Mitchell Glenn Aills indicted for possession of methamphetamine and illegal handguns.
TYLER, TX Jan. 6, 2009 -— United States Attorney Rebecca A. Gregory announced that a federal grand jury returned indictments today charging multiple individuals in separate cases of federal violations in the Eastern District of Texas.
MITCHELL GLENN AILLS, 27, of Gilmer, Texas, is charged with possession of methamphetamine and firearms during a drug trafficking crime.
According to the indictment, DEA Task Force Officers and Upshur County authorities executed a search warrant in Upshur County, Texas and recovered approximately 1 oz. of methamphetamine and 2 handguns.
If convicted, Aills faces up to five years in federal prison for each charge.
The case is being investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Middleton.
ANSELMO ESPINOZA-GONZALEZ, 35, of Longview, Texas, is charged with being an illegal alien present in the U.S. after deportation.
According to the indictment, Gonzalez, a Mexican national, was originally deported to Mexico in 1998 after driving while intoxicated. He reentered the United States on an unknown date and was convicted of the felony offense of Injury to a Child in Anderson County in 2001. He was arrested again in Anderson County in November and ordered detained pending these charges.
If convicted the defendant faces up to 2 years in federal prison. The case is being investigated by the Department of Homeland Security and the Bureau of Customs and Immigration Enforcement and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Allen Hurst.
MICHAEL SHANE TALLEY, 24, is being charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, and possession of an unregistered firearm.
According to the indictment, Talley was previously convicted in Anderson County of felony charges of manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance, and was subsequently found in possession of a weapon made from a shotgun in Anderson County after a traffic stop.
If convicted, Talley faces up to 10 years in federal prison. The case is being investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Moore is prosecuting the case.
EMILIO MARTINEZ-MAGDALENA, of Gregg County, has been charged with illegally being in the United States after having been previously deported.
According to the indictment, the defendant, a Mexican national, was originally deported to Mexico back in 2000 after an aggravated felony conviction for Injury to a Child out of Upshur County, Texas. He reentered the United States on an unknown date, and was charged with driving while intoxicated in Gregg County, Texas in early 2007. Immigration authorities physically found Martinez at the Bradshaw State Jail facility in Rusk County, Texas, on May 21, 2007. He was released from TDC to ICE custody in December of 2008.
If convicted, t he Defendant faces up to 20 years in federal prison. The case is being investigated by the Department of Homeland Security Immigration Customs Enforcement and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Allen Hurst.
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Texas senator teams with Dianne Feinstein to increase aid funding.
WASHINGTON, DC Jan. 8, 2009 -— U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Border Security and Refugees subcommittee, today announced he will once again cosponsor legislation to expand the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) to reimburse Texas communities for the cost of incarcerating criminal illegal immigrants.
Sen. Cornyn was an original cosponsor of this legislation in the 110th Congress. U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-CA, reintroduced the legislation, S. 168, today.
As it stands, SCAAP reimburses $24 million to Texas every year, but through this legislation, Sen. Cornyn is pushing for the expansion of this program to provide additional reimbursement to Texas communities who struggle to afford the costs associated with criminal illegal aliens in their cities.
“Our federal immigration system is deeply flawed and partisanship in Congress has prevented real reform. Even so, our law enforcement and border patrol personnel in Texas work tirelessly each day to enforce the rule of law and keep our neighborhoods safe. Local entities should not be forced to shoulder the financial burden associated with incarcerating and prosecuting criminal illegal immigrants. I’m please to lend my full support again to this important legislation to significantly expand SCAAP reimbursements for Texas communities who are doing their part to keep our state safe and secure,” Sen. Cornyn said.
“While this legislation is a much-needed step, we are still a far cry from addressing immigration reform in a comprehensive manner. With a new Congress and new leadership in the White House, I’m hopeful we can work together to tackle immigration reform as soon as possible. Further inaction is unacceptable and jeopardizes our national security.”
--- BYLINE
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Upshur County receives $63,000, Cities and towns share $131,000.
AUSTIN, TX Jan. 9, 2009 -- Comptroller Susan Combs announced today that the state collected $1.86 billion in sales tax revenue in December, up 2 percent compared to December 2007.
“State sales tax collections have grown 3.9 percent for the first four months of state fiscal year 2009,” Combs said. “Growth in overall collections has slowed compared to recent years, while remittances from key sectors such as construction and retail trade have declined.”
Combs sent cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose taxing districts their first sales tax allocations of 2009 — $459.2 million, up 2.4 percent compared to January 2008.
Combs sent January sales tax allocations of $309.9 million to Texas cities, up 2.2 percent compared to January 2008. Texas counties received sales tax payments of $29 million, up 8.2 percent compared to last January.
In addition, $18.3 million went to 148 special purpose taxing districts around the state, up 23.5 percent compared to last January. Ten local transit systems received $101.9 million in sales tax allocations, down 1.4 percent compared to a year ago.
December state sales tax collections and January allocations to local governments represent sales that occurred in November.
