Free Republic

The case of a Mexican man scheduled to be executed on Thursday in Texas threatens to disrupt U.S. diplomatic relations abroad and creates a politically volatile dilemma for Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who is considering a run for president. Unless Perry or the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes to stay the execution, Texas plans to execute Humberto Leal Jr. at 6 p.m. Central Time for the 1994 murder of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda. The International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 that the United States violated the rights of Leal and more than three dozen other Mexican nationals on death row because...

LOS ANGELES — Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has been mentioned as a potential Republican presidential candidate, is accusing the Obama administration of transforming abortion into a U.S. export and breaking faith with the nation's founding principles by supporting taxpayer-funded embryonic stem cell research. Perry, a prominent conservative long at odds with President Barack Obama's stand on reproductive rights and stem cell research, spoke Sunday to a mostly Hispanic crowd of about 5,000 at a Los Angeles anti-abortion rally.

At first, Adrian Bias had no reason to be suspicious when his neighbor, Noe Morin, came to his home Sunday morning and asked him to fix his chain saw. Bias repaired the chain saw and returned it to Morin, who asked Bias if he could trust him, according to court documents. Bias said yes. So Morin took Bias to the backyard of the Fifth Ward duplex Morin shared with his best friend, Marlon Thomas. He told Bias to look through a hole in the fence into the backyard of a vacant home next door. Bias peeked through the opening and...

The City of Houston, like most governmental entities in America, is suffering difficult financial times. The City is laying off public employees, including firefighters and police officers, and cutting back on many key services. The City Council holds annual budget hearings where the elected leaders grill department heads over their budgets. When the City’s budget director came before council, she must have expected to be grilled about the City’s budget. What happened instead must have shocked her. Facing almost $200 millions dollars in a shortfall in the City’s budget, minority city councilmen hammered the finance director over what they perceived...

Jessica Rene Tata’s 6,500-mile fugitive odyssey came to an end early Tuesday morning when the handcuffed daycare owner who fled to Nigeria after a fire killed four children under her watch was escorted into the Harris County Jail. The 22-year-old Houston woman arrived about 1:15 a.m. in a convoy of Harris County sheriff’s patrol cars and unmarked sport utility vehicles. Tata, who was wearing a body armor vest, said nothing as she was taken into the jail in the middle of a crowd of investigators with the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders and Fugitive Task Force. Christina Garza, a sheriff’s office...

A woman who fled to Nigeria after a fire at her west Houston day care killed four children last month has surrendered to authorities, her brother said Saturday. Jessica Tata faces 14 charges, including four counts of manslaughter, in connection with the Feb. 24 blaze at Jackie's Child Care. Officials have said that Tata, 22, left seven children unattended and oil cooking on the stove while she shopped at Target. She fled to Nigeria before being charged. Her brother, Ron Tata, 26, said she turned herself in around 11 a.m. Saturday. According to his relatives in Nigeria, workers at the...

Three environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Monday accusing the Lower Colorado River Authority of violating the Clean Air Act for nearly a decade at its coal-fired power plant 90 miles west of Houston. The groups allege that the Austin-based utility has made modifications to three generators at the 1,760-megawatt Fayette Power Project but failed to install modern pollution control equipment. As a result, the power plant has released massive amounts of tiny particles, or soot, that can cause lung damage and premature death, the groups claim in the suit, which was filed at the U.S. District Court in Houston....

Surveillance stopped a pair of alleged drug smugglers from hauling about 273 kilos of marijuana over the border fence with the help of a ladder, public records reflect. A U.S. Border Patrol agent on Thursday saw 10 people coming out of the Rio Grande carrying bundles and a ladder near the Rancho Grande Subdivision in La Paloma. The agent saw the suspects use the ladder to get the bundles over the border fence, according to the complaint filed before U.S. Magistrate Judge Felix Recio in federal court. The complaint states that the agent also saw a green minivan drive in...

Outrage mounted Tuesday to the video broadcast of Houston police officers beating a teenage burglary suspect, with several activists and civil rights groups holding a town hall meeting and news conferences to demand tougher and more open disciplinary procedures aimed at curbing police brutality. A number of civil rights groups also backed a Houston congressman's call for an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. Meanwhile, local prosecutors forcefully defended the appropriateness of misdemeanor charges filed against four police officers who took part in the youth's arrest in March. Chad Holley, who was then 15, was fleeing from a burglary on...

TEN YEARS! Today I celebrate the anniversary of my 10th year on Free Republic! It's been a hell of a ride. I've ticked off a lot of people and I've gained some life-long friends. That's curious right there. I'd like to extend my thanks to Jim Robinson and the Moderator staff for putting up with me all this time. Feel free to take a poke at me if you wish, it's a free for all.

