Job Before Degree!!!

Getting the job before getting the degree: What An Interesting Concept

Brenda Hellyer, a 43-year-old accountant by education, will become San Jacinto College next chancellor under one condition: that she would earn a doctorate before taking the reins in 2009.

Some people can't get the job even with the degree.

Hellyer's engaging personality, political skill and public speaking ability also make her an ideal modern chancellor, more CEO than scholar, say trustees and colleagues.

Her political skill is probably what cinched the deal. (All about the world of politics.)

Billions at Stake in Tuesday's Election

Billions of dollars will be at stake when Texas voters head to the polls on Tuesday, KPRC Local 2 reported.

The election could impact everything from your home and your health to how you get around the state.

Putting a cap on property appraisal hikes has been the holy grail of Texas Republicans for years. If Proposition 3 passes, they'll finally have it. And Democrats said they are all right with it, too.


"This would mean in any given year, your appraisal value can't go up more than 10 percent, so you don't get really stung with horrendous unexpected increases in taxes," said Gerry Birnberg, with the Harris County Democratic Party.

"Its a first step in the right direction. But ultimately that cap needs to be brought down from 10 percent to 3 percent or lower," said Jared Woodfill, with the Harris County Republican Party.

Republicans oppose two other high profile proposals.

Proposition 12, which would allow the Texas Department of Transportation to sell up to $5 billion in bonds for road projects.

Local Democrats said they believe that's a good alternative to the Trans Texas Corridor, the statewide network of toll roads TxDOT wants to build it despite strong opposition.

"If there's $5 billion available for highway improvement project through issuing bonds, it means we don't have to raise that $5 billion through toll roads," Birnberg said.

But what concerns Republicans is that there's nothing in the proposal that says TxDOT can't spend the money for toll roads.

"Republican voters are skeptical. They're skeptical about what's going to happen to the money. They're skeptical about what's going to happen with respect to toll roads, and so I think there's a real hesitancy to give TxDOT an additional $5 billion," Woodfill said.

And there's a big divide over Proposition 15, which would authorize up to $3 billion in bonds to pay for cancer research.

Democrats said that could be a boon for Houston and the Texas Medical Center.

"That would be a core industry for Houston and for Texas. That would be something Texans could be so in favor of and so proud of," Birnberg said.

Republicans don't have a problem with funding cancer research. They just don't want to borrow money to do it.

"If this is the way we want to spend it, let's take the money out of our own account. Let's not borrow it and place the debt on future generations," Woodfill said.

The polls open at 7 a.m. on Tuesday.

Texas Judge Draws Outcry for Allowing an Execution

The presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the target of a rising national outcry a month after turning away the last appeal of a death row inmate because the rushed filing was delayed past the court’s 5 p.m. closing time.

The inmate, Michael Richard, was then executed for a 1986 sexual assault and murder — the last person to die in Texas while the United States Supreme Court reviews the constitutionality of lethal injection.

The judge, Sharon Keller, has said she did not know that Mr. Richard’s defense lawyers in Houston were having computer problems when they asked the court for 20 more minutes to deliver their final state appeal to Austin hours before the scheduled execution on Sept. 25.

Without a definitive ruling from the state court, the lawyers could not properly appeal to the United States Supreme Court to block the execution.

Judge Keller, a Republican who was elected to her second six-year term last year, declined through her office this week to comment.

The court does not accept computer filings, although one of the court’s judges, Tom Price, said in an interview this week, “We’re reviewing all our procedures and policies.”

Other judges on the nine-member court, the state’s highest for criminal appeals, have said they were in the courthouse or available by phone and would have stayed late to hear the appeal if they had known about it.

On Wednesday, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, with 13,000 members nationwide, said it had just sent a complaint against Judge Keller to the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct, the first judicial complaint the group had ever filed, said its president, Carmen D. Hernandez, of Washington.

