Texas Blogger’s ‘Man Crush’ on Putin Leads to Lengthy Heart to Heart

Nonetheless, last week Mr. Young scored a journalistic coup, publishing a lengthy written interview with Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin. Mr. Young approached the Russian government last year after blogging repeatedly about his “man crush” on Mr. Putin, and the questions he sent the Russian prime minister were, shall we say, softballs. They included, “Are there Yetis or Russian ‘wood goblins’ in the taiga?” and “Are you the coolest man in politics?”

The decision to grant the interview appears to be part of an attempt by Mr. Putin to soften his image in the West. During the three years since Mr. Putin entered a power-sharing arrangement with President Dmitri A. Medvedev, the president has been cast as the smiling face of a “reset” in the relations with the United States. In the eyes of Western observers, that has left Mr. Putin as the bad cop, which could pose a problem if he decides to return to the presidency next spring.

“There is some truth in this argument, and I think Putin has realized he needs to care about his image in the West,” said Alexander Rahr, a Russia specialist at the German Council on Foreign Relations. “The only argument which really speaks for Medvedev is this Western thing. That is his trump card. Putin has to counter it.”

The Outdoor Life interview — at times an exercise in mutual back-slapping — is not likely to have much impact, especially since it was released the same day as a much-anticipated news conference by Mr. Medvedev.

But it does show Mr. Putin trying to present himself in a softer, more friendly light. In between discussions of tiger poaching, Ernest Hemingway and the fragility of human existence, Mr. Putin tells Mr. Young that the United States and Russia have been powerfully drawn to each other since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The recent improvement in relations “seems to point to the fact that the vast majority of barriers between our peoples were unnaturally and artificially forced upon them,” Mr. Putin said. “Ordinary people always want to live in peace rather than in war and to be able to freely socialize, interact and make friends, if you wish. For too long, we had been cruelly held apart from each other, so it was only natural that the fall of the Iron Curtain generated a huge wave of interest toward Russia.”

Mr. Putin also plays up his image as an avatar of manliness, which has been established by photos of him riding shirtless on horseback, shooting a tiger with a tranquilizer gun or offering judo instructions. Asked about an episode last summer, when he shot a dart at the exposed back of a gray whale from a rubber dinghy, Mr. Putin drifted into Hemingway territory.

“All that surrounded me — the low sky, the stormy sea and, of course, the whales — was magnificent,” he said. “Besides, these elegant giants showed us a real performance, leaping out of the water in front of our boat.”

On that occasion, a reporter asked Mr. Putin whether it was dangerous, and the prime minister responded, “Living in general is dangerous.” In the Outdoor Life interview, he elaborated, saying that a human being is “still one of the most vulnerable creatures on earth,” barraged by disease, disaster and criminality.

“However, this is not a reason to hide away from life,” he said. “One can truly enjoy his or her life only while experiencing it, and it is inevitably related to a certain level of risk.”

It was the gray whale episode that especially captivated Mr. Young, 42. After he began writing about his “man crush,” his blog hits grew so high that his editors asked him for more, and he published an open letter to the prime minister proposing that the two men go hunting together.

Before long, Mr. Young was communicating with the press attaché in the Russian Embassy in Washington and with Ketchum, a public relations firm that represents Russia.

“My editors were like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’?” Mr. Young said. But early in the spring, he was told that Mr. Putin was in the process of answering Mr. Young’s questions — at considerable length. The draft originally sent to Outdoor Life was almost 8,000 words long and had to be edited down by almost 3,000 words, Mr. Young said.

“I got to tell you, I’m more in love with the guy than ever,” he said. In an interview from his home in Texas, Mr. Young said Outdoor Life was hoping to send him to Russia to go fishing with Mr. Putin, who is not a keen hunter. It seemed Mr. Young’s ardor does not extend to Mr. Medvedev, since a mention of the Russian president’s name was met with silence on the other end of the line.

“You’re going to have to remind me who that is,” Mr. Young said.

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The Texas Tribune: 30-Year-Old Capital Case Returns to Court, With Defense Alleging Bias

The United States Supreme Court overturned Mr. Banks’s death sentence in 2004, finding that the Bowie County prosecutors who tried the case suppressed evidence and deliberately covered their mistakes for decades.

“It’s really a remarkable tale of misconduct — just about every kind of thing the prosecution could do that was improper,” said Robert C. Owen, co-director of the Capital Punishment Center at the University of Texas School of Law, who was one of Mr. Banks’s appellate lawyers.

Now, the same district attorney’s office — including one of the same prosecutors who was involved in the original trial — is again seeking the death penalty for Mr. Banks. Despite the Supreme Court’s rebuke, James Elliott, who has been a prosecutor on the case for more than 30 years, has maintained that he will pursue Mr. Banks until he “gets what he deserves.”

At a hearing Monday in a Bowie County state district court, Mr. Banks’s lawyers will ask Judge Nathan E. White to disqualify Mr. Elliott and the local district attorney’s office from the case and to assign different lawyers to represent the state.

“Mr. Elliott’s misbehavior proves that he cannot serve as a disinterested prosecutor and is laboring under a conflict of interest that will prevent Mr. Banks from receiving a fair trial,” lawyers wrote in court documents.

Mr. Banks, who is black and was 21 when the crime was committed, was convicted of killing Mr. Whitehead, who was white, so he could take off with his car. The police found Mr. Whitehead’s body in a park near Texarkana and soon discovered that Mr. Banks had been with him on the last night he was seen alive.

There were no witnesses to the killing and no physical evidence linking Mr. Banks to it. The prosecution’s case relied largely on the testimony of Robert Farr and Charles Cook, both admitted drug users; Mr. Cook also had convictions for robbery by assault and forgery.

Mr. Cook told the jury that he met Mr. Banks in Dallas the morning after the murder. He said Mr. Banks had blood on his pants and told him he decided to “kill the white boy for the hell of it and take his car and come to Dallas.”

Mr. Farr testified that he, Mr. Banks and another man drove to Dallas on the day that Mr. Banks was arrested so Mr. Banks could retrieve a gun to use in armed robberies. Mr. Farr said Mr. Banks told him he would “take care of it” if any trouble arose.

