If Mexican drug violence reaches Victoria, Rusty Fleming can say, "I told you so." Fleming, a Dallas-area filmmaker, spent three years in Mexico and on the border to document a new era of narco-terrorism. He, like many law enforcement experts, say this unsettling war creeps north on U.S. highways. His film, "Drug Wars: Silver or Lead," offers an inside look at the brutal Gulf Cartel, Mexican drug war and violent spillover into Texas. Fleming, 45, agreed to premiere his film in Victoria. [continues 370 words]
Officials hope the newly implemented tactic will help tackle an intersection's long-standing problems with crime. In an effort to keep repeat criminals away from East Rundberg Lane and Interstate 35, an area of North Austin that has been a haven for drug dealers and prostitutes and a source of neighbors' complaints, Austin police and Travis County district attorney's officials have teamed up to start using "stay-away orders" in the area. While their criminal cases are pending and they're out on bail, suspected drug offenders with stay-away orders aren't allowed in the area. Violating the order could land them back in jail, and their behavior would be considered in assessing their sentences. [continues 351 words]
The year was 1915, and a Mexican revolutionary named Doroteo Arango, aka Francisco "Pancho" Villa, was launching raids along the Mexico-U.S. border, killing Americans in the hopes of drawing the U.S. into a larger confrontation with Mexico. In response, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson ordered the deployment of troops to Texas and New Mexico to guard the border. Brigadier Gen. John J. Pershing was sent to Fort Bliss to guard the border from Arizona to just southeast of El Paso. [continues 511 words]
Adam Reavis says that if he had stayed in his native Houston, he would be dead now or locked up for life. Instead, after two trips to prison — for theft and burglary— Reavis came to Austin in the early 1990s and into the jurisdiction of Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle. Earle, who is retiring at the end of the month after 31 years in office, had just begun his latest in a series of programs designed to attack the causes of crime. When Reavis was arrested for attempting to steal speakers from a car near the City of Bee Cave in 1992, a panel of law enforcement officials convened under the program took a long look at his life. They recommended that instead of another prison term, he get probation and intensive treatment for his drug and alcohol addictions. [continues 1884 words]
MEXICO CITY - Even as accused mob boss Osiel Cardenas awaits a federal trial in Houston next year, the criminal army he allegedly commanded with deadly resolve rampages across this country. Cardenas, 41, has been imprisoned for six years - four in Mexico and two in the United States. He faces federal charges of leading a drug syndicate, trafficking cocaine and marijuana, laundering money and threatening the lives of U.S. agents. Though weakened by a crackdown, Cardenas' Gulf Cartel and the gang of assassins it spawned, the Zetas, remain powerful and widely feared. [continues 968 words]
Re: "Drug demand fuels violence" by Alfred C. Schram, Monday Letters. American drug appetite does not fuel Mexican violence. American drug laws fund Mexican (and American) violence. Legal marijuana should be no more expensive than tea bags ($1 per ounce) or ground coffee ($0.35 per ounce). Illegal marijuana goes for more than $100 per ounce. If we really want to stop the violence in both Mexico and the U.S., we will end drug prohibition and reduce demand for drugs the way we have reduced demand for cigarettes -- by education. Buford C. Terrell Stafford [end]
EL PASO -- With the homicide toll in Juárez surpassing the 1,500 mark, authorities there are left to face what border experts are calling the biggest Mexican dilemma -- ending the bloody street war between drug cartels, controlling thugs who have gone wild and preventing police corruption. "The last time Mexico had so much turmoil and death was around the turn of the 20th century, and there was a revolution about to happen," said David Shirk, the director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego. "It is going to take something with as much impact as that to get the problem solved." [continues 1082 words]
The extensive drug-related violence that has turned Juarez and other Chihuahua state communities into war zones has largely stopped at the border, but the effects of the drug trade stretch far beyond the banks of the Rio Grande. El Paso, though spared the brazen killings taking place in Mexico, has felt the power of the multibillion-dollar illicit drug trade and has become a major hub for the distribution of drugs headed to markets throughout the United States, officials said. [continues 966 words]
The Kilgore Independent School District Board of Trustees and Jody Clements, superintendent, are looking at a new drug policy for the district. Clements said he spoke with the board Tuesday night at their regularly scheduled board meeting about establishing a policy on drug testing for extracurricular activities. "Almost all school districts now have this type of policy in place," said Clements. The new policy will require all students who wish to participate in extracurricular activities - this means sports, Ag. Club, cheerleading, any activity approved or sponsored by the school - will have to take an initial drug test. [continues 398 words]
