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U.K. newspaper visits Dallas-FW for drilling answers, finds ‘fracking hell’


 

The Dallas City Council may have passed some of the nation’s tightest rules for natural-gas drilling last week. But other North Texas cities have been more amenable to industry. That has fueled exploration here for years and made the Barnett Shale one of the U.S.’s biggest gas resources.

So you might see why the United Kingdom’s The Guardian wanted to base its weekend fracking story in Ponder.

As the newspaper explained, drilling has overtaken the Denton County outpost. The Brits wanted to tell readers “what it’s really like to live next to a shale gas well,” as their government offers tax breaks to energy companies.

The Guardian’s findings? “Fracking hell” was the headline.

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Waco judge updates schedules for West explosion lawsuits

Victims of the April 17 explosion at West Fertilizer Co. are aiming lawsuits at CF Industries Holdings, the nation's largest producer of fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate. (File 2013/The Associated Press)

After weeks of wrangling between lawyers involved in the lawsuits over the explosion in West, a Waco judge has signed off on their proposed schedule for getting the cases to trial.

It’s a large and complex case involving a couple of hundred plaintiffs. Their suits will move forward in three groups. Though the case management orders aren’t clear on this point, the groups could perhaps be divided by nature of claim: wrongful death, personal injury, or property damage.

The three groups each have schedules for discovery leading up to the trials, which are to be spread through 2015. One beginning January that year. One in April. One in July.

For more details, check out the case management orders here.

The lawsuits target CF Industries Holdings, one of the nation’s two manufacturers of ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The publicly traded company is said to have made the fertilizer that detonated after a fire engulfed the facility in April, killing 15.

Liability questions first focused on West Fertilizer Co. Authorities said the locally owned company had kept the chemical in wooden bins in a warehouse with no sprinkler system. But it had only $1 million in insurance to cover any damage it caused.

Later, the city and scores of residents who suffered losses turned their attention to CF Industries.

Plaintiffs allege CF Industries should have better instructed West Fertilizer Co. on storage methods or used an additive that lessened the ammonium nitrate’s volatility.

Head of West Long-Term Recovery announces resignation

The head of the charitable organization set up to organize donations and efforts to help the town of West recover from April’s fertilizer explosion has resigned, saying today that “the time was right to return my focus to my husband and our four young children.”

Karen Bernsen’s departure as executive director of West Long-Term Recovery will be effective on Jan. 30 or as soon as her replacement is chosen, a news release said. Bernsen began her role soon after the blast as a volunteer, but the organization later began paying her an undisclosed salary from private funds donated for that purpose.

She has faced mounting criticism from some in West over the slow pace of aid distribution. But West’s mayor, Tommy Muska, praised her work Thursday. “She did a good job for the city while we needed her in the immediate aftermath of the explosion, and she did a good job for long-term recovery,” he said.

In a statement, Bernsen said: “This has been the most challenging, yet rewarding work I have ever done, and it’s been an honor to serve my community in this capacity.”

UT System once scrutinized Kern Wildenthal, gives him ‘well-deserved’ honor today

Kern Wildenthal

UT System regents today appointed Dr. Kern Wildenthal as a new president and professor emeritus at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Before the vote, Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa recalled how Wildenthal guided the institution through 22 years of expansion, financial prosperity and Nobel Prizes.

“In my view, this is a very well-deserved distinction,” regents Chairman Paul Foster said.

Not mentioned in the 2½-minute presentation was why Wildenthal and UTSW parted ways last year.

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New glimpses of unreported filth, neglect inside a former Mahmood hospital

Inspection on heels of Gov. Perry order revealed serious environmental neglect

As more governmental reports surface about Dr. Tariq Mahmood’s collapsed rural hospital chain, so do examples of hidden rot that escaped earlier regulatory scrutiny.

Take Central Texas Hospital in Cameron. Unlike other Mahmood facilities, CTH was the subject of only a few complaints over the last four years, leading to only a handful of inspections. That’s because the passive regulatory system relies almost entirely on complaints – instead of initiating its own inspections – to gauge the safety of hospitals.

But when Gov. Rick Perry’s office ordered a “deep and comprehensive” investigation of Mahmood’s chain in mid July, inspectors found severe environmental neglect at the Cameron hospital that had gone unreported, according to records I recently obtained:

* Medical and financial records strewn throughout a metal shed “in dirty piles with lawn equipment and Christmas decorations thrown haphazardly atop.”

* Expired medications stored for patient use.

Evidence heard on two other CPRIT awards, but grand jury chose not to issue indictments

Austin Police Department mugshot of Jerry Cobbs

AUSTIN – The indictment of Jerald “Jerry” Cobbs, the former chief commercialization officer of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, was part of a wider, year-long investigation that prosecutors say is over.

