'Trouble in Mind'

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A story by Brandi Grissom at Texas Monthly with the same title as this post tells the horrifying story of Andre Thomas, a schizophrenic capital murderer who plucked out both of his own eyes and ate them. An excerpt can't do it justice so read the whole thing, but this passage sums up the big picture question.

The toughest questions that Andre’s case presents, however, are not political in nature but moral. As a society, we want justice for the victims of his horrific crime. But what if Andre is not capable of understanding right from wrong or of comprehending why he is facing execution? Conversely, if the death penalty is not intended for someone who cuts out the hearts of two children, then for whom is it meant? At the center of this dilemma is Andre himself, who, now almost thirty, is presently too mentally ill to be housed on death row. For the past four years, he has been confined to a special psychiatric prison facility, where he remains indefinitely. All of which raises perhaps the most difficult question of all: What should be done with Andre Thomas?

See prior, related Grits posts:

• If Andre Thomas is not insane then the insanity defense law is
• Some judge somewhere declared this guy competent to stand trial
• Prevention, punishment, mental illness and crime 
• Romeo and Juliet, Abraham and Isaac: Who to criminalize?

Story conflates jails, prisons to misrepresent scope of unemployment 'fraud'

To contact us Click HERE
A TV news report out of Houston blares with the headline, "Prisoners collecting millions in unemployment while behind bars," but that claim obscures more truth than it illuminates. The story opened:

Unemployment benefits are supposed to be life lines to out-of-work Texans.

But the KHOU 11 News I-Team uncovered millions of dollars in unemployment payments are flowing into jails and prisons across Texas.

All of it comes as the Texas Workforce Commission insists that fighting fraud is one of the agency’s top priorities.

But after we found more than 1,700 cases of inmates collecting unemployment, some want to know if anyone is really watching the system?

Grits replied in the comments, though, that, "If someone is convicted and sent to prison, they shouldn't receive benefits. But most people in jail have been convicted of nothing yet and still enjoy the presumption of innocence. Their benefits should not be terminated. This article lumps those categories together in a way that's fundamentally misleading and borders on demagoguery. Please give the break out for how many of those 1,700 were in jail vs. prison." I'm betting that, if we ever see that data, most of the 1,700 people mentioned were in fact eligible and did not  engage in "fraud" at all.

Roundup: Fumbling DAs, DPS policy reversal, Harris jail won't privatize

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A few odds and ends from this week's news that failed to make it into individual Grits posts:

DPS reverses policy on shooting at vehicles from helicopters
Too bad it took a tragedy. Shooting hogs from helicopters is still okay.

Harris County won't privatize jail
Too much risk and uncertain savings.

Leadership 'crisis' lamented at McLennan DA
A fumbling, petty PR strategy exacerbated the rift between the District Attorney and Waco Police Department, said the Waco Tribune-Herald editorial board.

Leadership crisis lamented at Dallas DA
Dallas DA Craig Watkins is fumbling through another alleged corruption scandal.

Immigration practicalities
See critical commentary on border security and the importance of illegal immigrants to Texas' construction industry.

The conservative case against solitary confinement
From George Will, of all people.

Cleaning out the snake pit at Williamson DA's office

To contact us Click HERE
This anecdote gives a good sense of why change was needed at the Williamson County District Attorney's office: "When new District Attorney Jana Duty moved into her office in the Williamson County Justice Center in Georgetown on Jan. 2, she found a dead coral snake with the head cut off in her desk drawer."

Classy, huh? Former DA John Bradley said he had nothing to do with it, and I believe him, but the episode surely says something about the office culture that surrounded him. Duty has begun to clean out the snake pit, but odds are whoever put the reptile there still works in the DA's office.

Texting ban pushed despite veto last session

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Tomorrow, the Texas House Transportation Committee will consider several bills banning or limiting use of cell phones for talking or texting. Ironically, though you wouldn't know it from the MSM coverage, "Texting bans haven't reduced crashes at all. In a perverse twist, crashes increased in 3 of the 4 states we studied after bans were enacted," according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Shannon Edmonds at TDCAA said Friday that, of the four related bills on the agenda, "HB 63 is the one to watch; it will be amended in committee and probably voted out first." Governor Perry, regular readers know, vetoed similar legislation in 2011.

Story conflates jails, prisons to misrepresent scope of unemployment 'fraud'

To contact us Click HERE
A TV news report out of Houston blares with the headline, "Prisoners collecting millions in unemployment while behind bars," but that claim obscures more truth than it illuminates. The story opened:

Unemployment benefits are supposed to be life lines to out-of-work Texans.

But the KHOU 11 News I-Team uncovered millions of dollars in unemployment payments are flowing into jails and prisons across Texas.

All of it comes as the Texas Workforce Commission insists that fighting fraud is one of the agency’s top priorities.

But after we found more than 1,700 cases of inmates collecting unemployment, some want to know if anyone is really watching the system?

Grits replied in the comments, though, that, "If someone is convicted and sent to prison, they shouldn't receive benefits. But most people in jail have been convicted of nothing yet and still enjoy the presumption of innocence. Their benefits should not be terminated. This article lumps those categories together in a way that's fundamentally misleading and borders on demagoguery. Please give the break out for how many of those 1,700 were in jail vs. prison." I'm betting that, if we ever see that data, most of the 1,700 people mentioned were in fact eligible and did not  engage in "fraud" at all.

Roundup: Fumbling DAs, DPS policy reversal, Harris jail won't privatize

To contact us Click HERE
A few odds and ends from this week's news that failed to make it into individual Grits posts:

DPS reverses policy on shooting at vehicles from helicopters
Too bad it took a tragedy. Shooting hogs form helicopters is still okay.

Harris County won't privatize jail
Too much risk and uncertain savings.

Leadership 'crisis' lamented at McLennan DA
A fumbling, petty PR strategy exacerbated the rift between the District Attorney and Waco Police Department, said the Waco Tribune-Herald editorial board.

Leadership crisis lamented at Dallas DA
Dallas DA Craig Watkins is fumbling through another alleged corruption scandal.

Immigration practicalities
See critical commentary on border security and the importance of illegal immigrants to Texas' construction industry.

The conservative case against solitary confinement
From George Will, of all people.

101 House members endorse bill criminalizing warrantless drone photography

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Check out the list of joint and co-authors on HB 912 by sophomore Rep. Lance Gooden  of Terrell restricting surveillance by unmanned drones - four joint authors and 96 co-authors last week joined Gooden to support legislation making it a crime to use or authorize someone to use "an unmanned vehicle or aircraft to capture an image without the express consent of the person who owns or lawfully occupies the real property captured in the image." Extraordinary! That's even more people - and a much more bipartisan list - than have signed onto Rep. David Simpson's TSA anti-groping legislation (HB 80), virtually guaranteeing passage if the drone bill makes it to the House floor. Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire has reportedly agreed to sponsor it in the Senate.

The new offense would be a Class C misdemeanor for possessing such photos and a Class B misdemeanor for displaying or distributing them. There are exceptions carving out drone photos taken under the authority of a search warrant, by police in pursuits, for purposes of fire suppression, for drone use within 25 miles of the border, for drone photography without magnification, and for photos taken of people on public property.

While I'm generally not a fan of creating new crimes, Grits is broadly sympathetic to the impetus behind the legislation. Humorously, when I recently told my father about legislation by Rep. Bryan Hughes and Sen. Juan Hinojosa to require a warrant for GPS tracking of your cell phone by law enforcement, he joked that the day was coming when the state may use GPS to locate individuals then send armed drones after them to rain death from the sky. For now, such concerns may be more applicable in Afghanistan or Pakistan than here, but the joke emphasizes that we're only just beginning to understand how all these newfangled 21st century technologies of control may work together in the future to violate rights in ways that are inconceivable today.

