Despite
federal OK,
Legislature
increasing oversight of TIERS system used to enroll Texans in food stamps,
Medicaid.
Austin American Statesman
Friday, June 20, 2008
Corrie MacLaggen
Hawkins said this week that he'll abide by a legislative
request that the commission first establish — and meet — a series of goals
before expanding use of the computer system known as TIERS. That stands for
Texas Integrated Eligibility Redesign System.
Federal officials have been concerned about expanding
TIERS, in part because
"No expansion of TIERS will be undertaken prior
to the benchmarks being established," Hawkins wrote in a letter to
lawmakers this week. "As a result, we will not begin rollout in July
2008."
The request to Hawkins from state Rep. Patrick Rose,
D-Dripping Springs and chairman of the House Committee on Human Services, stems
from a new law requiring legislators to more carefully scrutinize the state's
work enrolling Texans in programs such as food stamps and Medicaid.
The legislation created a committee "to
maintain oversight, hold the commission accountable and ensure to Texans that
TIERS was being expanded in a prudent manner," Rose said. "It's
important for Texas taxpayers and to those eligible for all critical
services."
Rose has asked Hawkins to propose specific
benchmarks later this summer to the oversight committee. The goals may include
ensuring that there is adequate staff trained in TIERS, according to a letter
Hawkins wrote to Rose.
The state has had trouble processing food stamp
applications in TIERS as quickly as required by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture — 30 days — in part because there aren't enough workers trained in
TIERS. Texas has struggled to retain employees who enroll Texans in public
assistance.
"The combination of not enough staff trained
well enough and too many cases coming into TIERS and the fact that it takes
longer to process a case in TIERS than (the old system) is a recipe for disaster
when it comes to timeliness," said Celia Hagert of the Center for Public
Policy Priorities, which aims to help low- and middle-income Texans. "The
whole reason we have a standard is that people who go to get food stamps are
people in an emergency situation."
In April, 49.2 percent of Texas food stamp
applications processed using TIERS were completed on time, compared to 92.6
percent processed in the old system in the same period.
This week, USDA officials gave final approval to the
state's plan to expand TIERS. They told Hawkins in May that Texas could expand
it, but only to 22 percent of food stamp cases because "far too many
approvals remain untimely."
About 9 percent of cases are now in TIERS, agency
spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said. About 2.3
Company
officials stumped over alleged foster home mixup
Waco Tribune Herald
Friday, June 13, 2008
By Cindy V. Culp
The
Robinson woman who runs an adult foster home where a 70-year-old man allegedly
was left outside overnight has a spotless record as a caretaker, said officials
from the company she works for. They’re still trying to figure out what
happened, they said, but are saddened by the turn of events.
“We’re
stumped by this and are certainly cooperating with authorities to see what’s
going on,” said Linda Timmons, president of Mosaic, a Nebraska-based company
that serves people with developmental disabilities. “This is something we take
very seriously.”
Robinson
police were called to the home late Tuesday morning by paramedics, Lt. Tracy
O’Connor said. The ambulance crew was summoned by an official from Mosaic after
the home’s operator, 64-year-old Carole Jacobs, alerted the company about the
situation, he said.
When
officers got to the house, O’Connor said, they learned the man had been left
outside since 8:30 p.m. Monday — about 15 hours. He had been found in the
backyard. Based on that information, officers arrested Jacobs on a charge of
injury to the elderly and took the remaining two residents of the home to other
foster facilities, he said.
The
man was taken to Providence Health Center to be treated for exposure to the
elements, O’Connor said. Information about his condition has not been released.
Jacobs,
released from the McLennan County Jail on Tuesday on $50,000 bond, couldn’t be
reached for comment Thursday. Her telephone number is unlisted, and no one
answered the door at her home in the 400 block of Robinson Road.
What
will happen to the home is unclear. State officials have the power to shut it
down if allegations of abuse or neglect are proven. Mosiac is conducting its
own investigation and could end its contract with Jacobs depending on what it
finds, Timmons said.
Mosaic
operates in 14 states, serving 3,800 children and adults with developmental
disabilities, she said. The company’s services range from residential care to
vocational training, she said.
The
Waco office, which serves 11 Central Texas counties, has 54 clients, Timmons
said. Nineteen of them are in foster care, she said.
In
Texas, adult foster care is funded by a Medicaid program known as Home and
Community-Based Services, which is for people who are mentally retarded or have
other developmental disabilities.
Foster
care is similar to living in a group home. The difference is the foster came
home is owned by an individual rather than a company. That individual is
responsible for caring for clients around-the-clock, vs. staff at group homes
who work in shifts.
Mosaic
has a contract with the state to provide foster care. It in turn contracts with
individuals who are paid based on the number of people they care for.
