CNN:"Big city left with no bookstore"

The original url at CNN is here. I don't know if the story is literally true, because some cursory Googling suggests there are other book stores in Laredo, although it also shows the B. Dalton phone number as current.

Big Town Mall-Mesquite,Tx

photo courtesy Dead Malls dot com. According to Wikipedia, Big Town Mall was the first fully-enclosed air-conditioned mall to be built west of the Mississippi when it opened in 1959. It was mostly torn down in 2006.

Gregorio de la Rosa, and his son

Raymondville, Texas:
Do you remember the Wackenhut corporation? Apparently they've changed their name and are now the GEO group, but they still run private prisons for a profit and they get themselves in hot water due to their employees' wanton or grossly neglectful behavior. They just lost in their attempt to persuade a Texas appeals court to overturn a 42.5 million dollar judgment for wrongful death:

Houston Chronicle, "Appellate court upholds judgment in inmate's death"

A Willacy County jury had ordered Wackenhut Corrections Corp., now known as The GEO Group, and Warden David Forrest to pay the civil judgment to the family of Gregorio de la Rosa Jr."We find that Wackenhut's conduct was clearly reprehensible and, frankly, constituted a disgusting display of disrespect for the welfare of others and for this state's civil justice system," the Thirteenth Court of Appeals said in last week's ruling affirming the Willacy County civil judgment returned in 2006.

De la Rosa died a few days before his expected 2001 release, when two inmates used padlocks stuffed into socks to beat him to death.

and, from The Brownsville Herald, a PDF of the 114 page opinion. (Raymondville is Deep South Texas, near Brownsville, which is right on the border with Mexico and one of the chronically economically-deprived areas in the state. In the Rio Grande Valley the recession isn't something new but a continuation of the Nixon/Ford era one. ( The Valley is also heavily Democratic, but this is Texas and you know, funding priorities being what they are-- what can you do? )

The Thirteenth Court of Appeals issued its opinion in the case of Wackenhut Corrections Corporation and Warden David Forrest versus Gregorio de la Rosa Sr. His son, Gregorio de la Rosa Jr., was beaten to death with a lock wrapped in a sock while he was an inmate at the Wackenhut private prison in Willacy County on April 26, 2001.

CLICK HERE for the 114 page opinion.

cross-posted at Dead Horse.

there and back again

photo: andyzito.com

Undoubtedly a trip to San Antonio to go see one's aunts is a timid soul's form of adventure, unless maybe if you're from Kerrville or Boerne. But I returned with a horrible chest cold, proving at least that I'm not afraid of germs.

Anyway:
1.thanks to Rob Payne for pinch hitting, and

2.tho' I'm sick, I will rise to opine again.

by the way, do you remember the scene in Red Dawn in which Lea Thompson tells Powers Booth to name the capital of Texas and he correctly says Austin and she tells him it's Houston?

The real correct answer is "well, Austin is the capital, but the birthplace of Texas Liberty is San Antonio." And yes, I know it's a politically and historically loaded answer.

Farmers branch

Occasionally I regret not discussing local happenings more often. Well, Saturday we had a pretty big local happening, when Farmers Branch passed prop 2903, designed to fine landlords that rent to undocumented immigrants, of whom I guess there are quite a few in FrB.(According to WFAA, the Dallas ABC affiliate, Farmers Branch has a population of around 30 thousand, and is somewhere around 60-65 percent white and 30 percent Hispanic, whereas they were closer to 97 per cent caucasian in 1970.)

The proposition passed pretty overwhelmingly, by a 68 to 32 percent margin, with approximately 3,000 out of about 14,100 eligible voters participating in the vote. That's about 10 percent of the population, maybe 22 percent of the eligible voters-- which is high for a municipal election.

(On a side note, I've always marveled at the strange consistency with which many people seem to avoid voting in municipal elections and are more likely to vote in national elections-- sometimes even only when it's a presidential election, and not in the "off-year" congressional elections-- even though it's precisely in the "smaller" elections in which they're more likely to have a meaningful impact on the outcome and on their day-to-day lives-- well, at least theoretically! )

But what will 2903 accomplish? Some people who've never heard of FrB will regard the little Dallas bedroom community as a hickish outpost full of mean people, while others will admire them and decide to stir similar trouble in their own communities. Presumably they don't care about the former; on the face of it, that lop-sided vote suggests that even though only about 20-22 percent of the eligible voters participated, it's probably a fairly accurate reflection of the local disposition. The Houston Chronicle ran the standard AP story with the title

"Farmers Branch voters back immigration limits", while the Washington Post ran the story as

"Anti-Illegal-Immigrant Law OK'd in Texas", which strikes me as slightly more accurate. (I would've specified "Texas suburb", as opposed to suggesting it was a state-wide referendum. Nevertheless it looks like pretty much the same story.)

