Photo by Ralph Isenberg, April 2006

By Nick Braune
Mid-Valley Town Crier
by permission

This week I interviewed Corinna Spencer-Scheurich, an attorney with the South Texas Civil Rights Project. STCRP has offices on Cesar Chavez Road in San Juan, behind the historic farm worker (UFW) hall, and is always doing something to help the poor and stop injustice here in the Rio Grande Valley.

Braune: Counselor, I understand that you have been to court this week on an important issue. Some of your clients who have purchased property in the colonias have later found out that there was some nasty catch in the contract process. (Frankly, my wife and I bought a house a few years ago and it was a complicated and tiring process, and I can see how someone could sign something they shouldn't sign, if that is the problem.) Anyhow, do tell us a bit about what is happening to these families in the colonias.

Spencer-Scheurich: When the families go in to sign the closing documents, they get all the normal paperwork that gives them title in their name and gives the seller the right to foreclose if the families don't pay. Here’s the problem: Included in the paperwork, is a Warranty Deed transferring title back from the buyer to the seller.

So the same day the families get title to the property and become owners, they sign title back to the sellers unconditionally. The families walk away thinking that they are buying the property, when really they own nothing. The sellers keep this second title document from the families in their files and use it whenever they want to kick the buyers off the property as easily as evicting a renter. The sellers are getting away with avoiding the foreclosure laws designed to give a level of protection to the buyers.

Braune: It seems to me like a clear injustice.

Spencer-Scheurich: Yes. Families sign the documents because the seller exploits an imbalance in education and knowledge. First, many of the buyers don't speak or read English. They are depending on the seller to translate. Also, many of these families are first generation Mexican-American, with little familiarity with how the American property laws work. And the paperwork is difficult; even I had a hard time navigating and understanding all of the documents that went along with the purchase of my house.

Finally, if families ask about the Warranty Deed that they are signing, they are reassured that the document won't be filed unless they are behind on their payments. The problem is that title is effective the moment it is signed and delivered. A signed title can sit in a drawer for decades and then be used to prove ownership as if it were signed the day before. The situation is a ticking time bomb that could deprive people of land that they have paid on for years and leave them with little recourse.

It is unjust to exploit those who are working for a better life and looking for the American Dream in purchasing their own property by setting them up to fail while taking all of their money.

Braune: How many do you estimate at this point may be affected?

Spencer-Scheurich: From our searches of public property records, we believe that all of the San Cristobal and 493 Estates colonias in rural Edinburg are affected. In San Cristobal, as many as 180 lots are affected, and in 493 Estates it is at least a couple dozen. We also believe that the developer, William Schwarz, has developed other colonias and is using the same documents.

Braune: Here’s a dumb question. When a house is bought from the developers with this contorted contract arrangement, there is no bank involved. Is that right? When we bought our house, the bank seemed to want to know every detail.

Spencer-Scheurich: That is right -- no bank is involved. It is common in the colonias for property purchases to not have a title company or bank involved. The properties are owner-financed for extraordinarily high interest rates, in this case 16%. To be fair, many of the people buying would have a hard time getting traditional bank loans, but no one is such a bad credit risk that they deserve that type of financing. It makes it almost impossible for people to get ahead.

Braune: What are you trying to accomplish in the long run?

Spencer-Scheurich: In the long run, I am trying to prevent this from happening to other families. I also am blowing the whistle on this practice so that we can resolve the title problem long before this ticking time bomb blows up on the families who will struggle to pay their mortgage on time for years, just to find out that they gave away title at the very beginning. I also think that it’s time we get the legislature to pass a law that protects people from these inherently fraudulent transactions. We have seen this work for Contracts for Deed, predatory loans that have been highly regulated to protect consumers.

Braune: Thanks for this interview and the important work you are doing.

By Greg Moses

As folks debate ways to pump the economy, November employment statistics remind us that 83 percent of nonfarm workers in Texas earn paychecks in the private sector.

Of the 10.7 million workers (nonfarm, not seasonally adjusted), 8.9 million are private sector compared to 1.8 million government workers.

While it may be possible for government to pick up masses of workers to labor on roads, bridges, and parks, or in emergency rooms, health clinics, and schools, there seems to be obvious truth in the worry that this plan of action would raise taxes.

Still we should note that of the 32,700 net new jobs (actual, not seasonally adjusted) added to Texas payrolls in November of 2008, at least 12,000 (or 37 percent) were added by government, overwhelmingly at the local level.

