Jury convicts former GOP leader

Updated: Wednesday, 24 Nov 2010, 6:42 PM CST
Published : Wednesday, 24 Nov 2010, 6:39 PM CST

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Once one of the most powerful and feared Republicans in Congress, ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay could be headed to prison. He was convicted today on charges he illegally funneled corporate money to Texas GOP candidates in 2002.

DeLay has had a cloud hanging over him for almost a decade. Accusations led to his downfall as House Majority Leader and his eventual resignation from the House of Representatives in 2006.

In the courtroom, DeLay's expression did not change when the verdict was read, just before 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Afterwards, he turned and hugged his wife and the left the courtroom to briefly speak to media and then he left courthouse, still free on bond from an earlier phase of the trial.

The two guilty verdicts -- one on money laundering and one on conspiracy to commit money laundering --? stem from 2002 when DeLay took $190,000 from corporations and sent it on to the Republican National Committee, which then made $190,000 in contributions to Texas statehouse candidates.

It's illegal under Texas state law to make contributions to statehouse candidates with corporate money.

DeLay maintained that what he did was not against the law and is, in fact, a common practice among politicians. DeLay's efforts are credited with creating a more Republican friendly redistricting map in Texas.

"This is an abuse of power, a miscarriage of justice, and I still maintain that I am innocent," DeLay said before he departed the Travis County courthouse. "The criminalization of politics undermines our entire system."

"It's the outcome we expected. we thought the citizens of Travis County would see this for what it was, a corrupt politician that caught violating the laws of the state," said District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg.

DeLay was able to leave the courthouse on a previous bond for this case. He will be back in court on Dec. 20, when the sentencing part of this trial will take place. For both charges, DeLay faces minimum probation and a maximum sentence of 99 years in jail.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.

View the original article here

Former guard: Policy violations ignored

Updated: Tuesday, 09 Nov 2010, 10:35 PM CST
Published : Tuesday, 09 Nov 2010, 9:43 PM CST

TAYLOR (KXAN) - A former resident supervisor at the T. Don Hutto immigrant detention facility in Taylor said policy violations at the facility were ignored, leading to several women being abused by another former guard, Donald Charles Dunn, 30.

Dunn was sentenced to less than a year in prison for groping five women detainees - as part of a plea deal. He will also spend two years on probation.

Kim Wyatt left her job at the Taylor facility earlier this year, but said she was not surprised by the charges against her former co-worker, Dunn.

"I am so, so upset about what he did," said Wyatt from her home in Missouri. "These women were entrusted to us and the job that he had was taking them to the airport or bus stations - they were going home to their families- they weren't being transported out of the country- they were going home."

Investigators said Dunn admitted stopping the van during the early morning transports, at locations in Williamson and Travis counties, and touching the women inappropriately for his own "self gratification."

Dunn, a former resident supervisor at the facility and employee of Correction Corporation of America, told officers that on these trips, "he told the women he was going to 'frisk' them and then inappropriately touched their breasts, crotch and buttocks," according to a news release by the Williamson County Sheriff's Office.

But Wyatt said that should not have happened, because Dunn should never have been alone with the detainees.

"A lot of the runs he did right before I left, he was alone with the women and we had enough resident supervisors on certain nights that they could have sent a female with him or they could have sent a female instead of him on several of them," she said.

Policy at the T. Don Hutto facility was clear that male resident supervisors were never to be alone with female detainees, a policy violation Wyatt said she reported to her supervisors, and was ignored.

"I wish she would have contacted us and told us- about this red flag you know because that would have alerted us that this person doesn't need to be in the position that they're in- or even be employed with CCA," said Williamson County Sheriff's Sergeant John Foster. "How could this happen? We spelled it out for them- don't do this."

Sgt. Foster is in charge of monitoring the facility and was appointed by Williamson County Commissioners.

"If one person would have followed those recommendations, we may not be here today," he said. "Mr. Dunn would not have had contact with any of those females."

Foster is referring to former Warden Evelyn Hernandez, who was fired by CCA shortly after the charges against Dunn came to light.

"As a taxpayer, you should care," said Jose Orta, a member of Lulac, and an outspoken critic of the facility. "This is $15,000 a day- and this is your money- your tax money."

Orta believes there should be more transparency at the facility and even more oversight. But Foster says that oversight already exists.

"They don't know when we're coming- I don't want them to know when we're coming, they don't know where we're going to go, we can walk up to any door and say open it and they have to open it," said Foster.

