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TexasTowelie's JournalBeto O'Rourke backers cite poll showing he'd sail through Senate primary; Cornyn wary he'll heed the
Beto O’Rourke backers cite poll showing he’d sail through Senate primary; Cornyn wary he’ll heed the callWASHINGTON – With just a week remaining before the deadline to run for office in Texas next year, some Democrats are still hoping to see Beto O’Rourke jump into the race to unseat Sen. John Cornyn.
Cornyn himself continued to raise money on Monday off the specter.
Poll after poll shows Cornyn would trounce the dozen or so contenders for the Democratic nomination at this point. None can touch the near-universal name recognition O’Rourke enjoys among Texas Democrats after his near-miss against Sen. Ted Cruz last year.
And a new poll commissioned by backers worried that the current crop of candidates would fall short shows that O’Rourke is by far the top choice of Democratic voters in Texas at 58%, with the runner-up, state Sen. Royce West of Dallas at 13%.
Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2019/12/03/beto-orourke-backers-cite-poll-showing-hed-sail-through-senate-primary-cornyn-wary-hell-heed-the-call/
Tiger Makes Epic 1,300-Kilometer Journey Across India Looking For Food And Sex
A tiger has made a record-breaking journey across India, trekking over 1,300 paw-aching kilometers (807 miles) in just five months, the longest walk ever recorded in India according to reports. Why all the effort, you might wonder? Obviously, for food and sex.
Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, a national park in the western state of Maharashtra, has been keeping tabs on a group of tigers using radio collars. Among them is a 2.5year-old male known as C1, reports Times Of India.
Around June this year, C1 left its home in the sanctuary and embarked on a winding journey around the region's farms, roads, hills, and waterways. Over the following five months, the young tiger walked through seven districts in the states of Maharashtra and Telangana, before arriving in the Dnyanganga sanctuary on December 1.
"The tiger is possibly looking for territory, food, and a mate. Most of the potential tiger areas [in India] are full and new tigers have to explore more," Dr Bilal Habib, a senior biologist with the Wildlife Institute of India, told BBC News.
Read more: https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/tiger-makes-epic-1300kilometer-journey-across-india-looking-for-food-and-sex/
Wendy Davis officially running for Congress
AUSTIN, Texas — Wendy Davis officially submitted the required paperwork to run for Congress representing Texas' 21st Congressional District on Wednesday.
“I’m running for Congress to be a voice for families who have struggled in silence with unaffordable health care and prescription drug prices, skyrocketing college tuition, schools that aren’t adequately funded and less safe than they should be, and without the clean air and water that our kids deserve,” Davis said.
The district spans from Austin to San Antonio, also covering Blanco and Gillespie counties.
Davis is challenging U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican who lives in Hays County and currently represents the district.
Read more: https://www.kvue.com/article/news/politics/elections/wendy-davis-2020-files-for-election/269-b4eb5527-8179-4ade-a3a0-6a71358ae35e
Court grants government's TRO against pro wall group
The U.S. government Thursday filed a lawsuit against a pro border wall group, asking a court to stop them from building a wall near the U.S.-Mexico border in Mission.
But before the day’s end, a court had removed them from a federal lawsuit.
On behalf of the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission, the federal government filed a lawsuit against We Build the Wall, and three other entities, including Fisher Industries, Fisher Sand and Gravel Co., and Neuhaus and Sons LLC, based in Weslaco.
According to the lawsuit, the government alleges that We Build the Wall, a nonprofit advocacy group out of Florida, contracted Fisher Industries, a subsidiary of Fisher Sand and Gravel Co. to build a bollard structure in a floodplain near Bentsen and Anzalduas Parks, but have yet to meet the requirements of an international treaty to do so.
Read more: https://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/court-grants-government-s-tro-against-pro-wall-group/article_b1267b5c-17b1-11ea-a4db-47280bb98af8.html
Ninth Reagor Dykes employee pleads guilty
A ninth former Reagor Dykes Auto Group accounting employee recently pleaded guilty to fraud in Amarillo federal court.
Ashley Nicole Dunn, former executive assistant to Chief Financial Officer Shane Smith, pleaded guilty this week to one count of bank fraud. Dunn is the fourth employee to plead guilty to the charge. Nine former Reagor Dykes employees total have pleaded guilty to fraud charges.
Dunn faces up to five years in prison and more than $23 million in fines and restitution to affected banks. A sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Dunn was involved in a check kiting scheme that involved 19 accounts in at least eight banks, according to court documents. Checks were cross deposited between checking accounts to artificially inflate balances.
Read more: https://www.amarillo.com/business/20191205/ninth-reagor-dykes-employee-pleads-guilty
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Vista Bank asks bankruptcy court to absolve claimed Reagor Dykes liabilities
Vista Bank filed a declaratory judgment action in bankruptcy court Wednesday night with the goal of being cleared from liabilities in the ongoing Reagor Dykes Auto Group legal cases.
Vista Bank is a creditor in the ongoing Chapter 11 Reagor Dykes bankruptcy. The new filing states a check-kiting fraud scheme perpetrated by the dealerships resulted in $13 million in damages. Check-kiting involves cross-depositing checks to float insufficient bank accounts.
Four former Reagor Dykes employees have pleaded guilty as of Thursday to bank fraud for their roles in the schemes. Five other employees have pleaded guilty to wire fraud for other accounting scams. More guilty pleas are expected.