Since there is no income tax in Texas, these jobs were funded by sales taxes and property taxes. And while it does seem obvious that every new government job is to be counted as an absolute increase in public tax burden, we'd like to remember some old sayings about ounces of prevention.

After all, what sort of private sector employer is going to stick around very long in a territory where taxpayers have pulled down their liabilities to zero by de-funding every conceivable public service. Even the famous Laffer curve assumes that taxation has some optimal rate.

From the point of view of civil rights development, it would be a cruel and unusual economy that sets no public standards whatsoever to live by.

Nevertheless, let's remember that 83 percent of the existing workforce in Texas does not go to work for a government paycheck.

Now we're going to leave aside the question of how many private workers depend upon a government contract. So our KBR readers should not go around thinking that we ignore all the public butter that gets spread on private bread.

But let's go where the majority of workers live and try to prosper -- in the private sector.

It's interesting in Texas that there are about as many workers in the "Goods Producing" sector of the economy as there are in "Government" -- about 1.8 million. But whereas the government sector grew in November, the goods producing sector shrank (by about 6,000 jobs).

Not all parts of the goods producing sector lost jobs. In mining and oil and gas, about a 1,000 new jobs were added.

Texas construction lost only a couple of hundred jobs, but the story would have been worse if not for "Utility System Construction" which added 1,000 jobs. How much of that private employment on utility systems depended upon public financing we'll leave open to further questioning.

Manufacturing, as you might guess, is still losing jobs in Texas. About 2,000 jobs were lost in this sector during November, with losses in the wood, computer, and electronics areas. We now have 924,800 manufacturing jobs left here.

It's interesting to see that some sectors of manufacturing actually grew: "Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing" picked up 300 jobs; "Machinery Manufacturing" picked up 200 jobs; "Agriculture, Construction, and Mining Machinery Manufacturing" picked up 500 jobs; "Transportation Equipment Manufacturing" picked up 500 jobs; and "Aerospace Product and Parts Manufacturing" picked up 400 jobs.

No doubt there is some "public sector" contracting in these sophisticated heavy metal operations in Texas, although I'm guessing we could wish for a healthier mix of "peace" to "war" priorities.

When it comes to non-durable goods, Texas employed some 308,200 workers in November, which is 700 fewer workers than October. It was a bad month for food (-400), plastics (- 200), and paper (-200). But a better month for animal slaughtering (+100) and products made from petroleum and coal (+700) and chemicals (+200).

In the private sector, "Service" is the mammoth sector of the Texas economy. That's where 7.1 million workers were employed in November, an increase of 26,700 workers over October. About 20,000 of those new jobs were split between clotting stores and department stores. Another 5,000 jobs were added by "Other General Merchandise Stores."

Information services fell by another 400 jobs, which is why you see more people like me doing this grunt work for free (actually, the newspaper people are holding the line; nothing lost, nothing gained).

In the "Finance and Insurance" sector, jobs are down slightly overall (-200), but there is a growth niche in "Credit Intermediation," which added 1,100 jobs.

In the professional services sector, lawyers, accountants, architects, and computer experts are all finding fewer cubicles available.

Education and health care, on the other hand, are growing modestly; while "Leisure and Hospitality" continue their slow decline.

In Texas, we are pleased to report, "Food Services and Drinking Places" are still "help wanted" areas, with 2,500 new jobs added in November, 2008.

So if you want to help grow jobs in the Texas economy, especially if you're a government worker, go out and buy some new clothes, steer a shopping cart through your neighborhood department store, and take the family out for dinner and drinks. And don't forget to tip as if it was your own salary you were figuring up.

Beyond these sorts of stopgap subsidies that we can share with each other, there do seem to be some healthy fundamentals in the current economic profile in Texas, considering that heavy machinery is growing jobs along with education and health services.

And when you think about all the experience that Texans accrue getting from one end of the state to the other, why shouldn't Texas step up to global leadership in the design, management, and manufacture of transportation systems and services? Couldn't we teach ourselves to travel in ways that would prepare us to teach the world?

It started out as a desk-cleaning exercise on Christmas Day. We opened a catalog of Henry George materials.

Half a day later (from a still messy desk) we were sending an email to Neale Upstone at the Cambridge (UK) City Council, advising him of our newfound interest in Henry George.