Mosaic
checks the criminal, driving and employment history of all potential
contractors, Timmons said. Plus, providers must undergo extensive training
before starting work, Timmons said.
Once
a home is established, the company monitors it, making at least two on-site
visits each month, she said.
Regulation
of adult foster homes falls to the Texas Department of Aging and Disability
Services. It inspects them on a set schedule, spokeswoman Ceceila Fedorov said.
However, she couldn’t provide the Tribune-Herald with an exact
timetable.
Fedorov
also said she couldn’t reveal if any complaints have previously been filed
about Jacobs or the home. Such information is stored by the Texas Department of
Family and Protective Services and can be released only by that agency, she
said.
Chris
Van Deusen, a spokesman for DFPS, said any information it collects about abuse
or neglect is confidential. He said he couldn’t even confirm whether the Adult
Protective Services division is investigating the incident.
Kaiser to set a new
course
Surgeon was picked to bring UT
health center to the forefront
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
He created a top-notch University of Pennsylvania program in chest
surgery almost overnight. Later, he elevated the school's entire surgery
department to one of the best in the nation.
More recently, he
helped pioneer a program in conjunction with Penn's elite business school that
trains health officials in leadership, management and communication skills.
But Dr. Larry
Kaiser's biggest challenge yet is about to begin.
Hired last month as
the next president of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston,
the fifth in its 36-year history, Kaiser is being counted on to bring the
institution out of the shadow of its Texas Medical Center counterparts and into
the limelight — not just locally but nationally.
"This is a
young health science center, but with the foundation now in place, it's poised
to take a big step forward," said Kaiser, who succeeds Dr. James Willerson
in the job Aug. 1. "I'm not coming to Houston to fail. I'm coming because
I think UT-Houston is going to be great."
In the limelight
Kaiser,
so excited about the opportunity that he's already taken to wearing cufflinks
in the shape of Texas, is no stranger to the limelight. A big sports fan
married to the daughter of the owner of the Philadelphia Flyers and the
76ers, he's been in the news for his care of some of their star players. A nonsmoker,
he posed for a photograph in Philadelphia Magazine's "Top Docs" issue
— to the dismay of some — ostensibly puffing on a cigar while a hand readied to
chop it off. He assisted in the first successful lung transplant.
Still, in many
ways, Kaiser's selection is unconventional. His background is entirely at
private medical schools. His discipline, surgery, is not considered the most
fertile source of presidents or deans. And he has an interest in lung cancer,
which seems sufficiently emphasized a few blocks away at UT's M.D. Anderson
Cancer Center.
The biggest
question may be how Kaiser, 55, will manage an institution with so many
components far from his expertise as Penn's chairman of surgery. UT-Houston is
made up of a medical school and five other schools, including dentistry,
nursing and public health.
But in a recent
town hall meeting at UT-Houston, Kaiser's responses to such questions charmed
faculty and staff, who gave him a standing ovation.
Kaiser certainly
brings an impressive resume. Holder of the nation's first endowed chair in
surgery (which dates to the 1870s), he's one of the few surgeon members
of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He was a
pioneer of video thoracoscopy, which makes possible minimally invasive
diagnoses and treatment of diseased organs in the chest, the lungs in
particular. And he has designed surgical instruments.
"He's a true
Renaissance man, with a memory that, if it isn't photographic, is at least
encyclopedic," said Dr. Jon Morris, a surgical colleague at Penn.
"And the thing is, he's just as comfortable sitting amid the rawest of
fans at an Eagles game as he is trading ideas with other doctors at a surgeon's
conference."
Kaiser grew up in
St. Louis, the son of a building contractor, intent on becoming a physician as
far back as he can remember. He is unsure exactly where the drive came from,
except, perhaps, from a surgeon he admired who lived up the street and who
helped get him a job as an operating-room technician while he was in high school.
Kaiser started
working in hospitals when he was 15 — "I was less than honest about my
age," he acknowledged.
Background and
education
After
receiving his medical degree with honors from Tulane University in 1977, Kaiser
did his training in general surgery, then surgical oncology, then thoracic and
cardiac surgery. The latter took him to Canada, where Dr. Joel Cooper had
established a leading center at Toronto General Hospital and in 1983
transplanted a lung into a man suffering from pulmonary fibrosis. Kaiser was
part of the precedent-setting team.
Cooper remembers
the young Kaiser as already aspiring to one day become chairman of a surgery
department. Cooper counseled him against thinking ambitiously so early in his
career.
"I told him
surgeons who do that usually stumble," said Cooper. "They do what
they think will make them look good rather than focusing on their work and
rising naturally. To his credit, Larry listened and became an excellent
surgeon."