What remains unclear (to me, anyway) is how old court precedents related to photography and the First Amendment may apply to legislation like HB 912. After all, 101 state House members may be trumped by five US Supreme Court Justices, and traditionally courts have held that photographs of private property - even taken with magnification - are allowable if the photographer has a legal right to be in the spot where they snapped the picture. And based on those precedents, it's hard to see the distinction between photos taken by unmanned aircraft vs. a helicopter hovering over one's house with a photographer hanging out the side. For that matter, I'm not sure how the bill would distinguish between drone photography and satellite photos like those used by Google Earth.

At the same time, there are only so many manned helicopters police or news organizations can deploy at any given time, so there's a real limit on how much surveillance anyone can afford to conduct. In a future already visible from here, the number of unmanned drones that could be deployed may be essentially limitless and surveillance could be as easy as turning on your computer. Much like the GPS tracking bill, HB 912 bucks against the trend toward making surveillance ever cheaper and easier. Instead of drones, surveillance without a warrant would still require actual human beings (outside of the above-listed exceptions).

Past court precedents emphasized the First Amendment rights of the photographer over the privacy rights of those being photographed. Because freedom of the press is explicitly protected in the Constitution while privacy rights are at most implied, courts have tended to err on the side of the picture takers. But really, photography was invented decades after the First Amendment was written, and the Constitution's framers could not have anticipated how it would be applied, just as judges interpreting the rights of paparazzi or police photographers in the past could not have anticipated the use of unmanned drones. How to balance those competing rights is a question which will be revisited over and over in the coming years. Whether or not this bill passes, it likely represents the beginning of a debate and not its denouement.

Cleaning out the snake pit at Williamson DA's office

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This anecdote gives a good sense of why change was needed at the Williamson County District Attorney's office: "When new District Attorney Jana Duty moved into her office in the Williamson County Justice Center in Georgetown on Jan. 2, she found a dead coral snake with the head cut off in her desk drawer."

Classy, huh? Former DA John Bradley said he had nothing to do with it, and I believe him, but the episode surely says something about the office culture that surrounded him. Duty has begun to clean out the snake pit, but odds are whoever put the snake there still works in the DA's office.

Update on KCOH - Movin' on Up UPDATED

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It was announced this morning on the air, KCOH will be moving to the 1230 spot on the dial, where the call letters KQUE have been in use.  The current programming will continue, operating out of the KCOH picture window studios on Almeda.

The Chronicle story has more details.

UPDATE:  WHILE I DON'T USUALLY COVER BREAKING NEWS IN THE BROADCAST INDUSTRY ON THIS BLOG, KCOH IS ONE OF OUR FEW REMAINING HERITAGE RADIO STATIONS; NOT ONLY THAT, IT IS STILL LOCALLY OWNED AND PROGRAMMED IN A DAY OF CORPORATE RADIO, AND THAT'S NOT TO MENTION IT'S SIGNIFICANCE IN THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY.  SO, HERE'S MORE ON THE PENDING SALE AND MOVE, IN DEPTH, FROM THE FORWARD TIMES.

Bigger safety threat: Guns or violent video games?

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A recent opinion poll (pdf) of Republican primary voters posed the question, "What do you think is a bigger safety threat in America: guns or violent video games?" Among respondents, an amazing 67% said video games, 14% said guns, 19% said not sure. The sample size was rather small (just over 500), but still, that's an enormous difference.

My personal belief is that, in fact, the opposite is true: IMO video games likely reduce crime because of the incapacitation effect of young males spending large amounts of time playing them. As a 2011 study on the subject put it, "Even if a gamer is predisposed to being more aggressive due to gaming, he can express this aggression only over a shorter time non-gaming period." Or in layman's terms, the kid who spends hours perfecting his skills at Grand Theft Auto has less time to spend stealing my car.

At the macro-level, too, the threat from violent video games falls flat. Max Fisher at The Washington Post reported in December that, "the United States has the highest firearm murder rate in the developed world. But other countries where video games are popular have much lower firearm-related murder rates."

Defense disclosure the sticking point in 'reciprocal discovery' bill

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The Texas Tribune has a brief article describing legislation filed by state Sen. Rodney Ellis and Rep. Joe Moody related to "reciprocal discovery" in criminal cases, i.e., what evidence each side must give to the other before trial. Most court watchers agree the state has obligations to disclose potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense, though DAs differ from county to county have widely different definitions of what constitutes an "open file" policy.

In the past, the sticking point has been opposition by the defense bar to the "reciprocal" aspect of the bill, believing the practice abrogates the defendant's Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination. The burden of proof is on the state, the argument goes, and the defense is not obligated to put on witnesses or evidence at all. Meanwhile prosecutors have vehemently opposed codifying an "open-file" policy without the defense giving up something, too - hence "reciprocal discovery." The result has been a years-long stalemate. Here's a summary of what would be required of the defense under the filed bill (see the bill text):

• Written or recorded statements from witnesses the defense intends to call at trial,
• Any criminal record history of defense witnesses, if known,
• Any physical or documentary evidence the defense will present at trial, giving the state an opportunity for independent testing upon a showing of materiality by the state,
• Names of witnesses who will testify, addresses of some,
• Any report prepared by an expert witness who will testify,
• Prior notice of any alibi defense, including location and witnesses.

I'm not a lawyer and would be curious to hear the views of those who are, but the first three wouldn't particularly bother me. In most cases there likely will not be written or recorded statements of witnesses, only privileged attorneys' notes. This is not civil court and criminal defense lawyers do not generally depose witnesses. Criminal history information is already available to the state. And the physical evidence won't change just because it's disclosed. Similarly, I'm not particularly troubled by the suggestion that expert witness reports be shared before trial.

The fourth and sixth bullets, though, are where I've heard the most complaints from defense counsel when this bill came up in the past. Specifically, there's a concern that prosecutors or the police will engage in witness intimidation, threatening alibi witnesses or others scheduled to testify for the defense.

Another, broader complaint I've heard is that reciprocal discovery fails to take into account how trials actually work and the way defense strategies may change over their course.  E.g., imagine that a defendant knows of a witness whose testimony might help his or her case, but the initial defense strategy was simply to put on no witnesses and force the government to prove the elements. Then, during trial, the testimony of a prosecution witness turns out to be particularly devastating and the defense strategy changes. If they then call a witness they hadn't previously disclosed, will they get dinged over it by the courts? Will the witness be allowed? ¿Quien sabe?

Finally, the draft bill seemingly would require disclosure of witnesses that may be called to impeach government testimony, something even federal reciprocal discovery rules do not require. And even in the federal system, the distinction between impeachment evidence and an affirmative defense can be fuzzy, as in the case of an eyewitness called to rebut assertions by a state's witness. Some evidence may be used for either impeachment or non-impeachment purposes, and the distinction may not become clear until events at the trial begin to unfold.

For those reasons I tend to sympathize with defense critics of this bill, but also think that the need for open-file legislation is so great that, if it were me, I'd be willing to compromise. Making the defense disclose all witnesses, including impeachment, is way too broad. But having them disclose witnesses related to any affirmative defense, like an alibi or insanity, strikes me as a more reasonable, modest suggestion that would cause fewer practical problems. I don't know whether prosecutors would think that's enough (somehow I doubt it), but make me Philosopher King and that's how I'd split this particular baby.

We've been round and round these debates for too long. With all the focus on the issue following the Ken Anderson court of inquiry, the issue of open files is ripe for legislative action. It'd be a shame if Texas passed up the chance to require them by allowing the perfect to become the enemy of the good.

