Tag: Texas

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Texas Governor Wants Disgraced GOP Congressman To Pay For Special Election

Former Congressman Blake Farenthold (R)

The governor of Texas wants Republican Blake Farenthold to pay for the special election necessary to replace the now-former congressman after his sudden resignation three weeks ago.

It was revealed in December that Farenthold had used taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit.

Initially, the Texas Republican signaled he would not seek re-election this fall and promised to repay the $84,000 funds.

But he never repaid the money and suddenly resigned from Congress earlier this month in an attempt to avoid writing that $84K check.

From HuffPost:

The House Ethics Committee was about to rule against Farenthold in its investigation into whether he sexually harassed members of his staff, used official money for campaign purposes and lied in previous testimony to the committee, according to the office of Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.).

The committee gave Farenthold a heads-up about its ruling, which it is legally required to do before issuing a decision, so he quit, per Speier’s office. Speier, who is not a member of the committee, has been one of Farenthold’s biggest critics and a vocal advocate for changing how sexual harassment allegations are handled in Congress.

By stepping down, Farenthold was able to avoid whatever punishment the committee would have handed down.

Farenthold’s district must now hold a special election June 30 and Gov. Greg Abbott wants him to pony up the $84,000 to help pay for the election.

Life comes at you fast, huh, Mr. Farenthold?

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Texas: Trans Wrestler Forced To Compete As Girl Wins 2nd State Title

As I reported yesterday, transgender high school senior Mack Beggs returned to the state wrestling finals this weekend after winning his division last year.

Beggs has asked to compete in the boys division but the University Interscholastic League (UIL), which regulates high school athletics in Texas, made him compete in the girls division based on the gender listed on his birth certificate.

Beggs is undergoing hormone replacement therapy under the care of a doctor, which the UIL allows. Beggs said last year that he’s taking less than the recommended dosage of testosterone in order to stay within the “allowed level.”

Beggs’ weekly injection of .18 milliliters (36 milligrams) is medically prescribed and monitored for the primary purposes of stopping his menstrual cycles and allowing him to grow body and facial hair.

That dosage is tiny compared to what male body builders typically inject – 500 to 1,000 milligrams of testosterone per week.

Over the past years, parents of Beggs’ competitors have been vocal saying Beggs’ use of testosterone constituted an illegal advantage over girls calling the hormone treatment “steroid use.”

On Saturday evening, the transgender male wrestler ended his perfect 36-0 season by winning his second straight UIL girls Class 6A state title in the 110-pound weight class.

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, there were a few boos last year but those cheering for Beggs drowned the haters out. This year the boos were back and more pronounced.

What I want to make absolutely clear is that Beggs’ won fair and square playing by the rules. Period.

Beggs’ focus moves now to “top surgery” in the next few months and then on college. He has already been offered a wrestling scholarship at an out of state college.

The NCAA, which regulates college athletics, allows transgender wrestlers to compete with their gender.

Watch video below of the last minute of Mack’s title-winning match.

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SCOTUS Will Let Stand Texas Ruling Denying Same-Sex Couples Equal Spousal Benefits

This is very bad.

The U.S. Supreme Court has announced it will let stand a ruling by the Texas Supreme Court that said the right to a marriage license did not entitle same-sex couples to spousal benefits under employee insurance plans.

From The Texas Tribune:

The high court on Monday announced it would not take up the case — which centers on Houston’s policy to provide spouses of gay and lesbian employees the same government-subsidized marriage benefits it provides to opposite-sex spouses — just months after the city of Houston filed its appeal, arguing the state court’s June decision “disregarded” precedent.

In that decision, the Texas Supreme Court threw out a lower court ruling that said spouses of gay and lesbian public employees are entitled to government-subsidized marriage benefits, and it unanimously ordered a trial court to reconsider the case. The ruling found that there’s still room for state courts to explore “the reach and ramifications” of marriage-related issues that resulted from the legalization of same-sex marriage.

That’s despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015 and noted that now-defunct marriage laws were unequal in how they denied same-sex couples the benefits afforded to opposite-sex couples.

In its decision, the Texas Supreme Court noted that Obergefell requires states to license and recognize same-sex marriages just as they do opposite-sex marriages but did not hold that “states must provide the same publicly funded benefits to all married persons.”

