<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <rss xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title>The Texas Tribune: LAW &amp; ORDER</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/law-and-order/</link><description>The latest articles about LAW &amp; ORDER</description><atom:link href="http://www.texastribune.org/feeds/sections/law-and-order/" rel="self"></atom:link><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Fri, 25 Sep 2015 16:11:00 -0500</lastBuildDate><item><title>Texas Prisons Deny Making Execution Drugs</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/25/tdcj-making-lethal-drugs-agency-wont-say/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/25/tdcj-making-lethal-drugs-agency-wont-say/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2014/06/04/TCJD-Execution_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt=""&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;The Texas Department of Criminal Justice on Friday shot down allegations that it is manufacturing its own hard-to-find execution drugs after federal defense attorneys in an Oklahoma death row case accused the Texas prison system of doing exactly that.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A court filing reported late Thursday by&lt;a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrismcdaniel/texas-is-making-its-own-execution-drugs-inmate-alleges#.ruaydoMgd"&gt; Buzzfeed&lt;/a&gt; in the case of Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip &amp;mdash; scheduled for execution on Wednesday &amp;mdash; claimed Texas is making its own pentobarbital, the drug it uses for lethal injections.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;"The TDCJ is compounding or producing pentobarbital within its department for use in executions," wrote Patti Palmer Ghezzi, an assistant federal public defender for Glossip. "There are no known obstacles to ODOC (Oklahoma Department of Corrections) compounding or producing pentobarbital in the same manner as does TDCJ."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Ghezzi's filling included an invoice showing that TDCJ provided three vials of pentobarbital to the Virginia Department of Corrections.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;But Texas prison spokesman Jason Clark said TDCJ gave Virginia the drugs, which &lt;/span&gt;were purchased, not made by the state prison agency.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;"The agency&amp;rsquo;s supply of pentobarbital was purchased from a licensed pharmacy that has the ability to compound," Clark said. When asked for more information about the supplier, Clark declined, citing a new state law that allows information about execution drug providers to remain secret.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;In 2013, Virginia gave Texas a supply of pentobarbital when its caches were running low. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Asked for proof of the claim that one of the nation's largest prison system now makes pentobarbital, &lt;span&gt;Dale Baich, an assistant federal public defender in Arizona whose office is assisting its counterparts in Oklahoma, said only: "&lt;span&gt;We stand by the statement in our pleading."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Oklahoma court filing stems from a lawsuit filed on Glossip's behalf challenging that state's use of midazolam, a sedative, that his lawyers argue subjects death row inmates to cruel and unusual punishment. This past June, the U.S. Supreme Court&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/29/politics/scotus-opinion-document-glossip-gross/"&gt;ruled&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;that the three-drug execution cocktail used by Oklahoma &amp;mdash; midazolam, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride &amp;mdash; does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Its use, therefore, would not violate Glossip's Eighth Amendment rights. The high court&amp;nbsp;said Oklahoma had made a good faith effort to find other drugs.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In order to prove that Oklahoma did not try hard enough to find more humane alternatives to its execution cocktail, Glossip's attorneys must establish that alternatives are available. Their claim that Texas is manufacturing pentobarbital essentially argues that Oklahoma could do the same and abandon its other execution drugs.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"Not only does the prisoner have to show the drug is bad but the prisoner has to put up a readily available alternative," said Baich. "It's one of the twisted consequences of the Supreme Court decision in Glossip."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;To mix, or "compound," pentobarbital on site, TDCJ would be required to have a sterile compounding license issued by the State Pharmacy Board of Texas.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;"We do not have a pharmacy license," Clark said. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Although the two medical centers contracted to provide health care to inmates &amp;mdash; Texas Tech University and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston &amp;mdash; do have compounding licenses, Clark said neither of them has been asked to provide the drug.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;"We would not utilize them," Clark said. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Pharmacies with the appropriate licensing can mix a batch of pentobarbital, and Texas turned to compounding pharmacies in 2013 because manufacturers of the drug stopped selling to the prison system.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Earlier this year, state lawmakers &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="line-height: 1.35;" href="https://www.texastribune.org/admin/stories/story/add/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;passed a bill&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt; to keep the names of execution drug providers secret. The legislation, Senate Bill 1679, was intended to protect the companies providing the drugs from harassment and threats, according to author state Sen. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/joan-huffman/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;Joan Huffman&lt;/a&gt;, R-Houston.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"Discussion in the public area has led to a chilling effect for companies who want to supply this compound to the state of Texas," she told The Texas Tribune in May. "There are very few doses left of the drug that&amp;rsquo;s currently being administered.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;During his tenure as Attorney General, Gov. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/greg-abbott/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;Greg Abbott&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2014/05/29/ag-says-prisons-can-keep-execution-drugs-secret?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;ruled in support&lt;/a&gt; of the prison system and said he was convinced drug suppliers could be&amp;nbsp;subject to&amp;nbsp;&amp;ldquo;real harm&amp;rdquo; if their names were made public. Abbott cited a state Department of Public Safety threat assessment as the primary factor in his decision.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;For the last four years, Texas has relied on a&lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2014/07/08/history-lethal-drug-use-texas?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt; variety of makeshift drug combinations &lt;/a&gt;for its executions. In 2011, the European Union put severe restrictions on exports of drugs commonly used in executions, while several domestic drug manufacturers began cutting off supplies. Later that year, TDCJ turned to in-state compounding pharmacies, which can mix certain drugs on-site.&amp;nbsp;Those drugs are not approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;!--&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;--&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Terri Langford and Jordan Rudner</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 25 Sep 2015 16:11:00 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/25/tdcj-making-lethal-drugs-agency-wont-say/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Former Lawmaker Sentenced to Six Days in Jail for Drunken Driving</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/25/ex-lawmaker-stick-gets-six-days-jail-drunken-drivi/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/25/ex-lawmaker-stick-gets-six-days-jail-drunken-drivi/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/09/18/7C2A9244_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Jack Stick, former chief counsel of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, sits inside a Travis County courtroom during his 2015 trial for a 2012 DWI arrest."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;* Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A Travis County judge&amp;nbsp;&lt;span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1159061339"&gt;&lt;span class="aQJ"&gt;on Friday&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;sentenced former state representative&amp;nbsp;Jack Stick&amp;nbsp;to six days in jail and a 90-day driver's&amp;nbsp;license suspension for driving while intoxicated, according to prosecutors.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Stick,&amp;nbsp;who at the time of his arrest was deputy inspector general&amp;nbsp;at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission,&amp;nbsp;was convicted of drunken driving&amp;nbsp;&lt;span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1159061340"&gt;&lt;span class="aQJ"&gt;on Monday&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;after a three-year legal battle. During that time, Stick was promoted to the agency's chief counsel and was then asked to resign after a series of contracting controversies.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;At the Travis County criminal court in Austin Friday, Stick listened silently as Judge Nancy Hohengarten discussed the sentencing with Stick's lawyer and with Greg Burton, the assistant Travis County district attorney prosecuting the case. Burton pushed for a stronger sentence &amp;mdash; &amp;nbsp;jail time or an 18-month probation period, as well as community service and counseling &amp;mdash; but Hohengarten said she felt a lighter sentence was fair.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Stick&amp;rsquo;s blood alcohol level&amp;nbsp;at the time of his arrest was 0.096, above the legal limit of 0.08, according to a chemist who handled the material and testified during the case. Burton emphasized Stick&amp;rsquo;s blood alcohol level&amp;nbsp;repeatedly in his opening and closing arguments.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;"The only real issue in this case is whether he was intoxicated,"&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;Burton told the jury last week. "You&amp;rsquo;re going to hear evidence that&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;the defendant&amp;rsquo;s blood alcohol content was above .08 &amp;mdash; and you must find&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;that that person was intoxicated."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="yj6qo ajU"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Austin lawyer Brian Roark, who represented Stick, tried during the trial to shed doubt on the blood alcohol level test, which he called extremely fallible. Roark emphasized that the blood sample had been stored for several years before it was tested. He also told jurors the officer likely didn&amp;rsquo;t have probable cause to arrest Stick in the first place.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="yj6qo ajU"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;At the time of Stick&amp;rsquo;s arrest, he was "as sober as you and I are here today,&amp;rdquo; Roark told the jury&amp;nbsp;&lt;span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1159061352"&gt;&lt;span class="aQJ"&gt;last week&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;.&amp;nbsp;Roark did not immediately respond to a request for comment after the sentencing on Friday.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Stick was arrested on Sept. 11, 2012, after he refused to take a slate of sobriety tests he told the arresting officer would &amp;ldquo;only serve to incriminate&amp;rdquo; him.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;In December, he resigned from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission as a result of controversies surrounding multimillion-dollar no-bid contracts his office gave to private technology companies.&amp;nbsp;One of those companies, 21 Century Technologies Inc., received a $110 million contract. Stick&amp;rsquo;s former business partner was a lobbyist for the company, and Stick helped to facilitate the deal.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Stick, a Republican, represented part of Austin in the Texas House from 2003 to 2005.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Jordan Rudner</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 25 Sep 2015 10:22:12 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/25/ex-lawmaker-stick-gets-six-days-jail-drunken-drivi/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Study: Concealed Handgun Permits Don't Affect Crime Rate</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/24/study-says-concealed-carry-permits-dont-affect-cri/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/24/study-says-concealed-carry-permits-dont-affect-cri/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/HandGunRestingOnWhite_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt=""&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Supporters insist that allowing people to legally carry concealed handguns reduces crime, but that has not been the result in at least four states that have tried it, including Texas, according to a newly published academic study led by a Texas A&amp;amp;M researcher.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;The study published in the &lt;em&gt;Journal of Criminology&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;looked at the connection between crime rates and concealed handgun permits for each county in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida and Texas.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Researchers used two sources of data from 1998 to 2010: concealed handgun license information and arrest data from Uniform Crime Reports, which the FBI compiles nationwide to gauge arrests for serious crimes including homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft and arson. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Overall, they found no connection between allowing concealed weapons and crime rates, which are trending downward nationwide.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;ldquo;The idea that concealed handguns lead to less crime is at the center of much firearms legislation, but the science behind that conclusion has been murky,&amp;rdquo; said study lead Charles D. Phillips, an emeritus regents professor at the Texas A&amp;amp;M Health Science Center School of Public Health, in a statement. &amp;ldquo;The results have been so inconclusive that the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 called for a new approaches to studying the issue, which is what we&amp;rsquo;ve done with this research.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;The study comes after Texas lawmakers decided to allow concealed handguns on college campuses. Supporters argued that concealed carry in general prevents crime, while opponents say it can amplify tense situations and create violent ends for disputes. The campus-carry legislation that Gov. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/greg-abbott/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;Greg Abbott&lt;/a&gt; signed into law in June begins to take effect next year.