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May 7, 2009
Bolton's ESD constitutional amendment teetering
A proposed constitutional amendment by Rep. Valinda Bolton, D-Austin, that would allow emergency service districts additional taxing authority won with 90 “ayes” in the first round of voting on Thursday
But to get the amendment on the November ballot, Bolton will need to corral another 10 votes when the measure comes up again for final adoption Friday in order to cross the required two-thirds threshold.
The constitutional amendment, if approved by Texas voters, would allow emergency service districts to add up to 5 cents to their property tax rate with approval from local voters. That additional tax money could only be used for capital expenses, such as equipment and buildings.
In Travis County, there are more than a dozen emergency service districts that provide fire and emergency response in the areas outside the city of Austin. The districts typically serve the fastest-growing areas of the state, Bolton said.
Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, argued that the was not right for new taxes.
“These are tough economic times for people that are trying to stay in their homes,” Chisum said. “This is not the proper time to raise property taxes.”
Bolton said this measure does not raise taxes but gives the local communities the opportunity to say they want to invest in their emergency services.
“I just don’t get why they don’t get it,” Bolton said after the vote. “I just can’t think of anything more important that government should be doing.”
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April 20, 2009
Boater licensing bill runs aground
A bill that would force most Texas boaters to get a state license before they hit the water quickly ran aground today in the state Senate, after opponents challenged the wisdom of clamping new regulations on summer fun.
But state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, who proposed the new boating licenses, said he will ask for an interim study to justify passing the change into law in two years.
“There didn’t appear to be any opposition, until today,” Wentworth said.
Senate Bill 2095 would have covered all powered watercraft over 10 mph — including boats, jet skis and other powered craft. Operators of those boats would have been required to take and pass a boating safety course with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to obtain a “boater identification card.”
That card would be required to operate powered watercraft, the first time for such a rule in Texas.
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April 16, 2009
UT students protest gun bill
About 200 University of Texas and Texas State University students gathered at the Capitol today, the second anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings, to protest House Bill 1893, which would allow students to carry concealed handguns on campuses in Texas. The bill is sponsored by state Rep. Joe Driver, R-Garland.
Students walked out of class earlier to rally. Word spread of the protest on Facebook and through emails for the past several days.
Alex Greenberg, 19, said he walked out of his architecture class to protest. “Guns on campus take away from the atmosphere,” he said. “You shouldn’t have to worry about someone acting on an impulse and something terrible happening at school.”
“I became involved in this issue, because I lost a lot of close friends in the shooting at Virginia Tech,” said John Woods, who is both a University of Texas graduate student and a Virginia Tech alum.
In a Facebook message sent Wednesday, Woods said his girlfriend was killed in the shootings. “Since then, I’ve seen those in favor of guns on campus cite the Virginia Tech shooting over and over again — but not once have they asked the experts on school shootings. Not once have they asked survivors, ‘What was it like in there? Would guns help?’”
On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho fatally shot 32 people before he killed himself on the campus in what is called the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. History. Virginia Tech students and faculty planned to observe today as a Day of Remembrance.
Today, Woods lead students in a moment of silence and rang a bell 32 times in honor of those killed.
Driver said HB 1893 is meant to prevent a repeat of a shooting like the Virginia Tech incident.
“If Virginia Tech had not kept the campus a gun-free zone, some people could have been saved,” Driver said.
The rally is a way for people to act on their First Amendment rights, Driver said. “I hope that they respect my Second Amendment rights as much as I respect their First.”
State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, spoke during the rally against the bill. “Someone with a concealed handgun license is not a deputy sheriff or a police officer,” Rodriguez said. “If a campus police officer arrived at a school shooting, how will that person decide who is the good guy and who is the bad guy in that situation?”
In related news, officials at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches announced this morning that they are trying to determine who wrote notes and signs suggesting that “students will die” today. Click here for more on that story.
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April 7, 2009
Survivors' insurance measure approved
A bill that would extend low-cost insurance benefits to the survivors of Texas law officers killed in the line of duty was approved today by the Texas Senate.
Senate Bill 872 by state Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, would permit the continuation of health insurance for survivors at the rate for active family members.
Widows and other survivors had rallied in recent weeks at the Texas Capitol, urging support for the measure. Several had said their insurance costs had tripled after their loved one was killed, despite a 1993 state law designed to continue the benefits at the same price.
Lucio, who sponsored the 1993 law, said the new bill was designed to clarify wording that had resulted in a cutoff of benefits to many survivors.
“This is simply about doing what’s right,” Lucio said.
The Senate quickly agreed, voting 31-0 for final passage. The measure now goes to the House for consideration.
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March 31, 2009
Session of guns?
It started with a bill to allow Texans to bring their guns to work, though locked in their cars.
Then came a measure to let pistol-packers off the hook if they brought a gun into a bar, usually a criminal no-no, if proper signs weren’t posted.
