Beaumont, TX Abortion Clinic Slammed with 13 Health and Safety Violations

As a Federal Court was granting an injunction to block tighter safety and health restrictions for abortion clinics in Texas, one Abortion clinic was getting hit with over a dozen health and safety violations discovered by the Texas Department of Health. The injunction was reversed on appeal and the tighter abortion safety laws are now in effect. How ironic that, as the Federal courts discussed the need to tighten health and safety restriction for abortion clinics, a Beaumont, TX Whole Woman's Health abortion clinic was proving that there DO need to be tighter restrictions. We of course already knew there needed to be tighter restrictions after last year's stories of death doctors all across America who were killing babies after they were born and putting the lives of women at risk.



from 12 News Beaumont:

BEAUMONT -

12News has learned that Beaumont's only abortion and women's health clinic has been flagged on 13 violations by the Texas Department of Health.

The October 3 inspection at Whole Woman's Health of Beaumont turned up potential health issues.
The report says the facility failed to provide a safe environment for patients and staff.  The suction machines which were used on patients had numerous rusty spots which, "had the likelihood to cause infection."
The report also says, "the facility failed to have the EKG monitoring equipment ready if an emergency situation occurred..."

Fatima Gifford, the spokeswoman for Whole Woman's Health, said Tuesday that at this time, the clinic did not have a comment, but said the staff is looking into the allegations in order to prepare a response to the Texas Department of Health. She says the clinic's goal is to provide safe, compassionate abortion care, and they take these matters seriously.

She went on to say that management does not believe this is anything suspicious or political on the part of the Texas Department of Health Services.  Her response was in light of Monday's judge's ruling which granted an injunction on a law that would have made abortions more restrictive in Texas
Click here to see a copy of the report

Hooters gets slap on wrist for serving drunk man who Killed innocent woman in Texas drunk driving accident

Hooters in Beaumont, TX got to choose between a $15,000 fine or a 50 day suspension of alcohol license. The mother of the woman killed says that her daughter did not get to choose and while her daughter is dead, Hooters gets to continue selling alcohol. This is why so many innocent people keep getting killed by drunk drivers every day. There is no real punishment. Heck, the guy who killed her only got 8 years. 8 years for a life....

from KBMT 12 News:

BEAUMONT -
A Beaumont restaurant has been cited by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
The enforcement action against Hooters stems from a fatal drunk driving accident in Beaumont last year.
It was on July 30, 2012 that Derek McBride would go to Hooters on Interstate 10 with three friends.
According to a TABC report obtained by 12 News, they would spend just over 4-and-a-half hours during which McBride was served six 25-ounce beers, a Bloody Mary, a shot of Vodka and a shot of Jack Daniels.
On March 18, the 25-year-old McBride was sentenced to eight years in prison for intoxication manslaughter.
McBride pleaded guilty to driving drunk, and causing the wreck on I-10.
It claimed the life of Amber Roussel of Louisiana, but authorities did not just go after McBride to seek justice, they also launched an investigation into Hooters in Beaumont.
Agents with the TABC learned McBride had been at the restaurant before the fatal wreck.
They demanded to see receipts from the day of the wreck.
At first, the TABC agent did not get all she requested and she issued Hooters a warning for failing to timely provide records.
But eventually TABC had what it needed to sanction Hooters, turns out the agency discovered that waitresses had over served McBride alcoholic beverages.
Here's a timeline from that day involving McBride:
11:05 am - served 1 Coors Light Big Daddy (25oz)
11:38 am - served 1 Coors Light Big Daddy (25oz)
12:22 pm - served 1 Coors Light Big Daddy (25oz)
1:07 pm - served 1 Coors Light Big Daddy (25 oz) AND served Bloody Mary with a shot of Vodka
2:09 pm - served 1 Coors Light Big Daddy (25oz)
2:12 pm - served 1 shot of Jack Daniels
3:45 pm - served 1 Coors Light Big Daddy (25oz)
3:54 pm - reported time of accident by Beaumont police department
Hooters fired two waitresses and the TABC gave the restaurant the option to pay a $15,000 fine, or get its liquor license suspended for 50 days.
Hooters chose the fine.  Amber Roussel's mother, Melba Braud, told 12 News, "Amber was not given a choice, Hooters should not be given a choice either, so they can continue to serve people like Derek McBride."
Braud is suing Hooters, but she said, "It's not about the money, it's to show them this needs to stop."
Braud describes her daughter as amazing.  She says she plans to return to Beaumont on the first anniversary of Amber's death and do a candlelight vigil on I-10 near Pine Street, where the wreck happened.
We have been in contact with a public relations representative for Hooters.  He told us he would have a response for us, but we have not received one yet.

