Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 129, No. 45, Ed. 1 Sunday, June 5, 2011 Page: 4 of 20
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PAGE 4A
OPINIONS
THE POLK COUNTY ENTERPRISE
SUNDAY, JUNE 5,2011
LYLE USEP TO
m 5HPUG OFF
PREPARING FOP
HURRICANE SEASON/
PUT I'M SURE
THAT WONT K THE
CASE THIS YEAR...
tism jRg
0#Xt FLOKim ItJPAY
Legislature goes into
overtime for budget
PTlhe most exciting
sporting events are
JL those that go into
overtime. The basketball
championship settled by a
single three-point shot or a
football game that comes
down to one final drive adds
to the drama of sports.
The Legislature found it-
self in a similar situation this
last week when time ran out
and bills were left without
final approval, including leg-
islation to determine educa-
tion funding.
We are now in legislative
overtime to resolve some of
these issues. Unlike a game,
however, there is much
more at stake than a trophy
and bragging rights. My goal
during this special session is
to help all of Texas win with
the best policies possible to
resolve our current funding
issues.
Five things that happened
this week at your Texas
Capitol are:
1. Special session called
Monday was the last
day of the regular legisla-
tive session, but Gov. Rick
Perry called legislators back
the next day to finish work
on education funding and
Medicaid reforms necessary
to enact the state budget.
Perry later added
Congressional redistricting
to the agenda. The Governor
may add other issues as the
session progresses. A spe-
cial session can last up to 30
days, but the governor may
call additional special ses-
sions as needed.
2. Bill to protect water
ratepayers hits a road-
block.
Sometimes bills die be-
cause they cannot pass the
Senate. Sometimes they die
because they cannot pass the
House. Unfortunately, some
bills are passed overwhelm-
ing by both chambers but die
because they are caught be-
hind other legislation at the
end of session.
That is what happened to
my Senate Bill 635 which
created policies and pro-
tections to help ratepayers
paying excessive water and
wastewater bills.
Senate Bill 635 would have
transferred ratemaking from
the Texas Department of
Environmental Quality to the
Public Utility Commission.
The bill would allow the ex-
ecutive director of the PUC
to establish an interim rate
to provide relief to ratepay-
ers and allow for the Office
of Public Utility Council
to represent the interests of
residential and small com-
mercial consumers during
rate cases.
Because I believe these re-
forms are needed as soon as
possible, 1 am asking Gov.
Perry to add this issue to the
call for the legislative ses-
sion.
3. Second Amendment
rights for employees driv-
ing to and from work pro-
tected
The Legislature passed
Senate Bill 321 which will
prevent employers from
adopting policies that deny
Second Amendment protec-
tions to their employees who
wish to store legally owned
firearms in their locked ve-
hicles while at work.
Millions of Texans spend
hours each week in their
cars and trucks as they com-
mute to and front work.
Unfortunately, many Texans
are prohibited from storing
their legally owned firearm
in a locked vehicle on com-
pany property.
Senate Bill 321 balances
the rights of both the em-
ployer and employee. Under
the new law, employees will
regain their express right to
store legally owned firearms
and ammunition in their ve-
hicles at their place of work,
and with it, the ability to pro-
tect themselves as they travel
to and from their jobs.
Employers will be protect-
ed from any lawsuit result-
ing from the use of a firearm
stored on their property, and
they can still forbid an em-
ployee from carrying a fire-
arm in company owned ve-
hicles.
4. Local control for trans-
portation projects
The Legislature passed
Senate Bill 19 which is a
continuation of the work 1
started with the moratorium
on private toll roads four
years ago. This bill guaran-
tees that not only will local
entities always have the first
opportunity to decide if a
transportation project will be
tolled it gives them the first
opportunity to execute the
project.
5. Remembering Texas’
Heroes during Memorial
Day Weekend
Despite the hectic end-
of-session schedule over
Memorial Day Weekend, the
Legislature took time out to
honor and remember the mil-
itary men and women who
lost their lives during the last
two years.
Two families from Senate
District 3 who lost loved
ones participated in the cer-
emony.
As an elected official, I
sometimes get to meet dis-
tinguished people, but there
is no act more humbling than
thanking these Texans who
made the ultimate sacrifice
for freedom.
Nothing merry about old king coal
TT some predator were
I stalking fourth-graders in
JLyour community, there’d
be a mighty uproar to make
the predator get away and stay
away from your schools.
