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TexasTowelie's JournalDallas City Council to vote on $61M settlement in back pay lawsuits
The Dallas City Council will vote next week to pay $61 million to settle four of six back pay lawsuits from police officers and firefighters — lawsuits that the mayor says could help bankrupt Dallas if allowed to proceed.
City Attorney Larry Casto said the settlement will be paid using the city's current bonding capacity and will not require voter approval. Some of the financial details still have to be ironed out, but financing it will not require a tax increase.
If approved, the settlement will avert a trial scheduled for Dec. 4 in Collin County. While the remaining two cases risk that the city could still be on the hook for hundreds of millions or more in claims, interest and legal fees, Casto said settling these four significantly reduces the peril.
"It's a wise, prudent fiscal move to remove what could be catastrophic results if we ever did have a jury that sees it the plaintiffs' way," Casto said.
Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/dallas-city-hall/2017/11/10/61m-settlement-reached-4-6-police-fire-pay-lawsuits-mayor-feared-bankrupt-dallas
Potent pain creams that sold for up to $28K caused deaths, cost government millions
Desiree Ford rubbed the pain cream on her skin and immediately wanted to wash it off.
“Whoa ... time for a shower, this lotion is making me feel weird,” she texted a friend.
The 22-year-old Houston woman was later found dead in her bathtub by her mother.
The Harris County medical examiner ruled that Ford’s November 2014 death was caused by toxic effects of two drugs in the pain cream she used, which came from a Houston compounding pharmacy called Diamond Pharmacy.
The doctor who prescribed it, Michael Kelly, never talked to or examined Ford. But he did take a kickback for writing the script, prosecutors said. Kelly and four others connected to the pharmacy were convicted of fraud in federal court in Houston for the $17 million scheme.
Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2017/11/12/potent-pain-creams-sold-25k-caused-deaths-cost-government-millions
State audit blasts University of New Mexico athletics over mismanagement of funds
ALBUQUERQUE — An extensive report issued by the state auditor on Friday confirmed what has long been suspected about The University of New Mexico’s Athletics Department: The financial problems are worse than expected.
The special audit revealed extensive mismanagement of public and private funds, a glaring lack of accountability within the athletics department and the school’s various fundraising entities, and a confusing array of internal policies that led to years’ worth of financial missteps and perks to employees and donors.
UNM has agreed with the 10 key recommendations in the audit, which range from stronger enforcement of contracts for suites in The Pit to a restructuring of duties within the athletics department and its fundraising organizations like the Lobo Club, the UNM Foundation, the Alumni Association and the various booster clubs.
It also addressed the overpayment of $185,000 to three unnamed coaches and the shortfall in accounting practices with Lobo Sports Properties LLC.
Read more: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/state-audit-blasts-unm-athletics-over-mismanagement-of-funds/article_69ca69ab-180f-54df-aa80-47f3c43bc301.html
Final televised Albuquerque mayoral debate turns feisty
Public safety and crime dominated a feisty televised debate between the two Albuquerque mayoral candidates who will square off in Tuesday’s runoff election, marking the last of their more than 50 public forums together.
State Auditor Tim Keller and City Councilor Dan Lewis spent much of their final debate sparring over who could best implement police department reforms required under a federal Department of Justice settlement, and fight crime in the city.
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Lewis, a Republican, said he would dedicate $15 million to public safety, and criticized the city for subsidizing Albuquerque Public Schools public safety programs. He also said Bernalillo County should be required to pay for transferring inmates to state prisons.
“The state auditor (Keller) has not said where he is going to get the money for public safety,” Lewis said. “We will make sure the budget prioritizes public safety.”
Read more: https://www.abqjournal.com/1091451/final-televised-mayoral-debate-turns-feisty.html
The most recent poll shows that Keller is ahead with 53%, Lewis 34% and 13% undecided.
https://www.abqjournal.com/1091421/keller-maintains-healthy-lead-in-mayoral-race.html
Arizona lawmaker accused of sex remarks loses committee post
PHOENIX — The publisher of Arizona’s largest newspaper on Friday joined a growing list of women who say a top Republican state lawmaker subjected them to inappropriate sexual comments or actions, allegations that led to his suspension from the chairmanship of a powerful committee.
Arizona Republic Publisher Mi-Ai Parrish wrote in a column online that state Rep. Don Shooter told her last year during a meeting in his office that he had done everything on his “bucket list,” except for “those Asian twins in Mexico.” Parrish is Asian-American.
Other lawmakers, entertainment figures, businesspeople and media leaders have been accused of sexual harassment and other misconduct in the wake of allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. Lawmakers facing such complaints in Colorado and Minnesota also were removed or suspended from their posts as heads of legislative committees this week.
In Arizona, Shooter would not comment about Parrish’s column but has denied other allegations revealed this week.
Read more: https://www.abqjournal.com/1090909/publisher-says-arizona-lawmaker-made-offensive-remarks.html
Candy Man: Ex-senator Phil Griegos path to a sweet $51,389.07 payday could land him in prison
If anyone besides Phil Griego's wife, Jane, were actually attending his trial on eight public corruption charges with any regularity, they could be forgiven for thinking there were two different court cases going on in the windowless courtroom on the third floor of the First District Courthouse in Santa Fe.
