Tag: texas

Churches’ role in local election prompts calls for investigations

Voters in West Texas have decisively rejected three conservative Christian candidates who campaigned on infusing religious values into local decision-making. But the support the candidates received from local churches during the race has prompted calls for state and federal investigations and triggered a local political reckoning.

“I think there should definitely be some penalties,” said Weldon Hurt, a two-term Abilene City Council member who won his race for mayor against one of the candidates. “I don’t know how severe it should be, but I think there has to be a way to curtail this from happening again,” he added. “I think there should be some discipline to these churches.”

ProPublica and The Texas Tribune reported a day before the May 6 election that three churches had donated a total of $800 to the campaign of Scott Beard, a pastor who was running for City Council. That was a clear violation of the Johnson Amendment, a law passed in 1954 by Congress prohibiting nonprofits from intervening in political campaigns. The IRS can revoke the tax exemption of violators, but there’s only one publicly known example of it doing so, nearly 30 years ago.

Beard, a senior pastor at Fountaingate Fellowship, said the donations were a mistake and that he would be returning the money. But within days after Beard’s defeat to retired Air Force Col. Brian Yates, a national group that espouses the separation of church and state demanded that the IRS revoke the churches’ tax exemptions.

“Beard is insisting that he has returned the donation checks, but his belated attempt at contrition doesn’t mitigate the initial transgressions” of the churches making the donations, the Freedom from Religion Foundation wrote in a news release. The group has sued the IRS in the past “to force it to take steps to enforce the law against tax-exempt entities from engaging in partisan politicking, and is prepared to sue again if necessary.”

Keep reading

Texas Lawmakers Advance Bill To Raise Age For Buying Semiautomatic Rifles To 21

Texas state lawmakers advanced a bill on Tuesday that seeks to raise the minimum age to purchase a semiautomatic rifle to 21, just days after a mass shooting in Allen.

Two Republicans on the House Select Committee on Community Safety joined the committee’s Democrats to approve moving House Bill 2744 to the full chamber for a vote. This move is seen as a small victory for gun control advocates despite the bill being unlikely to pass the conservative Legislature and become law.

Reps. Sam Harless from Spring and Justin Holland from Rockwall, both Republicans, voted with Democrats on the last day of the bill’s deadline to move out of committee and continue through the legislative process. Their support came as a surprise, notably with Holland’s previous strong pro-Second Amendment stance.

The bill has been widely criticized by Republicans and gun rights advocates as infringing on the constitutional rights of law-abiding adults. Opponents of the bill have argued that if an 18-year-old is considered an adult with respect to voting, purchasing tobacco, and serving in the military, then it should entitle them to the full rights to protections granted by the U.S. Constitution.

The unexpected vote came just days after a gunman killed eight people, including several children, at a mall in Allen, Texas. Harless described his decision as “the most emotional vote” he’s ever taken, The New York Times reported. “I started crying after I made it. That means my heart told me I made the right vote,” he said.

Keep reading

Sex offender who told underage stepdaughter they had to have sex or a gang would kill her mom gets no prison time

A 44-year-old man in Texas accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting his 17-year-old stepdaughter by convincing her that a fictitious gang would kill her mother if she did not comply and forcing her to live in a shed behind their home for more than a year will spend no time in prison after reaching a deal with prosecutors.

Seventy-eighth District Judge Meredith Kennedy sentenced Michael Dwaine Polvado on Friday to 10 years of probation after he pleaded guilty to one count of prohibited sexual conduct, a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, court records show.

The sentence of probation was handed down in lieu of a 10-year suspended prison sentence. Polvado will also be required to register as a sex offender because the victim was 17 at the time of the offense and to have no contact with the victim in the future.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, officers from the Wichita Falls Police Department responded to a call from the victim on Aug. 8, 2021, reporting that Polvado “sexually assaulted her” and said that “threats were made against her life if she told anyone.”

Keep reading

Who is behind a string of grisly cow deaths in Texas?

Their tongues were cut off, but there was no spilled blood. No signs of struggle. No footprints or tire tracks were found. Investigators were stumped: who is going on a murderous rampage of cows in Texas, and how are there no clues surrounding their deaths?

It seemed a scene straight out of The Secrets of Skinwalker Ranch, the reality TV show on the History Channel about the Utah ranch that is supposedly the site of unexplained supernatural phenomena.

