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Other Voices: What Texas editors are saying

Longview News-Journal - 6/9/2017

Step up Zika prevention

We commend U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, both Republicans from Texas, who are putting pressure on the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to better coordinate federal agents with Texas officials on the best Zika control methods. The senators also are insisting the CDC spend money Congress already has appropriated for such efforts, especially in places like Brownsville, which has been designated as a high-risk area for the disease. ...

That "threat" is very real right now after unseasonable rainfall recently struck the Rio Grande Valley and will likely result in a batch of millions more mosquitoes. ...

So we also ask how the CDC plans to utilize these funds and what is the time frame for usage? Particularly, how much of this money will go to South Texas - where there have been two confirmed cases of Zika, including transmission of the disease locally? And are federal agents working hand in hand with local and Texas state officials to come up with a solid game plan?

Last month, Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Department of State Health Services Commissioner John Hellerstedt attended a roundtable discussion on Zika in Brownsville hosted by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Abbott was clear that local officials need to get a jump on Zika before it gets the jump on us. ...

We believe our local health officials in Hidalgo and Cameron counties have been steadfast in spreading the message to our communities about protecting themselves from exposure to Zika, and in testing for the disease. And we believe our community is embracing and understanding the severe ramifications that this disease can have on families. But prevention takes funds and as of June 1, we're told by Cornyn's office the CDC has not responded with answers on how and when the agency intends to spend this money, or even if it plans to spend it in South Texas.

We believe the need is clear here. And the answers must come soon. ...

The Ken Paxton follies

Republicans and Democrats in Texas can argue about a lot of things - and do - but they should be able to agree on the integrity of the state's attorney general. Unfortunately, that's been up in the air for the past three years and the answer to the question has been surprisingly pushed back again.

Embattled Attorney General Ken Paxton recently succeeded in getting the Collins County judge who had presided over his case removed in favor of an as-yet-unnamed judge in Harris County. That's where his trial on two felony counts will take place.

Paxton said the judge was biased against him, and he has the right to argue that point in court. But legal observers can't recall this happening to any other case that has been moved, so at best it's rare. It does suggest that a high-ranking official might not be receiving the same consideration in a courtroom as John or Joan Q. Texan might, and that's unsettling.

The bigger issue is that the Sept. 12 trial date for this case has been cancelled, and no one knows when the next one will be scheduled because the presiding judge has not been selected. ...

Which means Texans will have to wait even longer to find out if the attorney general - the highest law enforcement officer in the state, mind you - is guilty of two felonies. ...

Death penalty's disfavor

It was welcome recent news that the death penalty is continuing to fall out of favor with Texas juries.

In the 15 death penalty cases tried in Texas since 2015, jurors have sentenced only eight men to death. ...

They've got good reasons to be reluctant.

This newspaper has been calling for the end of the death penalty in Texas since 2007. This error-prone system has proved to be expensive, arbitrary and unfair - and does little to discourage heinous crimes. It's clear that even in Texas, once the nation's death penalty leader, county prosecutors are seeking it less.

Fellow advocates against capital punishment call that progress. ...

It may have been too much to hope that Texas lawmakers would finally abolish the death penalty this legislative session. They once again left repeal legislation stuck in committee.

But there were hopeful signs that Austin is moving in the right direction.

A bill to repeal the death penalty at least received public hearings this session. And three bills that would have made more crimes eligible for the death penalty were never heard in committee. ...

Evidence continues to mount that this system is too ripe for mistakes. ...

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