Another Houston ISD teacher was arrested today on suspicion of marijuana possession as part of the school district's ongoing searches of employee parking lots. The employee, whose name was not released, is a teaching assistant in the special education department at Harper Alternative School. The employee is at least the third arrested since HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra announced last week that the district planned to send drug-sniffing dogs to all employee parking lots in coming weeks. Saavedra's decision came after about 15 employees had been arrested after police said they had marijuana or prescription drugs in their cars at school. Most of the early arrests were prompted by anonymous tips to Houston Independent School District police. On Thursday, two employees were arrested on marijuana possession charges after police swept the parking lot at HISD's central administration building. Searches of 14 schools on Friday resulted in no arrests. [end]
EL PASO - A campaign to reduce the overall transportation of illicit contraband in commercial vehicles in Texas and New Mexico called "Texas Hold'em" is in full swing in west Texas and New Mexico. The collaborative initiative, described as a crackdown on commercial truckers who are convicted of smuggling drugs or humans, is proving to be an effective deterrent to smuggling activity in the region, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection news release. El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Victor M. Manjarrez, Jr. said, "The goal of this operation is not to target truckers, but instead to discourage those who may use the trucking industry to exploit and traffic illegal contraband through commercial avenues." [continues 279 words]
Safeguard Those Who Reveal Mexican Cartels' Evil As much as we hate to admit this, the leaders of Mexico's drug cartels know what they're doing. By targeting the people who tell the rest of Mexico - and the world, including those of us in North Texas - about their deadly ways, the cartel's honchos know they are silencing the storytellers. And by silencing them, they decrease the chance that people will know the depth of the cartels' corruption. Sadly, this is precisely what's happening. The Committee to Protect Journalists in New York reports that 21 journalists have been slain in Mexico since 2000. That includes Armando Rodriguez, killed last month in Ciudad Juárez. [continues 263 words]
The Escalating Cartel Violence In Mexico Rivals The Death Tolls In Iraq, Says David Danelo On Nov. 3, the day before Americans elected Barack Obama president, drug cartel henchmen murdered 58 people in Mexico. It was the highest number killed in one day since President Felipe Calderón took office in December 2006. By comparison, on average 26 people - Americans and Iraqis combined - died daily in Iraq in 2008. Mexico's casualty list on Nov. 3 included a man beheaded in Ciudad Juárez whose bloody corpse was suspended along an overpass for hours. No one had the courage to remove the body until dark. [continues 570 words]
McALLEN -- U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley seized 188 percent more marijuana the first week of December this year compared to the same period last year, according to figures from the agency. Agents seized more than 20,600 pounds of marijuana throughout the Valley from Dec. 1 to Dec. 8. The largest seizure was more than 3,600 pounds and had an estimated street value of $16.5 million. The drugs were found inside a trailer at the checkpoint near Falfurrias. [continues 188 words]
EL PASO - It is a simple Christmas wish. Peace for three days in Juarez, Dec. 24-26. No shootings. No killings. No executions. In a bloody year in which Juarez was submerged in a war between drug cartels and a crime wave with more than 1,500 homicides, an anonymous e-mail floating in the borderland is asking for "a truce for Christmas in Juarez." The e-mail in Spanish is addressed to "narcos, capos, agents, hit men, the press, those affected by violence, friends and others," and narrates a conversation between a young boy and his uncle. The boy wishes Santa Claus and el ninito Jesus to end the violence after the boy witnesses his father's death. [continues 169 words]
The simple truth about needle exchange programs is that they save lives and save money. Numerous research studies and practical experience with such programs around the nation demonstrate the savings. The same studies and practical experience also refute the primary rationale for opposing needle exchange programs - the notion that they increase intravenous drug abuse. That's the buzz saw advocates of safe, cost-effective needle exchange ran into during the last legislative session. By a margin of 22-7, the Texas Senate passed a measure that would have given local health departments the authority to create programs aimed at reducing the spread of HIV and hepatitis. [continues 252 words]
