The EEOC says one out of every 10 job discrimination complaints filed nationwide last year came  from Texas.

via EEOC

The EEOC says the most common complaints in Texas were what are called “retaliatory charges.”  Those complaints generally accuse an employer of firing, demoting, or otherwise retaliating against an employee because he or she protested or fought against discrimination in some way, such as going to the EEOC.

The second and third most common complaints were claims of race and gender bias, respectively, followed by national origin bias claims and religious discrimination claims.

EEOC officials say this is happening in part because Texas has a large number of workers regarded as “vulnerable,” such as legal and illegal immigrants, those who don’t speak English, and those in minimum-wage jobs.  They also say workers are forced to turn to the EEOC because  the Texas state agency responsible for protecting workers’ employment rights is very weak and provides very little protection.

See the full story and the national state rankings on the EEOC website:

via EEOC Charge Receipts by State (includes U.S. Territories) and Basis for FY 2011.

via Lufkin ISD

Lufkin School Board President Trent Ashby and school district officials are blasting a political flyer that accused Ashby of raising taxes to give the superintendent a big pay raise.

Ashby is running against incumbent Marva Beck in the GOP Primary race for State Representative in District 57.  The campaign flyer from Beck’s campaign says with help from a tax increase Ashby voted for, LISD Supt. Roy Knight makes almost $200, 000 a year, more than Governor Rick Perry makes.

Beck says “Lufkin parents and taxpayers ought to be outraged at how their

via Marva Beck for Texas

tax dollars are spent,” and “poor choices like these only hurt the school children of Lufkin.”

Supt. Knight says the flyer is extremely dishonest.  He says Ashby did vote for a small tax increase, but it was so the district could pay back revenue bonds that were approved by more than 70 percent of LISD voters. Knight says not approving the increase would have put the district in default on the  bond payments.

Speaking for himself, Ashby says this negative campaign flyer “is full of false accusations, misstatements, and over-the-top half-truths.  Other than signaling a floundering campaign, these kind of desperate campaign tactics highlight a glaring difference between myself and my opponent.”

via School officials lash back at state rep’s campaign claims – The Lufkin Daily News: Local & State.

Marva Beck represents House District 57, which has been redrawn to include Angelina, Houston and San Augustine Counties.  Those counties were drawn out of State Rep. James White’s House District 12, which means White isn’t Lufkin’s State Rep. anymore.

Beck’s District Office is in Centerville, on the other side of Interstate 45.  To be re-elected, Beck has to appeal to voters in an area nearly a hundred miles from where she lives, most of whom know nothing about her.  But they’re learning.

via Texas Legacy Project

Senate proclamation no. 397, signed by State Senator Bob Deuell of Greenville, states the senate of the state of Texas “honors and commemorates the life of attorney, public servant, civic activist, and environmentalist Dwight Killian Shellman Jr.”

in 1993, Shellman and musician Don Henley formed the Caddo Lake Institute to protect and preserve the largest freshwater lake in Texas, and the only natural lake.  He served as president of the institute from 1993 to 2006.

via Flickr/inmeares

Shellman also helped create the Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge, for which he received the Citizen’s Service Award from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Texas Senate proclamation praises Shellman as a “tireless organizer and an intensely loyal friend and advocate for the people and causes in which he believed,” and “his friends in Texas will long remember his kindness, his humility, and his loyalty.”

via Texas Senate honors Caddo Lake activist Shellman – The Marshall News Messenger: News.

Caddo Lake is the breathtakingly beautiful lake and wildlife refuge that it is because of Dwight Shellman and the work of the Caddo Lake Institute he helped to create.

Nate Shron, Getty Images

Graduating seniors at Lufkin High School received $114,000 in scholarships from the Alumni Association Monday night at a ceremony at Tom Jack Lucas Auditorium. Big bucks! The LHS Alumni Association said that’s the highest dollar amount ever for them.

Contributions by other donors topped $3.1 million, and added up to hundreds of scholarships for 180 students. All that studying DID pay off. I know I thought all the hard work might never end, and then suddenly it did and then I wondered where all the time had gone. Scholarships are a nice way to ease the transition to college. They’re a pat on the back, and provide a financial boost in the fall.

We’ve highlighted some of the local winners here:

Valedictorian Ruth Watkins got the first ever John Mitchell Memorial Scholarship, named for the beloved teacher.