Councillor Upstone replied with links to a movement. A new coalition based upon Georgist principles of Land Value economics has just released news (as of midnight GMT) that a dozen "think-tanks, charities and political pressure groups" will be advocating a Georgist resolution to the latest economic meltdown.

"History shows that economic bailouts will not provide a long-term solution," says Robin Smith of the Systemic Fiscal Reform Group think-tank, "because Land, which is at the heart of the matter, has been obscured from political, media and academic scrutiny."

Following the Land Value analysis of 19th-Century American populist economist Henry George, the new coalition wants "to shift tax off enterprise and labour onto a form of annual Land Value Taxation," says the chairman of the coalition, John Lipetz.

The new Coalition for Economic Justice (CEJ) will try to get a national debate going in the UK. But the issues they are raising sound relevant to anyone seeking critical tools of analysis for the early contours of Obamanomics.

Councillor Upstone puts the case plainly. Against the emerging outlines of a Keynsian Green New Deal (GND) he argues in favor of a Georgist Systemic Fiscal Reform (SFR).

The Georgist approach is appealing as a quick study, because it connects with our common-sense insight that real-estate speculation is the giant culprit of our global economic meltdown. What the SFR movement adds to this insight is the Georgist claim that land speculation is the foundational cause of many bad effects besides the cycles of land value crashes.

Henry George learned his economics by watching San Francisco. He seems to be calling out from beyond the grave: California did it again!

So if you like the idea of change and want to think a little harder about what it could look like, here's the press release from the Georgist SFR movement:

By Nick Braune
Mid-Valley Town Crier
by permission

Christmas comes but once a year and indeed we all have so much to be thankful for. God bless us everyone. On the other hand, this column will begin by talking about the economy, which is contracting quarter by quarter.

Although gas prices dropping over the last months may cause a blip in consumer spending this Christmas, an AP story on Christmas Eve by Christopher Rugaber puts the possible blip into perspective. "The economy has been mired in recession since last December, dragged down by declining home prices and clogged credit markets. Consumers have lost trillions of dollars in household wealth as the stock markets and home prices have sunk this year."

Evidence also suggests a slow recovery, even if the new administration were to have a plan. For instance, unemployment has been climbing; the week ending December 20th shows the highest number of new unemployment claims in 26 years. Recovering from this much unemployment will not be quick.

And turning to the January 2009 Harper's magazine, just out, we find a major article: "The $10 Trillion Hangover: Paying the price for eight years of Bush":

"In the eight years since George Bush took office, nearly every component of the U.S. economy has deteriorated. The nation's budget deficits and debt have reached record levels. Unemployment and inflation are up, and household savings are down. Nearly 4 million manufacturing jobs have disappeared and, not coincidentally, five million more Americans have no health insurance. Consumer debt has almost doubled, and nearly one fifth of American homeowners owe more in mortgage debt than their homes are actually worth. Meanwhile…the final price for the war in Iraq is expected to reach $3 trillion."

Let me shift from the general economy to a local issue. This local issue, however, presages something which will be true of the nation broadly: as serious economic constriction takes place, the wealthy may begin to whine, but the poor will be the ones suffering.

There have been meetings and public protests this December in the Rio Grande Valley dealing with the University of Texas Medical Branch cutting its services to a McAllen cancer clinic. (Further north, in Galveston, which has taken enough hits lately, UTMB laid off over 2,000 jobs.)

In McAllen, UTMB backed up a big truck and emptied out a small but vital cancer clinic serving thousands of local residents, most of whom are low income and indigent women. Because this was an important clinic, with a staff of eleven people serving the poor, it was disturbing touring the empty offices: a waiting room and fifteen rooms behind it (a lab, examination and x-ray rooms, offices) now all stripped. Additionally, in their hurry to move, UTMB may not have been careful with medical records.

State Senator Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa called the Texas System "callous" in its recent decisions, and the Texas Faculty Association said that the Regents have always known that the narrowly focused cancer clinic for indigent women couldn't be a money maker. But to get comparable service, the poor now would have to go to Austin and other points for treatment. The closure will be "a virtual death sentence" for some of the women. (Many undocumented women are afraid to go north because of the checkpoints.)

I interviewed Ann Cass, the Chair of the Board of El Milagro, the center housing the UTMB cancer clinic:

Braune: Any comments for our readers?