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;While previous studies looked at crime rates before and after concealed carry legislation passed in states, the A&amp;amp;M study focused on county-level data while gauging change in crime rates over time.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;The lack of impact on crime rates sounds right, said state Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/garnet-coleman/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;Garnet Coleman&lt;/a&gt;, a Houston Democrat who chairs the House County Affairs Committee, which tackles criminal justice issues.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;ldquo;People who commit crimes are less likely to go through that background check,&amp;rdquo; he said. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s also unlikely that a concealed handgun license holder would be in the right place at the right time to stop a crime, Coleman said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;The academic community isn't united on the issue, though. Two 2014 studies reach competing conclusions: one finding that right-to-carry laws lead to an increase in violent crimes, and another concluding right-to-carry laws led to a decrease in the murder rate nationwide.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;ldquo;Studies are studies,&amp;rdquo; said &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Larry Arnold, a board member of the Texas Concealed Handgun Association, which promotes Second Amendment rights and education about gun legislation. S&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;ince concealed carry legislation began taking effect more than 35 years ago, he said, opponents have predicted &amp;ldquo;blood in the streets,&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;fender benders turning into fire fights&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;more people with guns would shoot out instead of talk it out.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span id="docs-internal-guid-8c9e8356-01ad-28ec-0595-3b3549f04fc2"&gt;&lt;span&gt;But they were wrong, and concealed handgun license holders are less likely than other groups to be involved in a crime, Arnold said, &amp;ldquo;so I think that&amp;rsquo;s a pretty good record.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;The study also reports that the presence of gun dealers &amp;mdash; not fear of being victimized &amp;mdash; most often prompts people to obtain concealed carry permits.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Disclosure: Texas A&amp;amp;M University is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune.&amp;nbsp;A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/support-us/donors-and-members/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections" target="_blank"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Johnathan Silver</dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 24 Sep 2015 19:28:25 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/24/study-says-concealed-carry-permits-dont-affect-cri/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Tarrant County Defends Right to Charge Poor Petitioners</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/23/tarrant-county-defends-court-fees-against-poor/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/23/tarrant-county-defends-court-fees-against-poor/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/09/23/UP9A0023_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Former Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court Wallace Jefferson speaks with a group of people after oral arguments before the Texas Supreme Court. Jefferson argued on behalf of six plaintiffs who were charged with court fees during divorce proceedings even though all six had filed &amp;quot;pauper petitions.&amp;quot;"&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;The Texas Supreme Court scrutinized the legality of court costs imposed on indigent plaintiffs &amp;mdash; in this case, fees&amp;nbsp;the Tarrant County clerk&amp;rsquo;s office charged six poor&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;plaintiffs pursuing divorces &amp;mdash; during oral arguments on&amp;nbsp;Wednesday.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Wallace Jefferson, an attorney&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;arguing on behalf of the plaintiffs, said individuals who file indigent petitions, otherwise known as &amp;ldquo;pauper petitions,&amp;rdquo; must be able to participate in the judicial system despite their inability to pay court fees.&amp;nbsp;He called it a&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;ldquo;hallmark of justice.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Christopher Ponder, the assistant district attorney representing the Tarrant County&amp;nbsp;clerk&amp;rsquo;s office, told the court the clerk's office was within its rights to pursue court fees because standard divorce decrees require that each party pay his or her share of the court cost. He suggested the divorce decree language overrides the "pauper petition." &amp;nbsp;&lt;span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&amp;ldquo;I think it&amp;rsquo;s important to remember that the clerk has an accounting function,&amp;rdquo; Ponder said. &amp;ldquo;These costs just don&amp;rsquo;t disappear. They have to be accounted for somewhere.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Jefferson argued that the "pauper petitions" are not overruled by what he called the&amp;nbsp;"boilerplate language" on court costs included in standard divorce decrees.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;And several justices expressed doubt that the county had the right to set court fees to cover administrative expenses in the case of indigent petitioners. &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&amp;ldquo;If there&amp;rsquo;s no specific monetary finding that you&amp;rsquo;re receiving some sort of award" from the person you're divorcing, Justice Eva Guzman asked, where along the process does either party incur an obligation to pay court fees?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Chief Justice Nathan Hecht joined that line of questioning:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;ldquo;Suppose a clerk just decided to defray the expenses of the office,&amp;rdquo; adding a $50 charge per divorce filing, Hecht asked. &amp;ldquo;Would this kind of relief be proper in that situation?&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Ponder argued that he could&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;not advocate for a system where a clerk would read a judgment issued by a judge &amp;mdash; even with boilerplate language &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;and be powerless to enforce it.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Jefferson again&amp;nbsp;emphasized that monetary&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;judgments &amp;mdash; those a judge awards to one party from another&lt;strong&gt; &amp;mdash;&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;would still be enforceable. He said he was specifically challenging court fees in cases involving indigent petitioners.&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Court fees have become a central issue for civil rights groups nationwide, especially after Michael Brown was shot by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo., last year. A subsequent report by the U.S. Department of Justice found the city relied heavily on municipal ticketing and court fees to bolster the budget&amp;nbsp;&amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;and that&amp;nbsp;African Americans were disproportionately targeted for such payments.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;In a brief submitted to the Texas Supreme Court&amp;nbsp;by the Texas Access to Justice Commission, the Texas Access to Justice Foundation and the Texas Civil Rights project, lawyers argued that&amp;nbsp;court fees pose a &amp;ldquo;serious threat to access to justice.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;The lawyers who filed the brief&amp;nbsp;called on the court to issue a broad ruling, clarifying&amp;nbsp;indigent petitions in all cases, not just in the context of divorce proceedings.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;That would be &amp;ldquo;only one step toward discouraging the abuses present here,&amp;rdquo; the brief said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;The practice of charging poor petitioners administrative court fees &amp;ldquo;could be barred with a single injunction,&amp;rdquo; it added.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Terri Langford contributed to this report.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Jordan Rudner</dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 2015 12:10:11 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/23/tarrant-county-defends-court-fees-against-poor/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Panetti Lawyers Want His Competence Evaluated</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/23/panetti-legal-team-argue-evaluation-counsel/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/23/panetti-legal-team-argue-evaluation-counsel/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2014/11/26/PannettiChamber_copy_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Death row inmate Scott Panetti."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Texas death row inmate Scott Panetti's legal team will ask the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday afternoon to return his case to a federal district court, appoint counsel and order support so experts can help determine whether Panetti, who has a history of schizophrenia, is competent enough to be executed.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Panetti is on death row for the 1992 shooting deaths of his in-laws, Joe and Amanda Alvarado of Kerr County. Given his history of mental illness, which has been documented for almost 40 years and involves religious delusions, the state should not execute him, his attorneys say.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Panetti was set to die Dec. 3 when the 5th Circuit issued a stay. A three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based court, sitting in Dallas, will hear Panetti attorney Greg Wiercioch&amp;nbsp;argue that his execution should be forestalled while his mental state is investigated.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;ldquo;Mr. Panetti still has paranoid schizophrenia, and he&amp;rsquo;s going to have it for the rest of his life,&amp;rdquo; said Kathryn Kase, one of Panetti&amp;rsquo;s attorneys with Texas Defender Service. &amp;ldquo;This disease is not going to go away.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;But the state sees it differently, consistently arguing that Panetti is aware of what he did and understands why he is on death row &amp;mdash; the legal requirements for competence to be executed. Last year, a prison doctor said Panetti did not need treatment.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;Kase disagrees.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Panetti has not had a mental evaluation since 2007, she said.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;ldquo;When you have severe mental illness, your competence can change,&amp;rdquo; she said.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span id="docs-internal-guid-34f7f0d9-f76f-43c5-5295-517154fb46c6"&gt;&amp;ldquo;That&amp;rsquo;s been a persistent issue for Scott,&amp;rdquo; she said. &amp;ldquo;He doesn&amp;rsquo;t have a rational understanding.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Johnathan Silver</dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 2015 06:00:00 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/23/panetti-legal-team-argue-evaluation-counsel/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Indigent Court Fee Case Goes Before Supreme Court</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/23/indigent-court-fees-case-goes-supreme-court/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/23/indigent-court-fees-case-goes-supreme-court/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/SupremeCourtCMS_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Texas Supreme Court justices listen to the State of the Judiciary speech on February 23, 2011."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;When and how local clerks can make poor plaintiffs pay court fees to get divorced will be argued before the Texas Supreme Court Wednesday, with both sides hoping the justices provide clarity on the contentious issue. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In 2012, six plaintiffs from Tarrant County sued the local district court clerk for charging them court fees even after they filed affidavits of their indigent status &amp;mdash; also known as "pauper petitions" &amp;mdash; when they filed for divorce.&amp;nbsp;But the clerk says final divorce decrees require that each party pay its share of the court costs.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;"They're saying this boilerplate language in their final divorce decrees gives the court the right to charge court fees even though they're indigent," said Lee DiFilippo, who represents three of the six Tarrant County plaintiffs.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But Tarrant County District Clerk Thomas A. Wilder insisted the divorce decree language does give his office the right to assess fees.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;"Generally speaking, our&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;position is that the orders of the court are the operative language, (and) tha&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;t the district clerk is obligated to follow the orders of the court which clearly requires the collection of cost&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;" Wilder told The Texas Tribune as he headed to Austin late Tuesday.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"The District Clerk&amp;rsquo;s actions were undertaken solely and exclusively due to the language of the divorce judgments that suggested Petitioners were to pay the costs, notwithstanding their presumptive indigence," wrote Chris Ponder, an assistant Tarrant County district attorney who is defending Wilder. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;In a side note, Wilder said that each year his office has found that between 500-700 of those claiming indigence are not. He refused to say exactly how his office decides which indigency cases to investigate or contest, but added it is not something done "willy-nilly."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;The case is being closely watched by legal advocates because it is the civil court bookend to its criminal counterpart: the role of fines for minor crimes that keep the poor locked in a cycle of indigency. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;The reason it is so important is because people need to know that when they file an affidavit of indigency, an inability to pay costs, that states and it is found valid that they cannot pay," Trish McAllister, executive director of the Texas Access to Justice Commission. "They need to rely on that finding unless a court has said otherwise."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&lt;!--&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;--&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Court costs and fines surfaced&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;as one of the more pressing criminal justice issues in the aftermath of the police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;While a grand jury cleared the officer, Darren Wilson, of criminal wrongdoing, a subsequent U.S. Department of Justice &lt;a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/04/politics/document-justice-department-ferguson-police/index.html"&gt;report &lt;/a&gt;revealed how the police department in Ferguson &lt;a href="https://www.texastribune.org/admin/stories/story/add/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;wrote more tickets &lt;/a&gt;for mostly poor African Americans than any other ethnic group.