Copperas Cove Leader-Press (Copperas Cove, Tex.), Vol. 117, No. 82, Ed. 1 Tuesday, July 17, 2012 Page: 4 of 10
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RhotoDawg
TghQtag ra phy Q M
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Wait for
ruling on
voter ID law
begins
AUSTIN — What happens next
to Texas’ enacted but as-yet-unen-
forceable voter identification law is
up to a three-judge panel of the
D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, fol-
lowing a week of court action, July
9 to 13.
If allowed to stand as written,
the law, with certain exceptions,
would require each voter to present
official photo identification along
with a valid voter registration card
at the poll
in order to
cast a bal-
lot.
After
final argu-
ments
were com-
pleted on
July 13,
Texas At-
torney
General
Greg Ab-
bott stated
his opin-
ion that
evidence
presented
at trial by
the State
of Texas shows that U.S. Attorney
General Eric Holder’s list of voters
who lack government-issued photo
identification is “fatally flawed” be-
cause the U.S. Department of Jus-
tice’s list “includes dead voters,
failed to exclude non-Texas resi-
dents, and did not attempt to match
voters with photo ID databases
maintained by the federal govern-
ment, such as the State Depart-
ment’s passport database or the De-
partment of Defense’s military iden-
tification database.”
While the state did present evi-
dence that voter rolls may include
the names of deceased or otherwise
ineligible voters, it did not present
evidence that voter impersonation at
the polls is commonplace or has
changed the outcome of an election.
Among those testifying against
the voter ID law at the request of
the Department of Justice were state
Reps. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, and
Trey Martinez-Fischer, D-San Anto-
nio, who chairs the Mexican Ameri-
can Legislative Caucus.
The D.C. Circuit Court is ex-
pected to rule in late August or ear-
ly September.
Background on voter law
Near the end of the 2011 regu-
lar session of the Texas Legislature,
Gov. Rick Perry ceremonially
signed the voter ID law, Senate Bill
14, amending the state election law
with language “relating to require-
ments to vote, including presenting
proof of identification; providing
criminal penalties.”
When Perry signed the bill, he
said, we take a major step for-
ward in securing the integrity of the
ballot box and protecting the most
cherished right we enjoy as citi-
zens.” But Texas House and Senate
Democrats in committee and floor
debates of SB 14 claimed the legis-
lation would result in voter suppres-
sion and would be harming to the
state’s black and Hispanic popula-
tions.
Throughout the legislative
process state House and Senate de-
bates were contentious and votes
were party-line. The enactment of
the bill kindled protracted civil
rights litigation. The Department of
Justice declined to grant the neces-
sary pre-clearance under Section 5
of the U.S. Voting Rights Act for
the law to take effect and the State
of Texas filed suit.
Perry reacts to ruling
On June 28, the U.S. Supreme
Court upheld the constitutionality
of part of the U.S. Patient Protec-
tion and Affordable Care Act of
2010 on the basis that it is a fair ex-
ercise of federal authority to impose
a “tax” on citizens who fail to ob-
tain health care insurance.
On July 11, the Republican-
dominated U.S. House of Represen-
tatives, for the 31st time since the
law was passed, voted to repeal it.
Five Democratic members also vot-
ed to repeal the law. No vote to re-
See HIGHLIGHTS, Page 5
Ed Sterling
Capital
Highlights
Lynette
Sowell
My front
porch
School starts next month, and
teachers everywhere will again take up
the cause of teaching their students to
listen. Follow directions, when and
how to write their name on the paper,
listen to announcements such as in-
structions for storing supplies, when
lunch happens, where to line up for the
bus. Chances are, if students miss any
of that, they weren't listening.
The word listen has an easy defini-
tion: “to make an effort to hear some-
thing, to pay attention, to heed.”
It's one of the first lessons we
learn in school and it's one of the les-
sons we all must keep learning, even
those of us who've been traveling
around the sun longer than the small
Listen up
fry. Listen to the doctor who'll give in-
structions for combating that heartburn
and bad back. Listen to your mother
when you ask her for that foolproof
recipe for homemade dumplings. Listen
to your child, who's had a rotten day at
school when they forgot the answers to
the questions and someone called them
stupid. When you're driving, pay atten-
tion to sirens so you can pull over.