Gary "Rusty" Fleming is the author of a book on drug-trafficking titled "Drug Wars: Narco-Warfare in the 21st Century," and creator of the companion docudrama "Drug Wars: Silver or Lead" set to premiere Tuesday (Dec. 15) at the Plaza Theatre. It is evident from the book and film that Fleming wants to inform a yet mostly uninformed American public about the escalating levels of violence associated with warring drug cartels in Mexico. Most people have a notion of what's going on from occasional headlines in U.S. national newspapers, short sporadic newscasts on network television, and even Hollywood movies like "No Country for Old Men." Most of the ongoing coverage is done by local media. [continues 487 words]
Recent Arrests Have Some Calling On HISD, Others To Revisit Stance On Pre-Employment Screening For many job applicants, whether the work involves driving trucks or answering phones, passing a drug test is a given. That's not the case for Texas public school teachers. The state does not require teachers to take drug tests before being hired, and local school districts aren't mandating the tests on their own. Officials with several districts - including the Houston Independent School District, San Antonio ISD and Alief ISD - cited cost as one major reason they skip pre-employment drug screens for teachers. But with the recent drug arrests of more than a dozen HISD employees, some advocates are calling on districts to revisit their hiring practices. [continues 790 words]
It's either good living or good hiding that is keeping Southeast Texas teachers and students out of the drug spotlight. A series of teacher drug arrests in the Houston Independent School District prompted its superintendent, Abelardo Saavedra, to call for drug dogs to visit all campus employee parking lots in the coming weeks, the Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday. But, Southeast Texas school officials say they have had few drug-related incidents involving employees, rendering drug testing and drug searches unwarranted. [continues 573 words]
Move Comes After More Teachers Arrested On Drug Charges The Houston school district plans to dispatch drug-detecting dogs to every campus in coming weeks in search of illegal narcotics in employee parking lots. The move, which Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra announced Monday, follows a recent string of teacher drug arrests, many prompted by anonymous tips, in the state's largest school district. Since October, Houston Independent School District police have arrested a dozen employees - mostly teachers - accused of having marijuana in their cars at school and three employees accused of possessing prescription drugs without documentation, according to updated data from the district. Two employees were arrested twice, and an assistant principal has been charged with growing marijuana at home. [continues 675 words]
Two more Houston ISD teachers were arrested Friday on drug possession charges, marking at least the ninth such arrest on school district grounds since October. Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra acknowledged in an interview this week that he was troubled by the recent string of arrests, which mostly involved marijuana police said they found in employees' cars at school. Phone tips to Houston Independent School District police prompted the searches. "Obviously, these tip line calls woke us up that we had a problem," Saavedra said. "Honestly, I didn't realize we had this type of problem. But I'm kind of convinced now that we have some level of problem with some of our adults." [continues 324 words]
Temptation Of Corruption Also Lurks Within Legal Profession Joel Carcano Jr. stands apart from his 12 co-defendants in an ongoing federal case against one of Texas' most violent prison gangs. A college-educated paralegal for a McAllen law firm, he appears out of place when lined up with the tattooed gang members, convicted felons and other associates named in the same nine-count indictment. The others stand accused of a slew of murders, drug smuggling attempts and kidnappings over the past eight years - all undertaken to protect the Texas Syndicate's criminal interests in the Rio Grande Valley. [continues 1149 words]
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- America ended Prohibition 75 years ago this week. The ban on the sale of alcohol unleashed a crime wave, as gangsters fought over the illicit booze trade. It sure didn't stop drinking. People turned to speakeasies and bathtub gin for their daily cocktail. Prohibition -- and the violence, corruption and health hazards that followed -- lives on in its modern version, the so-called War on Drugs. Former law-enforcement officers gathered in Washington to draw the parallels. Their group, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), has called for nothing less than the legalization of drugs. [continues 538 words]
EL PASO -- Sometimes controversial and always outspoken, former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates said Thursday that casual drug users in the U.S. are at the root of the violence in Juarez and should be shot. Gates was in El Paso to speak at a ceremony for graduating peace officers. Gates, who led the Los Angeles Police Department from 1978 to 1992, also predicted that the violence in Juarez would spill over into El Paso and that law enforcement agencies on the U.S. side should be prepared. [continues 521 words]
