TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalDallas County DA Hawk battled paranoia, had ‘break with reality,’ friend says
Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk has been battling a mental illness for several months, despite at least one attempt at an intervention, a family friend said Wednesday night.
Dallas lawyer Bob Hinton, who is also Hawk’s neighbor, said he and others have noticed bouts of paranoia and mistrust since Hawk became district attorney in January.
“It has been obvious to those of us who know and love Susan that she has problems, emotional problems, and needs help,” Hinton said. “We’ve tried to get her to recognize that and help her. It just appears to me that she … has been in denial.”
Hawk is staying at an in-state treatment facility after announcing this week that she needed to take time to recover from a “serious episode of depression.” She has been off work since at least Aug. 3 and is expected to be gone through at least the end of September.
Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20150826-hawk-battled-paranoia-had-break-with-reality-friend-says.ece
Earlier threads:
Friends, colleagues say Dallas County DA Susan Hawk spent time in drug rehab March 27. 2015
Dallas County DA absent for three weeks; addiction rumors start swirling August 23, 2015
Dallas Democrats: DA Susan Hawk ‘needs to do her job or resign’ August 24, 2015
Dallas County DA Susan Hawk takes leave to battle depression August 25, 2015
Dallas County DA Susan Hawk is at Texas facility for depression treatment August 26, 2015
IRS employee sentenced to two years in prison for identity fraud
An Internal Revenue Services employee from Austin was sentenced to two years and one day in federal prison for identity fraud after he took identification information on tax forms and used it to file more than 50 fraudulent tax returns and collect more than $120,000, according to the Department of Justice.
Kenneth Goheen, a former tax examining technician, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft on June 3 and was sentenced on Aug. 26. The judge also ordered that Goheen forfeit more than $15,000 seized from his bank accounts and pay another $104,292 in restitution to the government.
Goheen will also be placed on supervised release for three years after he serves his prison sentence, the Department of Justice said.
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/crime-law/irs-employee-sentenced-to-two-years-in-prison-for-/nnRkN/
World’s Hottest Math Teacher Pietro Boselli Explains Engineering In His Undies (w/ video)
You may recall us telling you about Pietro Boselli, lauded as ‘the world’s hottest math teacher’ who also gets serious work as a professional male model (e.g. Milan, 2015). Boselli is back with a new video where he explains how he manages to marry the two loves of his life: mechanical engineering and male modeling.
Explaining what it is he actually does in the engineering world, Boselli said, “I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering and then my PhD was, more specifically, Computational Fluid Dynamics. What I do is design turbines for power plants. It’s very computational and very mathematical.” He also, as we know, teaches at a university. Addressing his viral fame, Boselli remarked, “I guess it happened, like you know; it happens on the internet.” Modeling since he was 6, Boselli says that modeling has been more of a part time job that helped him fund his studies and that education was always his primary focus: “It’s not something I’ve done because I have to. It’s something I’ve done because I enjoy.”
Watch Boselli bare his body and listen to him talk about Computational Fluid Dynamics, below:
http://www.towleroad.com/2015/08/worlds-hottest-math-teacher-pietro-boselli-explains-engineering-in-his-undies-watch/
State police: Officer, 2 others shot; injuries not known (SW Louisiana)
Source: AP
SUNSET, La. (AP) — Louisiana State Police say a police officer and two other people have been shot in the southwestern Louisiana.
State police Superintendent Mike Edmonson says troopers are on the way to the scene in Sunset, about 70 miles west of Baton Rouge, after getting a call around 4:45 p.m. Wednesday.
Edmonson says the shooting reportedly took place near a convenience store. He says the officer was "responsive" but he has no details on the extent of the officer's injuries — or those of the other two people who were shot.
Tonette Thibodeaux of the Sunset police department confirms that an officer was shot but says she does not have any details.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/State-police-Officer-2-others-shot-injuries-6467546.php
This is the second cop shooting in southwestern Louisiana this week.
Comptroller Hegar: Were Abbott’s budget vetoes legal?
AUSTIN — Comptroller Glenn Hegar, saying he must respect the state constitution’s separation of powers, has asked for a legal opinion on whether Gov. Greg Abbott’s June budget vetoes were kosher.
Hegar announced Wednesday he is requesting a nonbinding opinion from Attorney General Ken Paxton.
At issue is whether Abbott has the power to cut out more than $225 million from the two-year state budget that was in the form of paragraphs instructing agencies on how to spend money. Abbott says he does. Some lawmakers, though, say a governor only is allowed under the 1876 Texas Constitution and subsequent court decisions to veto ledger-like “line items” — dollar amounts.
If Abbott’s actions go unchallenged, some lawmakers and legislative budget staffers have warned that the Legislature would yield power to the governor — and would have to drastically revise the template it uses in budget writing.
Read more: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2015/08/hegar-were-abbotts-budget-vetoes-legal.html/
Gov. Greg Abbott: America deteriorating because Christians aren’t voting
Gov. Greg Abbott said in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network this week that America will continue to deteriorate if Christians and their pastors don’t get to the polls and vote.