Retired billboard painter is working to capture on canvas the face of every fallen service member from Texas — 500 and counting. Ken Pridgeon calls them his "boys." The 75-year-old artist shares his small home in Baytown with two dozen portraits he's painted of fallen Houston-area service members, each one centered on an American flag background with an eagle in the top right-hand corner. The canvases, measuring 3 feet by 4 feet, line the walls of a converted garage. A few rest near the front door, others in a den-turned- studio. This soldier was a bull rider and football player,...

The city's Office of Inspector General will open an investigation into a visit City Councilwoman Jolanda Jones made to a downtown fire station Friday in which she is alleged to have used profanity and criticized the work ethic of firefighters. Jones ardently disputed the account of the incident provided by officials with the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, saying she had a jovial exchange with firefighters at Station 8 that was part of a team-building exercise she organized for her staff. She said the account provided by Jeff Caynon, the fire union president, is "inaccurate" and suggested it was politically...

Michael Berry, former city councilman and Mayoral candidate takes a interesting call from an Obama supporter. Michael Berry takes an interesting call.I heard this yesterday and it cracked me up. Berry is awesome.

In the Weekly Republican Address, newly-elected Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois says, “Last month, the American people sent a clear message to Washington: spend less, borrow less and tax less to put America back to work.” Sen. Kirk expresses his disappointment that leaders in Congress have not heeded this message. “The current leaders of Congress should not move forward with plans that were just rejected by the American people. These leaders should not raise taxes and risk another recession. Instead, Congress should reduce spending and prevent another tax hike on American taxpayers.” Sen. Kirk emphasizes, “Congress should set its highest...

Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs faced a Texas judge Wednesday more than two years after authorities discovered his followers married underage girls at an Eldorado ranch, prompting the removal of 438 children, the largest child custody case in U.S. history. A wan Jeffs, 54, appeared before state District Judge Barbara Walther in San Angelo where he was arraigned on three charges involving two underage brides, unidentified girls who were 12 and 14 at the time of the alleged crimes. He's accused of sexually assaulting one girl in 2005 and committing bigamy and aggravated sexual assault with the other girl in...

Fleeing smugglers keep DPS troopers busy in Hidalgo County McALLEN — On a quiet November morning, trooper Johnny Hernandez patrols the dusty back roads along the Rio Grande in Hidalgo County. In the back seat, his M4 rifle sits within arm's reach. In the trunk, he stores a bulletproof vest. The 15-year Department of Public Safety veteran has been in so many high-speed pursuits that he can't remember the first one, and, to be honest, he says he doesn't even think of them in terms of which one is scariest. "There's just so much" going on, he says. "Your thoughts...

They're accused of making victims sell counterfeit CDs and DVDs A federal grand jury in Houston indicted three illegal immigrants in connection with an alleged human trafficking ring that forced victims to sell counterfeit CDs and DVDs, authorities said. Estela Aguilar-Lopez, 47, Blanca Estela Lopez-Aguilar, 37, and Francisco Ivan Rodriguez-Garcia, 29, were indicted Wednesday on charges of conspiracy to force labor and conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Houston. The defendants, all citizens of Mexico, are accused of running a scheme to collect smuggling debts of about $2,200 to $2,500 from illegal immigrants by...

Republican storm created too much headwind for most Dems From the moment the "Bill White for Texas" campaign moved from a U.S. Senate race to a governor's race, the Democratic candidate knew he was facing a long, hard, low-gear climb. Bill White, an inveterate bicyclist, needed every gear to mesh perfectly. He needed a clear path, however challenging. He got neither. A red-state race that all along was going to be daunting proved an impossible slog in a state full of restive Republicans determined to reverse their 2006 and 2008 losses and in an anti-Washington season that grew ever bleaker...

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry's new book, Fed Up!, is repeatedly critical of former President George W. Bush and defends the rights of Arizona to pass anti-immigration legislation, as well as for California to legalize marijuana. The anti-federal government book defends states' rights to regulate guns, abortion, gay marriage and calls for the overturning of the new federal health care law. One portion of the book blames Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court for the Civil War, claiming they hampered the ability of Northern states to help set the slaves free. Perry specifically cited the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850...

Up to 450,000 ballots cast in Harris County Taken together, the events of the 2010 election season in Harris County sound almost good enough for a movie plot: electoral turmoil, thousands of burned up voting machines, controversial poll watchers and electioneering, traded allegations of voter fraud and voter suppression, even a few dirty tricks. Whatever the causes or motivations behind the differing dramas this election season, it has not been enough to deter voters. As polls closed Friday before Tuesday's general election, as many as 450,000 people are expected to have cast their ballots early or by mail, an amount...