Free Republic

A key question after today's sweeping California Supreme Court decision striking down the state's gay marriage ban is what it means for the 48 other states that don't recognize gay marriage. If, for example, a gay married couple in California moved to Texas, would Texas have to recognize their marriage? The short answer is no. States generally are not required to recognize a marriage performed in another state if it would violate their own public policy. Of course, the U.S. Constitution provides that states must give "full faith and credit" to other state laws and judgments---which suggests that other states...

WASHINGTON, May 18 (UPI) -- The Texas Border Coalition, which includes a number of cities along the U.S.-Mexico border has filed a lawsuit against the border fence. In court papers filed Friday in Washington, the group asked a court to block the construction of the fence in the Rio Grande Valley. The coalition, which also includes business groups, charges that the Department of Homeland Security did not consult landowners in the area. DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff denied that in a news conference Friday. Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, who chairs the coalition, called the fence "an antiquated solution for a...

Like many other young couples, Aimee and Jeff Harris spent the first years of their marriage eagerly accumulating stuff: cars, furniture, clothes, appliances and, after a son and a daughter came along, toys, toys, toys. Now they are trying to get rid of it all, down to their fancy wedding bands. Chasing a utopian vision of a self-sustaining life on the land as partisans of a movement some call voluntary simplicity, they are donating virtually all their possessions to charity and hitting the road at the end of May. “It’s amazing the amount of things a family can acquire,” said...

Earth Tech Inc. has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract to provide environmental services to Central Texas Highway Constructors, LLC (CTxHC). Earth Tech, the lead planning and engineering firm for Cintra Zachry, LP on the Trans-Texas Corridor 35 (TTC-35) project, was approved by CTxHC for environmental work on Segments 5 and 6 of the SH 130 highway project. The SH 130 project is the first facility to be developed under the TTC-35 Comprehensive Development Agreement. An integral part of the preparation for highway construction, the project includes site assessments, hazardous materials clean-ups, remediation, and other environmental services. A private-public partnership,...

Texas: Plano man Joe Barron, 52, a minister at Prestonwood Baptist Church near Dallas, was arrested after driving nearly 200 miles to Bryan to meet who he thought was a 13-year-old girl he had been chatting with sexually online for roughly two weeks. The girl was actually an undercover agent leading police to Barron and his car, inside of which they found condoms and a web-cam. He had been with the 26,000-member church for 18 months; they said this was the first incident of this type with Barron. Executive pastor Mike Buster said, "We are disturbed and saddened by the...

If President Bush would simply pardon the unjustly imprisoned former Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, we could all rest much easier knowing that in the United States, a foreign drug smuggler's word does not prevail over the word of federal agents in the line of duty. This week, the Kentucky-based group, Christians Reviving America's Values, filed an ethics complaint with the Texas Bar Association to investigate U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, whom the group argues willfully misled a jury to convict the agents. Here is a refresher on the case for those who need it: Messrs. Ramos and...

Plans by the Border Patrol to check the immigration status of people fleeing a hurricane could slow the county's evacuation process, or scare people from buses sent to rescue them, Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos said Wednesday. But Border Patrol spokesman Dan Doty said the screenings can be done quickly and are necessary for national security. "We do not want the possibility of someone wanting to do our country harm of getting through the checkpoint," Doty said Wednesday. As emergency officials continued a two-day hurricane drill, Cascos said he has serious questions about plans by federal agencies to do immigration...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Texas mayors and business leaders filed a class-action lawsuit Friday alleging Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff hoodwinked landowners into waiving their property rights for construction of a fence along the Mexican border. Members of the Texas Border Coalition said Chertoff did not fairly negotiate compensation with landowners for access to their land for six-month surveys to choose fence sites. The coalition of mayors and business and community leaders is seeking an injunction to block work on the fence. They also want a federal judge to rescind all the agreements with landowners and to order Chertoff to start...

The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the United States rose by 16 this week to 1,862. Of the rigs running nationwide, 1,471 were exploring for natural gas and 381 for oil, Houston-based Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday. Ten were listed as miscellaneous. A year ago, the rig count stood at 1,744. Of the major oil- and gas-producing states, Texas added 13 rigs, while California, Wyoming and Alaska each added two and Colorado added one rig. Oklahoma lost five rigs, Louisiana lost one and New Mexico was unchanged. Baker Hughes has tracked rig counts since...

Prominent attorney Brian Loncar was injured Thursday night when a fire engine collided with his Bentley in the Oak Lawn area, Dallas police said. Mr. Loncar, 47, was transported to Parkland Memorial Hospital. His condition was not immediately available. The accident happened shortly before 7 p.m. as a fire truck responding to an alarm headed northbound on Lemmon Avenue, police said. snip Dallas police Lt. Scott Bratcher said that the accident remains under investigation. But he said the accident will likely be ruled as Mr. Loncar's fault because he "failed to yield right of way to an emergency vehicle."