Mr. Banks had no criminal history, and people who were with him and Mr. Whitehead on the last night that Mr. Whitehead was alive testified there was no ill will between the two. Nonetheless, an all-white Bowie County jury convicted Mr. Banks, who was sentenced to death.

In 1999 — almost 20 years after the trial — a federal judge forced Bowie County to open its case records, and Mr. Banks’s lawyers discovered a transcript showing that Mr. Cook’s testimony had been extensively rehearsed and coached. They also learned that the police had paid Mr. Farr, an informant who had an unreliable record, $200 for his role in the investigation.

Mr. Farr, in an affidavit, said he was afraid that the police would arrest him on drug charges. In exchange for the money, and to avoid jail, he agreed to set up Mr. Banks, he said, persuading him to drive to Dallas to get a gun.

Prosecutors allowed Mr. Cook and Mr. Farr to lie in court and never told jurors that their information was false, the Supreme Court found. Mr. Cook denied on the stand that anyone had helped him with his testimony, and Mr. Farr said he had not been paid for his help in the case. During closing arguments, Mr. Elliott told jurors that they should believe Mr. Cook and Mr. Farr.

In arguments before the Supreme Court, state lawyers did not dispute that Mr. Cook had been coached and that Mr. Farr was paid for his help. But they said Mr. Banks’s lawyers were at fault for not uncovering the information sooner.

The Supreme Court ruled that without the testimony of Mr. Cook and Mr. Farr, Mr. Banks might not have been sentenced to death. “It has long been established that the prosecution’s ‘deliberate deception of a court and jurors by the presentation of known false evidence is incompatible with rudimentary demands of justice,’?” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in the court’s majority opinion.

Mr. Elliott declined to comment last week about the case. “We’re in litigation,” he said. “The newspaper is the wrong place to be trying cases — it just is. So I can’t give any comment.”

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The Texas Tribune: Mixed Reviews for Brownsville Ban on Plastic Bags

“I have a whole bunch of these in my truck,” she said, noting that she often forgets to take them in when she shops.

Ms. Orozco’s collection of tote bags stems from a recent ordinance in Brownsville, one of Texas’ poorest big cities: a ban on plastic checkout bags in virtually all businesses. The policy, which took effect in January, has eliminated more than 350,000 bags per day, according to Mayor Pat Ahumada, who said in an e-mail that it has “transformed our city from littered and dirty to a much cleaner city.”

Two other Texas communities, Fort Stockton and South Padre Island, have also approved bans on plastic bags, which will take effect in September and January, respectively. Several large cities, including Laredo and El Paso, have previously considered bans, and even the small town of Poteet, south of San Antonio, plans to assess its bag-banning options.

Brownsville’s policy, the first of its kind in Texas, has stirred controversy. While Ms. Orozco said she liked reusable bags because they helped the environment, others have concerns.

Edmundo Arizpe, 84, who left the A&V Lopez store clutching two small bags of peanuts, said that when he needed to buy lots of groceries, he often went to the nearby city of San Benito.

By driving, “I’m doing worse to the climate,” Mr. Arizpe said. He wishes the ban exempted customers spending more than $50.

The ordinance also worries Duro Bag, a large maker of paper bags with a factory in the city’s port, because, unlike bans elsewhere in the nation, it also restricts paper bags, said Christopher Klein, manager of strategic initiatives at the company.

Paper bags at many Brownsville checkout counters must be extra sturdy and have handles, which Mr. Klein calls “somewhat counterintuitive to reducing trash and litter.” (The requirement is intended to make paper bags reusable.) Duro Bag’s Brownsville factory does not make this kind of bag, but it plans to add equipment so it can; currently Duro Bag ships bags with handles in from another plant for distribution in Brownsville.

Legislation being considered by state lawmakers would encourage shoppers to recycle plastic bags by requiring large retailers like Walmart to place bag recycling bins prominently in their stores. It would also pre-empt local ordinances, however, and that worries advocates of bag bans who fear that it could derail local policies already in existence or under consideration.

Senator Troy Fraser, Republican of Horseshoe Bay, who sponsored the Senate legislation, said that his bill was “not moving” right now, but that a House version had made more progress. Mr. Fraser said he did not intend to overturn policies of cities with existing bans. In the long run, he said, “we would like to wean people off the using of not only plastic but paper” and shift Texans toward reusable bags.

Walmart has backed Mr. Fraser’s legislation, which it sees as more workable than all-out bans.

“Walmart is committed to reducing its plastic bag waste, but we would rather see voluntary programs to reduce plastic bag use” instead of stricter policies like Brownsville’s, said Daniel Morales, a company spokesman in Texas.

At one Brownsville Walmart, customers could be seen carrying bottles of juice or even prewrapped lettuce to their cars — without a bag. Walmart shoppers can still get plastic bags for $1, which is the standard fee established by the ordinance and which goes into a fund to clean up the city. Others opt to buy reusable blue bags for 25 cents, or take bags in with them.

Rose Timmer, executive director of Healthy Communities of Brownsville, which pushed for the ban, said tourists had called plastic bags “Texas wildflowers.”

In South Padre Island, the Surfrider Foundation strongly endorses the town’s ban, partly because plastic bags besmirch the dunes and harm seabirds and sea turtles.

“Using reusable bags is good,” said Rob Nixon, chairman of the group’s South Texas chapter. “They’re not only great shopping bags; they’re great beach bags as well.”

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The Texas Tribune: Children’s Hospitals See Peril in Proposed Budgets

Despite some efforts to ease the blow to pediatric health care providers, Texas’ proposed budget cuts will most likely have a disproportionate effect on children’s hospitals. The financial implications will not mean halting operations, or necessarily curbing care, advocates for the hospitals say. Instead, said Ben Melson, chief financial officer at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, the result will be cutting back on expansions needed to serve a growing population and on efforts to recruit and retain the best specialists and faculty.

The reason for the heavier impact hinges on Medicaid, the joint state-federal health care program that covers nearly three million needy children in Texas. State lawmakers, facing a huge budget shortfall, cannot find the multibillion-dollar savings they need without cutting already skimpy rates for Medicaid providers.

Children’s hospitals generally have much higher Medicaid populations than the average hospital — meaning rate reductions hit them harder. Their advocates estimate that the House’s budget would cost the hospitals a combined $275 million over two years; they say the version under consideration in the Senate would cost them roughly half that amount.

