Articles On Information

Atlanta Educators Convicted in School Cheating Scandal

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<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Donald Bullock, a former Atlanta testing coordinator, was led to a holding cell after his conviction. A judge ordered most of the educators jailed immediately." data-mediaviewer-credit="Pool photo by Kent D. Johnson" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/02/us/02ATLANTAweb1/02ATLANTAweb1-superJumbo.jpg" height="292" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/02/us/02ATLANTAweb1/02ATLANTAweb1-master675.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/02/us/02ATLANTAweb1/02ATLANTAweb1-master675.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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ATLANTA
 —  In a dramatic conclusion to what has been described as the largest 
cheating scandal in the nation’s history, a jury here on Wednesday 
convicted 11 educators for their roles in a standardized test cheating 
scandal that tarnished a major school district’s reputation and raised 
broader questions about the role of high-stakes testing in American 
schools.</div>
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On
 their eighth day of deliberations, the jurors convicted 11 of the 12 
defendants of racketeering, a felony that carries up to 20 years in 
prison. Many of the defendants — a mixture of Atlanta public school 
teachers, testing coordinators and administrators — were also convicted 
of other charges, such as making false statements, that could add years 
to their sentences.</div>
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Judge
 Jerry W. Baxter of Fulton County Superior Court ordered most of the 
educators jailed immediately, and they were led from the courtroom in 
handcuffs. Judge Baxter, who presided over a trial that began with 
opening statements more than six months ago, will begin sentencing 
hearings next week.</div>
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<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Sharon Davis Williams, a former research team director, after being found guilty by a Fulton County Superior Court jury. Sentencing begins next week." data-mediaviewer-credit="Pool photo by Kent D. Johnson" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/02/us/02ATLANTAweb2/02ATLANTAweb2-superJumbo.jpg" height="300" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/02/us/02ATLANTAweb2/02ATLANTAweb2-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/02/us/02ATLANTAweb2/02ATLANTAweb2-articleLarge.jpg" width="400" /></a> 
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 “Our
 entire effort in this case was simply to get our community to stop and 
take a look at our educational system,” District Attorney Paul L. Howard
 Jr. said, adding, “I think because of the decision of this jury today 
that people will stop. I think people will stop, and they will make an 
assessment of our educational system.”</div>
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The
 dozen educators who stood trial, including five teachers and a 
principal, were indicted in 2013 after years of questions about how 
Atlanta students had substantially improved their scores on the <a href="https://www.gadoe.org/Curriculum-Instruction-and-Assessment/Assessment/Pages/CRCT.aspx" title="Georgia Department of Education website">Criterion-Referenced Competency Test</a>, a standardized examination given throughout Georgia.</div>
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In 2009, <a href="http://www.ajc.com/s/news/school-test-scores/#top-stories" title="Journal-Constitution coverage">The Atlanta Journal-Constitution</a>
 started publishing a series of articles that sowed suspicion about the 
veracity of the test scores, and Gov. Sonny Perdue ultimately ordered an
 investigation.</div>
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The
 inquiry, which was completed in 2011, led to findings that were 
startling and unsparing: Investigators concluded that cheating had 
occurred in at least 44 schools and that the district had been troubled 
by “organized and systemic misconduct.” Nearly 180 employees, including 
38 principals, were accused of wrongdoing as part of an effort to 
inflate test scores and misrepresent the achievement of Atlanta’s 
students and schools.</div>
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The
 investigators wrote that cheating was particularly ingrained in 
individual schools — at one, for instance, a principal wore gloves while
 she altered answer sheets — but they also said that the district’s top 
officials, including Superintendent Beverly L. Hall, bore some 
responsibility.</div>
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Investigators
 wrote in the report that Dr. Hall and her aides had “created a culture 
of fear, intimidation and retaliation” that had permitted “cheating — at
 all levels — to go unchecked for years.”</div>
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Officials
 said the cheating allowed employees to collect bonuses and helped 
improve the reputations of both Dr. Hall and the perpetually troubled 
school district she had led since 1999.</div>
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Dr.
 Hall, who died on March 2, insisted that she had done nothing wrong and
 that her approach to education, which emphasized data, was not to 
blame. “I can’t accept that there’s a culture of cheating,” Dr. Hall <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/us/08hall.html" title="Times article">said in an interview</a> in 2011. “What these 178 are accused of is horrific, but we have over 3,000 teachers.”</div>