Upshur County and Cities Tax Allocations
| City / County | Current Payment | 2009 Total | 2008 Comparable | % Change |
| Big Sandy | $20.580.00 | 20,580.00 | 22,123.89 | -6.97% |
| East Mountain | $1,742.38 | 1,742.38 | 1,702.35 | +2.35% |
| Gilmer | $97,673.71 | 97,673.71 | 92,857.82 | +5.18% |
| Ore City | $10,859.77 | 10,859.77 | 8,279.78 | +31.16% |
| Union Grove | $215.43 | 215.43 | 517.56
| -58.37% |
| Upshur County | $63,069.87 | 63,069.87 | 55,715.75 | +13.19 |
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TCEQ awarded $2 million for clean diesel projects
DALLAS, TX Jan 9, 2009 -- The North Central Texas Council of Governments has been awarded $1.5 million, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will receive $500,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency to help reduce diesel emissions.
EPA and the Blue Skyways Collaborative awarded the grants as part of the National Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program.
“Blue Skyways and the EPA clean diesel program are delivering cleaner engines and cleaner air for America’s heartland,” said EPA Regional Administrator Richard E. Greene. “This program gives communities another effective tool to improve air quality and public health.”
Communities will use the grants for clean diesel projects that significantly reduce emissions through the use of retrofit technologies, engine replacements, and idle reduction technologies.
Reducing emissions from diesel engines is one of the most important air quality challenges facing the country. Even with EPA's more stringent heavy-duty highway and non-road engine standards set to take effect over the next decade, millions of diesel engines already in use will continue to emit large amounts of nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and air toxics, which contribute to serious public health problems. EPA and the Blue Skyways Collaborative provide funding for projects to help reduce these heavy-duty diesel emissions.
The Blue Skyways Collaborative is a group of businesses, communities and government agencies spanning 10 states that work together voluntarily to reduce air pollution in North America's central corridor. With its 183 partners, the collaborative is implementing about $1.1 billion in projects that use innovations in diesel engines, alternative fuels and renewable energy technologies to reduce air emissions along major transportation corridors. These innovations save 76 million gallons of fuel per year, cut 1.6 million tons per year in greenhouse gases and reduce toxic air pollutants by 51,626 tons per year.
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Abbott leads 50-state coalition in defense of prayer, presidential oath of office.
AUSTIN, TX Jan 8, 2009 -- Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and a bipartisan coalition of Attorneys General representing all fifty states and the U.S. Virgin Islands today took legal action to defend the constitutionality of prayer during President-elect Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration.
In an amicus brief that was authored by Attorney General Abbott and filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the state Attorneys General also defended the President-elect’s right to say the words “so help me God” while reciting the presidential oath of office.
"Since President George Washington uttered the words ‘so help me God’ at his first inauguration in 1789, American presidents have a longstanding, historic tradition of invoking the Almighty at their inaugural ceremonies,” said Attorney General Greg Abbott. “Despite more than two hundred years of established tradition – and no legal precedent for their challenge – a group of activists have asked the courts to interfere with President-elect Obama’s right to pray and invoke God during his inauguration as forty-fourth President of the United States.
Today’s legal action reflects a concerted bipartisan, fifty-state effort to defend a constitutional acknowledgement of faith during an inaugural celebration.”
The states filed their amicus brief in an effort to defeat a legal challenge that activist Michael Newdow and several atheist organizations filed on Dec. 30, 2008. Their lawsuit claims that the longstanding inaugural traditions—prayer and an oath of office that includes the words ‘so help me God’—violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
Public acknowledgements of God at official functions have been customary since the nation’s founding. President George Washington began an unbroken, 200-year tradition when he inserted the phrase “so help me God” at the end of his oath of office in 1789. Today it is common for prayers and oaths invoking God to be incorporated into swearing-in ceremonies across the country. For example, Article XVI, Section 1 of the Texas Constitution provides that all appointed and elected officers shall take an oath of office – and that constitutional oath includes the phrase “so help me God.”
At the federal level, members of the United States Congress are also sworn-in using an oath that invokes the Almighty. When the 111th Congress convened Tuesday, the House and Senate Chaplains delivered a prayer just before Senators and Representatives recited an oath of office that incorporated the phrase “so help me God.”
The constitutionality of public acknowledgements of God by governmental institutions has been repeatedly affirmed by the United States Supreme Court. In Marsh v. Chambers, the high court upheld the constitutionality of opening every legislative session with a clergy-led prayer. As Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has noted, such religious observances are used for “solemnizing public occasions, expressing confidence in the future, and encouraging the recognition of what is worthy of appreciation in society.”
Explaining the states’ legal position, Texas Solicitor General James Ho said: “Plaintiffs are not just challenging Presidential traditions; they are effectively attacking the laws and customs of virtually every state in the Union, including oaths of office in at least 20 state constitutions. But they are unable to cite a single state authority to cite their challenge. From daily prayers during legislative sessions to monuments on public property displaying the Ten Commandments, the United States Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the constitutionality of official acknowledgments of faith."
