, Crawford anticipated another long story of despair and innocence spun by a street-savvy prisoner. Instead, she was silently impressed. "He had a calm about him -- I know I wouldn't be as calm if I was looking at potential life in prison," she remembers. "He was polite, a well-spoken young man."

To hear Haye tell it, the police just showed up at his Alief home that January and, for no reason, took him in as the gunman in gaudy hip-hop apparel who had robbed a Handy Stop check-cashing outlet five weeks earlier. He had his alibi: Haye and his wife both swore he was taking her to work rather than holding up some convenience store on Fondren...............