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But a Fulton County grand jury later <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/us/former-school-chief-in-atlanta-indicted-in-cheating-scandal.html" title="Times article">accused her and 34 other district employees</a>
 of being complicit in the cheating. Twenty-one of the educators reached
 plea agreements; two defendants, including Dr. Hall, died before they 
could stand trial.</div>
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But
 12 defendants chose to go before a jury. Testimony did not conclude 
until the end of February, and jurors began their deliberations on March
 19.</div>
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It
 was a gamble. Judge Baxter warned during a plea hearing in 2014 that 
there would be “severe consequences” for any defendant who was convicted
 at trial. The gamble paid off for a single defendant, Dessa Curb, a 
former elementary school teacher who was acquitted on Wednesday.</div>
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“I’m thankful to God that it turned out well for me, but I’m very upset about the others,” Ms. Curb said outside the courtroom.</div>
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<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Beverly L. Hall, the former superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools. Investigators said Dr. Hall, who died on March 2, &ldquo;created a culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation.&rdquo;" data-mediaviewer-credit="Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/24/us/00ATLANTAweb2/00ATLANTAweb2-superJumbo.jpg" height="266" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/24/us/00ATLANTAweb2/00ATLANTAweb2-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/24/us/00ATLANTAweb2/00ATLANTAweb2-articleLarge.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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 Defense
 lawyers, some of whom were clearly angered by Judge Baxter’s decision 
to jail the educators on Wednesday, immediately began planning appeals 
and said they were stunned by the verdicts.</div>
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“I
 respect the jury, but I believe they got it wrong,” said Robert G. 
Rubin, who represented Dana Evans, a former principal. He described Ms. 
Evans as “shocked and devastated.”</div>
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“We
 certainly talked about the possibility that this would happen,” he 
said. “I don’t think either one of us believed it would actually 
happen.”</div>
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Just
 as the defendants took a risk by standing trial, Mr. Howard had made a 
bet of his own when he decided to prosecute educators under a law more 
frequently used against organized crime figures. During three days of 
closing arguments last month, defense lawyers often said that Mr. 
Howard’s office had overreached.</div>
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And
 on Wednesday, even as Mr. Howard received some vindication, questions 
persisted about whether he should have devoted such extraordinary 
attention to the case.</div>
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“The
 jury has made a determination, and in some respects, that affirms what 
the prosecution has done in this case,” said William H. Thomas, a former
 federal prosecutor here. “For me, the real question is: Was the victory
 worth the candle? Have they killed a fly with the proverbial 
sledgehammer?”</div>
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The
 trial riveted Atlantans — television and radio stations interrupted 
programming on Wednesday afternoon to broadcast the courtroom scene — 
and the city’s school board said in a statement that the verdict capped 
“a sad and tragic chapter for Atlanta Public Schools.”</div>
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The
 district, which has more than 50,000 students, has in recent years 
created a hotline for ethics complaints to be made anonymously, ended 
bonuses connected to test scores and replaced employees throughout the 
system. A new superintendent was installed last summer.</div>
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“Challenges
 remain, for sure, but we are making progress every day, and there is 
great reason to be optimistic,” the board’s statement said.</div>
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The
 case unfolded at a time of pushback against what some see as the 
excesses of standardized testing. While the Atlanta scandal fueled some 
criticism, those who oppose testing also argue that the exams force 
teachers to narrow their lessons and may not represent what students 
learn. Coming amid a political groundswell against academic standards 
known as the Common Core, the scandal was just one factor in an 
increasing debate over testing and its role in education.</div>
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“People
 know that the test scores are flawed for a variety of reasons and that 
they cannot be relied on as the sole or primary factor to make 
high-stakes decisions,” said Robert A. Schaeffer, the public education 
director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing.</div>
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But inside the Fulton County Courthouse on Wednesday afternoon, the issues of testing were decidedly more local and immediate.</div>
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“I
 don’t like to send anybody to jail,” Judge Baxter said after he ordered
 that the educators be detained until sentencing. “It’s not one of the 
things I get a kick out of. But they have made their bed, and they’re 
going to have to lie in it, and it starts today.”</div>
</div>