That does not mean Houston can “constitutionally deny benefits to its employees’ same-sex spouses,” the court added, but the issue must now be resolved “in light of Obergefell.”

Following the Obergefell ruling, public employers in Texas, including state agencies and public universities, quickly extended marriage benefits to spouses of gay and lesbian employees.

“Equal recognition of same-sex marriage requires more than a marriage license; it requires equal access to the constellation of benefits that the state has linked to marriage,” Houston attorneys wrote in their brief to the court.

This is particularly disconcerting as SCOTUS prepares to hear the case of Colorado baker Jack Phillips tomorrow who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple.

All eyes will be on that ruling.

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Texas Sheriff Threatens Disorderly Conduct Charges For Anti-Trump Sticker

A Texas sheriff is threatening charges of disorderly conduct for the driver of a truck bearing an anti-Trump sticker.

From the Houston Chronicle:

Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls on Wednesday created a social media firestorm with a Facebook post threatening to bring disorderly conduct charges against the driver of a truck displaying a profane anti-Trump message on its rear window.

Nehls told the Houston Chronicle that he had received calls, texts and emails in recent days from people who took offense at the language in bold, white lettering: “F— TRUMP AND F— YOU FOR VOTING FOR HIM.”

The sheriff, a Republican who is weighing a bid for Congress shared a photo on his official Facebook page in hopes that it would help to identify the truck owner. The license plate is not visible in the image.

Turns out, a woman who identified herself as the driver said she used to work for Nehls in the county jail.

Karen Fonseca said the truck belongs to her husband but that she often drives it. They had the sticker made and added it to the window after the billionaire real estate magnate and reality TV star was sworn into office.

The sticker has attracted attention many times before, Fonseca said. People shake their head. They take photos of it. Officers have pulled her over but failed to find a reason for writing a ticket.
Now the sheriff is taking it on, but Fonseca did not plan to contact him.

“It’s not to cause hate or animosity,” said Fonseca, 46. “It’s just our freedom of speech and we’re exercising it.”

Texas state law describes disorderly conduct as intentionally using “abusive, indecent, profane, or vulgar language in a public place, and the language by its very utterance tends to incite an immediate breach of peace.”

The ACLU of Texas has already expressed an opinion on the subject:

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Texas Church Shooter May Have Been Motivated By “Domestic Situation”

With 26 dead and 20 more wounded after the deadly shooting massacre at a small church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, investigators believe the attack was possibly motivated by an ongoing “domestic situation” for the shooter.

Via Washington Post:

While authorities have not publicly identified a motive for the attack, they emphasized Monday that the shooting did not appear to be fueled by racial or religious issues. They said the gunman’s mother-in-law had attended the church but was not there Sunday, and that the shooter had sent “threatening texts” as part of the family dispute.

“This was not racially motivated, it wasn’t over religious beliefs,” Freeman Martin of the Texas Department of Public Safety said at a news briefing. “There was a domestic situation going on within the family and the in-laws.”

Investigators have scoured the gunman’s background since he opened fire Sunday morning on the pews of the First Baptist Church outside San Antonio, searching for a possible motive as the stories of those massacred began to emerge.

The shooter, identified as Devin Patrick Kelley, had served in the Air Force but was court-martialed in 2012 for assaulting his wife and child.

He was sentenced to a year in military prison and received a bad-conduct discharge.

President Trump called the shooter a “deranged individual” and called the shooting massacre a “mental health problem at the highest level.”

That would be an interesting choice of words considering in February Trump signed a bill into law that rolled back regulations that made it difficult for people with mental health issues to acquire guns.

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At Least 25 Killed By Lone Gunman In Small Town Texas Church

At least 25 people have been killed by a lone gunman in a small Texas church in Sutherland Springs.

From NBC News:

“Approximately 25 people” were deceased, including the shooter, following the shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackett said Sunday afternoon. There was no information regarding the motivation behind the shooting, he added.

A single shooter walked into the church and opened fire, Wilson County Commissioner Albert Gamez Jr. told NBC News earlier Sunday.

But the shooter was now “deceased,” Gamez said, adding that it was not clear if the gunman shot himself or was taken down by authorities.