CORRECTION: This post incorrectly stated that the bill could require disclosure of impeachment witnesses, but in fact it only requires disclosure of witnesses the defense intends to call at trial. Grits regrets the error.

'Trouble in Mind'

To contact us Click HERE
A story by Brandi Grissom at Texas Monthly with the same title as this post tells the horrifying story of Andre Thomas, a schizophrenic capital murderer who plucked out both of his own eyes and ate them. An excerpt can't do it justice so read the whole thing, but this passage sums up the big picture question.

The toughest questions that Andre’s case presents, however, are not political in nature but moral. As a society, we want justice for the victims of his horrific crime. But what if Andre is not capable of understanding right from wrong or of comprehending why he is facing execution? Conversely, if the death penalty is not intended for someone who cuts out the hearts of two children, then for whom is it meant? At the center of this dilemma is Andre himself, who, now almost thirty, is presently too mentally ill to be housed on death row. For the past four years, he has been confined to a special psychiatric prison facility, where he remains indefinitely. All of which raises perhaps the most difficult question of all: What should be done with Andre Thomas?

See prior, related Grits posts:

• If Andre Thomas is not insane then the insanity defense law is
• Some judge somewhere declared this guy competent to stand trial
• Prevention, punishment, mental illness and crime 
• Romeo and Juliet, Abraham and Isaac: Who to criminalize?

Story conflates jails, prisons to misrepresent scope of unemployment 'fraud'

To contact us Click HERE
A TV news report out of Houston blares with the headline, "Prisoners collecting millions in unemployment while behind bars," but that claim obscures more truth than it illuminates. The story opened:

Unemployment benefits are supposed to be life lines to out-of-work Texans.

But the KHOU 11 News I-Team uncovered millions of dollars in unemployment payments are flowing into jails and prisons across Texas.

All of it comes as the Texas Workforce Commission insists that fighting fraud is one of the agency’s top priorities.

But after we found more than 1,700 cases of inmates collecting unemployment, some want to know if anyone is really watching the system?

Grits replied in the comments, though, that, "If someone is convicted and sent to prison, they shouldn't receive benefits. But most people in jail have been convicted of nothing yet and still enjoy the presumption of innocence. Their benefits should not be terminated. This article lumps those categories together in a way that's fundamentally misleading and borders on demagoguery. Please give the break out for how many of those 1,700 were in jail vs. prison." I'm betting that, if we ever see that data, most of the 1,700 people mentioned were in fact eligible and did not  engage in "fraud" at all.

Roundup: Fumbling DAs, DPS policy reversal, Harris jail won't privatize

To contact us Click HERE
A few odds and ends from this week's news that failed to make it into individual Grits posts:

DPS reverses policy on shooting at vehicles from helicopters
Too bad it took a tragedy. Shooting hogs form helicopters is still okay.

Harris County won't privatize jail
Too much risk and uncertain savings.

Leadership 'crisis' lamented at McLennan DA
A fumbling, petty PR strategy exacerbated the rift between the District Attorney and Waco Police Department, said the Waco Tribune-Herald editorial board.

Leadership crisis lamented at Dallas DA
Dallas DA Craig Watkins is fumbling through another alleged corruption scandal.

Immigration practicalities
See critical commentary on border security and the importance of illegal immigrants to Texas' construction industry.

The conservative case against solitary confinement
From George Will, of all people.

Defense disclosure the sticking point in 'reciprocal discovery' bill

To contact us Click HERE
The Texas Tribune has a brief article describing legislation filed by state Sen. Rodney Ellis and Rep. Joe Moody related to "reciprocal discovery" in criminal cases, i.e., what evidence each side must give to the other before trial. Most court watchers agree the state has obligations to disclose potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense, though DAs differ from county to county have widely different definitions of what constitutes an "open file" policy.

In the past, the sticking point has been opposition by the defense bar to the "reciprocal" aspect of the bill, believing the practice abrogates the defendant's Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination. The burden of proof is on the state, the argument goes, and the defense is not obligated to put on witnesses or evidence at all. Meanwhile prosecutors have vehemently opposed codifying an "open-file" policy without the defense giving up something, too - hence "reciprocal discovery." The result has been a years-long stalemate. Here's a summary of what would be required of the defense under the filed bill (see the bill text):

• Written or recorded statements from witnesses the defense intends to call at trial,
• Any criminal record history of defense witnesses, if known,
• Any physical or documentary evidence the defense will present at trial, giving the state an opportunity for independent testing upon a showing of materiality by the state,
• Names of witnesses who will testify, addresses of some,
• Any report prepared by an expert witness who will testify,
• Prior notice of any alibi defense, including location and witnesses.

I'm not a lawyer and would be curious to hear the views of those who are, but the first three wouldn't particularly bother me. In most cases there likely will not be written or recorded statements of witnesses, only privileged attorneys' notes. This is not civil court and criminal defense lawyers do not generally depose witnesses. Criminal history information is already available to the state. And the physical evidence won't change just because it's disclosed. Similarly, I'm not particularly troubled by the suggestion that expert witness reports be shared before trial.

The fourth and sixth bullets, though, are where I've heard the most complaints from defense counsel when this bill came up in the past. Specifically, there's a concern that prosecutors or the police will engage in witness intimidation, threatening alibi witnesses or others scheduled to testify for the defense.

Another, broader complaint I've heard is that reciprocal discovery fails to take into account how trials actually work and the way defense strategies may change over their course.  E.g., imagine that a defendant knows of a witness whose testimony might help his or her case, but the initial defense strategy was simply to put on no witnesses and force the government to prove the elements. Then, during trial, the testimony of a prosecution witness turns out to be particularly devastating and the defense strategy changes. If they then call a witness they hadn't previously disclosed, will they get dinged over it by the courts? Will the witness be allowed? ¿Quien sabe?

Finally, the draft bill seemingly would require disclosure of witnesses that may be called to impeach government testimony, something even federal reciprocal discovery rules do not require. And even in the federal system, the distinction between impeachment evidence and an affirmative defense can be fuzzy, as in the case of an eyewitness called to rebut assertions by a state's witness. Some evidence may be used for either impeachment or non-impeachment purposes, and the distinction may not become clear until events at the trial begin to unfold.

For those reasons I tend to sympathize with defense critics of this bill, but also think that the need for open-file legislation is so great that, if it were me, I'd be willing to compromise. Making the defense disclose all witnesses, including impeachment, is way too broad. But having them disclose witnesses related to any affirmative defense, like an alibi or insanity, strikes me as a more reasonable, modest suggestion that would cause fewer practical problems. I don't know whether prosecutors would think that's enough (somehow I doubt it), but make me Philosopher King and that's how I'd split this particular baby.

We've been round and round these debates for too long. With all the focus on the issue following the Ken Anderson court of inquiry, the issue of open files is ripe for legislative action. It'd be a shame if Texas passed up the chance to require them by allowing the perfect to become the enemy of the good.

CORRECTION: This post incorrectly stated that the bill could require disclosure of impeachment witnesses, but in fact it only requires disclosure of witnesses the defense intends to call at trial. Grits regrets the error.

'Trouble in Mind'

To contact us Click HERE
A story by Brandi Grissom at Texas Monthly with the same title as this post tells the horrifying story of Andre Thomas, a schizophrenic capital murderer who plucked out both of his own eyes and ate them. An excerpt can't do it justice so read the whole thing, but this passage sums up the big picture question.

The toughest questions that Andre’s case presents, however, are not political in nature but moral. As a society, we want justice for the victims of his horrific crime. But what if Andre is not capable of understanding right from wrong or of comprehending why he is facing execution? Conversely, if the death penalty is not intended for someone who cuts out the hearts of two children, then for whom is it meant? At the center of this dilemma is Andre himself, who, now almost thirty, is presently too mentally ill to be housed on death row. For the past four years, he has been confined to a special psychiatric prison facility, where he remains indefinitely. All of which raises perhaps the most difficult question of all: What should be done with Andre Thomas?