For Driscoll Children’s, where about 70 percent of patients are on Medicaid, the concern is not about preserving his bottom line, it is about just trying to break even. Both budget proposals “would essentially leave me a negative cash flow of about $10 million a year,” Mr. Woerner said.

Both the House and Senate versions of the budget lower Medicaid outpatient rates for children’s hospitals by 10 percent and reduce payments for nonurgent emergency room care. The House version goes even further, cutting inpatient children’s hospital rates, as well as all doctor and dentist reimbursement rates, by 10 percent.

While the Senate’s budget sharply reduces financing used to draw down a hefty federal match for children’s hospitals, the House’s zeroes it out altogether — at a loss of roughly $60 million, including the federal match, over the next biennium.

Bryan Sperry, president of the Children’s Hospital Association of Texas, said that on average, nearly 60 percent of the patients at the seven nonprofit children’s hospitals he represents are on Medicaid. In South Texas, Mr. Sperry said, that figure can reach 80 percent.

He estimates that for most Texas hospitals a 10 percent cut in the Medicaid rate would represent a loss of 1 percent of net patient revenue — but that for children’s hospitals, it would be up to 5 percent or 6 percent.

“We’re more dependent on Medicaid than any group of hospitals,” Mr. Sperry said. “Anything that happens to it has a big effect on us.”

Mr. Melson, of Texas Children’s Hospital, said his hospital stands to lose $4 million to $6 million a year through the proposed Medicaid cuts.

“We’re a high-acuity provider; we see a lot of critically ill children in our hospital,” he said. As the number of children in Texas continues to rise — it is expected to spike by another one million over the next decade — “we want to make sure we can continue to grow,” Mr. Melson said.

Mr. Sperry said children’s hospitals, which receive roughly one million outpatient visits and 500,000 emergency room visits a year, can “make it through the next two years” with the current Senate budget proposal, which could come up for a vote in the upper chamber as early as next week. The House version would be much tougher.

Regardless, Mr. Sperry said, lawmakers need to consider the long-term implications of clipping the wings of the hospitals that teach 70 percent of Texas’ pediatricians-in-training, especially as the country faces a growing shortage of physicians and specialists.

 

The Texas Tribune: State’s Top Universities Offer New Opportunity

It laid the groundwork for a new option for high school students eager to head to college before their graduation. If students demonstrate sufficient competency in English, math, science, a social science and a foreign language on tests like the Advanced Placement exam, they can receive a certificate that can be traded for a diploma at any time.

The kinks in this new system are currently being worked out in 16 districts and the KIPP charter schools, but it is expected to become available statewide this fall.

“Kids who are ready to move on — a lot of times, unfortunately, in the current system, those kids get bored,” said Reece Blincoe, superintendent of the Brownwood I.S.D. “They are bored out of their mind. Sometimes that can even lead them going the wrong direction instead of the right direction.”

What’s striking about this new initiative is the willingness of administrators at Texas’ top public universities to work together. The criteria used to evaluate students who want to leave high school early are controlled by the University of Texas and Texas A&M University. An early departing student may earn a certificate, which does not guarantee admission to either university, but it verifies that the recipient has met the standards for a top-tier research university.

Despite shrinking budgets, and a propensity of many flagship universities across the country to separate themselves from the demands of other educational institutions in their state, administrators at U.T. and A&M say they are actively involved in all aspects of the state’s education problems. But their efforts to engage in and even drive fundamental changes — like the new certificate program — are often overlooked in the state’s ongoing debate about higher education reforms.

“We collaborate with U.T. and others on these sorts of efforts regularly,” said R. Bowen Loftin, president of Texas A&M.

Representative Mike Villarreal, Democrat of San Antonio, who in the last legislative session added the amendment to the bill by Representative Rob Eissler, Republican of The Woodlands, said the involvement of U.T. and A&M was an important piece of the plan.

“That really sets the tone for the program,” Mr. Villarreal said. “It’s not about rushing students through high school. It’s really about excellence in education.”

Harrison Keller, the vice provost for higher education policy at U.T., who has quietly steered the new certificate initiative, said it was the first program of its kind in the country. “What you don’t have anywhere else is that it’s not just aligned with but it’s governed by the expectations of your two flagship universities,” Mr. Keller said.

Three weeks ago, at a meeting of the Association of American Universities, an elite group of research universities, William Powers Jr., president of the University of Texas, met with a handful of other presidents to discuss how higher-education leaders around the country could initiate similar efforts to address the faltering education pipeline.

“Education is in the news all the time,” Mr. Powers said later. “Leading institutions of higher education — A.A.U.-type universities — ought to be part of the solutions.”

In Austin, the Texas higher-education community has been locked in a debate over how to go about reforming higher education. The focus has largely centered around the reluctance of the U.T. system to embrace certain changes in higher education tied to accountability and productivity that have been championed by Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative research organization.

Mr. Powers said that the perception that his institution is in a defensive position when it comes to change, “is inaccurate and I’d even say ironic.”

He does take some of the responsibility for that erroneous impression. “If you take it in the aggregate,” Mr. Powers said, “the flagship universities have not been successful in projecting that innovation in higher education is taking place at these major public flagship universities.”

David Guenthner, a spokesman for the public-policy group, said he has recently been encouraged by comments from Mr. Powers and Mr. Loftin that signal an agreement about the need for reform in higher education.

“We just need to have a discussion about what exactly that looks like and what the objectives ought to be and the path to get there,” Mr. Guenthner said.

Many of the concerns of Mr. Guenthner and the policy foundation focus more on accountability and transparency than on college readiness in secondary education, although Mr. Guenthner said he supported efforts to speed the time to get a degree. Currently, 53 percent of U.T. freshmen get a degree in four years; the figure at A&M is slightly above 50 percent.

“My view is that ‘we’ve got to thoughtfully change’ has been a hallmark of my administration,” Mr. Powers said.

Mr. Powers noted that college readiness efforts increased productivity because the university could do its job at less cost when it had better-prepared students.

U.T. and A&M are also collaborating with high schools and community colleges to develop curriculum for secondary education that will pair with the new flagship-approved certificate. “We’re saying that if you want to make dramatic progress, we need to work on these issues before the kids get to us,” Mr. Keller said.