Atlanta Educators Convicted in School Cheating Scandal

ATLANTA — In a dramatic conclusion to what has been described as the largest cheating scandal in the nation’s history, a jury here on...

2:06 AM

Californians Who Conserved Wonder if State Can Overcome Those Who Didn’t

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<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Some Californians have cut down on watering their lawns, and others have decided to forgo greenery for native plants." data-mediaviewer-credit="Max Whittaker for The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/03/us/03drought-JP/03drought-JP-superJumbo.jpg" height="219" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/03/us/03drought-JP/03drought-JP-master675.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/03/us/03drought-JP/03drought-JP-master675.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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LOS
 ANGELES —  Some Californians are already showering just once a week, 
with buckets at their feet to catch every errant drop. They are building
 rainwater tanks in their backyards and replacing their lawns with 
mesquite and desert sage. They glare at water-wasting neighbors, and 
post photographs online to “drought shame” businesses that spray down 
their sidewalks.</div>
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But
 a day after Gov. Jerry Brown announced sweeping mandatory cuts to water
 use, Californians said they worried that their efforts to scrimp and 
conserve were simply not enough in the face of a four-year drought that 
has drained reservoirs, robbed mountains of snow and raised concerns 
about an increasingly scarce and precious resource.</div>
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In Marin County, just outside San Francisco, Chas Blackford, 64, 
recently installed a $500 gray-water system that lets him use water from
 the laundry machine on the drought-resistant plants in his yard. In 
other efforts to be thrifty, he pours used pasta water onto his garden, 
shares a bath with his wife and has replaced his lawn with crushed 
granite. </div>
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“At
 this point, there is not much more we can do except be more vigilant,” 
Mr. Blackford said. He applauded Mr. Brown’s call for water agencies to 
use conservation pricing — with higher water costs, either in terms of 
rates or penalties — for bigger users.</div>
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“We need a water tax” he said.</div>
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Felicia
 Marcus, the head of the State Water Resources Control Board, said her 
board would release a proposal in about two weeks on how to achieve the 
25 percent statewide reduction in water contained in Mr. Brown’s order 
on Wednesday. Communities could be ordered to cut their water 
consumption by about 10 percent to as high as 35 percent, depending on 
their conservation efforts to date. The per capita water consumption 
rate in some communities is two or three times the state average.</div>
</div>

Californians Who Conserved Wonder if State Can Overcome Those Who Didn’t

LOS ANGELES — Some Californians are already showering just once a week, with buckets at their feet to catch every errant drop. They a...

