arin's attic | tagged as: texas

Tagged as: texas

the stanford financial group - another ponzi scheme?

Today, Stanford, Laura Pendergest-Holt (who got married since their first meeting) and Davis face federal charges that they swindled investors out of $8 billion in a massive Ponzi scheme run out of Houston, Miami and the Caribbean, taking money for supposed certificates of deposit and then simply paying off old customers with the new cash. The question remains why it took regulators six more years to catch on, especially when Hazlett’s cries were far from isolated to South Florida.

The fallout in Miami, Latin America and the Caribbean has been devastating. More than 300 Stanford employees in Texas have lost jobs, thousands of investors have had accounts frozen and about 30,000 worldwide allegedly have lost a total of $8 billion in life savings to the giant house of cards. And each allegation has dealt another body blow to America’s already teetering confidence in government safeguards and the economy.

Even more than Bernie Madoff’s tale, Allen Stanford’s rise and fall is the story of the past decade in America, where greed mixed with cynical politics birthed a perfect storm for accused hucksters such as Stanford to bring the global economy to its knees. And as Stanford’s story shows, the warning signs were there. They were simply ignored.

read further: The Rise and Fall of the Stanford Financial Group - Castles and corruption lead to criminal charges.

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Tagged as: texas,news,economy,houston April 17, 2009 @ 10:30 am

the frenzied right-wing

hate speech
check out the wonderful artwork at active art!

The Rise of Glenn Beck’s Bizarre Media Militia:

Adkisson made headlines on July 28, 2008, when he took his sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun into the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., and, after whipping it out of a guitar case, opened fire on parishioners while a group of schoolchildren performed songs up by the altar. Adkisson killed two people and wounded several others.

He hated liberals.
The only way we can rid ourselves of this evil is kill them in the streets. Kill them where they gather. I’d like to encourage other like-minded people to do what I’ve done. If life ain’t worth living anymore, don’t just kill yourself. Do something for your Country before you go. Go Kill Liberals!

“There are a lot of people who hate liberals, and if we stir that around in the pot and on the airwaves, eventually there will be people (like Adkisson) ... who get infected by the violent rhetoric and put it into violent action,” Bohstedt said. He remained worried about future violence: “Do you think there are other Jim Adkissons out there listening to hate speech? I do.”

A lot of Republicans have gone off the deep end into crazy land:

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Tagged as: texas,politics,news,conservatives April 16, 2009 @ 01:56 am

judge sharon keller should resign immediately [updated]

injustice is served

update 04/07/2009: judge keller’s trial begins august 17th. no plea deal likely, as neither side appears ready to compromise.

sharon keller, the judge facing charges of judicial misconduct for blocking the last minute appeals of death row inmate michael wayne richard in 2007, is busy proving how irrational she really is.

Richard’s lawyers had wanted a stay because the U.S. Supreme Court on the morning of his scheduled Sept. 25, 2007, execution had agreed to hear a case questioning whether lethal injection amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

Richard’s lawyers called the court’s general counsel to say computer problems would prevent them from filing before the court clerk’s office closed at 5 p.m. and asked if they could have more time. The counsel called Keller at home; the judge said no.

He was put to death about three hours later. Richard had been convicted for the 1986 sexual assault and shooting death of nurse Marguerite Lucille Dixon in Harris County.

apparently, she’s now suing the state of texas for violating her constitutional rights by not providing a lawyer to defend her against the charges. LOL, that’s right. the state of texas is *violating HER rights*. rick casey, from the houston chronicle says Let’s give Judge Keller a free lawyer:

Blogged, Current Events, Politics, Texas, Comments (2)
Tagged as: texas,politics,news April 07, 2009 @ 01:19 pm

setting the record straight: the texas medical center and eminent domain

a couple of days ago, the houston chronicle ran a story detailing a fight between neighborhoods and the texas medical center corporation: at issue is the use of eminent domain, power granted to the texas medical center by the legislature 50 years ago, in acquiring properties for its expansion.

first, who is the “texas medical center corporation”? from tmc’s website:

Texas Medical Center was formed and exists today exclusively for benevolent, charitable, and educational purposes to form the foundation and continuing support for a “City of Medicine.” Since its inception in 1948, the Texas Medical Center has sought to attract non-profit, academically-oriented institutions dedicated to medical care, health care, education, and research. Its land, provided to the TMC institutions for nominal fees, must be dedicated to this purpose.

