Headlines

Local News
Bryan City Council Approves Graffiti Ordinance

The Bryan City Council approved an ordinance that authorizes the city to paint over graffiti, but could send property owners a bill for the expense. According to an article in the Bryan-College Station Eagle, if property owners decline the offer and refuse to do the work or have someone else do it, the city will paint over the graffiti and the owner will be billed for the expense. A state law that was passed this year went into effect September 1st sets the parameters for cities to follow, and the Bryan City Council passed the new ordinance outlining the specifics. City officials will approach a property owner in person or send them a letter informing them of the ordinance. The owner would then have 10 days to respond.

Local News
BISD Early Voting Begins

Early voting for a Bryan Independent School District five cent school property tax rate increase began on Wednesday and will continue to Tuesday, September 29th. The Bryan-College Station Eagle reports that the property tax rate would increase from $1.04 to $1.09 per $100 appraised property value. The tax increase would generate almost $1.3 million for the 2009-10 budget, and school district officials have said the funds generated would help cover the $1.9 million deficit in the $106 million budget. Residents can cast their votes early at the Travis Education Support Center, at 101 North Texas Avenue, on Weekdays from 8:00am to 5:00pm; Election Day is October 3 and voting is from 7:00am to 7:00pm.

Texas News
Texas State Board of Education Makes Important Progress

The Texas State Board of Education held a hearing on proposed new social studies standards for Texas public schools on Thursday. According to a report by the Texas Freedom Network, David Barton and Peter Marshall retreated from their calls over the summer to remove Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall from the social studies standards. However, the board’s far-right faction continued to pressure curriculum teams to rewrite the history of the relationship between religion and government in the United States, insisting that the teams include standards suggesting that our nation and government were founded on conservative Christian biblical principles.

Texas Politics
Perry's Denial of Stay Could Become Campaign Issue

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed on February 17, 2004 after being convicted of murdering his three children by setting fire to his home in December of 1991. However, Dr. Gerald Hurst of Austin, wrote a report faxed to Governor Perry's office hours before Willingham was killed stating that most conclusions by the initial investigators "would be considered invalid in light of current knowledge." In the years since the execution several articles and investigative reports have concluded that the fire was in fact not arson, and that Texas had executed an innocent man. An article in the Austin American-Statesman reports that a state-funded analysis released last month echoed Hurst's conclusions, and the Texas Forensic Science Commission plans to use the analysis for a report expected next year. It is difficult to tell if this may become an issue during the campaign, and if it will become political fodder for challengers rating him a failed leader.

Hutchison Catches Perry to Make Texas GOP Gov Race a Toss-Up

According to a Rasmussen Reports poll, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison is currently ahead of incumbent Governor Rick Perry by two points – 40% to 38%, while 19% are not sure who they favor.

Politics
Anti-Abortion Group May Have Violated Tax Code

A tax-exempt Catholic pro-life group’s lobbying against President Barack Obama’s health care reform legislation may be in violation of its 501(c)(3) status. Raw Story reported that the American Life League (ALL) is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization which claims to be the “largest grassroots Catholic pro-life education organization in the United States.” During a Sept. 12, 2009 rally in Washington, D.C. sponsored by right-wing lobbyists, the health-care industry and other partisan groups, numerous protesters carried a sign which said “Bury Obamacare with Kennedy.” The ALL logo can be plainly seen at the bottom right-hand corner of the sign. As a 501(c)(3) educational organization, ALL is prohibited from direct involvement in political campaigns and is sharply limited in the extent to which it can lobby for or against legislation.

Economy
Analysis of Federal Stimulus Dollars

According to ProPublica, the investigative reporting group, the federal government has now paid out nearly $94 billion in grants and projects. Combined with some $63 billion in tax cuts, that makes for $157 billion in stimulus out the door. However, ProPublica notes that federal agencies continue to vary widely in the rate at which they spend stimulus dollars. The departments of State, Agriculture and Energy have each committed less than a quarter of their stimulus money, seven months after the Recovery Act was passed. By comparison, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has committed over 70 percent of its stimulus dollars; and the Department of Justice, 91 percent.

Environment
Homeless Nuclear Waste

The Christian Science Monitor reports that eight US towns that have found themselves stuck with high-level waste after the power plants that produced it disappeared. By law, the federal government was supposed to have built a permanent repository and begun taking custody of the spent fuel piling up at the nation’s 104 nuclear plants in 1998. Complications – both political and technical – delayed work at Yucca Mountain, where the government has spent more than $13 billion. The delays caused spent fuel to begin piling up, filling storage pools at power plants across the country and forcing some of them to build special facilities to warehouse the waste. Today there are 60,000 metric tons of spent fuel awaiting permanent disposal, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry association, and the nation’s power plants produce 2,000 tons more each year.

Health Care
Most U.S. Doctors Want Public-Private Mix

According to a recent survey most U.S. doctors favor having both public and private options in a reformed healthcare system. The news service Reuters reported that when given a three-way choice among private plans that use tax credits or subsidies to help the poor buy private insurance; a new public health insurance plan such as Medicare; or a mix of the two; 63 percent of doctors supported a mix, 27 percent said they only wanted private options, and just 10 percent said they exclusively wanted public options. The survey of 2,130 U.S. doctors, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also found that more 55 percent, regardless of their medical specialty, would favor expanding Medicare so it covered people aged 55 and older.

Human Rights
Rights Group Criticizes Jail Inaction During Ike

According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, a human rights group reported that the decision not to evacuate 1,000 prisoners from the Galveston County Jail as Hurricane Ike approached put them in peril and subjected them to inhumane conditions after the storm passed. Texas Civil Rights Project stated that although the Texas Department of Criminal Justice evacuated about 7,000 prisoners before the storm made landfall, then-Sheriff Gean Leonard decided to let Galveston County prisoners weather the storm in a jail that he said was designed to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. The report said the decision not to evacuate was made even though a mandatory evacuation had been ordered and authorities were warning that it was “certain death” to remain. The decision showed that county officials “did not consider the human beings in the jail ‘people,' ” said the report, which was based on interviews with prisoners and former prisoners.

Reproductive Rights
Anti-Abortion Operation Rescue Near Closing

Operation Rescue, one of the nation's highest-profile groups in the anti-abortion movement, has according to a report by the Associated Press, told its supporters it is facing a "major financial crisis" and is very close to shutting down unless emergency help arrives soon. The group's president, Troy Newman, blamed the economic downturn for its money woes in a desperate plea e-mailed Monday night to donors. But the Wichita-based organization has also been under attack from both fringe anti-abortion militants and abortion rights supporters since the May 31 shooting death of Dr. George Tiller. The Internal Revenue Service revoked Operation Rescue's tax-exempt status in 2006 for prohibited political activity during the 2004 election. That means donations to the group are no longer deductible on taxes.

Women’s Issues
Being Victim of Domestic Violence Considered a Pre-Existing Condition

According to an article in the Huffington Post, in eight states and the District of Columbia, being the victim of domestic violence is considered a pre-existing condition by insurance companies. The health insurance reasons for this are that if you are in a marriage with someone who has beaten you in the past, you're more likely to get beaten again than the average person and are therefore more expensive to insure. In 2006, Democrats tried to end the practice. An amendment introduced by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), now a member of leadership, split the Health Education Labor & Pensions Committee 10-10 (along party lines with all ten votes against coming from Republicans). The tie meant that the measure failed. The eight states that still allow it are Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming, according to a report by the National Women's Law Center.

GLBT Issues
Respect for Marriage Act Introduced in Congress

With support from more than 90 initial co-sponsors, Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would end government acts of discrimination by repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, otherwise known as “DOMA.” If Congress passes the new bill, named the Respect for Marriage Act, and if it is signed by a president who has voice support, it would repeal DOMA. The Huffington Post reports that it doesn't tell states what marriages they must celebrate or how to treat marriages, but provides that the federal responsibilities and protections accorded marriages will remain stable and predictable no matter where a couple lives, works, or travels, and no matter whether that couple is gay or non-gay. The Respect for Marriage Act doesn't require any person, religious organization, locality, or state to celebrate or license the marriage of a same-sex couple. The First Amendment protects the right of churches and religious bodies to determine the qualifications for religious marriage, and the Respect for Marriage Act cannot and will not upset that longstanding protection.