Human Interest.
The people involved in this article are involved in emotional struggles. The right to same-sex marriage has been a long-going conflict, and it was finally resolved, but people are still going against it.
Found at Austin American Statesman.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Ky. clerk jailed; deputies to issue marriage licenses
ByAdam Bean Associated Press
ASHLAND, KY. — A defiant county clerk went to jail Thursday for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, but five of her deputies agreed to end the church-state standoff in Rowan County, Ky.
U.S. District Judge David Bunning said he had no choice but to jail Kim Davis for contempt after she insisted that her “conscience will not allow” her to follow federal court rulings on gay marriage.
“God’s moral law conflicts with my job duties,” Davis told the judge before she was taken away. “You can’t be separated from something that’s in your heart and in your soul.” The judge later tried to keep Davis out of jail, saying she could go free if her staff agreed to comply with the law and she agreed not to interfere.
But Davis rejected the offer. With that, the hearing ended, and gay and lesbian couples vowed to appear at the Rowan County clerk’s office yet again Friday to see if the deputy clerks keep their promises.
“We’re going to the courthouse tomorrow to get our marriage license and we’re very excited about that,” said April Miller, who has been engaged to Karen Roberts for 11 years.
As word of Davis’ jailing spread outside the federal courthouse, hundreds of people chanted and shouted, “Love won! Love won!”
But Davis’ lawyer, Roger Gannam, compared her willingness to accept imprisonment to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s sacrifices to advance civil rights, and said “everyone should lament and mourn the fact that her freedom has been taken away for what she believes.”
Laura Landenwich, an attorney for the plaintiffs, rejected the comparison.
“Ms. Davis is in an unfortunate situation of her own creation. She is not a martyr. No one created a martyr today,” Landenwich said. “She is not above the law.”
Speaking earlier from the bench, Bunning said it would set up a “slippery slope” to allow an individual’s ideas to supersede the courts’ authority.
“Her good-faith belief is simply not a viable defense,” Bunning said. “I myself have genuinely held religious beliefs ... but I took an oath.”
“Mrs. Davis took an oath,” he added. “Oaths mean things.”
Davis is represented by the Liberty Counsel, which advocates in court for religious freedom. Before she was led away, Davis said the U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage nationwide conflicts with the vows she made when she became a born-again Christian.
Miller and Roberts have been denied a marriage license four times by Davis or her deputies since the June ruling. Miller testified that one of the deputy clerks told her to apply in another county.
“That’s kind of like saying we don’t want gays or lesbians here. We don’t think you are valuable,” she said.
Rather than be fined, jailed or lose their jobs, five of the clerks told the judge they would issue the licenses. Her son, Nathan Davis, refused, but the judge said that wouldn’t matter and he wouldn’t be punished, as long as the others complied.
“I don’t really want to, but I will comply with the law,” said one of the deputies, Melissa Thompson. “I’m a preacher’s daughter and this is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.”
Davis, an Apostolic Christian whose critics mock her for being a three-time divorcee, stopped issuing marriage licenses for all couples after the Supreme Court ruling in June. Many supporters and even some Republican presidential candidates have rallied behind her.
“People are calling the office all the time asking to send money,” Davis testified.
She said she hopes the Legislature will change Kentucky law to allow her to keep her job while following her conscience. But unless the governor convenes a costly special session, lawmakers won’t meet until January. “Hopefully our Legislature will get something taken care of,” she told the judge.
Until then, Bunning said, he has no alternative but to keep her behind bars.
“The legislative and executive branches do have the ability to make changes,” Bunning said. “It’s not this court’s job to make changes. I don’t write law.”
Davis served as her mother’s deputy in the clerk’s office for 27 years before she was elected as a Democrat to succeed her in November. As an elected official, she can be removed only if the Legislature impeaches her, which is unlikely in a deeply conservative state.
Former Republican President George W. Bush nominated Bunning for a lifetime position as a federal judge in 2001 when he was just 35 years old.