Texas Medical Center oversees the common areas of the Texas Medical Center campus and provides infrastructure planning and development for this City of Medicine, including a maintenance program for the common areas, private roadway construction, parking structures, security and police services. In doing so, it functions much like a City Public Works Department for 47 institutions of the Texas Medical Center with 100 permanent buildings located on nearly 1,000 acres and 26 miles of public or private streets. It publishes a widely read newspaper, Texas Medical Center News; manages Favrot Tower, an apartment building [ed. note: only medical professionals and other staff members of the Texas Medical Center and their dependents may live in the apartments]; and operates the Edwin Hornberger Conference Center, the John P. McGovern Campus, and the John P. McGovern Texas Medical Center Commons.

some statistics about the texas medical center (data from 2007):

5.5 Million – Approximate patient visits
10,000+ – International patients
6,500 – Beds; 600 – bassinets
10,000+ – M.D.s, Ph.D.s and other doctorates
73,600 – Employees (making it the largest employer in houston, when viewed as a single entity)
26,000+ – Registered nurses, LVN’s, clinical caregivers, technicians, and medical support staff
13,500 – Volunteers
33,150 – Full-time students and more than 75,000 part-time students
1,000 – Acres in the South Main area plus other locations throughout Houston, Texas and internationally
$1.2 Billion - Dedicated to patient care for individuals with limited or no resources
$1 Billion - In research conducted by institution members
46,500+ – Parking spaces with 6,000 new parking spaces under construction

in short, the medical center is a “city within a city”. the texas medical center corporation acts as an umbrella organization over it’s member institutions, coordinating maintenance, construction, parking, and security. tmc and it’s member institutions are “not for profit” organizations, meaning that while they may earn a “surplus”, those earnings must be reinvested within the organization itself. earnings cannot benefit individuals or stakeholders within the organization.

as with any large institution, it’s almost expected that it will come under attack (everyone has a grievance with someone these days); however, the texas medical center has seen relatively little of that. the one notable example was in 2003, when wayne dolcefino, the city’s arrogant and rude ~~blowhard~~ investigative reporter, suggested that the texas medical center did not care about the patients, family members, and other visitors… on the grounds that they charged $9.00 per day for parking. what mr. dolcefino neglected to mention was the fact that the texas medical center provides information to those who can’t afford to pay for parking. (i emailed mr dolcefino and voiced my displeasure at what was an obviously biased report full of vague insinuations and outright lies, to which mr dolcefino replied, “i hope no one in your family ever gets sick.” nice man, that guy.)

the other example would be tmc’s use of it’s powers of eminent domain. in 2004, it purchased 10 properties, across from the va hospital and adjacent to tmc’s administrative building, for the purpose of building a parking garage. at the time, tmc used it’s power of eminent domain to condemn and acquire one home that had been used as a haven for prostitution and drugs and ONLY after trying for 2 years to work out a deal with the home’s owner. it was the first and only time that tmc has used it’s eminent domain powers.

Blogged, Current Events, Politics, Texas, Comments (0)
Tagged as: texas,politics,news,houston March 31, 2009 @ 04:45 pm

what i’ve been doing: tmc’s blue santa video

Ronald McDonald House - Houston provides a “home away from home” to families of children undergoing treatment for serious illnesses in the Texas Medical Center.

The Texas Medical Center Police and Security Services, recognizing the difficulties and unique struggles for families spending a holiday miles from home, solicits donations, purchases toys, and delivers them each year to the residents of Ronald McDonald House.

i was asked to create a video for their “blue santa” program (“blue santa” is what police dept’s call their christmas charities). once i saw the photos, no other song but “jolly old st nicholas” would suffice! it happens to be my favorite christmas song. sasha @ http://www.hypnobird.com was gracious enough to allow me to use her artwork and create mini-animations from it, so a HUGE thank you to her!