Mr. Blincoe, the Brownwood superintendent, said he is excited about the potential of the early readiness program.

“If it catches on, I think it would have far-reaching repercussions,” he said. “You could see us in 10 years moving more toward a competency-based model instead of seat-time.”

Its potential, Mr. Blincoe said, is enhanced by the participation of the flagship universities. Still, even though the initiative is barely off the ground, it is feeling the sting of the state’s fiscal woes. As part of the Legislature’s efforts to close the state’s multibillion-dollar budget shortfall, financing for an existing scholarship for students who graduate from high school early through traditional means has been zeroed out for at least the next two years.

A bill by Mr. Villarreal to create a similar financial incentive for students who take advantage of the new “Doogie Howser” program — financed by the money school districts save by no longer having to take care of them for a full four years — also appears stymied by concern over the budget.

Such problems have a way of bringing about new solutions, Mr. Villarreal said. “We are experiencing very tight times,” he said, “and so we’re having to question assumptions about how we do business.”

 

Well-Connected Evacuees of Texas Wildfire Turn to Internet

Jackie Fewell, a local real estate agent who had been evacuated to a hotel here from her home at Possum Kingdom Lake, posted complaints about AT&T on a blog that she had started on her company’s Web site.

At the same time, Amy Sabbatini, who owns a weekend home at Possum Kingdom Lake, called a friend whose business is a major AT&T customer. That friend called executives at the phone company.

Other readers wrote to the blog, saying they also had high-level contacts at AT&T and would see if they could help. One reader said he worked there and would get on the case “A.S.A.P.”

Within hours, an AT&T truck with a mobile cell tower had pulled up to the Mineral Wells hotel where Ms. Fewell was staying. The tower has been providing five strong bars ever since.

“We all are feeling really empowered,” Ms. Fewell said in an interview at the blog’s command center here, about 25 miles east of Possum Kingdom Lake and 50 miles west of Fort Worth.

The blog is another example of citizens harnessing social media to cope with a disaster, but this one has an advantage: it is written by and for a moneyed and well-connected clientele. These are people who are used to making things happen, not being passive victims. Their power, combined with that of the Internet, has produced a blog with clout.

“We’ve got influential people, and let me tell you, we capitalize on it,” Ms. Fewell said.

One is Ms. Sabbatini, 35, who works with the evacuees during the day and at night returns to Fort Worth, where she lives with her husband, Rory Sabbatini, the professional golfer, and their three children. She grew up in the Possum Kingdom area, and her parents live there full time.

“My husband plays pro golf on the P.G.A. tour, and I’ve been fortunate enough to travel the country and meet a lot of people, and I have had a lot of resources at my fingertips,” said Ms. Sabbatini, who was working the phones in the command center. “At the same time, the Internet is an amazing place.”

Some of the blog’s readers and area residents were able to have aerial surveys conducted of their properties — even though the airspace was restricted because of the fires — and they shared them on the blog.

Another resident, Mike Rhoden, a former president of the area’s Chamber of Commerce, asked his son, who has a friend who once worked at Google Earth, to see if its satellites could rescan the lake community to provide updated images. On Friday evening at the command center, Mr. Rhoden flashed around his cellphone with a message that Google Earth was “already on it.”

The blog sprang up here in the shadow of the blazing fires that have scorched great swaths of drought-ridden Texas. At Possum Kingdom Lake, they have destroyed at least 167 homes, 124 outbuildings and two churches and scorched 126,000 acres of ranchland, making it one of the worst-hit areas of the state.

The fires are 50 percent contained, but the ground is still smoldering, and officials said the flames could reignite. Power and water are only sporadically available, and live electrical wires are exposed, so the authorities are continuing to bar some residents from their homes.

Anita Foster, a spokeswoman for the Dallas chapter of the American Red Cross, who is overseeing a shelter here (mostly for firefighters) at the junior high school, said Ms. Fewell’s blog was one of the first that she had seen take hold during a natural disaster in the United States.

“It’s the first time in my experience in a domestic disaster where citizens are taking control of their information,” Ms. Foster said. “We’re on the cusp of how we can use digital media to respond to these things. But it takes citizens to keep it together.”

The blog also took off because there is no single government entity that oversees the lake community, leaving a vacuum in terms of centralized information. Several Facebook pages and other Web sites, including one for the local newspaper and the federal fire management team, are also devoted to the Possum Kingdom Lake fire.

But the citizen blog is the most comprehensive and immediate. Ms. Fewell, 53, a Sally Field type who has no qualms about challenging authority, started typing from her hotel room nine days ago because she was frustrated by the lack of reliable information and as getting questions from property owners.

About 80 percent of the 3,000 houses at Possum Kingdom Lake — some worth up to $6 million — are vacation property or weekend retreats, with owners living in Dallas, Fort Worth or farther afield. (“This is our Hamptons,” Ms. Sabbatini said.)

Right away, the site drew 650 page views; within a week, it had drawn more than 900,000. By then, Ms. Fewell and Michelle Steuber, 30, who works with her at a marketing firm, and other evacuees had taken over the conference room of the Holiday Inn Express in Mineral Wells and turned it into a campaign-style war room.

The bloggers spend their days on the phone getting notes from the field, trying to sort rumor from fact, and directing help where it is needed.

Responses can be fast.

“We posted that we needed 200 gloves at such and such a location,” Ms. Fewell said. “And someone wrote right back and said, ‘We’ll buy every glove in Fort Worth.’ And we suddenly had 50 people all wanting to bring 200 gloves, and they couldn’t be stopped.”

The command center has become a gathering spot for those unable to go home, and the mood is fairly upbeat for a natural disaster. The blog has already raised $100,000 for the volunteer firefighters. And someone showed up the other day to donate $500 in cash and a 12-pack of beer.

Still, some residents who have been home for brief periods come back with grim reports.

“There are stalks sticking up in the sky, like a surreal dream, just black stalks,” said Ruth White, 71, whose bookshop and home were spared.

Ira Mercer, Palo Pinto County sheriff, called the blog “a stroke of genius” and said it had helped his office do its job. “We don’t have the time, the staff or, frankly, the wherewithal to do it,” he said. “It’s a very effective tool.”