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Following the shooting of Brown, federal investigators found that the Ferguson relied on municipal ticketing and fines as a revenue generator for the city's budget.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;An episode of HBO's Last Night Tonight With John Oliver&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjpmT5noto"&gt;last March &lt;/a&gt;is credited by many in the legal community with highlighting how court fines and tickets can result in an unfair burden on the indigent, who do not have access to attorneys to fight misdemeanors, and can lose their driver's license or face jail time for unpaid fines.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;A civil debt should be a civil debt," said Rebecca Bernhardt, executive director of the Texas Fair Defense Project. "By that I mean&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;that folks shouldn't be threatened with arrest when they owe court costs."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Terri Langford</dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 23 Sep 2015 06:00:00 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/23/indigent-court-fees-case-goes-supreme-court/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Judge Temporarily Halts Cuts to Children's Therapy</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/22/judge-temporarily-halts-cuts-childrens-therapy/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/22/judge-temporarily-halts-cuts-childrens-therapy/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/06/01/Medicaid-Capitol-3_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt=""&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Deep cuts to a therapy program for poor and disabled children will not take effect Oct. 1, a state district judge ruled Tuesday afternoon &amp;mdash; the second such delay in recent weeks.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&amp;ldquo;Procedurally I'm not making a determination that these acts are valid or invalid,&amp;rdquo; said State District Judge Tim Sulak in his announcement that he would grant a temporary injunction to prevent the state from slashing payments to therapists. But he said he made his ruling in part because he&amp;rsquo;d been convinced the cuts could jeopardize the health of children receiving the therapy services.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;It marked the first decision in a series of legal challenges filed by therapy providers and families of children with disabilities, who seek to prove that by slashing payments to therapists, the state will cause as many as 60,000 children to lose access to those services. The idea is that the low pay will force providers to drop out of the program.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;State lawmakers this year ordered the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to reduce funding for therapy services by roughly $350 million in state and federal funds over two years. Those savings would primarily come from reductions in the rates paid&amp;nbsp;to therapists by Medicaid, the public insurance program for the poor and disabled &amp;mdash; in some cases by about 20 or 25 percent.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;But that seemingly simple goal to reduce payments has been complicated by some ambiguous language in the state budget, which directs the health commission to consider &amp;ldquo;access to care&amp;rdquo; when applying the cuts. Families of children who need the services&amp;nbsp;say the speech, physical and occupational therapy covered by Medicaid can be life-saving &amp;mdash; by helping kids learn to nurse, walk and speak, for example &amp;mdash; and that the state is poised to limit access by forcing providers to drop out of the program.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Another Travis County judge dismissed a previous lawsuit filed by family members of children with disabilities over the state&amp;rsquo;s first announced plan to the reduce payments &amp;mdash; originally scheduled for Sept. 1 &amp;mdash; after the state announced it would &amp;ldquo;start over&amp;rdquo; in deciding how to implement the budget cuts.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;The health commission says it&amp;rsquo;s just following the Legislature&amp;rsquo;s orders by implementing the cuts, and that opponents&amp;rsquo; claims providers will stop treating disabled children are exaggerated. In closing arguments, Eugene Clayborn, a lawyer representing the state, said there was &amp;ldquo;no evidence&amp;rdquo; of critics&amp;rsquo; arguments that &amp;ldquo;the sky&amp;rsquo;s going to fall in&amp;rdquo; because of the cuts.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&amp;ldquo;There will still be access to care,&amp;rdquo; he said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;The lawyers suing the state focused much of their argument on&amp;nbsp;trying to disprove that point. Owners of home health agencies in North and Central Texas testified that their businesses would be forced to close, including in markets where they are the main provider of therapy care.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;And they presented evidence from inside the health commission that shed light on the agency&amp;rsquo;s discussions around access to care.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;One director at the health commission testified that state employees had been told never to say that they were certain the cuts would not jeopardize access to care.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;And an internal memo from the health commission presented by Dan Richards, a lawyer suing the state, warned that payment cuts to therapists &amp;ldquo;could have serious negative implications for the maintenance of an adequate therapy provider base.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which is charged with implementing the therapist&amp;nbsp;payment cuts, is expected to appeal the decision.&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Edgar Walters</dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2015 18:39:43 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/22/judge-temporarily-halts-cuts-childrens-therapy/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Lawmakers Zero in on Jail Standards, Mental Health</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/22/lawmakers-zero-jail-standards-mental-health/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/22/lawmakers-zero-jail-standards-mental-health/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/09/22/7C2A9337_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Sen. John Whitmire D-Houston during a September 22 Senate Criminal Justice Committee hearing"&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;To the better-known name of Sandra Bland &amp;mdash; whose death by apparent suicide in the Waller County Jail this summer sparked national outrage &amp;mdash; state Sen. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/john-whitmire/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;John Whitmire &lt;/a&gt;on Tuesday linked three others:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Jesse Jacobs: Galveston County Jail, March 14, 2015;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Hung Do: Houston Police Department Jail, July 23, 2015;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Francisco Vasquez: Williamson County Jail, Aug. 8, 2015.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;All died in custody, and each&amp;nbsp;&lt;span&gt;had a mental health or emotional problem. A collapse in protocols or lack of training played a role in each tragedy, &lt;/span&gt;Whitmire noted as he opened a Senate Committee on Criminal Justice hearing on jail standards and mental health.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;The committee heard four hours of testimony from policy analysts, law enforcement leaders and state corrections officials about making jails safer, diverting people with mental health problems from the criminal justice system, training staff and helping different branches of government collaborate to make reforms work.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;The discussion can&amp;rsquo;t be put off, said Whitmire, a Houston Democrat who chairs the committee.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;ldquo;You pay now, or you pay later,&amp;rdquo; he said, adding that &amp;ldquo;later&amp;rdquo; could mean with one&amp;rsquo;s life.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Proposals included revamping jail intake forms so jailers can better assess the mental state of people arrested and booked. Current intake questions are in the yes-or-no format and ask about medical problems, suicidal ideation, military background and more.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;In many cases, when the system breaks down, it's in the way jail staff handles how an inmate responds to a question, experts noted. In Bland&amp;rsquo;s case, one intake form said she reported being suicidal at one point in her life, but another form did not.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Bland was not monitored properly, officials later determined, and was found hanged in her jail cell from an apparent suicide. Now, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards wants to make new intake forms so simple for jail staff that it would be a troubling if they need further training on how to use it, said Brandon Wood, the commission's executive director.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;The new form, which is under review, would keep questions such as &amp;ldquo;Are you thinking about killing yourself today?&amp;rdquo; but add specific directions for what a staff member should do depending on how an inmate responds.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;ldquo;It&amp;rsquo;s an improvement,&amp;rdquo; Whitmire said, but &amp;ldquo;it&amp;rsquo;s only as good as the person asking the questions. You have to take your time, have people skills.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;That&amp;rsquo;s where training comes in, which is minimal at best in most jurisdictions &amp;ndash; especially in rural Texas, officials said. Wood testified that jailers essentially need a high school diploma or its equivalent and a psychiatric evaluation before starting work. They have up to a year after being hired to receive basic training.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;ldquo;I can see where that can create some issues,&amp;rdquo; Whitmire said to Wood.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Diversion, the overwhelmingly preferred treatment for low-level offenders with mental health problems would work best with coordination among mental health authorities, law enforcement, jails and courts, lawmakers said.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;If an inmate has a mental health problem, all those entities should work together to move them into treatment as soon as possible, Whitmire said, adding that it shouldn&amp;rsquo;t be an issue in rural areas where officials likely know each other well and can use that as a benefit to help with seeking treatment.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;An all-encompassing plan for treatment also needs to be addressed, lawmakers added. For many people with mental illnesses, homelessness is a hindrance to treatment, senators said.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;ldquo;How can they take their meds when they have no place to live?&amp;rdquo; said Sen. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/joan-huffman/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;Joan Huffman&lt;/a&gt;, R&amp;ndash;Houston, vice chairwoman of the committee.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Ultimately, Whitmire said, the state has a responsibility to address this issue because if it denies someone their freedom, there are constitutional responsibilities involved in caring for people in custody.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;ldquo;A lot of it gets down to attitude and cultural awareness,&amp;rdquo; Whitmire said. &amp;ldquo;You have to recognize mental health and emotional problems.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Sen. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/charles-perry/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;Charles Perry&lt;/a&gt;, R&amp;ndash;Lubbock, injected caution throughout the hearing, warning that the state risks having a knee-jerk reaction to high-profile cases such as Bland's and not seeing that protocol is not the enemy. He asked Wood what ultimately led to Bland's death.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;span&gt;"People not following through, first and foremost," Wood said.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Johnathan Silver</dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2015 18:23:20 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/22/lawmakers-zero-jail-standards-mental-health/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Travis County Can't Stop Privately Funded Prosecutions</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/22/travis-county-cant-stop-privately-funded-prosecuti/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/22/travis-county-cant-stop-privately-funded-prosecuti/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/09/08/Brief_P2P_lead_art_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt=""&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt blasted the funding deal that allows a giant insurance company to pay for criminal prosecutions of its fraud cases, but said Tuesday that the Commissioners Court is powerless to stop it.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I think that arrangement is highly suspect and a complete derogation of the duties of the state to ensure that our workers' compensation system is fair,&amp;rdquo; said Eckhardt, a Democrat. &amp;ldquo;That is the law, however, and I think this Commissioners Court should continue to pursue a better system from our state.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Eckhardt and the commissioners met in executive session Tuesday to discuss the contract between privately-held Texas Mutual Insurance and the office of District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, an&amp;nbsp;arrangement revealed by The Texas Tribune and the &lt;em&gt;Austin American-Statesman&lt;/em&gt; after a &lt;a href="http://apps.texastribune.org/paid-to-prosecute/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;six-month investigation&lt;/a&gt;. After emerging from behind closed doors, the Commissioners Court took no action, which puts the ball back in Lehmberg&amp;rsquo;s court.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Lehmberg, a Democrat, remained tight-lipped, saying only, &amp;ldquo;we have a lot of work to do.&amp;rdquo; But Eckhardt said Lehmberg and Assistant District Attorney Gregg Cox, who oversees the privately-funded unit, &amp;ldquo;are keenly interested in negotiating in a much higher degree of transparency than is currently in there.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The contract between the company and the district attorney&amp;rsquo;s office is up for renewal on Oct. 1. Texas Mutual declined comment Tuesday.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Under the arrangement, allowed under a decades-old state law, Texas Mutual Insurance pays more than $400,000 a year to fund a special unit in the Travis DA&amp;rsquo;s office dedicated to prosecuting acts of fraud against the company.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Several local elected officials have &lt;a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/14/officials-wants-review-privately-funded-prosecutio/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;criticized the deal&lt;/a&gt; and called for reforms, saying the cozy arrangement between government prosecutors and a private company at a minimum creates the appearance of a conflict of interest.