On Monday, the a House committee heard testimony about why it is a good idea to allow concealed-weapons on college campuses, a controversial step that brought out opponents and supporters in large numbers.
“Is this the legislative session of guns?” asked Braden Campbell, 19, a University of Texas sophomore who showed up in the standing-room-only crowd to protest allowing guns on campuses. “Does everybody in Texas have to be able to carry a gun everywhere they go?”
As far as campuses go, at least half of the 150-member House thinks so. They have signed on as co-sponsors of the campus-carry measure by state Rep. Joe Driver, R-Garland.
While concealed-weapons bills have always showed up on legislative agendas every two years in Texas, where hunting and the right to bear arms are as much an ingrained part of the Lone Star psyche as clam bakes and fishing are to coastal New Englanders, both supporters and opponents agree this year seems to be a more active gun year.
And most of the measures seem to be passing quite handily, despite opposition.
Both sides say several things are behind the flurry: The increasing numbers of Texans who carry concealed weapons with state permits are flexing their political muscle, a growing awareness about self-protection, even the collapsed economy that has left many folks uneasy.
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March 25, 2009
Guns-to-work bill gets Senate okay
A controversial bill that would allow Texans to bring guns and ammunition to work in their cars, even if their bosses said no, was unanimously approved today by the Texas Senate.
Guns and shells would have to be kept out of sight in a locked car.
“Ten states have passed laws like this … and there have not been any problems,” said state Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, the author of the measure. “This is designed to stop employers from punishing employees who legally bring weapons to work in their cars.”
Senate Bill 730 was opposed by business groups, who cautioned that with a growing number of Texas workers getting laid off, some might start shooting if they had a gun stowed in their car.
Gun-advocacy groups and other proponents said that as crime grows with the deepening recession, they need a pistol to make it safely to and from work.
More than 230,000 Texans have state permits to carry a concealed weapon.
Under the measure, employers could still bar employees from possessing guns in offices or company vehicles, and in fenced parking lots to which access is restricted.
“One of the reasons we need to pass this is that if employers continue (enacting and enforcing no-gun rules), we will soon have a situation where CHL (concealed handgun permits) are rendered ineffective,” said Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, a supporter of the measure.
“I don’t have a problem with a deer rifle or a concealed weapon,” said Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, “but I do have a question about what ammunition means.”
Hegar answered: “Under this bill, they are not allowed to have dynamite in their car.”
Sen. Steve Ogden, D-Bryan, amended the bill to exempt workplaces, such as oil and gas drilling sites on private property, where contracts prohibit weapons.
“Here in Texas, people like their firearms,” Hegar said.
“It’s not a firearm in a car that causes problems … it’s people.”
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March 24, 2009
Obama: Beef up border security
As the Obama administration announced plans this morning to send more agents and equipment to the Mexican border to fight drug cartels and keep violence from spilling into the United States, federal officials said they will meet with Gov. Rick Perry to discuss his proposal to deploy National Guard troops on the border.
Speaking at the White House, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said officials were still considering whether to send the National Guard to the border. Perry last month requested 1,000 Guard troops be deployed.
Deputy Attorney General David Ogden pledged “to destroy these criminal organizations” through a united effort on both sides of the border.
Violent turf battles among the cartels have wracked Mexico in recent years, and led to a spate of kidnappings and home invasions in some U.S. cities.
Federal authorities said they will increase the number of immigrations and customs agents, drug agents and anti-gun trafficking agents operating along the border.
Prosecutors say they will make a greater effort to go after those smuggling guns and drug profits from the U.S. into Mexico.
Officials said President Barack Obama is particularly concerned about killings in Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana, and wants to prevent such violence from spilling over into the United States.
Many of the moves being announced are a continuation or expansion of programs that already existed under the Bush administration.
Among the moves the government is making:
Doubling the border enforcement security teams that combine local, state, and federal officers.
Adding 16 new Drug Enforcement Administration positions in the southwest region. DEA currently has more than 1,000 agents working in the southwest border region.
Sending 100 more people form the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to the border in the next 45 days. A recent bill passed by Congress already provided money for the ATF to hire 37 new agents and support staff in the region to fight gun trafficking.
The administration is also highlighting $700 million that Congress has already approved to support Mexico’s efforts to fight the cartels.
Yet the plan so far falls short of Perry’s request last month that 1,000 troops be sent to bolster border security in his state.
In a statement late this morning, Perry said he was “pleased the Administration recognizes that securing the U.S.-Mexico border is vitally important to public safety and homeland security.
“While we appreciate the additional investigative resources, what we really need are more border patrol agents and officers at the bridges to conduct increased northbound and southbound inspections, as well as additional funding for local law enforcement along the border to deny Mexican drug cartels access to the United States,” Perry said.
“The state of Texas will continue to fill in the gaps until the federal government provides adequate resources necessary to secure our border and protect our citizens from those seeking to do us harm.”