But he is worried about the long-term effects of the fires and predicts that despite the affluence of the community, recovery will be slow.

“It looks like a moonscape now,” the sheriff said. “Long after the circus has left town, we will be dealing with it.”

 

Texas Wildfires Rage on With No End in Sight

“The bull’s-eye is on West Texas and the Panhandle,” said April Saginor, a spokeswoman for the Texas Forest Service, referring to the area where conditions were considered “critical to extremely critical” — as they had been for days.

On Monday, firefighters responded to 10 new fires, in addition to battling 20 existing uncontained blazes — “actually kind of a light day,” Ms. Saginor said.

Texas’ worst drought in nearly half a century has turned the state into a tinderbox. Fires have destroyed more than 105 homes in recent days and stretched the state’s firefighting resources.

In a letter to President Obama requesting federal emergency assistance, Gov. Rick Perry said Saturday that the fires, some of which have been burning for more than a week, threatened or had affected all but two of Texas’ 254 counties.

One of the biggest fires, covering parts of Stephens and Palo Pinto Counties, about 100 miles west of Dallas, has destroyed at least 31 homes and threatened more than 600. Four smaller fires converged into one, known as the Possum Kingdom Complex, to cover about 147,065 acres.

North of San Angelo, officials said they had saved more than 400 homes, but were still trying to contain a 150,000-acre fire. Foster Communications Coliseum — normally the site of San Angelo’s rodeo — became a command center and refreshment station for the wranglers of the so-called Wildcat fire, many of whom are volunteers. One firefighter died Friday responding to the blaze in Eastland.

“The smoke was bad; ashes were falling from the sky,” said Kindra McClure, who had to evacuate the home she shares with her grandparents about 15 miles north of San Angelo on Friday night. “I couldn’t even breathe.”

“Everybody was getting their horses into trailers and taking them to the coliseum,” Ms. McClure, 18, added. “It’s been a mess, for sure.”

Her family returned home after one night, but Ms. McClure could still see towers of smoke from her back porch.

Ms. McClure said people in the community were being more mindful of prevention, forgoing barbecues and extinguishing cigarettes before tossing them away. Those behavior changes are required under burn bans in force in 201 Texas counties.

On Monday, the authorities charged a homeless man with arson for lighting a campfire and leaving it unattended, igniting a blaze in southwest Austin that destroyed six homes.

National Weather Service meteorologists expected a “lull” in the high winds on Wednesday, and a cold front could bring rain that evening. But the critical fire conditions are likely to return on Thursday.

“We expect this to go on for a while,” Ms. Saginor said, “so we’re in it for the long haul.”

 

The Texas Tribune: Cartel Violence Complicates Tick Eradication Plan

At a temporary inspection site in the industrial sector of Laredo, home to the country’s largest inland port, the lowing of cows has been heard not far from the purring of the tractor-trailers that haul millions of dollars worth of goods from Mexico each day. For about the last year, Mexican cattle have been examined here before being cleared for shipment to the rest of Texas and beyond — part of an effort to eradicate a fever tick infestation that has plagued ranchers along the border for more than a century.

The tick carries an anemia-causing parasite that preys on cattle blood cells and spreads bovine babesiosis, which causes fever, paralysis and often leads to death if left untreated. Until last year, the inspections took place in Mexico, and ticked cattle were kept from the United States. But a ruthless battle between the Gulf and Los Zetas cartels in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas forced those inspection sites to close in March 2010.

“It’s become too dangerous for the veterinarians to conduct their inspections on the cattle that are going to be imported into Texas from Mexico,” said Roland Garcia, a Texas Ranger commissioned by the Department of Public Safety and the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. “That’s why these temporary pens in Laredo and Pharr have been established. I don’t know how long ‘temporary’ could be. It depends on how things settle out in Mexico.”

The inspection site is not the only modification being made because of cartel violence.

The United States government takes the lead on regulating cattle in the “buffer,” or permanent quarantine, zone, where fever ticks thrive. It stretches more than 500 miles across the Texas border from Del Rio to Brownsville, an area of about 550,000 acres. Temporary zones are also established if an outbreak spreads beyond that. Ed Bowers, the United States Department of Agriculture’s director of field operations for the Cattle Fever Tick Eradication Program, said the zone is currently 1.5 million acres, including a large swath of Dimmit and Starr counties.

Mr. Bowers and his 97-member staff compose the U.S.D.A.’s fever tick riders, who patrol hundreds of miles of Texas border on horseback searching for infested stray Mexican cattle. Recent floods that have destroyed natural barriers and man-made fences have enabled their migration past the border, potentially aiding in the spread of the tick. And the tick riders have been forced to adjust their routes farther away from the border.

“We don’t do our patrol like we did a year ago, which was visible to Mexico and riding right down the riverbank,” Mr. Bowers said. “We don’t make a target of ourselves, but we still have to patrol that permanent quarantine zone and make sure there aren’t any Mexican strays.”

The economic consequences of an extended outbreak in Texas could be dire. An infestation outside the current quarantine zones — even one considered relatively small by industry experts — would still cost $123 million in the first year alone, according to a study conducted in 2010 by the Agricultural & Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University. An outbreak spreading to the historic range that includes Texas, a portion of California and 12 Southern states east to Florida and north to Virginia would cost about $1.2 billion in the first year, according to the study.

Texas would have the most to lose, as it currently has more than 13.3 million head of cattle, including 5.14 million beef cows, representing 16.4 percent of the nation’s total. The value of the livestock is about $11.7 billion. Todd Staples, the Texas commissioner of agriculture, estimates that Texas imported about 512,000 feeder cattle from Mexico in 2010, or about half of the 1.2 million the country imported..

The economic potential of the industry explains the activity level at the inspection site in Laredo. Dr. Beall Barbee, the port veterinarian with the U.S.D.A.’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and his crew of six go through painstaking procedures to inspect every head of cattle imported from Mexico. A herd of six to eight feeder cattle, each weighing between 300 and 500 pounds, is corralled into a pen, and their heads, ears, bellies, rears and topsides are manually inspected. Then, one by one, they are forced into a dipping vat of pesticide, herded in to a pen to dry and shipped off to their buyers.

