TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalVP Mike Pence gets message from Aspen neighbors: Make America Gay Again
Pitkin County Deputy Kent Taylor on Friday helps guard the entrance to the home near Aspen where Vice President Mike Pence is staying.
For Vice President Mike Pence, the message was unmistakable and the banner that carried it unmissable.
"Make America Gay Again," the rainbow banner reads.
Neighbors of the home near Aspen where Pence and his wife, Karen Sue, are staying posted the message Wednesday or Thursday on a stone pillar that sits at the end of driveways to both homes, Pitkin County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Buglione said Friday.
"You couldn't miss it," he said of the sign off Owl Creek Road, adding that the man and woman who live in the home brought chili and corn muffins to deputies and Secret Service agents posted at the foot of the driveway.
The Secret Service agents were not at all perturbed about the banner, Buglione said.
Read more: https://www.aspentimes.com/news/vp-mike-pence-gets-message-from-aspen-neighbors-make-america-gay-again/
More North Texas health care companies could be left in critical condition in 2018
The so-called “restructuring epidemic” in the healthcare sector is projected to only get worse, and health care businesses in Texas are already among the most frequent to find themselves in critical condition.
There were a slew of bankruptcies filed in Texas in 2017, including Lewisville’s Adeptus Health, which owns free-standing emergency rooms, Walnut Hill Medical Center in Dallas, and nursing home operator Preferred Care, based in Plano.
Confusion over another major revamp of the nation’s health care legislation was among the challenges cited by health care providers this year, including Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, one of the country’s largest hospital chains. With losses piling up and facing a proxy fight, it jettisoned its CEO and announced it might sell some profitable assets.
And there’s evidence to suggest that consumers may be foregoing care as they take on more of the cost burden in high-deductible health insurance plans.
Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/business/health-care/2017/12/29/north-texas-health-care-companies-critical-condition-2018-prediction
Will Texas turn over your voter information to Trump's fraud commission?
AUSTIN — When President Donald Trump tweeted days after his election that he would have won the popular vote had it not been for millions of illegally cast votes, he set off a firestorm of criticism.
The assertion of widespread voter fraud has been repeatedly debunked. Yet Trump created a federal commission on voter fraud in May, led by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who similarly claimed people who are in the U.S. illegally have been allowed to vote.
The controversy over the commission hit Texas in June, when Kobach asked election officials in every state to turn over voter registration records. The request included full names, addresses, dates of birth, political party affiliation, last four digits of Social Security numbers and voter history since 2006, among other categories.
Civil rights and voter advocacy groups cried foul, claiming an invasion of voters' privacy. Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos said the state would partially comply with the request, handing over only information that was already public: names, dates of birth and registration, addresses, voting methods and elections voted in.
Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2017/12/29/will-texas-turnover-voter-information-trumps-fraud-commission
Tax cuts offer opportunity to raise minimum wage
First, it will decrease the number of Americans who are working poor and, as a result, reduce the number of Americans who need government assistance programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Next, raising the minimum wage will increase the amount of money spent on goods and services, which drives the economy.
Finally, raising the minimum wage provides a level playing field for all competitors. Without it, a company that wants to raise its hourly wage may decide against it out of fear that less scrupulous competitors will not follow suit, undercutting them in price. If all competitors must pay a similar base price for labor, then the company that wins is the one that produces the best product.
While we are on the subject of businesses and labor costs, we should take the advice that the late Subway CEO Fred DeLuca gave on CNBC in 2014 and index future changes in the minimum wage to inflation, "that way everybody knows what they can count on." Both employers and employees can plan for the future.
Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/12/29/tax-cuts-offer-opportunity-raise-minimum-wage
Attorney General Ken Paxton's securities fraud trials on hold for now
AUSTIN — Attorney General Ken Paxton's fraud trials have been put on hold as the lawyers pursuing the criminal charges against him fight for years of back pay.
Judge Robert Johnson has taken Paxton's three criminal cases off his docket for now, the court confirmed to The Dallas Morning News on Friday. While court staff did not have a reason for the removal, the three attorneys prosecuting Paxton have repeatedly asked for the cases to be halted while they fight to have their pay resumed.
The delay will almost certainly push Paxton's trials into general election season, when he will be seeking another term as the state's top lawyer. In July, Paxton's indictments will turn three years old.
The Collin County Commissioners Court has not paid the three special prosecutors pursuing charges against Paxton since January 2016. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will soon decide whether the prosecutors' hourly rate is fair and legal and whether they're entitled to two years of back pay from the county.
Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2017/12/29/ag-ken-paxtons-securities-fraud-trials-hold-now
Holy guacamole! Truck carrying 20 tons of avocados catches fire, shutting down I-35E in Ellis County
Northbound Interstate 35E south of Waxahachie was shut down for several hours Thursday afternoon after a big rig fire.