Cass: I am very concerned not only with the decision to close this cancer clinic but with the manner in which it was done. It seems absurd that a clinic that was given a grant to increase the numbers of women participating in the cancer clinic two years ago would now be closing its doors to these very women. There is nowhere else in the Valley for women to go for some of these services. No communication was given to them regarding how to access their records if they are even able to find another physician to treat them.

Braune: Is State Senator Hinojosa right that UTMB has become "callous"?

Cass: Yes, it is a sad state of affairs that the University system chose to pull the carpet out from under the feet of the poorest of the poor, in an area that is medically underserved, that has no public hospital closer than 350 miles, and leaves no other choices for treatment for women with dysplasia. My only hope is that the El Milagro Clinic will be able to find resources to duplicate some of the services if the University won't re-consider their decision. We also will need cooperation from the board certified OB/GYN specialists in the area, particularly those with LEEP certification.

Braune: Thus arises a New Year's resolution for the Valley.

The real trouble must be that supply is somehow prevented from satisfying demand, that somewhere there is an obstacle which prevents labor from producing the things that laborers want. (V.125)

By Greg Moses

If you've been watching CNBC as much as I have lately, you've heard plenty of talk about the battle of economic paradigms between Karl Marx and Adam Smith. But a mailing from the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation that I'm unwrapping this Christmas Day reminds me that there is a third great alternative in Henry George.

George is interesting because he offers a homegrown American voice schooled upon the experience of the labor cycle in the young metropolis of San Francisco.

"Within a few miles of San Francisco is unused land enough to give employment to every man who wants it," observed George from up close. "I do not mean to say that every unemployed man could turn farmer or build himself a house, if he had the land; but that enough could and would do so to give employment to the rest. What is it, then, that prevents labor from employing itself on this land? Simply, that it has been monopolized and is held at speculative prices, based not upon present value, but upon the added value that will come with the future growth of population." (V.I.31)

But the privately-held lands of young San Francisco contradicted the more spontaneous declaration of land use that had made the founding of the metropolis possible.

Upon discovery that there was gold in them thar hills, says George, "it was by common consent declared that this gold-bearing land should remain common property, of which no one might take more than he could reasonably use, or hold for a longer time than he continued to use it. This perception of natural justice was acquiesced in by the General Government and the courts . . . ." (VII.V.3)

The 1949 gold rush produced a remarkable spontaneous disclosure of what counts for justice in land-labor relations. Henry George generalized the lesson into "the true remedy" of economic turmoil: "We must make land common property." (VI.II.3)

On this view the most progressive kind of taxation is land taxation, because it encourages owners of land to either use it or sell it to someone who can use it. Land in use is land that wants labor; therefore land taxes are most likely to produce economic landscapes of labor in demand.

According to the Schalkenbach Foundation, the ideas of Henry George nurtured powerful progressive movements in the United States until World War I. After the war, Georgism was lumped together with Socialism and Communism as a target of red-scare repression.

The surprising thing is, if you are living the life of Texas politics, there is something Georgist that lives down in the bone. In the Texas body politic there is a deep aversion to income taxes, which makes property taxes important to the basis of the Texas common good. Texas has been bragging about its ability to maintain a more productive economy. Could the property tax bias have something to do with this?

In the recent pamphlet by the Schalkenbach Foundation, we are treated to one reason why the "property-tax rollback" movement should be considered retrograde. When the tax burden shifts from taxes on property to taxes on income and sales, then incentives can shift further in the direction of land monopolization, which means more unused land in the hands of hoarding elites, which means degrading demand for labor.

"Generations of propaganda have convinced even good liberals that property taxes fall squarely on the poor -- to the mega-million dollar benefit of corporations like Standard Oil of California, the largest beneficiary of Proposition 13's 1979 property tax rollback and freeze," writes M. Mason Gaffney in a 1997 article reprinted for the recent catalogue. "The federal income tax, which once targeted unearned income from land, now devolves steadily into a payroll tax" (see pamphlet on "Economic Justice and Tax Reform Complete Catalogue 2008-2009," p. 5).

Our interest in these issues was piqued when supply-side economist Arthur Laffer and associates began evaluating Texas, Oklahoma, and California state economies for their alleged friendliness to business. In the Oklahoma report, especially, the Laffer group displays their exuberant ideological bias against property taxation as they recount the good ole days of California's Prop. 13, the movement that best defines the motivations of the Reagan era.