Recruiter Emphasizes the Value of Brains Over Brawn A federal drug agent gets a badge, and is trained to shoot, kick in doors and slap on handcuffs. Often though, it is the smarter agent, not the stronger one, who catches the bad guy. "It is brains, not just brawn," said Violet Szeleczky, a senior Drug Enforcement Administration agent based in Houston. "You have to be able to put two and two together," she said of the twists an investigation takes. Szeleczky, who oversees the recruiting squad in this region, is hoping to get that message across in order to boost the number of women who might otherwise shy away from a career with the DEA, which is 91 percent male. [continues 593 words]
Re: "U.S. can't duck serious issues at southern border," Tuesday Editorials. Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza's pessimism over Mexico's drug cartels is well-founded. However, his solution -- to pour billions of U.S. dollars into a continuation of the Nixon-era war on drugs -- is simply absurd. As long as we continue to treat drugs as a criminal justice matter rather than a public health matter, we will only enrich the drug dealers and impoverish the taxpayers of all nations. [continues 64 words]
Re: The letter "Drug dealers are fooling LPD by changing tactics" (A-J, Nov. 22). I would like to respond by saying I do not appreciate the criticism in regards to the drug enforcement section of the Lubbock Police Department. In my opinion, this letter was a slap in the face of the officers who lay their lives on the line for the citizens of Lubbock. The officers cannot catch all of the drug dealers in Lubbock, as there are too many, but they are catching some one drug bust at a time. Police officers do not receive the appreciation or the credit they highly deserve. Hope Lewis Lubbock [end]
As much as volatile states like Pakistan will remain a top-shelf issue for President-elect Barack Obama, his new national security team must equally put its shoulder into problems afflicting the United States' southern border. We suggest incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton begin her prep work by reading U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza's recent speech to the San Antonio-Mexico Friendship Council. He rightly explained that Mexico's drug cartels wouldn't turn the nation into a killing field "were the United States not the largest consumer of illicit drugs and the main suppliers of weapons to the cartels." [continues 279 words]
A substance with an active compound that may be the strongest hallucinogen gram for gram found in nature, according to an article by the New York Times, is currently legal in Texas. Salvia divinorum, or salvia, produces vivid hallucinations in users and should be banned in the state and across the nation. Salvia has historically been used in Mexico under the supervision of Mazatec shamans in order to have revelations, but in the past 10 years, the drug has become popular for teens and college-aged people around the country. According the Times, studies at college campuses have estimated 7 percent of students have used salvia. [continues 745 words]
Another Houston ISD teacher was charged with possession of marijuana Thursday after authorities said they found the drug in his car at school. [redacted] in north Houston, faces up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine if convicted of the misdemeanor charge. HISD said two teachers at Williams were caught with drugs, but the Harris County District Attorney's Office said only Moseley has been charged. Since October, at least four other HISD teachers and one custodian - from Whittier Elementary, Woodson Middle, Wheatley High and Worthing High - have been charged with having drugs on school grounds, said district spokesman Norm Uhl. [continues 165 words]
Peer Educators recommend setting realistic goals for recovery. In an article dated March 15, 2007, USA Today reported "nearly half of America's 5.4 million full-time college students abuse drugs or drink alcohol on binges at least once a month." That article was based on a study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. Closer to home, a 2005 Texas Department of State Health Services survey of college students revealed 84 percent of college students had an alcoholic beverage at least once, 78 percent in the past year, and 66 percent within the past month. Binge drinking was admitted by nearly 30 percent of those surveyed. Alcohol was cited as the most widely used substance. [continues 1109 words]
Newsflash to the Lariat editorial board: banning salvia will do far more harm than good, if it really does any good at all. Crack, LSD, marijuana, heroin, ecstacy, and other Schedule 1 drugs are all illegal in most of the United States; yet, they are still widely-used and readily-available in many areas. Furthermore, making salvia illegal will just lead to its sale on the black market, which I guess is good for those of us who like an increase in crime, a greater burden on our prison system and the potential for more extortion, exploitation and violence for the residents of Texas. [continues 61 words]
Regarding criminalizing salvia: It's one more thing to let bad people sell on the black market and get rich. It's one more thing for pushy "pyramid scheme" drug dealers to hand out free to naive teens to introduce them to, when they likely never would have tried it absent arm-twisting. Charming. People always reach the hardest for that which is just out of reach. We've been fighting the war on drugs since LBJ, and they're more prevalent than ever. You can even buy them in prisons that are guarded 24 hours a day. When will we ever learn? Brett Bolte Waco [end]
