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9/4/2010
Downsizing took on a new meaning for Jennifer Mathews and Eric Hancock when they moved into their new home earlier this year. The couple, who are engaged, bought the smallest model their builder offered: an 881-square-foot, two-story, two-bedroom unit. "The first thing I said was all the guitars have to come up off the floor," Mathews said of her fiance's hobby.
Their house is definitely the smallest on their cul-de-sac in Willow Springs, a new subdivision off Texas 249 in the northwest part of town. But the 30-year-olds represent a trend rapidly spreading across the country and, to a smaller extent, in Houston: Homebuyers opting for smaller spaces.
While the Texas-size home hasn't gone away, it has started to shrink. The average size of a new home in the Houston area has fallen to 2,849 square feet from 2,873 square feet a year ago, according to Metrostudy. Nationally, space in a new home has been contracting since 2007, when the average size peaked at more than 2,500 after increasing almost every year since 1982.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7186154.html
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9/4/2010
A pharmacist accused of bilking the government of millions in Medicaid dollars through his San Antonio business was given three concurrent 20-year sentences Friday and ordered to pay $2.2 million in restitution. In a rambling, sometimes incoherent speech to visiting state District Judge Pat Priest before his sentence was announced, Marcelleus Anunobi apologized for his actions and said he had learned his lesson. “I've disgraced myself, I've disgraced my family and I've disgraced my friends,” he said. “This will be my first mistake and my last mistake.”
Defense attorneys Alex Scharff and Alan Brown asked for probation, noting that it is the only way Anunobi would be able to pay the money back. Prosecutors requested a sentence of 40 to 50 years in prison.
Anunobi could have faced up to life in prison for the first-degree felony Medicaid fraud, theft and money laundering convictions that a jury handed him in July.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/medicaid_fraud_nets_pharmacist_20-year_sentences_102191024.html
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9/4/2010
Texas will have to consider less regulation of insurance companies and their rates if the Department of Insurance sees its funding cut 10 percent to help balance the next state budget, Insurance Commissioner Mike Geeslin said in documents filed this week with the governor and legislative leaders. Consumer groups and other critics are calling on the Legislature to ramp up regulation of the insurance industry next year. But the commissioner warned that deep funding cuts could force the state to switch to a new regulatory system, such as one that is more concerned with giving consumers information about insurance products than keeping tabs on rates.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-insurance_03tex.ART.State.Edition1.358673d.html
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9/4/2010
News of another oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico , so soon after the BP oil spill, has set off a wave of anxiety along the Gulf Coast and prompted calls for the government to extend its six-month ban on deepwater drilling. Just when it seemed the Obama administration might be ready to lift the unpopular ban, the fire raises new questions about the dangers of offshore drilling, leaving the industry wondering when it can get back to work. "Anything that casts any kind of shadow on the industry right now certainly complicates lifting the moratorium," said Bruce Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute at SMU. "It makes it difficult to continue to say that [the BP spill] is an aberration."
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/090410dnbusgulfoil.2671286.html
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9/2/2010
An 85-year-old man almost killed by a swarm of bees is home from the hospital and talking about his harrowing ordeal, for the first time Wednesday. Willard Duncan was mowing a vacant lot in East Austin two and a half weeks ago, when he was stung more than 500 times. Duncan says he is glad to be home, in the comfort of his easy chair. He thought he was going to die when hundreds of bees attacked him.
http://www.kvue.com/news/85-year-old-bee-attack-victim-home-from-hospital-102015458.html
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9/2/2010
Less than a week into the semester, one student reported that four of his textbooks were stolen from his car at the Intramural Fields. Although textbook thefts have increased for the past two semesters, UT Police Department Officer William Pieper said he hopes the incident will not become a trend this fall.
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/content/utpd-sees-rise-thefts-textbooks-campus
In fall 2009 and spring 2010, UTPD reported more than 130 stolen textbooks. The value of the stolen books in the reports came up to $5,279 and $5,976, respectively, said Roxanne Hodgins, the department’s crime analyst and records administrator.
UTPD Officer Darrell Halstead estimated that some 30 textbooks were picked up off of unattended desks in the Perry-Castañeda Library in the spring alone. The PCL is constantly among the top five buildings where students report a high amount of thefts, he said. Other buildings include Gregory Gym, Beauford H. Jester Center, the Texas Union and Robert Lee Moore Hall.
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9/1/2010
The top 18 executives at CPS Energy earn more than $4.2 million collectively, according to salary records released to the San Antonio Express-News. The paper filed an open records request for the utility's top 20 salaries in response to CPS' recent pledge to be more open and transparent.
In the past, and with the Texas attorney general's blessing, CPS has turned over just the top five salaries, citing the competitive matters exception for public utilities in Texas' open records law.
CPS CEO Doyle Beneby, who led the list with a base salary of $360,000, chose to release the salaries of those who report directly to him, plus anyone who makes more than the lowest-paid member of his leadership team.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/energy/cps_pays_18_execs_average_of_233000_101945978.html
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9/1/2010
Thousands of new textbooks and a steroid-testing program for high school athletes would be among the casualties if the Texas Education Agency is forced to cut its budget by 10 percent over the next two years, according to its newly released budget plan.
State agencies, courts and universities, acting on orders from Gov. Rick Perry and other state leaders, are presenting supplemental plans for 10 percent cuts as they submit their spending requests for the 2012-03 budget. The recommended cuts are designed to help lawmakers deal with a projected budget shortfall of at least $18 billion.
In what is by far its biggest cut, the agency proposes eliminating $48 million for English and science textbooks that were scheduled to be purchased over the next biennium.
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/08/31/2437470/texas-education-agencys-list-of.html#ixzz0yHJDrkjI
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9/1/2010
Immigration inspectors poring over the hiring paperwork of a California company last summer found that 262 employees — a whopping 93 percent of the total workforce — had “suspect” documents on file.
At an Illinois service company, auditors found dubious documents for nearly 8 in 10 of its 200-plus employees.
Inspectors examining records at a Texas manufacturing firm found suspicious paperwork for more than half of the 107 employees on the payroll.
But the companies didn’t pay a penny in fines. None of the employers was led away in handcuffs. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials didn’t even issue them a formal warning, the agency’s internal records show.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7180760.html
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9/1/2010
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White said Tuesday that Texas governors should be limited to two four-year terms, a change he said would prevent incumbents from amassing too much power. White is trying to unseat Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who's seeking an unprecedented third full four-year term in the Nov. 2 election.
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