Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 10, Ed. 1 Saturday, August 12, 2017 Page: 3 of 20
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STATE/NATIONAL
3A
Denton Record-Chronicle
Saturday, August 12, 2017
for special session
Big hurdles remain
bers, they could require confer-
ence committees made up of
House and Senate members if
the chambers are unwilling to
accept the other’s changes.
The Senate approved HB 7,
relating to city tree ordinances,
but not before making big
changes in committee to the ver-
sion that passed out of the
House, including further re-
stricting cities’ abilities to prevent
private landowners from cutting
down trees on their property.
And the House gave an initial
nod to the Senate’s local annex-
ation bill, but not without adding
a contentious provision that al-
lows citizens who live within 5
miles of military bases to vote on
proposed annexation — as long
as the city still has the ability to
regulate the area around those
bases. At the end of the regular
session, State Sen. Jose Menen-
dez, D-San Antonio, successfully
filibustered a version of the bill
that did not contain the language
pertaining to military bases.
While Friday saw movement
on a number of key bills, some
remain far back in the legislative
larger cities, counties and special
purpose districts to hold an elec-
tion if they plan to increase their
property tax collections by 6 per-
cent or more than the previous
year. Such a provision never
made it to the House floor dur-
ing the regular session, which
partially led to the special ses-
sion.
Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friends-
wood, stripped $1.5 billion out of
the lower chamber’s primary
piece of school finance legisla-
tion. Taylor hopes to bring this
drastically altered version of
House Bill 21 before the full Sen-
ate Saturday, and he suggested
he’d be willing to compromise
with his counterpart in the
House, state Rep. Dan Huberty,
R-Houston, who authored the
original measure.
Meanwhile, Huberty ad-
vanced the Senate’s preferred
bill — which would create a
commission to study school fi-
nance — two days ago. But he
threatened it would not pass the
full House unless the Senate did
likewise with his HB 21.
Several other bills remain
process with time running out.
Controversial legislation that
would regulate which restrooms
transgender Texans can use is
viewed as all but dead, and de-
spite bipartisan support and
early momentum in both cham-
bers, proposals to tackle Texas’
maternal mortality crisis haven’t
made much progress in the op-
posite chamber after passing out
of their original chambers.
Both chambers are meeting
Saturday. In addition to the
property tax bill, the House is set
to take up Senate Bill 11, which
would require physicians to take
certain steps before issuing do-
not-resuscitate orders to pa-
tients. The Senate, meanwhile,
is scheduled to consider HB 21
— Huberty’s school finance bill
— as well as House Bill 214,
which would restrict insurance
coverage of abortion.
The Texas Tribune is a
nonpartisan, nonprofit media
organization that informs
Texans — and engages with
them — about public policy,
politics, government and state-
wide issues.
5 days left; Abbott
signs ‘sunset’ bills,
mail-in ballot bill
TEXAS
LEGISLATURE
2017
SPECIAL SESSION
The final advancement of
those four bills Friday checked
off the boxes for three out of 20
items on Abbott’s special session
agenda. As it’s become clear law-
makers won’t come close to ap-
proving Abbott’s agenda in full,
attention is now turning to two
questions: How many items
short of 20 can make it to the
finish line? And will they be im-
portant enough to Abbott to
keep him from calling another
special session?
Abbott’s satisfaction with the
overall 30-day period appears to
disproportionately hinge on
whether lawmakers can come
together on property tax reform,
which he has repeatedly sug-
gested is his top priority beyond
the sunset bills. Saturday could
be a pivotal day for that issue, as
the House is slated to take up a
key property tax reform mea-
sure
By Patrick Svitek, Brandon
Formby and Morgan Smith
The Texas Tribune
With five days left in the spe-
cial session, legislation finally
began reaching Gov. Greg Ab-
bott’s desk on Friday — though
hurdles remain for some big-
ticket items that could deter-
mine whether Abbott will be sat-
isfied enough to not call law-
makers back to Austin for an-
other go-round.
Abbott capped Friday by first
signing two must-pass “sunset”
bills that would keep some state
agencies from closing, proposals
whose failure during the regular
session was one of the main rea-
sons Abbott called an overtime
round. Abbott then signed a bill
cracking down on mail-in ballot
fraud. Afourth bill that relates to
abortion reporting require-
ments was also made ready for
his signature Friday.
