Houston Congressman Calls for Trump's Impeachment: Your Texas Roundup

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“It’s just been literally living in hell. Very loud, very offensive and they just don’t stop.”

—Laura Velez, of Brownsville, to KRGV. The venue drawing Velez’s ire is not a bar, a club, or a concert hall. It is a church. Apparently Velez and other neighbors around the place of worship have repeatedly filed complaints about extremely loud church services. The Cameron County Sheriff has already fined the church’s owner $500, but that’s all they’ve really been able to do. Velez claims that whenever neighbors call the police, the church will turn the noise down, then when the cops leave they supposedly turn it back up even louder “out of spite.”

BIG NEWS

Tough Talk
U.S. Representative Al Green became just the second member of Congress to call for the impeachment of President Donald Trump, according to the Houston Chronicle. Green, a Democrat representing Houston, joined U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, of California, in her calls for Trump’s ouster when he released a statement on Monday. Green pointed to last week’s FBI fiasco as grounds for impeachment, claiming Trump obstructed the agency’s investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election by firing former FBI director James Comey (Green’s letter came before the news broke Monday evening that Trump divulged “highly classified” information to Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador). “A bedrock premise upon which respect for, and obedience to, our societal norms is ‘No one is above the law,'” Green said in the statement. “President Trump is not above the law. He has committed an impeachable act and must be charged. To do otherwise would cause some Americans to lose respect for, and obedience to, our societal norms… If the President is not above the law, he should be charged, by way of impeachment, by the U.S. House of Representatives. Whether he is guilty is a separate action for the U.S. Senate to decide. I have said on previous occasions, and do now say again, the President should be impeached. I also say that this can happen with a Republican-controlled House and Senate if the public weighs in by demanding that the Republican President be charged by way of impeachment. Our mantra should be ‘I. T. N.—Impeach Trump Now.'” Still, Green stopped short of filing the paperwork necessary to actually impeach Trump. Apparently he’ll do that later, if necessary. “I am hoping the American people will weigh in,” Green told the Chronicle. “I reserve the right to bring a resolution of impeachment, but I also think that it’s appropriate to wait to see how leadership will respond.”

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS

Schoolhouse Rocked
Last week, Dallas ISD police officers handcuffed a seven-year-old boy and body slammed a twelve-year-old girl, the Dallas Morning News reported on Monday. In the first incident, police cuffed a young boy at Gabe P. Allen Charter School for “acting out,” according to the boy’s mother, who also said the boy has ADHD and is in the special needs program. In response to the incident, the district said the boy was handcuffed to “protect himself against any further harm.” Over at at Piedmont G.L.O.B.A.L. Academy, a blurry video shows an officer breaking up a fight by picking up a twelve-year-old girl and throwing her to the ground. The girl was suspended for three days and hospitalized with a clavicle fracture, an injury that was the result of being thrown to the ground, according to the girl’s mother. The officer is reportedly on administrative leave while the district investigates the incident.

Popped Off
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich revealed on Monday that the team’s star, Kawhi Leonard, is expected to miss game two of the Western Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors after he injured his ankle in game one’s loss. It’s a huge blow for the Spurs, and Pop was upset, particularly considering the questionable circumstances surrounding Leonard’s injury. Warriors hitman center Zaza Pachulia stuck his foot under Leonard’s left foot, causing his ankle to roll over. “A two-step lead with your foot closeout is not appropriate,” Popovich told reporters Monday, according to the San Antonio Express-News. “It’s dangerous, it’s unsportsmanlike. It’s just not what anybody does to anybody else.” Pop dredged up Pachulia’s criminal (in an NBA-conduct sense) past, recalling his frequent flagrant fouls, including incidents against the Spurs when he threw an elbow at guard Patty Mills and locked Leonard in an armbar. “This is crap,” Popovich said. “And because he has this history, it can’t just be, ‘Ah, it was inadvertent. He didn’t have intent.’ Who gives a damn what his intent was. You ever hear of manslaughter? You still go to jail if you are texting and you end up killing somebody. But you might not have intended to do that. All I care about is what I saw. All I care about is what happened. And the history there [indicates there was intent].”

Survival of the Fittest
A jaguar somehow escaped its enclosure and attacked a spider monkey at the Abilene Zoo on Monday morning, according to the Abilene Reporter-News. The monkey was seriously injured during the incident and had to be euthanized. Zoo workers found Estrella the jaguar laying atop of the spider money exhibit next to her enclosure at around 8:10 a.m., prompting a “code red” escape call at the zoo. The facility’s veterinary staff and firearms team responded within about ten minutes. A vet shot Estrella with a tranquilizer dart and she was back in her exhibit area in time for the zoo’s 9:30 opening, just moments before the arrival of a busload of kids from Henderson Elementary, according to KWES. Officials still have no clue how Estrella escaped. Apparently all doors to the exhibit and holding areas were secure, and there’s no evidence that a human intruder tampered with the exhibit—no wires or fencing was cut, and the zoo’s night security didn’t see anything suspicious. Abilene Zoo executive director Bill Gersonde promised an immediate investigation. “We will leave no stone unturned until we hopefully can determine exactly what happened,” he told reporters at a press conference Monday. Estrella, meanwhile, won’t be punished. “The animal did nothing wrong—it was being a jaguar,” Gersonde said.