Kaiser fast became
a leader in thoracic surgery. Penn recruited him in 1991 to create the
division, and two years later, the number of thoracic surgeries increased from
about 110 annually to 1,200.
Named chairman of
surgery in 2001, Kaiser led similarly impressive growth. National Institutes of
Health funding went from the nation's 11th-most to fourth-most. The
department's endowment increased from $93 million to $140 million.
Still an Eagle and
Flyer fan?
The
keenest disappointment over Kaiser's departure may lie with his Eagle- and
Flyer-fan friends, who say they'll watch closely to see whether he remains
loyal to the teams. He had to assure a fretful Ed Snider, his father-in-law and
chairman of Comcast-Spectator, that he'll still be able to refer his injured
players to top Philadelphia doctors.
Kaiser, who'll
maintain a surgery practice in Houston one day a week, downplays any family
anxiety about the move. His wife, Lindy, the creator of a line of skin-care
products for cancer patients, will work from Houston while the business
continues to be based in Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, Kaiser
downplays the challenges ahead at UT-Houston, arguing that as surgery chairman,
he's well-versed in dealing with numerous constituencies and subspecialties in
which he has little expertise.
"I'm just
hoping to build on what Dr. Willerson established," said Kaiser. "My
philosophy is to create an atmosphere where talented people want to come, then
give them the authority and the responsibility to keep them."
ACLU
alleges TYC abuses girls in solitary confinement
Lawsuit
alleges improper strip searches, 'brutal physical force.'
Austin AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Friday, June 13, 2008
Mike Ward
A year after a sex abuse scandal triggered a
top-to-bottom management makeover at the Texas Youth Commission, a civil rights
group sued the agency Thursday, saying that teenage girls have been abused at a
Central Texas lockup.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Austin, the
American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Texas said five incarcerated girls —
"all of whom have histories of sexual, physical, or emotional abuse"
— were abused in the Brownwood State School with "unwarranted solitary
confinement, routine strip searches and brutal physical force."
"Throwing children into cold, bare solitary
confinement cells is profoundly damaging, especially to children who previously
have been abused," Mie Lewis, a staff attorney with the ACLU Women's
Rights Project, said in a statement. "TYC's reliance on solitary
confinement has to stop."
The lawsuit states that the mistreatment violates
the U.S. Constitution and international standards protecting children from
abuse and "prohibiting torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment."
Jim Hurley, a spokesman for the Youth Commission,
denied the allegations. He said the agency is making strides to improve
conditions.
Hurley said the ACLU had not notified the agency
about problems before it filed the lawsuit.
"We would rather do this as partners rather
than across the table" in court, he said.
Terry Burke, executive director of the ACLU of
Texas, said the organization stands by the lawsuit. But based on discussions
between the agency and the ACLU on Thursday, she said, the organization is
hoping that the issue can be resolved.
The Youth Commission's ombudsman, Will Harrell, is
the former executive director of the ACLU of Texas. In a statement, Harrell
called the lawsuit "unfortunate."
"When I was the executive director ... I never
would have filed a lawsuit first and asked questions later," Harrell said.
"I'm disappointed."
The agency's ombudsman monitors the conditions of
confinement, among other duties.
The Brownwood lockup — formally known as the Ron
Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex — is a high-security unit that
holds about 150 teenage girls serving time for a variety of offenses.
According to the ACLU of Texas, girls at Brownwood
"are regularly placed in punitive solitary confinement in oppressively
cold, concrete cells, empty except for a metal slab intended to be used as a
bed."
"Upon entering or exiting solitary confinement
and on other occasions when they have not left the facility — for example, when
they finish a work assignment within the prison — girls are subject to invasive
strip searches," the statement said.
"When girls resist, guards regularly use physical
force, pepper spray, handcuffs and leather straps to force them to comply.
These tactics are also used on girls already in solitary confinement in
response to self-harm, shouting, and banging on the wall."
Lisa Graybill, legal director of the ACLU of Texas,
said the lawsuit was filed after the issues had gone unaddressed for more than
a year.
State Rep. Jerry Madden, a Richardson Republican who
is co-chairman of a special legislative committee that oversees changes at the
Youth Commission, said that the lawsuit concerns him and that the allegations
will be investigated by his committee.
"I'm surprised the ombudsman didn't come to us
earlier on this or that the conservator didn't come to us about it,"
Madden said.
mward@statesman.com; 445-1712
Cost of raid
to taxpayers could top $14 million, according to newspaper
About
one-third of cost is lawyers' fees, documents show.
Austin American Statesman
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Associated Press
FORT WORTH — The
cost of the April raid on a polygamist compound in West Texas is expected to
top $14 million, about one-third of it in lawyers' fees, according to a
published analysis of state records.