The Senate wants the thresh-
old set at 4 percent. Abbott has
previously floated 4 or 5 percent,
a potential compromise thresh-
old that could get worked out if
the House passes Senate Bill 1 on
Saturday and heads to a confer-
ence committee with Senate ne-
gotiators.
The clock is also running out
for the House and Senate to
agree on how to reform the state’s
beleaguered school finance sys-
tem. It’s emerged as the main ed-
ucation-related debate of the
special session, as other items
under that category, such as a
teacher pay raise and vouchers
for special-needs students, have
fallen by the wayside.
On Friday, the Senate Educa-
tion Committee, chaired by state
very much in play as the special
session heads into its final five
days
Friday saw the passage of two
other bills — HB 7, curtailing lo-
cal tree-cutting ordinances, and
SB 6, on local annexation. But
because the measures differ
from the versions passed out of
their respective original cham-
Senate Bill 1 would require
DJ’s suit against Swift tossed
In this court-
room sketch,
pop singer Tay-
lor Swift testi-
fies Thursday
that David
Mueller, a for-
mer radio DJ,
reached under
her skirt and
intentionally
grabbed her
backside during
a photo session
in 2013.
BRIEFLY
ACROSS THE STATE
Austin
Video shows car’s
7-story fall from garage
Police in Austin have re-
leased surveillance video show-
ing a car plunging seven stories
from a downtown parking ga-
rage and striking another vehi-
cle as it landed in an alley last
month.
The video released Thursday
shows the car landing atop an
SUV then rolling upside down
onto the ground. Moments later,
people run to help the driver es-
cape.
VVM
being insincere. Afterward, her
team smiled and embraced.
Mueller’s side didn’t speak.
“I couldn’t be more proud to
represent somebody like Taylor
Swift who’s willing to step up in
a situation like this,” attorney
Douglas Baldridge said outside
court.
photo op in Denver. His identi-
cal allegations against Swift’s
mother and her radio liaison will
go to jurors for a verdict.
Mueller denies groping Swift
and sued the singer, her mother,
Andrea Swift, and their radio
handler, Frank Bell, seeking up
to $3 million as compensation
for his ruined career.
The singer-songwriter said in
her countersuit that she wanted a
symbolic $1 and the chance to
stand up for other women. The
jury will still consider her claim.
Swift teared up as the judge
read his decision and said there
was no evidence of her actions
By James Anderson
and Tatiana Flowers
Associated Press
DENVER — A judge on Fri-
day threw out a former radio
host’s case against Taylor Swift
in a trial that delved into their
dueling lawsuits over whether
he groped her during a back-
stage meet-and-greet and
whether she and her team ru-
ined his career.
U.S. District Judge William
Martinez determined that the
pop star could not be held liable
because David Mueller failed to
prove that she personally set out
to have him fired after the 2013
fi
m
fi
The judge’s decision came af-
ter days of testimony from the
singer and others and just before
jurors were set to hear closing
arguments.
Swift spent an hour on the
witness stand Thursday defiant-
ly recounting what she called a
“despicable and horrifying and
Jeff Kandyba/AP
_
shocking” encounter before a from him,” Swift testified.
‘It was a definite grab. A very
“He stayed attached to my long grab,” she added in her tes-
bare ass-cheek as I lurched away timony.
concert.
Fort Worth
Man sentenced to life in
toddler’s beating death
A 24-year-old Fort Worth
man has been sentenced to life
in prison without parole for the
2015 fatal beating of his girl-
friend’s toddler son.
Christian Tyrrell was convict-
ed Thursday in Fort Worth of
capital murder in the death of 2-
year-old Adrian Langlais.
Santa Fe, N.M.
Land office goes after
Texas ‘dirt bandits’
The New Mexico State Land
Office is going after a West Texas
county after it was learned that
loads of dirt, sand and gravel
were disappearing from a parcel
of state trust land along the bor-
‘Toll fatigue’ as Texas
scraps some fees
Paxton leads group backing
N.M. commandments display
While a variety of factors
played a part in the elimination
of the Texas tolls — Dallas’ Trin-
ity toll project in particular was
beset by environmental con-
cerns and efforts to establish
parkland along the river — state
Rep. Joe Pickett says there’s an
overarching connection.
“The common theme is just
toll fatigue,” says Pickett, an El
Paso Democrat who sits on the
House transportation committee.