See prior, related Grits posts:

• If Andre Thomas is not insane then the insanity defense law is
• Some judge somewhere declared this guy competent to stand trial
• Prevention, punishment, mental illness and crime 
• Romeo and Juliet, Abraham and Isaac: Who to criminalize?

Story conflates jails, prisons to misrepresent scope of unemployment 'fraud'

To contact us Click HERE
A TV news report out of Houston blares with the headline, "Prisoners collecting millions in unemployment while behind bars," but that claim obscures more truth than it illuminates. The story opened:

Unemployment benefits are supposed to be life lines to out-of-work Texans.

But the KHOU 11 News I-Team uncovered millions of dollars in unemployment payments are flowing into jails and prisons across Texas.

All of it comes as the Texas Workforce Commission insists that fighting fraud is one of the agency’s top priorities.

But after we found more than 1,700 cases of inmates collecting unemployment, some want to know if anyone is really watching the system?

Grits replied in the comments, though, that, "If someone is convicted and sent to prison, they shouldn't receive benefits. But most people in jail have been convicted of nothing yet and still enjoy the presumption of innocence. Their benefits should not be terminated. This article lumps those categories together in a way that's fundamentally misleading and borders on demagoguery. Please give the break out for how many of those 1,700 were in jail vs. prison." I'm betting that, if we ever see that data, most of the 1,700 people mentioned were in fact eligible and did not  engage in "fraud" at all.

Bill filed to require warrant for GPS tracking of cell phones

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Woo Hoo! Many thanks to state Rep. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) for filing HB 1608, which would require police to obtain a warrant to access location tracking data from your cell phone or other wireless communications device. Rep. Hughes sits on the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee which would likely hear the legislation. Thanks also to the volunteers who've been helping promote the idea at the Lege, along with EFF-Austin, ACLU of Texas and Texans for Accountable Government, who have now formed a coalition to support the bill.

This is a project your correspondent began working on last year after it was revealed in Congressional hearings that law enforcement made more than 1.3 million requests for location data from cell-phone carriers in 2011.

Grits should add that there's been a lot of interest in the legislation from other members as well, and the process of shopping the bill has convinced me it will receive significant bipartisan support. See more background from EFF-Austin, and find below the jump an op ed I wrote on the subject which was published last month in the Dallas News.

End unregulated GPS tracking by the police
By Scott Henson, Dallas Morning News, Jan. 25

In an era of smartphones and near-ubiquitous GPS tracking of our cars and electronic devices, Texas statutes protecting its citizens’ privacy have failed to keep up with rapidly changing technology, allowing government access to personal location data from cellphones and other electronic devices without any judicial oversight. Those records are sealed permanently in Texas, without even aggregate data reported, as has long been required when police use old-fashioned wiretaps or trap-and-trace devices.

Mobile-phone carriers told Congress last year that law enforcement accessed their customers’ location data more than 1.3 million times in 2011. Because of outdated surveillance statutes and diminished open-records laws, Texans can’t know how often, nor for what purpose, police gather citizens’ cellphone location data. There’s no way to tell how many of those 1.3-plus million incidents occurred in Texas, nor which agencies most frequently gather location data, much less how often that sort of tracking led to arrests or indictments.

Are such data gathered by “fusion centers” or other intelligence-gathering divisions of law enforcement? Are they used to track political protesters, whether from the Occupy movement or at anti-abortion rallies? Have they ever been misused in ways that resulted in disciplinary actions against officers? Under current statutes, there’s no way to know.

Privacy advocates are asking the Legislature to consider a bill requiring a warrant for law enforcement to access cellphone-location data, with exceptions for emergencies and when the owner of an electronic device reports it stolen. It would also eventually unseal information about law enforcement’s use of those records after the investigation is complete, making such transactions subject to Texas open-records laws. It would require aggregate reporting about GPS tracking comparable to what’s required for old-fashioned (and now rarely used) wiretaps and trap-and-trace devices, giving the public a window onto how frequently law enforcement tracks them.

What little we do know about cases in which location data is gathered raises questions about whether it has been used too broadly. Federal Magistrate Judge Stephen Smith in Houston has written: “Asked to furnish … cases brought against individuals who had been subject to warrantless cellphone tracking since 2001, the Department of Justice identified … about 38 cases a year. Given that the federal government obtains tens of thousands of these orders every year, this data suggests that the government is spending more time chasing the innocent than the black sheep and ne’er-do-wells.”

How state and local jurisdictions in Texas use such data probably varies widely. For the most part, such decisions are made in a murky realm beyond judicial or public oversight that lends itself at a minimum to the appearance of overuse and, potentially, abuse.

Courts have typically been slow to extend constitutional protections to new technologies. The telephone was invented in the 1870s but the Supreme Court did not require a warrant to wiretap a telephone conversation until 1967. There’s no reason to wait that long to install protections for location data emanating from our personal electronic devices.

When the Supreme Court said in U.S. vs. Jones (2012) that placing a physical tracking device on a personal vehicle was a search, Texas law already required a court order, though not a full-blown search warrant, for police to use that tactic. But if police want to request your physical location data over, say, the last six months from your cellphone provider, they need only issue a subpoena. No judge need ever know about it unless they later decide to submit the location data as evidence (which, from the numbers Judge Smith presented from the federal system, doesn’t seem to happen all that often).

These are simple, logical updates to Texas’ criminal law that the Legislature could enact during the 83rd session, without waiting for Congress or the Supreme Court to finally get to the problem many years down the line. Why wait? Texas should act to protect public privacy now and place reasonable limits on location tracking by law enforcement.

House Appropriations criminal justice highlights

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The Texas House Appropriations Committee yesterday adopted recommendations (pdf) from its subcommittee on Article V of the budget, which covers Public Safety and Criminal Justice. Obviously the Senate Finance Committee will have their say, too, and there's a long way to go before anything is final. But here are a few highlights from adopted committee recommendations on the House side that caught Grits' eye:

Texas probation department directors will be pleased to learn the committee adopted a recommendation to create a line item paying for probation officers' health insurance, allocating $17.6 million toward that end. They also tacked on an additional $30 million for diversion programs in addition to what was in the filed version of the budget, though basic supervision funds were reduced by $5.75 million to account for declining caseloads.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice had requested an additional $102.4 million to pay for inmate health care after slashing the budget by a roughly like amount last session. TDCJ chief Brad Livingston had told the subcommittee such an increase would bring the agency's healthcare budget back up to levels during the 2010-11 biennium. The House Appropriations Committee, though, boosted spending for healthcare by only $47.4 million, which essentially makes up for the shortfall experienced this biennium by the system's providers at UTMB and Texas Tech. They declined additional money for raises for front-line health staff, new capital equipment, medical transportation vehicles, and funding to restore nurses and other front-line positions that were cut in the current biennium.

The parole division was given a $10 million boost to account for rising caseloads, and another $6 million was allocated to treat parolees suffering form mental illness. They also approved funds for seven new hearings officers, two new voting members of the parole board, and $300K for a consultant's study to evaluate parole eligibility guidelines. In addition, TDCJ had requested funding for 100 "reentry coordinators" to assist the 75,000 inmates per year leaving Texas prisons reintegrate into society - the committee gave them funding for 50. A request for $26.3 million to replace old vehicles (last session they were budgeted nothing for that purpose) was whittled down to just $4.2 million. A $7 million request to replace aging personal computers was also shot down.