But Bunning has been anything but a sure thing for conservative causes, ruling against a partial-birth abortion ban and in favor of a gay-straight high school club.
A man waves a gay pride flag in front of the federal courthouse in Ashland, Ky., on Thursday. As word of Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis’ jailing spread, hundreds of people chanted:“Love won! Love won!”TYWRIGHT / GETTY IMAGES
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis rejected an offer from a judge that could have kept her out of jail.
Edgar Orea speaks to gay marriage supporters outside the federal building in Ashland, Ky., on Thursday. Rowan County deputy clerks agreed to issue licenses to same-sex couples.
TIMOTHY D. EASLEY / AP
Human Interest.
The person in this article is going through an emotional struggle at a young age--he was paralyzed from the waist down, and his hopes for a career playing football are null.
Found at Austin American Statesman.
HIGH SCHOOLS FOOTBALL
JV player fights paralysis
Sophomore from Stony Point injured on Wednesday.
By Rick Cantu rcantu@statesman.com
A junior varsity football player from Stony Point High School was paralyzed from the waist down after breaking his neck in a game Wednesday at the school.
Jasiel Favors, a sophomore running back, lay motionless on the field for roughly 20 minutes after a helmet-to-helmet collision with an opposing player from Harker Heights, his mother, Debra, said Thursday.
Her son underwent surgery Thursday morning to have a metal plate placed near his fourth vertebra, she said by phone from Seton Medical Center Williamson.
She said her son might be transferred to TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston next week to begin rehabilitation. It’s too early to tell whether Jasiel will be able to walk again, she said.
Jasiel, 16, was resting in a hospital bed on Thursday, a breathing tube inserted down his throat. A headache he suffered from Wednesday had subsided, his mother said.
“I’m trying to stay strong for the whole family ,” said Debra, adding that Jasiel is the youngest of her five children.
Favors was injured during the opening kickoff of the second half, said Christine Wilson Driskell, who attended the game to watch her son play.
“Everybody was very somber, very quiet, worried,” Driskell said. “The officials and higher Stony Point authorities showed up. The ambulance came, and everyone was concerned.”
Favors, who said she was unaware her son had a game Wednesday, arrived at the field to find firefighters and paramedics on the scene.
“They were pinching him on his body, trying to get him to feel something,” she said. “All he could feel was a little tingling in his hands.”
Stony Point principal Anthony Watson and varsity football coach Craig Chessher were among several visitors who stayed at the hospital until midnight, Debra said.
“We all are being very supportive of Jasiel and his family,” Watson said.
Austin Community Newspapers reporter Nicole Barrios contributed to this story.
Contact Rick Cantu at 512-445-3953.
Twitter: @Rickyprep
Prominence and Human Interest.
Migrants were taken to camps when they boarded the train--unable to travel to Germany. This is an unfair emotional struggle for the migrants, and it's prominent because their prime minister (who's anti-immigrant) is intending to make the borders of the country impassible for new arrivals.
Found at Austin American Statesman.
Hungary allows migrants on train
Decision to take them to camps met with outrage.
By Pablo Gorondi and Shawn Pogatchnik Associated Press
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY — Thousands of people desperate to reach Western Europe rushed into a Budapest train station Thursday after police ended a two-day blockade, setting off a wave of anger and confusion as hundreds shoved their way onto a waiting train.
But instead of taking them to prosperous Germany, where they hope to gain asylum, it tried to drop them off at a Hungarian camp for asylum seekers.
After the overloaded train halted at Bicske, site of one of the country’s five camps for asylum seekers, one man threw his wife and infant son onto the tracks, screaming in Arabic, “We won’t move from here!” Police surrounded the prone family, pulling the husband away and handcuffing him as he wailed.
Other migrants refused to budge, shouting their outrage and waving tickets they had purchased to Germany and Austria.
The scene of desperation was just one of many that unfolded Thursday as tempers flared in Hungary’s war of wills with the migrants, a showdown with consequences for the entire continent.