Wyatt is hopeful the change in leadership at the facility will prevent future incidents like the one involving Dunn. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment on this story.
?

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.

View the original article here

Former APD officer arrested

Updated: Wednesday, 10 Nov 2010, 12:56 AM CST
Published : Tuesday, 09 Nov 2010, 6:02 PM CST

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) - Former Austin police officer Leonardo Quintana was arrested by Leander police late Tuesday.

He faces four misdemeanor charges in connection with an assault in November 2009 on his then-fiancee, according to officials at the Williamson County Jail. The charges are:

• 1 criminal trespass
• 2 assault, family violence with bodily injury
• 1 criminal mischief??????????

According to jail officials Quintana's bond was set at $8,000 and he posted it late Tuesday night.

We received a statement Tuesday evening from Quintana attorney, DWI Trial Attorney Jaime Balagia concerning Quintana’s arrest,

"this arrest is nothing more than sour grapes by the Austin Police Department because of the recent arbitration decision that ordered the Department to reinstate Quintana to his position as an Austin Police officer. Balagia also said "APD will stop at nothing in its vengeance to destroy officer Quintana's career. If Quintana is found guilty (or receives a deferred adjudication) for family violence assault he will be prohibited from possessing a firearm which would result in his inability to work as a police officer and APD could fire him. If Quintana is found guilty (or receives deferred adjudication) of any Misdemeanor crime he will lose his TCLEOSE Peace Officer License and the department could fire him."??

Quintana, who recently got his job back with the Austin Police Department only to get fired again six days later, is known for his role in the death of an 18-year-old in East Austin. Quintana killed Nathaniel Sanders in an early morning incident in May 2009 -- though his first firing, which the arbitrator reduced to a 15-day suspension after mediation hearings earlier this year -- had little to do with that. Quintana was initially fired in May in connection with a driving while intoxicated arrest on Jan. 11, but convinced a arbitrator to reduce it to a suspension and get him his job back. Six days later, he was fired again in connection with an October 2009 domestic incident involving his then-fiancee.

APD Chief Art Acevedo in May fired the 33-year-old following his arrest on Jan. 11 on charges of driving while intoxicated in Leander. His case is reportedly still pending, and the trial is set for November.

?

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.

View the original article here

OSU names former Stanford exec as new leader of information services

By: Nancy Raskauskas | Posted the | October 13, 2010 | Comments off

CORVALLIS - Lois Brooks, who led the University computer company for his 25 years at the University of Stanford, 11 has been appointed new vice provost for information at the University of Oregon State services.

As vice provost, she will oversee information network technology and infrastructure which is essential for learning activity dynamic search OSU and administration by the University students. With 40 million annual expenditure, information technology is a rapidly growing, complex and vital part of Oregon State University and its land grant mission.

Brooks will succeed Curt Pederson, who served as vice provost for information since 14 ans.Pederson services helped to solve a difficult financial situation in its hiring in 1997 information services, and then led the development of the OSU Open Source Lab and is part of a team leading to the implementation of new it governance process at. It has also helped develop the infrastructure and support for the "5th, site" which provides with than it needs to Office of the Chancellor and the four regions campus.

? Brooks will take place in the coming months leadership transition, OSU officials say, with remaining at OSU Pederson to focus on strategic IT initiatives.

"Laws Brooks helped guide Stanford enormous growth in the calculation of his teaching and has been able to build a collaborative, effective, and cost-effective program through innovation and partnerships," said Sabah Randhawa, OSU provost and Executive Vice President."This experience as Oregon State University as well as we continue to develop our computing capacity and implement new it governance process."

A graduate of the University of San Francisco, Brooks was earning degrees MBA from the University of California at Berkeley and Columbia University.She joined Stanford IT team in 1984 working in information and medical graphics, then begin to rise through the ranks of the gestion.En 1998, it Director of academic computing, overseeing a $ 18 million annual operation provides technology, software development and support services to Stanford students and teachers.

In 2009, Brooks was invited to Executive Leadership Foundation of Sakai, on an interim basis until June of this year so that it would by reorganization.The Foundation is a non-profit company engaged in collaboration with the design, development and distribution of free software for education, research and scholarly activities.

"It is an honour to join Oregon State University," said Brooks. "OSU has solid background in excellent research and teaching, as well as a deeply committed community of students, professors and personnel.Technologie information is an essential element of the educational and academic research, and I look forward to working with the OSU community to develop and deliver innovative vision technology that promotes education and research in the years to come.

