Time For a Post About Texas

The few items I snatched from the Boston Globe for you:

"Newborn abducted after mother fatally shot found" by Juan A. Lozano Associated Press / April 17, 2012 

SPRING, Texas—A newborn who was abducted from his dying mother after she was repeatedly shot Tuesday outside a suburban Houston pediatric center was found safe hours later, according to investigators who said the suspected shooter sped off with the infant in a blood-stained Lexus.

The 3-day-old boy was found around 8 p.m., about six hours after his mother, Kala Marie Golden, was fatally shot following a verbal altercation in a parking lot, Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon said....

Witnesses said the woman repeatedly shot Golden, took the infant and sped away, hitting the dying mother as she screamed "my baby" and tried to reach into the Lexus, Montgomery County sheriff's Lt. Dan Norris said.

Witnesses also reported hearing as many as seven gunshots and said a man also was in the sky blue or light green Lexus, which was blood-stained on the driver's side, Norris said....

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Related: Woman accused, baby abduction had miscarried

Suspect in fatal baby abduction in Texas is confused, upset, lawyer says

Not that I care, because they are all individual souls to me; however, the black-on-white crime is unmentioned by a media that is screaming about Zimmerman and the white-on-black thing.  

Related: 

Media fight sealing of files in Fla. shooting

Fla. judge recuses herself from Trayvon Martin case

Fla. task force to study ‘stand your ground’ law

Trayvon Martin shooter apologizes; bail set at $150k

Boston Globe Race-Baiting

Don't fall for it, America.


Also see:  Texas sued for excluding Planned Parenthood

"Ex-CEO, finance chief of bankrupt Texas bank accused of fraud" by Kevin Roose  |  new york times, April 07, 2012

Two former executives of Franklin Bank Corp., a now-defunct lender started by the mortgage bond pioneer Lewis Ranieri, have been accused of hiding losses during the final days of the company.

In a complaint filed Thursday in US District Court in Texas, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Anthony J. Nocella, Franklin’s former chief executive, and J. Russell McCann, the bank’s former chief financial officer, of misstating the health of their company during the financial crisis, when a series of mortgage loans on the bank’s books went sour and it struggled to stay afloat.

And yet Wall Street walks. Hell, they get a f***ing bailout after betting against the slop they slapped together and sold to everyone!! 

According to the SEC’s complaint, the two executives “engaged in a disclosure and accounting fraud that misled investors about Franklin’s financial condition and concealed the extent of its exposure to loan delinquencies.’’ Franklin, which was based in Houston, declared bankruptcy in 2008.

Loan modification programs were at the center of the SEC’s complaint.

“Nocella and McCann used the loan modification scheme like a magic wand to change nonperforming loans into performing assets,’’ Robert Khuzami, the agency’s enforcement director, said in a statement accompanying the charges. Khuzami added that the executives had “misled investors into believing that Franklin was outperforming other banks during the height of the financial crisis.’’

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"Boat sinks, Texas man survives 30 hours in Gulf" Associated Press, March 28, 2012

CONROE, Texas - Treading water hours after his fishing boat started to sink in the Gulf of Mexico, Ken Henderson made a decision that saved his life but lost him a best friend: He cut the string connecting their life jackets and swam for help.    

He swam in that muck?

Related: Katrina Clean-Up

Also see: Two Years After the BP Spill, A Hidden Health Crisis Festers

Nah! We were told the oil disappeared, everything was back to normal, eat up, and go take a swim by government and its mouthpiece media.

“He couldn’t kick his legs to swim anymore, and I knew I had a choice,’’ Henderson told the Conroe Courier of his friend, Ed Coen. “I told him, ‘I need your help,’ or we would both be stranded out here and die.’’

 

And so, more than 30 hours after Henderson’s boat started taking on water and both engines failed, he managed to swim to a natural gas rig where he called his wife and the Coast Guard. A fisherman found Coen’s body floating in the water a short time later.

 

“He was a very big-hearted person, and would do anything in the world for me,’’ Henderson said. “We were true brothers. I really miss him.’’

 

The men’s saga began around noon Thursday when they were sitting in Henderson’s 30-foot Scarab sipping soft drinks. That’s when Coen noticed the boat was taking on water. They tried to get the engines running to clear out the water, but both failed and the boat rapidly began to sink. They tried to call 911, but had no cellphone service. They made two Mayday calls to Marine Radio, but received no response.

 

Coen, meanwhile, collected anything they could use to float, so when the boat made a violent flip, leaving the two in the water, they had life jackets, a boat oar, and a dock pole.

 

For some 35 hours the duo worked to stay alive. Coen, though, was a thin man. By Friday afternoon, Coen could no longer swim, and Henderson knew he had little choice.

 

Oh, I forgot to log the link? Oooops.

"Texas teen facing murder charges in van crash" Associated Press, April 17, 2012

PALMVIEW, Texas - A 15-year-old South Texas boy charged with nine counts of murder after he crashed a minivan packed with illegal immigrants, killing nine of them, cried and expressed remorse before a judge Monday, police said.

The boy, who is not being identified because he is a juvenile, appeared at a probable cause hearing. He was also charged with 17 counts of smuggling of a person causing serious bodily injury or death, and one count of evading.

Border Patrol agents pulled over the van last Tuesday night about 10 miles west of McAllen. As it stopped, one person jumped from the vehicle and ran. When agents pursued him the van sped off. It crashed just a few blocks away, scattering a parking lot with bodies, backpacks, and water bottles. The driver escaped but was arrested two days later at his home.

Palmview Police worked with agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations to arrest six people suspected of involvement in the smuggling operation on charges related to harboring illegal immigrants. At least four of the six crash survivors were detained as witnesses.

Palmview detective Saul Uvalle, who attended the probable cause hearing, said the teen told the judge that if he had not driven the van they were going to kill his family. Uvalle said the teen did not say who “they’’ were. “He was very remorseful of what happened,’’ Uvalle said.

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Also see:

Texas aims to learn from drought

Maybe they can teach us something before it is too late:

"After winter drought, craving April showers; Water levels spur concerns about wildlife, fisheries, growing season" by David Abel Globe Staff / March 31, 2012

At a time when rivers and streams throughout the region usually crest and the soil is often saturated like a wet sponge, much of the state is bone-dry and many rivers are at record lows.

The water levels - caused by one of the driest and warmest winters on record in Massachusetts - have raised fears among state officials and environmental advocates about pervasive drought this summer and widespread failures of fish to spawn in their freshwater breeding grounds. Increased algae blooms and swimming bans are also possible.  

Related: Hot Air From Harvard

Meteorologists said much of the eastern half of the state, Rhode Island, and Connecticut are experiencing drought conditions, rare for this time of year....

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Was supposed to be raining today, hard, but it is not.