Across three Texas counties within the span of a few weeks, seven cattle were found dead under the same suspicious circumstances: lying on one side with the mutilated part of their face exposed, minus a tongue.

The cow-killing spree happened Madison, Brazos and Robertson counties – all located in east-central Texas. Each cow was from a different pasture and herd.

“A straight, clean cut, with apparent precision, had been made to remove the hide around the cow’s mouth on one side, leaving the meat under the removed hide untouched,” the Madison county sheriff’s office said.

“On two of the five cows, a circular cut was made removing the anus and the external genitalia. This circular cut was made with the same precision as the cuts noted around the jaw lines of each cow.”

Ranchers reported no predators or birds had scavenged the remains, a common theme in similar killings.

The official cause of most of the cows’ deaths is still unknown, but the freakish events have sparked memories of a long-held conspiracy theory about the mysterious deaths of livestock animals dating back to at least the 1970s in the US that lays the blame at the feet – or tentacles – of aliens in UFOs.

Keep reading

Allen, Texas mall shooter was removed from Army over mental health concerns: law enforcement sources

The suspect in Saturday’s mass shooting in Allen, Texas, has been identified as Mauricio Garcia, 33, a senior law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told CNN.

By the end of Saturday’s deadly rampage, eight people were killed and at least seven others were wounded from the massacre in the affluent suburb of Allen, about 25 miles north of Dallas.

In addition to the AR-15 style weapon found near him, Garcia had at least one other weapon on him when he was fatally shot in front of the mall, the source said. Police also found multiple weapons in his car.

CNN spoke with neighbors who witnessed FBI and police at a home of an address that matches Garcia’s parents Saturday night. They arrived there about an hour after the shooting and blocked off the street for several hours, neighbors said.

Garcia had been living in some form of transient lodging, according to the law enforcement source. Law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation told ABC News that preliminary information developed in the probe indicates that the shooter was in the U.S. Army in 2008 and was “removed due to mental health concerns.”

In addition to the insignia on the shooter’s equipment that suggested a right-wing extremist ideology, investigators have found social media accounts connected to the shooter that reveal hundreds of postings and images, including writings with racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist rhetoric, neo-Nazi material and material espousing the supremacy of the white race.

None of the subject’s postings analyzed to date were liked or shared by other users nor were there any public comments. The shooter’s account did not contain any friends or associates that were publicly visible.

Also, investigators have determined he had no criminal history and opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle. The shooter was equipped with a ballistic vest, numerous magazines and additional handguns.

Keep reading

Weird! Texas Sheriff’s Office Issues Notice Regarding Suspicious Cattle Mutilations

The Madison County Texas Sheriff’s Office released a public notice Wednesday informing locals six different cows in “different locations, pastures, and herds” have recently been found mutilated under suspicious circumstances.

In a Facebook post, the sheriff’s office explained ranchers found a dead 6-year-old longhorn-cross cow mutilated with “precision” cuts to the side of its face, “leaving the meat under the removed hide untouched.”

Continuing, the announcement stated, “The tongue was also completely removed from the body with no blood spill. It was noted there were no signs of struggle and the grass around the cow was undisturbed. No footprints or tire tracks were noted in the area.”

Adding to the strangeness of the mutilation is the fact no animals or birds would scavenge the dead cow’s carcass, which then took several weeks to decay.

The police said their investigation led them to find out five other mutilations took place nearby in Brazos County and Robertson County.

In each of the incidents the same exact precise cuts to the faces of the cattle were found and again there was no blood, tracks or signs of struggle in the grass.

In the other mutilations scavengers again refused to eat the carcasses for several weeks.

Two of the cows investigated had their “anus and the external genitalia” cut and removed with the “same precision as the cuts noted around the jaw lines of each cow.”

The Madison County Sheriff’s Office is aware of similar reports being made across America and is working with other agencies to solve the mysterious cattle deaths.

The FBI has been tracking cattle mutilation reports since the 1970s.

Keep reading

Man found guilty of spitting at police gets 70 years in prison

A Texas man was sentenced to 70 years in prison Wednesday after he was found guilty of harassing a public servant for spitting at Lubbock police officers.

Larry Pearson, 36, was arrested in May 2022 for domestic violence after a victim flagged down an officer in northeast Lubbock, prosecutor Jessica Gorman said.

