Texas Democrat plans filibuster of GOP voting bill in state Senate as House lacks quorum
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Democrats on Wednesday continued to deny Republicans a quorum in the House, as Speaker Dade Phelan delivered 52 civil arrest warrants to state law enforcement to corral the absent members.
A group of nearly 60 Democrats left the state a month ago in an attempt to block passage of a GOP-backed voting bill during the first special session of the year and most have yet to return to the Capitol.
Four days into the second special session, House Republicans on Tuesday voted to direct state law enforcement to bring absent members to the floor, the second time such a vote has been taken during the quorum-bust. The use of civil arrest warrants is not mandatory under the vote, but an option that Phelan, a Republican from Beaumont, has decided to use.
The House gaveled in briefly Wednesday for those lawmakers present on the floor to collect their permission slips to leave the chamber for the day. The chamber will return to session Thursday afternoon.
The Texas Senate, meantime, began debate Wednesday afternoon on Senate Bill 1, the GOP-backed voting and elections bill that is similar to legislation that inspired the Democratic walkout in the House. Republicans argue that the bill will improve election integrity, while Democrats say the measure will disenfranchise voters.
But while senators were debating proposed amendments, state Sen. Carol Alvarado, a Houston Democrat, announced her intention to filibuster the legislation, delaying a final vote on the bill by speaking over an extended period.
—Austin American Statesman
From Britney Spears to political rivals, Joel Greenberg searched scores of names on confidential database
ORLANDO, Fla. — During his time as Seminole County’s tax collector, Joel Greenberg used a confidential database to look up the personal information of fellow elected officials, political rivals, county employees, family members and even celebrities — including Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake — newly released records show.
The names of hundreds that Greenberg pried into — ranging from U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, his friend who is reportedly the target of a sex-trafficking investigation, to his mother and even the elderly father of a rival county commissioner — reveals the extent to which the former tax collector apparently abused his access to the Driver and Vehicle Information Database beginning in August 2017 and continuing until just days before he was arrested and resigned from office in mid-June 2020.
“I am stunned that he did that,” said Seminole Commissioner Bob Dallari after learning that Greenberg in April 2018 looked up the private information of his now-91-year-old father, Albert Dallari, along with his mother, Dolores Dallari, who died more than 10 years ago. “I don’t get why he would do that. ... I don’t have an answer.”
A spreadsheet of Greenberg’s more-than-700 name searches, some of which he looked up more than once, was obtained by the Orlando Sentinel and the Florida Center for Government Accountability, a government watchdog group, through public record requests.
Greenberg is currently awaiting sentencing Nov. 18 in federal court after pleading guilty to six crimes, including sex trafficking of a child, identity theft, stalking, wire fraud and conspiracy to bribe a public official. He originally faced 33 federal charges, but prosecutors dropped the other 27 counts against him in return for him cooperating with investigators, who reportedly have since taken aim at Gaetz and others.
—Orlando Sentinel
Bill outlawing marriage under age 16 passes North Carolina House
RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina House unanimously passed a bill Wednesday that would raise the legal age to marry from 14 to 16, moving the state a bit closer to banning child marriage altogether.
But Wednesday’s vote seemed unlikely earlier this year.
When lawmakers first proposed Senate Bill 35 the plan was to ban marriage under 18 outright.
“Research indicates that people who marry as minors face increased dropout rates from both high school and college, increased medical and mental health problems, and markedly increased likelihood of future poverty,” Rep. Kristin Baker said in a news release following the vote. “This bill raises the age of marriage to 16. It also sets limits on age gaps for marriage of minors ages 16 and 17, thus serving as a deterrent for those who would target North Carolina as a destination state for human trafficking.”
Human trafficking was a large concern for the bill sponsors in both the Senate and the House, which had its own version of the bill.
But Sen. Danny Britt told his colleagues in May on the Senate floor that he couldn’t get support for that version of the bill because lawmakers had told him they either married teenagers, married as a teenager or knew someone who had.
Britt compromised and amended the bill to ban marriage under 16. And for those ages 16 and 17, they couldn’t marry anyone more than four years older.
The Senate passed the bill and sent it to the House where it received a favorable report on June 22.
And then it stalled.
The child marriage bill stalled when it was sent to the Families, Children and Aging Policy committee led by Rep. Jerry Carter, a Rockingham County Republican.
After Carter’s death last week, the bill moved out of his committee and into the Rules committee which sent the bill to the House floor.
—The News & Observer