1:59 AM

Arizona Doctors Must Say That Abortions With Drugs May Be Reversed

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<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" border="0" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Gov. Doug Ducey" data-mediaviewer-credit="Matt York/Associated Press" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/01/us/01ARIZONA/01ARIZONA-superJumbo.jpg" height="400" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/01/us/01ARIZONA/01ARIZONA-master180.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/01/us/01ARIZONA/01ARIZONA-master180.jpg" width="309" /></a>PHOENIX
 —  Once again, Arizona finds itself on the frontier of anti-abortion 
legislation: Late Monday, it became the first state to pass a law 
requiring doctors who perform drug-induced abortions to tell women that 
the procedure may be reversible, an assertion that most doctors say is 
wrong.</div>
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The
 provision is part of a broader law signed by Gov. Doug Ducey, a 
Republican, meant to prevent plans offered in Arizona through the 
federal health care exchange from providing coverage for most abortions.</div>
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Opponents
 of abortion see the provision — in which doctors must explain to women 
having early-stage pill-induced abortions “that it may be possible to 
reverse the effects of a medical abortion” — as opening up a new avenue 
in anti-abortion legislation nationwide.</div>
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Most
 doctors say the science behind the legislation is unproven or 
erroneous. It is based largely on the research of Dr. George Delgado, 
who said he was able to save the pregnancies of a number of women after 
they had started, but not completed, the two-step process involved in 
such an abortion.</div>
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As is usually the case in abortion politics, the talk on both sides is forceful.</div>
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“It’s
 tragic when a woman makes a decision to have an abortion without 
knowing all the facts,” said Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for 
Arizona Policy, a conservative organization that was a leading supporter
 of the legislation. “We know children have been born. We know women 
have been spared the heartache of abortion. There’s no downside to this.
 Where’s the harm in informing a woman that it could be reversible?”</div>
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On the other side, Jody Liggett, the public policy director of <a class="meta-org" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" title="More articles about Planned Parenthood Federation of America">Planned Parenthood</a>
 Arizona, called the new law “dangerous and quite simply outrageous.” 
She said: “Arizona women trust their physicians. Extreme policy makers 
are preying on this trust in order to further bad medicine, all in the 
name of politics, and not science.”</div>
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In
 a drug-induced abortion, the woman first takes mifepristone, a drug 
designed to end a pregnancy of less than seven weeks, followed about two
 days later by the drug misoprostol. Dr. Delgado, a family physician and
 medical director of Culture of Life Family Services in San Diego, says 
that by giving a woman progesterone, a hormone, before she takes the 
second drug, the abortion can be reversed.</div>
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Dr.
 Delgado started a website explaining the method because, he said, women
 were not being told by their abortion providers that it was an option, 
or, if they were informed, they were told that a reversed abortion could
 lead to birth defects. He published an article in the December 2012 
issue of Annals of Pharmacotherapy in which he said that four out of the
 six women in his study who took progesterone after taking mifepristone 
were able to carry their pregnancies to term. He said he has since 
documented 87 cases where a woman gave birth to a healthy child and 75 
where women were still pregnant after being given the progesterone.</div>
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But Dr. Delgado’s findings have faced serious scrutiny from the medical community.</div>
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“It
 has no data behind it, absolutely no science to show that this is an 
effective method,” said Dr. Ilana Addis, the chairwoman of the Arizona 
section of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The
 organization said that in 30 percent to 50 percent of cases in which a 
woman takes only mifepristone, the pregnancy will continue, meaning the 
progesterone could have had little effect.</div>
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“There’s no research,” she said. “It’s a series of case reports.”</div>
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Republican
 legislators in Arizona have a history of pursuing laws intended to make
 it harder for women to get an abortion or to encourage them to change 
their minds. The state requires a woman to meet with a doctor at least 
24 hours before the procedure and have an ultrasound. In 2012, the 
governor at the time, Jan Brewer, signed legislation that barred most 
abortions after 20 weeks, but it was later struck down in the courts. </div>
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In
 2006, Ms. Brewer’s predecessor, Janet Napolitano, vetoed legislation 
that would have required abortion providers to tell a woman having an 
abortion after 20 weeks that the fetus would feel pain. </div>
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On
 Tuesday, Mr. Ducey, who took office this year, released a statement 
saying the law “ensures that women have as much information as possible 
when making an important medical decision.”</div>
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But
 critics have lambasted the law as inserting questionable information in
 an already distressing time for a woman, inviting litigation and 
potentially embarrassing Arizona.  </div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="363" data-total-count="4888" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“This
 is not who the people of Arizona are — most people here are rational, 
reasonable people, even if they feel differently on reproductive health 
than I do,” said Representative Victoria Steele, a Democrat from Tucson.
 “How can you stomach allowing doctors — no, forcing doctors — to tell 
their patients that a medicated abortion can be reversed?”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="97" data-total-count="4985" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“This is quack medicine,” she added, “yet we put it into law and the governor signed it.”</div>
</div>

Arizona Doctors Must Say That Abortions With Drugs May Be Reversed

PHOENIX — Once again, Arizona finds itself on the frontier of anti-abortion legislation: Late Monday, it became the first state to pass...

12:16 AM

A Texas Ban on Gambling That Doesn’t Quite Work

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<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span class="visually-hidden"></span><img alt="" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="An eight-liner slot machine parlor operating just outside Sullivan City, Tex. Despite laws saying otherwise, casinos thrive throughout the state." data-mediaviewer-credit="Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/us/31slots-web01/31slots-web01-superJumbo.jpg" height="266" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/us/31slots-web01/31slots-web01-master675.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/us/31slots-web01/31slots-web01-master675.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<figure class="media photo lede layout-large-horizontal" data-media-action="modal" id="media-100000003600701" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/us/31slots-web01/31slots-web01-master675.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group"><figcaption class="caption" itemprop="caption description"><span class="caption-text">An eight-liner slot machine 
parlor operating just outside Sullivan City, Tex. Despite laws saying 
otherwise, casinos thrive throughout the state.</span>
                        <span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">
            <span class="visually-hidden">Credit</span>
            Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times        </span>
            </figcaption>
    </figure></div>
</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="305" data-total-count="305" id="story-continues-1" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
SULLIVAN
 CITY, Tex. —  Casino gambling with cash payoffs is illegal in Texas. 
But on a drizzly Tuesday afternoon in February, you could not tell it by
 the scene inside a former tire shop near this Rio Grande Valley border 
town: a few dozen men and women gambling on 75 slot machines in 
windowless rooms.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="255" data-total-count="560" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Among
 the cattle ranches and wind-battered palm trees on U.S. Highway 83, the
 setting was lowbrow — free chips and soft drinks were the only 
amenities — but the payouts, in one of the poorest sections of Texas, 
were substantial, up to $4,000 per play.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="211" data-total-count="771" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
After
 sliding their money into the machines, gamblers who scored jackpots 
raised their hand, yelled “Ticket!” and waited for a worker carrying a 
thick wad of bills to convert the points they had won to cash.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="401" data-total-count="1172" id="story-continues-2" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Despite
 laws saying otherwise, casinos thrive throughout the state, an 
underground billion-dollar industry that operates in a murky realm and 
engages in a perpetual cat-and-mouse game with the authorities. It is 
unlawful for slot-machine casinos to pay cash to gamblers, but it is 
legal to own, operate and play the machines in Texas, as long as the 
prizes are cheap noncash items such as coffee pots.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<figure class="media photo embedded has-adjacency has-lede-adjacency layout-large-horizontal media-100000003600702 ratio-tall" data-media-action="modal" id="media-100000003600702" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/us/31slots-web02/31slots-web02-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group">
    