“It’s poisonous enough that you don’t want any on you,” Dr. Barbee said last week of the pesticide. “But there’s not a lot to the process. We just need to make sure they don’t have any ticks on them. The goal is not to find any, and some days we don’t.”

Adding to the safety concerns are the looming budget woes in Austin and Washington, which could affect the program.

“You know how Washington is,” Mr. Bowers said. “Even with the best minds hoping, that doesn’t mean that Congress might not cut,” he said. “But I would say that all indications are that they would support us as much as they could.”

If financing levels remain close to the current $13 million allocated annually for the project, that should allow what Mr. Bowers characterizes as the continued success of the program to proceed with release of almost two-thirds of the temporary zone.

His confidence is not matched in Austin. As budget writers there grapple with a projected shortfall that could exceed $25 billion, the state’s contribution to the fever tick eradication efforts could be scaled back significantly. The Texas Animal Health Commission plays a lesser role, but it assists the U.S.D.A. on the riverbanks and throughout the infested areas in South Texas. Preliminary budget recommendations show the agency facing a cut of about $2.6 million of its current budget, but the financing mechanism is changing from entirely general-revenue funds to a partial fee-based model, which puts the onus on the agency to sustain its own financing.

“We took the position that we weren’t going to question the politics or the budgetary considerations and just try and solve the problem,” said Dr. Dee Ellis, the state veterinarian. “If we are unsuccessful, if we had to accept the proposed budget cuts of about 50 percent of our agency, it would absolutely impact the fever tick program.”

 

Earthquake Damage at Plants Affects Quarterly Income at Texas Instruments

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

DALLAS (AP) — The chip maker Texas Instruments said Monday that production setbacks linked to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan curbed its first-quarter net income and would cut into second-quarter growth.

Richard K. Templeton, the Texas Instruments chief executive, said that the quarter started strong, but the Japan earthquake damaged two of its factories in the country and disrupted local demand. He said that one of the company’s Japanese factories would soon be back in full production and that he expected the second factory damaged by the quake to be running at full speed in July, as predicted. But many of the company’s Japanese customers are still working on reopening their factories, which could result in supply chain issues.

“We expect growth in the second quarter, though it will be pressured by the situation in Japan. Provided consumer and enterprise demand remain strong, we expect a good second half of the year,” Mr. Templeton said.

For the quarter, Texas Instruments earned $666 million, or 55 cents a share, compared with $658 million, or 52 cents a share, in the first quarter of 2010. The company said repercussions from the quake trimmed $30 million, or 2 cents a share, from results.

Revenue rose 6 percent, to $3.39 billion.

On average, analysts had expected earnings of 58 cents a share on nearly $3.40 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.

Revenue from T.I.’s analog chip unit rose 12 percent, to $1.54 billion. Revenue from its wireless chip unit fell 8 percent, to $658 million, partly because of “substantially weaker demand” for wireless baseband chips.

Shares of Texas Instruments, which is based in Dallas, fell 54 cents, to $34.25, in after-hours trading. They fell 20 cents in regular trading, to $34.79.

View the original article here

The Texas Tribune: Cartel Violence Complicates Tick Eradication Plan

At a temporary inspection site in the industrial sector of Laredo, home to the country’s largest inland port, the lowing of cows has been heard not far from the purring of the tractor-trailers that haul millions of dollars worth of goods from Mexico each day. For about the last year, Mexican cattle have been examined here before being cleared for shipment to the rest of Texas and beyond — part of an effort to eradicate a fever tick infestation that has plagued ranchers along the border for more than a century.

The tick carries an anemia-causing parasite that preys on cattle blood cells and spreads bovine babesiosis, which causes fever, paralysis and often leads to death if left untreated. Until last year, the inspections took place in Mexico, and ticked cattle were kept from the United States. But a ruthless battle between the Gulf and Los Zetas cartels in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas forced those inspection sites to close in March 2010.

“It’s become too dangerous for the veterinarians to conduct their inspections on the cattle that are going to be imported into Texas from Mexico,” said Roland Garcia, a Texas Ranger commissioned by the Department of Public Safety and the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. “That’s why these temporary pens in Laredo and Pharr have been established. I don’t know how long ‘temporary’ could be. It depends on how things settle out in Mexico.”

The inspection site is not the only modification being made because of cartel violence.

The United States government takes the lead on regulating cattle in the “buffer,” or permanent quarantine, zone, where fever ticks thrive. It stretches more than 500 miles across the Texas border from Del Rio to Brownsville, an area of about 550,000 acres. Temporary zones are also established if an outbreak spreads beyond that. Ed Bowers, the United States Department of Agriculture’s director of field operations for the Cattle Fever Tick Eradication Program, said the zone is currently 1.5 million acres, including a large swath of Dimmit and Starr counties.

Mr. Bowers and his 97-member staff compose the U.S.D.A.’s fever tick riders, who patrol hundreds of miles of Texas border on horseback searching for infested stray Mexican cattle. Recent floods that have destroyed natural barriers and man-made fences have enabled their migration past the border, potentially aiding in the spread of the tick. And the tick riders have been forced to adjust their routes farther away from the border.

“We don’t do our patrol like we did a year ago, which was visible to Mexico and riding right down the riverbank,” Mr. Bowers said. “We don’t make a target of ourselves, but we still have to patrol that permanent quarantine zone and make sure there aren’t any Mexican strays.”

The economic consequences of an extended outbreak in Texas could be dire. An infestation outside the current quarantine zones — even one considered relatively small by industry experts — would still cost $123 million in the first year alone, according to a study conducted in 2010 by the Agricultural & Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University. An outbreak spreading to the historic range that includes Texas, a portion of California and 12 Southern states east to Florida and north to Virginia would cost about $1.2 billion in the first year, according to the study.

Texas would have the most to lose, as it currently has more than 13.3 million head of cattle, including 5.14 million beef cows, representing 16.4 percent of the nation’s total. The value of the livestock is about $11.7 billion. Todd Staples, the Texas commissioner of agriculture, estimates that Texas imported about 512,000 feeder cattle from Mexico in 2010, or about half of the 1.2 million the country imported..