But aside from the reputation of Farmers Branch, I really don't see what it will do besides make the lives of the affected individuals more difficult. Landlords will understandably resent having to enforce it, especially as several lawsuits questioning the proposition's legality are looming. A group called "Let the Voters Decide" commissioned a study about the economic impact of illegal immigrants on FrB whose results suggest that the ordinance would have an adverse economic impact on FrB. Tim O'Hare( the FrB councilman who started this whole thing late last year when he proposed the ordinance) discounted the study, citing another study by the state comptroller, which I'd like very much to see. From the WFAA story:

City Council candidate David Koch took issue with several points – chief among them was the carefully edited use of an economic study on illegal immigration by the state comptroller last December.

The Farmers Branch study noted that "labor and spending of undocumented immigrants is having a huge positive effect on the state's economy, adding nearly $18 billion annually to gross state product."

The comptroller's report, the study noted, also said that "undocumented immigrants paid $425 million more in state taxes in fiscal 2005 than the cost of providing them education, healthcare and incarceration services."

But Mr. Koch said that the original comptroller's report also pointed out that local governments take a financial hit from illegal immigration. Counties take in $513 million in local taxes and revenues – but spend $1.44 billion in indigent care and law enforcement costs, according to the comptroller's report. Cities and school districts suffer as well, the report said.

"The only thing they really look at is the financial benefit that the state incurs," Mr. Koch said. "They completely ignore all the costs shoved down the throats, at the local level, of school districts, hospitals, counties and cities."

I don't know how to evaluate the financial arguments. I poked around the internets a bit, looking for some authority-- the closest I could find was this from the Economic Policy Institute:

"Immigration and poverty: Disappointing income growth in the 1990s not solely the result of growing immigrant population"(PDF here)

But I'm suspicious of the anti-immigrationists. On the national level, I think that people like Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo are beating the anti-immigrant drum mainly as a tactic: getting the GOP rank-and-file riled up, especially now that

A. abortion appears to be tanking, and
B. The Iraq War has lost some of its conservo luster,

requiring another wedge issue to get people hot and bothered so republicans can rally their base.

Maybe I'm oversimpliying. At the national level, both the dems and the republicans favor unfettered free trade and exporting our industrial jobs overseas. They don't say so, naturally, but they both do. The argument that illegal immigrants take jobs away from Americans I have difficulty accepting. The affiliated argument, that their presence in the workforce acts to depress wages, strikes me as a more serious one. The EPI study above suggests there is a correlation, but it's far less than critics suggest.

Nevertheless, blaming immigrants for the contraction of the American workforce is easier than blaming ourselves. [via] As states deliberately underfund education and allow tuition at state-supported colleges to spiral out of control on the one hand, and politicians keep resisting federalized, single-payer health insurance that would make American industry more competitive on the other, ordinary people have a hard time identifying a simple bogeyman who can be blamed for all our troubles. But the guy who washes your dishes at the Mexican restaurant is pretty handy.(Farmers Branch and the immediate area has a lot of restarants, and I'm guessing the people who voted for 2903 just want the help to live elsewhere and keep coming to town to wait on them and clean up after them.)

Even though I don't claim to know how the actual economic equation vis-a-vis immigrants plays out, I don't doubt the utility of immigrants as scapegoats for the overwhelmed and angry. While I don't want to automatically denounce immigrant-bashers as hate-mongers, my instincts tell me this is precisely what's going on. I also note that even though a Google News search for "Farmers Branch" will yield hundreds of results from all over, at least right now, this Dallas Morning News story below is the only one that I've found that mentions the mayor of Farmers Branch and his experiences this past week:

"Mayor: No real winners in this vote"

12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, May 13, 2007, Jacquielynn Floyd:

FARMERS BRANCH – Election night used to be a lot of fun for Bob Phelps.
As a popular, longtime mayor who ran unopposed for the last three of his four terms, he would spend the evening at City Hall announcing the returns.

If there were any hot races, this was the night for gracious gestures and all-is-forgiven displays of community solidarity. Mr. Phelps hasn't missed election night since 1986, when he was appointed to the town zoning board.

