Union Accuses Jerry Jones of Violating the Law: Your Texas Roundup

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I’m returning this rock to its owner, Enchanted Rock. I’ve had nothing but bad luck since I took it. Sorry I did it. P.S. not able to do it in person.”

—The author of a letter, identified only as Maria, sent to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, according to KTBC.

BIG NEWS

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones before the start of the NFL game against the Arizona Cardinals at the University of Phoenix Stadium on September 25, 2017 in Glendale, Arizona.Jennifer Stewart/Getty

Hard Labor
A Dallas union has accused Cowboys owner Jerry Jones of violating federal labor laws after threatening to bench players who are “disrespectful to the flag,” according to the Dallas Morning News. Local 100 United Labor Unions, which represents workers in the states of Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, filed charges with the Fort Worth office of the National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday. According to the union, Jones’s comments on Sunday constitute an attempt to threaten, coerce, and intimidate team members, violating the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. “The law is the law. And it’s against the law to threaten someone’s job,” chief organizer Wade Rathke told the Morning News. “Mr. Jones is way, way, way out of line here. And he needs to get back in his lane.” Jones told reporters after Sunday’s game that if any Cowboys player “is disrespectful to the flag,” then he won’t play. “If we are disrespecting the flag then we won’t play. Period,” Jones said. “We’re going to respect the flag, and I’m going to create the perception of it. And we have.” Two Cowboys players had raised their fists following the national anthem played before Sunday’s game, and players across the league have kneeled during the anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS

Campus Shooting
More details have emerged after a campus police officer was fatally shot at Texas Tech on Monday night. According to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, the officer has been identified as Floyd East Jr. Police said on Tuesday afternoon that they were initially contacted because the suspect, nineteen-year-old freshman Hollis Alvin Daniels III, may have had a weapon. East took Daniels into custody for possession of a controlled substance following a student welfare check, and was shot in the head while he was completing the booking paperwork for the arrest. Daniels wasn’t handcuffed. “A .45-caliber RP shell casing was located near Officer East,” the report says. “[The secondary officer on scene] also advised Officer East’s police body camera was missing and Officer East’s pistol was in his holster.” Daniels apparently comes from a well-known family in his native Seguin. His father is a former city councilman and his mother is a travel writer, and they own the Palace Theatre in downtown Seguin, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

Morongate Continues
President Donald Trump on Tuesday challenged Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to an IQ test battle amid reports that the former Exxon CEO called Trump a “moron,” according to the Washington Post. Tillerson refuted the reports last week, but Trump apparently isn’t satisfied. “I think it’s fake news,” Trump told Forbes Magazine, “but if he did that, I guess we’ll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win.” Trump met with Tillerson, a native of Wichita Falls, for lunch on Tuesday, along with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. A reporter asked Trump before the lunch about his IQ test comments and whether he had undercut Tillerson. “No, I didn’t undercut anybody. I don’t believe in undercutting people,” Trump said during a short media appearance in the Oval Office. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later told reporters that Trump’s “IQ tests” comment was just a joke. “The president certainly never implied that the Secretary of State was not incredibly intelligent,” Sanders told reporters in Tuesday afternoon’s news briefing. “Maybe you guys should get a sense of humor and try it sometime.”

Helping from Prison
More than 6,600 inmates in Texas have chipped in $53,863 to help victims of Hurricane Harvey, according to the Dallas Morning News. The inmates decided on their own to donate from their commissary funds to the American Red Cross. The average donation was $8, but some inmates donated hundreds of dollars. As the Morning News notes, $53,000 isn’t a grand sum compared to billions of dollars in aid, but given that commissary accounts are used to purchase personal items like toothpaste, pens, and extra food, it’s a big gesture. “It’s just something they chose to do,” Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark told the Morning News. Inmates were impacted by Harvey, too. About 7,000 people from five prisons, three treatment centers, and two halfway houses were evacuated during the storm, while hundreds of homes belonging to prison employees were damaged or destroyed.