The economic potential of the industry explains the activity level at the inspection site in Laredo. Dr. Beall Barbee, the port veterinarian with the U.S.D.A.’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and his crew of six go through painstaking procedures to inspect every head of cattle imported from Mexico. A herd of six to eight feeder cattle, each weighing between 300 and 500 pounds, is corralled into a pen, and their heads, ears, bellies, rears and topsides are manually inspected. Then, one by one, they are forced into a dipping vat of pesticide, herded in to a pen to dry and shipped off to their buyers.

“It’s poisonous enough that you don’t want any on you,” Dr. Barbee said last week of the pesticide. “But there’s not a lot to the process. We just need to make sure they don’t have any ticks on them. The goal is not to find any, and some days we don’t.”

Adding to the safety concerns are the looming budget woes in Austin and Washington, which could affect the program.

“You know how Washington is,” Mr. Bowers said. “Even with the best minds hoping, that doesn’t mean that Congress might not cut,” he said. “But I would say that all indications are that they would support us as much as they could.”

If financing levels remain close to the current $13 million allocated annually for the project, that should allow what Mr. Bowers characterizes as the continued success of the program to proceed with release of almost two-thirds of the temporary zone.

His confidence is not matched in Austin. As budget writers there grapple with a projected shortfall that could exceed $25 billion, the state’s contribution to the fever tick eradication efforts could be scaled back significantly. The Texas Animal Health Commission plays a lesser role, but it assists the U.S.D.A. on the riverbanks and throughout the infested areas in South Texas. Preliminary budget recommendations show the agency facing a cut of about $2.6 million of its current budget, but the financing mechanism is changing from entirely general-revenue funds to a partial fee-based model, which puts the onus on the agency to sustain its own financing.

“We took the position that we weren’t going to question the politics or the budgetary considerations and just try and solve the problem,” said Dr. Dee Ellis, the state veterinarian. “If we are unsuccessful, if we had to accept the proposed budget cuts of about 50 percent of our agency, it would absolutely impact the fever tick program.”

 

The Texas Tribune: House Bill on Student Testing Reopens a Familiar Debate

It did not, he said, lower testing standards. Nor did it delay the planned 2011-12 rollout of the state’s more rigorous Staar exams.

Mr. Eissler was setting out to correct what he called the “misrepresentations” and “false claims” surrounding the bill, which, despite its overwhelming support in the House — more than two-thirds of his colleagues signed on to it, and only five voted against it —?has generated vocal opposition from some within education circles who view it as a dramatic retreat from hard-won reforms.

The bill also reveals a divergence between the Legislature’s two public education chiefs — Mr. Eissler, who heads the House Public Education Committee, and his counterpart in the upper chamber, Senator Florence Shapiro, Republican of Plano — on how the state should hold students and educators accountable.

Ms. Shapiro staunchly supports moving forward with the testing standards in H.B. 3, the 2009 legislation that set up the transition to the new Staar exams from the state’s current TAKS subject area tests .

“It’s a shame that it’s happened at the very same time that we are having problems with the budget,” Ms. Shapiro said, “but that doesn’t change the idea that this is the direction we should be going.”

Worried about how operating with fewer teachers will affect classroom instruction and whether they will be able to afford updated textbooks, districts have pushed to delay the new exams.

H.B. 500 makes significant modifications to H.B. 3, with the goals of reducing costs and easing districts’ concerns that the new testing regimen could lead to large numbers of students failing to graduate. Instead of the end-of-course Staar exams counting 15 percent of a student’s final grade, H.B. 500 permits school districts to set their own policies. It also would allow districts to suspend a new requirement that students receive a cumulative score on 12 exams in four subject areas to graduate; instead, students would have to pass a total of four exams, one in each subject.

Business groups —?including the Texas Association of Business, the Texas Coalition for a Competitive Workforce and the Austin Chamber of Commerce — oppose the measure because they believe it represents a step back for student accountability.

Drew Scheberle, a senior vice president at the Austin Chamber, said H.B. 500 “represents the first time in 25 years that we would actually reduce the expectations for graduation.”

To some extent, the divide between Mr. Eissler and Ms. Shapiro is a rehashing of an old battle between the House and Senate on student testing.

“This is basically a fight we had two years ago in conference committee, when the Senate wanted the standards as they are on the books today, and the House wanted relaxed graduation standards,” said Andrew C. Erben, president of the Texas Institute for Education Reform, which opposes Mr. Eissler’s bill.

The House more than the Senate has traditionally aligned with school districts on student accountability, Mr. Scheberle said. “The House has not always been the strongest on this issue,” he said. “It has usually been the Senate.”

Now, lawmakers in the House are looking for ways to soften the blow of their stark budget, which allocates about $4 billion less to public education than the Senate. “The House is dealing in a very different arena than the Senate is dealing,” Ms. Shapiro said. “If I was in their shoes and didn’t have money for textbooks, I didn’t have any money to keep our teachers or to keep our schools whole, I would be looking for ways to lessen the pressure, too.”

Mr. Eissler told his colleagues that his bill represented the “middle ground” between those who want a delay of the Staar tests and those who want to hold firm. On Friday, he acknowledged he had “some missionary work” to do in the Senate.

“It’s not like there’s a difference in philosophy,” he said. “It’s a difference in application. Florence Shapiro and I agree that we need to have rigor, relevance, and responsibility or strong accountability, but how that translates to day-to-day operation in the school district is what made H.B. 500.”

 

Rising Hispanic Population Transforming Texas

 Greg Flakus | Houston, Texas ?April 08, 2011

Census figures show the population of non-Hispanic whites is increasing at a much slower pace than that of Hispanics in Texas

Recently released data from the 2010 U.S. census shows significant growth in the nation's Hispanic population.? And nowhere has that growth been more dramatic than in the southwestern state of Texas, the state with the biggest overall population increase during the past decade.? Experts say the demographic shifts pose a challenge for the state and that its future prosperity will depend on how Texas meets that challenge.

Not long ago, the annual Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Luncheon was the city's biggest Hispanic business event of the year.? Now it is the biggest business event of any kind in the city, drawing many non-Hispanic figures from industry and government as well as Latino business owners.

During the past four years, under the leadership of President and Chief Executive Officer Laura Murillo, the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has experienced a 600 percent growth in membership.? She says Houston's young population, its location and the business-friendly environment in Texas all help.

