BG Note | News - What We're Reading (March 23, 2018)
[Austin Metro]
Austin bomber on recording: ‘I wish I were sorry but I am not’ (Austin American-Statesman) LINK TO STORY
The man who killed two people and wounded five others with a series of bomb attacks in the Austin area left an audio recording for police that includes a haunting revelation about himself.
“I wish I were sorry but I am not,” Mark Conditt said in the cell phone recording, according to sources familiar with his statements. He described himself as a “psychopath” and said he feels as though he has been disturbed since childhood...
Council debates police staffing (Austin Monitor) LINK TO STORY
At the first City Council meeting following the end of the recent bombings, Council members spent nearly two hours debating a largely symbolic resolution about police staffing.
Originally, explained Council Member Ellen Troxclair, the resolution was meant to simply convey Council’s commitment to filling a number of vacant police positions in the upcoming budget.
“I’m hearing from my community consistently that they want more police officers,” she explained...
Council OKs short-term EMS contract (Austin Monitor) LINK TO STORY
City Council approved without comment a six-month contract with the Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services Employee Association on Thursday that essentially duplicates their previous contract. Members of the union approved the contract in voting that ended Wednesday night.
Between now and the end of September, the two sides will try to negotiate a long-term contract...
[STATE]
Conservative group planted an intern in state lawmaker's office, former intern testifies (Texas Tribune) LINK TO STORY
The American Phoenix Foundation — a now-defunct conservative activist groupknown for attempting undercover stings of lawmakers and lobbyists — planted an intern in a Texas state lawmaker’s office during the 2013 legislative session in an effort to expose misdeeds, testimony in federal court revealed Thursday.
Shaughn Adeleye, testifying in Houston in the federal fraud case against former U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman, said in court Thursday that he was planted in the office of state Rep. James White to obtain footage of the Hillister Republican engaged in “fraud and abuse” and also in more mundane activities like cursing or failing to tidy his messy car, according to Quorum Report...
1 month after attacking Laura Moser, DCCC spars with another Texas Democrat (Texas Tribune) LINK TO STORY
The U.S. House Democratic campaign arm may well be at war with another Texas Democrat.
Lillian Salerno, a Democratic House candidate in the Dallas-based 32nd Congressional District, pushed out a fiery news release on Thursday afternoon when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee telegraphed its preference for her primary rival, former NFL football player Colin Allred...
[NATION]
Congress passes $1.3 trillion spending bill that includes some border wall funding (Texas Tribune) LINK TO STORY
Congress took a major step on Thursday to keep the federal government's doors open through the end of September, passing a massive spending bill that includes some funding for a border wall.
The $1.3 trillion measure, which lawmakers scrambled to pass ahead of a government shutdown deadline Friday night, was on its way to President Donald Trump after the U.S. Senate passed it late Thursday on a vote of 65-32. The new spending restores funding on many of the austerity measures Republicans implemented since taking over the U.S. House in 2011...
Trump names former ambassador John Bolton as his new national security adviser (Washington Post) LINK TO STORY
President Trump said Thursday that he was naming former ambassador John Bolton, a Fox News commentator and conservative firebrand, as his new national security adviser, replacing Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster. The president announced the news in a tweet, saying that Bolton would take the job starting April 9, making him Trump’s third national security adviser in the first 14 months of his presidency. In dismissing McMaster from the job, Trump praised the Army general for his “outstanding job” and said he would “always remain my friend.” Despite the kind words, Trump and McMaster never clicked on a personal basis and often seemed at odds on matters of policy related to Iran and North Korea...