According to America’s Most Wanted, Ignacio Ramos isn’t doing too well in the joint:

After AMW ran the story of Ignacio “Nacho” Ramos on February 3, 2007, he was badly beaten by prison thugs in a federal penitentiary in Yazoo City, Mississippi. His family says after a number of inmates recognized him from the show as a former border patrol agent, they viciously beat him.

After seeing AMW’s story, about five fellow prisoners waited until Ramos fell asleep and beat him badly, yelling “maten a la migra”, which means “kill the border patrol agent” in Spanish. According to his family, he suffered wounds to his back, shoulder, arms and head.

WorldNetDaily has more:

Ramos told his wife that he was badly bruised and bleeding from the ears. He said that immediately after the attack, he was placed back into solitary confinement, where he has been for the last two days.

“He told me that he asked to call me Sunday, after the attack,” Monica Ramos continued, “but the prison wouldn’t let him call me and they wouldn’t let him call his attorney. He said the only reason the prison was letting him call now, on Monday, was because the Congress intervened, otherwise he wouldn’t have been permitted any calls at all.”

Something ain’t right.

Metro blogger Mary Sit has an interesting post today, in which she whines about criticism from the people who pay her salary:

But unfortunately, the conversation has been dominated by three critical voices whose response to each post is predictable: You’re incompetent, METRO is incompetent, and everything METRO does is a huge waste of money.

The attacks are often personal, both toward me and any commentator who defends METRO or writes something positive about METRO. Rather than encouraging friendly, healthy debate and conversation, these few are poisoning the blog environment and discouraging participation.

In a gesture of goodwill, I’m having a case of Kleenex shipped to Metro HQ, as well as some lotion for that thin skin of hers. Mary continues, laying out the lofty standards we’ve come to expect from Metro:

So maybe it’s time to define what you can expect from me.

There may be misspellings or typos. Yes, I use SpellCheck, but our goal is an improved dialogue, not flawless spelling. Sometimes I may post multiple times a day, sometimes a post may require more research and background and take several days.

Not every single comment will get a response from me.

She then discusses her salary and job duties:

To set the record straight: I do not make $300/post. I do not report to a vice president.

That’s right. It’s more like $320. Kevin did the math. As for who she reports to, Mary’s declaration is at odds with her official job description, which indicates that she reports to the vice president of external affairs.

Hopefully she’ll clear all this up, in the interest of transparency and good government.

And hopefully a Dumpster full of gold bars will materialize in my living room overnight.

So goes the State of the State address according to the Austin American Statesman. You think he would’ve won on that platform?

•$360 million in expanded financial aid to students attending college, for students who graduate on time with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher, as part of $1.7 billion in new money for higher education;

•$100 million to send grants to local law enforcement agencies on the Texas-Mexico border.

•$80 million to expand “Early Start” pre-kindergarten programs;

•$40 million for a Texas Technology Grant program;

•$50 million to address shortages in nurses;

•$20 million to the Texas Film Commission to attract film projects to the state;

•Build two new prisons and convert a facility for youthful offenders into one for adults;

•Establish a tighter constitutional spending cap, tied to to the average inflation and population growth of the previous six years.

The Dallas Morning News focuses on the sale of the lottery:

Plus, the lottery provides $1 billion annually to public schools, and the plan would fall $250 million short of that revenue, creating a potential long-term hole in the state budget. The money would have to be made up somewhere in the rest of the state’s budget, Mr. Black said

The Fort Worth Star Telegram focuses on low-cost health care and guest workers: 

Perry vowed to spend the nearly four years remaining in his term embracing policies that he hopes will bridge the gap between rich and poor.

The El Paso Times is centering its coverage on selling the lottery to pay for health care and they even have a poll up:

Under Perry’s insurance plan, which he called “Healthier Texas,” the state would provide for low-income families up to $150 per individual to assist with monthly insurance premium payments.

That’s $150 per person in each household. Paid for by….working Texans.

LST has been on top of the recent epidemic of Houston pedestrians unsuccessfully attempting to cross our busy roadways. Some of you have not been listening to our advice, however.

Pedestrian killed after being hit by car on U.S. 59 feeder

A pedestrian died after being struck by a vehicle on the feeder road of U.S. 59 at Lee Road as rush hour began this morning, officials said.

According to KPRC-TV:

Police said the 26-year-old man was wearing dark clothing and walked into oncoming traffic.

Is this an outbreak of individual stupidity or mass suicide?

For all 39% of you that voted for our current governor, here’s yet another fine example of his commitment to border security:

Less than two weeks after Gov. Rick Perry flew here to announce the latest in a string of federally-funded border security initiatives, his office has quietly shut down the operation’s first phase, officials confirmed Monday.

So, there you go, another sham of a program. The Austin ACLU rep says it best:

By making a big announcement about Wrangler’s launch, Perry was able to sound tough on border security without having to prove results over a long term, Bernhardt said.

“It’s this sort of wink-nudge thing,” she said.