"Our chamber, for example, has attracted many sponsors that had traditionally gone to Miami or Los Angeles," noted Murillo.? "They are coming to Houston now because they have found that the economy of Houston is so much stronger than it is in other parts of the country."

Many businesses here see an advantage in hiring local Hispanics who can help them build links with Latin America.

Francisco Grados works for an accounting firm whose workforce is now 30 percent Hispanic.

"We have several clients from Latin America, Spain," said Grados.? "And even though they speak English, they feel more confident, secure speaking Spanish.? And it is an advantage to be bilingual."

Rice University sociologist Steve Murdock says the future of Texas depends on Hispanics, because they are the fastest growing segment of the state's population.

"Sixty-five percent of the [population] growth in Texas was due to the Hispanic population," said Murdock.

Census figures show the population of non-Hispanic whites, often called Anglos in the Latino community, is increasing at a much slower pace than that of Hispanics.? Very few Texas counties are experiencing Anglo population growth, while most others show a decline.? The opposite is true for Hispanics.

Although immigrants account for most Hispanic population growth in other U.S. states, sociologist Steve Murdock says the growth in Texas comes mostly from a natural increase within an already established population.

"Most Hispanics in Texas are not immigrants; they have been here for multiple generations," said Murdock.? "And remember, there are parts of Texas that have been Hispanic longer than they have been Anglo."

But Murdock says census figures show a looming problem for Texas in that minorities, especially Hispanics, tend to be less educated and earn much less on average than non-Hispanic whites.

"The modal minority is a Hispanic male, 25 to 29 years of age, with less than a high school level of education and making about $35,000, down about $3,000, in real dollar terms, from 1999 to 2009," he added.

Murdock says the state's economic future depends on how well Texas educates this dynamic young population.

"If we could meet that challenge, what some of us call the Texas challenge, we could have a younger population than most other parts of the country in a time period when aging of the population is going to be a major problem," Murdock noted.

The Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's Laura Murillo says education of young Hispanics is the key to this state's future.

"We will be the economic engine, not only of the city of Houston, but of Texas.? And that will require a more educated Hispanic community," said Murdock.

But politicians in the Texas capital, Austin, are struggling with a deficit of more than $20 billion, and they are cutting rather than expanding some educational programs.

Being raised by Mexican-American parents who emphasized the value of education helped bank executive Michelle Hitchings find success.? She says she sees it as the best investment the state can make.

"It is a huge mistake cutting education funds, especially early childhood education, which, now we know, is more important than ever," said Hitchings.

Hitchings says she knows that many young Latinos could be inspired by her example and she spends time working with the Girl Scouts and other community groups to encourage children to aspire to great things.

Partly because of these role models and their influence, Laura Murillo says she is optimistic about the role Hispanics will play in the future of Texas.

"I see a Texas that is truly going to be a model for what the rest of the United States will look for in terms of a state with a predominant Hispanic community that Texas will be the model for the rest of the states to follow," Murillo added.

Laura Murillo calls the city's Hispanic business people the "leaders of Houston's new majority."

08-04-2011 KB (USA)

Thank you for doing a story about Hispanics in the U.S. that is not negative. Nice!

09-04-2011 (USA)

I like the hispanic people as long as they are here legally. They are hard working people.

09-04-2011 James R. Brown (Texas)

I'm a European-American guy -- a so-called "Anglo" as Hispanics call us. I'm dating a Hispanic-American woman and I know that Hispanic-Americans are the future of our country. In addition to immigration, they just have a lot more kids then other Americans. Best of luck to the Hispanic-American community! You will be running the U.S. in no time!

09-04-2011 (USA)

Great article! We a lot of work ahead in terms of education and that requires the support of every single person that lives in this state

09-04-2011 Mason

Its a wonderful feeling knowing the ?We can be spoken of like this. I'm so very Happy.

09-04-2011 (USA)

What is the reaction to having a "white" or "caucasian" chamber of commerce. When ethnic groups organize under their banner, they are fostering divisions!

10-04-2011 Gary (USA)

It is not hard to see that the future of Texas will be controlled by Hispanics. They have done a great job without any organizational ability. Just think, in a short period of time, Texas will look just like Mexico. On the other hand, I thought that was why they sneaked into the Us, to get away from Mexico.

10-04-2011

"What is the reaction to having a "white" or "caucasian" chamber of commerce. When ethnic groups organize under their banner, they are fostering divisions!" There hasn't needed to be a "white" or "caucasian" chamber of commerce because they haven't been at such a collective disadvantage.

10-04-2011 Sid Richaard Morris (USA)

Congratulations on an informative, interesting and important article. Let's work together to develop that "early child-hood education" city-by-city ... block-by-block. SRM

11-04-2011

Registered voters have political power! Register to vote now to be sure your voices are heard. With more than 100$ per barrel of oil,Houston can't be any better.

11-04-2011

Mexicanos, Hispanic or not, we are all here in the USA, we all work together as US citizens.

13-04-2011 Trevor (TX, US)

Firstly, neither am an Anglo, nor Hispanic ,before few may jump to conclusion/s. The article was interesting and was glad to see people of many cross sections support the same.I too, like another here support whole heartedly who came here legally.OTHERS, I DO NOT !! Respectfully, TK

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NRG's eVgo charging stations hope to catch the eyes of Texas

 By Sean Buckley posted Apr 9th 2011 11:59PM EV charging station announcements are almost becoming commonplace (keyword: almost), but not so much that we aren't happy to welcome one more. This week NRG Energy unveiled it's first eVgo branded "Freedom Station" at a Dallas Walgreens, and aims to pepper the map with a total of 60 such units by Labor Day. Each eVgo freedom station will pack both a quick charging 480V AC/DC converter (juicing up a Nissan Leaf to 80 percent in about 30 minutes), as well as a 240V Level 2 charger (netting 25 miles of "go" per charging hour). NRG plans to cover the Dallas / Fort Worth and Houston areas with 120 of these guys by the end of 2012. Like others before it, the eVgo network plans to follow a subscription model -- with the premiere plan ($89 a month on a three year contract) not only covering the cost of usage at eVgo charging stations, but that of electricity used at your home charging dock, too. Toss in a handful of generous EV owners rocking PlugShare, and Dallas has the makings of a low-emissions wonderland.