Texas is spending $110 million on border security. Perry has requested an additional $133 million from the Texas Legislature to continue these border security efforts and combat transnational gangs, although both the Senate and House are discussing funding amounts in the range of $80-90 million.
During a visit to El Paso last month, Perry said he had asked Napolitano for aviation assets and “1,000 more troops that we can commit to different parts of the border.”
Asked then if he wanted the military, Perry said, “I really don’t care. As long as they are boots on the ground that are properly trained to deal with the border region, I don’t care whether they are military troops, or National Guard troops or whether they are customs agents.”
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Benefits snafu hits police survivors
When Texas Game Warden Justin Hurst was gunned down in March 2007, in a South Texas shootout, his wife was understandably overcome with grief.
A few months later, Amanda Hurst fell victim a second time — to a little-known flaw in the state’s insurance coverage for survivors of state lawmen killed in the line of duty.
“I went from paying $300 a month to $700 … And then they tried to cancel my insurance, because I had received grief counseling,” Mrs. Hurst explained, her words still shaking with emotion, as she talked about her ordeal with coverage.
“At one point, they made me write a $4,400 check to pay them back, because they had stopped covering me and my 4-year-old son, before I got the coverage back … It was terrible.”
This morning, a group of law enforcement officers and survivors of their fallen comrades rallied at the Texas Capitol, seeking support for two bills that would correct the red-tape problem — to ensure that widows and family members have their state health insurance continued after a tragic death.
The issue affects the families of at least two dozen or more state law enforcement officers who have been killed in the line of duty in recent years, state officials said.
“What a travesty this is,” said state Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, a sponsor of one of the bills and an author of a 1993 law that was intended to continue the benefit interrupted.
“The state is falling short of what it should be doing … and I’m committed to finishing what we started, and correcting this problem.”
State Rep. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, author of a House bill to fix the problem, told the crowd: “What’s so shameful is that the you suffered a loss, and then this happens.”
Supporters say what happened to Amanda Hurst highlights the problem that Senate Bill 872 and House Bill 1303 would fix.
Both of the proposals would allow windows to keep their state health insurance at the same price as an active employee.
Within weeks after Justin Hurst was shot and killed on March 17, 2007, during an exchange of gunfire between law enforcement officers and a suspected poacher in Southeast Texas, Amanda Hurst said she was notified the cost of her state insurance would more than double.
Then, in August, her insurance was canceled, she said.
“They said my paperwork was wrong,” she said, noting that her continued coverage was questioned because she had undergone grief counseling in her husband’s death — a pre-existing condition, it was called. “I eventually got back on (the state) health care, but it was for $700.”
Lucio said the intent of the original law was to continue state insurance for survivors at the same rate as an active employee. But state officials interpreted wording to mean that survivors should be charged more, he said.
“It’s just downright shameful that a state agency would do something like this,” said Charley Wilkison, director of public affairs for the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, a group lobbying for passage of the bills.
“When an officer is killed in the line of duty, the intent of the law is to lessen the financial burden on the surviving family … I some cases, we have discovered where (the Employees Retirement System) is still charging the widow for insurance on the deceased spouse
“That is incredibly callous and just plain wrong.”
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March 23, 2009
Border security funding approved in Senate
An additional $80.7 million has been earmarked in the Senate’s version of the budget for increased security measures along the Texas border, much of it for ramped-up enforcement against violent Mexican drug gangs.
Gov. Rick Perry had requested $133.3 million.
These new highlights were just made public by Senate leaders:
The Texas Department of Public Safety would get $55.4 million, the Governor’s Office and Homeland Security would get $21.5 million, Parks and Wildlife would get $3.35 million and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice would get $500,000.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said the proposed funding will be sufficient to cover the additional needs. “It’s a good plan … and we’ll be bringing more manpower to the border,” he said.
Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee that recommended the package, said the funding will support additional law enforcement presence and more.
“We’re addressing the concerns the public has about the the level of violence that is occurring on the other side of the border, to make sure it does not cross to our side,” he said. “It’s a lot of money … It’s a serious issue.”
No word yet on what funding House leaders will recommend for border security.
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March 19, 2009
Audit: Border security funds spent elsewhere
As Texas’ homeland security chief sounded new warnings about a growing drug war, a state audit on Thursday raised questions about tens of millions of dollars that have been spent so far beefing up border security.
In briefing the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee, state Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw warned that the increasing border violence tied to Mexico’s warring drug cartels “without a question … is the most significant organized crime front in the Western Hemisphere.”
In addition to $110 million spent on ramping up border security, Gov. Rick Perry has asked lawmakers for an additional $135 million for 2010-11.
Meanwhile, in a report made public Thursday, State Auditor John Keel questioned whether some purchases made by the Governor’s Division of Emergency Management intended for border security appeared to have been spent in other parts of Texas.
Four helicopters were purchased for $15 million, but one of them — a helicopter that cost $7.4 million — was kept in Austin and an existing one was transferred from Austin to Laredo, according to the audit.
