Willie Style

When it comes to giving back, supporting and serving the community, promoting change and working hard to preserve history, Steve Harris and Steve Puckett top that list. The owners and operators of one of Brownwood's most beloved restaurants – Steves' Market and Deli never miss an opportunity or a call to serve the community.

 I kept seeing the show on my Netflix suggestions for several years, I think it started to come out in 2021. And I kept putting it off and then Heartstopper came on and I watched it three times back to back and then a few weeks ago, I was going through a funk and I started season one and I finished it all immediately in a few days and just re-watched it again This weekend   Even though the storyline is so emotional and I feel a personal connection, the music is just absolutely bonkers. Amazing. Awesome and sucks. You win.  

 https://www.brownwoodnews.com/2024/02/18/michael-bunker-trenton-ray-died/

https://www.brownwoodnews.com/2024/02/16/trenton-ray/

https://dockets.justia.com/docket/texas/txndce/6:2024cv00005/386438?amp

https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:ab954186-ef10-42a8-abee-767f4b52ccb4?fbclid=IwAR0A5Ph6GcY0eob-VS82vhwgHEA8f6Im8Kw51Tk14Yl2MVU6N6K_pTLaibI_aem_AWby1ndF8rtTjx3Doupe4VlI6--TNmfry5KYoviZ2jLD4dGdZBtmil6lIvhDAPfRcmE

“ ***MEDIA ALERT ***

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

February 20, 2024

 

CONTACT:  Attorney Kevin Green

(512) 695-3613 / kevin@consumerjusticecenter.com

 

 

SATIRICAL NEW COLUMNIST DIES FROM POLICE BRUTALITY

FAMILY OF TRENTON RAY SEEKS JUSTICE AND ANSWERS IN FEDERAL COURT

 

 

PRESS RELEASE

 

BROWNWOOD, TEXAS --- Texas Civil Rights Attorney Kevin Green and the family of police brutality victim, Trenton Ray, will hold a press conference in front of Brownwood City Hall on February 22nd at 9:00 AM to demand justice for the senseless death of the much-loved publisher of “The Brownwood Times-New Roman” satirical news site.  

 

As detailed in a just-filed federal lawsuit (attached), Brownwood police had taken Mr. Ray to Hendrick Medical Center pursuant to an involuntary mental hospital commitment order on May 8, 2023.  Shockingly, neither police nor hospital staff restrained or secured Mr. Ray, who was experiencing an acute psychiatric crisis.  When Ray, who had hurt no one and committed no crime, wandered out of the unlocked ER lobby doors, Brownwood police first handcuffed him, then broke both of his arms at the shoulder when forcing him to the ground and into a full-body restraint.  

 

Instead of taking the now grievously injured patient back into the emergency room, police jailed Mr. Ray for almost 24-hours with no medical treatment.  As result of this cruelty, Mr. Ray underwent multiple surgeries and experienced progressive organ failure that finally claimed his life on February 13, 2024, the very day suit had been filed on his behalf.  

 

Attorney Green released the following statement:

 

“We stand with the family of Trenton Ray and the entire community of Brownwood, Texas, to demand truth and transparency from all defendants in this case: the police, the jail, and the hospital. The City of Brownwood is morning the loss of a beloved friend and neighbor and it’s time for city leaders to demand a full investigation into the tragedy that occurred here.

 

What happened to Mr. Ray wasn’t just misconduct on the part of a few employees, it was the entirely predictable and preventable result of a failure to plan, train, and supervise. People have joined us here today to demand action and accountability from city leaders so that such a catastrophic failure of mental health services never happens again in Brownwood, Texas.”

 

PRESS EVENT

 

WHO: �Civil Rights Attorney Kevin Green

Family and Friends of Trenton Ray

 

WHEN: �Thursday, February 22, 2024, at 9:00 AM

 

WHERE:�Brownwood City Hall, Brownwood TX (front) 

 

ABOUT KEVIN GREEN �Through his work, civil rights attorney Kevin Green has spearheaded legal and political movements to protect marginalized and vulnerable citizens in America and abroad. A former U.S. diplomat, Mr. Green has fought tirelessly for police reform and access to justice in Africa, India, and on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border. He has filed civil rights cases and represented clients in a wide range of areas, including constitutional law, personal injury, corporate fraud, class actions, and more. Attorney Kevin Green is dedicated to holding the powerful accountable.

File stamped copy of the federal court complaint: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:ab954186-ef10-42a8-abee-767f4b52ccb4 “

 I just reminisced with  my old self from 2005. 15 years ago I wrote that I was finally free of my jobs and that I could be free to enjoy vacation. How funny.  Today, this weekend, I am sorta on vacation in Corpus Christi and the Island until tomorrow night, then back to the grind in the ATX.

I read thru several posts from that year, and my fucking god, so many things seem to have repeated. That was the Years of Dubya.  We as a society haven't learned much.  Many things I said 15 years ago could be re-posted and simply change the names. The underlying context is about the same.  It makes my sad, angry, frustrated, so many things simultaneously. 

blogging again....
or visit me on MySpace

i am back home.
that is all i have to say.
goodbye.

No longer can religious nuts say that on the ninth day, God taught bees and flies how to fly.

Scientists Finally Figure Out How Bees Fly

Scalito will probably get nominated.
Kennedy is a big fat white pompous ass.
Biden likes to hear himself talk.
Feingold asks the good questions but still doesn't get the clear answers.
Graham is a Alitococksucker and made Alito's wife cry.
Specter is the bossman, don't cross him.
FOX news still hates Democrats and thinks Napolitano is THE expert judge.
CNN is trying sooo hard to appear impartial.
Alito will probably judge how a fair judge should judge and not judge the way that Bush wants him to judge.
lastly, i don't give a good goddamn in the end because the Court is the Court and will do what the Court wants, citizens be damned.

oh and happy 2006, i'll be 30 this year. i want to hurl now. goodbye.