The victim told police that Pearson had hit her several times and that he had a gun. Gorman said that firearm turned out to be an airsoft gun.

A police report at the time stated the victim had “multiple visible injuries” on her face. Gorman said after Pearson was taken into custody, he was upset the victim was not arrested instead.

That’s when he started kicking at the doors in the officer’s vehicle. When the officers opened the door to tell him to stop, Gorman said he spit at both officers.

Keep reading

Cops Kidnap Elderly Deaf Woman, Strip Her Down & Break Her Arm Because She Couldn’t Hear Them

In an appalling case of police brutality, a 71-year-old deaf Florida woman found herself spending three days in jail and suffering a broken arm at the hands of Austin’s finest. All of this happened simply because she was unable to hear instructions from a gate agent at an airport and asked twice to get on an earlier flight.

As violent crime rates continue to rise and go unsolved across the nation, this incident serves as a chilling reminder of how police choose to go after “low-hanging fruit” and target vulnerable individuals in our society rather than violent criminals.

On September 13, 2022, Karen McGee was connecting in Austin on her way to Seattle. As a nervous flyer traveling alone for the first time in her life, she was already feeling overwhelmed. To make matters worse, her hearing aid wasn’t functioning properly.

Unbeknownst to her, she missed a gate change announcement for her flight. As her departure time passed and she didn’t see her flight boarding, she approached an Alaska Airlines gate agent for assistance. Although she was rebooked on a later flight that evening, McGee mistakenly thought there was another plane at the same gate headed to Seattle and inquired if she could get on that flight instead.

Struggling to hear the agent’s explanation, McGee asked another Alaska Airlines employee for help. Shockingly, instead of providing assistance to the senior citizen, the agent called the police.

Keep reading

Texas Outlet Fabricates Story Of Libertarian Inciting Violence Over Eminent Domain

As RedState aptly noted in a Thursday piece, many seem to believe that local media outlets are significantly more true to the facts than those who cover news nationally. 

Unfortunately, it turns out that smaller news outlets also fall short of the truth.

The Current, which is the self-described “premiere multimedia source of alternative news, events and culture” for San Antonio, Texas, since 1986, recently put out a report disingenuously suggesting that Bexar County Libertarian Party head JR Haseloff attempted to incite violence over the city’s plan to use eminent domain to seize control of a man’s bar for city renovations. 

This was referring to an address Haseloff delivered to the city council arguing in favor of allowing Vince Catu, the bar’s owner, to maintain control of his property. According to their reporting, Haseloff “suggested that some property-rights advocates may resort to violence if San Antonio uses eminent domain to take over downtown bar Moses Rose’s Hideout.”

“While out of an abundance of caution, we marked this as a peaceful protest, I am here to testify to you that there are men, women, organizations and individuals across the state of Texas that are very much prepared to sacrifice much more to prevent your theft of this man’s property,” Haseloff said in his remarks to the city council. “I can only pray that you and politicians across Texas are receiving this message.”

He added, “Let me be clear, we will not stand idly by and watch you steal property from one of our fellow Texans. We will fight, and we will win.”

Keep reading

Former Texas School District Employee Arrested Over Allegations of Multiple Sexual Encounters With Student

Texas deputies have arrested a 21-year-old woman for allegedly having multiple sexual encounters with a student at the school at which she was employed.

Marisol Solis was arrested on Jan. 5 under charges of trafficking of persons.

Hays County Sheriff’s Office said they received, in November last year, a report involving a Dripping Springs Independent School District (DSISD) employee and a student within the district.

“The report alleged the employee and student had multiple sexual encounters over a period of time,” according to a statement released by the sheriff’s office.

Investigators worked closely with DSISD over the allegations, leading to the sheriff’s office arresting Solis under a first-degree felony.

“This case is still being investigated and there is potential for additional charges,” the sheriff’s office said.

According to an official statement released by Dripping Springs ISD, Solis was fired on Dec. 16, 2021, having last been on any campus in the district on Nov. 29, 2021, as reported by Fox News.

“Dripping Springs ISD remains committed to the safety and security of all students and takes prompt and immediate action to partner with law enforcement agencies to investigate and take action when it receives reports involving the safety of the children in the Dripping Springs community and all students across Texas,” the statement concludes.

Keep reading