One thing that is more satisfying about Henry George compared to Laffer is George's interest in labor demand. Of course Laffer cannot ignore labor demand, since business has to have labor. But Laffer appears not to consider any differential effects that different kinds of taxes might produce within a business environment. In fact, the Laffer reports may have the effect in Texas of encouraging policy makers to cut property taxes.

With respect to the relation between capital and labor, George argued that they are not natural enemies (VIII.II.19). If all taxes could displace land rent, then capital and wages alike would be set free from taxation. This is the part that Laffer takes for the whole.

What Laffer seems not to admit is that somewhere a public in fact exists as public. For George the public is disclosed in the social value of land. Therefore, to take back the value of land rent in the form of taxation is merely to balance the public account and return to the common treasury what only common effort can produce.

Thumping at the heart of George's conception of justice is a theory about what makes human progress possible -- "association in equality" (X.III.11). Which is one reason why civil rights becomes a condition of any progressive view of prosperity. While some voices will continue to complain that equality has too much of a leveling effect, George warns that inequality is what levels entire civilizations:

What has destroyed every previous civilization has been the tendency to the unequal distribution of wealth and power. This same tendency, operating with increasing force, is observable in our civilization to-day, showing itself in every progressive community, and with greater intensity the more progressive the community. Wages and interest tend constantly to fall, rent to rise, the rich to become very much richer, the poor to become more helpless and hopeless, and the middle class to be swept away. (X.IV.7)

We'll keep an eye out for studies that test George's theories in the world today. As the world re-thinks all kinds of economic assumptions from the valley of the latest economic bust, perhaps the Georgist theory of property taxation should be something we call to mind. Meanwhile, we're happy to have a kind of Christmas gift in the form of newly wrapped ideas from that old American genius, Henry George.

TOMORROW, Tuesday morning, December 23, when most folks will be focused on the holidays, the Williamson County Commissioners Court will vote to extend their contracts for Hutto with ICE and CCA. Is there anything YOU or your organization can do write, call, fax and/or e-mail to stop such a decision that will only prolong the imprisonment and abuse of these innocent children?

Is there any kind of mobilization at the Williamson Country Commissioners Court tomorrow that you could help with today? Below is a statement regarding the extension of Hutto...along with contact information. From Washington, D.C. to Washington State...please consider letting your voices heard. -- Jay J. Johnson Castro, Sr.

By Mary Ellen Kersch

WCCC Judge Gattis quoted in AAS re. TD Hutto vote: "Unless something jumps up and bites me, I will vote to renew"

Bite him. Before Tuesday’s vote!

Contact WCCC members and tell them to vote NO Hutto Renewal(See contact info below)

Putting non-criminal families, including little children, in prison for infractions comparable to running a stop sign is immoral and un-American.

Imprisoning people charged with no crime, while they await decision re. applications for citizenship and asylum, is NOT effective immigration policy, does NOT secure our borders, and has NOTHING to do with patriotism. It is a corrupt means to enrich an already wealthy corporation by exploiting the weakest among us!

As partners in the contract for the most expensive method to effectively assure that non-criminal immigrants appear at their hearings, the Williamson County Commissioners Court (WCCC) exhibits a disregard for fiscal responsibility with taxpayer dollars during a national economic crisis.

This prison is exempt from any governmental regulation and has no government oversight—and a continuing record of abuses. With the lapse of the only outside (court-ordered) oversight of this facility in August of 2009 those risks are greatly elevated in renewal. (Article in March 2008 NewYorker provides a good chronicle)

Partnering with Corrections Corporation of American, with its less-than-admirable record of management, is a bad business practice, and exposes Williamson County taxpayers to financial risks from poor management, bad employees, and external lawsuits—all of which are beyond their capacity to control. (See attached “Letter to WCCC re CCA Business Practices.)

Williamson County’s reputation has been damaged as a result of a number of specific offenses relating to the operation of the facility, as well as its very existence. Contract renewal would affirm WCCC’s approval of the disgraces of T Don Hutto and further damage our image locally, nationally, and internationally

Evidence presented at the September public forum (which WCCC boycotted) stated that T Don Hutto’s operation is probably a deterrent to future, clean, economic development in the area; renewal would send a very bad signal for the future of such growth; it is actually anti-economic development!

This proposal fails the simple “risk vs. benefits” of any business undertaking. The less than $16,000 monthly maximum that Williamson County collects under this contract cannot be reasonably argued to compensate for the negatives that exist.

