News Roundup: Sad Stories for Christmas

In this week's News Roundup, Texas' foster care system is broken, its voters are disenfranchised, its bankers are anxious, and more.

Not all the news is bad: Kids receive Christmas presents at Workers Defense Project's Fiesta de Navidad, which took place Saturday. (Photo by Jana Birchum)

Texas Foster Care Unconstitutional: In yet another indication that Texas conservatives are full of hot air when they claim they care for Texas kids, a federal judge has declared that the state's foster care system is "broken." In a ruling issued on Dec. 17, Judge Janis Jack found that there were too few case workers handling too many cases, and children left too long in the substitute care system without either being returned to their parent or found a permanent home. As a result, she found that the children's 14th Amendment rights had been violated. Speaking for New York-based advocacy group Children’s Rights Inc., which brought the suit on behalf of 12,000 children in permanent foster care in Texas, co-counsel Paul Yetter said, “This is a wake-up call to the state that it cannot continue to violate the rights of children."

Jack's ruling was in response to a 2011 class action suit, which argued that chronic mismanagement and understaffing at the Department of Family Protective Services had put children at risk of abuse and neglect. She found that the plaintiffs faced "unreasonable risk of harm” as wards of the state. Rather than blaming staff, Jack put the spotlight on the state's failure to reduce the excessive caseloads; additionally, she called out the state for failure to oversee group homes, failing to investigate allegations of abuse or neglect, and an inadequate selection of places to put kids. This meant they were often placed in inappropriate and unsupervised environments, hundreds of miles from friends and family.

Jack announced that, within 30 days of the ruling, she will appoint a special master to develop a program of reform for the agency. This will include examining exactly how short staffed the agency is, and investigating failures to protect kids in group homes. The report will be delivered within 180 days of the appointment. – Richard Whittaker

Suppressing the Vote: Sunday’s New York Times magazine features a story, “The New Attack on Hispanic Voting Rights,” by the mag’s chief political correspondent Jim Rutenberg, reporting on the effects – especially in Texas – of the U.S. Supreme Court decision nullifying Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which had required preclearance of changes in voting procedures that might affect the rights of minority voters. Rutenberg recounts statewide fights by the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund and others over discriminatory gerrymandering in legislative redistricting, but his primary focus is the the Hispanic-majority Southeast Texas city of Pasadena. In 2014, Anglo politicians in Pasadena enacted the reverse of Austin’s recent conversion to single-member City Council districting, instead reducing Council districts from eight to six, redrawing the districts to the disadvantage of Hispanic voters, and adding two at-large districts that would better insure the election of Anglos in low-turnout municipal elections. The discriminatory moves were made possible by Shelby County v. Holder, the 2013 Supreme Court decision that eliminated preclearance – opponents would have to sue and demonstrate discriminatory intent. Rutenberg’s story is the second in a Times mag series called “Disenfranchised,” “examining the ongoing effort to roll back the protections of the Voting Rights Act.” – Michael King

Like Appoints Like: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has appointed former (one-term) Florida Congressman, Allen West, currently CEO of the Dallas-based National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-wing think tank, as a public member of the Sunset Commission, which reviews state agencies for efficiency and potential closure. In a statement, Patrick said "Lt. Colonel West [retired] is a dedicated public servant who has served our country in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Congress. Now, the state of Texas will benefit from his conservative leadership.” West left the Army after he was charged with assault on an Iraqi policeman, already beaten by troops who suspected the man of betrayal – West fired a gun near the man’s head to forcibly evoke what turned out to be false information. As a political commentator, West is mostly known for outrageous allegations against opponents, including reflexive denunciations of President Barack Obama for treason and describing all members of the House Progressive Caucus as “Communists.” Following his appointment, West released a statement that reads in part: "I am deeply honored to be chosen to serve the great state of Texas on the Sunset Commission. … As a graduate of the University of Tennessee and a former member of Congress, it is a blessing to follow in the footsteps of Davy Crockett who came to Texas to fight for liberty and freedom.” – M.K.

Good Guy or Bad?: One of the amusing quandaries created by the new Texas “open carry” law – scheduled to take effect Jan. 1 – is how officials, police, or just bystanders (armed or not) are supposed to distinguish between good guys and bad guys openly carrying weapons. Banks, for example, have a particularly vested interest in knowing whether the Guy-With-A-Gun is just a friendly customer or a would-be bandit contemplating a forcible withdrawal. Accordingly, the Texas Bankers Association is letting its members know that with properly posted notice, “it’s up to each individual bank to decide how they’d prefer to notify customers whether openly carried handguns are permitted on bank property,” said Celeste Embrey, TBA’s Assistant General Counsel. According to a TBA press release (helpfully accompanied by samples of the only warning signs deemed sufficient by the Legislature), “If proper notice is given, banks have the right to pursue criminal trespass charges against customers who choose to openly carry handguns onto the bank’s premises in violation of notifications to the contrary.” Violators can be subject to Class C misdemeanors – or Class A misdemeanors if they refuse to leave the premises after an oral warning. It’s not clear what happens if one gun brandisher decides he doesn’t like the look in the eye of another … with predictable results. Everybody else, of course, should be ready to hit the floor. – M.K.

The fallout continues from Council’s Thursday night implementation of a new ordinance that will eventually require 99% of drivers for transportation network companies to have completed a fingerprint background check. Late Friday, Uber released a statement indicating that the new laws could not be considered “a solution that would keep Uber in Austin.” Exactly when the company, or Lyft, its primary counterpart, plans to pull its stakes up in the city currently remains unclear. While Uber’s been mum, Lyft’s response to the ordinance indicated that it will continue to operate until “mandatory fingerprinting requires us to leave.” Any expectation that TNC drivers actually go out and get fingerprinted doesn’t begin until February, leaving plenty of time for city staff and Council to draw up enough incentives that drivers don’t raise a stink. – Chase Hoffberger