Morgan Elizabeth “Lizzie” Wallace and Amy Zhang were the winners of the Virginia and Bayo Hopper Memorial Scholarship. Wallace has spent much of this year in a battle with cancer, and the crowd supported her with an ovation and whooping applause Monday.

Conner Groom won the first ever Coach John Outlaw Memorial Scholarship.

Congrats to all, and toss that cap high at graduation! It won’t be long and you’ll be COLLEGE grads and you’ll be working 9 to 5 and married with 2.5 children and a dog. Enjoy the new beginning!

via First Presbyterian Church Longview

This started last year after the Presbyterian General Assembly voted to allow priestly ordination of non-celibate homosexuals.

That ultimately led the Longview church’s governing body of elders to vote in favor of quitting the denomination, and put the issue to a vote of the church members.

Pastor Jonathan Jehorek has resigned from his denomination over this, and says he supports taking his congregation with him, if the members vote that way.

Jehorek says for him, this is not about acceptance or rejection of gays. Jehorek says he believes the Presbyterian Church is straying from Christian teachings to conform with contemporary culture, and in doing so, the leadership is reinterpreting scripture.

via Longview First Presbyterian Church might split from national group – Longview News-Journal: Local News.

Sunday’s vote is non-binding, but it will reveal if enough members are so strongly opposed to gay ordination that they would initiate the very complicated process of leaving their denomination to join the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

It’s worth noting that a homosexual orientation alone does not disqualify a person from priestly ordination. The Catholic Church has ordained countless celibate homosexuals for nearly 2000 years. If they remain celibate and chaste, their sexual orientation isn’t an issue.

It’s when people abandon chastity and practice open non-celibate homosexuality that most churches refuse to ordain them.

Christopher Polk/Getty Images

I’m always looking for local honey, since I’ve heard it’s good at helping with local allergies. Getting too scientific about it might make my head explode, but I’ve heard ingesting what the bees produce is supposed to help fight off seasonal allergies. I’m giving the kids a teaspoon a day and they don’t have many sniffles.

With the Farmer’s Market is open in Nac, you can not only get local honey, but just about anything else homegrown too.

The Farmer’s Market says it has baked goods, local organic beef, homemade candles, ceramics, Texas artisan cheeses, local organic chicken, free range eggs, local organic tilapia fish, flowers, various handcrafted items, herbs, local honey, jewelry, plants, preserves, local produce, homemade soaps and locally made fruit wines.

The Nacogcoches Farmer’s Market is open every Wednesday from 3-6pm, and Saturday’s from 8am-Noon. On Saturday’s they break out the breakfast burritos and tacos. Yum!  It’s located at the “hitch lot” at the corner of West Main and Pearl Streets. See ya there.

via Flickr/albertogp123

Texas public school students now take a new test called the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, or STAAR.  It’s the fourth such standardized test since 1986.

The Angelina Chamber resolution says there is entirely too much reliance on standardized testing. It says this is putting our children’s future at risk, and by extension, putting the state’s future prosperity at risk.

The resolution calls on lawmakers to re-examine the state’s public school accountability system.  It says we must find better ways to engage students in the classrooms and measure their progress.

Here’s a link to the full resolution:

chamber_resolution.pdf (application/pdf Object).

The STAAR Test went into effect last year, to replace the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS test, which was adopted in 2003.

TAKS replaced the previous test, called the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, or TAAS.

TAAS was developed in 1990, to replace the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills or TEAMS test, which was developed in 1986.

It has been estimated that Texas teachers spend up to one third of their class time just preparing their students for the state tests.

via Flickr/bradleygee

The Texas Forest Service estimated last year that between 100 million and 500 million trees may have died in the drought, and in wildfires across the state.  At the low end, that’s 2 percent of the state’s total tree cover. At the high end, that’s 10 percent of the trees.

Over the next two months, forestry crews will fan out across the state.  They’ll choose 700 spots at random and count dead trees within a 75-foot radius.

A Forest Service spokesman says this survey will produce a more accurate count, and provide more data on where the damage was the worst.

via Texas Forest Service Launches Scientific Survey Of Drought.

The results of this survey could be available by August, but the Forest Service says it will be assessing the long-term effects of the drought for years to come.  Texas landowners need to know how this tree count will affect them.

There’s more information on the TFS website.

via Texas Forest Service.

jailbird 12, flickr

What state leads the entire planet in throwing people in the slammer?

If you said Louisiana, congratulations, you win.