The Fort Worth
Star-Telegram reviewed more than 400 pages of invoices, e-mails and other state
records that it obtained under an open-records law request. It published its
findings Saturday. More invoices for overtime, travel and professional services
are expected to boost the final tab, the records indicate.
The biggest chunk
of spending is expected to stem from court proceedings after the state seized
about 460 children from the Yearning For Zion Ranch near Eldorado, which is
owned by the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints.
A state district
judge in San Angelo first gave custody of the children to the state child
protective services agency, but the Texas Supreme Court returned the children
to their parents.
The state expects
to pay nearly $4.5 million in legal fees, including for lawyers who represented
the state and others appointed by judges to represent the children.
The state also
expects to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for expert witnesses, visiting
judges and office supplies.
The state attorney
general's office has been billed $110,000 for DNA testing of adults and
children taken from the ranch in an effort to identify the parents of each
child.
Another big chunk
of spending, about $2.4 million, went to rent buses and facilities to house the
children and some of the mothers after the raid, the newspaper reported.
Overtime for state
employees, including workers in the state's protective services agencies, was
about $1.7 million, and travel another $1.2 million during the first month
after the raid.
The Texas
Department of Public Safety spent nearly $1.3 million, including $410,000 for
overtime pay and about $82,000 for travel.
The Star-Telegram
said the records didn't include bills submitted by private charity groups that
helped the state, and invoices from state employees might still be submitted.
Stephanie Goodman,
spokeswoman for the state's Health and Human Services Commission, said the
documents released to the newspaper captured "the vast majority of the
overtime and the travel." She said state officials were still working with
foster-care facilities to cover costs not included in daily rates.
New tax on
businesses goes into effect in Texas
Waco Tribune Herald
June 16, 2008
AUSTIN — A new tax on Texas businesses took effect Monday
after a one-month delay.
The
tax was approved by the Legislature in 2006 as part of an effort to overhaul
the funding of public education in Texas, which has relied heavily on property
taxes.
Small-business
groups and some politicians have renewed complaints against the gross-reciepts
or franchise tax, and lawmakers may look at the issue again next year.
The
tax is set at 0.5 percent of gross receipts for retailers and wholesalers and 1
percent for other businesses, with allowances made for some deductions.
It's
estimated that about one-third of the state's 900,000 businesses will owe the
tax.
Sole
proprietors are exempt from the tax, as are companies that would owe less than
$1,000, and those with gross receipts of less than $300,000 per year.
Businesses with gross receipts of $300,000 to $900,000 would pay lower rates.
While
Monday was the deadline for businesses to file their returns under the new tax,
they could have asked for an extension.
The
original filing deadline of May 15 was delayed because of questions about the
new tax, said a spokesman for the comptroller's office.
This
month, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, mulling a run for governor,
criticized the tax, which was enacted with the support of Gov. Rick Perry.
Hutchison
called the business tax a corporate income tax, and she said the promised
reduction in property taxes hadn't occurred.
Lt.
Gov. David Dewhurst said last week he would consider urging the Legislature to
change the tax in next year's session. Dewhurst said he has never liked the
tax.
Perry
said at the state Republican convention last week that the Legislature must
return a budget surplus to taxpayers, possibly by lowering property taxes,
sales taxes or the business tax.
The
stiffest opposition to the tax has come from owners of small businesses, even
though many are exempt from the levy. The National Federation of Independent
Business said its survey indicated that about 40 percent of members would pay
more than 500 percent more in state taxes this year than they paid last year.
Will
Newton, the executive director of NFIB's Texas chapter, called the tax "a
high price to pay for doing business in this state." He called for its
immediate repeal or reform.
Newton
said lawmakers passed the tax without knowing how much money it will raise and
how many jobs will be lost or businesses forced to close.
The
2006 tax package was supported by some business groups, including the Texas
Association of Business. Some companies believed the old franchise tax was
unfair because many businesses didn't pay. The Legislature faced a Texas
Supreme Court ruling that relying on property taxes to fund schools was
unconstitutional.
Youth
injured at Mart's TYC facility
Waco Tribune Herald
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
By Cindy V. Culp
Texas
Youth Commission officials are investigating how an inmate at a local juvenile
prison was injured Sunday night after colliding with a glass window or door.
An
officer from TYC’s Office of Inspector General has been assigned to the case,
said commission spokesman Jim Hurley. Part of the investigation will look at
whether any staff members are at fault in the incident, he said.
The
injured inmate was being housed at Unit I of TYC’s Mart campus. It serves as an
intake center for all males entering TYC.
The
injury happened as the inmate was being led to a security cell by staff
members, Hurley said. Such cells are used when inmates misbehave, usually when
they exhibit violent behavior.
