Redistricing idea won't stray from lege'
BY POKEY ANDERSON
..... Some ideas just won't go away. There was the idea that a good way to prevent forest fires would be to clear-cut the forests. There was that idea that starting a war would be a good way to ensure peace.
.....Tom DeLay has an idea that won't go away either. Even though it is traditionally done only in conjunction with the Census every decade, DeLay wants the Texas Legislature to redraw the state's election map. The legislature was completely unable to accomplish this in 2001, forcing a judge to step in.
.....Last month, Texas Democrats thought redistricting was such a bad idea they were willing to spend nearly a week in a motel in Ardmore, Oklahoma to prevent a quorum and defeat it. The resulting pursuit by Republicans involved federal agencies including Homeland Security. Accusations, shredded documents and promises of investigations followed. More.
Funding cut for Galveston's drug taskforce
BY ERNESTO AGUILAR
.....Galveston officials said this week they'll fight to keep the county's narcotics task force, after the state cut its funding earlier this month.
.....Narcotics task forces are under fire statewide following a scandal in Tulia, where dozens of people convicted on drug charges in 1998 and 1999 were released last week.
.....Representatives from Gov. Rick Perry's office indicated task forces with regional support outside their counties might be able to win back funding. But Galveston faces an uphill battle with Brazoria County Sheriff Joe King's decision to decline support for the task force after this year. More.
Sometimes, justice waits 30 years
BY MIKE REED
.....What will likely be the final courtroom chapter on Civil-Rights-era violence came to an end today at a federal medical center in Forth Worth with the sentencing of a frail, former Klansman to life without parole for his part in the 1966 murder of a black sharecropper.
.....Ernest Avants - a 72-year-old who suffers from congestive heart failure - had been convicted in January of aiding and abetting in the murder of Ben Chester White as part of a plot to lure Martin Luther King Jr. to Mississippi where he could be killed. More.
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Texas set to execute retarded man
BY ERIC S. THOMPSON
.....On March 16, 1986, two prominent civil rights leaders, Fred Finch and his wife Mildred, were murdered in their Dallas area home. The couple was stabbed numerous times... Fred Finch was personally assaulted and personal items were taken from the home.
.....Shortly after the murders, a nearby resident, Kenneth Thomas, was seen wearing monogrammed clothing and a rolodex watch that belonged to Fred Finch.
.....Police arrested Thomas and charged him with capital murders.
.....Eric Thompson has more on the story:
.....In 1986, Kenneth Wayne Thomas was convicted of capital murder and a Tarrant County jury took little more than an hour to sentence Thomas to be executed by lethal injection. Also in that 1986 trial, another and at the time, seemingly less important bit of information came to light. Kenneth Wayne Thomas has a documented IQ score of 72.
.....It is generally accepted that IQ scores of 70 and below are classified as "mentally retarded." However the United States Supreme Court has broadened the category to include scores of up to 75. More.
'K-Mart raid' officers now face civil suits
BY RENEE FELTZ
.....Monday a Houston jury found Houston Police Captain Mark Aguirre not guilty on five counts of official repression stemming from an August 2002 raid on a K-Mart parking lot. Renee Feltz brings us the responses from those calling for a change in how alleged police misconduct is handled in Harris County:
.....In the botched August 2002 raid of an east Houston K-Mart parking lot, roughly 250 people were caught up in the largest mass arrest in recent U.S. history.
Critics say Monday's not guilty verdict failed to hold the man in charge of the raid accountable for his part in the incident:
.....Regional Director of the East Texas American Civil Liberties Union Annette Lamaroux:
....."Everybody agrees that what happened in the K-Mart parking lot was a major screw-up and an exercise of extremely poor judgment. I think it is unfortunate that at the end of the day nobody is going to be held responsible for that."
.....The rank of police captain falls just below the chief of police in HPD's chain of command. Critics note this alone made the case against Aguirre a difficult one to win.
.....The charges of official oppression were also hard to prove... they required the prosecution to prove to the jury that Aguirre intentionally arrested people illegally... something the jury could not agree on Monday.
.....But Aguirre isn't yet fully cleared of the charges stemming from the K-Mart parking lot raid. Attorney Randall Kalinen represents over 50 of those arrested in the botched raid who are now pursing a civil case against the city and related individuals expected to go to trial next year.
.....He believes Monday's guilty verdict will have little impact on these other cases... and uses another well known example of alleged police misconduct to explain why:
....."In the Rodney King case, those officers were not found guilty, yet there was a huge civil judgment awarded to Rodney King. So as far as any compensation for the people who were illegally arrested - how this trial affects them - the trial probably helps them because there was a lot of information that came out and there was a lot of sworn testimony that will probably help in the civil case."
.....Kalinen says that, compared to Monday's case, all that must be proved in his civil case is that Aguirre's behavior more than likely led to the alleged damages. More.
Labor 'justice bus' to visit DeLay
BY ERIC THOMPSON & SHANNON YOUNG
.....Today, a bus loaded with Union workers began a nine-stop, citywide tour that stopped here in Houston. The purpose of this event, known as the "justice bus" tour - was to call attention to the needs of workers at various local places of employment.
.....After a busy morning, the justice bus rolled to a halt outside of Baker Concrete Works - one of the nation's largest providers of vertical concrete construction supplies.. Baker Concrete's Texas operations are "non-union".
.....In a show of support with the non-union laborers, a free lunchtime buffet was set up just outside of the plant's gates in hopes that some Baker Concrete employees would join them. Tour organizer and state director of the Carpenter's Union, Terry Darling explains:
....."Basically our beef with Mr. Baker is, and as far as the shop goes, I hear there's 98 employees that work there in the shop, toil all day long in the heat, moving the heavy equipment that you see over here. And they came to us asking for help to kind of help their condition, they weren't getting wage increases, they don't have insurance, they're only getting paid $7 to $9 dollars an hour, some of them $11 bucks an hour. But some of these guys have been with the company for eight to nine years and they're still making $8 bucks an hour. And he's basically exploiting these guys and keeping them held down and they came to us for help."
.....The group planned to end the day's tour at the Stafford Office of U.S. Congressional majority leader Tom DeLay. More.
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