The State of Texas: June 6, 2016

Quote of the Day

“We’re going to have a little pool party here tonight if y’all want to join us. Y’all make sure to bring your rain boots.”

—Jesse Duke, of the aptly-named band Pushwater, said in a video posted to Facebook, according to KHOU. Floodwater didn’t stop the band from performing its monthly gig at the Crosby, Texas bar Bob n’ Jeans. The show must go on, after all. A second video shows a few locals dancing to the music while partially submerged in more than a few inches of very, very brown water.

Daily Roundup

Johnny Debtor
The problems keep piling (and piling and piling) up for Johnny Manziel. While he fights criminal charges for allegedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend Colleen Crowley, he’ll also face at least one other court battle. Manziel is being sued for allegedly breaking an agreement to pay a $10,000 fine after trashing a Los Angeles mansion in April, TMZ first reported. According to the Dallas Morning News, attorneys say Manziel left the $4.5 million mansion riddled with red-wine stains and “extensive burn marks from cigarettes and marijuana,” shattered a glass table, and broke a door. Now, the owner of the home is seeking $40,000 in damages. Just weeks after the unruly house party, Manziel totaled a rented Mercedes Benz, and by late May, the rental company said Manziel still hadn’t forked over the $90,000 in damages from the wreck. The owner of the rental company even went so far as blockading Manziel’s entourage in New York so he could talk with the athlete about payment, according to the New York Post. So, in total, Manziel owes about $100,000 for his party-related antics in the month of April alone. For whatever reason, he didn’t—or couldn’t—pay. This is all cruelly ironic for a man whose trademark celebration used to be the “money sign.”

Bad Trend
What’s up with all the inappropriate teacher-student relationships in Texas? The age-old question of why so many teachers in the Lone Star State have been busted for messing around with underage students is at the forefront after a middle school teacher in Houston was arrested last week for allegedly having a “relationship” with a thirteen-year-old student, becoming pregnant with his child, and later having an abortion. According to the Amarillo Globe-News, the amount of alleged inappropriate teacher-student relationships in the state is on pace to shatter last year’s record-breaking total of 188. We’re already at 162 incidents investigated by the Texas Education Agency since September 1. The issue is clearly trending in the wrong direction: the annual total of inappropriate relationships has risen for at least five straight years. Experts interviewed by the Globe-News placed most of the blame on social media—especially picture-sharing apps like Snapchat or Instagram—which make it much easier to connect students and teachers outside the classroom.

Justice for Josue
A Marine veteran was arrested over the weekend and charged with the tragic murder of an eleven-year-old boy in Houston. Josue Flores was stabbed to death last month while walking home from school in North Houston, a murder so gruesome and apparently random that it left the community in fear and the police scrambling to find a killer. Police originally arrested and charged a suspect almost immediately after the stabbing, but the charges were dropped after the man’s alibi checked out. Police said they are confident they have the right man this time around, according to the Houston Chronicle. Jackson’s listed address is a shelter for homeless veterans, and according to KHOU he wrote in a Facebook post that he has post-traumatic stress disorder. In another post, Jackson wrote, “Swear I want to kill everybody.” Jackson was discharged from the military in 2011. Harris County’s District Attorney told the Chronicle that Jackson’s murder charge could eventually be upgraded to capital murder, which carries the death penalty as a possible punishment.