But what if the stalker is
the coal industry, dressed in
an academic outfit in order
to get into fourth-grade
classrooms and brainwash the
kids? Unbeknownst to most
Americans, grade-schoolers
are being targeted by the
American Coal Foundation
with a propaganda package
stealthily titled, “The United
States of Energy.”
It’s not mentioned in the
materials, but Big Coal paid
big bucks to Scholastic Inc.
to develop this shamelessly
distorted promotion of the
dirtiest fuel on earth. The
package fills little minds with
the joys of having 600 friendly,
coal-fueled utilities generating
electricity 24 hours a day. Not
a peep is made about any of
coal’s long litany of negatives
,Ai including toxic waste,
air and water pollution, mine
explosions, black lung deaths,
mountaintop destruction,
greenhouse gas emissions,
political corruption and other
decidedly unfriendly aspects
of what industry propagandists
simply tout as “black gold.”
This printed “educational
package” has been distributed
to 66,000 fourth-grade
teachers, potentially putting
its perverted view into the
JIM HIGHTOWER
heads of more than a million
children. Another 82,000
teachers of fourth-graders
were asked to download the
package online.
Of course, the coal giants
could not have entered so
many schools on their own,
so they bought access to our
kids through Scholastic, a
$2-billion-a-year corporation
that says it places its books
and materials in nine out of
10 U.S. classrooms. Indeed,
Scholastic’s In School market-
ing division brags of its ability
to “promote client objectives”
by targeting teachers and stu-
dents with classroom pack-
ages that “make a difference
by influencing attitudes and
behavior.”
How sweet. Friends of the
Earth calls Scholastic’s coal
whitewash the “worst kind of
corporate brainwashing.”
For a less saccharin take
on the industry, check out a
West Virginia report issued
last month on Massey Energy,
a $3.4 billion coal giant
that is the most dominant in
Appalachia.
It is also among the most
reckless of corporations,
earning hundreds of mine
safety citations every year.
In 2010, its notoriously
unsafe Upper Big Branch
Mine exploded, killing 29
miners. Massey’s careless
honchos rushed out to declare
total innocence: couldn’t have
been predicted, much less
prevented, they insisted.
Even the Brothers Grimm
could not have come up with a
fairy tale as fanciful ,Ai or as
grim ,Ai as the one concocted
by these executives. According
to them, the blast was caused
by a giant ball of methane that
mysteriously bubbled from the
ground and blew up the men.
Goodness gracious, great balls
of lire!
What a fantasy.
Now for the grim reality.
In an unusually blunt report
commissioned by the state, an
independent team of mining
experts puts the blame for the
West Virginia disaster directly
on Massey Energy’s bosses
and investors.
“An accident waiting to
happen,” says the report,
showing that the corporation
“operated in a profoundly
reckless manner.” By
disregarding safety in the
pursuit of another almighty
dollar, executives illegally
allowed an intolerable level
of explosive coal dust to
accumulate, carrying the blast
through the mine to kill men
far from the first detonation.
Massey also built “a
culture in which wrongdoing
became acceptable,” say the
investigators. Worker safety
complaints were met with
intimidation, safety inspectors
were cast as “enemies,”
and Massey used campaign
contributions to keep public
officials from cracking down.
Meanwhile - more than ayear
after the 29 men were killed
- Congressional Republicans
and a few coal-state
Democrats are still blocking
reforms to stop the murderous
malfeasance of corporate
powers like Massey. To help
break their stranglehold, and
to honor those men who paid
with their lives for coalfield
greed, contact Council for
Occupational Safety and
Health: www.coshnetwork.
org.
To find out more about Jim
Hightower, and read features
by other Creators Syndicate
writers and cartoonists, visit
the Creators Syndicate web
page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2011
CREATORS.COM
Little known juvenile justice developments
Letters to the Editor Policy
The letters may be written on any subject or issue of gen-
eral interest. Letters must be accompanied by a name and
mailing address and will be subject to editing for grammar,
punctuation, spelling and length. Letters must include a
telephone number for verification. We will not publish the
telephone number.
Readers should keep their letters brief and to the point.
Each letter should contain no more than 650 words. Letters
exceeding that length will be subject to editing or withheld
from publication.
Letters will also be subject to editing for libelous state-
ments and commercialism.
