Free Republic

Senate Democrats have been defending a deal they cut with Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., to gain his vote for their health care bill. The provision calls for the federal government to fund the entire cost of expanding Medicaid in his state. Senate Republicans have slammed the provision as unfair because other states, including Texas, would have to shoulder part of the cost of expanding Medicaid to cover millions of uninsured people. Now Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, joined by Republican AGs in six other states, is questioning whether such a deal is constitutional. In a statement released late Tuesday, Abbott...

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Allan Keate raised his two cuffed hands Thursday, shortly after he heard the sentence of 33 years in prison for sexual assault of a child, and smiled briefly at the gallery, at more than a dozen fellow members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints — men and women, adults young and old. They had sat there regularly for more than a week to follow Keate’s fate. Lead defense attorney Randy Wilson went to the FLDS members after Keate was escorted to the nearby Schleicher County Jail. Wilson embraced one of the...

Energy: An oil company wants to invest its profits in clean-burning American natural gas. A Hungarian billionaire and a "green" politician want to stop it. This is the real Climate-gate scandal. While the greenies of the world united in Copenhagen to talk about the weather, emitting a Third World-country-size chunk of greenhouse gases to gather there, the world's largest oil company, Exxon Mobil, was doing something about it. On Dec. 14, Exxon agreed to buy XTO Energy, a natural gas firm, in a deal valued at $41 billion. XTO is one of the leaders in something called "fracking" technology, in...

The state will destroy blood samples legally collected from newborns, but kept without parental consent under a federal lawsuit settlement announced today. There were between 4 million and 4.5 million specimens stored between 2002 and this year at Texas A&M University by the Texas Department of Health, said lawyer Jim Harrington of the Texas Civil Rights Project, which sued over the practice on behalf of parents in federal district court in San Antonio. The number of newborns involved was unclear, because there could be multiple samples from each... “There's no financial gain for any of the plaintiffs,” Beleno said. “Basically,...

SAN ANTONIO — The lead defense lawyer for accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan said Monday that he believes the Army is violating Hasan's religious rights because it prohibited him from praying from the Koran in Arabic with a relative. Attorney John P. Galligan said he learned that police guarding Hasan at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio cut short a phone conversation Hasan was having with one of his brothers on Friday because Hasan was not speaking in English. “Police at the hospital refused to let him pray, in Arabic, from the Quran with his brother,”...

As the health care debate consumed Congress this month, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison emerged as a visible critic – impassioned but powerless. One day last week, for instance, she took to the Senate floor to rail against a provision allowing for immediate tax hikes to pay for programs that won't roll out for three or four years. That's an outrage, she declared, arguing to send the bill back to committee. Democrats quickly swatted down the stalling tactic, tabling her motion before Republicans could react. Visibly angry, Hutchison denounced the maneuver moments later. "We're talking about $100 billion in taxes that...

The contentious race for governor of Texas has come down to accusations over who does and who doesn’t care about troops. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Gov. Rick Perry have been trading shots about one of her votes on the defense-spending bill. The newly minted law could pump an estimated $8.2 million more into the San Angelo economy, thanks to a pay raise for military personnel. Hutchison appeared to have acquired an unlikely ally Monday in the brouhaha. “Rick Perry owes American military men and women an apology for treating them as collateral to his gutless political campaign,” Texas Democratic...

Opponents say senator betrayed Republicans by voting to end defense bill filibuster. A hodgepodge group of about a dozen people gathered outside Kay Bailey Hutchison's Austin office Monday to protest a procedural vote by the U.S. senator that they say helped expedite the disputed health care bill. Hutchison, who is running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in March, has come under fire from Gov. Rick Perry's campaign since the Friday vote, related to a defense spending bill. Senate Republican leaders had organized a filibuster on an item that included nearly $130 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They...

2010 is going to be an amazing year for political junkies, but I think one thing everyone agrees on is that the March 2 Republican gubernatorial primary in Texas is going to be one for the ages. That's the one where Gov. Rick Perry is being challenged by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. So much ink has been spilled on this race, none better I thought than the Dec. 6 article in the New York Times Magazine by Robert Draper, who calls the matchup a great example of the GOP's "internal discontents": The issues and cultural references in the race are...

This is so potentially great, even greater than we thought it could be. For a while, ex-Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle talked about running for governor. That could have led to a November battle between Democrat Earle and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, now running against Gov. Rick Perry in the GOP gubernatorial primary. Earle v. Hutchison would have been a rematch of the battle previously known as The State of Texas v. Hutchison, a long-ago criminal case in which Earle was The State of Texas and he wanted to send Hutchison to prison for up to 51 years. The...