Wink. Nudge. A brilliant description of the way politicians play the voters. In his press announcement on Operation Wrangler, the governor says this:

“An unsecured border affects the entire state of Texas and our nation as a whole. Until the federal government brings the necessary resources to bear, Texas will continue to do all we can to secure our border and protect our citizens.”

Wink. Nudge.

This one’s got that “Only in Houston” kinda feel to it [H/T Houston Chronicle]:

Equipped with a knife, pellet pistol, can of pepper spray, steel mallet and 4 feet of rubber tubing, [NASA astronaut Lisa Marie] Nowak arrived at Orlando International Airport early Monday morning, police said, to confront one challenge the space agency had never considered: a romantic rival.

Nowak, 43, remains in Orange County Jail without bail on a variety of charges arising from a confrontation with Colleen Shipman, an Air Force captain whom she allegedly assaulted in the parking garage during what police characterized as an attempted kidnapping.

… Nowak, a married mother of three, apparently had driven from Houston to meet Shipman, a younger competitor for the affections of another astronaut, Bill Oefelein. So intent was she not to be late that Nowak had donned adult diapers to avoid the customary rest stops, police said she told them.

That detail alone is going to guarantee wall-to-wall national media coverage.

Nowak also told police that she was involved with Oefelein, describing it as “more than a working relationship, but less than a romantic relationship,” according to an affidavit. After learning that Shipman was seeing Oefelein and was flying back to Florida after visiting Houston, she said she wanted to meet Shipman to talk to her. She said she did not plan to hurt her.

Of course not; please explain.

The purpose of the pistol was “to entice Shipman to talk with her,” police were told. When they asked her how squirting Shipman with pepper spray was going to aid the conversation, Nowak replied, “That was stupid.“

Give her credit for honesty.

Producers–Here’s a promising angle:

Nowak and Oefelein trained together during an 11-day stint in 2004 at a Canadian army cold-weather facility in Quebec.

I’ll bet they did.

Let’s watch the work of this criminal mastermind unfold:

Describing Monday’s assault to police, Shipman said a dark-haired woman wearing a trench coat boarded the same parking shuttle bus that she did about 3 a.m. When Shipman got off, the other woman did, too. Shipman walked to her car and heard footsteps following her.

Frightened, Shipman hurriedly got into her car and locked the door. The other woman pounded on her window and tried to open the door. She then asked Shipman for help.

“My boyfriend was supposed to pick me up and he is not here,” Shipman said she was told. “I’ve been traveling, and it’s late. Can you give me a ride to the parking office?”

Shipman said she declined. The woman then asked to borrow her cell phone. Shipman told her the battery was dead. When the woman began to cry and said she could not hear what Shipman was saying, Shipman lowered the window a few inches. At that point, Shipman was pepper-sprayed, she said.

Eyes burning, Shipman managed to drive away and alert a toll booth attendant who called police. They found Nowak near a parking shuttle bus stop and watched her drop items into a trash can, the affidavit stated. She was arrested after Shipman returned to identify her.

A search of the trash can turned up a black wig and a BB gun. A search of a bag Nowak was carrying revealed the mallet, a folding knife with a 4-inch blade, the tubing, plastic garbage bags and approximately $600 in cash. Among the items found during a later search of Nowak’s vehicle at a hotel near the airport were e-mails between Shipman and Oefelein, a letter describing how much Nowak loved Oefelein, a MapQuest printout giving directions from Houston to the Orlando airport, handwritten directions to Shipman’s house and an unused CO2 cartridge.

Police said Nowak admitted to wearing the trench-coat-and-wig disguise so that Shipman would speak to her.

Thank goodness no one was seriously hurt.

And I’ve got some pity for Nowak; love is a crazy thing, and you don’t do something this nutty and desperate unless you are pretty darned unhappy.

But wow. Just “Wow.”

Let the circus begin.

This is a good one:

A member of the Texas Syndicate gang was sentenced to a federal prison term Monday for orchestrating a smuggling operation that brought cocaine on military transport flights from Colombia to Fort Bliss in far West Texas.

Ernesto Medrano was sentenced by U.S. District Judge David Godbey to more than 17 years on charges of conspiracy to distribute, and possess with intent to distribute, five kilograms or more of cocaine, the office of U.S. Attorney Richard Roper said.

Medrano apparently oversaw the scheme while in prison on other charges, said Kathy Colvin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Dallas. She didn’t know what he was in jail for originally.

H/T: AP, via Houston Chronicle

Problem solved!

Glad to hear this drug thug is finally locked up behind bars.

Er, again.

It’s hard to stand on principle.

From this morning’s Houston Chronicle:

Austin political consultant Bill Miller said he thinks Texans are seeing a governor showing some independence after winning a hard-fought campaign over three rivals for his second full term. Perry took office in 2001 when George W. Bush became president.

“This is an example of the governor going his own way without political consequences. He has immunity at the ballot box,” Miller said.

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