The Department of Public Safety was given $10 million for new vehicles and $2.4 million to staff their gunboats patrolling the Rio Grande. A request for $52.9 million to expand Fusion Center operations was turned down. DPS would receive an additional $8.7 million for crime labs (representing 28.2 FTEs) and $10.9 million to outsource DNA testing and to upload data into the FBI's CODIS system.

Relatedly, Mike Ward at the Austin Statesman has a report on the Senate Finance Committee's recommendation to shutter two prison units and, oddly, to lease a unit in Jones County that was built on spec in hopes of housing TDCJ prisoners. Now they want the Lege to bail them out. Funding for the Jones County facility was not added to the budget by House Appropriations, so if its inclusion on the Senate side stands the issue would likely be resolved in the conference committee.

Bell County Sheriff Office allegedly faked training results, TCLEOSE oversight failed to catch it

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An investigative report by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education (TCLEOSE), which regulates peace officers' licensure and training, alleges that the Bell County Sheriff's Lt. Danny Kneese, the department's training coordinator, provided training for deputies and even officers from other agencies by letting them take materials home instead of sitting in a classroom, then faked test results that were sent to TCLEOSE. A local TV station reported that the agency "revoked the Bell County Sheriff's Department’s training license for two years," but looking at the full report (pdf), that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Just-elected Sheriff Eddie Lange first reported the problem to TCLEOSE last fall, but from the beginning investigating officer Mike Hobbs was "suspicious of his motives" and "his actions." Lange had allegedly promised Kneese a position as Jail Administrator and Kneese, anticipating Lange would become Sheriff and need the training hours for his license, allowed Lange to take the training materials home for credit. But Lange's role allegedly extended beyond that of a supposed whistleblower.

Upon interrogation, Lt. Kneese admitted to not holding classroom trainings as he'd reported to TCLEOSE but initially refused to give a written statement, instead requesting a lawyer. After consulting with Lange, who was then a county commissioner but at the time was running for Sheriff, Kneese came back later with a typed statement in which he took full blame and insisted Lange "did not know that being given a packet to learn core courses was illegal." However, wrote Hobbs, "it was clear to me that it was not a truthful statement but one that had been well thought out and prepared by either a legal team or someone other than Kneese." He also expressed the belief that Lange "is not being honest with me during this investigation. It is clear to me that he his coaching" Lt. Kneese, said the report. "It is clear to me at this point that Eddie Lang (sic) contacted TCLEOSE knowig that we would find issues with the training and that if we found issues we would have to investigate." Wrote Hobbs, "It is likely that Lang (sic) and Kneese were working together." He surmised that Lange, "became afraid of his campaign being affected" and "let Kneese take the fall for the entire incident." Kneese has since surrendered his peace officer's license.

The reasons behind the revocation of training authority are flat-out startling, particularly the allegations of faked course examinations:

Almost all the examinations and evaluations were typed on the same computer and were all exactly the same. In almost every case I found a typo on the examinations and evaluations and all of them had the same typo. That means every student would have had to type the same typo. This is highly unlikely and with Kneese admitting to teaching courses by packets it is clear that the test and evaluations are made up on his computer and completed by him all at one time.

That's the sort of thing that could get somebody indicted - you'd think the local TV news coverage might have mentioned it! People were getting credit for physical fitness training by signing workout logs in the gym. Indeed, the scope of training-related misconduct was so great that TCLEOSE decided to limit its investigation so the results wouldn't impact the training hours of "every Jailer and every Peace Officer working for Bell County." Again from Hobbs' report:

As I continued my investigation I realized that every Jailer and every Peace Officer working for Bell County could be affected by this illegal training and could end up losing hours.If this were to occur then the most likely scenario would be that none of them would have time to catch up on hours. After discussing this with Deputy Director John Helenburg it was decided that we would focus only on Intermediate Courses and two other courses that Bell County reported to us. Those courses are 3512 Health and Safety, and 6012 Health and Physical.

So TCLEOSE is protecting the probably improper training hours of most of the Bell Sheriff's uniformed staff through essentially a "don't ask, don't tell" approach. If they dug deeper, it's possible few if any jailers or deputies or jailers would have sufficient training hours to justify their licensure. That decision seems problematic, though as a practical matter it's understandable as an alternative to, say, shutting down the jail while everyone retakes all the training they missed. If all or most of the training was faulty, how could the department ever make it all up? What a mess. Grits won't be surprised if defense counsel down the line begin challenging the legal  status of Bell County Sheriff's deputies based on failure to meet state training requirements.

One wonders, would TCLEOSE have ever discovered this if Lange hadn't contacted them? Are there other agencies doing the same thing, and if so, could TCLEOSE even tell? ¿Quien sabe?

'Trouble in Mind'

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A story by Brandi Grissom at Texas Monthly with the same title as this post tells the horrifying story of Andre Thomas, a schizophrenic capital murderer who plucked out both of his own eyes and ate them. An excerpt can't do it justice so read the whole thing, but this passage sums up the big picture question.

The toughest questions that Andre’s case presents, however, are not political in nature but moral. As a society, we want justice for the victims of his horrific crime. But what if Andre is not capable of understanding right from wrong or of comprehending why he is facing execution? Conversely, if the death penalty is not intended for someone who cuts out the hearts of two children, then for whom is it meant? At the center of this dilemma is Andre himself, who, now almost thirty, is presently too mentally ill to be housed on death row. For the past four years, he has been confined to a special psychiatric prison facility, where he remains indefinitely. All of which raises perhaps the most difficult question of all: What should be done with Andre Thomas?

See prior, related Grits posts:

• If Andre Thomas is not insane then the insanity defense law is
• Some judge somewhere declared this guy competent to stand trial
• Prevention, punishment, mental illness and crime 
• Romeo and Juliet, Abraham and Isaac: Who to criminalize?

Require pre-approval to prescribe psychotropic drugs to young children

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This idea seems like a no-brainer to me.

About 49,000 prescriptions for antipsychotic and neuroleptic drugs are currently given to children under five years old through the Texas Medicaid program, many of whom are in foster care, state Rep. Sylvester Turner said yesterday in a hearing on HB 473. (Some of those represent multiple psychotropic drugs prescribed to the same child, so the total number of kids receiving the drugs is lower than that). Turner's bill would require pre-authorization for such prescriptions for very young children. In Illinois, according to one witness, similar pre-authorization is required up to age 8.

Chairman Richard Raymond suggested the drugs were being used as a substitute for parental "patience." A GAO study (pdf) from 2011 found that children in foster care are given psychotropic drugs at much higher rates than kids who are not.

The Texas Medical Association opposed the bill, arguing the decision should be left to doctors. Go here to watch the hearing; the bill was brought up at the 28:00 minute mark.

Pulling back the curtain on prosecutor paranoia

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Ever wonder how prosecutors speak to one another when they think no one's watching? Conservative blogger Big Jolly, a GOP activist in Houston, pulled back the curtain, obtaining a copy of a video under open records of the first mandatory prosecutor training under new Harris DA Mike Anderson, conducted by the Texas District and County Attorneys Association. Here's an excerpt from Jolly's summary:

The entire tone of the video suggests a sort of “bunker” mentality, an us against them, almost a “whine-fest” from the trainer, Rob Kepple of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association. Did you know the Innocence Project is the “enemy” of prosecutors? Nevermind that their work has resulted in the release of innocent men and women convicted by prosecutorial abuse. DA Anderson goes so far as to say that in the eyes of the Innocence Project, prosecutors are nothing more than pondscum. I suppose the old axiom is true – no good deed goes unpunished.

The “training” also describes our legislature as “out to get them” – “them” being prosecutors because they are “government employees” and the legislature apparently hates government employees. Oh, and the only reason crime has gone down since the 1980′s in Houston is because the legislature built more prison capacity. But now, “they” want to release criminals in prison for minor offenses because it is a whole lot cheaper to put someone on probation than it is to house them in a prison. Imagine that.