As
the youth was being led to the cell, he at some point “went through” either a
plate-glass window or door, suffering cuts, Hurley said. He was taken to a Waco
hospital, where he received stitches and later was released, Hurley said.
Hurley
said he could not by law provide any detailed information about the inmate,
including his age. No other information about the incident was available
Monday.
cculp@wacotrib.com
757-5744
Voting
Rights Lawyers Defeat Texas' Bogus Voter Fraud Prosecutions
AlterNet
May 29, 2008, Printed on June 18, 2008
By Steven Rosenfeld
http://www.alternet.org/story/86737/
A years-long,
high-profile campaign by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican, to
prosecute elderly Democratic Party volunteers for voter fraud because they
helped homebound seniors to vote by mailing their absentee ballots -- but not
signing the backs of envelopes -- fell apart on federal court house steps in
Texas on Wednesday.
The Attorney
General agreed to settle a federal lawsuit challenging the voter fraud
prosecutions of the Democratic volunteers rather than go to trial, according to
the Lone Star Campaign, which first characterized the AG's prosecutions as
politically motivated voter suppression and funded the litigation. Gerald
Hebert, an ex-Department of Justice Voting Section Chief and now executive
director of the Washington-based Campaign legal Center, represented the Texas
Democratic Party and volunteers in the suit.
"Now, none of
those people would have never been prosecuted," Hebert told the Associated
Press.
Abbott's office
also claimed victory in the settlement, although almost all of the legal issues
were resolved in the plaintiff's favor. Nonetheless, the attorney general told The
New York Times the plaintiffs "discovered that their claims were
without basis in fact or law" and "dropped their suit."
The prosecutions
Abbott had spent
$1.4 million in discretionary federal law enforcement funds to create a special
investigations unit to find and prosecute voter fraud. The same funding source
was used in 1999 in Tulia, Texas, where a state undercover agent fabricated
cocaine-related charges against three dozen mostly African-American residents
that ultimately were overturned and prompted gubernatorial pardons.
While Abbott's
voter fraud unit did find and prosecute handful of instances of political
operatives pressuring seniors to vote for specific candidates, the task force
also prosecuted elderly Democratic Party volunteers -- almost all minorities --
who helped homebound neighbors to vote by assisting them with obtaining and
then mailing their absentee ballots. Under a 2003 Texas law, anyone who
possesses another person's ballot and does not sign their name on the back of
the ballot is guilty of a misdemeanor. Depending on the number of ballots
involved, the charge rises to a felony.
Abbott's
investigators prosecuted a Texarkana City Council member and her granddaughter
for helping seniors vote in this manner. The councilwoman, who pleaded guilty
rather than fight the charges, said she wanted to teach her grand daughter
about the civic process. In Fort Worth, two investigators spied on an elderly
woman while she was showering and then knocked on her front door to question
her, traumatizing the woman. That same neighborhood has crack dealers that were
ignored by Abbott's investigators while they targeted Democrats. Other targets
of the investigations moved out of state.
The prosecutions
sent a chill through some of the state's African-American and Latino
communities where there is a tradition of neighbors helping other neighbors to
vote. The Dallas County Democratic Party stopped sending campaign volunteers to
people's homes to help them register to vote. As recently as the day the suit
was headed to federal court - Wednesday - Abbott's office told the media, notably
The New York Times that "there is no evidence that enforcement
has intimidated anyone into stopping voter assistance efforts."
AlterNet.org published an extensive report
on Abbott's activities earlier this year that was reprinted as a cover story in
The Texas Observer magazine and prompted renewed scrutiny in the Texas
and national media of the attorney general's voter fraud task force.
According to a news
release by the Lone Star Campaign, the settlement included the following terms:
·
The Texas Attorney General has agreed to rewrite prosecution guidelines
to reflect that voters who merely possess the ballot of another voter with that
voter's consent will not be investigated or prosecuted unless there's evidence
of actual fraud. Prosecutions will be limited to cases exists such as when a
person illegally votes a ballot for another person or causes a person to vote
for a different candidate than they wish.
- By agreeing to this settlement, the Texas
Attorney General has essentially acknowledged that those who have been
prosecuted to date for hyper-technical violations of failing to sign a
mail ballot envelope did not commit any fraud, as he has falsely claimed
for years.
- The Attorney General's filings in the case also
revealed that two of the elderly plaintiffs, Gloria Meeks and Rebecca
Minneweather, were no longer under investigation, a point the Attorney
General had failed to tell these voters.
- The Attorney General also agreed that the Secretary
of State would change instructions to voters who vote by mail in 2008. The
Secretary of State had already made changes to the ballot envelope and
instructions to voters, acknowledging that such changes were made as a
result of the lawsuit.