It happened around 11:15 a.m. on I-35E near the town of Forreston.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said the 18-wheeler was carrying 40,000 pounds of avocados, but it's unknown if there was a crash or if the big rig caught fire.
Texas Sky Rangers spotted what was left of the big rig and load of avocados blocking the northbound lanes of I-35E.
Read more: https://www.nbcdfw.com/traffic/stories/NB-I-35E-South-of-Waxahachie-Shut-Down-After-Big-Rig-Carrying-Avocados-Catches-Fire-467000733.html
Computer chief, chemistry prof quit UT amid sexual misconduct inquiries
When Jay Boisseau abruptly resigned in 2014 after 12 years of building the University of Texas’ supercomputing center into an international powerhouse, school officials gave no reason for his departure.
The university made no public announcement when Bradley J. Holliday, a tenured chemistry professor, quit in 2016.
Records obtained by the American-Statesman under the Texas Public Information Act show that both men stepped down shortly after UT officials informed them that they had been accused of sexual misconduct. In the case of Boisseau, the university paid his accuser, a subordinate at UT’s Texas Advanced Computing Center, $325,000 to settle her claims.
Higher education hasn’t been immune from the national reckoning over sexual misconduct that has embroiled figures in Hollywood, the media, Congress and other spheres of American life. Allegations of misconduct by faculty members or administrators have surfaced at numerous colleges and universities, including the University of Virginia, Boston University, the University of Rochester, Stanford University, Columbia University and Dartmouth College.
Read more: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/computer-chief-chemistry-prof-quit-amid-sexual-misconduct-inquiries/PBHBtdGfaxUAPA2MaPgT7L/
Irving physician-owned company admits submitting bogus claims for anesthesia work that was never don
Irving physician-owned company admits submitting bogus claims for anesthesia work that was never doneAn Irving medical management company started by three anesthesiologists has agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud for submitting claims for anesthesia services that were never performed, according to federal court documents.
Limbic Partners LLC admitted to a scheme that bilked two insurance companies out of about $1 million through false claims, according to plea documents in the case. No doctors were charged.
The company was charged on Dec. 5 in connection with the scheme, which ran from April 2011 to April 2013, according to court documents. On Dec. 12, Limbic Partners filed plea documents in the case. A federal judge has to accept the plea before it becomes official. A sentencing date will then be scheduled.
The company faces up to five years' probation, victim restitution and a maximum fine of $500,000, records show.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2017/12/25/irving-physician-owned-company-admits-submitting-bogus-claims-anesthesia-work-never-done
Oklahoma Regents Vice Chair to Resign After Comparing Gay People to Pedophiles
OKLAHOMA CITY — The vice chair of the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents announced Thursday, December 21, he would resign after an uproar over a comment on public affairs television that appeared to liken gay people to pedophiles.
Following a two-hour closed-door meeting of the board, Vice Chair Kirk Humphreys said he does not want to be a distraction and announced plans to step down before the start of the spring semester in 2018. Humphries said the board asked him to step down during the private meeting.
“I told (board Chairman) Clay Bennett on Saturday that if this was the will of the regents, I was happy to do that,” Humphreys said. The board’s meeting was called to discuss “any board member(s) as it may pertain to board leadership positions.”
Humphreys publicly apologized for his comments on Tuesday. He said comments he made on the show that aired Dec. 10 went “off the rails” and that he regrets hurting people.
Read more: http://www.outsmartmagazine.com/2017/12/oklahoma-regents-vice-chair-to-resign-after-comparing-gay-people-to-pedophiles/
GOP Candidate for Texas Governor: "I'd Gladly Execute a Convicted Sodomite"
Texas gubernatorial candidate Larry SECEDE Kilgore is shown in 2006, left, and in 2017. He says he doesn’t plan to cut his hair or beard until Texas bans abortion.
Texas has two openly LGBTQ candidates for governor in 2018, Democrats Lupe Valdez and Jeffrey Payne.
The Lone Star State also has a Republican gubernatorial candidate, Larry SECEDE Kilgore, who apparently believes Valdez, Payne and other “sodomites” should be put to death.
When he previously ran for governor in 2014, Kilgore told me that while he supports the death penalty as punishment for homosexuality, he planned to put the issue aside so he could focus on advocating for secession.
In 2018, however, it seems Kilgore is making his version of “biblical law” a more central part of his campaign. On Friday morning, he took to social media with this bit of holiday cheer:
https://twitter.com/SECEDEKilgore/status/944179375024504832
“I’d gladly execute a convicted adulterer, sodomite or bestialiter. Biblical law is a blessin,” Kilgore wrote, alongside a link to a story about “bestiality brothels” in Germany.
Read more: http://www.outsmartmagazine.com/2017/12/gop-candidate-for-texas-governor-id-gladly-execute-a-convicted-sodomite/
Cross-posted in the Texas Group.
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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