Mr. Kepple goes through a whole series of how people cheat in life and it isn’t cheating if you get away with it. I think his point was to say that prosecutors can’t do that but you’ll have to watch it to see how bad he made that point. And remember Pedro Oregon? You know, the guy that was killed dead, dead, dead because a bunch of yahoo cops forced a drunk driver to give them the address of his “dealer” and then started shooting for no reason? Yeah, he presents that as an example of using Johnny Holmes’ stellar reputation to get away with anything. Just totally bizarre.

Having worked for several years for the Innocence Project of Texas, I'm pretty used to prosecutors considering that group the "enemy," though like Jolly I've never fully understood it. After all, when an innocent person goes to prison, that means a guilty person remains free. One would think prosecutors would have an interest in rectifying that situation. Still, we see instances like in Williamson County, where DA John Bradley fought for years to keep the national Innocence Project from testing evidence that eventually exonerated Michael Morton. Does anybody believe that, if Bradley had agreed to DNA testing when it was first requested, that Judge Ken Anderson would currently be facing judgment in a court of inquiry? Things got to that point because, thanks to the bellicose stance of the DA, a balls-to-the-wall fight was the only way to prove Morton's innocence. The open-records requests that discovered alleged prosecutorial misconduct would never have even been filed if Bradley had agreed to retesting from the get-go.

Similarly, the idea that the Repbublican-dominated Legislature somehow hates prosecutors or is soft on crime beggars belief, but prosecutors and the police unions see themselves particularly at odds with freshman and sophomore Tea-Party types. These special interests are so used to absolute deference that they consider even modest questioning of their practices tantamount to betrayal.

I'll be interested to learn what Mark Bennett, Paul Kennedy, Robb Fickman and other Houston criminal defense lawyers think about the presentation. Sounds like quite a show. Grits hasn't had time to watch the full video yet, and may have more to say about it after I do. (I've heard Kepple's schtick and such paranoid, "us against them" rhetoric fails to shock me as much as it once did.) For now, head over to Jolly's shop to see it for yourself.

Update on KCOH - Movin' on Up UPDATED

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It was announced this morning on the air, KCOH will be moving to the 1230 spot on the dial, where the call letters KQUE have been in use.  The current programming will continue, operating out of the KCOH picture window studios on Almeda.

The Chronicle story has more details.

UPDATE:  WHILE I DON'T USUALLY COVER BREAKING NEWS IN THE BROADCAST INDUSTRY ON THIS BLOG, KCOH IS ONE OF OUR FEW REMAINING HERITAGE RADIO STATIONS; NOT ONLY THAT, IT IS STILL LOCALLY OWNED AND PROGRAMMED IN A DAY OF CORPORATE RADIO, AND THAT'S NOT TO MENTION IT'S SIGNIFICANCE IN THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY.  SO, HERE'S MORE ON THE PENDING SALE AND MOVE, IN DEPTH, FROM THE FORWARD TIMES.

Fixed a Broken Google Reader with Google Takeout

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Good news! I've finally fixed my pesky Google Reader problem. I couldn't unsubscribe to anything. It started being wonky months ago. I was subscribed to too many blogs and it didn't like that. Instead of receiving all new genealogy blog posts, I'd get some. There was no rhyme or reason on which posts I received. Two weeks later, I'd receive the rest of the posts.

I felt silly commenting on people's blogs two weeks after the fact, but the truth was that the posts were new to me.

At one point, I decided to unsubscribe to some blogs that were no longer updated. I thought that would appease the cranky Google Reader. I worked very hard on this for hours, manually visiting each blog feed and unsubscribing from those that hadn't been updated in over a year.

Google Reader was not impressed with my efforts and reinstated all the old subscriptions I worked hard to trim. Grrrr!

I looked online for help, but all I found were similar complaints.

I couldn't receive new blog posts. I couldn't trim my subscriptions. I gave up for a few weeks and didn't read any genealogy blogs. It was a sad time.

Then one Saturday, I tried again. I eliminated 200 subscriptions to stagnant blogs....only to have them back in my subscriptions on Sunday.

In January, I tried again. I searched the Internets for an answer or a fix. I was starting to consider deleting everyone and starting over with a new account. Then while searching through everyone else's Google Reader complaints, I found  a solution.

One person discussed how she made her unsubscribing changes, then exported the data via Google Takeout. She then imported the correct subscriptions and her Google reader reset.

So I spent another weekend eliminating a bazillion stagnant blog subscriptions. Again. Then I exported the ones I wanted to keep to Google Takeout. That exercise alone fixed my problem. I did not have to import anything.

Now that my Google Reader is behaving, I hope to receive blog updates in a timely manner. I can start commenting again! I'm also going to subscribe to a bunch of new genealogy blogs because my Google Reader is not the boss of me.

Genealogy program at Missouri City (TX) library, February 27, 2013

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Below is a press release from the Ft. Bend County Library System that may be of interest to Houston area genealogy enthusiasts:

LEARN HOW TO RESEARCH YOUR FAMILY HISTORY AT LIBRARY PROGRAM

Have you ever wondered where your ancestors came from?  Are you curious about their military service or medical history? Learn the basics of beginning your family-history research at a special program, "Genealogy 101," on Wednesday, February 27, beginning at 10:00 am, in the Computer Lab at the Sienna Branch Library, 8411 Sienna Springs Blvd in Missouri City.

Library staff will provide a basic introduction to many of the resources that are available to the beginning genealogical researcher at Fort Bend County Libraries. Items that will be introduced include print resources, materials that are available on microfilm, and online tools such as the Ancestry.com and Heritage Quest USA databases.

The program is free and open to the public. Seating is limited, however, and reservations are required. To register online at the library's website (http://www.fortbend.lib.tx.us/), click on "Calendar," select "Sienna Branch," and find the program. Participants may also register by calling the library at 281-238-2952, or by visiting the library.

Genealogy as Therapy

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I find great solace in genealogy. When life presents challenges and difficulties, our ancestors are always there, waiting to be studied.

The past week was full of said challenges for me. Several days strung together of illness, bad luck, various disappointments and a blizzard that kept my husband from coming home.

Suddenly my weekend calendar was free. I used the time to work on my own genealogy for a change. The activities weren't very exciting. I entered some city directory information into my RootsMagic database. Find the fact at Ancestry.com, apply it to the corresponding person in RootsMagic and enter the citation that connects the two.

It's not everyone's idea of a good time, but I enjoyed the solace...and it was good to see my ancestors again.

Las Vegas, New Mexico, circa 1916My great-great grandmother Marie Schmitz (standing), her daughter Violet Hayward (kneeling), her daughter / my-great grandmother Gertrude Baerecke (seated), my grandfather Jack Lenertz (toddler)
In day-to-day life, when others cut you off, overcharge, are rude, write checks in the express line, give excuses in stead of results, and generally muck up your day...ancestors just sit patiently waiting for discovery.
Genealogy is good therapy for me. Dies anyone else feel that way? Through life's ups and downs, family history is a constant that provides comfort. 

Getting Cozy with City Directories

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Today I spent a couple of hours in the afternoon working on my own family history. I felt guilty for doing so, like I should have been doing something else, but that's another blog post.

I spent that time hanging out in the U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 (Beta) database at Ancestry.com, as well as the directories at Fold3.

By searching the Milwaukee and Chicago city directories from 1883-1896, I was able to put together a residential and employment timeline of the short adult life of my great-great grandfather, Harry Baerecke. He died of tuberculosis at age 28.