Developing story…

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Texas Speaker Of The House, Who Stood Up Against Anti-Transgender Legislation, Will Not Run For Re-Election In 2018

Joe Straus, the Republican Speaker of the House in Texas, has announced he will not seek re-election in 2018.

“I believe that in a representative democracy, those who serve in public office should do so for a time, not for a lifetime. And so I want you to know that my family and I have decided that I will not run for re-election next year. My time as a state representative and as speaker will end at the conclusion of my current term,” he announced via Facebook to his constituents.

You may recall that during last year’s legislative session, and the recent special session called by the governor, Straus beat back pressure from prominent politicians including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to bring a controversial anti-transgender “bathroom bill” to the floor of the state House for a vote.

Referencing the high suicide rates among the transgender community thanks to social judgments, the moderate Republican said at the time, “Tell the lieutenant governor I don’t want the suicide of a single Texan on my hands.”

Expect celebrations in the far-right realms of the Republican party as Straus has long been considered a target of the anti-LGBT Family Research Council and other hate groups.

Look for much jockeying in the Texas GOP  universe for the position of Speaker of the House in the coming months.

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Four Texas Men Plead Guilty To Hate Crimes After Targeting Gay Men For Home Invasions Via Grindr

Chancler Encalade

Four Texas men have pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges after using Grindr to target gay men for home invasions.

From the Dallas NBC affiliate:

A 20-year-old man pleaded guilty on Monday to federal charges that he targeted gay men through a dating app in a series of Collin and Denton County home invasions earlier this year.

Chancler Encalade, along with three other men, used Grindr, a dating app for gay men, to arrange meetings with victims at their homes in Frisco, Plano and Aubrey, according to a Department of Justice news release.

The four men restrained their victims with tape, assaulted them, made derogatory statement about their sexual orientation and stole various property, according to the Justice Department. The crimes took place in January and February.

The other men involved, Nigel Garrett, Anthony Shelton and Cameron Ajiduah, have also pleaded guilty to federal charges and are awaiting sentencing.

Encalade faces a maximum life sentence and a $250,000 fine.

Additional info from the Department of Justice:

According to the plea agreement, Encalade admitted that he, Nigel Garrett, and Anthony Shelton used Grindr, a social media dating platform for gay men, to arrange to meet the victim at the victim’s home. Upon entering the victim’s home, the defendants restrained the victim with tape, physically assaulted the victim, and made derogatory statements to the victim for being gay. The defendants brandished a firearm during the home invasion, and they stole the victim’s property, including his motor vehicle.

A federal grand jury previously had returned an eighteen-count superseding indictment, against Encalade and three other men, which included charges for hate crimes, kidnappings, carjackings, and the use of firearms to commit violent crimes. The indictment also charged the defendants with conspiring to cause bodily injury because of the victims’ sexual orientation

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University Of Texas Moves Confederate Statues From Main Campus To History Center

The University of Texas at Austin is moving all statues of Confederate leaders from campus grounds to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History where they belong.

Via HuffPost:

The monuments “have become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism,” the university’s president said.

The University of Texas at Austin joins the growing list of institutions and cities across the country removing statues that honor leaders of the Confederacy.

University president Gregory Fenves announced Sunday night that the school was taking down statues of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Albert Sidney Johnston, as well as Confederate Postmaster General John Reagan.

“Last week, the horrific displays of hatred at the University of Virginia and in Charlottesville shocked and saddened the nation. These events make it clear, now more than ever, that Confederate monuments have become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism,” Fenves wrote in a letter to the UT community.

Fenves, in his letter, noted that the statues were “erected during the period of Jim Crow laws and segregation.” The statues “represent the subjugation of African Americans,” he said. “That remains true today for white supremacists who use them to symbolize hatred and bigotry.”

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Podcast: Texas “Bathroom Bill” Dies In Special Session; Kesha Dedicates “Rainbow” to LGBTs

In this week’s podcast:

• The special session of the Texas legislature closed this week without passing a proposed anti-transgender bathroom bill

• A Missouri lawmaker thinks there’s a difference between human beings and the gays

• Kesha penned an open letter to LGBTs explaining the title track to her new album, Rainbow

Those stories and more on this episode of The Randy Report