Lamar Beckworth, an assistant director at the Texas Department of Public Safety, told the committee that the new helicopter was so sophisticated that it needed to remain in Austin until its pilots and flight crew could be trained.
While it is stationed in Austin, the helicopter was sent to Del Rio on Thursday to fly a border-enforcement mission, he said.
Some 105 vehicles purchased with $2 million in border-security funds were assigned statewide, and 106 other cars were then sent to the border by DPS, according to the audit.
Beckworth said the assignments of cars and personnel were made to quickly and effectively ramp up border security. In the case of the cars, he said, DPS sent other new cars it already had on hand to the border.
“This was a reporting error in our auditing process,” Beckworth said. “We wanted to get those resources to the border as quickly as we could.”
“The report says you generally complied” with the Legislature-mandated rules for spending money, said state Rep. Fred Brown, R-College Station. “That’s kinda like being a little pregnant … How specific do we have to be to make sure you spend it on what we want it spent for and nothing else?”
Beckworth promised that the agency would fully comply.
McCraw said that as enforcement is stepped up along the border, drug-runners and criminals often change their routes and methods. He cited a recent instance where smugglers who were thwarted in Texas switched to crossing the border in Arizona, then brought drugs back into Texas.
“Troopers are catching loads on I-40 in the Panhandle,” he said.
Jack Colley, chief of the governor’s Emergency Management Division, pledged to correct any problems turned up in the audit. He noted that it did “not find any fraud, waste or abuse” and insisted that the funds were spent as border-security officials thought proper.
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March 16, 2009
Vocal opposition to DPS rule on DLs
Last fall, when Austin information systems auditor Edwin Palacio tried to change his Texas drivers’ license to show his new address in Austin, state officials said no — even though he had had a license for years, and it had just been renewed.
A just-changed policy at the Texas Department of Public Safety required everyone who was not a U.S. citizen or “lawful permanent resident” to prove their “lawful status” in the United States before a DL can be issued, renewed or duplicated.
Born in the Philippines, Palacio, 54, had been granted political asylum in the United States in 1995 and had official “indefinite residency” status.
“I’d never had a problem before,” he said today, as he came to the Texas Capitol to lobby for the passage of legislation that would override the rule change — even though at least one other bill would put the change into state law.
The issue over the DPS rule is becoming the latest point of contention over a controversial voter ID bill, which would require voters to show an official ID before they could vote.
GOP supporters say that change is necessary to guard against voter fraud and that opponents say is an attempt to thwart poor and minority voters at the polls. The Senate is slated to begin considering final passage of the bill Tuesday.
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March 12, 2009
Texas Rangers looking into documents reported missing from House parliamentarian's office
The Texas Rangers are looking into hundreds of documents reported missing from the House parliamentarian’s office, officials said today.
Rep. Chuck Hopson, D-Jacksonville, chairman of the House Committee on General Investigating & Ethics, said the panel turned over the mystery of the missing files to a law enforcement agency March 5.
Hopson declined to name the agency. But separately, Tela Mange, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, confirmed that the Rangers, an investigative division of the agency, are reviewing the matter.
Hopson said of the investigators: “We hooked them up with a bunch of people who have knowledge of the event.”
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February 26, 2009
Guard not on high alert
A story making the rounds on the Internet today says that the Texas National Guard has been placed on high alert because of the escalating drug-cartel violence just across the border in Mexico.
Not exactly, says Gov. Rick Perry’s office.
“There’s no heightened alert status,” said Katherine Cessinger, Perry’s deputy press secretary.
On Feb. 17, she said, the Guard was placed on heightened status when the state’s emergency operations center “stood up” — was placed on active status — during protests at international bridges, just in case any official response or support was needed in Texas.
Since then, Cessinger explains, the state has developed contingency plans for addressing any cart el violence that mibght spill across the border, but that does not involve anyone being on alert status.
So what fueled the latest e-rumor?
State Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, told Fox News last week that the Texas Guard was on alert “for the first time, to my knowledge, in modern history.” In fact, Guard officials said, they’ve been on alert many times for a variety of reasons — hurricanes included.
Patrick also echoed concerns voiced by other officials that border regions in Mexico are violence-racked by cartel attacks, including some reports that cartels are using bazookas are being used against Mexican officials. Mexican and U.S. officials have acknowledged that violence is mushrooming in many areas.
He repeated much the same statements in an appearance on the Alex Jones Show this week.
In recent days, some officials have questioned whether the Obama Administration should send U.S. troops to Mexico to help quell the violence. So far, though, news reports say the Mexican government has neither asked for — nor has the United States offered — such assistance.
Patrick said his comments on the talk shows were being twisted by Internet rumor. He denied he was inflaming right-wing reaction.
“What I said was what I have been told … what was testified about in (Capitol) hearings, what I have been saying for some time that anyone who does not think this is a very serious issue has not been paying attention,” Patrick said.
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February 19, 2009
Admitted scofflaws, poly flunkers among DPS recruits?
