This is a small step forward, but it’s an important step. In a state where attempts to expand gay rights have hit a wall of conservative Republicans, a Senate committee on Tuesday approved a bill to provide a new legal protection for sexually active gay teens. Under Senate Bill 1316, gay and lesbian teens who [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Joan Huffman’
Treating rather than jailing the mentally ill
Very good news. Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia and his medical staff wholeheartedly support a bill filed this week to reduce recidivism by the mentally ill who wind up in the county jail, a $5 million pilot program to transition them into community treatment facilities. “These individuals are principally in our custody because they are [...]
Senate approves teacher furlough bill
Another divisive bill, another party-line vote. Legislation allowing school districts to reduce teacher pay and furlough them — to help absorb big budget cuts — sailed through the Texas Senate on Monday with a straight party-line vote. Lawmakers are working to cut $4 billion from the state’s 1,040 public school districts. Giving school administrators flexibility [...]
Senate map is out, controversy precedes it
Before we had a State Senate map, we had a brawl brewing over one proposed district on it. Accusing the state Senate’s Republican leaders of a “shameful partisan attack,” Sen. Wendy Davis said Tuesday that a new redistricting map for her Tarrant County senatorial district violates the federal Voting Rights Act by ripping apart a [...]
Two forensic bills
Texas has thousands of untested rape kits in it, and a bill to try to make something happen with them. The bill, by Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, would require a police department to submit a rape kit to a crime lab within at least 10 days, and complete the DNA analysis no later than [...]
Prior bad acts
I don’t know about this. In what critics say could be a “seismic change” in state criminal law, the Texas Senate tentatively approved a bill that would allow jurors in sexual assault cases to hear testimony about similar allegations against a defendant — even if the previous incident did not result in a conviction or [...]
Huffman says nothing about public education
Republican State Sen. Joan Huffman writes an op-ed in the West U Examiner about public education that manages to say absolutely nothing of substance. As the mother of a public school student, I am a firm supporter of Texas public schools and I share your concerns about the proposed cuts to the education budget. I [...]
HPOU touts its opposition to eyewitness ID reform
Here’s a clip from the Houston Police Officers’ Union publication, Badge and Gun (June/July 2009 issue), written by HPOU President Gary Blankinship, detailing how HPOU successfully helped lead the fight against a couple of bills by State Sen. Rodney Ellis that were aimed at reducing the frequency of unjust convictions. The bills were SB117, which [...]
Another appeals court case to be proud of
By “proud”, I mean “deeply embarrassed”. Here’s Rick Casey discussing a decision by the 1st Court of Appeals in which the infamous case of death row inmate Calvin Burdine and his sleeping lawyer, Joe Cannon is referenced, and not in a good way. “Like the ‘sleeping lawyer’ case, this case will stand as a significant [...]
Windstorm insurance changes
If you live near the coast, get ready to pay more for windstorm insurance. Coastal residents insured by the state windstorm fund could see increases of 5 percent per year for the next three years under a bill passed Thursday by the Senate. The vote to send the bill to the House was 27-4. One [...]
Videotaping interrogations
One of Sen. Rodney Ellis’ many criminal justice reform bills has passed the Senate. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, won Senate approval of a measure intended to encourage the recording of police interrogations. Ellis said his Senate Bill 116 arose out of concern that convicts freed due to recovered DNA evidence have said they were initially [...]
Safe Passing Act in the Senate
I’ve blogged before about SB488, the “Safe Passing Bill”. Via email from Jon Boyd of the CTC, I’m told that the bill will be heard by the Senate Committee on Transportation & Homeland Security this week. Bike Texas has the details. What’s happening now. The 2009 Safe Passing Act, Senate Bill SB 488 will be [...]
Huffman defeats Bell
Alas. The Democrats had the votes in November, but thanks to the Republican ringer, that wasn’t good enough. My sincere thanks to Chris Bell for all he did. He deserved better. Congratulations for Sen.-elect Joan Huffman on her victory. May she be unlike so many of her fellow Republicans and respect the people who voted [...]