Before seeking to expand a long-failed drug crusade with a new salvia divonorum ban, people like state Rep. Charles "Doc" Anderson, R-Waco, should consider the results that America's war on drugs has produced in the last 94 years. When drug prohibition began, there was no such thing as a "drug crime." Addicts could buy morphine, heroin, cocaine and anything else they wanted cheaply and legally at the corner pharmacy. There was no need to rob, whore and murder to satisfy addictions. [continues 157 words]
Waco's State Representative Charles "Doc" Anderson appeared on yesterday's Dr. Phil episode on risky teen behavior to share his expertise on salvia, a popular hallucinogenic drug. On the show, Anderson told of his efforts to criminalize salvia in Texas, while helping warn a mother who provides the drug to her teenage son of the consequences usage can have on developing adolescents. "I hope my appearance on the Dr. Phil show will help to educate people on the dangers of salvia and the nationwide exposure will help lend more credibility to our testimony," Anderson said. [continues 673 words]
State Rep. Charles "Doc" Anderson, R-Waco, is to appear on the "Dr. Phil" show today after he filed legislation Monday that would ban the increasingly popular hallucinogenic drug Salvia. Anderson, who is on the show to discuss the drug's effects on young people and their families, has been pushing to have Salvia placed on a list of controlled substances for more than a year and a half. Also known as "Diviner's Sage" and "Magic Mint," the active ingredient in Salvia, Salvinorin-A, which is found on the leaves of the herb Salvia divinorum, produces a psychedelic high that lasts anywhere from minutes to hours after it is smoked. [continues 228 words]
Texas lawmakers propose health program for children, mandatory ultrasounds for women who seek abortions. State lawmakers filed hundreds of would-be laws on Monday, including proposals to create a health insurance program for children who have a parent paying child support, strengthen background checks for people who work with the elderly, and require women who seek an abortion to first get an ultrasound. It was the first day bills could be filed for the legislative session that begins in January. Although filing a bill is just the first step in a long process (of about 6,200 bills introduced in 2007, only about 1,500 passed) the filings offer a glimpse of what lawmakers will be debating. [continues 623 words]
A veteran customs inspector recently arrested in Texas on drug charges helped traffickers smuggle about 3,000 pounds of cocaine into the country over five years, according to a court document filed last week. The inspector, Jorge A. Leija, 43, allowed smugglers to drive cars loaded with cocaine through his entry lane at the Eagle Pass border crossing, about 140 miles southwest of San Antonio, without inspection, according to testimony by an unnamed Drug Enforcement Administration agent. Mr. Leija was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars from January 2001 to October 2006, the agent said at a bail hearing on Thursday in Federal District Court in Del Rio, Tex. [continues 370 words]
Regarding your story of Oct. 29 reporting the seizure of $118,000 in an I-40 traffic stop: Chalk up one more highway robbery to the mis-named "war on drugs." Let's be real; this is an industry living off of the pretense of protecting us from ourselves. If you deal in or carry cash, beware! Ninety percent of the cash in circulation has drug residue embedded in it and once it is seized, it is your problem to hire the lawyer and prove your innocence. [continues 164 words]
Local schools have been displaying banners and red ribbons in observance of Red Ribbon Week. The National Family Partnership organized the first nationwide Red Ribbon Campaign in honor of DEA agent Enrique Camarena, who was tortured and killed in 1985 while investigating drug trafficking in Mexico. To honor his memory and his fight against illegal drugs, his friends and family wore red badges made of red satin. From there, coalitions of caring parents adopted red ribbons as their symbol to reduce the demand for drugs in their communities. [continues 274 words]
Recent U.S. efforts to disrupt drug smuggling routes through the Rio Grande Valley have prompted threats of retaliation against authorities on this side of the river, according to an FBI intelligence report. Vowing to maintain control over valuable trafficking corridors such as those in Reynosa, Matamoros and Miguel Aleman, the Gulf Cartel and its paramilitary enforcement wing, Los Zetas, have begun stockpiling weapons, reaching out to Texas gangs and issuing orders to "confront U.S. law enforcement agencies to zealously protect their criminal interests," the report states. [continues 823 words]
If your child attends school in the Amarillo Independent School District, chances are he or she will be allowed to wear a hat, sweats and even pajamas complete with house shoes to school this week. No, the AISD is not getting lax in its dress policies. The district is recognizing "Red Ribbon Week," a nationwide drug prevention program that is scheduled this week at several schools and campuses. Schools have come up with individual drug-free themes for each day this week, with students encouraged to wear different clothes pertaining to the day's theme. [continues 111 words]