WCCC has had a very rough record re. contracts to date; re-entering this partnership does nothing to convince citizens that WCCC has been learned anything from those previous costly contract mistakes.

Please Contact:
Judge Dan Gattis: ctyjudge@wilco.org(512) 943-1550
Commissioner Lisa Birkman: lbirkman@wilco.org ( 512) 733-5380
Commissioner Cynthia Long: clong@wilco.org(512) 260-4280)
Commissioner Valerie Covey: vcovey@wilco.org (512) 943-3370
Commissioner Ron Morrison: rmorrison@wilco.org (512) 846-1190

Phone, email, by end of business Monday and tell them NO to Hutto! And broadcast this plea on behalf of good government and the babies in jail.

My earliest musical memories go back to the water song by the Sons of the Pioneers. Water. Cool water.

But a recent government report warns that water may become more scarce faster than we can adjust.

Studies of tree rings suggest that North America has suffered periods of mega-droughts that have lasted more than a few decades. And that was before the prospect of global warming intensified the risks. Here are some excepts from Chapter 3.

Hydroclimatic changes are likely to affect all regions in the United States. Semi-arid regions of the Southwest are projected to dry further, and model results suggest that the transition may already be underway (Hoerling and Kumar, 2003; Seager et al., 2007d).

The drying in the Southwest is a matter of great concern because water resources in this region are already stretched, new development of resources will be extremely difficult, and the population (and thus demand for water) continues to grow rapidly (see Fig. 3.1). This situation raises the politically charged issue of whether the allocation of around 90% of the region’s water to agriculture is sustainable and consistent with the course of regional development.

Mexico is also expected to dry in the near future, turning this feature of hydroclimatic change into an international and cross-border issue with potential impacts on migration and social stability. (p. 148)

The serious hydrological changes and impacts known to have occurred in both historic and prehistoric times over North America reflect large-scale changes in the climate system that can develop in a matter of years and, in the case of the more severe past megadroughts, persist for decades. Such hydrological changes fit the definition of abrupt change because they occur faster than the time scales needed for human and natural systems to adapt, leading to substantial disruptions in those systems. (p.150)

In the Southwest, for example, the models project a permanent drying by the mid-21st century that reaches the level of aridity seen in historical droughts, and a quarter of the projections may reach this level of aridity much earlier. It is not unreasonable to think that, given the complexities involved, the strategies to deal with declining water resources in the region will take many years to develop and implement. If hardships are to be minimized, it is time to begin planning to deal with the potential hydroclimatic changes described here. (p. 151)

However significant enhanced solar forcing has been in producing past megadroughts, the level of current and future radiative forcing due to greenhouse gases is very likely to be of much greater significance. It is thus disquieting to consider the possibility that drought-inducing La Niña-like conditions may become more frequent and persistent in the future as greenhouse warming increases.

We have no firm evidence that this is happening now, even with the serious drought that has gripped the West since about 1998. Yet, a large number of climate models suggest that future subtropical drying is a virtual certainty as the world warms and, if they are correct, indicate that it may have already begun. The degree to which this is true is another pressing scientific question that must be answered if we are to know how to respond and adapt to future changes in hydroclimatic variability. (p. 210)

See the final report on "Abrupt Climate Change" issued by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research.

Editor's Note: Usually this is the time of year when downtown bus riders in Austin listen to Jennifer Gale singing Christmas carols. No more sweet fa-la-la's from Jennifer. We should have sung along.--gm

Equality Texas mourns the death of Jennifer Gale, a 47-year-old transgender homeless woman who died yesterday. Jennifer's body was found Wednesday morning. She was lying in an outdoor walkway at the First English Lutheran Church in Central Austin.

A perennial candidate for public office in Austin and Dallas, Jennifer's notoriety came through years of putting herself in the public eye. She took a shot at nearly every city office, from council seats, to the mayor's office. She never won, but in 2004, Gale came closer than ever, winning more than 38 percent of the vote for a seat on the Austin ISD School Board.

Jennifer’s voice rang through Austin Council Chamber doors every week, often times in support of the homeless population of which she was a part.

"Let's give the homeless a place to exercise that need jobs and need help," said Gale Tuesday night before the city’s Health Services Board.

Her death points to critical problems faced by the homeless, and especially by homeless women and the transgender homeless.

"Jennifer most nights slept outdoors," said Austin Mayor Will Wynn. "Jennifer, we believe, is the 136th person who has died sleeping on the streets (of Austin) over the last 12 months."