read more here: http://www.12newsnow.com/story/21968136/tabc-cites-hooters-for-overserving-man-who-caused-fatal-wreck

Chinese Rocket Crashes in East Texas - Authorities Confirm Debris in Jasper County

A Chinese Rocket Crashed in the East Texas near Buna, TX in Jasper County. Farfetched? Conspiracy theory? Actually, this story is true!

Early morning February 27th, 2013 there were reports of bright fireballs over East Texas and West Louisiana skies.

Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society determined that the fireball event was the result of Chinese Rocket CZ-4B crashing back to earth.

Lunsford made his determination using information from Aerospace.org that says the rocket was launched May 10th, 2012 and was expected to re-enter the atmosphere on February 27th, 2013. Aerospace.org also posted a map that showed the trajectory of the rocket. The trajectory brought the rocket over the area where the lights were seen (see image below).

Now, nearly a month later, Dean Gents in Jasper County contacted KBMT Channel 12 news in Beaumont, TX to report debris found on his property. Dean Gents emailed me a couple of pictures that he took when he discovered the remnants of this Chinese Rocket (see 2 pictures below). KBMT 12 News went out to the property and found that one beach ball size object left a 9 inch crater (see picture of debris above from KBMT)

NASA has been contacted about the debris but they have not responded. An Aerospace Engineer from California did respond and he believes the debris is a pressure tank from the Chinese Rocket CZ-4B that was seen crashing to earth in the early morning of Feb 27th, 2013.

The Jasper County Judge Mark Allen is seen in the picture below with the rocket debris. Judge Allen says that similar rocket debris was found weeks earlier at a nearby property.

Chinese Rockets crashing down in Texas? Believe it! Makes you wonder what else the Chinese has flying over America with cameras or even weapons....

Confederate Memorial on MLK in Orange, TX Angers NAACP

Slavery was bad... it still is happening and it still is bad.... no one is disputing that. The thing about war though is that it usually is started by the powerful people and then lots of not powerful people get sucked into it and lots of innocent people die on both sides. The Civil war was over slavery between the big guys, but for all the regular people fighting, most of them did not own slaves and had no interest in owning slaved. Many people fought just to fight for their state or against the north or against the south or to right with their brother who joined. Did all the British solders that were fighting against the colonist in the American Revolution hate Americans or were many of them fighting just because they were British and had to fight for their side? Look, it does not mean you agree with slavery just because you are proud to be southern or want to honor your relatives who died in the civil war fighting for the Confederacy. In America we have a Constitutional right to freedom of speech and everyone is entitled to it. So if this guy wants to build a Confederate Memorial on a major intersection so that people driving through the city can see it then so be it. Soldiers have died to protect Freedom of Speech just as soldiers have died to end Slavery.


the story below is from KBMT 12 News:
http://www.12newsnow.com/story/21192179/confederate-memorial-to-be-built-on-mlk

ORANGE - Granvel Block of Orange says he's related to at least 17 Confederate soldiers.

"My great grandfather was a Confederate veteran," he told 12News Wednesday.

He and his organization, called the Sons of Confederate Veterans, want to honor their ancestors by building a Confederate memorial in Orange. It would look similar to the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., and it would be surrounded by 26 different Confederate flags.

     

"It'll be there for an educational purpose, to show the public the misconception that a lot of people have that the only flag is the battle flag," Block said.

But the memorial will be at the corner of Interstate 10 and MLK, and it's the location that has people talking.

"I think the location could be offensive, it seems to be in bad taste," said Orange resident Philip Cooper.

         

Orange City Council member Theresa Beauchamp finds it offensive, saying, "Everyone has their freedom of speech, but let that (part of history) be gone and forgotten. We do not need to stir up controversy in this town."

Block says his organization never intended to "make a statement."

"It was just a matter of fate that this particular spot became available," he said.

Block says the complaints are unfounded.

"We are a very diverse group, we do not have prejudices," he said.