To hear state prosecutors with the state Attorney General's Office tell it, Griego used his position as senator to grease connections and engineer the sale of a state-owned building that would land him an outsized payday as a real estate broker. Despite having had ample opportunity to correct erroneous information about the sale, disclose his potential windfall to his legislative colleagues and let them vote on the facts, prosecutors say, Griego kept it quiet.
Listening to the opening statement and cross examinations of his defense attorneys, though, Phil Griego acted just as anyone else would. He didn't try to throw his weight around as a senator and quietly went about his business as the legislation to authorize the sale sailed through the state house.
The witness lists submitted to the court in the weeks before the trial share eight names. There's little dispute over the chain of events. Griego doesn't deny asking staff to draft legislation for the sale. He doesn't deny going to hearings or standing quietly by as Sen. Carlos Cisneros told his colleagues, incorrectly as it would later come to be known, that the building was a financial drain on the state. He doesn't deny religiously following up on a piece of legislation that he didn't carry. What does deny is that there's anything wrong with it.
Read more: http://www.sfreporter.com/news/coverstories/2017/11/08/candy-man-2/
Utah lawmaker looking to ban smoking at state Capitol
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah lawmaker is pushing state officials to consider banning smoking on the grounds of the Utah State Capitol.
Republican State Rep. Bruce Cutler told the Capitol Preservation Board that his idea was inspired by a similar move by the University of Utah in August that prohibits tobacco and the use of e-cigarettes on the campus, The Salt Lake Tribune reported .
“It’s a great statement they have made that they care about the health of individuals,” the Murray lawmaker told the board. Making the Capitol tobacco free would “show we care about people’s health, care about the health of our employees.”
Smoking at the Capitol is already restricted to designated areas.
Republican Sen. Pete Knudson of Brigham City doesn’t see much of a need for the ban since the state hasn’t received any complaints regarding smokers, he said.
Read more: http://www.standard.net/State/2017/11/12/Utah-lawmaker-looking-to-ban-smoking-in-state-Capitol.html
At BYU, speaker says religious right's ties to Republican party spurred secularization
PROVO — Prayer became a political football on Sunday after Devin Patrick Kelley shot and killed 26 believers in a Baptist church in Texas.
First, President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan, both Republicans, tweeted about prayers for the victims and their families. Then Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, tweeted back, "Thoughts & prayers are not enough, GOP," a sentiment repeated by many others.
In an editorial column sarcastically titled "How dare the GOP pray for Texas" in Monday's Wall Street Journal, former George W. Bush speechwriter William McGurn defended the religious right. "In short," he wrote, "if you are Republican praying instead of passing gun control, you've got blood on your hands."
But at BYU on Tuesday, Notre Dame political science professor David Campbell said that the political movement known as the religious right would do better to look itself in the mirror than express outrage when Democrats, liberals and progressives rail against religious expressions in the political arena.
Read more: https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865692420/At-BYU-speaker-says-religious-rights-ties-to-Republican-party-spurred-secularization.html
Democratic committee targeting Utah Rep. Mia Love's seat
SALT LAKE CITY — The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is targeting an additional 11 races nationwide in 2018, including Utah's 4th District seat held by Republican Rep. Mia Love.
Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, a Democrat, recently announced he's running for the seat held by Love. She won the then-open seat in 2014, after former Rep. Jim Matheson, the last Democrat to represent Utah in Congress, retired.
The new additions to Democrats' "offensive battlefield" were made after big wins for Democratic candidates in the Virginia and New Jersey governor's races, the party's first major wins since President Donald Trump took office.
"The DCCC has successfully built the largest battlefield in over a decade, with strong campaigns ready to win tough races across the map in 2018,” according to a memo from the committee's chairman, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M.
Read more: https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900003826/rep-mia-love-among-republicans-targeted-by-democrats-in-2018.html
Utah lawmaker hoping to 'recruit Romney,' launches petition urging former presidential hopeful to
Utah lawmaker hoping to ‘recruit Romney,’ launches petition urging former presidential hopeful to run for SenateA Utah state lawmaker drafted a petition and a mock campaign website this week to persuade — or, as he puts it, to “recruit” — Mitt Romney to run for U.S. Senate in 2018.
“I can hopefully create a grass-roots effort,” said first-term Sen. Dan Hemmert, R-Orem. “And I think that that could help influence his decision, sure.”
The Recruit Romney political action committee, recognized by the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday, mobilized after recent reports that the 2012 GOP presidential nominee was considering a run for the seat currently held by Sen. Orrin Hatch.
The conservative seven-term senator, though, has not decided whether to run for re-election next year and Romney, a former Massachusetts governor who now has a home in Utah and actively votes as a Holladay resident, has not announced any intentions.
Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2017/11/11/utah-lawmaker-hoping-to-recruit-romney-launches-petition-urging-former-presidential-hopeful-to-run-for-senate/
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