According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

The state imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of its US counterparts. First among Americans means first in the world. Louisiana’s incarceration rate is nearly triple Iran’s, seven times China’s and 10 times Germany’s.

The soaring rate is due, in part, to the fact housing inmates has turned into big business for states with ‘for-profit’ facilities at their disposal. These privately-owned facilities, which are leased by the state, help contribute to a nearly $200 million-a-year industry.

By skimming money off the top of these prison operations, some states are able to fund the majority of their law enforcement’s yearly budgetary requirements. And it is perfectly legal.

So it stands to reason that with many jobs dependent on the amount of working inmates within a particular institution, these prisons require a consistent amount of human surplus to ensure their survival.

Harsh sentencing guidelines are feeding that surplus.

There are many prominent community and political members who do not believe that harsh sentencing guidelines should be used as a means to serve in the interest of punishments and public safety. Yet, most of the states with the highest incarceration rates are showing no signs of weaning off their prison dependency any time soon.

THE TOP TEN STATES WITH THE HIGHEST RANKING INCARCERATIONS

1. Louisiana – 867 per 100,000 residents
2. Mississippi – 686
3. Oklahoma – 654
4. Alabama – 648
5. Texas – 648
6. Arizona – 572
7. Florida – 556
8. Arkansas – 552
9. Missouri – 508
10. South Carolina – 495

[NOLA]

Ron Dollette, Flickr

The thought of a 250-year-old sandwich is enough to turn your stomach. But, worse than that is the thought of having no sandwiches at all. That’s why we  should all join the town of Sandwich in celebrating the 250th anniversary of the invention of the sandwich.

In the town of Sandwich in Great Britain, residents threw a party on Sunday to celebrate the storied creation of the all-in-one meal by its very own Earl. To celebrate the occasion, they staged a dramatic re-enactment of the historical moment when the sandwich was invented.

Participants dressed in 18th-century costumes to act out the fateful night when John Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich, called for a slice of beef between two toasted pieces of bread while in the midst of a card game so that he could carry on gaming uninterrupted. Soon, the legend goes, others were asking for “the same as Sandwich” and the rest is history.

Other festivities in the English port town included a sandwich-making competition and a concert of the “bawdy and lively tunes” that were favorites of the Earl. Sandwich’s current Earl also hosted a big sandwich lunch as a tribute to the Earl who we can all thank for introducing us to that most tasty of meals.

Source: TheFW.com

via Facebook/Bob Brown for Lufkin Mayor

Mayor-elect Bob Brown has unseated Lufkin banker Jack Gorden, who served the city’s 5th Ward  on the City Council for more than 20 years, until he was elected Mayor in 2006.

Brown says “jobs” will be his top priority as Mayor.  He says he will bring local and county governmental entities and the Chamber of Commerce together on the same page, so they can work together to create and nurture a healthy economy and business environment that will attract new companies and jobs to the Lufkin area.

Outgoing Mayor Jack Gorden is gracious in defeat.  On his Facebook page, Gorden congratulates Brown on his victory, saying “I wish him the best as he prepares to lead our city into the future. Thank you, Lufkin! It’s been an honor to serve you over the past six years.”

via What can Brown do for you? Lufkin voters pick new mayor – The Lufkin Daily News: Local & State.

The City Council will canvass the results of the city election Tuesday at 5pm. When the vote is certified as “official”, the new Mayor will be sworn in, along with re-elected Council Members Don Langston and Robert Shankle.  Langston won another term by defeating challenger Koshy Alexander 464 to 287.  Shankle was unopposed.

via Community Impact Awards East Texas

Two of Lufkin’s Christian radio stations — KSWP and KAVX — have opened the floor for nominations from the general public for their annual Community Impact Awards East Texas. These awards are given to recognize people and organizations who strive to enrich their their communities, and improve the lives of the people who live in them.

The awards celebrate the values, citizenry, and quality of life that’s unique to our community, by honoring the people whose unselfish service, sacrifice and commitment make east Texas a great place to live and work.

The Community Impact Awards East Texas are given in four categories:

Non-Profit Organization

Philanthropist

Volunteer

Business.

This year’s awards nominations have been extended to 13 counties around Lufkin. People in those counties are invited to nominate one person or organization in each of the four categories.  Nomination forms can be found on the website shown below, and at any Brookshire Brothers supermarket in the following 13 counties:

Angelina, Cherokee, Houston, Jasper, Nacogdoches, Panola, Polk, Rusk, Sabine, San Augustine, Shelby, Trinity and Tyler counties.

The deadline for submitting nominations is June 1st.  The award recipients will be honored at the Awards Gala on August 10th at the Pitser Garrison Civic Center in Lufkin.

via Community Impact Awards East Texas.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

 

The phones are ringing off the wall here at KICKS 105 in the Town Square Media Building, thanks to all of YOU who have taken the time to call and donate to St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.  Together, we are making a difference and getting one step closer to beating cancer, but you should act fast if you want to be part of this effort!

Today is the last day to become a Partner In Hope during the KICKS 105 St. Jude Radiothon, and we need YOUR HELP to achieve our goal!

If you’ve already called in, you can still challenge your friends, family members, neighbors, coworkers, to do the same, and share the stories on our website or on your Facebook page to spread the word.

For just $20 per month, less than 70 cents per day, you help kids beat cancer – and that’s what this radiothon is about!  There’s no better feeling than knowing your money supports the research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and they in turn share their treatments, protocols and cures FREELY with other doctors and hospitals all around the world.

Call now at 1-800-795-1800 or click here to donate online

St. Jude Children’s Hospital

 

St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital exists today because of a promise made by the late Danny Thomas. When he was a struggling young entertainer, he was so moved by the plight of sick children turned away from a hospital, that he prayed to St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes, and promised if he could ever find a way, he would build a hospital that would treat ALL children, and no child would ever be turned away. 

Thomas opened his hospital in 1962, and his promise is kept to this day. Children get the best care and treatment in the world regardless of their family’s ability to pay.

KSFA860 is proud to join KICKS105 and the other Town Square Media stations in supporting this work and this annual radiothon.  We hope you will join us.

Kenski1970, flickr

You’ve probably seen the countless YouTube videos of people so transfixed by their mobile phones that they walk into inanimate objects or fall into fountains.

And while it’s easy to laugh at such incidents, the truth is that distracted pedestrians can cause serious harm to themselves or other people — and now one New Jersey town is taking a stand.

Fort Lee, NJ Police Chief Thomas Ripoli says in his town alone there have been 23 pedestrian accidents related to cell phones since January, including three fatalities.

Handing out informational pamphlets and brochures about the dangers of distracted walking hasn’t worked, so his officers are now ticketing careless pedestrians.

“They’re not alert and they’re not watching what they’re doing,” Ripoli said. “As of now, [officers] are to give summonses to pedestrians who do not adhere to crosswalks and the lights.”

Unlike careless driving, there are no formal charges for distracted walking, but Ripoli says his squad members will “know it when they see it.”

Watch a news story below.

[CBS]

John Moore, Getty Images

In an announcement made earlier this month, the US Postal Service told customers that as of May 16, they will no longer ship electronics like iPads, Kindles, smartphones and other devices containing lithium batteries overseas.

This means that people who want to ship electronics to troops serving abroad will have to pay a premium to go through private shipping services.

After working on an agreement with two unions that issue semi-binding regulations for global trade, the post office has determined that it can no longer ship items with lithium batteries overseas. The unions do not allow lithium batteries in mail shipments on international commercial flights, while they do allow them in non-mail shipments, like private courier services.

There is a risk of explosion from improperly installed lithium batteries, so, in an effort to protect pilots and other shipping employees, the trade unions do not want the batteries shipped across oceans on commercial air transportation. This means that families attempting to ship iPads, Kindles and laptops to their loved ones serving overseas will have to pay a premium to get them there through a private courier.

Companies like Apple and Amazon that ship these products to consumers in large quantities ship them with a minimal charge, which greatly reduces the risk of explosion. When private citizens ship them, there is no way to know if the batteries have been fully charged, improperly stored or improperly packed. Lithium batteries have been blamed for at least two fatal cargo plane crashes since 2006.

[Fast Company]

via Flickr/NRCgov

ERCOT, which serves 23 million people across Texas, says it plans to bring back 2,000 megawatts of power from idle plants to meet the state’s growing demand.

With that extra power, ERCOT says it doesn’t expect any rolling blackouts, but emergency alerts are probable, and people may be asked to conserve power during peak hours.

Barring unexpected power plant problems and outages, ERCOT believes the state’s power grid will have more than enough power available to meet the estimated demand.

It’s worth remembering that ERCOT was saying almost the same thing at this time last year.  However, the drought and the extreme temperatures were the worst that ERCOT had ever predicted.

ERCOT slogged its way through record-high temperatures and drought conditions that forced at least one North Texas power plant to reduce its power generation because it couldn’t maintain adequate water levels in its cooling reservoir.

via Fuel Fix » ERCOT looking for ways to keep lights for the summer, future.

So the bottom line is that ERCOT is just hoping to get through the summer with as few problems as possible.  May it be so.  We join them in that hope.

via Facebook/Neches River Rendezvous

In a news release, TFA Executive Vice President Ron Hufford says designating the Neches River as wild and scenic “is not in the best interest of landowners and would have devastating effects on the forest industry and surrounding communities.”

Hufford says “Once a river is designated as wild and scenic the federal government, and not state and local government, is in control of the river … because the act clearly states that nothing shall preclude the use of condemnation when necessary to provide the public access to the river.”

Hufford says this would put major limitations on agricultural and forestry practices, and strangle the forest products industry and the economic growth of the entire East Texas region.

U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has introduced a resolution calling for a federal feasibility study of designating the Neches as “Wild and Scenic.” The study has not been done, yet, and it may or may not ever come to pass, but TFA and the Texas Farm Bureau are both opposed to it.

via TFA against wild, scenic designation for Neches – The Lufkin Daily News: Local & State.

via Flickr/Lazenby43

Dr. Jack Kruse of Nashville was on the Carnival Magic cruise ship Sunday about to leave the Port of Galveston. It was Carnival’s annual “Low-Carb Cruise”, and the doctor was planning to give a speech on diet and health to the passengers Monday morning.

The passengers never got to hear his lecture however, because Kruse was escorted off the ship after a crew-member found a suspicious tweet with Kruse’s name that morning.

The tweet was posted under the name  “s***krusesays”, and it said “security confiscated dynamite. talk won’t be as explosive as one at PaleoFx. still have vial of Legionnaires for epic biohack. #lccruise12.”

Security officials quickly determined the tweet was a fake from an impostor account, and the doctor was cleared of any suspicions. Despite this, the ship captain refused to allow Kruse to re-board the ship before it left Galveston.

via Neurosurgeoon pulled off cruise ship leaving Galveston for bio-terrorist threat – Beaumont Enterprise.

This is just unbelievable.  With his actions, the captain was saying, in effect, that he doesn’t care that the doctor didn’t do anything wrong, he doesn’t want him on the ship.

It’s a safe bet that Carnival Cruise Lines will be hearing from Dr. Kruse’s lawyers, if they haven’t already.  Stay tuned.  We haven’t heard the last of this.

via Flickr/CACorrections

34 year old Carroll Joe Parr was sentenced to die for robbing and murdering Joel Dominguez in 2003.  Parr has written to state District Judge Matt Johnson of Waco saying he wants to withdraw his appeals.

In the letter, Parr says he wants to end his suffering and he doesn’t want to waste taxpayer’s money.

This comes a week after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Parr’s latest appeal. Parr’s lawyer says he hasn’t seen the letter, but he sees no reason to object if this is really what Parr wants to do.

If and when Parr’s appeals are officially withdrawn, and the case is closed out, the original trial judge will have to set a date for his execution.  That process could and probably will take at least several months.

via Texas death row inmate wants to be executed soon – Houston Chronicle.

It’s highly unusual for someone on death row to admit their guilt and ask to be executed.  Most condemned inmates claim they are innocent, and keep their convictions and death sentences tied up in court for years, and in some cases, for decades.

Thinkstock

Americans may have an enduring love affair with cars dating back more than 100 years, but there are some models we refuse to drive off the lot.

April car sales data show a two percent increase overall from the same time last year, but, in general, sales weren’t spectacular. Some companies did well, however, including Toyota, Chrysler and a few European auto makers.

But several manufacturers performed poorly, including General Motors and Ford. And there are several specific car models that took much longer than the 52-day average to sell.

By using information from Edmunds.com, the website 24/7 Wall Street was able to identify 10 models that Americans refuse to buy. The Volkswagen Routan ranked first on the list of unpopular cars, followed by the Nissan Titan and the Kia Rio. Each took more than 100 days to sell, and poor reviews and concerns over fuel efficiency seem the most likely reasons.

Sales for seven of the 10 cars on the list dropped significantly between 2009 and 2011 and two — the Cadillac DTS and the Honda Element — have been discontinued altogether. Others may soon face the same fate.

Take a look below at the cars Americans are just not buying.

[MSNBC]