The nation’s anti-immigrant prime minister, Viktor Orban, warned that he intends to make his country’s borders an impassible fortress against new arrivals as his government struggled to coax its thousands of unwanted visitors away from the Budapest transportation hub that has become a squalid refugee camp for people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
At a meeting Thursday in Brussels, Obran and European Union leaders hotly debated the question of how to manage the crisis. Orban’s chief of staff, Janos Lazar, said 160,000 migrants had reached Hungary this year, 90,000 of them in the past two months alone.
“We Hungarians are full of fear,” Orban said at a news conference, warning that the acceptance of so many Muslims from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere would erode Europe’s Christian bedrock.
Orban confirmed his government’s plan to send at least 3,000 troops to Hungary’s southern border with Serbia, where police patrols, razor-wire coils and a 13-foot fence are already in place to deter new arrivals transiting through the non-EU member.
A man yells at others as migrants scramble to board a train at Keleti station in Budapest, on Thursday. The migrants poured into the station Thursday morning but were prevented from traveling to Germany, and were taken to camps instead. THE NEWYORKTIMES
Prominence.
The shooting has an impact on the family and friends of the people killed, and the government is struggling to figure out what punishment to give to the shooter.
Found at Austin American Statesman.
SOUTH CAROLINA CHURCH SHOOTINGS
Shooting suspect to face death penalty
Killing of 9 people in a church called ‘the ultimate crime.’
By Meg Kinnard andJeffrey Collins Associated Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. — The white man accused of killing nine black churchgoers in what authorities said was a racially motivated crime during Bible study will face a death penalty trial, even though not all the victims’ families agree with capital punishment, a prosecutor said Thursday.
Solicitor Scarlett Wilson said Thursday that some crimes are so heinous they require the most serious punishment the state can give.
“This was the ultimate crime, and justice from our state calls for the ultimate punishment,” Wilson said, reading a three-minute statement outside her Charleston office. She took no questions.
Wilson filed paperwork saying she would seek the death penalty against 21-year-old Dylann Roof a few hours before her statement. Her reasons: More than two people were killed and others’ lives were put at risk.
Roof is charged under U.S. hate crime laws as well, and federal prosecutors haven’t decided if they will also seek the death penalty. Federal authorities have said Roof wrote online of fomenting racial violence and used racial slurs in a personal manuscript in which he decried integration.
Survivors also told police he used racial insults during the attack.
Wilson said she understands the desire of some victims’ families to forgive Roof and that some do not believe in the death penalty, but she said forgiveness doesn’t eliminate the consequences of Roof’s actions.
“Making such a weighty decision is an awesome responsibility,” Wilson said. “People who have already been victimized should not bear the burden of making the decisions on behalf of an entire community. They shouldn’t have to weigh the concerns of other people. They shouldn’t have to consider the facts of the case.”
Roof’s lawyers did not respond to Wilson’s decision.
Thursday’s motion doesn’t guarantee the case goes to trial. In a number of other murder cases in South Carolina, solicitors have filed notices to seek the death penalty and used them as bargaining chips to get a defendant to plead guilty in exchange for life in prison. Roof’s lawyers said in federal court July 31 that he would have been willing to plead guilty to the hate crimes charges, but he wanted to wait to see if prosecutors would want to put him to death.
In her filing, Wilson said she intends to present evidence on Roof’s mental state, adult and juvenile criminal record and other conduct, as well as his apparent lack of remorse for the killings.
Roof faces state charges including nine murder counts in the June 17 slayings at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. He is expected in court again on those charges in October.
Public pressure and media attention on the case likely made it impossible for Wilson not to seek the death penalty, said Colin Miller, an expert on criminal law at the University of South Carolina School of Law.
“This has to be understood as part of a continuum,” he said. “In this case, likely this was viewed as the only acceptable path that was to be taken by the solicitor.”
Relatives of shooting victims spoke out at Roof’s first court appearance, saying they forgave him for his actions and prayed God would have mercy on him.
