Lawmakers likely avoid special session
AUSTIN — After two weeks of political brinksmanship, the Texas House on Saturday approved key bills needed to avoid a special legislative session, though a controversial property tax reform measure requiring passed automaticwithout provisions rollback elections that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and senators had demanded. Included in the fast-paced actions over just five hours was an agreement between Senate and House leaders on an approximately $218 billion state budget, the single bill the Legislature had to pass before it adjourns May 29, which includes tapping the state’s savings account for several one-time expenses including a reported $75 million for the Alamo preservation project in San Antonio. Among other budget details that were slowly being announced late Saturday: Both chambers agreed to use accounting maneuvers to more fully fund some programs, despite earlier disagreement; additional funding was earmarked for Gov. Greg Abbott’s request for high-quality pre-K programs, the Texas Enterprise Fund business-incentive program and film incentives, and many cuts proposed by the Senate to higher education were restored. Public education stands to gain an additional $1.5 billion. The House on Saturday also approved an important “sunset safety net” measure to extend the life of five state agencies by amending another bill, a signal that House Speaker Joe Straus had regained political leverage over Patrick and the Senate. Straus lieutenants said the votes show the House is not bowing to pressure from the Senate.
Watered-down bill targets mental health treatment for inmates
On Saturday, Texas lawmakers resoundingly approved a watered-down bill aimed at improving mental health treatment for people in jails, after months of negotiations between civil rights activists and police groups in response to the 2015 suicide of a black woman in a Waller County jail cell. The House voted 139-0 Saturday to send Senate Bill 1849 to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature or veto. The Senate approved the measure in April, also in an unanimous vote. The bill, dubbed the Sandra Bland Act, requires jails to ramp up around-the-clock monitoring of prisoners and to install sensors or cameras to ensure “timely inperson checks of cells” containing at-risk prisoners. The sensors and cameras would be paid for through a gubernatorial grant program, only required when funding to pay for them is available. It also mandates additional mental health training for jailers and mental health de-escalation training for police officers, as well as diverting people with mental health issues to treatment. The House went along with the bill by Sen. John Whitmire, a Democrat from Houston, after a more sweeping proposal from Rep. Garnet Coleman, another Houston Democrat, ran into opposition from police groups. Still, Coleman praised the bill’s passage during a preliminary vote Friday, adding that the bipartisan legislation will help stop jailhouse suicides.
Tamina fire victims honored at memorial with overflow crowd
CONROE — Hundeds gathered at a memorial Friday night honoring the lives of three children who died a week earlier in a fire at their family’s home in the tiny community of Tamina. The overflow crowd at City Cathedral Church in Conroe grieved for 13-year-old Terrance “TJ” Mitchell, 6-year-old Kaila Mitchell and 5-year-old Kyle Mitchell, who died after a fire roared through the two-story wooden home they and several other family members were sleeping in before sunrise last Friday.
Science experiment explosion sends kids to hospital with burns
A science experiment went up in flames outside a Memorial Villages-area day school Tuesday, requiring a half-dozen students to be taken to the hospital for burns after chemicals landed on them. The students were injured shortly before 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Yellow School at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, in the 240 block of Blalock Road. The children were outside working on the experiment when it exploded, said Bob Giles, the business administrator for the church.