GOP lawmakers have voted to kill a major anti-domestic terrorism bill which would have created a series of new law enforcement units and a special task force to root out “Nazism” within US security agencies, blocking the legislation in the Senate after it narrowly passed in the lower chamber.
Texas
4/29/22 Jordan Smith on Melissa Lucio and the Pitfalls of Capital Punishment
Download Episode. Scott is joined by investigative journalist Jordan Smith to discuss Melissa Lucio, a Texas woman awaiting execution. Smith walks us through Lucio’s case where the tragic death of her child was immediately assumed by police and prosecutors to be foul play. Smith’s reporting has uncovered the ways Lucio was misled and manipulated into falsely incriminating herself only hours after losing her child. Lucio narrowly avoided execution last week, but she still has a long fight ahead of her to avoid being killed by the State of Texas. Smith explains where things stand for...
Texas Prosecutor Worked for Judges in ‘Fundamental Conflict of Interest’
Weldon Ralph Petty Jr. spent decades working in the Midland County District Attorney's Office in Texas as a prosecutor before returning in 2018. Just a year later, a scandal was unearthed, showing Petty had spent much of his career working as a clerk for judges on cases in which he was also a prosecutor. Petty is documented to have worked on both sides of the bench in at least 355 cases, writing decisions and jury instructions. He also gained access to information that aided his cases against defendants. The same corrupt arrangement even occurred in the death-sentence conviction of...
Upcoming Speaking Events
I've got alot of speeches coming up. Most to LP state conventions and/or Mises Caucus events. February 26 Utah March 6 Kentucky March 12 New Jersey March 20 Tennessee March 26 Delaware April 3 Connecticut April 8 Irving, Texas FloteFest: April 30 Gause, Texas LP National Convention, Reno May 26-29 Sorry, no links. Figure it out.
A Solution to Transgender Sports
Even in these politically divisive times, this headline fairly leaps off the page at you: “Texas Passes Bill Barring Sports for Transgender Students.” According to Texas State House Representative Valoree Swanson, a sponsor of this bill, it is “all about girls and protecting them” in the state’s University Interscholastic League. She continued: “We need a statewide level playing field…It’s very important that we, who got elected to be here, protect our girls.” This seems a bit unfair to a small group of marginalized students, but we all know the genesis of this initiative: boys with...
Cop Pleads Guilty to Trafficking in Child Porn, Raping Dog
As TFTP previously reported, a police officer from the Bossier City Police Department was arrested in December 2018 for filming unspeakable acts with animals. Officer Terry Yetman, 38, was charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse of animals—producing the evidence himself—including filming sex with his own police K9. This decorated cop was also charged with 31 counts of child pornography several months later. Now, nearly 3 years after his initial arrest, Yetman has pleaded guilty. TFTP learned at the time, Yetman, who had only been out on bail for two days for the 40 counts of animal...
Family Sues After Cop Attempts to Shoot Their Dog, Kills Their Daughter Instead
As readers of the Free Thought Project know, police killing or attempting to kill dogs is an all too common occurrence—happening so often that it is caught on video much of the time. Also, as the following tragic case our of Arlington, TX illustrates, all too often, police will attempt to kill a dog—miss the dog—and shoot and kill an innocent person instead. Last year, a Texas grand jury indicted a police officer after he was seen on video trying to kill a dog and killing an innocent woman instead. Arlington police officer Ravi Singh was charged with criminally negligent homicide for...
The CDC is Planning to Destroy the Summer Camp Experience
The Center for Disease Control’s major easing of its mask-use recommendations was a welcome development, giving Americans hope that logic can triumph over the CDC’s bureaucratic inertia and its COVID-era tendency to push the most severe restrictions on human activity at every turn. Next, let’s hope this outbreak of rationality proves contagious within the CDC, and brings a major overhaul of the agency’s absurd guidelines for summer camps. CDC Trapped in March 2020 Mindset In April, the CDC published guidance for operating youth camps that was the latest eye-rolling example of CDC...
18 years, 5,500 interviews.
I started the old Weekend Interview Show on Radio KAOS 95.9 FM in Austin, Texas on April 12, 2003, three days after the fall of Baghdad. First up was Antiwar.com's heroic Alan Bock. Number 5,500 was of course with the Great Gareth Porter. Full archives here and at...
Cop Kills Innocent Woman, Taxpayers Liable
A tragedy unfolded in 2019 in Houston, Texas when a Baytown police officer approached a woman, 44-year-old Pamela Turner, and killed her. Turner’s last words before she was shot five times by the officer were “I’m pregnant.” Now, nearly two years later, the family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city and the officer in federal court. Today, April 8, would have been Turner’s 46th birthday. Turner’s mother, Tamika Palmer has asked everyone to share the video of her daughter’s death so that justice may be served. Turner’s death was so egregious, Baytown officer Juan Delacruz...