A newly publicized portion of former Central Intelligence Agency agent and Republican primary candidate Chuck Wilson’s résumé reads like, well, a spy novel. Wilson, who now works as a residential developer and is one of six Republicans hoping to unseat U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, put out a news release through his campaign office Wednesday afternoon disclosing his role in the 1994 takedown of alleged terrorist mastermind Carlos the Jackal.The release, which was vetted by the CIA’s Publications Review Board, states that Wilson was a CIA deputy station chief in Africa, where Carlos, born Ilich Sanchez Ramirez in Venezuela, was...

Washington’s Handpicked Ringer Mr. Delasandro is making the following statement for immediate release: “The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) inserted its candidate into the CD-17 race this past week, Mr. William H. Flores. Flores apparently recently relocated to Bryan/College Station from Sugarland, TX (outside the district). Flores was chosen, not because he represents the values of Central Texas, but because he can self-finance. He has the wealth to self-finance a race for Congress in large part from his business ties to socialist investor George Soros. There is nothing wrong with making a profit and businessmen shouldn’t be required to vet...

Former DA Earle running for Lt. Gov. By Kate Alexander | Friday, December 18, 2009, 06:36 PM Former Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle is running for lieutenant governor of Texas. Earle, who retired last year after more than three decades as district attorney, filed paperwork with the Texas Democratic Party late Friday to seek the party’s nomination for the statewide office. The winner of the Democratic primary in March will probably face the Republican incumbent David Dewhurst next fall. At this point, Earle is the sole filer for the party’s nomination, but Austin deli owner Marc Katz is...

A 16-year-old former juvenile detainee is accused of stabbing a high school teacher to death with a butcher knife. Another teen was convicted of killing a roofer during a 30-minute robbery spree. Both were released by the Texas Youth Commission because the agency wasn't equipped to treat their mental illnesses and had to let them go under the law. The cases highlight what some juvenile justice experts say is a loophole in the way Texas treats underage offenders with severe psychiatric issues... the commission has released more than 200 offenders because of mental health issues in the last five years...

Dear Texas, I don't know much about you. I don't live there. I know it takes about two days to drive through your vast tracts of land in an aging Mazda RX-7. That drive really sucks. Even when listening to Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" on tape. I know that most of your nasty collectivist hippies have been confined to Austin, like cells of tuberculosis encrusted in calcium. They are harmless and if the chips were down, you could drive them out to live in some refugee camp on the Louisiana border. They could live there for decades,...

Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEThursday, December 17, 2009 Guyanese National Charged with Smuggling Indian Nationals to the United States A Guyanese national has been indicted on charges of conspiracy and alien smuggling in connection with her role in the smuggling or attempted smuggling of four Indian nationals to the United States. Annita Devi Gerald, aka Annita Rampersad, 52, was charged in a nine-count indictment returned yesterday by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas. Gerald was arrested by ICE special agents in Houston on Nov. 17, 2009, and has been held without...

Lil Wayne's rap sheet just got a lil longer. The rapper was detained in Texas Friday night after U.S. Border Patrol officers found marijuana on two of his tour buses, authorities told the Associated Press. Lil Wayne was questioned along with 11 others from his entourage, then released. His case was referred to a local sheriff's office, officials said. Drug dogs detected the odor of substances on one of the buses when officials pulled the convoy over in Falfurrias, Tx., border officials said. This isn't the first time the "Lollipop" chart-topper has gotten into hot water with the law --...

Rick Perry, where are you? In Texas, and across the Nation, we are watching the inexorable advance of unconstitutional federal legislation across our borders. What recourse do Texas citizens have when the federal checks and balances established by our Founding Fathers are overrun? We will be looking as we vote for our next Governor for strong, principled leadership.

Kay Bailey Hutchison votes with Democrats to speed up process to healthcare vote.

Kay Bailey Hutchison, much maligned for campaigning in Texas during the health care debate, boldly announced that she would go to Washington and stay there to fight health care and kill it dead. Instead, today she accelerated it getting to the Senate floor in a bit of Senate gamesmanship.

The Austin City Council Thursday unanimously voted on new restrictions that would eliminate a lot of cell phone use in the car. “Don't use your cell phone while you're driving for anything else than making a phone call,” said Councilmember Laura Morrison. That means no texting, no playing games or shuffling through songs, or even using your phone's GPS system unless it's mounted on the dash. You can text when you’re stopped at a traffic light or in an emergency

Texas continues to fare better than the rest of the nation and even noted a decline in its seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for the month of November, the Texas Workforce Commission said in a new report. The Texas unemployment rate dropped from 8.3 percent to 8 percent in November as total non-agricultural employment in the state grew by 17,300 positions. In the past two months, the state has added close to 70,000 jobs, the commission said. Compared to the rest of the nation, Texas unemployment figures are sitting in more optimistic territory.