Letters may be submitted in person; mailed to “Let-
ters to the editor,” Polk County Enterprise, P.O. Box 1276,
Livingston, TX 77351; sent by fax to (936) 327-7156 or sent
via e-mail to polknews@gmail.com.
POLKCOUNTY
ENTERPRISE
ALVIN HOLLEY, PUBLISHER
Telephone Number 936-327-4357
(DSPS 437-34#)
WEBSITE: www.EMtTenmNewLcom
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Any erroneous reflection upon the character, naming or reptaadon rf my person, inn or corporation which
may appear in this newspaper will be glatfly corrected upon being brought to the attention cd the publisher.
Opinions expressed in columns are those at the writer and not necessarily those rrfthis newspaper Opinions
expressed in editorial arc those of the Enteiprine. POSTMASTER: Periodical postage peril at Livingston. TX.
Please send address changes to PO. Box 1276. Livingston, Texas 77351.
AUSTIN - The Texas Youth
Commission (TYC) has just
announced the closure of three
facilities, due to state budget
cuts, and in six months, the
agency itself will be abolished
under the just-passed “sunset”
bill, SB 653, which also ends
the Texas Juvenile Probation
Commission.
Because few Texans grasp
the sea change occurring in
the state’s approach to juvenile
justice, on June 2 Texans Care
for Children—a key advocacy
group behind SB 653 and fa-
cilitator of the Juvenile Justice
Roundtable—released the list
below, “Four Little-Known
Developments Regarding the
Rebuilding of Texas’ Juvenile
Justice System.”
While immediate cost re-
ductions from the merger are
minimal, diverting youth from
crime—a goal of SB 653-
can save the state $88 million
per year.
The legislation that merges
the state’s juvenile justice
agencies will result in only
about $3.3 million in sav-
ings in 2012-2013, according
to www.capitol.state.tx.us/
Budget Board.
(Some media reports have
cited a much higher figure,
based on an earlier decision in
the budget bill to close three
youth lock-up facilities.)
Future savings to Texas,
however, will be much higher:
successfully treating nearly
1,200 young felony offenders
at the county level spares tax-
payers nearly $88 million an-
nually in incarceration costs.
Juvenile delinquency pre-
vention programs are housed
for the first time with juvenile
corrections.
In Texas, delinquency and
drop-out prevention programs
have been the responsibil-
ity of state agencies working
outside the realm of juvenile
justice. Under SB 653, the
new Texas Juvenile Justice
Department (TJJD) will be
responsible for delinquency
prevention—making the state
agency with the most incen-
tive to prevent kids from en-
tering the system finally re-
sponsible for doing so.
Sqon, everything won’t
be bigger in Texas: The size
of our youth lock-ups could
shrink.
Nationwide, youth crime
rates have fallen for years,
leading to fewer kids behind
bars. Years of research have
found that fewer kids in a fa-
cility can lead to enormous
rehabilitation gains. SB 653
requires Texas to ensure se-
cure youth facilities are used
only as a last resort and “sited
for effective rehabilitation”
Texas’ youth lock-up popula-
tion could reach an average
of 228 kids per facility Hfis
year—six times the population
shown to be effective for reha-
bilitation. Fortunately, statute
should drive that population
down in the years ahead.
Texas could still get juve-
nile justice wrong, if the gov-
ernor fails to act quickly and
carefully.
Appointment of nearly all
members of the transition
team overseeing changes in
the state’s juvenile justice
system and the board respon-
sible for leading the new
agency will come from the
governor.
Although the governor has
until Oct. 1 to make transition
appointments, TYC and TJPC
are abolished just two months
later. If the governor doesn’t
select the right people for the
job or waits too long, the new
TJJD will falter.
Contact your
reDresentatives
Gov. Rick Perry
or 2915 Atkinson Dr.
P.O. Box 12428
Lufkin, TX 75901
Austin, TX
936/699-4988
78711-2428
Citizens Opinion
State Rep. .Inhn Otto:
Hotline:
Room E2.906
800-252-9600
Austin, TX 78701
512/463-0570
Sen. Robert Nichols;
orP.O. Box 965
P.O. Box 12068
Dayton, TX 77535
Austin, TX 78711
936/258-8135
512/463-0103
FAX 936/258-7190
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Reddell, Valerie. Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 129, No. 45, Ed. 1 Sunday, June 5, 2011, newspaper, June 5, 2011; Livingston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth660018/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Livingston Municipal Library.