The states’ brief in Michael Newdow, et al. v. Hon. John Roberts, Jr. reflects Attorney General Abbott’s latest effort to lead a multi-state defense of public acknowledgments of God. In a 2003 amicus brief that was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of all 50 states, Attorney General Abbott successfully helped thwart Newdow’s attempt to remove the words “under God” from the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance. In 2007, he defeated a separate lawsuit attempting to remove the words “under God” from the Texas Pledge of Allegiance.
Attorney General Abbott also personally appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court, where he successfully defended a Ten Commandments monument on the Texas Capitol grounds. In that case, Van Orden v. Perry, the plaintiff sought to remove a Ten Commandments from the Texas Capitol, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the monument was constitutional.
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Police seek help in nabbing the Carmike Theater bandit.
On January 2, 2009 at around 11:38 a.m., Longview Police received a call about
a robbery that had just occurred at the Carmike 10 Theater at 201 Tall Pines
Drive.
Theater employees reported that while they were preparing to open the theater,
an unknown white male suspect wearing a ski mask and armed with a handgun
robbed them. Since the doors to the theater were locked at the time, employees
aren’t sure how the suspect entered the theater.
Arriving Longview Officers searched the theater for the suspect, but he was not
found at the location. The suspect is described as a white male, 5’10” tall with a medium build, wearing all dark clothing, a black ski
mask, black shoes with white stripes, gloves and armed with a handgun.
No one was injured during the robbery.
Anyone with information should call the Detective Terry Davis at 903-237-1110 or
Crime Stoppers at 903-236-STOP or at www.greggcountycrimestoppers.com
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CDC Issues Final Births Data for 2006
NEWS RELEASE -- The teen birth rate increased in more than half of all 50 states in 2006, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC had reported in December 2007 that the teen birth rate for the nation as a whole increased for the first time in 15 years in 2006 from 40.5 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19 in 2005 to 41.9 in 2006. That information was based on 99 percent of all birth certificates in the United States for 2006.
The latest report from CDC′s National Center for Health Statistics, “Births: Final Data for 2006,” includes state-by-state teen birth rate information based on all birth certificates issued in the United States in 2006.
The data show teen birth rates were highest in the South and Southwest, with the highest rate recorded in Mississippi (68.4), followed by New Mexico (64.1) and Texas (63.1).
Teen birth rates in 2006 were lowest in the Northeast in 2006, with the lowest rates occurring in New Hampshire (18.7), Vermont (20.8), and Massachusetts (21.3). The only states with a decrease in teen birth rates between 2005 and 2006 were North Dakota, Rhode Island, and New York.
The report also features birth data on a variety of topics, including state-based and national information on teen, unmarried, and multiple births, along with health data on smoking during pregnancy, Caesarean delivery, preterm birth, and low birthweight.
The full report is available at www.cdc.gov/nchs.
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Senator lists economy, immigration and energy policies as priorities over the next six years.
WASHINGTON, DC Jan. 6, 2008 -— U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, made the following statement after he was sworn-in today on the Senate floor.
“Today, I had the honor of being officially sworn-in to the United States Senate to represent the people of Texas for another six years. I’m looking forward to working on behalf of all Texans and working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass real solutions to the problems that confront our country – from putting our economy on the right track to comprehensive immigration reform to energy independence. I am ready to hit the ground running, and ensure a productive new year in which the needs and priorities of Texans are fully addressed on the federal level.”
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Attorney says legal ramifications will be the board's last resort.
GLENWOOD ACRES -- If there is anything that the Glenwood Acres Landowners Association Board and disgruntled residents can agree on, it is that things need to change.
Tim Caricker, the attorney hired to represent the landowners association in deed enforcement actions, said yesterday that the board hasn't targeted anyone, and is instead engaged in righting problems related to deed restrictions that have been allowed to go uncorrected for too long.
Caricker says that board members don't want to take anyone to court, and called attention to the six month grace period included in clean-up demands the board has made of some residents. He said that allowed residents until May of this year to comply.
Commenting on the impeachment drive to oust board president, Jason Lundy, Caricker said "The board is disappointed that it has received this response to what they are trying to do, which is to clean up Glenwood Acres".
He also said the board was aware that petition leader Russell McFadin had been cleaning up his lot, saying "The board acknowledges Mr. McFadin's efforts, and we encourage him to continue those efforts".
According To McFadin, though, what needs to be cleaned up is the board itself, starting with the removal of Lundy.
McFadin will need 20% of the association's members to sign the petition in order to force an impeachment vote, but no one is sure what the exact number of signatures that needs to be.
During an informal meeting of petition supporters Sunday, McFadin said that the board had been unwilling or unable to provide him with a count of members in good standing, or their names.
Caricker said the board is in the process of generating that list, but it has been complicated by the need to not only identify the members in good standing, but also to determine which of them have gotten married or divorced, since the spouses of members have votes as well.
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