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Eckhardt said Lehmberg wanted the county to treat the contract with Texas Mutual as if it were any other county contract &amp;mdash; meaning it would be negotiated and approved by the Commissioners Court. But the Commissioners Court did not choose to take oversight of the contract, leaving the next move up to Lehmberg.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Eckhardt said the blame for the funding deal lies with the Texas Legislature for creating a &amp;ldquo;truly stinky&amp;rdquo; law that specifically authorizes the arrangement.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;This is a pay to play set-up by the Texas Legislature,&amp;rdquo; Eckhardt said. &amp;ldquo;The Texas Legislature has put this power at the discretion of Texas Mutual Insurance. TMI gets to ask a prosecutor to the dance.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="content"&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Disclosure: Texas Mutual Insurance is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/support-us/donors-and-members/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Jay Root and Tony Plohetski, Austin American-Statesman</dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2015 17:50:00 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/22/travis-county-cant-stop-privately-funded-prosecuti/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Halliburton to Pay $18.3 Million in Back Oilfield Wages</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/22/halliburton-pay-183-million-back-wages/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/22/halliburton-pay-183-million-back-wages/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/OilWorker_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt=""&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;An Texas-based&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;oilfield service giant has agreed to pay nearly $18.3 million in back overtime wages to more than 1,000 U.S. employees, following a federal investigation.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The U.S. Department of Labor announced Tuesday that Halliburton will pay up after investigators found the Houston-based company erroneously categorized workers in 28 positions as exempt from overtime, meaning that field service representatives, pipe recovery specialists, drilling tech advisers and others were not properly paid when they worked more than 40 hours in a week.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The agency said those errors &amp;mdash; and the company&amp;rsquo;s failure to keep accurate records of those employees&amp;rsquo; hours &amp;mdash; violated the 77-year-old Fair Labor Standards Act.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;More than 380 Texans will get more than&amp;nbsp;$6.54 million in back wages, the agency said.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;This settlement will put millions of dollars where they belong &amp;ndash; in the pockets of hardworking people and their families,&amp;rdquo; U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez said in a statement. &amp;ldquo;Employers who don&amp;rsquo;t pay their employees the wages they have earned don&amp;rsquo;t just hurt their workers, they undercut employers who play by the rules.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Halliburton discovered during a self-audit that some of its jobs were misclassified as exempt, a company spokeswoman said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"The company re-classified the identified positions, and throughout this process, Halliburton has worked earnestly and cooperatively with the U.S. Department of Labor to equitably resolve this situation," the spokeswoman, Susie McMichael, wrote in an email.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The labor department said it initiated the probe, and that Halliburton calculated the back wages under investigators' supervision.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;The government&amp;nbsp;investigation was part of a &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="line-height: 1.35;" href="https://blog.dol.gov/2015/01/14/cracking-down-on-pay-schemes-that-cheat-workers-out-of-millions-in-overtime-pay/"&gt;larger federal effort&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt; to crack down on oil and gas companies who aren&amp;rsquo;t properly paying their workers &amp;mdash; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="line-height: 1.35;" href="http://www.propublica.org/article/for-oil-and-gas-companies-rigging-seems-to-involve-wages-too"&gt;a common practice&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt; on the drilling fields of Texas and beyond. Those probes have uncovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid wages elsewhere, but the Halliburton case was one of the largest recoveries in recent years, the department said.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Last June, for instance, the &lt;a href="http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/whd/WHD20151004.htm"&gt;department announced&lt;/a&gt; the recovery of $157,000 for 188 employees of San Antonio-based Elite Production Services LLC.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div class="gmail_default"&gt; &lt;p&gt;In the 2013 and 2014 budget years, the labor department's Southwest region identified more than $15 million in unpaid wages to more than 8,400 oil and gas industry employees.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Jim Malewitz</dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2015 11:24:10 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/22/halliburton-pay-183-million-back-wages/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Confusion Over State Screening for Unauthorized Workers</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/22/txdot-will-ask-ag-opinion-e-verify-bill/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/22/txdot-will-ask-ag-opinion-e-verify-bill/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/E-Verify_QuestionMark_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt=""&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Amid agency head scratching over a new law requiring state agencies to verify that they are only hiring legal workers, the Texas Department of Transportation says it plans to ask Attorney General &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ken-paxton/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;Ken Paxton&lt;/a&gt; to clear up questions about the law's reach.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Passed last session,&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Senate Bill 374 by state Sen. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="line-height: 1.35;" href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/charles-schwertner/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;Charles Schwertner&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;, R-Georgetown,&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;requires &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;state agencies and public colleges &lt;/span&gt;to&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;use the &lt;/span&gt;federal&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;E-Verify system to&amp;nbsp;ensure potential hires are legally eligible to work in the United States. E-Verify &lt;/span&gt;checks applicants against&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;records maintained by the&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="line-height: 1.35;" href="http://www.dhs.gov/index.shtm"&gt;Department of Homeland Security&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;and the&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="line-height: 1.35;" href="http://www.ssa.gov/"&gt;Social Security Administration&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The law&amp;nbsp;went &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/08/27/e-verify-mandate-becomes-law/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;into effect&lt;/a&gt; September 1, and&amp;nbsp;seemed to replace&amp;nbsp;a mandate issued by&amp;nbsp;former Gov. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/rick-perry/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;Rick Perry&lt;/a&gt; in 2014 requiring that state agencies &amp;mdash; and private companies contracting with the state &amp;mdash; use the system for all new hires.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Schwertner's bill didn't say anything about private contractors, and it's unclear whether Perry's mandate placing them under the E-verify umbrella lifted when the new law took effect.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Avalyn Castillo Langemeier, a lawyer and&amp;nbsp;partner with Foster Global, a Houston-based immigration law firm, said one of her clients was told by the transportation department&amp;nbsp;that&amp;nbsp;it is still enforcing the Perry mandate on contractors.&lt;span style="text-decoration: line-through;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Schwertner&amp;rsquo;s bill doesn&amp;rsquo;t specifically mention Perry&amp;rsquo;s mandate, or forbid agencies from expanding the scope of the legislation to include private contractors.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Currently, TxDOT complies with both" the law and Perry's mandate, agency spokesperson Veronica Beyer said in an email. &amp;ldquo;In order to resolve any potential conflict between the two, we&amp;rsquo;ve been planning to seek an opinion from the Texas Attorney General on this issue and will do so soon.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Gov. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/greg-abbott/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;Greg Abbott&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;supported Schwertner&amp;rsquo;s legislation&amp;nbsp;even though it lacked the contractor requirement included in Perry&amp;rsquo;s mandate, a stance Abbott's staff said was&amp;nbsp;consistent with his campaign for governor.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Abbott&amp;rsquo;s office declined to weigh in on TxDOT&amp;rsquo;s current practice. A spokesperson in the governor&amp;rsquo;s office said it will &amp;ldquo;respect the process&amp;rdquo; and wait on Paxton&amp;rsquo;s office to issue an opinion.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Schwertner&amp;rsquo;s bill also put&amp;nbsp;the Texas Workforce Commission in charge of implementing the new policy. Perry's mandate&amp;nbsp;didn't assign that task to any agency.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Juli谩n Aguilar</dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2015 06:00:00 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/22/txdot-will-ask-ag-opinion-e-verify-bill/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Lawyers, Scientists Try to Unravel Thorny New DNA Standard</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/18/lawyers-scientists-try-unravel-thorny-new-dna-stan/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/18/lawyers-scientists-try-unravel-thorny-new-dna-stan/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/dna_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt=""&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;DALLAS &amp;mdash; Texas prosecutors left a meeting Friday without the precise roadmap they were looking for when it comes to navigating the more conservative DNA standards used by crime labs in Texas and nationwide.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But they didn't leave the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences empty-handed, they said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;It would have been nice to see more answers," Inger Chandler, chief of the conviction integrity unit in the Harris County district attorney's office. "As lawyers, we tend to see things in black and white, and we're learning there's a lot of gray."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Chandler was one of many prosecutors who attended a Texas Forensic Science Commission meeting on how past and future cases could be affected by a new standard in analyzing data involving "mixed DNA." That type of DNA refers to when more than one person's DNA is found on evidence.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;While there's no proof that the new standard &amp;mdash; adopted by the Texas Department of Public Safety crime labs and other labs used by DA's offices &amp;mdash; would exclude a defendant,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/12/new-crime-lab-protocol-forcing-review-dna-evidence/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;the new protocol&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;could reduce the likelihood that an individual's DNA is the only source of genetic material left at a crime scene.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;About 50 attorneys, prosecutors, defense attorneys and lab technicians from across the state attended Friday&amp;rsquo;s meeting. In a few hours, experts tried to temper the expectations about DNA testing that were built over more than a decade.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"One of the problems was DNA was called the gold standard,"&amp;nbsp;Bruce Budowle, director of the University of Texas Health Science Center's Institute of Applied Genetics, said. "Big mistake."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;DNA analysis provides answers, but there has to be rigorous interpretation of DNA results, the experts said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Crime labs have recently adopted the new &amp;ldquo;mixed DNA&amp;rdquo; standard. The DPS switched to it on Aug. 10. The move has prompted prosecutors like Chandler to resend evidence in pending cases to the lab to have the data analyzed using the new standard. In Houston's Harris County, that's about 500 pending cases where DNA evidence will be introduced at trial.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In addition, DAs are notifying defendants who are already convicted about the new standard. For example, Harris County prosecutors have already notified those convicted of capital murder and awaiting execution. It is not known how many of the 253 inmates on Texas&amp;rsquo; death row were convicted with mixed DNA. Of the 253 inmates on Texas death row, 90 are from Harris County.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Not every criminal case involves DNA evidence, and fewer still involve evidence where multiple sets of DNA are recovered from a single piece of evidence, like a doorknob.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But since 2008, there's been a "skyrocketing of touch evidence" leading to a sort of "swabathon" trend, according to John M. Butler, one of four DNA typing experts called by the Forensic Science Commission to Dallas on Friday to answer questions. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A week ago, DPS sent Texas prosecutors a log of more than 24,000 lab tests since 1999 to help them determine if older cases should be re-evaluated.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;For now, experts say it&amp;rsquo;s still hard to answer what the new standard will mean in a courtroom.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"We really can't say what the impact will be," Budowle said of the new standards.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The issue is expected to be addressed again at the Forensic Science Commission's next meeting in October.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;!--&lt;!--EndFragment--&gt;--&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Terri Langford</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 2015 17:10:51 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/18/lawyers-scientists-try-unravel-thorny-new-dna-stan/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Trial Begins for Former State Official Accused of DWI</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/18/former-hhs-lawyer-stands-trial-dwi-charge/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/18/former-hhs-lawyer-stands-trial-dwi-charge/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/09/18/7C2A9244_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Jack Stick, former chief counsel of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, sits inside a Travis County courtroom during his 2015 trial for a 2012 DWI arrest."