Prior to the recent spate of
moves, the last time tolls were
eliminated from a Texas road-
way was 1977, Pickett said.
Transportation experts say
that a primary reason for a
growing reliance on tolls is that
for far too long Congress hasn’t
adequately funded the country’s
transportation needs. The states
have traditionally been averse to
imposing new taxes or fees to fi-
nance infrastructure beyond
general upkeep.
‘When it comes to funding
and financing, states are looking
at all kinds of options,” said Tony
Dorsey, spokesman for the Amer-
ican Association of State High-
way and Transportation Officials.
A report compiled for the In-
ternational Bridge, Tunnel and
Turnpike Association noted that
in 2014 there were about 5,000
miles of toll roads in the U.S., a
number that could potentially
grow to 25,000 miles by 2030.
El Paso road bucks
trend; Dallas rejects
Trinity River plan
22 GOP attorneys
general support city
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iff
By Susan Montoya Bryan
Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
— A coalition of nearly two
dozen states led by Texas At-
torney General Ken Paxton is
stepping into a dispute in
northwestern New Mexico
over a Ten Commandments
monument.
Paxton along with Republi-
can attorneys general from 22
states are supporting city lead-
ers in Bloomfield, New Mexico,
who are asking the U.S. Su-
preme Court to hear their ap-
peal of a lower court ruling re-
quiring the removal of a Ten
Commandments display from
the lawn outside City Hall.
The coalition filed its brief
Thursday, joining a growing
list of groups and members of
Congress who are interested in
seeing the court settle more
definitively the question of
whether such monuments or
displays violate the clause in
the First Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution that prohib-
its the establishment of reli-
gion by the government.
Attorneys involved in the
fc fa CoMHAHRDiTSg -J
By David Warren
Associated Press
DALLAS — Texas officials
have recently moved to scrap
tolls on several highways for the
first time in 40 years, bucking a
national trend toward more tolls
on mostly urban roadways to
shift the costs of transportation
to those who use the roads.
A regional authority voted
this week to eliminate tolls on the
Cesar Chavez Border Highway in
El Paso. On the same day, some
600 miles away, the Dallas City
Council rejected plans to build a
toll road along the Trinity River
near downtown. The council’s
action appears to be the death
knell for a toll project that was
debated for decades as a way to
alleviate congestion along a net-
work of aging, narrow highways.
Meanwhile, come September
in far South Texas, tolls will no
longer be collected along the Ca-
mino Colombia highway near the
border city of Laredo. Local law-
makers had argued commercial
truckers and others were using
alternate routes as a way to avoid
the toll and that it was an impedi-
ment to the smooth flow of goods
through the region.
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An investigation found Hud-
speth County crews have been
using material from the site for
road improvements, Land Com-
missioner Aubrey Dunn said.
;
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__
Jon Austria, The Daily Times/AP file photo
A 2014 file photo shows the Ten Commandments monu-
ment at the Bloomfield, N.M., Municipal Complex.
case say other cases from Ken-
tucky and Arkansas to Califor-
nia have had different out-
comes as lower courts have ap-
plied different standards to
reach their decisions.
Paxton argues that govern-
ments shouldn’t be forced to
censor religion’s role in history
because some people are of-
fended. He says the Supreme
Court has ruled previously that
a passive monument such as a
Ten Commandments display,
accompanied by other displays
acknowledging the nation’s re-
ligious heritage, are not an es-
tablishment of religion.
Republican U.S. Rep. Steve
Pearce, of New Mexico, and 23
of his colleagues make similar
arguments in a separate brief.
“The disorder in the courts
applying the Establishment
Clause generates unnecessary
litigation regarding these sym-
bols and memorials that re-
flect our national heritage,” the
congressional members argue.
In July, attorneys re-
presenting the city of Bloom-
field filed a petition with the
court asking that it hear their
appeal.
San Antonio
Former teacher gets 10
years in sex parties case
An ex-high school English
teacher in San Antonio accused
of throwing lewd parties for
boys must serve 10 years in pris-
on after pleading guilty to child
sex abuse-related counts.
Prosecutors in San Antonio
say Jared Anderson was sen-
tenced Tuesday after pleading
guilty to multiple counts of sexu-
al performance by a child and
indecency with a child by expo-
sure.
— The Associated Press
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 10, Ed. 1 Saturday, August 12, 2017, newspaper, August 12, 2017; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1131457/m1/3/: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .