News

PANEL TAKES UP MODIFIED HAILSTORM SUIT LEGISLATION
The Senate Business and Commerce Committee Thursday considered a modified version of a bill intended to address what supporters say is an increase in lawsuit abuse surrounding hailstorm and other weather related claims. Author and committee Chair Senator Kelly Hancock of North Richland Hills said the changes to the filed legislation came after working with stakeholders to address concerns in the bill as filed. "Through the process, what we're saying in this is that we heard you, we made significant changes, and I will say significant changes," he said.

Jon Raymond, 34, of Victoria was arrested in the early morning hours of March 9 at a residence off of CR 101, outside of Edna, after he failed to show up for court proceedings in Victoria County.

Raymond was arrested in April of 2016 after he was suspected of shooting three subjects in Victoria but failed to appear for his scheduled court appearance. A warrant was issued for his arrest in October of last year. Raymond has been a fugitive ever since.

The US Marshals, Victoria Police Department SWAT team, Victoria Police Department Criminal Investigation Division, Jackson County Sheriff's office, Customs and Border Protection and Rockport Police Department descended on the house where Raymond was taken into custody without further incident.

Also located in the residence were small amounts of methamphetamine and marijuana, along with a firearm. Raymond was arrested on the outstanding warrant while the narcotics and firearms investigation is ongoing.

SENATE APPROVES BILL TARGETING SEX OFFENDING TEACHERS
Teachers who commit sex offenses would automatically lose their teaching certificate under a bill unanimously approved by the Senate Wednesday. Senate Bill 7 author and Houston Senator Paul Bettencourt says that the number of inappropriate teacher-student relationships has grown dramatically. He pointed to a 43 percent increase in investigations into such cases in the first five months of this fiscal year as compared to last, up to 97 cases. Some of these cases involve the youngest student populations. "Members, when we have teachers having sexual relationships at elementary schools, I would consider this literally an epidemic," he said.

COMMITTEE APPROVES SENATE BILL SIX
The Senate State Affairs committee approved a bill proponents say is intended to protect privacy and provide security in public restrooms. Widely known as the "bathroom bill", SB 6 would require a person to use restrooms, changing rooms, locker facilities and other areas correlated to the gender listed on a person's birth certificate in public buildings. Supporters argue that such a measure is needed to keep men from entering women's restrooms and other facilities. Author Senator Lois Kolkhorst said the bill is the result of hard work to find a fair and non-discriminatory solution to this issue. "Senate Bill 6, the Texas Privacy Act, is a bill that many of us have spent a great deal of time on carefully crafting to find the balance of privacy, decency, respect and dignity to protect women, children and all people for that matter," she said in her opening remarks on the bill.

Michael Skalicky and Robert Martin of the Texana Groundwater Conservation District stood before the Railroad Commission in Austin on Feb. 28 and unsuccessfully asked them to require Hilcorp to more closely monitor their CO2 injection project on the West Ranch outside of Vanderbilt.
TGCD has periodically attended hearings of the Railroad Commissioners, with little success.
Hilcorp’s attorneys claim there is nothing to worry about, and that the dual monitoring systems already in place are more than sufficient, despite being voluntary.
Skalicky pleaded with the commission, “I am coming before you to ask you to help us do our job. We need you to do something the groundwater commission can’t in this case, and that is to require an oil company to implement a groundwater monitoring plan.”

An unexpected bill for grinding brush has uncovered unapproved charges being paid by the city that weren’t included in its original contract with Republic Services.
Mike Reeves, municipal services manager with Republic, was at the March 3 Edna City Council meeting to provide options to get the $23,169 bill from Jackson County paid.
He told Mayor Joe Hermes and the rest of the council that he was unaware the city was being charged for the grinding, although in a email to current city manager Don Doering, he said “Mr. Knight [the previous city manager] would budget around $4k per month to cover the cost of grinding each year so that when the annual bill came in the city would have the funds to pay it.”
According to city records, the city has paid about $30,808 to the county for grinding since Knight verbally agreed to allow Republic services to take the brush debris to the transfer station, all without Council knowledge or approval.

Republic Services will pay for the City of Edna's grinding charges from Jackson County, Mike Reeves, director of municipal services for the trash hauling service announced Tuesday. According to City Manager Don Doering, Reeves came into his office late Tuesday afternoon and said the company would pay the $23,000 bill for grinding limbs and brush for 2016 and the grinding bill for 2017 as well.
The City Council was scheduled to meet in a called executive session Tuesday night to discuss and decide what to do about Republic's contract. That meeting was cancelled after Reeves' announcement.
The complete story can be found in the March 8 issue of the Jackson County Herald-Tribune.

SENATE FINISHES WORK ON EMERGENCY BILLS
​The Senate has approved bills this week on the last two items tagged as emergencies by Governor Greg Abbott in late January. Measures relating to the call of a constitutional convention and foster system reform join bills banning sanctuary cities and reforming ethics rules for elected officials already sent to the House for consideration.

SENATE PASSES DFPS REFORM BILL
The Senate on Wednesday gave unanimous approval to a bill designed to fix the agency that looks after child welfare and foster kids in Texas. Author Senator Charles Schwertner laid out some of the problems that have arisen within the Department of Family and Protective Services over the last few years "[DFPS] has been under intense scrutiny due to the unfortunate reality that vulnerable children in Texas are going days or even months at a time without seeing a case worker," he said. "They're sleeping in CPS offices, and worst of all, too many are experiencing wholly unacceptable abuse and neglect while entrusted to the care of the state." His plan, SB 11, seeks to address the lack of capacity in the system and overall quality by moving to a community based, non-profit-run model based on a pilot program in North Texas.

BILL WOULD END "WRONGFUL BIRTH" SUITS
Texans would no longer be allowed to sue doctors for a "wrongful birth" under a bill approved unanimously by the Senate State Affairs Committee on Monday. This is a cause of action based on an accusation that a doctor withheld, either willfully or through negligence, key information from parents who otherwise might have decided to terminate a pregnancy, and allows them to seek damages for the high cost of raising a child with disabilities. Bill author Senator Brandon Creighton of Conroe says suits like these send a message that some individuals aren't worthy of being born. "There are no wrongful births," he said. "Children born with disabilities ought to have the same rights as any able person. Their lives are just as valuable as any." Creighton added that the fear of liability might lead some doctors to recommend abortion to avoid being sued.