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;sup&gt;* Correction appended&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;More than three years after he was originally arrested, Jack Stick, a former state representative and previous deputy inspector general for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, went on trial Friday for a drunk-driving charge he has fiercely contested in the court system.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Stick was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated on September 11, 2012. Since then, he and his lawyer have fought the charges at every step, attempting to bar the results of his blood tests from the trial and questioning whether there was probable cause to arrest him in the first place. Travis County Judge Nancy Hohengarten ruled against Stick on both counts and allowed the trial, which is expected to continue after the weekend, to proceed.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Stick resigned from HHSC in December amidst controversy&amp;nbsp;after it was reported that, while he was the agency's deputy inspector general, he&amp;rsquo;d&amp;nbsp;helped arrange multi-million dollar contracts with no competitive bidding process between the agency and an Austin technology company. Stick was promoted to chief counsel after his original arrest.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Greg Burton, the assistant Travis County district attorney prosecuting the case, told jurors they should focus on Stick&amp;rsquo;s blood alcohol level (BAC) on the night of his arrest &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;but declined to say what Stick&amp;rsquo;s BAC actually was. His BAC was &amp;ldquo;so powerful,&amp;rdquo; Burton said, that he&amp;rsquo;s saving it for the end of his presentation.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&amp;ldquo;The only real issue in this case is whether he was intoxicated,&amp;rdquo; Burton said. &amp;ldquo;You&amp;rsquo;re going to hear evidence the defendant&amp;rsquo;s blood alcohol content was above .08. You must find that person intoxicated.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Burton showed the jury a video of the arrest and asked Robert Gilbert, the arresting officer, to testify about Stick&amp;rsquo;s traffic violations. But again, he emphasized, the state&amp;rsquo;s case all came down to Stick&amp;rsquo;s BAC.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&amp;ldquo;This trial is about two things,&amp;rdquo; Burton said. &amp;ldquo;Safety&amp;nbsp;and blood.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;In his opening statements, Austin lawyer Brian Roark emphasized that he believes blood tests are fallible. He indicated he&amp;rsquo;d be quizzing the witnesses about the reliability of the tests, which he said must be taken into consideration.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&amp;ldquo;He committed several traffic violations, no doubt &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;ones that we&amp;rsquo;ve been committing probably every single day of our lives, if we&amp;rsquo;ve been driving,&amp;rdquo; Roark told the jury at the start of the trial. &amp;ldquo;But I think you&amp;rsquo;re going to watch the video and find Mr. Stick as sober as you and I are here today.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Stick, who himself has represented clients charged with drunk driving, refused a barrage of sobriety tests &amp;mdash; including a horizontal gaze test, a one-leg stand, and a breathalyzer &amp;mdash; the night of his arrest.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&amp;ldquo;Anything I do tonight can only serve to incriminate me,&amp;rdquo; he told Gilbert the night of his arrest.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&amp;ldquo;So you&amp;rsquo;d rather go to jail, have your vehicle impounded, than spend five minutes showing me you&amp;rsquo;re safe to drive?&amp;rdquo; Gilbert asked.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&amp;ldquo;Look, I&amp;rsquo;ve represented hundreds of people in DWIs, and I&amp;rsquo;m not inclined to do it,&amp;rdquo; Stick said. He said he knew, &amp;ldquo;based on his training and experience,&amp;rdquo; that the tests were not accurate.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;During his cross-examination, Roark also tried to shed doubt on the indicators Gilbert used to determine probable cause. For example, Roark said, Gilbert watched Stick stop at a red light more than a car&amp;rsquo;s length past the stop line.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&amp;ldquo;Folks do that all the time, even when they aren&amp;rsquo;t intoxicated, right? In fact, you did that at least twice, while driving him to jail,&amp;rdquo; Roark said, referring to the dashcam video of the arrest.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Roark also questioned Gilbert&amp;rsquo;s assessment of Stick as &amp;ldquo;fumbling&amp;rdquo; for his insurance papers.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&amp;ldquo;You&amp;rsquo;re very orderly and organized with where you keep your proof of insurance, but you understand not everybody is, right? The fumbling you describe here is simply him looking through papers in his glove box.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Roark told the jury he was not convinced Gilbert had probable cause to arrest Stick.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&amp;ldquo;What a lot of people would interpret as innocent, normal activity, you have interpreted as a sign of intoxication,&amp;rdquo; Roark said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;em&gt;* Correction: A previous version of this story gave an incorrect title for Jack Stick at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Stick served as deputy inspector general and chief counsel at the commission.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Jordan Rudner</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:38:04 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/18/former-hhs-lawyer-stands-trial-dwi-charge/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Texas to Injured Worker: "You Have Been Sued"</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/17/texas-injured-state-worker-you-have-been-sued/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/17/texas-injured-state-worker-you-have-been-sued/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/09/15/2015-09-101_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Teresa Hammond, a former corrections officer in the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, broke her knee and suffered other injuries while subduing an inmate on New Years Day 2012."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;CALDWELL &amp;mdash; Teresa Hammond thought&amp;nbsp;the&amp;nbsp;final minutes of 2011 would pass quietly. Well into her 12-hour shift at Giddings State School, a &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/tjjd-youth-violence-up/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;rough-and-tumble youth lockup&lt;/a&gt; about an hour&amp;rsquo;s drive east of Austin, she saw a few kids still up watching TV, but most had gone to bed.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;The kids, you know, had been fairly good,&amp;rdquo; the veteran officer recalled.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But by midnight, her dorm had&amp;nbsp;erupted into a full-fledged riot. Inmates leaped from their beds and&amp;nbsp;raced&amp;nbsp;across the grounds. One tried to cover a surveillance camera with grease. Some shoved sheets into&amp;nbsp;toilets and watched them overflow. The showers and sinks flooded, too.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Amid the chaos, Hammond,&amp;nbsp;now 53, grabbed the shirt of one sprinting offender.&amp;nbsp;His momentum nearly yanked her arm out of its socket&amp;nbsp;and drove her left knee into the ground.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Her injuries from that night &amp;mdash; including a fractured knee and nerve damage in her shoulder and arm &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;left&amp;nbsp;Hammond where she is now: cooped up&amp;nbsp;at&amp;nbsp;home in rural Burleson County, hobbling long after knee surgery and&amp;nbsp;struggling to&amp;nbsp;perform basic tasks&amp;nbsp;like&amp;nbsp;vacuuming and putting on clothes. In&amp;nbsp;addition to being&amp;nbsp;unemployed,&amp;nbsp;the 20-year veteran of the state is suffering from another indignity, a lawsuit trying to recoup workers' compensation benefits.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Hammond's position is rare but not unique.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;She is one of 80 injured state workers in the past decade that has been taken to court&amp;nbsp;by Texas' Office of Risk Management&amp;nbsp;after being awarded compensation from the state's&amp;nbsp;Division of Workers' Compensation.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The lawsuits are&amp;nbsp;a last-ditch attempt by the risk management office&amp;nbsp;to dispute a decision on worker&amp;nbsp;benefits. In recent years, the state has seen fewer of those suits, which the agency says it files judiciously.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But when such suits are filed, the odds are stacked against injured workers. That's&amp;nbsp;because a &lt;a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/documents/11-0429.pdf?preview"&gt;recent Texas Supreme Court decision&lt;/a&gt; that exempts state agencies from paying attorneys' fees in such cases &amp;mdash; even when they lose &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;makes it incredibly difficult for workers to find legal help.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;These days,&amp;nbsp;Hammond, who&amp;nbsp;was medically discharged by&amp;nbsp;the Texas Juvenile Justice Department in June of 2012, relies mostly on others to get by. For the first time&amp;nbsp;in her life, the single mother of two grown children is&amp;nbsp;on&amp;nbsp;food stamps. Occasionally she gets a check for overdue child support. She&amp;rsquo;s applying for federal disability benefits.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;So far, the risk management office&lt;strong&gt; &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;the obscure agency charged with insuring thousands of state employees when they&amp;nbsp;are&amp;nbsp;injured on the job &amp;mdash; has paid most of her medical bills. But&amp;nbsp;the agency&amp;nbsp;has done so begrudgingly, contesting the extent of her injuries &amp;mdash; and whether they all occurred on the job &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;at every possible point in&amp;nbsp;a regulatory process&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://apps.texastribune.org/hurting-for-work/a-twisted-system/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;critics say is&amp;nbsp;far easier for insurers to navigate than injured workers&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The agency argued it should only cover Hammond&amp;rsquo;s knee injury and shoulder &amp;ldquo;strain,&amp;rdquo; calling the nerve damage extending from her fingers to her shoulder &amp;ldquo;degenerative&amp;rdquo; &amp;mdash; the result of natural processes unrelated to work. It also contests the date she reached &amp;ldquo;maximum medical improvement,&amp;rdquo; which is when an insurer can stop paying temporary income benefits because an employee's injury&amp;nbsp;has healed as much as can be expected.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;By April of this year, Hammond, with the help of a state ombudsman,&amp;nbsp;had declared victory.&amp;nbsp;An administrative judge with the Division of Workers&amp;rsquo; Compensation &amp;mdash; which regulates the risk management office and all workers' compensation insurers in Texas&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;mdash;&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;determined that the nerve injuries were &amp;ldquo;caused, enhanced, accelerated or worsened&amp;rdquo; by the New Year's riot. The judge also found that &amp;ldquo;the preponderance of evidence&amp;rdquo; supported a doctor&amp;rsquo;s decision that Hammond had&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;reached "maximum medical improvement" on Jan. 15, 2014 &amp;mdash; not nine months earlier, as the risk management office contended.&amp;nbsp;The judge ordered the risk management office to pay benefits it had held back in protest.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;When an appeals panel upheld that decision in July, Hammond thought&amp;nbsp;her battle was finally over.&amp;nbsp;She was wrong.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In late August,&amp;nbsp;the risk management office&amp;nbsp;filed suit in Burleson County, asking a district court to overturn the administrative judge's&amp;nbsp;ruling.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I was numb, I was like, &amp;lsquo;I won my case. They lost the appeal,&amp;rsquo;&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;Hammond&amp;nbsp;said. &amp;ldquo;You were thinking, 'That&amp;rsquo;s it, it&amp;rsquo;s over,' like you can breathe again. But now, the headaches are starting again, the stress.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A&amp;nbsp;courtroom&amp;nbsp;win for the risk management office would make Hammond liable for court costs. If the agency is found to have overpaid benefits to Hammond, it would be allowed to recoup those dollars from&amp;nbsp;a &lt;a href="https://www.tdi.state.tx.us/wc/sif/documents/sif2014.pdf"&gt;Texas Department of Insurance fund&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;originally &lt;a href="http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/17-million-in-death-benefits-bypassed-families-1806161.php"&gt;meant to help Texans who suffered multiple injuries on the job&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Stephen Vollbrecht, the executive director&amp;nbsp;of the risk management agency, said in an email&amp;nbsp;that&amp;nbsp;he cannot comment on Hammond&amp;rsquo;s case&amp;nbsp;because of privacy laws and the fact that it's still in court. But he said the agency carefully considers the circumstances whenever contemplating such a suit.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;We are authorized by law only to pay benefits to which an injured state employee is entitled under existing law,&amp;rdquo; he said.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Such lawsuits by the risk management office&amp;nbsp;are not common.&amp;nbsp;It has sued 80 workers in&amp;nbsp;similar&amp;nbsp;cases since the beginning of 2005, according to&amp;nbsp;records&amp;nbsp;provided by the agency &amp;mdash; a period in which it handled an average of 7,700 claims&amp;nbsp;annually.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And the number of suits has dwindled in recent years, though it&amp;rsquo;s not clear whether that&amp;rsquo;s due to the office merely pursuing fewer cases,&amp;nbsp;or due to workers winning fewer cases at the administrative judge level.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But the few defendants named in those courtroom&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;suits face major obstacles in finding legal help.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A &lt;a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/documents/11-0429.pdf?preview"&gt;2012 Texas Supreme Court ruling&lt;/a&gt; offers&amp;nbsp;a special perk to government&amp;nbsp;insurers&amp;nbsp;like&amp;nbsp;the&amp;nbsp;state&amp;rsquo;s risk&amp;nbsp;management&amp;nbsp;office: If those insurers sue a worker and lose, they do not have to pay the winner&amp;rsquo;s attorney fees. The agency&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;sovereign immunity&amp;rdquo; &lt;span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;mdash; &lt;/strong&gt;a legal doctrine that makes a government&amp;nbsp;entity&amp;nbsp;immune from a civil suit or prosecution&lt;strong&gt; &amp;mdash;&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;exempts it from a law meant to discourage frivolous lawsuits against injured workers.