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WALLER COUNTY
Officials sue gun rights activist DALLAS — A Texas county sued a gun-rights activist who has complained that county officials were unlawfully barring firearms from being brought into a public building. The lawsuit filed by Waller County, which extends into the suburbs of Houston, takes aim at Terry Holcomb Sr., the executive director of a gun-rights organization called Texas Carry. Holcomb has sent letters to more than 75 local governments and other public entities across the state complaining of restrictions placed on licenseholders from bringing a firearm into a public arena. Others have filed complaints with the Texas attorney general’s office accusing Austin City Hall, the Dallas Zoo, a nature preserve, a suburban Houston convention center and other places with unlawfully banning firearms. Those complaints are on top of regular fights that rage in Texas over guns, most recently with lawmakers approving the concealed carry of firearms on college campuses. In the case of courthouses like the one in Waller County, Texas law prohibits guns from being brought into courtrooms and related offices, but Attorney General Ken Paxton issued separate opinions in December saying firearms can’t be uniformly prohibited from an entire courthouse complex. Holcomb argues that the “heavy-handed” decision by Waller County to sue him makes his case much more than a Second Amendment matter. “We can agree or disagree on the gun issue but this is different than that,” he said, contending that the county’s suit is frivolous and “borderline official oppression.” The suit appears to be a highly unusual step. Dave Workman, spokesman for the Second Amendment Founda-
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HOUSTON, TEXAS
A divided America
Eric Gay / AP
Erika Jaramillo, center, and others hold signs supporting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during a Democratic National Convention watch party in San Antonio. In Texas, where 39 percent of the population is Hispanic, Democrats have been shut out of statewide elections for decades.
Hispanic voting bloc remains largely untapped By Will Weissert ASSOCIATED PRE SS
H
OUSTON — Diana Villenas begins her pitch in English, but switches to Spanish if she gets blank stares, which happens often. It’s a tough sell in any language. “Are you registered to vote?” asks the 21-yearold environmental studies student at St. Thomas University in Houston. “Do you want to be?” “No, gracias,” the bearded man in the black baseball cap says. Another ambling by with a cellphone to his ear shakes his head, as does a guy in a black-felt cowboy hat and a woman wearing a yellow blouse. The man in an American flag T-shirt even turns her down. As brassy Banda music blares from a nearby stage at a sprawling Hispanic festival adjacent to the Houston Texans’ dome, Villenas and other volunteers with Mi Familia Vota, a nonpartisan nonprofit which encourages Latino civic engagement, exhort possible voters. They find most aren’t eligible to Voting continues on A11
John Locher / AP
Fabiola Vejar, right, registers Stephanie Cardenas to vote in front of a Latino supermarket in Las Vegas. Shielded from deportation under an Obama administration program that protects those brought to the country illegally as children, Vejar, 18, cannot vote.
Activist continues on A11
US-MEXICO BORDER
Mexican and American Officers jointly inspect cargo By Astrid Galvan ASSOCIATED PRE SS
Astrid Galv'n / AP
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer Rachel McCormick, left, and Mexican customs officer Alejandra Galindo demonstrate how they would jointly inspect a cargo truck carrying goods from Mexico into the U.S. while at the Mariposa Inspection Facility at the Nogales Port of Entry in Arizona.
NOGALES, Ariz. — Federal authorities say a program that allows U.S. and Mexico officers to jointly inspect commercial trucks heading north has drastically reduced border crossing wait times in Arizona. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske and his Mexican counterpart, Ricardo Trevino, said at a news conference on Thursday in Nogales, Arizona, that wait times for certain cargo shipments from Mexico into the U.S. dropped from three to four hours to just 25 minutes. The pilot program that began last week includes only trucks enrolled in a special anti-terrorism program that
allows them to go through expedited inspections. The dual inspection program, which is currently in a 90-day pilot phase, allows Mexican customs officers who have been screened by U.S. authorities to work in the cargo inspection facility at the Nogales Port of Entry in Arizona. Mexican authorities already inspect outbound trucks before they get to the U.S., meaning the co-inspections were cut from two different searches to just one. “The things we are talking about today are just very important to improve the speed of commerce,” Kerlikowske said. “The unified cargo processing saves time, it saves trade stakeholders money, and that means that cargo, especially produce that is so subject to environ-
mental concerns, moves more quickly.” Trade with Mexico accounts for billions in profit in the United States. Arizona ports of entry alone facilitated $18.1 billion in imports from Mexico to the U.S. last year, according a report by the Economic and Business Research Center at the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management. “The key thing to keep in mind is that both import and exports through our ports of entry can improve the state’s economy,” the program’s director, George Hammond, said. “Mexico is a key trade partner with us.” A similar operation in Southern California and Laredo, Texas, allows U.S. agents to inspect cargo vehicles from the Border continues on A11