Smith County
Smith County Commissioners may bypass voters on new jail debt
Submitted by Gritsforbreakfast on Sun, 2010-07-18 08:24 Authored by GritsforbreakfastFiguring three strikes and you're out on voter-approved jail bonds, the Smith County commissioners court is considering issuing "certificates of obligation" (non-voter approved debt) to expand the jail in my hometown, albeit a smaller expansion than previously proposed. Reports the Tyler Morning Telegraph ("New jail plan would bypass voters," July 14):
Commissioner Jeff Warr has prepared a $33 million, 385-bed jail renovation and expansion project to be unveiled at a 3 p.m. special meeting Tuesday.
New trials in Mineola Swingers Club cases
Submitted by Gritsforbreakfast on Thu, 2010-06-17 19:52 Authored by GritsforbreakfastJudge Jack Skeen out of Tyler received a sharp-tongued benchslapping from the 14th Court of Appeals out of Houston, ordering new trials in two of the Mineola Swingers Club cases. Here's how Michael Hall from Texas Monthly described the ruling:
Extended case study of Tyler youth who slayed special ed teacher
Submitted by Gritsforbreakfast on Sun, 2010-05-30 07:24 Authored by GritsforbreakfastThe Dallas News has published an excellent, extended article by Lee Hancock on the sad case out of Tyler where a mentally ill youth named Byron who was hearing voices stabbed his special ed teacher, Todd Henry, at John Tyler High. I'd refrained from commenting on this high-profile case because we knew so little about the youth and the situation beyond the bare facts of the murder, but now Hancock has provided a wealth of detailed background. Here's a notable excerpt:
bureaucrat after bureaucrat seemed bent on making a deranged child someone else's problem. Byron was pushed from school to treatment center to prison and back in a pattern that, on paper, looks like treatment by transfer.