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;That means lawyers representing workers&amp;nbsp;in such cases&amp;nbsp;often&amp;nbsp;can&amp;rsquo;t get paid, and as a result,&amp;nbsp;have little incentive to take on those clients.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;It just breaks my heart,&amp;rdquo; said Kay Goggin, a Dallas-area workers' compensation and plaintiff&amp;rsquo;s attorney.&amp;nbsp;&amp;ldquo;There&amp;rsquo;s no way for attorneys to get paid, and these are very expensive cases."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I can never ever take another case like that,&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;added&amp;nbsp;Gary Rodriguez, a workers' compensation attorney in Austin.&amp;nbsp;Workers like&amp;nbsp;Hammond, he said, are&amp;nbsp;&amp;ldquo;screwed.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This week, Hammond caught one break. Brad McClellan, a workers&amp;rsquo; compensation appellate lawyer and former chief of the workers&amp;rsquo; compensation section of the Texas attorney general&amp;rsquo;s office, agreed to take on her case for free. He is also defending workers in three other suits&amp;nbsp;against the risk management office.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Without that help, Hammond, who had&amp;nbsp;struck out with&amp;nbsp;several other lawyers, said she wouldn&amp;rsquo;t even know how to file a reply to the suit, due in court next Monday.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;McClellan learned about Hammond&amp;rsquo;s case when The Texas Tribune asked him to&amp;nbsp;review&amp;nbsp;it&amp;nbsp;for this story.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;The worker&amp;rsquo;s stuck with nothing,&amp;rdquo; he said. &amp;ldquo;That&amp;rsquo;s what happens, [the public insurer] gets a summary judgment and the case is over. It&amp;rsquo;s like it never happened.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The state Supreme Court has a lot to do with that.&amp;nbsp;In 2012, it sided with the self-insured Austin Independent School District, which argued that its sovereign immunity should prevent it from paying the roughly $53,000 legal bill of Charles Manbeck, an employee injured on the job while tightening a device that automatically closes doors.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The school district had disputed the extent of&amp;nbsp;Manbeck's&amp;nbsp;injury&amp;nbsp;before&amp;nbsp;the state Division of Workers' Compensation and in court, and lost in both venues.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;We must agree with AISD that it is immune from Manbeck&amp;rsquo;s claim for attorney fees,&amp;rdquo; the &lt;a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/documents/11-0429.pdf?preview"&gt;justices wrote&lt;/a&gt;, saying that a 2001 law requiring insurers to foot the legal bills of workers they sue&amp;nbsp;unsuccessfully did not apply in this case. The opinion reversed a ruling from an appellate court.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Critics say the ruling gives government insurers free reign to appeal decisions already hashed out in the complex Division of Workers' Compensation, often leaving workers with no representation.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A measure in the&amp;nbsp;last&amp;nbsp;legislative&amp;nbsp;session &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://txlege.texastribune.org/84/bills/HB3166/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;House Bill 3166&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;mdash; sought to end sovereign immunity claims in questions about attorney fees in workers' compensation cases, but it did not&amp;nbsp;get&amp;nbsp;a hearing in the House Committee on Business and Industry. Rep.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/nicole-collier/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;Nicole Collier&lt;/a&gt;, the Fort Worth Democrat who sponsored the bill, did not respond to a request for comment&amp;nbsp;for this story.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Vollbrecht, the&amp;nbsp;risk management office chief, says the Supreme Court decision plays no role in&amp;nbsp;whether or not the agency files&amp;nbsp;suit&amp;nbsp;in district court. He points out that&amp;nbsp;the agency&amp;nbsp;has filed fewer suits in recent years, falling from 10 in 2011 to just one &amp;mdash; Hammond&amp;rsquo;s &amp;mdash; this year.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Every case seeks to answer a question &amp;ndash; the resulting answer then impacts our handling of future claims, striving for consistent treatment of all our covered employers and employees,&amp;rdquo; Vollbrecht said in an email. &amp;ldquo;The office does not dispute every case it loses.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In 2014, the state Division of Workers&amp;rsquo; Compensation named&amp;nbsp;the risk management office&amp;nbsp;a&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://www.sorm.state.tx.us/tag/award"&gt;&amp;ldquo;high performer&amp;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;compared to other Texas insurance carriers based on a broad range of oversight data. The division said it could not find any record of fining the risk management office since 2007. But district judges have &lt;a href="http://caselaw.findlaw.com/tx-court-of-appeals/1216975.html"&gt;sanctioned&lt;/a&gt; the risk management office &lt;a href="http://caselaw.findlaw.com/tx-court-of-appeals/1497899.html"&gt;at least twice&lt;/a&gt; in the past decade for bringing frivolous lawsuits against workers. The agency disputed those sanctions, which appellate courts affirmed. &amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Hammond says she&amp;rsquo;s thankful to have happened upon an attorney&amp;nbsp;who&amp;nbsp;will help her, but outraged that she has to gear up for another fight.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;ve jumped through so many hoops for them and it&amp;rsquo;s not good enough. It&amp;rsquo;s always something else they want me to do,&amp;rdquo; she said. &amp;ldquo;They threw me out with the trash, that&amp;rsquo;s the way I feel about it.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Neena Satija contributed to this report.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Jim Malewitz</dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 17 Sep 2015 06:00:00 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/17/texas-injured-state-worker-you-have-been-sued/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Abbott Opens Grassroots Tour in Rio Grande Valley</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/16/abbott-kicks-grassroots-tour-border/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/16/abbott-kicks-grassroots-tour-border/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/09/16/Abbott_McCallen_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Gov. Greg Abbott spoke to a crowd at the Cowboy Chicken restaurant in McAllen, Texas, on Sept. 16, 2015."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;McALLEN &amp;mdash; When Gov. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/greg-abbott/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;Greg Abbott&lt;/a&gt; spoke to supporters here Wednesday, he said he wasn&amp;rsquo;t just launching a nine-city tour of the state. He was also living up to a campaign pledge.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I promised you from the very beginning of when I started running for governor, that I would shorten the connection between Austin, Texas, and the Rio Grande Valley,&amp;rdquo; Abbott said during an event at McAllen&amp;rsquo;s Cowboy Chicken.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Supporters battled one another for space and fought the heat inside the strip-mall restaurant to listen to Abbott list what he said were notable accomplishments of this year&amp;rsquo;s legislative session. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;He noted that lawmakers left a $10 billion balance in the state&amp;rsquo;s Rainy Day Fund and passed legislation to improve veterans&amp;rsquo; care and to fund early education and transportation.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Outside the restaurant, about 20 protesters chided the governor for &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/02/16/executive-action-immigration-ruling/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;filing a lawsuit as attorney general&lt;/a&gt; that halted President Obama&amp;rsquo;s executive action on immigration. The program would have shielded about 1.5 undocumented immigrations in Texas from deportation.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Abbott didn&amp;rsquo;t mention immigration in his speech Wednesday but told reporters afterward his suit targeted Obama&amp;rsquo;s lawlessness.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;They are protesting an illegal act by the United States president. The problem they are protesting about is the fact that the federal government, from the president to Congress all the way down, have failed their fellow Americans by failing to pass a workable immigration plan,&amp;rdquo; he said. &amp;ldquo;Until immigration is reformed they will continue to be frustrated, but we cannot allow the president to lawlessly take the law into his own hands.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Abbott also gave a brief rundown of his recent trip to Mexico, where he said he went &amp;ldquo;to work on building a relationship that will do as much as anything else to improve the economy right here in the RGV.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;On border security, a topic he has taken some heat for after blessing an $800 million appropriation to beef up equipment and manpower in the area, Abbott said Mexico is on the same page.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;It&amp;rsquo;s contrary to the way the media talks about the issue. In every single meeting that I was in, the issue about border security came up. And it wasn&amp;rsquo;t me bringing it up,&amp;rdquo; he said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Mexico talked repeatedly about their necessity in securing both their southern and their northern border and working collaboratively with the United States and the state of Texas.&amp;rdquo; (Abbott&amp;rsquo;s visit to Mexico came about a year after Mexican President Pe&amp;ntilde;a Nieto&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2014/09/17/perry-urges-pena-nieto-visit-texas-see-guard-work/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;called&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;the deployment of the National Guard to the border reprehensible.)&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Abbott made 17 visits to the area during his campaign for governor but still lost Hidalgo County to challenger Wendy Davis by more than 22,000 votes. Still, Abbott was credited with making inroads within the Hispanic community, which has traditionally lent its support to Texas&amp;rsquo; Democrats.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Omar Quintanilla, a vice president of Frost Bank in McAllen, said Abbott was doing a good job in maintaining that momentum.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Hispanics have conservative ideas, and I think he&amp;rsquo;s making inroads,&amp;rdquo; he said. &amp;ldquo;But I think Hispanics overall have at least social conservative ideas and so it wouldn&amp;rsquo;t be very difficult for him and conservatives to attract more Hispanics.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Maritza Pe&amp;ntilde;a, a schoolteacher who took the day off to attend Abbott&amp;rsquo;s meet-and-greet, rejected the notion that the governor was part of the so-called war on women for supporting cuts to Planned Parenthood, the abortion provider that also provides cancer screenings for low-income women.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I am in favor of anything that&amp;rsquo;s going to cut funding for abortions,&amp;rdquo; she said. &amp;ldquo;That&amp;rsquo;s one of the things that I stand for on Biblical beliefs. If it comes down to cutting funding for abortion clinics, I support that 100 percent.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ricardo Godinez, the chairman of the Hidalgo County Democratic Party, said any visit by a governor is good for the area. But he also challenged Abbott to show he&amp;rsquo;s adamant about providing health care to low-income families in the Rio Grande.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;On one hand he says we need a VA hospital and he&amp;rsquo;s working hard to get one down here, but at the same time he won&amp;rsquo;t allow the Medicaid expansion to help those truly in need,&amp;rdquo; Godinez said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;So, while we&amp;rsquo;re happy he&amp;rsquo;s here, until his actions start meeting his rhetoric in terms of health care for our region, I think it&amp;rsquo;s OK for us to be a little suspect about it.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Abbott wasn&amp;rsquo;t swayed.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;For the poor, Medicaid is available,&amp;rdquo; he said. With regard to Texas doubling down and investing with a federal government that is $18 trillion in debt on a program that could leave Texans on the hook, that&amp;rsquo;s not a very wise investment.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Abbott&amp;rsquo;s tour is also scheduled to include stops in Dallas, Abilene, Amarillo, Houston, Odessa, San Angelo, San Antonio and Waco.&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Juli谩n Aguilar</dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 16 Sep 2015 18:09:33 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/16/abbott-kicks-grassroots-tour-border/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Sandra Bland Grand Jury Judge Faults New Selection System</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/16/sandra-bland-grand-jury-judge-complains-new-select/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/16/sandra-bland-grand-jury-judge-complains-new-select/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/09/16/TerriGrandJury_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt=""&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;A Waller County judge who helped choose grand jurors to consider the evidence in Sandra Bland's death is not happy about the state's new grand jury selection process, saying it unfairly puts too much of the selection process on judges.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"I remain convinced that the Texas Legislature has given us a law that is not only unworkable but is fraught with avenues of abuse," state District Judge Albert McCaig Jr. wrote in an Aug. 21 letter to state Sen. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/john-whitmire/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;John Whitmire&lt;/a&gt; about the new law, which ends the controversial "pick-a-pal," or "key man," grand jury system.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;On Sept. 1, &lt;a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2015/08/04/texas-grand-jury-selection-become-more-random/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;House Bill 2150&lt;/a&gt;, sponsored in the Senate by Whitmire, D-Houston, went into effect. It ended the less-than-random key man system of grand jury selection that is used in some counties. Under that old system, judges could appoint a commissioner, or key man, to select grand jurors who would then meet in secret to decide whether there is sufficient evidence in a criminal case to issue an indictment against a defendant. The system was criticized as being less than fair to minorities.