“Whatever else happens in the United States of America, the courts are to remain open to litigants,” Ms. Hernandez said.

Also Wednesday, a petition calling for the court to accept electronic filings and signed by more than 300 lawyers — including two former Texas Supreme Court justices and other former judges, the head of the Texas Commission for Lawyer Discipline and partners of leading Texas law firms — was delivered in Austin by the Texas Civil Rights Project, a legal advocacy group.

This month at least 150 lawyers across Texas announced they were filing a complaint against Judge Keller with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Among the signers was a state district judge from Galveston, Susan Criss, who said, “The Code of Judicial Conduct requires judges to report activity by other judges that violates the code.”

The commission of six judges, two lawyers and five citizens investigates cases of judicial misconduct — defined as bringing discredit upon the judiciary or the administration of justice — and can impose sanctions ranging from additional education to suspension or a trial, but it cannot remove a judge.

The commission will not confirm that any judge is under investigation, said the group’s executive director, Seana Willing.

But David R. Dow, Mr. Richard’s lead lawyer, said Tuesday that a representative of the commission had interviewed him about the case several weeks ago.

Mr. Dow, a University of Houston law professor and a lawyer for the Texas Defender Service, a law clinic representing death row inmates, said, “Obviously Mr. Richard was executed more than a month ago, so none of this helps him.”

But Mr. Dow added, “I am surprised that there are so many people across such a broad terrain who seem to be outraged.”

The controversy stems from an expedited appeal that Mr. Dow and other lawyers rushed to file for Mr. Richard on the day of his scheduled execution — the same day the United States Supreme Court agreed to review whether lethal injection in Kentucky amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

Mr. Dow said that in refocusing their appeal on lethal injection, they suffered a computer breakdown and tried to get the Court of Criminal Appeals to wait 20 minutes after closing time so the brief could be delivered by hand, but that they were turned down.

The Austin American-Statesman quoted Judge Keller on Oct. 3 as defending her decision to close, saying she had asked Mr. Richard’s lawyers why the court should stay open “and no reason was given.”

“I just said, ‘We close at 5.’ I didn’t really think of it as a decision as much as a statement,” the newspaper quoted her as saying.

Mr. Dow said they had pleaded computer failure, to no avail. Lacking a state ruling, the lawyers submitted an incomplete appeal to the United States Supreme Court, and Mr. Richard was executed. Two days later, the justices blocked another lethal injection in Texas, and there have been no executions since.

Louisiana's Newly Elected Governor Vows to Change the States' Corruption Image

Changing Louisiana's reputation for corruption would do more than just make over its image, Gov.-elect Bobby Jindal said Sunday: It could help the state attract businesses and win federal aid for hurricane recovery.

The methodical GOP congressman known for his wonkish style says residents of the state are tired of cronyism and corruption and may have had enough of colorful politicians.

The Republican congressman, a day after his historic win in an election that featured a dozen candidates for governor, pressed ahead with his campaign pledge, saying in an interview with The Associated Press that one of his first acts will be to call a special legislative session to reform ethics laws.

Just weeks after Katrina, federal officials brought the country's first post-storm public corruption indictment against Joseph Impastato, a St. Tammany Parish councilman accused of taking kickbacks in exchange for steering contracts for debris removal. Impastato has maintained he is innocent of the extortion, conspiracy and money laundering charges against him.

A few months later, Andrew Rose and Loyd Holliman, two Federal Emergency Management Agency employees, were indicted on charges that they solicited bribes while managing a FEMA base camp near New Orleans, according to federal records. They pleaded guilty and were sentenced in August to 21 months in federal prison.

The most surprising case came in August, when Oliver Thomas, a popular city councilman, pleaded guilty to accepting nearly $20,000 in bribes from convicted political operative, Stan "Pampy" Barre, New Orleans most notorious criminal. Thomas' case, more than any other, shook the walls at city hall, City Councilwoman Shelley Midura said.