Until this year.This year, Mr. Phelps and his wife, Dee, left town.With what seemed like the whole nation watching and the town seething with tension, city leaders decided to let the results come directly from the county.

Besides, federal agents, sent to investigate the second act of vandalism at the mayor's house since the furor over illegal immigrants erupted, candidly told the Phelpses that out of town was perhaps the best place for them to be."These last few months have been the worst time – I don't know, maybe of my life," Mr. Phelps said a few nights ago as we sat around the kitchen table. "I've tried to do what's right. It's so disappointing."
[...]
After campaigning and leading for two decades as a fiscal conservative, he was appalled at the risk.The town has long prided itself on a "pay-as-you-go" policy. New building projects are paid for in full – Farmers Branch hasn't had to float a bond proposal in 20 years."We're already spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on attorney's fees," he said, defending against two lawsuits filed since the council first adopted anti-illegal immigrant measures a few months ago.

A few more years of vigorous litigation – after Saturday's vote, a virtual guarantee – will eat through the city's financial reserves like cows through a cornfield, he said. So, four days before the election, Mr. Phelps went public with what he had been saying privately for months: 2903 would be terrible for Farmers Branch.

"I'm getting hate mail," he said unhappily, as Mrs. Phelps leafed through a pile of printouts, reading from a few e-mails:
"You are an embarrassment to your city – please resign." "You are a pathetic excuse for a leader." "You are a traitor."

"I worry about him," Mrs. Phelps confided. "He's been under so much stress. People turned on him so fast."With a year left on his term, Mr. Phelps says he's not planning to quit, and he's certainly not considering relocation."We've been in Farmers Branch since 1955," he said. "Our friends are here."

With infinite sadness, he added: "I guess our enemies are here, too."

see also

Dallas Morning News:Farmers Branch election spending tops $57,000:
Opponents of the immigration ordinance are paying out the most

MSNBC:Texas town upholds immigration crackdown

from 2006:

Michelle Goldberg, in Salon: The Left splits over immigration

Dave Neiwert, Orcinus:"It's the Racism, Stupid"

By Susan Page,USA TODAY:"Nation splits 4 ways about illegals"

at the square

photo:Jonathan Versen, 2006

Occasionally I wonder how many UNT and TWU students come here and go to school, then leave without ever noticing "Old Reb", or "Old Jeb" or whatever his name is-- or do notice-- "hmm. old statue."-- without wondering about his import.

Old Reb was installed on the courthouse square in the early part of the 20th century, to commemorate Denton's confederate civil war dead. In the early to mid 90s there was a movement afoot to tear down the statue, but it ran out of steam. For my
part I'm glad the statue wasn't removed, for a variety of reasons.

Partly as a response, they put up another, less interesting statue to commemorate Denton's other war dead, through the 1st gulf war, because at the time(c. 1997, I think)we'd only had the one.*

I'm tempted to segue into a discussion of why removing Don Imus
from the airwaves is an altogether different matter(and it is an altogether different matter), but I don't have the energy at present, and I'm also kind of thinking the subject of Imus has been talked into the ground at this point.


*I believe that Denton has had two deaths thus far in Gulf War II.

Texana, etc

I was on vacation, having temporarily left Debton Denton to visit my family in San Antonio, leaving the mysterious Rob Payne in charge. I told him he could give people Hugo treats® if they left clever and interesting comments, but I see no one did. I'm back, and want to welcome Rob Payne, who may visit again, even when I'm here. I don't know for sure if he plans to, hence the mysterious label.

Hey Rob, Apropo of our conversation the other day:

The Texas Constitution was written (c.1845 or so) by varmints who sort of meant to do good and (quite reasonably)feared everybody else was also a bunch of varmints, which is why it's so full of specificity and contractual unwieldiness, and consequently needs to be frequently updated. Actually, Texas once had one of the strictest anti-usury laws in the country and was the last state in the nation to prohibit 2nd mortgages, because they were afraid of unscrupulous Yankee bankers(!) coming in and lending us money and taking away our land and houses. (incidentally, you-know-who was governor when (in '96) 2nd mortgages were finally legalized in Texas.)

I was one of , I don't know... 3? 4? people who voted against rescinding it. (Yes, I realize it was a paternalistic law, but it was nice to have a statute that actually discouraged people from borrowing more money than they should.)

Fast-forward to the present, when we have a governor who wants to introduce casino gambling to Dallas and maybe Houston, two cities that already have enough problems and definitely do not need that sort of thing. I miss the days when the Baptists defended us against stuff like that, instead of worrying about gay marriage and evolution.