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;McCaig, together with the district attorney in Waller County,&lt;a href="http://www.chron.com/news/article/Waller-County-to-begin-selecting-grand-jury-to-6408782.php"&gt; used the new random system&lt;/a&gt; to choose 12 grand jurors to hear evidence in the July 23 death of Sandra Bland, who died three days after she was arrested for an improper lane change in Prairie View. Her death was ruled a suicide by the Harris County medical examiner's office, but the case is being considered by a grand jury to determine if there could be any other cause for her death.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;McCaig, who did not respond to requests for interviews about his three letters to Whitmire, complained that the new system does the exact opposite of what it set out to do: make grand jury selection more impartial. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;According to McCaig's first letter, the judge worries that he has to select 12 grand jurors based on what he called "seemingly subjective standards of race, ethnicity, sex and age."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"There are far too many subject areas of qualification involved which allows the judge to hand pick a grand jury," McCaig wrote.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Whitmire fired back in two letters of his own that the new way of selecting grand jurors was vetted by prosecutors and judges before the final law was crafted.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"I strongly disagree with the conclusions you have reached and presented in your letters," Whitmire wrote to McCaig on Tuesday. "The law was developed by those who will have to use it &amp;nbsp;&amp;mdash; judges, district attorneys, trial attorneys and interested citizens &amp;mdash; through four public committee hearings, two floor debates and constant communication with those interested parties who will have to use the law moving forward."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Grand jurors in Waller County are expected to &lt;a href="http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/09/16/texas-grand-jury-could-get-sandra-bland-case-next-month/"&gt;begin hearing evidence&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;in the Sandra Bland case next month, according to news reports.&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Terri Langford</dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 16 Sep 2015 16:32:48 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/16/sandra-bland-grand-jury-judge-complains-new-select/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Irving Student Likely to Transfer Schools Following Arrest</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/16/irving-police-drop-charges-against-muslim-student/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/16/irving-police-drop-charges-against-muslim-student/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/09/16/Ahmed_Mohamed-002_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="A photo of Irving teenager Ahmed Mohamed being taken into custody has gone viral."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;sub&gt;Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout.&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;An Irving teenager whose arrest for bringing a homemade clock to school drew a national outcry, said Wednesday that he would probably be transferring schools.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ahmed Mohamed, a 14-year-old student at MacArthur High School, was handcuffed and taken into custody Monday after a teacher expressed concerns that the clock might be a bomb. Ahmed was initially charged with making a &amp;ldquo;hoax bomb&amp;rdquo; and released to the custody of his parents. His story,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-ninth-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece"&gt;first reported by&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;The Dallas Morning News&lt;/i&gt;, drew a firestorm on social media and generated headlines across the nation.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ahmed announced his plans to change schools Wednesday afternoon during a news conference in front of his home with family members, a representative from the Council on American-Islamic Relations and his family's lawyer.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"I'm the person that built a clock and got in a lot of trouble for it," said Ahmed, who built the clock to impress one of his teachers. "When I showed it to her, she thought that it was a threat to her. It's really sad that she took a wrong impression of it and I got arrested for it later that day...I'm thinking about transferring schools."&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;He did not provide information about where he might transfer.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;In a separate news conference Wednesday, Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;said that the arrest had nothing to do with the student&amp;rsquo;s race and that&amp;nbsp;the arresting officers quickly determined there was no immediate threat the device would detonate, which is why they did not evacuate the high school. The officers weren&amp;rsquo;t sure if Ahmed had intended to cause alarm, so they took him into custody, Boyd said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Our follow-up investigation was to determine whether there was intent created by what the student brought to school, or whether it was just a naive set of circumstances, with him not recognizing the suspicious nature of the situation,&amp;rdquo; Boyd said at a news conference.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Asked if a white student would have been treated differently, he said, &amp;ldquo;Our reaction would have been the same either way.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The department has since closed the investigation, because police are satisfied that Ahmed was not trying to provoke a reaction, Boyd said. Ahmed has been suspended for three days from school.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;During Wednesday's press conference, Ahmed said Irving police have yet to return his clock.&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;News of Ahmed's arrest prompted a significant wave of support on Twitter, under the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed. Those who have weighed in on social media include President Obama. A tweet from his @POTUS account said, &amp;ldquo;Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas, said Ahmed's arrest raises questions about racial profiling in Texas public schools.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"Instead of encouraging his curiosity, intellect, and ability, the Irving ISD saw fit to throw handcuffs on a frightened 14 year-old Muslim boy wearing a NASA T-shirt and then remove him from school," Burke said in a statement. "The state of Texas in general, and Irving ISD in particular, need to take a long, hard look at their disciplinary policies to ensure that blanket prejudices and the baseless suspicions they engender don't deprive our students of an educational environment where their talents can thrive."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Lesley Weaver, director of communications for the Irving Independent School District, said she felt the public reaction is the result of &amp;ldquo;very unbalanced&amp;rdquo; information.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;We were doing everything with an abundance of caution to protect all of our students in Irving,&amp;rdquo; she said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ahmed's family could not be reached for comment for this article.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A spokesman for the Irving Police Department, James McLellan, told the Tribune that arresting Ahmed was the appropriate course of action.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;When we attempted to question the student about what it was, what it was for, why he brought it to school, he only said it was a clock,&amp;rdquo; McLellan said. &amp;ldquo;Not knowing what he was going to do or why he had it, with the information they had, the arrest was appropriate.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Although Ahmed explained that the device was a clock he&amp;rsquo;d made himself, McLellan said, Ahmed declined to provide other information.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;He was very short and abrupt with the officers, and he would maintain to us only that it was a clock,&amp;rdquo; McLellan said. &amp;ldquo;If he&amp;rsquo;d been more &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;if he&amp;rsquo;d explained what he explained to the media &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;I&amp;rsquo;d venture to say the outcome may well have been different.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ahmed, whose father is an immigrant from Sudan, told &lt;i&gt;The News&lt;/i&gt; that he is passionate about inventing.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;The clock itself, it was in a box you could get at Target for like five, ten dollars, and they&amp;rsquo;re telling me it&amp;rsquo;s a suitcase, a briefcase, a moving bomb,&amp;rdquo; Ahmed told &lt;i&gt;The News&lt;/i&gt;. &amp;ldquo;I never said anything about a bomb. It made me feel like I wasn&amp;rsquo;t human. It made me feel like a criminal.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Jordan Rudner and Madlin Mekelburg</dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 16 Sep 2015 12:39:25 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/16/irving-police-drop-charges-against-muslim-student/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Union Chief: Send 5,000 More Agents to the U.S.-Mexico Border</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/16/union-chief-5000-more-border-patrol-agents-needed/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/16/union-chief-5000-more-border-patrol-agents-needed/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2014/11/18/USBorderPatrol_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at a processing facility in Brownsville on June 18, 2014."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;More boots on the ground and fewer supervisors to oversee them: That&amp;rsquo;s what the head of the United States Border Patrol union told a congressional committee is needed for the understaffed and outgunned federal agency grappling with the threat that&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;violence south of the Rio Grande will spread north.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Some advocacy groups aren&amp;rsquo;t so sure. They point to the increase in alleged abuse and corruption at the hands of Border Patrol agents when their numbers were nearly doubled from about 10,800 in 2004 to 21,400 in 2013.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;About 18,160 agents are stationed on the Southwest border from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific, including about 1,785 in the Laredo sector and 3,065 in the Rio Grande Valley sector, &lt;a href="http://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/BP%20Staffing%20FY1992-FY2014_0.pdf"&gt;according to&lt;/a&gt; statistics from the Department of Homeland Security. The El Paso Sector, which includes New Mexico, is staffed with about 2,520, while the Del Rio and Big Bend sectors have 1,540 and 590, respectively.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The agency doesn&amp;rsquo;t need to redouble its ranks, National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd told the House&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;Committee on Oversight and Government Reform last week. But he did say that at least 5,000 more agents are needed, noting that one of every five undocumented immigrants apprehended in 2014 had a criminal past.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I want to be very clear on this, especially given the recent incendiary comments about who is crossing the border and the assertions that the border is safer than it has ever been,&amp;rdquo; Judd testified. &amp;ldquo;In 2014, ICE deported 177,000 convicted criminals. Of this number, 91,000 were arrested by the Border Patrol trying to illegally re-enter this country.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Judd also said in the 20 years he&amp;rsquo;s been with the agency, he&amp;rsquo;s seen a shift in strategy by criminal groups.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;They would rather risk losing a load of narcotics to the Border Patrol than opening fire on agents,&amp;rdquo; he said of the mindset then. &amp;ldquo;This all began to unravel in 2000 with the emergence of the drug cartels.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Wendy Feliz, a spokeswoman for the American Immigration Council, a Washington-based, non-partisan think tank, doesn&amp;rsquo;t downplay the violence in Mexico. But she said more U.S. agents aren't the answer because evidence suggests there is no spillover into this country.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Cartels are obviously dangerous and we need to deal with that element, but on this side of the border El Paso is one of the safest cities,&amp;rdquo; she said. &amp;ldquo;There are other ways to interrupt the cartels. It&amp;rsquo;s not more enforcement, it&amp;rsquo;s better enforcement.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Feliz said the federal government should follow the recommendations of former Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, who argued in &lt;a href="http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/perspectives/how-fix-broken-border-three-part-series"&gt;2012&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;that chasing immigrants and drugs is a losing fight. State and federal governments should instead focus on seizing cash and analyzing wire transfer data to stymie the criminal elements&amp;rsquo; efforts, Goddard said&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Rashly adding thousands of agents will lead to similar problems the Department of Homeland Security&amp;rsquo;s Office of the Inspector General outlined in 2013, Feliz said. That agency's report concluded that a majority of the alleged excessive force cases investigated showed violations&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;of agency standards.&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The report added, however, that the hiring surge didn&amp;rsquo;t weaken training standards and the amount of time that agents train &amp;mdash; about two months &amp;mdash; was sufficient.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Judd didn&amp;rsquo;t address the report in his testimony and a spokesman with the U.S. Border Patrol didn&amp;rsquo;t respond to a request for comment.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Judd did advocate for a return to 20-week training periods, which he said were scaled back during the administration of President &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/george-w-bush/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;George W. Bush&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;Feliz said even that was too short, and that some municipal police officers are trained for six months.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;The agents need it for their protection, not just to protect civil rights,&amp;rdquo; she said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Judd added that the United States Border patrol is a &amp;ldquo;top-heavy organization with far too many layers of management.&amp;rdquo; He said there is one supervisor for every four agents and a 10-to-1 ratio could return 1,500 agents to the field if those supervisors were reassigned.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Judd&amp;rsquo;s testimony comes as the federal government faces the threat of another shutdown. Speculation has swirled for weeks that internal gridlock could shutter the government, at least temporarily.