My search experience left a bit to be desired. Ancestry's search results did not retrieve records for 1884, 1885 and 1886, though Harry was clearly in those directories. I manually searched through those years to find them. I previously had the same experience searching for Thibodeaux in old Los Angeles directories.

So consider this your friendly reminder to not fully rely on Ancestry.com's generated search results. Get thorough when searching city directories (or anything for that matter) at any website. You'll be glad you did.

The Short Life of Harry Baerecke

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Yesterday I discussed how I was using city directories to put together a timeline of the short life of my great-great grandfather, Harry Baerecke. I thought my family might be interested in said timeline, so I'll post it here.

1868 - Age 0: Born in Granville, Wisconsin

1870 - Age 2: Living with family in Granville, Wisconsin

1880 - Age 12: Living with family at 416 State St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1883 - Age 15: A clerk living at 327 State St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1884 - Age 16: A clerk living at 327 State St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1885 - Age 17: A clerk living at 327 State St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1886 - Age 18: A locksmith living at 430 5th St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1887 - Age 19: A machinist living at 430 5th St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1888 - Age 20: A lineman living at 430 5th St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1889 - Age 21: A lineman living at 430 5th St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1890 - Age 22: An electrician living at 430 5th St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin

1891 - Age 23: Married Amelie Schmitz (aka Mollie Sutherland) in Milwaukee. Working as an electrician, living at 19 Armitage Ct., Chicago, Illinois.

1892 - Age 24: Only child Gertrude (aka Buster's mom) is born. Working as an electrician, living at 19 Armitage Ct., Chicago, Illinois

1893 - Age 25: Can't find him in the Chicago or Milwaukee directories

1894 - Age 26: An electrician living at 1106 N. Kedzie, Chicago, Illinois

1895 - Age 27: Can't find him in the Chicago or Milwaukee directories

1896 - Age 28: Died of pulmonary tuberculosis in Milwaukee. Buried there in Union Cemetery.

These snippets were pulled from censuses, city directories, marriage records and death records. I have digital images of the marriage and death records. Everything else can be found online at Ancestry.com. Let me know if you want anything or have trouble finding these records online.

Harry Baerecke had one child who went on to have one child. That means that the only known living descendants of this man are my dad and his siblings (3 people), their children (6 people) and their grandchildren (8 people so far). Seventeen people. That's not too many.

Well, there's my ancestor's life in just a few lines of text. There's more to explore in the property records, associations, newspapers and wills, but that will have to wait for another time.

May, Eda Sue (Scroggins) (5 Oct 1932 - 4 Feb 2013) [16583:3]

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Houston Chronicle, Sue Scroggins, 6 Feb 2013 [Legacy]
Wife of Howell King Scroggins [14564:3]

Sue Scroggins [16583:3] of Tomball, Texas went home to be with her Lord on Feb. 4, 2013. Sue was born on Oct. 5, 1932 in Houston to Levi John & Edith Mary May. She was preceded in death by her parents, sisters, & brothers. She is survived by her husband of 61 years, Howell Scroggins [14564:3] and three children, Susan George and husband Robert, Karen Staggers, and David Scroggins & wife Blanca. She is also survived by the loves of her life - grandchildren Kelly Welling & husband Glenn, Katy Cunningham & husband Jeff, Laura George, Ann, Elizabeth & Chase Staggers, & Joseph & Jonathan Scroggins along with 5 great grandchildren. Sue grew up in Houston and graduated from Milby High School. Her early years of marriage were spent in Waller, Texas. The couple later moved back to Houston where they were long time members of Garden Oaks Baptist Church. Upon retirement they settled in Tomball and were active members of 1st Baptist Church there. Sue was a loving wife, mother, sister, aunt, grandmother and friend. All were blessed by her giving spirit and loving ways. Her life exemplified the Proverbs 31 woman. She was an excellent cook, seamstress, gardener and homemaker who had a way of giving everyone that special attention that showed how much they were loved. She loved her Lord and served Him faithfully as a children's Bible teacher for many years. In Waller, she was known as "Miss Sue" the story hour lady at the local library. She delighted in children, especially her precious grandchildren and great grandchildren. Visitation will be Thursday, 2-7-13, 5:30-7:30PM Klein Funeral Home. Graveside Service - Friday, 2-8-13, 9:30AM at Waller Cemetery with Memorial Service following at 11AM, 1st Baptist Tomball. Memorial gifts can be made to: Melanee Smith Memorial Library, 2103 Main, Waller, TX 77484

Published in Houston Chronicle on February 6, 2013

TV news' lost opportunity on Carnival Triumph story

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With the advent of cell phone video transfer, satellite phones...etc., hundreds of TV news crews flock to the big national stories as they happen. But why not the Carnival Triumph story?

That's the cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico that had a fire, can't move on its own as a result and is now being towed back to port. Passengers reportedly relieve themselves in a bag and put it outside of their cabin door (almost sounds like my college dorm days).

An enterprising television station should have rented a hot air balloon from the closest land available, flown a reporter to the ship and had that ace land on board to start phoning in or transmitting live shots 24 hours a day. No sleep, no food, no bathroom breaks, just news.

I smell an Emmy...or maybe that is just that bag left outside someone's room.

Then that reporter could arrive to port in Mobile, Alabama and switch out with another reporter to embed themselves on the bus ride to Galveston or Houston. Live shots galore.

Has blogging all of these years finally made me think like TV news management?

I originally posted this plan on my Facebook account and Evan commented, "The weather men in the storms would have to figure out a way to kick it up a notch."

I replied, "That is true. They could strap themselves to the outside of the hurricane hunter plane with an iPhone and a prayer."

Where is Dan Rather when you need him?

KTRK producer leads the blind through triathlons

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TV producer Justin Sternberg helps those you can't see run the Ironman races


KTRK abc13 special projects producer Justin Sternberg has put his body through a lot and I'm not just talking about his TV career. On the side, he's been running since 2005. It started with the half marathon and then moved on to a triathlon.

But it was when he was preparing stories for the ABC owned station's Chevron Houston Marathon coverage that he found something that would be one of his greatest physical and mental challenges.

"I wanted to do a story on visually impaired and blind athletes taking on the course, and as I did my research, I ran into an organization, actually based out of Sugar Land, Texas called CDifferent," Sternberg told mikemcguff.com. "Their mission is to help visually impaired and blind athletes compete in endurance events around the world. Everything from a 5K to the Ironman."

Sternberg contacted CDiffernet founder Matt Miller and soon he was leading Charlie Plaskon, a blind grandfather, on a 30K in Sugar Land. In a strange twist of fate, Sternberg had just seen Plaskon on NBC's coverage of the Ford Ironman Championship. Plaskon was the inspiration for Sternberg to seek out the story in the first place.

More races as a guide were in Sternberg's future after that, but this biggest challenge came at the inaugural Ironman Texas when he and Plaskon finished this grueling event.

"Fifteen plus hours after the gun went off we crossed the finish line," Sternberg told me. "This is arguably one of my greatest accomplishments, but you won’t find my name on any participant list, or even that I completed the race, that’s because I am his eyes. It was all for him, and I would do it again for any visually impaired or blind athlete looking to full fill their dream of becoming an Ironman. After that day I truly came full circle. The man who inspired me to run the Ironman trusted me to guide him through his 7th. It’s a day I will never forget."

Sternberg will once again hit the track, this time at the Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas in The Woodlands on May 18, 2013. It will be his third Ironman Texas and his second time solo. He will be raising money for CDifferent with a goal of $2,000 plus dollars.

See more at his site: my.reason2race.com/justinsternberg

KTRK 13's Don Nelson back on air after surgery

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After weeks away, KTRK's Don Nelson returns to abc13's morning news

One of the top questions I've been getting lately is "Where is channel 13's Don Nelson?" I posted on January 30th, that Live Well HD Mirror/Mirror host Rebecca Spera was filling in for Nelson in his absence (Bob Slovak did some fill-in time too).

