The State of Texas: March 24, 2016

Quote of the Day

“That’s what their job is—to wreck it in demo, and they really wrecked my life.”

-Rowlett homeowner Lindsay Diaz to WFAA on Wednesday, after a demolition company mistakenly tore down her tornado-damaged duplex. According to WFAA, the company has yet to apologize for the error.

Daily Roundup

Blunt Rejection—On Wednesday, Dallas City Council voted against implementing a pilot cite-and-release program for marijuana possession, which would’ve let officers simply issue a ticket to marijuana offenders instead of arresting them. According to the Dallas Morning News, the plan would have been beneficial for both police and offenders — keeping the latter from filling up county jail cells and the former from wasting time putting them there. So what, then, was the problem? Apparently, the program wasn’t big enough. It would not have covered parts of Dallas that fell in two counties, Collin and Denton, prompting council members who represent excluded constituents to claim the program was discriminatory. As the Dallas Observer noted, this is the second time in two years the cite-and-release issue has popped up in Dallas, so there’s a chance it could come before city council again, especially given the state’s current climate of active criminal justice reform. But one down-voting councilman doesn’t seem to think that’s necessary, telling the Morning News: “If you don’t want to be arrested… smoke it at home.”

Cuban Crisis—Two Texas congressmen are attempting to undo a longstanding law that grants Cuban immigrants automatic benefits and legal status as soon as they reach U.S. soil. According to the Laredo Morning Times, the aptly acronym-ed “Correcting Unfair Benefits for Aliens (CUBA) Act,” co-written by Representatives Henry Cuellar (a Laredo Democrat), and Blake Farenthold (a Republican from Corpus Christi), is aimed at reversing the special treatment Cuban immigrants have received for 50 years. Writes the Laredo paper: “Cubans crossing into the country, oftentimes through Laredo, are ensured a safe, legal and orderly immigration through a policy written in 1966, the Cuban Adjustment Act.” Earlier this week, the Texas Tribune reported that Cubans are flocking to Texas in unprecedented numbers. “From October 2015 to February 2016, more than 18,500 Cubans arrived at Texas’s Laredo field office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” the Tribune wrote. “If that trend continues, it will shatter last year’s numbers for the same ports, when a record 28,371 crossed.” Although the congressmen’s plan is unlikely to succeed, if the law were to actually change, it would probably just add to the burden on Texas’s already overmatched immigration system.

Revved Up — A Waco grand jury is handing out indictments in the Twin Peaks biker shooting like candy at a parade. On Wednesday, the Waco Tribune reported 48 bikers were charged with engaging in organized criminal activity, bringing the grand total of indicted motorcyclists to a whopping 154. The Tribune is compiling a must-see list of all of the indicted bikers, mugshots included—and those mugshots are oh-so-glorious. On the list, there is: a guy with a salt-and-pepper beard/mustache combo, split vertically down the middle like a scraggly yin-yang (Martin Lewis); a dude with the word “CHAOS” tattooed on the front of his neck (Wesley McAlister); and a dead-ringer for a Lord of the Rings-era Ian McKellan (Michael Kenes). Police initially arrested 177 bikers after the May shootout between the Cossacks and Bandidos biker gangs, which left nine bikers dead and more than two dozen injured. According to the Tribune, it’s unclear if there will be even more indictments, but it appears as though the county court will be hearing these cases for a while.