&amp;nbsp;When the Department of Homeland Security faced a similar threat earlier this year, &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/02/27/dhs-funding-remains-unclear-deadline-approaches/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;lawmakers said&lt;/a&gt; that 85 percent of Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection officials would still report for duty.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;When the government shut down for a few weeks in 2013, an estimated 31,300 DHS employees were furloughed but more than 85 percent of all department employees still showed up for work, the &lt;em&gt;Washington Post&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2015/02/24/what-exactly-would-happen-during-a-dhs-shutdown/"&gt;reported&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Juli谩n Aguilar</dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 16 Sep 2015 06:00:00 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/16/union-chief-5000-more-border-patrol-agents-needed/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Nationalist Group Wants Texas Secession on GOP Primary Ballot</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/15/texas-nationalist-movement-wants-texas-secede/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/15/texas-nationalist-movement-wants-texas-secede/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/09/11/Secessionist-Texas_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="The Texas Nationalist Movement wants the state of Texas to secede from the United States. They have started a petition to get a referendum for secession on the Texas Republican primary ballot on March 1."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Texas already&amp;nbsp;seceded once &amp;mdash; in 1861, by popular vote in a statewide election.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But the Texas Nationalist Movement wants a repeat a century and a half later, and thinks the March GOP primary is the place to start.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Nederland-based Texas independence group is circulating a petition aimed at getting a non-binding vote onto the GOP primary ballot over whether "the state of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Their goal? 75,000 signatures from registered voters by Dec. 1 &amp;mdash; more than the 66,894 the Texas Secretary of State's office says the group needs to get the language on the ballot.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Even if the Texas Nationalist Movement gets enough signatures, such a vote would be little more than symbolic. Academics agree&amp;nbsp;that Texas cannot secede from the United States, and point to a&amp;nbsp;post-Civil War Supreme Court ruling, Texas v. White, as evidence.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But that hasn't stopped the Republican Party of Texas from rolling its eyes at the secessionists. Texas GOP communications director Aaron Whitehead said the Republican party certainly doesn't&amp;nbsp;welcome outside groups trying to doctor the party&amp;nbsp;ballot.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Historically the executive committee of the Republican Party has chosen what goes on this,&amp;rdquo; Whitehead said, &amp;ldquo;and it&amp;rsquo;s party preference that it stays that way.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;The&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;Texas Nationalist Movement, which hasn't yet verified how many signatures it has, doesn't buy the argument that the state can't secede. Daniel Miller, the group's president, points to the state Constitution, and in particular, the provision that gives Texans the right to "&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think expedient.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Miller said the group is going around the state party because past interactions with the GOP weren't fruitful.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;We have had our hand slapped," Miller said. "We have been rebuffed, and not just us as an organization, but essentially anyone in any position inside the party that has advocated for this position has been rebuffed."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Whitehead said there is zero relationship between the GOP and the secessionists,&amp;nbsp;and added that&amp;nbsp;his response to such a ballot proposal&amp;nbsp;would be the same if it were &amp;ldquo;a resolution giving everybody a unicorn or a resolution for secession.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If the Texas Nationalist Movement does get the signatures it needs, the Secretary of State's office says it will&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;be the first time a referendum from a citizen group is put on the Republicans&amp;rsquo; statewide primary ballot.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Miller acknowledges a majority vote for the referendum wouldn't be binding, but hopes it would be enough evidence of support to get state leaders to take the issue seriously long-term.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;The end game for us is to have a binding referendum on Texas independence, much like the people of Scotland had in November of last year,&amp;rdquo; Miller said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;The 2014 vote over Scottish independence from the United Kingdom failed.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Volunteers from the Texas Nationalist Movement are at work across the state, scurrying to get signatures.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;Miller is optimistic; he says the&amp;nbsp;organization itself&amp;nbsp;has over 200,000&amp;nbsp;members.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Texas and Washington, D.C. are on very different paths, and the people of Texas obviously recognize that,&amp;rdquo; he said. &amp;ldquo;... The Texas Nationalist Movement message has been one not of reaction to grievance but one of a future we can build as an independent nation.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Luqman Adeniyi</dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 15 Sep 2015 06:00:00 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/15/texas-nationalist-movement-wants-texas-secede/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item><item><title>Scrutiny Follows Bland, Deputy Deaths</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/14/sandra-bland-deputy-deaths-force-mental-health-age/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/09/14/sandra-bland-deputy-deaths-force-mental-health-age/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/08/11/TT-mentalhealth-leadart_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt=""&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;In the coming days, the deaths of Sandra Bland and Harris County Deputy Darren Goforth will continue to jolt statewide conversations about how&amp;nbsp;the Texas&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;criminal justice system deals with mental health issues.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Bland's apparent suicide by hanging in the Waller County Jail cast a harsh spotlight on the state's county jails, raising questions about how a known suicidal inmate could have been left unmonitored.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Gunned down while pumping gas, Goforth's killing highlighted the criminal justice system's failure to identify and help a man with a history of mental problems and an&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;arrest record dating back to 2005.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p dir="ltr"&gt;Taken together, the incidents have served as wake-up calls that state officials are promising to heed.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Higher jail standards, better inmate care and more staff training will be among the topics as t&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;he House Committee on County Affairs meets Tuesday. A Texas Public Policy Foundation panel discussion, The Right Prescription For Mental Health in Criminal Justice, follows on Wednesday, and the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice will hold an interim meeting Sept. 22 on jail safety standards.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Bland was found hanging in her Waller County Jail cell July 13, three days after&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;a state&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;Department of Public Safety trooper pulled her&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;over for changing lanes without signaling. She was arrested after an argument ensued.&amp;nbsp;Her death was ruled a suicide. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;In Goforth's case, Harris County authorities say Cypress resident Shannon Miles gunned down the deputy at a local gas station Aug. 28.&amp;nbsp;Miles has been convicted of resisting arrest, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct with a firearm, criminal trespass and other crimes. In 2012, he was sent to a state mental hospital after an arrest for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Bland and Miles each&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;had a history of apparent mental health problems, and lawmakers, law enforcement officials and experts say their&amp;nbsp;stories could have ended differently.&amp;nbsp;The two high-profile deaths, they say,&amp;nbsp;have highlighted how ill-equipped some jails and law enforcement agencies are to deal with the mentally ill.&lt;span style="text-decoration: line-through;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;ldquo;A lot of people in the criminal justice system have mental health issues, and I&amp;rsquo;m a strong believer that if you deny someone their liberty by locking them up, you have a responsibility to make sure they&amp;rsquo;re safe,&amp;rdquo; said state&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;Sen. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/john-whitmire/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;John Whitmire&lt;/a&gt;, a Houston Democrat who chairs&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;When that responsibility is not met,&amp;nbsp;Whitmire&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;said, tragedy follows.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;ldquo;And I think Ms. Bland certainly is a case in point,&amp;rdquo; he said. &amp;ldquo;She obviously had emotional issues. The Jail Standards Commission&amp;rsquo;s already said there was mishandling of the case in terms of the intake, sensitivities &amp;nbsp;&amp;ndash; and also when you determine someone has those issues, you have to give them proper supervision.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;But there are other&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;examples, he said, and&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;ldquo;we&amp;rsquo;re going to review jail operations across the state large and small.&amp;rdquo;&lt;span style="text-decoration: line-through;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Resources for inmates with mental health issues are scarce&amp;nbsp;i&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;n the law enforcement and corrections community, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;said Grimes County Sheriff Don Sowell, president of the Sheriffs&amp;rsquo; Association of Texas, &lt;/span&gt;especially in the state's many rural jails&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;And his colleagues across the state just don&amp;rsquo;t know what to do, he said. They&amp;rsquo;re looking to lawmakers to provide a forum for discussion and foster ideas.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;m a small-county jail,&amp;rdquo; he said. &amp;ldquo;I got a 111-capacity population jail.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;That means resources such as psychiatric services aren&amp;rsquo;t always immediately available especially in rural facilities, he said.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;ldquo;I don&amp;rsquo;t feel the committees are downing the sheriffs,&amp;rdquo; Sowell said. &amp;ldquo;I think they&amp;rsquo;re reaching out. That&amp;rsquo;s the way I look at it. Teamwork. &amp;rsquo;Cause there&amp;rsquo;s so many mental cases out there, and sometimes county jails have become the dumping ground for mental patients. I just don&amp;rsquo;t know what the answer is other than people with mental issues certainly sometimes &amp;ndash;&amp;nbsp;jail is not where you need to go.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;To address the problem, one has to understand mental illness, said state Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/garnet-coleman/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;Garnet Coleman&lt;/a&gt;, D-Houston, the chairman of the House County Affairs Committee.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;"Mental illness compels. That's what it does," he said. "People with depression are compelled to have ideation of suicide."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;When someone with a mental illness commits a minor crime, he said, treatment &amp;mdash; &amp;nbsp;not a jail cell &amp;mdash; should be sought. State funding has covered much of the resources for mental health in Texas, but it's not enough, Coleman said.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;His suggestion: Expand Medicaid coverage in Texas for more resources to be available to people battling mental illness.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;"This is an ongoing thing," he said about the mental health discussion. "It's tough because Texas over the last decade has been as cheap as it can be."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Law and policy makers aren&amp;rsquo;t waiting for the next legislative session to act, Whitmire said. Hence the upcoming meetings, and continued efforts by&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;agencies including the Commission on Jail Standards to keep tabs on local jails.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;One move underway is the revamping of the mental health intake form county jails use when an inmate first is processed, officials say.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;ldquo;You don&amp;rsquo;t have to wait for the Legislature to act, research or investigate,&amp;rdquo; Whitmire said. &amp;ldquo;You need to stop and look over your operations today.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Outside state government, policy analysts are looking for solutions to the same problems.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Some analysts are pushing to remove individuals with mental health issues&amp;nbsp;from&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;the criminal justice system. Analysts are promoting alternatives including community programs.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Though reform has been slow, Texas and other states are making progress, said Katharine Ligon, a mental health policy analyst with the Center for Public Policy Priorities.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;We&amp;rsquo;ve got several challenges that through these hearings we hopefully can break down,&amp;rdquo; said Ligon, who will participate in the Texas Public Policy Foundation panel discussion. &amp;ldquo;Sheriffs have been some of the loudest and most effective advocates of mental health reform. I think that that alone says a lot for where our states have been.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Disclosure: The Texas Public Policy Foundation and Center for Public Policy Priorities are corporate sponsors of The Texas Tribune.&amp;nbsp;A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/support-us/donors-and-members/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Johnathan Silver</dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 14 Sep 2015 06:00:00 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/14/sandra-bland-deputy-deaths-force-mental-health-age/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20The%20Texas%20Tribune%20Sections</guid></item></channel></rss>