Marti Bier, policy aide for Austin City Council Member Randi Shade, said, "Something Jennifer would never talk about, but was a reality for her, is that she is a transwoman living in a transphobic society. Homelessness in the trans-community is a really big problem, and one that goes ignored. There are no laws in Texas protecting transgender people, whether from job discrimination, housing discrimination or hate crimes.

"There was really nowhere for Jennifer Gale to go to protect herself from the cold last night," said Bier. "The Salvation Army (the only shelter in town that takes in women) would not let her in there unless she was grouped with the men (which includes sleeping with, and showering with, other homeless men). They would make her use her male birth name and completely disregard, and disrespect, her identity as a trans-woman. There is so much to be learned from Jennifer Gale, and so much to be worked on in our community."

Equality Texas, the Transgender Education Network of Texas, and City of Austin officials are now working together to address changes in policy, or enforcement of existing policy, that might prevent another tragic loss of life. The City of Austin's non-discrimination ordinance is inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity with regard to employment and public accommodations. The ordinance includes certain religious and private club exemptions, which will be reviewed for applicability to the delivery of shelter services for the homeless.

Source: email from Equality Texas

As the politicos of Washington, Dallas, and Austin scurry to keep the capital infrastructure from falling down (see notes below) the Bush administration today published new Agriculture rules that labor advocates say will roll back rights of farm workers to bargain for higher pay and better working conditions.

"The Bush Administration has released midnight regulation changes to slash wages, make it easier to hire foreign workers, and reduce worker protections under the H-2A agricultural guestworker program," argues a summary report from Farm Worker Justice [in pdf format].

DOL [Department of Labor] has changed the recruitment requirements so that employers claiming a labor shortage will not have to engage in meaningful recruitment of U.S. farmworkers and the state job service agencies will not be permitted to be effective in referring job applicants to H-2A employers. The DOL has decided that H-2A employers need not engage in positive recruitment in known areas of farm labor supply if those areas have agricultural employers looking for farmworkers.

Despite their claim to be free market supporters, the Administration’s officials are by regulation ending competition among employers. Furthermore, DOL is withdrawing the obligation to engage in the same kind and degree of recruitment for US workers as it does for foreign workers. This allows employers to claim that they can’t find any US workers, while not making any real effort, while at the same time engaging in huge recruitment campaigns in Mexico, Guatemala, Thailand and other nations in the effort to find exploitable guestworkers.

The new Bush plan drives back protections along two fronts, say advocates. On the one hand, the new rules will make it easier for employers to sidestep requirements to first exhaust local labor supply.

In a report titled "Litany of Abuses" the Farmworker Justice organization recalls how agricultural employers can make deceptive commitments to local labor as a pretext for claiming that foreign workers need to be imported [in pdf format].

Meanwhile, the new rules make it more likely that so-called guest workers will be more easily subjected to labor rights abuses such as summary firings, lowered wages, and poor working conditions.

The Dallas Fed chief today made fond references to historical lessons learned. In labor rights also we find that the steel gears of the business cycle act in familiar ways. Hard times crush down against the lowest rungs of labor at home and abroad even as an almighty determination is applied to lift the axles of global capital from the muck of its own discharge.--gm

Excerpt from Dallas Fed "Economic Letter."

In short, tougher times appear to lie ahead. Worsening macroeconomic conditions, particularly in the retail and other service sectors, are hurting CRE [Commercial Real Estate] fundamentals. Meanwhile the intensification of the credit crunch is dampening market activity. And if commercial property’s situation does grow worse, banks are likely to face further losses. One factor that might limit these risks is that the commercial real estate sector wasn’t as grossly overbuilt heading into the current economic slowdown as it had been in the early 1990s.

See full report by Dallas Fed economist Roland Meeks.

Ramiro R. Muniz - 40288-115
FCI El Reno
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 1500
El Reno, OK 73036

(Walt Harrison / Winston Smith Media)

Hutto:
First Anniversary Vigil
Dec. 16, 2007

Faten and Maryam Ibrahim

June 23, 2007
(Photo by Walt Harrison)

Also: See Slide Show from the Prisons for Profit Blog

Neighbors Say Never
(Photo by Jay J. Johnson-Castro)

Hutto Jail for Children, Women, and Profit
(Taylor, TX)
Photo by Jay Johnson-Castro