With legislative pressure already on Texas Department of Public Safety officials to ensure state troopers meet the highest standards come these surprising new disclosures:
Some members of the current recruit class of more than 100 failed polygraph tests on their background.
“More than a handful” were rejected by other law enforcement agencies before they applied at DPS.
Others have been promoted from the training academy and put to work despite a recommendation that they be dismissed.
Some recruits in the past even got in despite admitting criminal behavior of some type during interviews.
“Wow!” exclaimed Commissioner Ada Brown of Dallas.
Despite some recruits’ deception on the agency’s polygraph tests, “you give him a badge? I have a problem with that.”
So did the rest of the commission, which voted unanimously this afternoon to examine the agency’s hiring policies and recruitment from top to bottom.
Just hours earlier, the Senate Finance Committee had asked DPS officials to focus on ensuring that its hiring standards were high enough, and to avoid compromising to hire lower-quality applicants just to fill vacant posts. DPS officials said they were committed to the highest hiring standards.
“I’m pretty incensed about this,” Chairman Allan Polunsky of San Antonio said after the details emerged in a public meeting at DPS headquarters. “We want a top-to-bottom review of every aspect of the recruiting process. The past practices at this agency will not continue.”
Polunsky said he was aware that recruits who may have admitted to past criminal behavior — perhaps without ever having an arrest or conviction — had been hired in the past, and said he is tracking details.
Agency officials said they had not hired any convicted felons, but that some recruits had admitted criminal behavior in their past before they were hired. They said the cases were an isolated few.
“I am not concerned that we were hiring convicted felons. We haven’t,” Polunsky said after the meeting. “If there have been cases where people who admitted to some kind of criminal activity in their past have been hired, I think those were isolated cases.”
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Clark named DPS director
Col. Stanley Clark, who has served as interim director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, this afternoon was named the permanent director of the state’s leading law enforcement agency.
The vote by the five-member Public Safety Commission was unanimous, taken after little discussion.
Annual salary: $157,500.
Oddly, the hiring came as the commission has underway nationwide search underway to select a new director. Before the vote, commissioners said that search will continue and that someone could be hired in coming months to replace Clark.
Say what?
Agency officials explained the move this way: State law allows an interim director to serve only for up to six months, and then has to either be hired for the permanent job or be replaced.
“Col. Clark might be selected or not selected,” said Commission Allan Polunsky of San Antonio. “If he’s not selected, he would be terminated.”
Clark, a former Highway Patrol major from Garland, has served has served as interim director since the August retirement of Col. Tommy Davis. Clark said after the vote that he is happy with the decision.
In removing “interim” from Clark’s title, commissioners said other interim division directors who have been serving in recent months will also have a similar job title change made.
At the time Clark was named interim director, Polunsky had promised “an extensive, thorough search” before a permanent director was selected.
Clark has been with DPS since 1973, serving until last year as the commanding officer of the Highway Patrol in Northeast Texas. He served as a Highway Patrol officer in Tyler and McAllen until he was promoted to Highway Patrol lieutenant in October 1993.
Clark was promoted to the rank of captain and transferred to the Capitol Police in Austin in 1996, where he remained until he transferred to the Highway Patrol in Beaumont in 1998. He was named a major and moved to the Chief’s office at DPS headquarters in Austin in 1999.
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Cages for troopers' cars?
Some momentum seemed to be building this morning at a Senate Finance Committee hearing for something Texas Highway Patrol troopers have been wanting for years: Safety cages for their black-and-whites.
“It’s nuts. I think this is something we owe them (troopers),” said state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston.
Whitmire cited cases where troopers have had to place suspects in the front seat of their vehicles to transport them to jail, taking the chance of having the suspect kick the trooper or even shed their handcuffs and grab the wheel.
Other senators nodded at Whitmire’s suggestion.
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Polunsky: DPS reforms to continue
Meeting with the budget-writing Senate Finance Committee to present its funding plan for the next two years, the head of the embattled Texas Department of Public Safety’s governing board made it clear this morning that change is in the air.
And sweeping reforms already under way will continue.
“We are in the middle of reinventing this department,” said Allan Polunsky of San Antonio. “We will modernize this department and bring it into the 21st Century.”
“This is a fine department. It has a long, storied history in this state … But nonetheless, this department has not kept up with the times.”
The 8,200-employee agency that oversees the Texas Highway Patrol and the Texas Rangers along with other investigations and enforcement divisions has been under fire for months over a series of issues.
A state study released in May 2008 harshly criticized the agency’s management and operational structure. The following month, an arson fire at the historic Texas Governor’s Mansion led to an investigation that blamed the agency’s lax security.
Legislative leaders then proposed taking away some divisions such as drivers’ licenses and vehicle inspections because of continuing service problems and public complaints.
Amid the criticism, the agency’s leader — Col. Tommy Davis — retired in August since then six of the agency’s seven division commanders have also retired.
