While Congress investigates the April 20 explosion that killed 11 people and spiked an underwater oil leak that continues to spill more than 210,000 gallons a day, another BP rig is at the center of its own firestorm.
Judiciary of Texas
Posted inState Government
Mr. President, Can’t We Have Federal Judges?
The Obama administration is taking heat from Texas Democrats in Congress over its slowness in filling the state’s vacant federal judgeships. Six are open, and a seventh will be next month — with no solution in sight. In his first 16 months in offfice, as Matt Largey of KUT News reports, the President has not nominated a single person to the federal bench in Texas.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
On the Records: Mapping U.S. Attorney Vacancies Nationwide
President Obama and the U.S. Senate haven’t yet installed U.S. Attorneys in any of Texas’ four federal court districts. As our national map shows, more than half of the country is in the same situation.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
TribBlog: Keller Gets Record Ethics Fine
Sharon Keller isn’t as meticulous on her personal finance reports as she is particular about court closing time, the Texas Ethics Commission found today.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
The Case of the Missing Prosecutors
Texas has more unfilled U.S. attorney positions than any other state — and that isn’t going to change soon. Currently, none of the four Texas districts have “presidentially confirmed” federal prosecutors, who are responsible for enforcing federal laws. Last week, John B. Stevens, a state district judge in Beaumont who was Barack Obama’s only nominee in Texas, withdrew his name from consideration, citing the protracted confirmation process. And that means we risk being left out of the administration’s inner circle on criminal and civil justice issues.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
A Watershed Case
On the surface, it’s about an oat-and-peanut farm and two South Texas men who wanted enough water to operate it. But underneath lies a century-old tug-of-war over who really owns the water beneath the land.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Grissom on the fall of Norma Chávez; M. Smith and Ramsey on the runoffs, the results, and the aftermath; Hu on the Tea Party’s birthday party; Thevenot and Stiles on the path between schools and prisons; Ramshaw on prosecutors’ reaction to helping hands from Austin; Hamilton on self-appointed lawyers; Galbraith on property rights and power lines; Aguilar and Grissom sit down with the mayor of Juárez to talk about his crime-ridden city; Kraft on telling the stories of Texans and other Americans who died in Vietnam; Ramsey on slots and horses and casinos; and Hamilton goes on a field trip with Jim Hightower to hear the history of populism. The best of our best from April 5 to 9, 2010.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Going It Alone
Attorneys, judges, legal aid experts and law librarians gathered last week to strategize about how to create a system that can accommodate an increasing number of self-represented litigants — a problem that some say is going to shut down the court system.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Tipping the Scales
If Rick Green wins his runoff against Debra Lehrmann on Tuesday, Democrats will be licking their chops — but do they really have a shot of occupying their first Texas Supreme Court seat in more than 10 years?
Posted in
Criminal Justice
“I Won’t Stop Dispensing Justice”
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins won’t go so far as to compare his support to the near-divine fervor of President Obama’s. But Watkins, who gained national prominence for using DNA evidence to exonerate nearly two dozen wrongfully convicted people in one of Texas’ notoriously tough-on-crime jurisdictions, will come close. “It’s a religious experience to vote for Craig Watkins,” Texas’ first African-American D.A. says without irony. Like Obama, he says, other Democratic candidates are “hanging their hats” on his re-election — and on the minority voters he draws to the polls. Like Obama, he’s got “a big target” on his back. “I’ve got to fight the political attacks coming at me from all directions,” he insists. “I’ll say it publicly: If you throw punches at us, we’ll drop a bomb on you.”
