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VOTER ID
MIDEAST
Voter ID law before federal court judge
American down Video could show journalist’s beheading By ZEINA KARAM
US Justice Department says the law discriminates against minorities By PAUL J. WEBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
CORPUS CHRISTI — A federal judge on Tuesday began reviewing tough new Texas voter ID rules challenged by the Obama administration in a trial that could threaten the polarizing law, although a decision isn’t expected before the November election. Minority rights groups, voters and Democratic lawmakers are among a coalition of plaintiffs suing Texas, and they say their experts have estimated 787,000 registered voters lacking one of seven acceptable forms of ID to cast a ballot under the law. They say blacks and Hispanics make up a disproportionate slice of those voters. Texas is the first test by the Justice Department to wring protections from a weaker Voting Rights Act after the U.S. Supreme Court last year gutted the heart of the landmark 1965 civil rights law. In two Texas elections since that ruling, voters have been required to show an approved ID. Lawyers for Republican Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, the favorite to become governor in January, told a judge that both took place without glitches or disenfranchising voters. “This requirement is one that Americans comply with every day to engage in mundane activities like cashing a check, opening a bank account or boarding a plane,” said Reed Clay, a special assistant under Abbott. The trial in front of U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos in Corpus Christi is expected to last two weeks, but a ruling isn’t expected until after Election Day. That means roughly 13.6 million registered voters in Texas would still need to produce a photo ID this fall. Conservative states have rushed to pass voter ID restrictions in recent years, and similar lawsuits are ongoing in Wisconsin and North Carolina. Measures in Georgia
and Indiana have survived challenges. But the office of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says the Texas law stands out as especially stringent and racially motivated. Unlike other states with voter ID restrictions, Texas doesn’t recognize university IDs from college students at polling places, but does accept concealed handgun licenses as proof of identity. Free voting IDs are available from the state, but opponents say getting those cards still put underlying financial costs on voters, such as paying for birth certificate copies and travel. “The U.S. will show that (the law) interacts with social and historical conditions in Texas to cause inequality,” said Elizabeth Westfall, an attorney in the Justice Department’s civil rights division. Republican Gov. Rick Perry signed the voter ID law in 2011. It was blocked after a court ruled that it would disproportionately affect the poor and minorities, a finding that came under a review mandated by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Section 5 required nine mostly southern states with a history of discrimination to seek approval from either the U.S. Justice Department or a federal court, before changing election laws. But after the Supreme Court struck down Section 5 last summer, Texas was free to implement voter ID. The Justice Department argues that the law still runs afoul of the Voting Rights Act but now faces the higher threshold of proving intentional discrimination to prevail in court. Clay said opponents came up empty despite volumes of evidence and hours of depositions. He also contested the number of Texas registered voters who don’t have an acceptable form of ID, citing flaws in the state’s voter rolls. Between 2000 and 2010,
See VOTER ID PAGE 11A
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIRUT — Islamic State extremists released a video Tuesday purportedly showing the beheading of a second American journalist, Steven Sotloff, and warning President Barack Obama that as long as U.S. airstrikes against the militant group continue, “our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.” The footage — depicting what the U.S. called a sickening act of brutality
STEVEN SOTLOFF
— was posted two weeks after the release of video showing the killing of
James Foley and just days after Sotloff ’s mother pleaded for his life. Barak Barfi, a spokesman for the family, said that the Sotloffs had seen the video but that authorities have not established its authenticity. “The family knows of this horrific tragedy and is grieving privately. There will be no public comment from the family during this difficult time,” Barfi said. Sotloff, a 31-year-old Miami-area native who freelanced for Time and
Foreign Policy magazines, vanished in Syria in August 2013 and was not seen again until he appeared in a video released last month that showed Foley’s beheading. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit against an arid Syrian landscape, Sotloff was threatened in that video with death unless the U.S. stopped airstrikes on the Islamic State. In the video distributed Tuesday and titled “A Second Message to America,”
See SYRIA PAGE 11A
TRANSPORTATION
DANGEROUS RECLINE
Photo by John Mone/file | AP
Rows of slimline seats await installation aboard a Southwest Airlines 737 in Dallas, on Sept. 23, 2013. “Seats are getting closer together,” says Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents 60,000 flight attendants at 19 airlines.
It’s no longer safe to lean back in your seat By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Squeezed into tighter and tighter spaces, airline passengers appear to be rebelling, taking their frustrations out on other fliers. Three U.S. flights made unscheduled landings in the past eight days after passengers got into fights over the ability to recline their seats. Disputes over a tiny bit of personal space might seem petty, but for passengers
whose knees are already banging into tray tables, every inch counts. “Seats are getting closer together,” says Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents 60,000 flight attendants at 19 airlines. “We have to de-escalate conflict all the time.” There are fights over overhead bin space, legroom and where to put winter coats. “We haven’t hit the end of it,” Nelson says. “The condi-
tions continue to march in a direction that will lead to more and more conflict.” Airlines today are juggling terror warnings in Britain, an Ebola outbreak in Africa and an Icelandic volcano erupting and threating to close down European airspace. Yet, the issue of disruptive passengers has captured the world’s attention. It’s getting to the point where the pre-flight safety videos need an additional warning: Be nice to your
neighbor. The International Air Transport Association calls unruly passengers “an escalating problem,” saying there was one incident for every 1,300 flights in the past three years. The trade group would not share detailed historical data to back up the assertion that this is a growing problem. Today’s flying experience is far from glamorous. Passengers wait in long lines
See RECLINING
PAGE 11A
UTILITY SERVICE
New $1B power line to improve area’s service ASSOCIATED PRESS
McALLEN — Construction continues on a new $1 billion electricity line in South Texas that officials said will not only improve service in the state’s Rio Grande Valley but also allow energy generated in South Texas to be delivered to the rest of the state. The project was approved by the Electric Reliability Council
of Texas — the state’s electric grid operator — and the Public Utility Commission after a cold snap in February 2011 brought snow and ice to much of the state and resulted in rolling blackouts. The new line is set to be completed by 2016, the Monitor of McAllen reported Monday. The project’s cost is being paid by all Texas electricity users as officials said the line
would theoretically reduce congestion on the state power grid. The new line is part of the Cross Valley Project, headed by American Electric Power Texas and its affiliate, Electric Transmission Texas. Currently, more than 1.3 million people rely on two 20-yearold electricity lines in South Texas that run down from the Corpus Christi area to North Edinburg and Rio Hondo.
The project will not only provide the Rio Grande Valley with added capacity for energy delivery, but it will also allow American Electric Power to maintain the two existing lines more easily, said Lee Jones, a spokesman for AEP Texas. “For some time we wanted to build a line from Laredo to Edinburg because the capacity needs, with the area growing, it needs extra capacity,” Jones said. “And
one of the problems of only having two lines is that on the hot summer days too, we need both up and running and there’s no opportunity to take them down for maintenance.” Officials said the project will allow more energy generated by the Rio Grande Valley to be delivered north, like the power produced at a $410 million wind farm under construction in Starr County.