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February 17, 2009
Design flaws plague Capitol security
Design flaws have caused repeated breakdowns in the Texas Capitol’s new $3.1 million high-tech security system designed to protect the perimeter of the historic downtown Austin landmark.
John Sneed, interim executive director of the State Preservation Board, disclosed during a public hearing before the Senate Finance Committee that automatic steel bollards at the statehouse’s entrances and exits have been plagued with problems since just after they became operational in November.
The bollards roll up and down from below the street surface to control traffic coming in and out of the building.
“The manufacturer has identified a design flaw,” Sneed said, and is making modifications at no expense to the state to correct the problem. The corrections should be completed by sometime in April, he said.
Sneed said the problems stem from belts that operate the bollards. “We’re on our third set of belts,” he said.
While the system is similar to ones that have been used successfully for years at the U.S. Capitol and other states, those are pneumatic systems. The one at the Texas Capitol is electronic, and relies on the troublesome belts.
Sneed said he is confident that the design flaw with the bollards can be successfully corrected. In addition, he noted that automated steel wedges at at least one entry has had problems, as well — not from a flaw but because delivery vehicles have hit it at least twice.
Aside from those problems, Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, questioned whether security at the Capitol is tight enough. Last Saturday, he said he entered the Capitol and found only one trooper standing in the Rotunda.
“The east door was unattended. The vulnerabilities are real. Security is certainly not what it could be,” Whitmire said.
“Nearly every other public building is more secure than our beautiful Capitol. You don’t like to discuss this subject in public, but I think it’s time we wake up.”
Whitmire’s solution: Metal detectors at the doors and the presence of more uniformed officers.
“I don’t want to detail what could happen, but it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to realize what could happen,” Whitmire said.
Lax security by the Texas Department of Public Safety was blamed in last summer’s arson fire that gutted the mansion, just across the street from the Capitol. Since then, security has been beefed up at the mansion which is unoccupied and still awaiting repairs.
While DPS officials do not discuss Capitol security, they confirmed last summer after the fire that Capitol security was being beefed up. In addition to dozens of uniformed troopers patrolling in the Capitol and on the grounds, the statehouse also has a network of security cameras that are monitored around the clock.
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February 2, 2009
Protesters at statewide smoking ban rally say they were unfairly kept away
On Thursday, when Lance Armstrong stood outside the Capitol to tell a gathering of supporters that he was calling on lawmakers to support a statewide smoking ban, a small group of protesters — around seven people — held signs telling him to “butt out” or “Go back to France.”
Now, some of those protesters say they were unfairly kept away from a public gathering.
State troopers told the protesters to move to the edge of the rally. There, the troopers put up a line of yellow caution tape and told the protesters to stay behind the tape.
“We were peaceably assembled and we have a constitutional right to peaceably assemble,” said Lisa Mallory, one of the protesters. “It’s the undue exercise of intrusion onto our First Amendment rights that is deeply offensive.”
Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety, said the protesters were asked to move for safety reasons.
“We try to keep people who have varying viewpoints separated,” Mange said. “We are all about safety.”
Mallory said that she disagreed with a trooper who told her that being moved was for her own safety. She said sarcastically: “It was obvious there was an angry mob that was going to attack us because I was holding a sign that said, ‘Protect private property rights.’”
Organizers of the rally had reserved the south steps of the Capitol through the State Preservation Board, Mange said.
“We’re not picking on the smokers,” Mange said. “They’re welcome to contact the State Preservation Board to see about reserving space for themselves at some other date.”
Some of the protesters were non-smokers who oppose the smoking ban because they think it interferes with personal liberty and private property rights.
Travis County Republican Party Chairwoman Rosemary Edwards, who opposes the ban, said she arrived at the Capitol as the rally was ending.
“It seemed like an over-reaction,” she said of the troopers’ decision to separate the groups.
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November 18, 2008
Capitol security claims first traffic 'victim'
The newly-installed bollards struck Rep. Delwin Jones’ Cadillac this morning as he was driving through a Capitol exit.
The automated steel posts rise and lower out of the ground. They damaged the front end of the Lubbock lawmaker’s car.
Jones, 84, thought DPS officers had waved him through the Congress Avenue exit, his staff said.
The bollards were added this month to beef up Capitol security.
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November 10, 2008
New security rules begin at Capitol
The new rule coming for motorists heading onto the Texas Capitol grounds: Approach and swipe.
Six years after 911, and after a $3,3 million appropriation and detailed fine-tuning, new security measures are to go into effect at the Texas Capitol next Monday that officials said will change traffic patterns — and keep unauthorized motorists off the grounds.
Julie Fields, a spokeswoman for the State Preservation Board that oversees the storied pink-granite building, said state troopers today began the first step toward the change — requiring all motorists entering the grounds to swipe their official ID-access cards.
“This is part of an effort to make the Capitol and the grounds safer,” said John Sneed, the Preservation Board’s interim executive director.