Several Orange residents and the Orange division of the NAACP plan to voice their concerns to the City Council. But the property is paid for, and Block says the memorial will be built, possibly completed as early as April.

Video:Texas Pistol Packing Preacher Trains 150 Teachers how to Shoot Gun for Concealed Permit

Video from KBMT Channel 12:

12 News KBMT and K-JAC. News, Weather and Sports for SE Texas


read more here: http://www.12newsnow.com/story/20943162/pistol-packing-pastor-trains-150-teachers-in-free-chl-course

Texas Man Uses Gun to Save Family from Home Invader with a Knife - Gun Rights Work Bob Costas

Silly Bob Costas, trying to tell people on Sunday Night Football that the football player who recently shot himself and his girlfriend would still be alive if there were no guns.... WRONG! He would have just slit his throat and his girlfriend's throat with a knife.... When people want to kill they will kill using whatever means they can.

Plus, if the girlfriend or mother would have had a gone, they could have stopped the players killing spree before he took the life of his innocent girlfriend!

Oh, but I can tell you this Bob Costas, this husband very likely would not have been able to save his family from this home intruder if the husband did not have a gun to protect his home with....


the following article is from KBMT Channel 12 News Beaumont, TX:

Home invader with knife stopped by homeowner with gun

Posted: Dec 02, 2012 8:28 AM CST Updated: Dec 02, 2012 8:38 AM CST

By David Ingram

Nederland, TX police say a homeowner with a gun was able to stop an intruder who was armed with a knife late Saturday evening.

Officers say it happened in the 100 block of Avenue D just before midnight. A man, woman and child were at home when they heard someone breaking into the house through a glass French door.  The homeowner confronted the intruder and fired one shot. Police say the intruder was not hit by the bullet.

Officers arrived shortly after the confrontation and arrested the intruder.

Assistant Chief of Police Gary Porter tells 12 News the man's name is withheld pending arraignment, but did say the intruder is a 38-year-old male.  The man was charged with burglary of a habitation, but charges could be upgraded.

No one was injured in the home invasion.

TX AG Greg Abbott Supports Kountze Cheerleaders Banned from Holding Religious Banners

According to KBMT 12 News, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has come out swinging in support of the students at Kountze ISD who were told by the school superintendent that they were not allowed to hold personal signs or banners at public football games if they have Bible Verses or religious encouragements on them.

This situation has made national news and the facebook group "support kountze kids faith" got over 40,000 likes literally overnight.

There is a large RALLY to support these Kountze Kids on Oct 5th at 7:30PM at the Kountze Football Stadium. Thousands of people are expected to show up to the rally.

District Judge Steve Thomas has granted a temporary restraining order that allows students to still hold religious signs. There will be a hearing on Oct 4th to determine if the restraining order will be made permanent.

The letter from AG Abbott came at the request of the Liberty Institute whose lawyer, Michael Johnson, is representing the Kountze students.

In the letter to the Superintendent, Kevin Weldon, Abbott says that it violates the Constitution to ban the signs. Abbott tells the superintendent that, unless the superintendent removes the ban, Kountze ISD will have to answer to the State of Texas because his AG office will be officially backing the cheerleaders in court. Abbott goes on to state that the organization who complained about the signs, Freedom From Religious Foundation (FFRF), has tried to cause trouble like this with other schools in Texas but the organization is wrong and the Courts have rejected FFRF and backed Texas and the religious rights of the students. Abbott also offers support for the school district if they remove the ban and are later sued by the FFRF.

Read the full letter from Attorney General Greg Abbott below:

September 27, 2012

Mr. Kevin Weldon
Superintendent
Kountze Independent School District
P.O. Box 460
Kountze, TX 77625

Dear Superintendent Weldon:

I write to offer my assistance and to provide advice about a menacing and misleading letter you recently received from an organization called the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). That organization has a long history of attempting to bully school districts into adopting restrictive religious speech policies that go well beyond what is required by the United States Constitution. Consistent with that history, the letter you received incorrectly claims that allowing Kountze High School cheerleaders to display banners decorated with Bible verses at football games amounts to a "serious and flagrant violation of the First Amendment." That exaggerated claim is not supported by the Constitution. Instead, it is based solely on FFRF's distorted, anti-religion view of the First Amendment, a view that is unsupported by court precedent and has recently been rejected by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

It appears that your recent decision to prohibit the cheerleaders at Kountze High from displaying their religious messages at football games—a decision that has since been blocked by a court order—was based on a mistaken belief that FFRF's letter correctly interprets the law. Unfortunately, that mistaken belief was apparently reinforced by erroneous advice from the Texas Association of School Boards. Contrary to FFRF's claims, however, the Supreme Court has never held that it is illegal for a public school to "host religious messages at school athletic events." And the Supreme Court has never ruled that religion must be "kept out" of public schools. Instead, each of the Supreme Court cases cited in FFRF's letter involve decisions by public officials to promote a religious message or to direct the content of a private citizen's religious message.