    <div class="image">
            <div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Slot machines seized in illegal operations in Cameron County, Tex., held in a warehouse. They will eventually be sold." data-mediaviewer-credit="Kirsten Luce for The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/us/31slots-web02/31slots-web02-superJumbo.jpg" height="266" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/us/31slots-web02/31slots-web02-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/us/31slots-web02/31slots-web02-articleLarge.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<figcaption class="caption" itemprop="caption description">
                <span class="caption-text">Slot machines seized in illegal operations in Cameron County, Tex., held in a warehouse. They will eventually be sold.</span>
                        <span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">
            <span class="visually-hidden">Credit</span>
            Kirsten Luce for The New York Times        </span>
            </figcaption>
    </figure></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="397" data-total-count="1569" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 legal gray area has grown even grayer as the state and several cities 
and counties have required gambling room operators to pay taxes and 
fees. But lax oversight by the state and local authorities helps explain
 how casino gambling has become so common even in a state like Texas, 
which publicly and officially is keeping casinos out while quietly and 
unofficially allowing them to proliferate.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="532" data-total-count="2101" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Texas
 has 30,000 to 150,000 illegal slot machines that make an estimated $1.9
 billion annually, according to the Texas Lottery Commission, which runs
 the state-approved lottery. The slot machines — known as eight-liners, 
for the variety of lines that need to match up for a player to win — are
 often hidden in abandoned or fake businesses, and have turned up in 
spaces that from the outside appeared to be karate schools, car 
dealerships, lawn mower repair shops and, in the South Texas town of 
Alton last year, a molecular lab.</div>
<div class="ad moses-ad nocontent robots-nocontent" id="Moses" style="text-align: justify;">
<a class="visually-hidden skip-to-text-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/us/texas-slot-machines-ring-up-big-business-in-a-legal-gray-area.html?ref=us#story-continues-3">Continue reading the main story</a>
</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="376" data-total-count="2477" id="story-continues-3" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“It’s
 like the poor man’s speakeasy in Texas,” said Richard B. Roper III, a 
former federal prosecutor who oversaw a 2007 case that shut an Amarillo 
gambling room that made up to $4,600 weekly and whose operators bribed a
 law enforcement official to avoid being raided. He added, “If the guy’s
 willing to pay off a cop, there’s got to be some money to be made.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="406" data-total-count="2883" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Some
 of the machines the authorities have confiscated in raids have official
 state tax decals — the Texas comptroller’s office collects $10 million 
annually on eight-liners, pool tables and other devices as part of a 
coin-operated machines tax. But state officials have no idea which slot 
machine operators are making illegal cash payouts, saying it is up to 
local authorities to enforce gambling laws.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="295" data-total-count="3178" id="story-continues-4" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Yet
 many local officials lack the resources and the will to prove whether 
cash is being exchanged. And some communities have had even less 
incentive to investigate gambling rooms since officials began requiring 
casinos to pay for costly permits, bringing in revenue to needy cities 
and counties.</div>
<div class="ad ad-placeholder nocontent robots-nocontent" style="text-align: justify;">
<a class="visually-hidden skip-to-text-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/us/texas-slot-machines-ring-up-big-business-in-a-legal-gray-area.html?ref=us#story-continues-5">Continue reading the main story</a>
</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="373" data-total-count="3551" id="story-continues-5" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Workers
 at two gambling rooms on Highway 83 in Starr County — one in the former
 tire shop and the other in a renovated gravel warehouse, both of which 
openly paid players in cash during a visit in February — claimed to have
 county permits but declined to comment further. “You’re not a cop, 
right?” a worker at one said. “Then we don’t have to talk to you.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<figure class="media photo embedded has-adjacency layout-large-horizontal media-100000003600740 ratio-tall" data-media-action="modal" id="media-100000003600740" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/30/us/31SLOTS-web3/31SLOTS-web3-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group">
    