Wilson said she has met many times with survivors and families of shooting victims. She said their desires played into her ultimate decision, but that she appreciated that they all respected her decision to seek the death penalty.
“It’s definitely something a solicitor will take into account — the wishes of the family and what they desire in terms of how the case is going to proceed,” Miller said.
Andy Savage, a Charleston attorney who represents some of the survivors and victims’ families, commended Wilson for considering his clients’ thoughts on whether Roof should face death. Some of his clients may oppose the death penalty for religious reasons but also understood the decision was up to the state, Savage said.
Solicitor Scarlett Wilson announces her intention Thursday to seek the death
penalty against
Dylann Roof (at left) in
the killing of nine people at the Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
JEFFREY COLLINS / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Proximity.
People (here in Austin) care about what's going on with their football team (which is the Longhorns). Austin people wouldn't usually care about what's going on with a random college football team in North Carolina (unless they have an outside connection there).
Found at Austin American Statesman.
Eyes on Texas
New world order on the radio for Longhorns
Brian Davis
Texas officials really want to get the word out that Saturday’s season opener against Notre Dame will be on a different Austin radio station. Six of them, in fact. Eight, actually, if you speak Spanish.
If Tyrone Swoopes throws an interception against Notre Dame, change the station. He might score on another.
That’s right. UT football will be on eight Austin radio stations this fall as part of the new broadcasting agreement with Austin Radio Network. The flagship station is 104.9 The Horn, an FM signal that serves as the anchor for football, men’s basketball and other top events.
ARN won the broadcast rights away from iHeartMedia (formerly known as Clear Channel) by signing a seven-year deal worth $600,000 annually, according to multiple sources. ARN owners Jason Nassour, Eric Raines and Bob Cole are on the hook for about $1 million annually when factoring in all the broadcast-related expenses.
IHeartMedia also paid $600,000 in rights fees, according to a copy of the previous UT radio contract obtained by the American-Statesman through an open records request. Two sources said iHeartMedia lowered its bid in the new negotiations, thereby giving ARN an opening.
“Nothing has changed in terms of the planning or execution of the broadcast. It’s all identical,” said longtime play-by-play announcer Craig Way. “From our perspective, nothing we really do is that different.”
This may come as a surprise, but having UT football broadcasting on eight over-the-air radio stations isn’t the most intriguing aspect of this deal.
Cole, a well-known Austin radio personality, pitched UT officials on the idea of streaming games over the Internet. That means getting UT sports directly on your smart-phone.
It’s not the future, it’s the now
Edison and Triton Digital research found that 53 percent of monthly radio listeners across America listen via online streaming. That’s an estimated 143 million people, and the number is only growing. That just blows my mind.
Why worry about spotty FM or AM signals when the broadcast comes in crystal clear on your phone?
Cole convinced Texas and IMG officials they can get more bang from ARN’s bucks by streaming more Longhorns sports. The possibilities
— like broadcasting Olympic sports, football games with student announcers, archived Way calls — are endless.
“It would be fair to say we were looking to go to the next level,” said Steve Hank, chief revenue officer for UT athletics. “Where we’re headed with the development of our digital access and what we’re going to be doing, it’s going to be really cool.”
A specialized UT radio app is on the drawing board. For now, ARN gets its chance to show off its patchwork signal strength. Or listen online anywhere in the world. That’ll come in handy in Shanghai, China, this November with men’s hoops.
“This isn’t the future,” Cole said of UT sports via online streaming. “This is the now.”
What about Way?
Once iHeartMedia lost the UT radio broadcasting rights, it stood to reason that Way would leave 1300 The Zone for 104.9 The Horn. That hasn’t happened, and Way doesn’t appear to be moving anytime soon.
Asked specifically if he was moving his afternoon show, Way said, “I’m planning on doing the Longhorn games, and the plan right now is to continue as a contracted employee of iHeartMedia to continue doing my show.”