Two new kinds of security devices are to go into operation on driveways leading to the Capitol: Automated steel posts (called bollards) at the 15th Street and Congress Avenue driveways that will raise and lower to allow drivers access, and steel “wedges” that will fold up out of the pavement at entrances and exits of the underground Capitol parking garage.
For the first time ever, the sole entrance to the surface grounds of the statehouse will now be on 15th Street, where traffic entering to the left of a new guardhouse will access the east side of the 1888 landmark and traffic to the right will go the west.
The twin driveways at 11th Street and Congress Avenue, a traditional point of entry for many officials,now will be exit only. So will the driveways off 12th and Colorado streets and 12th and Brazos.
Officials said all motorists driving onto and off of the grounds must stop and swipe their access card to lower the bollards and wedges. Drivers leaving the underground parking garage after hours will have to swipe their card to get out of the garage, where doors will be lowered at night, and to get out of the driveway at the top of the street-level auto ramps.
Legislative employees have begun receiving training on the new measures, officials said, including an online video that shows the bollards and wedges in operation — and a video of a truck ramming the bollards at high speed. It’s like hitting a wall.
Initial prediction from Capitol employees: Traffic jams for a while at the entrances and exits during the morning and afternoon rush hours as workers try to get in and out.
And side bets on who will be the first to get their car damaged by the bollards, or when the devices will malfunction and block traffic.
Despite the automation, state troopers will be stationed at the Capitol driveways.
View the video at: http://www.senate.state.tx.us/
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September 25, 2008
Traffic checkpoints again?
In a new push to bring back traffic checkpoints as a way to catch lawbreakers, the chairman of Texas’ public safety commission has asked Attorney General Greg Abbott whether state police can again set up roadblocks to check drivers licenses.
The request for an opinion, filed Sept. 8 and made public this afternoon, asks Abbott whether the Texas Public Safety Commission — which governs the Department of Public Safety — is a “politically accountable governing body at the state level.”
If it is, then the checkpoints could return.
In 1994, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals barred police in Texas from establishing sobriety checkpoints to catch drunk drivers because officers who manned them were stopping everyone, instead of stopping individual drivers with “probable cause” because they thought they were drunk.
But they left possibly open the door to future checkpoints if they were were “authorized by a statewide policy emmanating from a politically accountable governing body.”
That wording followed a 1979 U.S. Supreme Court opinion outlawing random drivers license checkpoints in Delaware, in which the high court blocked checkpoints involving “random traffic stops made without reasonable suspicion” that a crime had occurred.
The Public Safety Commission is statewide, politically accountable and a governing body,” Polunsky noted in his letter to Abbott.
Polunsky could not immediately be reached for comment, but DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said this afternoon that the request was filed to clarify remaining questions. In the request, Polunsky also asks Abbott whether DPS can authorize other law enforcement agencies and police departments to run driver’s license checkpoints.
“People have been asking for checkpoints … and the Commission is asking for a clarification on the law,” she said. “The agency’s stance since the (court) decisions is that checkpoints are illegal and we can’t do it.”
Since sobriety checkpoints were banned in Texas, various groups including Mothers Against Drunk Driving have unsuccessfully lobbied the Legislature to come up with a new way to make them legal. Supporters of the sobriety and drivers license checkpoints argue that they protect the public by catching lawbreakers — people driving drunk, those driving on suspended licenses, those without insurance or people in stolen cars — before they they cause an accident and claim a new victim.
No word on when Abbott may rule on the issue.
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September 22, 2008
Perry, Austin ad agency make disaster relief appeal
Gov. Rick Perry joined Roy Spence of Austin’s GSD&M Idea City today to roll out a 30-second TV spot appealing to Texans to donate to a disaster relief fund created in 2005 intended to help Texans in the wake of Hurricane Rita.
Perry said the fund’s proceeds would be directed this round at helping communities affected by Hurricane Ike. His office said the fund has already fielded $4 million in pledges: ExxonMobil, $1.5 million; ConocoPhillips, $1 million; Koch Industries, $600,000; Dow Chemical, $500,000; Wal-Mart, $250,000; Bank of America Foundation, $100,000; Air Products, $50,000; and Altria, $50,000.
The 30-second spot, developed by Idea City, will air on cable to almost 10 million Texans and also will air over broadcast stations, according to Perry and Dale Laine of the Texas Cable Association.
In the spot—viewable below—the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas can be heard singing a portion of “Texas, Our Texas,” the state song, as six black-and-white photographs of devastation wrought by Ike appear on the screen.
David Rockwood, community relations director for GSD&M Idea City, said the choir taped its rendition of the song in 2005 at a time the agency thought it might be using the performance in a commercial urging donations to the relief fund at that time.
“Texans weathered Ike together,” Perry said. “And we will rebuild the state together.”
Donations can be made online here and by calling 1-866-292-5357.
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July 17, 2008
DPS study cost: $10,555 a day
The long-awaited outside management study to give the tradition-bound Texas Department of Public Safety an organizational makeover comes at a hefty cost: $950,000 for a report that will take 90 days.