“Religious liberty from the Bible and the issues that Christians believe in have become hostile in the mainstream politics, and there is one key reason for it,” Abbott told the Network’s chief political correspondent David Brody. “And that’s because the people who attend these congregations or pastor these congregations do not turn out and vote and we are dealing with the consequences by the failure of Christians to go vote.”
Abbott spoke on Monday to a group of pastors gathered in Austin for a two-day political training seminar hosted by the American Renewal Project. Brody was also a speaker at the event, and other media outlets were excluded. GOP presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee also addressed the group, whose aim to get pastors to run for political office.
On its web site, the Texas Renewal Project reports that more than 13,000 pastors have attended the group’s training events since 2005. Founder David Lane told the New York Times in March that his goal was to get 1,000 pastors to run for public office.
Read more: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2015/08/gov-greg-abbott-america-deteriorating-because-christians-arent-voting.html/
Cross-posted in LBN.
Gov. Greg Abbott: America deteriorating because Christians aren’t voting
Source: Dallas Morning News
Gov. Greg Abbott said in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network this week that America will continue to deteriorate if Christians and their pastors don’t get to the polls and vote.
“Religious liberty from the Bible and the issues that Christians believe in have become hostile in the mainstream politics, and there is one key reason for it,” Abbott told the Network’s chief political correspondent David Brody. “And that’s because the people who attend these congregations or pastor these congregations do not turn out and vote and we are dealing with the consequences by the failure of Christians to go vote.”
Abbott spoke on Monday to a group of pastors gathered in Austin for a two-day political training seminar hosted by the American Renewal Project. Brody was also a speaker at the event, and other media outlets were excluded. GOP presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee also addressed the group, whose aim to get pastors to run for political office.
On its web site, the Texas Renewal Project reports that more than 13,000 pastors have attended the group’s training events since 2005. Founder David Lane told the New York Times in March that his goal was to get 1,000 pastors to run for public office.
Read more: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2015/08/gov-greg-abbott-america-deteriorating-because-christians-arent-voting.html/
Cross-posted in the Texas Group.
UT student blames misdiagnosis for loss of testicle
A University of Texas student is suing an Austin doctor and the Medspring Urgent Care clinic accusing the doctor of misdiagnosing him with “blue balls” and ultimately causing the loss of his testicle.
The student filed a civil lawsuit in state district court in Travis County last week. According to the suit, he went to the Medspring clinic across the street from the UT campus on March 1 because of pain in his left testicle. The doctor, Dipen Patel, told him that the pain could have been caused by “blue balls” referring to the aching in the testicles brought on by prolonged sexual arousal, the lawsuit says. Patel suggested that the man masturbate and go to the hospital if the pain hadn’t gone away after 48 hours, according to the suit.
Later that night, the man went to the St. David’s Medical Center emergency room in extreme pain, according to the lawsuit, and after an ultrasound was diagnosed with testicular torsion, a condition in which blood supply is cut off to the testicle because it has rotated. If not treated within six hours, the testicle could stop functioning, according to the lawsuit.
Even after emergency surgery, the man lost his testicle, according to the lawsuit.
Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/ut-student-blames-misdiagnosis-for-loss-of-testicl/nnRKB/
Texas holds off on therapy cuts in Medicaid program
Source: Austin American-Statesman
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas health officials are postponing a $350 million cut in Medicaid payments to therapists after being pushed to the brink of legal action in state court.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission told a judge Wednesday that the agency now plans to start over and consider new rates. The about-face comes less than a week before the cuts were scheduled to take effect and after increasing bipartisan pressure.
Opponents say the cuts would have drastically reduced access to speech, physical and occupational therapists for more than 240,000 poor Texas residents. The cuts would have also targeted a program that provides speech therapy to children born prematurely.
The Republican-controlled Legislature ordered the rate reductions this year amid lawmaker concerns of excess spending.
Read more: http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/texas/texas-holds-off-on-therapy-cuts-in-medicaid-progra/nnRPf/
End of article. Cross-posted in the Texas Group.
Texas holds off on therapy cuts in Medicaid program
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas health officials are postponing a $350 million cut in Medicaid payments to therapists after being pushed to the brink of legal action in state court.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission told a judge Wednesday that the agency now plans to start over and consider new rates. The about-face comes less than a week before the cuts were scheduled to take effect and after increasing bipartisan pressure.
Opponents say the cuts would have drastically reduced access to speech, physical and occupational therapists for more than 240,000 poor Texas residents. The cuts would have also targeted a program that provides speech therapy to children born prematurely.
The Republican-controlled Legislature ordered the rate reductions this year amid lawmaker concerns of excess spending.
Read more: http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/texas/texas-holds-off-on-therapy-cuts-in-medicaid-progra/nnRPf/
Cross-posted in LBN.
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
Home country: United States
Current location: Bryan, Texas
Member since: Sun Aug 14, 2011, 03:57 AM
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