- The Attorney General and Secretary of State
also agreed to consider additional revisions to voter instruction language
that make it clear to voters, and those who assist them, the proper
procedures for voting by mail. The Plaintiff will also help the Secretary of
State's office create training materials and guidelines so those who help
their neighbors vote will do so in accordance with the law.
- Plaintiffs agreed to drop all pending claims
except for the pending challenge to the State's restriction on a person's
acting as a witness on only one mail ballot application."
In a prepared
statement, Lone Star Project Director Matt Angle commented on the settlement
and the partisan nature of the prosecutions.
"Voter
suppression and intimidation are tools in the Republican political
arsenal," he said. "Greg Abbott used them enthusiastically in
prosecuting these citizens. Citizens fought back, and by agreeing to change his
prosecution policies, Greg Abbott has acknowledged that he was wrong. Like any
typical bully, he backed down."
Angle said the
settlement would change the way Democrats could campaign in 2008.
"Texans can
now assist elderly or disabled neighbors participate in elections without fear
of improper prosecution," he said. "By agreeing to this settlement,
Greg Abbott is acknowledging that his office was engaging in improper
prosecutions."
Abbott told the
Associated Press that the settlement would not curtail his office's efforts to
combat voter fraud.
"This
agreement in no way limits our ability to prosecute anyone or any violation of
the voter fraud statue," he said.
But Angle
disagreed.
"It is not
surprising that Greg Abbott would attempt to spin this as a victory for his
office," he said. "But the fact remains that he changed his
prosecution policy because he knew that his office was racially selectively
prosecuting minority activists and Democrats for hyper-technical violations of
the law."
Ex-state school worker gets 5 years in burn case
Waco Tribune Herald
June 17, 2008
ABILENE, Texas — A former Abilene State
School worker who burned a severely disabled woman's face with a hair dryer was
sentenced to five years in prison.
Benjamin
Kershaw, 33, of Abilene was sentenced Monday after being convicted in April of
recklessly causing serious bodily injury to a disabled person, a second-degree
felony that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
"The
interesting thing about this case was that the judge found that the hair dryer
was a deadly weapon," said Taylor County prosecutor Lynn Peach.
The
35-year-old blind, deaf quadriplegic cannot speak but managed to scream in
pain, Peach said. She has scars after suffering second-degree burns to her
face, and she continues living in the facility for the mentally and
developmentally disabled because she has no family, Peach said.
Kershaw,
who was fired shortly after the 2006 incident, testified that the burning was
an accident, the prosecutor said. He said he was trying to get her to turn her
head so he could dry the other side of her hair.
Kershaw's
attorney Sam Mehaffey, who had sought probation for his client, did not
immediately return calls to The Associated Press seeking comment.
CPS says
most sect children did not return to ranch
Lawyer
says she and some others advised against going back.
Austin American Statesman
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Corrie MacLaggen
Most of the children the state returned to their
parents last week did not go back to the polygamist sect's ranch in Eldorado,
Child Protective Services officials said Wednesday.
Of the 440 children, 143 went to 30 households at
the ranch, which is owned by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints. The largest number of children — 178 — have
settled in 33 households in the San Antonio area.
The rest are scattered throughout the state, CPS
spokesman Patrick Crimmins said. He declined to say where.
"Frankly, we want them to be able to maintain
their privacy," he said.
Cynthia Martinez of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which
represents 48 mothers, said some parents are in the Austin and San Angelo
areas.
"There are a lot of people who think that CPS
might hold that against them, if they went to the ranch," she said.
Crimmins said CPS has no preference where in the
state the families live.
As part of an order canceling her April decision to
give the state custody of the children, state District Judge Barbara Walther
required parents to keep their children in Texas and tell CPS where they live.
Walther's order sending the children home came after
the Texas Supreme Court ruled that CPS should not have seized the children from
the polygamist sect's ranch in April. State officials raided the Yearning for
Zion Ranch and took the children, saying all were in danger of abuse because of
a pattern of underage girls marrying older men.
D'Ann Johnson, Austin branch manager of Texas
RioGrande Legal Aid, said she and some other lawyers advised their clients not
to go back to the ranch.
"The last thing the kids remember was pretty
traumatic, and there's uncertainty about what's going to happen in the future
over there," she said.
Two of the three mothers Johnson represents are
living in San Antonio, she said. The third, Sara Steed, a mother of six,
returned to the ranch, Johnson said.
"Mostly it's people who have marriage
certificates with their husbands and birth certificates for their kids are the
people who are back," Johnson said.
Johnson said Steed told her the ranch's furniture
factory is running again and that sect members are busy making furniture to
replace items that members took to furnish their new homes.
But there are not enough people back at the ranch to
run the school, Johnson said.