That’s right, three months, $10.555.56 a day.
But Public Safety Commission Chairman Allan Polunsky insists that taxpayer-paid expense is money well spent.
“The report is being fast-tracked … and this will be a different agency in six to 10 months,” he said. “It’ll be a very modernized agency pointed very much into the 21st Century.”
Deloitte Consulting today won the contract for the report.
Once a draft of the report is completed, Polunsky said retired Navy Admiral Bobby Inman of Austin will look it over “make recommendations, suggest changes.”
Why, for such an expensive report?
“To have two sets of eyes look at it, yes, and by a person with an unprecedented amount of experience in business and organization,” Polunsky answered. “I think it’s a wise move.”
And Inman? He’s volunteering his time, Polunsky said.
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April 21, 2008
State owes $900,000-plus in DPS case, judge says
A Travis County judge has ordered the state of Texas to pay more than $900,000 in connection with a black state trooper’s lawsuit charging the Department of Public Safety with racial and sex discrimination and retaliation.
Last month, a jury unanimously sided with DPS Sgt. Thomas Williams and agreed that in 2004, Williams was transferred out of the elite protective detail that guards Gov. Rick Perry and his family because Williams had filed a discrimination complaint — and that his race was a factor. Williams now investigates violations of narcotics laws.
Today, state District Judge Stephen Yelenosky signed an order — fetch it here — stating that 6 percent interest would be applied to $914,108 due Williams and his legal team based on the jury’s recommended award of more than $600,000 plus attorney fees and costs.
Under the order, the interest will compound annually until the state pays the judgment.
A spokesman for the Attorney General’s office deferred comment to the DPS today. A DPS spokeswoman said last week the matter might be appealed.
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March 5, 2008
Polunsky to head DPS comish
The former head of the stated prison system’s governing board is now chairman of the Texas Public Safety Commission.
Gov. Rick Perry’s office just a few minutes ago announced that Allan Polunsky, a San Antonio attorney and businessman, had been named chairman.
Houston equity investment firm president Carin Barth and Waco rancher-developer Tom Clowe were appointed members of the five-person commission.
The commission oversees the Texas Department of Public Safety, the primary state law enforcement agency.
Polunsky served on the Texas Board of Criminal Justice for 13 years, including five years as chairman.
He is also past president of the City of San Antonio Industrial Development Authority, past chairman of the San Antonio Zoning Commission and a past member of the Finance Commission of Texas.
Barth replaces Ernest Angelo of Midland, who formerly served as chairman of the commission. Clowe, a former appointee to the Texas Lottery Commission, fills a new position on the commission.
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June 6, 2007
Perry expected to approve safety belts mandate
Gov. Rick Perry is expected in Beaumont on Friday to sign into law a measure mandating lap-shoulder safety belts in large school buses, a local leader said Wednesday.
Perry is penciled in to sign the legislation at West Brook High School in Beaumont. In March 2006, a chartered school bus carrying 23 soccer players from West Brook High overturned, killing two girls and injuring others. The bus lacked seat belts.
Parents of the girls had urged lawmakers to mandate lap-shoulder belts. The House and Senate adopted a proposal requiring belts only if the state comes through with funding for the changes.
Michael Truncale of Beaumont said Perry might have committed to the signing ceremony partly because one of the girls who died in the crash had just been awarded a scholarship to Texas A&M University, Perry’s alma mater.
“That may have played some role,” Truncale said. He added that he expects lawmakers to find dollars in the 2009 legislative session to pay for buses with the belts.
“With the way it passed and the governor’s exclamation point, I think it will become a priority,” Truncale said.
Perry’s office had no immediate comment.
Under the change, all new buses purchased by a school district, including school buses, school activity buses, and school-chartered buses, on or after Sept. 1, 2010, would have to be equipped with three-point (lap/shoulder) seatbelts. The mandate would apply to all buses contracted for use by a school district on or after Sept. 1, 2014. In either case, though, the requirements would not take effect unless lawmakers appropriate funds to cover the cost of changes.
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May 2, 2007
Seat belt measure to be heard by Senate panel
Sen. Florence Shapiro said last week she saw no reason to hear a proposal requiring three-point seat belts on school buses — a mandate being pushed by parents of girls involved in a bus accident in Beaumont last year.
Shapiro changed course this week, however, and the Senate Education Committee that she chairs will take testimony on Sen. Eddie Lucio’s version of the proposal Thursday.
Shapiro, R-Plano, said she reconsidered after the House approved its version by a country mile. She took encouragement, too, from sponsoring Rep. Mike “Tuffy” Hamilton, R-Mauriceville, tucking in language suspending the mandate until the state pays for changes.
“I would like to have the debate: Is it really safer to have a child in a seat belt?” Shapiro said. If testimony sways her, she said, she’ll favor advancing Hamilton’s proposal to the Senate floor.
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