    <div class="image">
            <div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="In the Rio Grande Valley, just outside Sullivan City, Tex., this eight-liner parlor dispenses cash prizes." data-mediaviewer-credit="Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/30/us/31SLOTS-web3/31SLOTS-web3-superJumbo.jpg" height="300" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/30/us/31SLOTS-web3/31SLOTS-web3-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/30/us/31SLOTS-web3/31SLOTS-web3-articleLarge.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="media-action-overlay">

</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="caption" itemprop="caption description">
                <span class="caption-text">In the Rio Grande Valley, just outside Sullivan City, Tex., this eight-liner parlor dispenses cash prizes.</span>
                        <span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">
            <span class="visually-hidden">Credit</span>
            Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times        </span>
            </figcaption>
    </figure></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="337" data-total-count="3888" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Starr
 County charges eight-liner operators $500 per machine, through an 
annual licensing fee approved by the County Commissioners’ Court last 
year. Starr County’s top elected official, County Judge Eloy Vera, did 
not respond to requests for comment, but he told a local television 
station, KGBT, that the fees generated $1.7 million.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="283" data-total-count="4171" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“They
 frankly are turning a blind eye to illegality,” said the county 
attorney, Victor Canales Jr., who opposed the ordinance allowing 
eight-liner permits. “As pretty much everybody in the county knows, 
there are cash payouts. You see postings on Facebook of people winning.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="363" data-total-count="4534" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The industry has grown so large, particularly near the border, that it has attracted the attention of the federal <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" title="More articles about the Homeland Security Department.">Department of Homeland Security</a>.
 And it has injected an illicit attraction into small towns that now hum
 at all hours with a scaled-down Las Vegas Strip experience of chiming 
slot machines, free all-you-can-eat buffets and uniformed security 
guards.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="245" data-total-count="4779" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 gambling room on Highway 83 at the renovated gravel warehouse featured 
at least 100 machines; a giant, sparkling chandelier; pictures of 
Marilyn Monroe on the red walls; and free hot dogs. Dance music blared. 
One gambler wore medical scrubs.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="341" data-total-count="5120" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Esperanza
 Salinas, 70, a retired middle-school teacher, went there with her 
72-year-old husband, Jorge Salinas, and her brother-in-law, Armando 
Salinas Jr., 68, a former city commissioner in the town of Elsa. When 
she is not busy deer hunting or volunteering at her church, Mrs. Salinas
 said, she gambles on eight-liners about twice a month.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="206" data-total-count="5326" id="story-continues-6" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
That
 February afternoon, the three of them spent a few hours gambling at the
 renovated tire shop and gravel warehouse. Mrs. Salinas lost $70, while 
her brother-in-law lost $50 and her husband won about $80.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<figure class="media photo embedded has-adjacency layout-large-horizontal media-100000003600741 ratio-tall" data-media-action="modal" id="media-100000003600741" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/30/us/31SLOTS-web04/31SLOTS-web04-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" role="group">
    
    <div class="image">
            <div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Esperanza Salinas, 70, and her husband, Jorge, 72, after visiting an eight-liner parlor. Mrs. Salinas gambles on slots twice a month." data-mediaviewer-credit="Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/30/us/31SLOTS-web04/31SLOTS-web04-superJumbo.jpg" height="266" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/30/us/31SLOTS-web04/31SLOTS-web04-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/30/us/31SLOTS-web04/31SLOTS-web04-articleLarge.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="media-action-overlay">