UT officials were upfront about their desire to keep Way on Longhorns broadcasts. Attorneys arranged for Way to appear on another station on game days. Way said at no point did IMG try to stop him from doing games broadcast on The Horn.
IHeartMedia has financial motivation to keep Way under contract and well paid for years. Advertisers pay thousands of dollars to have the UT play-by-play broadcaster read ads on the air. That money would also go to The Horn if Way moves across town.
Contact Brian Davis at 512-445-3957.
Twitter: @BDavisAAS
Craig Way will continue as the play-by-play announcer for Longhorns games despite the athletic program’s shift to Austin Radio Network. AMERICAN-STATESMAN FILE
Novelty.
People enjoy trying new things (such as new restaurants, or technology).
Found at Austin American Statesman.
Iron Sight Brewers to open Saturday in Cedar Park
Arianna Auber Liquid Austin Twitter:@ariauber
When Twisted X moved into a much larger, scenic space in Dripping Springs a couple of years ago, the warehouse its brewers left behind in Cedar Park was still outfitted to make beer — making Robert Chaney’s transition from homebrewer to commercial brewer just a little easier.
That made all the difference considering the difficulty he and his brother-in-law, Grady Reynolds, have had turning their vision of IronSight Brewers into a functioning business. Like other start-up breweries these days, IronSight has faced permitting delays and other problems that the two co-founders, relatively new to the industry, couldn’t have anticipated. They’re putting all that behind them, though, with the arrival of a milestone: IronSight’s grand opening is just around the corner.
“Finally,” Chaney said. “After a long, hard road.”
On Saturday, Iron-Sight will open with a big bash offering visitors first tastes of the brewery’s four core beers and a few small-batch brews made just for the party. The grand opening celebration, which requires an RSVP to attend, will also have live music from Bear Creek Wilderness and food from Mission Dogs.
After that, the brew ery plans to offer taproom hours on weekends
— Friday nights and Saturday and Sunday afternoons — and eventually also will distribute the beers in kegs and cans. The kegged beer will probably come first, and it’ll be available in the Cedar Park and Leander area until Chaney, who handles the brewing side of the business, is able to expand production far ther into Austin. For the most part, he’s got all of the recipes ready to go. He and Reynolds are starting with a cream ale, an amber, a white IPA and an oatmeal pale ale because of their “drink-ability,” a factor they sought out when choosing the brewery’s main beers.
“We want beers that are easy to drink, something you can enjoy after mowing the lawn,” he said. “We were also wanting beers we knew were good. Each of the four beers we’re doing have won multiple awards” from homebrewing competitions.
The cream ale, he said, serves as a great introduction to craft beer because it’s lightly hopped, straddling the line between ale and lager (which it balances, Chaney said, because it’s made from an ale yeast that ferments at colder temperatures). The amber, made with a West Coast-style twist for extra hoppiness, is Iron-Sight’s darkest beer, but it stays sessionable at 5 percent ABV. The unfiltered white IPA is “sort of like a Belgian white, but with American hops” for a big fresh finish, he said. And the oatmeal pale ale, so called because about 25 percent of the grain bill is oats, isn’t overly bitter, but still has nice hop aroma and flavor thanks to late-addition Citra and Cascade hops.
The Iron Sight Amber isn’t the only beer in the lineup that keeps the ABV relatively low; the white IPA clocks in with the highest ABV at only 6 percent.
“I’ve worked really hard on these beers,” Chaney said. “The two homebrew clubs I belong to, I’ve learned a lot from both. I’ll take my beer and say, ‘Here, try this.’ Hearing feedback from people who have been brewing for 20, 30 years has really been valuable.”
Although he hasn’t been brewing for as long as some of the other members of the Austin Zealots or the Texas Carboys homebrewing clubs, he’s picked up a lot from them. He originally started because “I thought it would be something easy that I would enjoy,” he said.