Drug testing changes are on the horizon for Graham Independent School District. The board of trustees met Tuesday and were questioned by Patricia Harris concerning her son testing positive for the use of marijuana and being suspended from band for 90 days. She told the board she was unaware that the offenses accrued over the entire four years of high school. She said that is not information most parents have. In a letter she wrote to the board she stated, "I want students and parents at GHS to know that this handbook is a four-year contract." [continues 484 words]
Regarding Sunday's Outlook cover article "Getting to the root of crime / Next president must take action": Lee P. Brown has a wonderful idea when he suggests that the new president convene a Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. Brown listed a number of important questions that he feels this commission should consider. He, however, omitted the most crucial question of all: "Does the current war on drugs reduce crime, or is it actually the cause of much of the violence we're experiencing today?" [continues 59 words]
David Noblett -- and dozens of other patients -- just wanted their doctor back. A white-haired little man with piercing blue eyes, wearing an Army cap and carrying a briefcase, came to the Fort Worth Weekly office a few weeks ago, entering what seemed to him a door of last resort. He hoped we'd help him expose something he considered an injustice, and he wasted no time launching into his story, speaking quickly, almost desperately, like a man who'd told it many times before to people who weren't interested, as indeed he had. [continues 4885 words]
High above the Pecan Street Festival, Texans for the legalization of marijuana showed their support Saturday night at the Third Annual Sixth Street Smokeout and 2008 Global Marijuana Music Awards at Momo's. The Texas branch of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, hosted the event with proceeds funding efforts to decriminalize recreational marijuana use by responsible adults. The diverse lineup ranged from spoken poetry to swing music, country to reggae, but all advocated legal change. The Broken Poetz drove their expertly spray-painted van five hours from McAllen to contribute their hip-hop-psychedelic sound to the lineup. The group addresses the problems surrounding current marijuana laws in their original songs. "Mr. Weedy" and "Two-Time Offender" received cheers of support at the smokeout. [continues 351 words]
When Susan LeFevre was 19, she was arrested for selling drugs to an undercover officer in Saginaw, Mich. It was 1974, and she was a first-time offender. She believed that if she pleaded guilty, she would probably get probation. She was wrong. After her guilty plea, she was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in state prison. One year later, Ms. LeFevre hopped a fence and fled the prison. She moved to California and adopted her middle name, Marie. Years passed. She eventually married and raised three children, dedicating herself to her family and charitable causes. She never committed another offense. Her husband and children knew nothing about her youthful conviction or prison sentence - until April, when, 32 years after her escape, she was arrested and extradited to Michigan. [continues 623 words]
George Jung, played by Johnny Depp in the movie "Blow," made me and millions of Americans question the logic of our nation's drug laws. In the movie, Jung is sentenced to prison for possession of marijuana. After Jung is released, he said, "Danbury wasn't a prison, it was a crime school. I went in with a bachelor of marijuana, came out with a doctorate of cocaine." Our country has one of the largest per-capita prison populations in the world, and taxpayers spend over $450 billion per year to enforce laws against consensual crimes, which is more than five times what we spend on education each year. We found out pretty quickly during prohibition how well those laws work. At least that time Congress passed a constitutional amendment. [continues 460 words]
Random drug testing is now a fact of campus life for students on the junior high and high school campuses in Navasota, and students and parents were briefed on the procedures last week. "The students were very interested and courteous as we went through the steps, then asked questions afterward," said junior high principal Amy Jarvis after the Sept. 4 assemblies in which students learned how the program works. A similar assembly was held on the high school campus the same day, and another that evening in the junior high cafeteria. Parents, students and the public were invited to attend the Thursday night session, where Ron Davis of Forward Edge, Inc., presented the program Navasota will follow. [continues 349 words]
For the mother who made a promise she couldn't keep, the reckoning arrives at 10:50 a.m. in a Travis County courtroom. Papers relinquishing her parental rights are ready to sign, but letting go of her 2-year-old daughter is proving to be too much. Tears flow down both cheeks and onto her blouse. Words catch in her throat. But for H, there's no way out. She promised to give up her daughter if her drug test came back dirty. It did. [continues 1588 words]
Inside Texas