</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="caption" itemprop="caption description">
                <span class="caption-text">Esperanza Salinas, 70, and 
her husband, Jorge, 72, after visiting an eight-liner parlor. Mrs. 
Salinas gambles on slots twice a month.</span>
                        <span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">
            <span class="visually-hidden">Credit</span>
            Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times        </span>
            </figcaption>
    </figure></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="224" data-total-count="5550" id="story-continues-7" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“We’re
 not hurting anybody,” she said. “We see it as entertainment and have 
fun. I’ve never been in one where there’s a fight or an argument or a 
disagreement, anything like that. You don’t see any riffraff.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="108" data-total-count="5658" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Gamblers like Mrs. Salinas have an unlikely group to thank for the slot-machine boom: the Texas Legislature.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="534" data-total-count="6192" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
In
 1993, lawmakers approved legislation that seemed so innocuous it was 
known as the “fuzzy animals” bill. It was intended to ensure that 
amusement games, such as those played by children at Chuck E. Cheese’s 
or a carnival that awarded stuffed animals, would not be considered 
unlawful gambling devices. The bill, signed into law by Gov. Ann W. 
Richards, legalized any device made for “bona fide amusement purposes” 
that awarded noncash prizes with a value of $5 or no more than 10 times 
the amount charged to play the game.</div>
<div class="ad ad-placeholder nocontent robots-nocontent" style="text-align: justify;">
<a class="visually-hidden skip-to-text-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/us/texas-slot-machines-ring-up-big-business-in-a-legal-gray-area.html?ref=us#story-continues-8">Continue reading the main story</a>
</div>
<div class="ad text-ad middle-right-ad nocontent robots-nocontent" id="MiddleRightN" style="text-align: justify;">
<a class="visually-hidden skip-to-text-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/us/texas-slot-machines-ring-up-big-business-in-a-legal-gray-area.html?ref=us#story-continues-8">Continue reading the main story</a>
</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="588" data-total-count="6780" id="story-continues-8" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
But
 operators of illegal gambling rooms began exploiting the law. Hundreds 
opened in Houston’s Harris County, until county leaders approved tough 
regulations that required them to close between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., to 
have untinted windows and to be at least 1,500 feet from schools, 
churches and residential neighborhoods. In 2011 in Brownsville in South 
Texas, the federal Homeland Security Investigations began looking into 
money-laundering activity associated with eight-liner establishments. 
They uncovered an estimated 9,000 machines making $300 million annually 
in Cameron County.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="196" data-total-count="6976" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“That
 amount of money is just a huge red flag for us at the federal level,” 
said Kevin W. Benson, assistant special agent in charge of Homeland 
Security Investigations in the Brownsville area.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="441" data-total-count="7417" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Cameron
 County’s eight-liner industry has been largely dismantled, after the 
federal investigators shared their intelligence with the district 
attorney, Luis V. Saenz. About 40 raids have been conducted since April 
2013 as part of Mr. Saenz’s Operation Bishop, including one at the 
American Legion in Port Isabel and others at empty houses that were 
turned into illegal gambling rooms with automated teller machines for 
customers to use.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="413" data-total-count="7830" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
“I’m
 not here to judge morally,” Mr. Saenz said. “I’m the chief law 
enforcement officer of the county, and it’s my job to enforce the law. 
We hit this place in La Feria that had been called ‘Little Vegas.’ It 
was like a compound where they had three different gaming rooms. They 
had their strobe lights, and their blinking lights, and their signs. 
They’re doing it out in the open, blatantly.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="385" data-total-count="8215" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
Mr.
 Saenz’s focus on eight-liners has cost him votes, led to a death threat
 against him and supplied him with his own gambling room, of sorts. 
About 100 slot machines seized in the raids sit in a brick warehouse. 
Roughly 500 others were sold to a company that paid the county $100,000.
 Mr. Saenz said environmental regulations prohibited him from destroying
 confiscated eight-liners.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I wanted to steamroll them to send a message,” he said.</div>
</div>

A Texas Ban on Gambling That Doesn’t Quite Work

An eight-liner slot machine parlor operating just outside Sullivan City, Tex. Despite laws saying otherwise, casinos thrive throughou...