Watching and listening are vital prac-
tices, especially if you're on the road.
Sometimes, though, the more we
hear something, the less we listen to it.
Take the train that roars through town
at random hours. If you've lived here
long enough, you probably hear its
horn wailing as it charges by, but you
really don't listen to it. It's become part
of the noise of life in a Texas town.
What other things do we hear, but
we don't really listen to? A lonely cry
is the often the quietest sound of all,
maybe even made without words or
sound. When someone gets very quiet,
for example, might be the best time to
pay attention to them. Whose voice are
we not hearing? Maybe it's the child in
the back of the classroom who tried to
go to sleep while listening to his par-
ents argue, then laid awake worrying
about where he'll live after the divorce
is final? No, teacher, they're not tired
because they don't care to go to sleep.
See PORCH, Page 5
Who likes a good mystery?
Do you like to read good mys-
tery novels? I do.
Yeah, I know. Reading sort of
became old hat with many of us
once TV took hold. That trend of
less reading has been reversed some-
what, thanks to inventions like
eBook and the iPad and other mod-
ern marvels.
While I’m still stubbornly in-
clined toward the printed word —
having that book or newspaper in
my hands — the world of electronics
and computers has made reading
easier. You can download a 500-page
novel onto your computer — desk-
top, laptop, iPad or iPhone — and
read it almost anywhere you go.
As the first sentence in this col-
umn, a question, was answered I
tipped my hand as to one of my choices for
reading. My favorites are mysteries, of course,
and history. If authors and book publishers can
roll both of those into one, then they
have a steady and reliable customer
in me.
Oddly enough, it was a TV se-
ries, “Spenser for Hire,” that got me
hooked on one particular author —
Robert B. Parker. He created the
private detective Spenser. And,
that’s the only name he’s ever used
in the 37 Spenser books the late
Parker crafted so well. Apparently
just a last name. Nothing else.
The same is true for Spenser’s
sidekick, Hawk, a head-shaven
African American who’s as tough as
a pit full of rattlesnakes. While both
characters are able to handle them-
selves well in fights, the two of
them are well-educated, sophisticat-
ed and sometime downright ornery.
The late Robert Urich portrayed the gifted
Spenser in the TV series while Avery Brooks
made a fascinating Hawk.
Parker makes all characters in his books in-
teresting. Witness this description of a hoodlum:
“Fortunately, Ty Bop weighed maybe one hun-
dred thirty pounds, so there was room to get by.
I smiled at them cordially. Junior nodded. Ty
Bop paid me no attention. He had eyes like a
coral snake. Neither meanness nor interest nor
affection nor recognition showed in them. Nor
humanity. Even standing still, he seemed jittery
and bouncy. Nobody on the floor or at the nurs-
ing station ventured near either of them.”
Parker’s writing obviously appeals to TV
and movie producers. There was the aforemen-
tioned TV series featuring Spenser. A woman
private eye, Sunny Randall, is another Parker
creation. Then, there’s Jesse Stone, police chief
in a small Massachusetts town. Stone was the
played by Tom Selleck, another of my favorites,
in the TV series. I’ve read a couple of the Ran-
dall books and Parker’s Jesse Stone novels as
well. Parker penned one Western-inclined story,
See WEBB, Page 5
L
I*
Willis Webb
Webb’s
Threads
Copperas Cove Leader-Press
(254) 547-4207 Fax 542-3299
email: news@coveleaderpress.com
web site: www.coveleaderpress.com
Publisher: Larry Hauk
Graphic artist: Travis Martin
Office manager: Sandra Angulo
Distribution: Alex Perez
Advertising: Linda Goode
Associate Publisher: Joyce Hauk
Managing editor: Lynette Sowell
Photographer: Dennis Knowlton
Sports editor: David Morris
Advertising: Kimberly Cables
PO. Box 370 • 2210 East Highway 190 Suite 1* Copperas Cove, TX 76522
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Sowell, Lynette. Copperas Cove Leader-Press (Copperas Cove, Tex.), Vol. 117, No. 82, Ed. 1 Tuesday, July 17, 2012, newspaper, July 17, 2012; Copperas Cove, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth627685/m1/4/: accessed May 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .