30 Jan 2013
Views Editor
• According to recent polls, 49 percent of Texans support an assault weapons ban. We don’t know how this could possibly happen, since our state’s voters also responded that they trust the National Rifle Association more than President Obama by a six point margin.
Unless this data was gathered on a single Friday night in an alley behind a liquor store, we’re not sure how this makes any sense.
The poll also revealed that only 38 percent of voters think Gov. Rick Perry should run for reelection.
After 12 years in office, we’re guessing his mediocre 2012 presidential campaign has something to do with these flagging numbers.
We were going to mention a third item from this poll, but we can’t remember it. Sorry. Oops.
• A Texas State trooper was fired yesterday by the Department of Public Safety for conducting some extremely unorthodox police work last summer.
During a traffic stop trooper David Farrell claimed to smell marijuana on two women, and called in a female trooper to conduct a search.
This trooper, Kelly Helleson, decided to be more thorough than usual by performing a full cavity search of both women on the side of the road.
Both women, who were not carrying drugs at the time, filed a lawsuit. Farrell and Helleson have been suspended with pay since last month, but yesterday the department decided to terminate Helleson after an investigation.
Farrell’s job is still in question, but we’re going to ask the obvious question — why weren’t they suspended without pay?