WASHINGTON — President Bush's attempt to win $560 million in aid this year to assist Mexico's anti-narcotics efforts has run into a rebellion from some Texas Republicans worried about corruption, inefficiency and now defections among Mexican police officials. Wednesday's disclosure that three Mexican police chiefs are seeking asylum in the United States prompted the Texans to push Thursday for congressional hearings on the bloody border war among Mexico's drug cartels and a reassessment of U.S. anti-drug assistance to the country. "Our first priority must be to secure our own border and equip our own personnel before we even discuss sending...

Texas businessman Jeff Hawn was charged May 8 in the March slaying of 32 bison near Hartsel and faces one count of class 3 felony theft, one count of class 3 felony criminal mischief and 32 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals, each a class 6 felony. Hawn turned himself in to the Park County Jail on May 12 and bonded out... Kobe Bryant's attorney The arrest warrant affidavit indicates that the bison had been killed over the course of a number of weeks. For instance, it states that on April 1 officers "retrieved a spent bullet from one of...

A couple of ... readers got together for dinner this week -- both well-educated types -- and chatted about the world for a few hours and what's ahead when present trends are projected and barring some miraculous change for the better. Afterwards, an email:Bottom line we got to, after all was said: OK, so we fortunate oddball ones have advance warning of a coming, indeed impending, broad scale societal collapse/restructuring - on multiple fronts - economic cycles, energy, K-wave, solar energy downturn (sunspot cycles). We can, and have, to the extent of our limited abilities, positioned ourselves individually to survive...

The man accused in the deaths of 32 bison who strayed off his Park County neighbor's property has hired a prominent Denver defense attorney. Pamela Mackey is representing Jeffery Scott Hawn, of Austin, Texas, who was charged last week with theft, criminal mischief and cruelty to animals. Mackey previously represented ... Kobe Bryant...

AUSTIN -- Gov. Rick Perry voiced strong support for Child Protective Services officials Wednesday even as a Hill Country social services official expressed more outrage over the treatment of 464 children removed by the state from a West Texas polygamist compound. Perry's spokeswoman Krista Piferrer said the governor has full confidence in the agency. The governor praised CPS officials for promising an internal investigation of concerns raised by Hill Country Community Mental Health-Mental Retardation Center officials when the children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints were housed at San Angelo shelters. "The governor is very...

Taylor-area residents Dan and Margaret Byfield hope to become the Trans-Texas Corridor’s worst nightmare. The married couple head up two land rights organizations, the American Land Foundation and Stewards of the Range, that aim to keep rural communities from having land encroached upon by state and federal agencies through eminent domain. Both organizations operate across the U.S., in Wyoming, California, Colorado, South Dakota and Nebraska, but their current main goal is to challenge TxDOT in hopes of completely eliminating proposals for the quarter-mile wide superhighway. Currently they offer advice to residents of small towns and rural communities on how to...

In what sounds like a really low-budget horror film, voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area, shorting out electrical boxes and messing up computers. The hairy, reddish-brown creatures are known as "crazy rasberry ants" — crazy, because they wander erratically instead of marching in regimented lines, and "rasberry" after Tom Rasberry, an exterminator who did battle against them early on. "They're itty-bitty things about the size of fleas, and they're just running everywhere," said Patsy Morphew of Pearland, who is constantly sweeping them off her patio...

CLYDE, Texas (AP) -- Behind guarded, ornate gates at the end of a rural road, a self-proclaimed prophet warns his followers about the end of time and rails against a dangerous and unclean world outside their West Texas compound. The women are covered in long skirts and long-sleeve shirts. Many of the children have different mothers and share the same father. But this isn't the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' ranch, which authorities raided last month in Eldorado after receiving reports that underage girls were being forced to marry much older men. This is the House of...

BROOKS CITY-BASE, Texas, May 14, 2008 – Starting your own business can be a daunting venture, even under the best of circumstances. But add to that the challenges of being a service-disabled veteran, and the experience can be overwhelming. Professor Mike Morris addresses members of the first Entrepreneurial Bootcamp for Veterans at the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University in July 2007. Morris is the Witting Chair in Entrepreneurship at Whitman. Photo courtesy of Syracuse University  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. That scenario troubled Mike Haynie, a former Air Force major. A few months after beginning his...

DALLAS - In what sounds like a really low-budget horror film, voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area, shorting out electrical boxes and messing up computers. The hairy, reddish-brown creatures are known as "crazy rasberry ants" — crazy, because they wander erratically instead of marching in regimented lines, and "rasberry" after Tom Rasberry, an exterminator who did battle against them early on. "They're itty-bitty things about the size of fleas, and they're just running everywhere," said Patsy Morphew of Pearland, who is constantly sweeping them off...