Eyes on Texas: News and Views of the State

A weekly roundup of news about the state of Texas.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry rubbed Californians the wrong way by voicing radio ads in that state to lure businesses to the Lone State State. The Los Angeles Times reports that California Gov. Jerry Brown is dismissing the claims that businesses would be better off in Texas. The Sacramento Bee points out that Brown called the campaign “barely a fart.” The Bee also wrote an editorial pointing out the flaws and woes deep in the heart of Texas.

BBC’s Paul Adams reports on the increase of stolen cows in “America’s biggest ranching state” and how a team of 30 specialized rangers is on the case. The report points out that Western movies may be misleading about many Texan stereotypes — wearing cowboy boots and riding horses to work — but cattle rustling isn’t one of them.

Texan Kimberly McCarthy, who would have been the 13th woman to be executed in the United States and the fourth in Texas, won a reprieve until April. CBS’s Crimesider staff wrote that McCarthy’s lawyers are pursuing “an appeal focused on whether her predominantly white jury was improperly selected on the basis of race. McCarthy is black.”

After Carlton N. Berry Jr. was arrested as the initial suspect of the recent shooting at the Lone Star College, The New York Times reported a shift in investigation from Berry to another student, Trey Foster, who is now charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia explained the situation was “more like reality TV, where life is complicated…” when justifying Berry’s arrest and suggested that Berry had a “peanut-sized brain” in a news conference.

In the Bangor Daily News, Nok-Noi Ricker reports that Maine’s biggest synthetic bath salts bust led to a second major seizure of the substance in Texas. Arthur Coy, one of the four suspects, shipped $700,000 worth, or 10 pounds, of bath salts to Houston, which was seized by Texas authorities after the drug bust in Maine. Bath salts are designated as Schedule 1 drugs, the same class as heroin and LSD, and are a significant problem that “no community is immune” to, Ricker wrote.