Unlike the cases cited by FFRF, Kountze ISD has neither made the decision to include a religious message on the cheerleaders' banner, nor provided any direction as to the content of the cheerleaders' message. Rather, news reports indicate that these decisions were made entirely by students. Those same news reports also indicate that the banners were made by the cheerleaders off of school property and without the use of school funds. That these students chose to express their religious viewpoint at a school function does not violate the Establishment Clause.

When the school district does not join in the students' religious message or seek to control or direct that message, the cheerleaders' decision to display their banners cannot constitute promotion or imposition of religion by the school district. Rather, the banners are the religious speech of individual students, which enjoys protection under the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment.

In addition to the protections afforded by the First Amendment, Texas law further protects students' free exercise of religion by requiring school districts to "treat a student's voluntary expression of a religious viewpoint . . . in the same manner the district treats a student's voluntary expression of a secular or other viewpoint." Tex. Educ. Code § 25.151. Moreover, a school district "may not discriminate against the student based on a religious viewpoint expressed by the student on an otherwise permissible subject." Id. To the extent the district seeks to prevent the cheerleaders from displaying their banners because the cheerleaders decided to express a religious—as opposed to a secular—message, it may very well violate section 25.151 of the Texas Education Code.

Think about it: Can a school district or the Freedom From Religion Foundation stop a student from making the sign of the cross before taking a test, or stop football players from pointing toward heaven after scoring a touchdown or kneeling to pray for an injured teammate? Of course not. Just like the cheerleaders' banners, such public displays of religion are voluntary expressions of the students' beliefs and are not attributable to the school district.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently vindicated these legal principles—and rejected FFRF's restrictive view of the First Amendment—in a case involving Medina Valley ISD in Castroville, Texas. In May 2011, a group called Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a lawsuit against Medina Valley in an attempt to prevent student speakers from praying as part of their speech at their graduation ceremony. My office supported the school district by arguing that the First Amendment does not require public schools to interfere with students' right to freely express their religious beliefs. A unanimous panel of three federal appeals judges ruled in favor of the school district and permitted Medina Valley High School seniors to pray at their graduation ceremony. The appeals court explained that there was no showing that the "prayers or other remarks to be given by students at graduation are, in fact, school-sponsored." The same is true here: The cheerleaders are expressing their own beliefs, not those of the school district. Just as Americans United for Separation of Church and State was wrong in Castroville, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is wrong in Kountze.

As the United States Supreme Court has observed, "[w]e are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being." Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306, 313 (1952). And as the Fifth Circuit's Medina Valley ruling demonstrates, school districts that allow students to speak freely about their religious beliefs have the Constitution on their side. A school district's policies regarding student expressions of religious belief should be guided by the educational goals of the district and an appropriate respect for students' freedoms of speech and religion—not by threatening letters that misstate the law and distort the First Amendment.

If you decide to allow the cheerleaders of Kountze High to freely display their chosen message on their banners at football games, and if the Freedom From Religion Foundation or any other group sues Kountze ISD as a result, my office stands ready to file a brief with the court protecting the cheerleaders' religious liberties.

Sincerely,

Greg Abbott

Attorney General of Texas



related articles: 

Urgent: Support Kountze Kids Faith - Texas Students Fighting for Religious Freedom

Congressman Stockman and Rep. White Support Kountze Kids Faith - Liberty Institute & CLA Send Lawyers

Judge Says Kountze Students ALLOWED to Hold Religious Signs. Restraining Order by Judge Steve Thomas

Student Disciplined for Bible Verse on Face at West Hardin ISD TX Football Game

Rep. James White Tells TASB: "Unwarranted" to Ban Religious Student Banners - Letter to Texas Association of School Boards - James Crow