12:12 AM

Bills on ‘Religious Freedom’ Upset Capitols in Arkansas and Indiana

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<div style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="" class="media-viewer-candidate" data-mediaviewer-caption="Protesters at the Arkansas Capitol on Tuesday rallied against a religious freedom bill that critics say could cause discrimination." data-mediaviewer-credit="Danny Johnston/Associated Press" data-mediaviewer-src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/01/us/01RELIGIOUS2jp/01RELIGIOUS2jp-superJumbo.jpg" height="266" itemid="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/01/us/01RELIGIOUS2jp/01RELIGIOUS2jp-master675.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/04/01/us/01RELIGIOUS2jp/01RELIGIOUS2jp-master675.jpg" width="400" /> </div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="364" data-total-count="364" id="story-continues-1" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
LITTLE
 ROCK, Ark. —  The Arkansas legislature on Tuesday passed its version of
 a bill described by proponents as a religious freedom law, even as 
Indiana’s political leaders struggled to gain control over a growing 
backlash that has led to calls to boycott the state because of criticism
 that its law could be a vehicle for discrimination against gay couples.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="493" data-total-count="857" itemprop="articleBody" style="text-align: justify;">
The
 Arkansas bill now goes to the state’s Republican governor, Asa 
Hutchinson, who expressed reservations about an earlier version but more
 recently said he would sign the measure if it “reaches my desk in 
similar form as to what has been passed in 20 other states.” But the 
bill already faces a significant corporate backlash, including from Doug
 McMillon, the chief executive of Walmart, the state’s largest 
corporation, who said Tuesday afternoon that Mr. Hutchinson should veto 
it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;">In Indiana, Gov. Mike Pence was in a difficult spot trying to satisfy both the <span style="color: black;">business interests that have threatened to punish the state for its law as well as the conservatives who fought for the measure and do not want to see it diluted. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="225" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/03/31/multimedia/indiana-religious-law/indiana-religious-law-videoSixteenByNine540.jpg" width="400" /> </div>
<div class="summary" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"> Gov. Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, 
says that the religious freedom law passed in the state was never 
intended to give a “license to discriminate” against gay and lesbian 
couples.</a></div>
<div class="summary-credit" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://articlesoninformation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">                            Video By Reuters on                                                    Publish Date March 31, 2015.                                                                            Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images. </a></div>
<div class="summary-credit" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="315" data-total-count="1413" id="story-continues-3" itemprop="articleBody">
Mr.
 Pence has said he wants to modify the law, but he has not indicated how
 he could do so without undermining it. He rejected claims that it would
 allow private businesses to deny service to gay men and lesbians and 
said the criticism was based on a “perception problem” that additional 
legislation could fix.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="260" data-total-count="1673" itemprop="articleBody">
“I’ve
 come to the conclusion that it would be helpful to move legislation 
this week that makes it clear that this law does not give businesses the
 right to discriminate against anyone,” Mr. Pence, a Republican, said at
 a news conference in Indianapolis.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="337" data-total-count="2010" itemprop="articleBody">
He
 acknowledged that the law had become a threat to the state’s reputation
 and economy, with companies and organizations signaling that they would
 avoid Indiana in response. Mr. Pence said he had been on the phone with
 business leaders from around the country, adding, “We want to make it 
clear that Indiana’s open for business.”</div>
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<a class="visually-hidden skip-to-text-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/us/religious-freedom-restoration-act-arkansas-indiana.html?ref=us#story-continues-4">Continue reading the main story</a>
</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="259" data-total-count="2269" id="story-continues-4" itemprop="articleBody">
The
 bill in Arkansas is similar to the Indiana law, with both diverging in 
certain respects from the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. 
That act was passed in 1993 and signed into law by President Bill 
Clinton, Arkansas’s most famous political son.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="308" data-total-count="2577" itemprop="articleBody">
But
 the political context has changed widely since then. The law was 
spurred by an effort to protect Native Americans in danger of losing 
their jobs because of religious ceremonies that involved an illegal 
drug, peyote. Now the backdrop is often perceived to be the cultural 
division over <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/same_sex_marriage/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions, and Domestic Partnerships.">same-sex marriage</a>.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="444" data-total-count="3021" id="story-continues-5" itemprop="articleBody">
Both
 states’ laws allow for larger corporations, if they are substantially 
owned by members with strong religious convictions, to claim that a 
ruling or mandate violates their religious faith, something reserved for
 individuals or family businesses in other versions of the law. Both 
allow religious parties to go to court to head off a “likely” state 
action that they fear will impinge on their beliefs, even if it has not 
yet happened.</div>
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The
 Arkansas act contains another difference in wording, several legal 
experts said, that could make it harder for the government to override a
 claim of religious exemption. The state, according to the Arkansas 
bill, must show that a law or requirement that someone is challenging is
 “essential” to the furtherance of a compelling governmental interest, a
 word that is absent from the federal law and those in other states, 
including Indiana.</div>
 
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Bills on ‘Religious Freedom’ Upset Capitols in Arkansas and Indiana

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Arkansas legislature on Tuesday passed its version of a bill described by proponents as a religious freedom...