"People are real scared about what's going to
happen," she said. "They're worried that CPS is going to have to do
something because they have a little egg on their face and they don't want to
be there to be easy targets."
Although the children returned to their parents, the
case is far from over.
Walther's order requires parents to allow CPS to
visit their homes and interview their children for its abuse and neglect
investigations. Meanwhile, court-ordered DNA test results are starting to come
in and may be used for the investigations, Crimmins said.
As CPS continues to investigate, the Texas Rangers
and the attorney general's office are working on a separate criminal
investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse.
Also on Wednesday, Deseret (Utah) News reported that
Walther's home is under guard after Utah and Arizona authorities warned of
"enforcers" from the sect.
Police assigned to Walther's house were provided
dossiers and photos of 16 men and women deemed a threat, the newspaper said.
Rod Parker, a Salt Lake City-based attorney for the
sect, said law enforcement has nothing to worry about.
Job centers facing closure
Many fear minorities will be
forgotten
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
The WorkSource-Northeast job center on Little York bustled with
activity before noon one day last week.
Nearly 50 people,
including laid-off workers, welfare recipients, ex-convicts, and first-time job
seekers clustered around computer stations in the employment office checking on
job openings. Some interviewed with company recruiters visiting the center,
while other clients faxed résumés or huddled with employment counselors.
Clients may soon
need to look elsewhere for job-hunting help. A 25 percent cut in state
employment funds may force the closure of the Little York center, as well as
two others operated by the nonprofit SER-Jobs For Progress, officials with the
Houston-Galveston Area Council said.
The council board
is set to vote on the proposal today.
"It would hurt
people, especially around this neighborhood," said Liana Ramirez, a
19-year-old Sam Houston State University student who was helping her father
e-mail his résumé. "There are low-income families who don't have computers
in their homes to look for a job."
Meanwhile, advocacy groups and elected officials are
fighting the recommendation to cancel SER's $5.1 million contract in Houston.
SER, a Hispanic service organization established in 1964 with 35 offices
nationwide, has a 30-year record of operating federally funded training
programs in Houston that help Hispanics and other minority communities.
State Sen. Mario
Gallegos, D-Houston, is upset with the closure of the three SER centers, and
plans to meet with council officials to discuss a compromise, or a grace
period.
"I was never
told, nor were any of my colleagues, that SER-Jobs For Progress was going to be
hit like it is — the complete gutting of their funding," said Gallegos.
Poor timing
"For
a hit like this ... especially when folks are looking for jobs and the economy
is like it is, it's not thinking it through," the senator said.
Activists say the
closures would be especially hard on low-income Hispanic and African-American
residents. Besides providing job referral and training, the centers issue
vouchers for gas, pay for needed tools and equipment, provide dress clothing
for interviews, arrange payments for child care, and verify that welfare
recipients are looking for jobs.
"These three
sites are in predominately Hispanic areas, and we're contesting that,"
said John Martinez, commander of the American GI Forum's chapter in Houston.
"It will affect the Hispanic community, as well as some of our returning
veterans."
Houston-Galveston
Area Council officials, who administer state and federal employment and
training money for 13 local counties, said an anticipated $17 million funding
cut prompted them to eliminate SER's contract because their performance was the
weakest of four current contractors.
Three closures
In
all, three northside job centers run by SER, and three or four others operated
by other contractors, will be closed by the end of September. That will reduce
the existing 34 job centers in the 13-county area to 27 or 28, officials said.
"The decision
of which contractor to reduce really fell to performance,"said Rodney
Bradshaw, director of the council's human services program.
SER management,
Bradshaw said, did not meet 20 of 30 required performance criteria, and an
internal document stated SER was dropped because "it has been the lowest
performing career office contractor over the past three years ... "
But SER officials
in Houston said the cancellation was unfair.
Jesse Castaneda,
before resigning as SER's executive director last week, acknowledged a past
problem with ineligible people receiving services at the northeast center. The
center's director and a supervisor left, but the situation ''dropped us
back," Castaneda said.
Nory Angel, SER's
interim executive director, said the agency is regrouping.
'It's a bad idea'
The
news disappointed corporate recruiters who regularly conduct interviews at the
SER centers.
"It's a bad
idea," said Alfredo Esparza, the Houston recruiting manager for Stevens
Transport, which offers free job training to new employees. "Our company
really utilitizes these centers, and I'm here every other week."
And the WorkSource
center on Little York is only blocks from the Cheyenne Center, a hotel
converted into a residential treatment facility where dozens of ex-offenders
with substance abuse problems live.
''This particular
center here is needed, because this is where all of us come to find work, and
it's within walking distance," said Darrell Gray, a 51-year-old who was
paroled from prison last month after serving time for drug violations.
