The State of Texas: July 28, 2015

Video of the Day

There was a close call at Jacob’s Well in Wimberley when a 21-year old went free diving, lost a flipper, then rushed to the surface before his human gills gave out. Luckily, he’s young — and he recorded the whole thing! Try not holding your breath through the minute-long clip:

Recommendation Tuesday

Esquire has put out a list of hangover cures featuring the absolute perfect Texas remedy from one of our state’s very own chefs, but they didn’t tell you how to make it. Call it providence that Texas Monthly has our own michelada recipe.

Daily Roundup

Family Prison – Authorities’ handling of migrant families took a one-two punch yesterday when a couple of rather uncomfortable stories published. The first comes from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which talks with a social worker about her experience at the semi-infamous Karnes County Residential Center. Her witness account of the residential center serves as a “troubling counter-narrative to the accounts given by federal officials and company representatives who describe the facility as a safe and comfortable place where mothers and children can stay during their asylum proceedings.” Instead, the facility operates much more like a prison, and the social worker’s account “corroborates allegations made by many past and current detainees who reported threatening treatment and being placed in isolation for speaking out and separated from their children.” Even outside such centers, migrant families aren’t receiving the proscribed treatment. The Associated Press reports that migrant mothers “held in a South Texas detention center say the women have been denied counsel and coerced into accepting ankle-monitoring bracelets as a condition of release, even after judges made clear that paying their bonds would suffice,” according to lawyers representing the women. Officials with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement promised to review and respond to the complaints.

Bland Transparency – It seems authorities are going above and beyond to ensure that the Sandra Bland case is dealt with fairly and transparently. Late last week, Bland’s initial autopsy was released and “few of the details are new” in this latest eleven-page report, as the Dallas Morning News puts it. The toxicology report was also released, and media outlets have made note of the fact Bland had marijuana in her system and may have had access to it in the jail. That said, Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis announced the appointment of an outside committee yesterday that will “‘review evidence as it comes in’ on both Bland’s initial arrest and her untimely death,” writes NBC News. And despite Bland’s death being ruled a suicide, Mathis “plans to take Bland’s death to a grand jury regardless.”

So Trusting – The Houston Chronicle has an interesting look at Governor Greg Abbott and his personal finances. Specifically, Abbott is bucking the trend of high-profile officials to put his finances in a blind trust, a “vehicle some politicians use to create a firewall between their public service and personal business dealings.” Abbott spokesman Matt Hirsch explained that the governor “believes the public should know about the investments he has and as [sic] result, has decided not to shield them from disclosure by putting them in a blind trust.” So what about Abbott’s investment habits? Well, it seems he’s “steadily divested stock in individual companies in favor of index funds and mutual funds whose investments are publicly disclosed. Throughout the years, Abbott dabbled with stock in high-profile companies like AOL, Dell, General Electric and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts to name a few, state filings show.” The Chronicle story makes a fairly decent case that this apparent transparency in financial records isn’t such a bad idea (Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, too, has refused a blind trust). The piece notes that such notables like dynasty son George P. Bush and embattled Attorney General Ken Paxton are just a few state examples of those who do opt for the blind trust, which some critics call a ruse. After all, former Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst “installed his brother Eugene and longtime business associate Martin Young as trustees,” and George P. Bush tapped “a former co-owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team with former Gov. George W. Bush, who as president appointed [the man] to serve as U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic and France.”