FORT WORTH -- Good riddance? We can’t recall the last time a company promoted the end of a product. Did Ford extol the Edsel? Coke the New Coke? Yet we have Whataburger buying little ads, setting up toll-free hot lines and Web sites, then paying PR people to call attention to the withdrawal of what is easily the Corpus Christi-based chain’s unhealthiest menu item: The A1 Thick and Hearty Burger. The burger has lost its pizzazz, said a PR person with SPM Communications of Dallas, who is not authorized to be quoted by name, Wednesday night, a North Texas hairstylist...

MESQUITE, Texas - Joe Mitchell says all he wanted to do was make crosses as gifts for friends when he signed up for a ceramics class at Eastfield Community College in Mesquite.Instead, he says, the ceramics instructor compared the crucifix to a swastika in trying to explain why crosses were not permitted.“I felt humiliated and that my spirituality was being demeaned,” said Mitchell, a retired Dallas resident and student at the public college. “The whole point of art is to express who you are.”Mitchell says he was told on several occasions by instructors and administrative staff that he could...

The Bexar County Democratic Party is missing $200,000. Carla Vela, outgoing party chairwoman, said at a hastily called press conference Wednesday that more than $200,000 of the party's money is missing from at least two accounts. Vela said that she first found out about the missing money on Monday afternoon, nearly five months after she first heard rumors that a $100,000 check she wrote in July as a partial payment of the 2008 primary had bounced... Vela said that she never looked into the issue further after treasurer Dwayne Adams repeatedly reassured her that it was a mistake... Vela said...

BEAVER -- The Beaver County Sheriff's Office has arrested three men suspected in a series of burglaries. According to the Spectrum, deputies said Luis M. Lopez, Andy F. Lopez, and Oren T. Hounchell admitted to varying levels of involvement in a series of break-ins at homes, stores and the Beaver City Library. They were also found in possession of an undisclosed amount of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. All three face multiple burglary and drug charges. Deputies discovered a set of footprints left in the snow after one of the home burglaries. They followed those footprints to the Hounchell's home. The...

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican prosecutors are requesting that Texas-based norteno singer Ramon Ayala be held pending investigation after he was detained at a drug cartel's Christmas party. Attorney General Arturo Chavez announced Thursday that a judge is considering the request and that any possible charges would be determined by the investigation. Ayala, a Mexican accordionist who lives in Hidalgo, Texas, has been detained in federal police headquarters in Mexico City since the Dec. 11 military raid at a mansion outside the mountain town of Tepoztlan where three gunmen were killed and 11 others suspected members of the Beltran Leyva cartel...

Houston Mayor Bill White will officially launch a fingerprint-based immigration screening program in the city's jails today, fulfilling his pledge to have the system up and running by the time he leaves office. ...the outgoing mayor and Texas gubernatorial candidate, has faced harsh criticism for perceived flip-flopping on the issue of immigration enforcement in the jails. He previously requested to have the city participate in the controversial 287(g) program that would have trained officers to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents screen for illegal immigrants in the jails, but he backed away from that proposal after negotiations with the federal...

Rick Perry doesn't like to talk about his days as a Democrat, particularly his role in 1988 as the head of Al Gore's presidential campaign in Texas. But on Wednesday, after he accepted and endorsement from a group of builders in Dallas, I managed to get out a question about his relationship with Gore and where each stands on Gore's pet issue of climate change. "I certainly got religion," Perry said. "I think he's gone to hell." That drew big laughs from the construction types gathered for Perry's appearance. Perry sounds like a store-front preacher discussing the issue. Hear it...

San Antonio - As it prepares to begin the critical election season, the Bexar County Democratic Party reports it is missing some $200,000 from its accounts, 1200 WOAI's Bud Little reports. "Its money that is used to pay the county for conducting the primary elections," First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg told 1200 WOAI news. Herberg says party officials met with his office's white collar crimes division and police to determine what needs to be done to launch an investigation. "There is an allegation that the money was diverted for improper purposes by an officer of the party," Herberg said....