Cobbs was indicted last week on a felony charge accusing him of deceiving two of his CPRIT colleagues in 2010 when he failed to disclose that an $11 million grant to Peloton Therapeutics did not undergo a required business or scientific review.

CPRIT made that disclosure last November after an internal review and as The Dallas Morning News was preparing an article on irregularities with the award to the Dallas-based biotechnology firm.

A Travis County grand jury also heard evidence and testimony related to two other awards that CPRIT made, but the panel chose not to issue indictments.

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Texas Democrats launch attacks on Abbott after CPRIT indictment

AUSTIN – Texas’ cancer-fighting agency already was a hot issue in the 2014 governor’s race before last Friday’s indictment of a former high-ranking official.

Attorney General Greg Abbott's office had a seat on CPRIT's Oversight Committee.

But the felony charge against Jerald “Jerry” Cobbs, who served for three years as the chief commercialization officer of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, has raised the temperature significantly.

The governor’s race is expected to pit Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott against state Sen. Wendy Davis, a Fort Worth Democrat.

After Cobbs’ indictment by a Travis County grand jury was announced, Democrats released a torrent of statements.

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Former high-ranking official at Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas indicted on felony charge

Jerry Cobbs

AUSTIN  — A former high-ranking official of Texas’ cancer-fighting agency was indicted on a state felony in connection with a $11 million grant to a Dallas-based biotechnology firm, prosecutors announced Friday.

Jerald “Jerry” Cobbs is accused of securing execution of a document by deception. State law prohibits a person from causing another to sign a document affecting a financial interest.

Cobbs worked for the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas as chief commercialization officer for three years, resigning in November, 2012. He was the agency’s point person in efforts to help for-profit companies try to develop better ways to treat cancer.

The indictment by a Travis County grand jury could be a major blow to CPRIT and Gov. Rick Perry if Cobbs is convicted.

CPRIT is considered one of Perry’s signature accomplishments. Corruption in an agency that the governor championed could shadow Perry on the presidential campaign trail if he seeks the GOP nomination for President in 2016. Continue reading →

Houston lawyer known for quips, acquittals joins Mahmood’s criminal defense team

Veteran Houston attorney Dan Cogdell

If Dr. Tariq Mahmood goes to trial on federal fraud charges in February, he’ll have a flamboyant Texas defense lawyer riding shotgun.

In recent weeks, veteran Houston attorney Dan Cogdell joined the indicted hospital owner’s legal team. Cogdell is well known for defending figures accused of white-collar crimes, most notably perhaps in the Enron trials where he won a rare acquittal.

He’s also known for his controversial and flashy courtroom antics. He once described the government’s relationship with cooperating witnesses – in a bribery case – as having “its tongue down their throats.” In another trial, he shocked himself with a cattle prod to make a point, according to a Houston Chronicle profile in 2004.

Cogdell has yet to return my phone calls. But court records show his legal stroke already has impacted pre-trial proceedings for Mahmood, who has pleaded not guilty to charges in April that he defrauded Medicare and Medicaid through $1.2 million in hospital billings.

Cogdell helped persuade a judge to postpone the trial, originally scheduled for November, citing in part the complexity of legal issues and the need for more investigation. He also won a ruling to force U.S. attorneys to turn over to Mahmood’s team additional evidentiary material they collected which could prove exculpatory to the Dallas-area businessman.

Mahmood and his now-collapsed rural hospital chain have been in the cross hairs of government investigations and legal actions this year.

Since at least 2008, patients were jeopardized by substandard care – and at least four died during the last year – while federal and state regulators took little action, I reported in July. Gov. Rick Perry ordered an investigation of his health-care facilities and the regulatory breakdowns. I sought an update on that inquiry this afternoon, but a spokesman told me she can’t comment because the investigation still is ”ongoing.”

If I don’t hear back from Cogdell, I’m sure he’ll have plenty to say in a Mahmood trial. The deadline for a plea bargain is Jan. 27. A pre-trial conference is set for Feb. 3, where the specific trial date would be firmed up.

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How open are statewide candidates about their personal finances? Well …

You already know Texas will elect a governor next year. Six other important state offices are also available. The winners will regulate gas drilling and agriculture. They will audit government spending and prosecute fraudsters.

Just don’t expect to learn much about their personal finances.

Only 10 of the 48 candidates agreed to release their tax returns to the Texas Tribune, a political journalism non-profit in Austin. Sixteen didn’t even respond to the Tribune’s request.

Half of the 10 are in the two races that get the most attention, governor and lieutenant governor. So the public will probably learn a little more even without tax returns.

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