Brewing hasn’t been easy, but he’s hooked. So is Reynolds. He works in the oil and gas industry in Wyoming but visits Austin as often as he can to help Chaneywith Iron Sight. His role with the brewery is to handle the legal and financial sides of the business, all of the paperwork, although he’s got a beer background, too. When he was an undergraduate in business administration at Texas State University, he used to work at the Tap Room Pub & Grub in San Marcos, purchasing all the bar’s beers.
The native Austinites — Chaney, a safety manager for a construction company, is married to Reynolds’ sister — developed their love of craft beer together, to the point that they couldn’t resist putting together an initial business plan for Iron-Sight.
“I was always adventurous with beer, and I guess I passed the craft beer thing on to him. I was always having him try something new,” Chaney said.
Neither of them anticipated how difficult it would be to open a production brewery. Throughout the past couple of years, they’ve had torebrand Iron Sight after realizing their original name was already taken; had to find a different location for the brewery and move it to Cedar Park; and had to re-apply for TABC permitting from a brewpub to a brewery license. And all of it, Reynolds said, was funded out of their own pockets.
“The ultimate goal is for us to brew full-time and quit our current jobs,” he said. “But honestly, I’m just happy we’re finally getting this thing off the ground.”
Contact Arianna Auber at
512-445-3630.
IRONSIGHT’S GRAND OPENING PARTY
When: Noon to 4 p.m. Saturday
Where: 3200 Woodall Drive, Cedar Park
Cost: ›15-›20
Information and to RSVP: Search“IronSight Brewers” on Facebook
Robert Chaney is the head brewer and co-owner of IronSight Brewers at 3200 Woodall Drive in Cedar Park.
LAURA SKELDING PHOTOS / AMERICAN-STATESMAN
These are some of the grains that Chaney used to make IronSight’s four core beers and a few small-batch brews for Saturday’s grand opening, which requires an RSVP.
Robert Chaney shows off three of IronSight Brewer’s offerings. The brewery plans to have taproom hours on weekends. LAURA SKELDING / AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Timelines and Prominence.
This is happening this weekend! Also, "Hamlet" coming professionally to Austin and coordinating with the Austin Symphony is a big deal to people who care about this stuff (like me).
Found at Austin American Statesman.
NEW THIS WEEK
DANCE
“Hamlet” Ballet Austin presents Stephen Mills’ celebrated adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic, with the music of Philip Glass performed live by the Austin Symphony Orchestra. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. ›16-›91. The Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive. 512-457-5100, balletaustin. org . CONTRIBUTED BYTONY SPIELBERF
ARTS
Big Medium “A Narrow Escape From History.”New large-scale works by Erin Curtis. Opening reception 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday. Noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday through Sept. 26. 916 Springdale Road, Building 2, No. 101. bigmedium.org .
Yard Dog “Art and Music and 20 Years ofYard Dog”In celebration of its 20th anniversary,Yard Dog hosts a double-header with works from artists Jon Langford and Steve Wynn. Opening reception 7 to 9 p.m. Friday. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday through Oct. 11.Yard Dog Gallery, 1510
S. Congress Ave. 512-912-1613. yarddog.com .
Gallery Shoal Creek “5 Decades”A exhibition of 50 selected works by gallery artists. Opens Friday. A evening with the artists 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 19. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.Tuesday-Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Saturday through Oct. 24. 2832 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Suite 3. 512-454-6671, galleryshoalcreek.com .
WallyWorkman Gallery New works by Mallory Page. Opening reception 6 to 8 Saturday. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.Tuesday-Saturday through Sept. 26. 1202 W. Sixth St. 512-472-7428, wallyworkmangallery.com .
THEATER
“Missionary Position: PleasureJourneys for the Intrepid Lady Explorer-Part 2” Award-winning writer and director Caroline Reck presents the second part of her satirical historical spoof that follows two Victorian-era women on a lecture tour about the first menstrual products for women. Opens 8 p.m.Thursday. Continues 8 p.m.Thursday-Saturday through Sept. 26. ›10-›26. Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 E. Manor Road. glasshalffulltheatre.com .
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