"This is a classic example of a bait and switch." - Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison WASHINGTON, D.C. - In an effort to stem billions of dollars in tax increases that would begin in several weeks and to improve transparency in the health care debate, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) today introduced a motion with U.S. Senator John Thune (R-SD) that would send the government-run health care legislation back to the Senate Finance Committee with instructions that no taxes or fees be imposed on American families and businesses until the supposed benefits of the bill have begun. http://www.wilsoncountynews.com/article.php?id=25470&n=top-stories-hutchison-introduces-motion-to-send-health-care-bill-back-to-committee

Strayhorn continues to explore Democratic bid for comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who was twice elected comptroller as a Republican and then ran a losing gubernatorial campaign as an independent, called Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie on Tuesday to discuss seeking the party’s nomination for comptroller. Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirsten Gray confirmed the conversation, which Strayhorn initiated. We don’t know much about what was said. When I asked Gray whether the party would welcome Strayhorn as a candidate, she replied, “We will rely on our voters to consider each candidate’s record and decide if they have the Democratic credentials they...

PDATE: - 60 more guns are in the hands of criminals after an early morning burglary at Shooters Station off of SH 105 West. Owner Danny Benois said 12 shotguns were taken and the rest were handguns. Montgomery County Sheriff's patrol units responded to an alarm call at that location around 4:40 this morning. When they arrived, the thieves had already made forced entry, took their loot and fled. Benois said the building has no windows and only a front and back door, which makes it pretty secure. The thieves spent an estimated 30 minutes cutting into the metal front...

AUSTIN – Two-thirds of Texas businesses will pay nearly triple the unemployment-benefits tax next year than they paid this year, the Texas Workforce Commission announced Tuesday. Next year's tax rates are the highest since an oil-price and real estate bust stalled the state economy Across the board, unemployment taxes will roughly double next year.

When Parker finally appeared at 10:30, resplendent in a gold pantsuit and pearl necklace, a room jammed elbow-to-elbow with supporters erupted with a deafening cheer. Some were newcomers to political waters; some had been with her a dozen years ago when she claimed her first City Council seat. Election-night parties often are set pieces with familiar ear-splitting soundtracks -- her appearance was preceded by the endless refrains of "We Are Family" -- but if there was a difference to this occasion, it may have been the sense among some supporters that Parker's election was a step away from the political...

An alleged hitman for the Zetas and the Mexican Mafia may be hiding out in the Rio Grande Valley. The U.S. Marshal’s Service told Action 4 News that Joseph Allen Garcia is wanted for murder and a number of other crimes in Laredo. A local agency spokesman said 22-year-old murder hitman is known to frequent South Padre Island and is asking for the public’s help in catching him. Garcia is wanted for a December 13, 2003 shooting in Laredo where one person was killed and three others injured. The accused hitman was 16-years-old at the time of the shooting. Authorities...

<p>Houston became the largest U.S. city to elect an openly gay mayor, with voters handing a solid victory to City Controller Annise Parker after a hotly contested runoff.</p> <p>Parker defeated former city attorney Gene Locke with 53.6 percent of the vote Saturday in a race that had a turnout of only 16.5 percent.</p>

Eldorado, Texas » A 57-year-old member of a polygamous group raided by Texas authorities last year has been convicted of sexual assault of a child. A Schleicher County jury in the West Texas town of Eldorado deliberated less than two hours Tuesday before convicting Allan Keate. He faces up to life in prison for his alleged so-called "spiritual marriage" to a 15-year-old girl who gave birth at age 16. Keate was immediately taken into custody. The jury will hear more testimony before deciding his sentence. Much of the prosecution's case relied on extensive church records seized from the Yearning For...

The landmark election Saturday of America's first big-city lesbian mayor in Houston represents more than just a milestone in identity politics. It also signals an unmistakable evolutionary step in national politics, one that provides further evidence of a trend that helped make Barack Obama president: growth-oriented communities like the Texas metropolis, rather than aging big cities or nostalgia-inducing small towns, are setting the course of the country's political direction. Houston is one of a set of fast-growing cities and expanding suburbs whose changing face and increasingly post-racial politics helped make Barack Obama president. Their politics are defined by some of...

The Municipal authoritiees are expecting more than 100 thosuand vehicles of "paisanos" to start crossing through this land port into Mexico. LAREDO, Tx.- Local authorities are expecting over 100 thousand paisanos to arrive next weekend to this land port. "We are ready to receive them, we have established a plan together with the Mexican Consulate General in Laredo, with the Police Department, the Sherriff's Office, the Bridge System and the Customs Port of Laredo, as well as with the Texas Department of Transportation and Nuevo Laredo authorities, in order to assist the paisanos," Salinas mentioned. The first part of the...

...Friedman's departure left outgoing Houston Mayor Bill White and hair-care millionaire Farouk Shami as the two main contenders for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and lessened the chances of the race going to a runoff. While it does not clear the field for White, it gives him the advantage over a less-known and less experienced opponent. White has a track record in office and proof he can win elections. Shami says he will spend $10 million of his own money to win the nomination with his rags-to-riches life story, but he still will have to answer the ultimate question: Is Texas...

A south Texas couple put an aborted 7-month-old fetus in a gift box under a Christmas tree after they were unable to flush the remains down a toilet, authorities allege. Ruby Lee Medina, 31, and Javier Gonzalez, 37, of Mission, were charged on Monday with abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. Their bonds were set at $US20,000 ($A21,820) each. San Juan Police Chief Juan Gonzalez said police found the fetus inside the woman's trailer home on Thursday after getting an anonymous tip. Autopsy results are pending but Gonzalez said police believe the woman used pills to induce an...

A lesbian candidate won Houston's mayoral election Saturday night, a vote that made the city the largest in the U.S. to ever have an openly gay mayor. "This election has changed the world for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community. Just as it is about transforming the lives of all Houstonians for the better, and that's what my administration will be about," City Controller Annise Parker told supporters after former city attorney Gene Locke conceded defeat. Parker got 53 percent of the vote. More than 152,000 residents turned out to cast ballots in the fourth largest U.S. city. The...

The best way to prevent vote fraud is to BE THERE. Vote fraud is one of the greatest threats to our republic. In some precincts I have seen 10% or more of the total votes that were fraudulent. As I have posted several times over the years, there are many methods for scamming the election. On 12/12/09, last Saturday, we had the mayoral runoff election in Houston. I was an Election Judge, and Freeper Zeppelin ably assisted. We ran a totally clean election following every election law to the letter. PLEASE consider volunteering for this vitally important work. To be...

AUSTIN — Both Kay Bailey Hutchisons showed up to file for governor Monday — Primary Kay and General Election Kay. Like hyperkinetic twins, they tended to talk over each other. Primary Kay is very conservative. She talks about property rights, illegal immigrants and state-mandated vaccinations of teenage girls (a particular bugaboo of the Christian right). General Election Kay promises to expand the party — save it, she says — by appealing to the broad Texas electorate in November.

HOUSTON – The first openly gay person to be elected mayor of Houston says she hopes her victory in Saturday's election will change how the world views the city. Houston is the nation's fourth-largest city and the biggest to elect an openly gay mayor. Mayor-elect Annise Parker spoke Sunday at a press conference after defeating former city attorney Gene Locke with 53.6 percent of the vote in the hotly contested runoff election.

The southern city of Houston has become the largest US metropolis to elect an openly gay mayor when Annise Parker, an open lesbian, claimed a solid victory over her rival. "I know what this win means to many of us who thought we could never achieve high office," she said in her victory speech, at which she introduced her partner Kathy and their three children, according to the Houston Chronicle. "I understand, because I feel it, too. But now, from this moment, let us join as one community," said Parker, 53. According to local election data, Democrat Parker won about...

Each campaign, expecting turnout surge among casual Republican voters, hammers away at conservative credentials. By Jason EmbryAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Sunday, December 13, 2009 Recent statements and strategy decisions have made clear that U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison believes it is Republicans — and not independents or Democrats, as some others have suggested — who can lift her to victory over Gov. Rick Perry in the March GOP primary.Hutchison's campaign expects a surge of voters who support Republicans but do not regularly vote in Republican primaries. And to appeal to those voters, she has in recent weeks stressed her support from...

Fifteen-year-old Katarina Keen won't sing along to "Silent Night" or "Listen to the Stars," two Christian songs planned for her choir's upcoming Christmas concert at Borger High School. But she will sing "Jingle Bells" and "A Carol in Winter." Katarina and her family are Wiccan. The Borger High choirs have given a concert every December, with traditional religious Christmas songs, but this is the first time in director Johnny Miller's 23-year career that any Borger student had issues with the religious themes in the music, he said. A concert at 2:30 p.m. Sunday will feature a ninth- and 10th-grade choir...

Houston, Texas has become the largest city in the United States to elect an openly gay mayor after City Controller Annise Parker was declared the winner of a runoff election tonight. Social conservatives fought her election, funding a campaign aimed at turning out likeminded voters to support her opponent, former city attorney Gene Locke. But Parker's endorsements from labor, police, women's, gay rights and other groups were echoed by the Houston Chronicle, the area's major daily newspaper, and her campaign ran a superior get-out-the-vote effort.