A tipster notified me soon after his disappearance, "Just saw Don Nelson at St Luke's Hospital Med Center with left arm in sling, waiting for passenger pickup."

This morning Nelson was back at the KTRK abc13 studios ready for some traffic duty.

"After joking that he couldn't get his arm to move above I-10 while standing in front of the traffic map, Don had shoulder surgery," the KTRK Facebook account posted about his time off.

One of the most beloved TV personalities in Houston, Nelson is a guy that plays a major role on his newscast. He and Tom Koch have been on the morning shift for decades and the viewers pay them back for the early wake up call with great ratings. I heard there were times in the 1990s that you could add all the other Houston station's morning ratings together and that number could not reach KTRK's AM news ratings.

When Nelson does eventually retire, God help whomever takes that job over. Those will be tough shoes to fill (figuratively and literally since he is a pretty tall guy).

RELATED
- VIDEO: Don Nelson on Good Morning Houston
- PHOTO: Tom Koch and Don Nelson serving drinks
- Don Nelson, Doug Brown and Tom Koch - the old team together in photo

Tom Doerr, Fox 26 KRIV news director to WFLD Chicago

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Fox 26 KRIV News Director Tom Doerr moves to same job at WFLD Chicago Fox 32

Fox 26 KRIV news director Tom Doerr is moving on to the ND slot at WFLD Chicago. He's knock, knock, knocking on the Windy City's Doerr as Bob Dylan (and then Axl Rose) might have sang if I paid them to...but probably not.

Doerr has been at KRIV since July of 2009 and has made lots of changes to the station since then, but from what I understand has reaped the rewards ratings wise.

What you might not know is that he previously worked as a news director at KTRK abc13 in Houston and KTVT/KTXA in Dallas. In fact, I was looking through some old Houston Chronicle articles from decades ago and when Doerr showed up at KTRK, he was hailed as a TV wunderkind. One of his moves at KTRK launched an institution, putting Wayne Dolcefino in the 13 Undercover Investigative unit. He also played in a band from what I understand.

Here is the official FOX Television Stations release on his move:

Tom Doerr has been named Vice President and News Director of WFLD FOX 32, announced Dennis Welsh, the station’s Vice President and General Manager. Starting Monday, February 25TH, Doerr will be responsible for overseeing all editorial, business and administrative functions for WFLD, reporting directly to Welsh.

In making the announcement, Welsh stated, “Tom has a fresh approach to local news and an ability to recognize meaningful stories within a community. He is an exceptional leader, with a natural news instinct and a proven track record of success and we are excited to welcome him to our station.”

Most recently, Doerr served as Vice President and News Director for KRIV FOX 26, the FOX-owned station in Houston. Before that, he spent three years as Vice President and Station Manager of WFOR-TV and WBFS-TV in Miami. Earlier, Doerr served as the News Director of KTVT-TV and KTXA-TV in Dallas / Fort Worth and as the Executive News Director of KENS-TV in San Antonio. Prior to this, he spent three years as a Senior Strategist for Audience Research and Development in Dallas, where he evaluated and provided guidance to local television stations on their news programs.

Added Doerr, “There is no news town quite like Chicago; there is always something vibrant and exciting happening in this city. I look forward to leading the talented team of committed journalists at FOX 32 in providing interesting and valuable news to viewers.”

Doerr also served as News Director for WPLG-TV in Miami, KTRK-TV in Houston, WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C. and KTUL-TV in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Earlier in his career, he was an Executive Producer for WSB-TV in Atlanta, an Executive Producer for WGAL-TV in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and a Producer for WHP-TV in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He began his television news career as a Reporter and Producer for KGBT-TV in Harlingen, Texas.

A graduate of the University of Florida, Doerr holds a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Science in Journalism.

WFLD/WPWR are part of the FOX Television Stations, one of the nation's largest owned-and-operated network broadcast groups, comprising 27 stations in 18 markets and covering nearly 37.34% of television homes in the U.S. This includes six duopolies in the top 10 markets: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Washington, D.C. and Houston; as well as duopolies in Minneapolis, Phoenix and Orlando.

Chicago Media blogger extraordinaire Robert Feder recently posted that WFLD is at times last in the ratings up there.

Roundup: Forensic reform, testilying, risk assessment and more

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Just a few items that haven't made it into independent posts but deserve Grits readers' attention:

Federal forensic institute created
Implementing the first recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences' 2009 report on problems in forensic science, the US Department of Justice today announced the creation of the National Institute on Forensic Science. See the press release.

'Largely perjurious' police testimony in asset forfeiture case
Somehow I'd missed this story, but in December Dallas Judge Carl Ginsberg threw out an asset forfeiture case, declaring that testimony of Officers Jon Llewellyn and Randolph Dillon in the proceedings were "largely perjurious." Yikes! The department denied wrongdoing and the state appealed the case.

Waco judges nix public-defender idea
Judges in Waco said they would not assign cases to a proposed public-defender office, nixing the idea for a grant request to the Texas Indigent Defense Commission. McLennan County courts are currently suffering from backlogs but local observers attribute that problem to the District Attorney, not the defense bar.

Community court helps Austin's 'most frequent offender'
The Austin Statesman reported on a success story involving one of the city's long-time frequent flyers.

Privatized jail employees charged with bribe taking
Via Texas Prison Bidness, "Recently, officials from the Department of Justice, charged 13 Ector County Correctional Center employees with bribery.  The private jail employees are alleged to have supplied federal inmates with contraband items such as cell phones, marijuana and tobacco in return for cash."

Mentally ill youth outnumber gang members at TJJD
The Associated Press reported last week that, "Young offenders with mental illnesses now outnumber youths who are gang members at juvenile jails in Texas, according to new figures that justice officials submitted to state lawmakers."

License plate readers' shouldn't retain data
In Corpus Christi, the police chief wants to purchase more license plate readers. Critics say departments using the devices should not retain the data past the amount of time needed to check against warrants, Amber Alerts, etc.. That's exactly right: It's one thing to check someone's plates for warrants, quite another to gather massive amounts of driver location data (the readers can scan 1,000 plates per minute) over time.

Union invites Austin PD to poach San Jose cops
In San Jose, CA, the local police union invited Austin PD to come recruit its members as retaliation for local budget cuts.

Risk assessment, expert witnesses and civil commitments
All civil commitment hearings for "sexually violent predators" statewide are heard in a single civil court in Montgomery County. Forensic psychologist Karen Franklin has a piece describing how little stock Montgomery County jurors place in risk-assessment scoring by prosecution experts, agreeing to civil commitments in virtually every case even when predicted risks are low, citing a study out of Sam Houston State. Though jurors cared little for risk scoring, "What did make a difference to jurors was whether the defense called at least one witness, and in particular an expert witness. Overall, there was a huge imbalance in expert testimony, with almost all of the trials featuring two state experts, but only seven of 26 including even one expert called by the defense." She has another excellent item detailing problems with risk assessment scoring tools and studies calling into question their accuracy - either at predicting recidivism or good behavior - because of high margins of error at the individual level. Good stuff in both posts, as well as in this fascinating item on cognitive bias in interpreting sex-offender risk.

Ex-prisoners as entrepreneurs
See a Texas Tribune story and slideshow about the Prison Entrepreneurship Program. I'm occasionally approached by ex-offenders who're desperate at the lack of employment opportunities, and often  recommend they consider small-scale entrepreneurship as an alternative. The barrier to entry is usually capital, but that's often easier to overcome than prejudices against hiring ex-offenders.