OSU has been a leader among the institutions of the University of Oregon for the information technology system and is home to a large part of it infrastructure and administration for 5 ^{th of the OUS} site .the ' University was also significant technology challenges; in addition to functioning single branch campus of Bend, State it has offices in many counties extension, exploits Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, has a network of stations farm of the Oregon experience and has a growing State with 24,000 students enrolment.

Search large enterprise University, that last year topped $ 275 million, is also growing computing needs, makes Randhawa remarquer.OSU leads international programs include ocean observation platforms, satellite, climate change, forests and agricultural monitoring templates and additional fields for data-intensive data transmission "requiring a robust and state-of-the-art infrastructure and skillful management."

"Technologies of information is critical learning, research and universities for research in the 21st century educational objectives," said Randhawa, "and we are lucky to Lois Brooks lead us into the future."

-Mark Floyd, Oregon State University

Comments

This entry transmitted via the service for full-text RSS - if this is your content and you read on someone to another site, please read our FAQ page fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Article five filters features: After Hiroshima - non-rapport Cancer Catastrophe of Fallujah.

View the original article here

OSU names former Stanford exec as new leader of information services

By: Nancy Raskauskas | Posted the | October 13, 2010 | Comments off

CORVALLIS - Lois Brooks, who led the University computer company for his 25 years at the University of Stanford, 11 has been appointed new vice provost for information at the University of Oregon State services.

As vice provost, she will oversee information network technology and infrastructure which is essential for learning activity dynamic search OSU and administration by the University students. With 40 million annual expenditure, information technology is a rapidly growing, complex and vital part of Oregon State University and its land grant mission.

Brooks will succeed Curt Pederson, who served as vice provost for information since 14 ans.Pederson services helped to solve a difficult financial situation in its hiring in 1997 information services, and then led the development of the OSU Open Source Lab and is part of a team leading to the implementation of new it governance process at. It has also helped develop the infrastructure and support for the "5th, site" which provides with than it needs to Office of the Chancellor and the four regions campus.

? Brooks will take place in the coming months leadership transition, OSU officials say, with remaining at OSU Pederson to focus on strategic IT initiatives.

"Laws Brooks helped guide Stanford enormous growth in the calculation of his teaching and has been able to build a collaborative, effective, and cost-effective program through innovation and partnerships," said Sabah Randhawa, OSU provost and Executive Vice President."This experience as Oregon State University as well as we continue to develop our computing capacity and implement new it governance process."

A graduate of the University of San Francisco, Brooks was earning degrees MBA from the University of California at Berkeley and Columbia University.She joined Stanford IT team in 1984 working in information and medical graphics, then begin to rise through the ranks of the gestion.En 1998, it Director of academic computing, overseeing a $ 18 million annual operation provides technology, software development and support services to Stanford students and teachers.

In 2009, Brooks was invited to Executive Leadership Foundation of Sakai, on an interim basis until June of this year so that it would by reorganization.The Foundation is a non-profit company engaged in collaboration with the design, development and distribution of free software for education, research and scholarly activities.

"It is an honour to join Oregon State University," said Brooks. "OSU has solid background in excellent research and teaching, as well as a deeply committed community of students, professors and personnel.Technologie information is an essential element of the educational and academic research, and I look forward to working with the OSU community to develop and deliver innovative vision technology that promotes education and research in the years to come.

OSU has been a leader among the institutions of the University of Oregon for the information technology system and is home to a large part of it infrastructure and administration for 5 ^{th of the OUS} site .the ' University was also significant technology challenges; in addition to functioning single branch campus of Bend, State it has offices in many counties extension, exploits Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, has a network of stations farm of the Oregon experience and has a growing State with 24,000 students enrolment.

Search large enterprise University, that last year topped $ 275 million, is also growing computing needs, makes Randhawa remarquer.OSU leads international programs include ocean observation platforms, satellite, climate change, forests and agricultural monitoring templates and additional fields for data-intensive data transmission "requiring a robust and state-of-the-art infrastructure and skillful management."

"Technologies of information is critical learning, research and universities for research in the 21st century educational objectives," said Randhawa, "and we are lucky to Lois Brooks lead us into the future."

-Mark Floyd, Oregon State University

Comments

This entry transmitted via the service for full-text RSS - if this is your content and you read on someone to another site, please read our FAQ page fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Article five filters features: After Hiroshima - non-rapport Cancer Catastrophe of Fallujah.

View the original article here