Fernando Bustos, who has represented Vista Bank throughout this case, said no bank employees have been implicated in the ongoing criminal investigation.
Read more: https://www.amarillo.com/business/20191205/vista-bank-asks-bankruptcy-court-to-absolve-claimed-reagor-dykes-liabilities
Trial over penis-shaped candy likely to be postponed by legal wrangling
A trial date set Wednesday for a Williamson County man who anonymously sent a chocolate candy bar in the shape of a penis to a McLennan County Sheriff’s Office employee likely will be postponed while his attorney challenges the legality of the charge against him.
McLennan County Court-at-Law Judge Vik Deivanayagam set a Feb. 3 trial date for Thomas Roy Gourneau on his Class B misdemeanor harassment case during a pretrial hearing Wednesday.
However, Gourneau’s attorney, Cody Cleveland, said he likely will submit a writ challenging the constitutionality of the harassment statute after prosecutors last week added an additional layer of allegations to the original charge. That could delay the trial by a year or more, Cleveland said.
“Up until last Wednesday, my client was charged with one set of allegations,” Cleveland said after the hearing. “When you look at the warrant he was arrested on and the affidavit, he was arrested on one set of allegations. Now, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the state decided to add other allegations. Those allegations have been deemed unconstitutional by the appellate court out of Fort Worth.
Read more: https://www.wacotrib.com/news/crime/trial-over-penis-shaped-candy-likely-to-be-postponed-by/article_3dbce080-40e6-5a55-a3d1-aea60fe068a6.html
Trump Administration Wants To Open Texas National Forests To Gas Drilling
A new plan from the Trump administration would open national forests in Texas to more oil and gas drilling.
Sergio Chapa is a reporter for the Houston Chronicle, covering the oil and gas industry. He says the lands that will be subject to drilling include four national forests in East Texas and two national grasslands in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“This is mostly a natural gas play,” Chapa says.
Drillers would use horizontal fracturing, or fracking to obtain much of the gas buried under the forest lands. And it remains to be seen whether the new gas would find a ready market, given falling prices. On the other hand, Chapa says, the forest areas in East Texas are near existing pipelines that would make it easy to transport Texas-drilled gas across the country.
Environmental organizations have filed comments with the federal government, opposing the drilling proposal.
https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/trump-administration-wants-to-open-texas-national-forests-to-gas-drilling/
Chris M /Wikimedia Commons [CC BY 2.0 ]
Sam Houston National Forest in East Texas
Kamala Harris' Withdrawal From The Presidential Race Could Help Julian Castro
On Tuesday, the last Texan in the presidential race, Julián Castro, lamented about the dwindling number of presidential candidates of color vying for the Democratic nomination. Kamala Harris had just suspended her bid, and Castro chastised the media for contributing to candidates of color leaving the race. Ironically, the comment seemed to motivate donors to support Castro’s flagging campaign, leading to a better-than-normal day of fundraising for the former San Antonio mayor.
Sonia Garcia is a professor of political science at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, and says Castro criticized the media for applying different standards to Harris, an African American woman, and other candidates. She says the media criticized Harris for not having a clear message, and for flip-flopping. Garcia doesn’t believe those narratives are accurate.
“It’s no surprise that women, especially women of color, are treated [with] a different standard – unlike men, unlike white women,” Garcia says. “So there’s this extra scrutiny placed on women of color.”
Garcia says Harris enjoyed acclaim and high poll numbers for a time after the first Democratic debate. But later, she says the media started using a double standard to evaluate her performance. She says Castro, who is Latino, also experienced something of a double standard when it came to media coverage.
Read more: https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/kamala-harris-withdrawal-from-the-presidential-race-could-help-julian-castro/
Rep. Cuellar: Congress on brink of new trade pact
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar on Monday predicted that Congress could come to an agreement this week on a “Nafta 2.0,” more than a year after the leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico agreed on a new North American Free Trade Agreement.
“We’re close,” Cuellar, D-Laredo, said, citing senior officials from Mexico and the U.S. to whom he has talked with in recent days. “It all depends on what Mexico is willing to accept.”
What Mexico is willing to accept took a turn Monday night when Mexico’s large business lobby, Business Coordinating Council, put out a statement slamming the new labor proposals by the United States, calling them “totally unacceptable.”
While Cuellar would likely be ready to vote now, in a news conference on Monday alongside U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, Gonzalez had some hesitations. He has called for a securing of the highway from Reynosa to Monterrey, a common route for trucks carrying produce to the United States. He reiterated that call on Monday.
Read more: https://www.themonitor.com/2019/12/03/rep-cuellar-congress-brink-new-trade-pact/
(McAllen Monitor)
Pantone's 2020 Color of the Year
NEW YORK (AP) — In these uneasy times, as we move along to a new decade, the Pantone Color Institute has reached back in time to calming, confident Classic Blue as its color of the year for 2020.
The color is an anchor offering stability, constancy and connection, said Laurie Pressman, vice president of the global purveyors of color consulting, trendspotting and analysis.
“It’s a reassuring presence,” she told The Associated Press ahead of Wednesday’s reveal.
Akin to maritime blue — not indigo and brighter than navy — Classic Blue evokes a feeling of vast expanse, Pressman said of the shade also known as Pantone 19-4052.
Read more: https://www.news-journal.com/ap/national/classic-blue-is-pantone-color-institute-s-color-of-the/article_bb31ae52-3fd2-535f-9877-db2033121729.html
(Longview News-Journal)
I can support this selection as a Democrat.
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