8 lose jobs at Upper Rio Grande
El Paso Times
6/17/2008
Upper
Rio Grande layoffs: Workforce Solutions Upper Rio Grande laid off eight office
workers Monday as part of its cost-cutting moves to deal with a $4.1-million
budget cut that takes effect July 1, the agency announced Monday afternoon.
Upper
Rio Grande employs 57 administrators in El Paso and oversees another 200
employees who work for five contractors that run its 10 employment centers in
West Texas. Last year, the board had a budget of $43.4 million.
More
layoffs are expected, but they will be up to each individual contractor, said
Lauren Macias-Cervantes, the agency's director of regional relations.
The
board also plans to reduce scholarships and tuition reimbursements that are
available to job seekers and cut back on grants to employers, she said.
David
Burge
SER centers lose $5.1 million contract
Senator wants H-GAC to reassess
criteria that led to the funding cut for the Hispanic group
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle TOOLS
A longtime Hispanic service agency lost a multimillion-dollar contract
Tuesday to operate three employment centers on the northside, but a Houston
state senator wants the local government council to revisit that decision.
The
Houston-Galveston Area Council of Government voted unanimously to cut funding
to the nonprofit SER-Jobs For Progress when its $5.1 million contract expires
Sept. 30.
SER operates three
of H-GAC's 34 job counseling centers, but council officials said an anticipated
25 percent drop in next year's federal job funding is forcing them to close six
or seven centers.
H-GAC staff rated
SER the worst-performing contractor despite 30 years of H-GAC contracts in
Houston.
''I know it was a
tough decision," said H-GAC chairman B.J. Gaines Jr., a Walker County
commissioner, after the vote.
However, state Sen.
Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, noted that SER's performance on one set of
production criteria set by the H-GAC board exceeded a for-profit contractor
whose contract was extended. He added that SER was not notified of performance
ratings until late last month.
''Give me a break —
it's insulting at the least," Gallegos said. ''I'm very disappointed with
the H-GAC board members. I want them to reassess the entire (performance)
measures."
Faced with a $17
million cut in funding, the H-GAC followed staff and committee recommendations
to award $41.5 million in employment funds to Houston Works, Arbor E&T and
Interfaith of The Woodlands. That amount reflects contract cuts of 13 to 38
percent next year for the agencies. Ending SER's contract means their 80
Houston employees will lose their jobs.
''In every
instance, it's been a unanimous vote that this is a necessary decision,"
said Rodney Bradshaw, the H-GAC director of human services programs. ''There's
been a very public and open process, and I think it was a reasonable decision
given the proposals (by contractors), given performance, and given the federal
funding cut."
State gets OK to expand screening system for public
assistance
Dallas Morning News
Saturday, June 21, 2008
AUSTIN – Texas won
a federal go-ahead this week to switch almost 300,000 needy people to a
different eligibility-screening system for public assistance.
The Health and
Human Services Commission, though, hasn't decided when to expand the troubled
"integrated eligibility" system. Commission chief Albert Hawkins will
take at least a month to ponder his options, a spokeswoman said Friday.
The agency is
caught between Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, who wants proof that
application-processing delays have been eliminated before further rollouts
occur, and Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, who agrees fixes are needed but
says relief is needed now. She said there's woeful service at North Texas
welfare offices that use an older screening system.
The agency is torn
between the new Web-based software technology on which it has gambled some $420
million – and which is hard for workers to use – and a mainframe computer
system so outdated that programmers are difficult to recruit.
Commission
spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said processing delays in the new system are
fewer these days because the state has added 800 eligibility workers since
January. Still, some advocates for poor children aren't sure Texas has turned a
corner.
"We are still
experiencing delays and noticing that they are not able to process within the
45-day time period," said Kit Abney Spelce of Insure a Kid, a nonprofit
that helps uninsured children in greater Austin obtain government health
coverage. She referred to federal Medicaid rules that require an application to
be decided in 45 days.
State eligibility
workers at five Austin-area welfare offices have used software known as TIERS –
Texas Integrated Eligibility Redesign System – since June 2003. Funded by the
Legislature in 1999, TIERS allows a family to submit just one application for
four major aid programs – food stamps, Medicaid, cash assistance and the
Children's Health Insurance Program.
While Mr. Hawkins
says TIERS stretches scarce tax dollars by eliminating wide variations in how
eligibility workers decide who qualifies for aid, critics say it's cumbersome,
takes many months to learn and contributes to high staff turnover.
Ms. Spelce said
families who only want to enroll their children in Medicaid, the nation's main
health program for the poor, are asked for documents not required by Medicaid
but by some other programs for which TIERS checks a household's eligibility.
"Families are getting 'missing information' letters for children's Med