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: carpenter, computer fixer-upper, IT consultant, insurance adjuster.

Four movies you could watch over and over: Star Trek IV, American Beauty, Napoleon Dynamite, anything Speilberg

Four places you’ve lived: Brownwood,TX; Petersburg,AK; Austin,TX; Ft.Lauderdale,FL

Four TV shows you love to watch: ER,Will&Grace,SixFeetUnder,Nip/Tuck

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Alaska (SE), Colorado (all), Big Bend (TX), Cape Cod

Four websites you visit daily: Eschaton, Statesman, DailyKos, Drudge

Four of your favorite foods: strawberries, salmon, vanilla Haagen-Dazs, anything Mom makes

Four places you’d rather be: see vacation spots above.

(from the Statesman:)

A West Texas school board, undeterred by the possibility of legal challenges, has approved teaching the King James version of the Bible in a high school elective course critics say will lead to Christian proselytizing instead of education.

The Ector County Independent School District board voted 4-2 Tuesday night to adopt the coursework for its three high schools, which are all in Odessa.

The Ector County Independent School District's decision to base an elective class on
the King James version of the Bible pleased demonstrators from Odessa's Life
Challenge Pentecostal Church.

The decision came the same day a federal judge barred the Dover school district in Pennsylvania from teaching "intelligent design," saying the concept is creationism in disguise and injects religious views into the classroom.

---

I have a friend who teaches out there so I am curious to ask for his comment.

Funny how this happens a day after we learn sanity is still alive in America. We all know it's NOT alive in the halls of Congress, but this ridiculous pseudo-science called Intelligent Design had no hope of being allowed.

Now though, a *public* high school wants to offer an elective course based around the King James Version of the Bible.

AGAIN, I will repeat what I said in an earlier post - THAT IS WHY YOU GO TO CHURCH!!

yes yes yes, Odessa, Texas is in the Bible Belt, so what, but I thought public school was for reality-based education. So why would kids want a quadruple dose of religion, assuming the zealots go to church Sunday AM, Sunday PM and Wednesday PM ?

I am just glad I went to school thru the 80s and 90s without all this bullshit going on.

(from Reuters:)

Senate Democrats succeeded on Wednesday in blocking, for now, a Republican
plan to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as part of a
massive $453 billion wartime military spending bill.

---
Dirty tricks. I am glad that people are standing up for the environment. It just floors me when these people try to quietly insert the ANWR drilling into just any bill, thinking no one will see it. And they think they are all the values party. Puh-leeze. I used to work with these kind of people. They're all the same. No ethics.

i DO have a job actually...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/12/20/intelligent.design/index.html

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A Pennsylvania school district cannot
teach in science classes a concept that says some aspects of science were created by a supernatural being, a federal judge has ruled.
In an opinion issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John Jones ruled that teaching "intelligent design" would violate the Constitutional separation of church and state.
"We have concluded that it is not [science], and moreover that ID cannot uncouple
itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents," Jones writes in
his 139-page opinion posted on the court's Web site.

no shit sherlock. finally a sensible ruling that is not activist. but wait, what is that I hear? O'Reilly, Dobson, Falwell, etc. shouting activist judge, activist judge?

this crap was not going to hold up. this is why we have CHURCH. school is where we teach science, and not the pseudo kind.

As Atrios blogs:

According to recent press reports, Pentagon officials have been spying on what they call "suspicious" meetings by civilian groups, including student groups opposed to the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual military personnel. The story, first reported by Lisa Myers and NBC News last week, noted that Pentagon investigators had records pertaining to April protests at the State University of New York at Albany and William Patterson College in New Jersey. A February protest at NYU was also listed, along with the law school's LGBT advocacy group OUTlaw, which was classified as "possibly violent" by the Pentagon. A UC-Santa Cruz "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" protest, which included a gay kiss-in, was labeled as a "credible threat" of terrorism.

---
Why does it have to come to this. That's right, I've plotted to threaten the federal government with a kiss-in. Puh-leeze.

"DISSENT is the highest form of patriotism" - Thomas Jefferson

Virgo: back away from people or conversations that are too intense.

This was all over the local news down here today in Miami. I caught up w/ the story an hour after it happened. A float plane barely made it up into the sky before crashing into the water near South Beach at the entrance to the cruise ship harbor. Plane from Chalks International Airlines was based here in Fort Lauderdale and en route to Bimini Islands. Freakishly, this is yet another plane crash in a series of plane incidents the last few weeks and months. We go from none to many. Like they're related.

...to secretly eavesdrop on Americans without a search warrant or not to secretly eavesdrop on Americans without a search warrant...that is the question.

Revelations in the news today - only after a NYT times piece came out after a year in hiding - that Dubya OK'ed the NSA to conduct eavesdropping, technically intelligence surveillance, on Americans after 9/11 and it possibly turns out mostly on Muslims.

Conundrum - is that ok or is that not ok...since they're Muslims. Does white bread America think it's ok for darker-skinned peoples to be spied on, considering the coincidence that most of our terrorist attacks were by these same people? Or do we remind ourselves that we're all citizens no matter the color and should not expect secret spying without our knowledge.

I guess if I knew I had nothing to hide, it doesn't matter, let them conduct their surveillance in hopes of routing the bad people, but then again, when you're dealing with the federal government and you don't know the intentions and you have this little thing called the Patriot Act, well, I'd just like to know what the hell is going on behind the scenes.

good news - coming home on Christmas Eve for week or two. can hardly contain myself.