Weekly Roundup 

WEEKLY ROUNDUP 

A weekly roundup of the stories and headlines that you may have missed.  Week ending APRIL 6, 2022.

HUNTER BIDEN'S "LAPTOP FROM HELL" | Read for Yourself

Read Hunter's Laptop Messages for Yourself!

I'm sick of hearing about it too.  Seeing is believing, I always say.  On the other hand I believed Trump and Guilliani all along prior to the election of 2020.  The laptop is real.  The FBI had the laptop since 2019 and over 50 LYING members of our government denied it, and voters were DECEIVED.  

The Biden Crime Family (among others) need to be arrested and tried for Treason.  Read all of the messages for yourself! HERE.  (bidenmessages.pdf)

If after reading, you aren't convinced that both Hunter & Joe Biden deserve to be arrested, tried and hung, then you must be in on it.

Enough is enough.  I'm sick of hearing about it!  We need justice!  And my honest opinion is we need to fire the whole damn government and hold them accountable.  They serve no purpose to THE PEOPLE.  END THIS before they destroy it all!  

TEXAS AIR SIRENS - LOCATIONS | Where are They?

Where are the Texas Air Raid (EAS) Sirens Located?

FOLLOW UP POST CHILD SEX-TRAFFICKING - BASTROP, TX | I'M NOT BUYING THIS FOR ONE SECOND. I DEMAND FURTHER INVESTIGATION.

**I'M NOT BUYING IT FOR ONE SECOND.  I want further investigation.  Come on guys. Do not let this investigation die this easily.  We need more details.  Comments please!

Texas Rangers confirm investigation into nude photos of children at Bastrop shelter but find “no evidence” of sex abuse

By Reese Oxner, The Texas Tribune

March 16, 2022

"Texas Rangers confirm investigation into nude photos of children at Bastrop shelter but find “no evidence” of sex abuse" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

Do you work with or for Texas Child Protective Services? We’d like to talk to you. The Texas Tribune is pursuing a number of stories involving the state’s child protective services agency and we’d like to speak with as many staffers as possible. You can contact reporter Reese Oxner at roxner@texastribune.org or you can leak us a tip by contacting us over Signal at 512-745-2713.

A Texas Department of Public Safety investigation into a state-licensed facility for sex trafficking victims where an employee allegedly took nude photos of two girls found no evidence that the victims were also sexually abused or assaulted, according to agency director Steve McCraw.

Details of the accusations against nine employees at The Refuge, a Bastrop shelter for children who are victims of sexual assault, came out during a federal court hearing last week and initially described the incident as possible trafficking or abuse.

In a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott, McCraw confirmed that the Bastrop County sheriff’s office is investigating a Refuge staff member accused of obtaining photos of the girls with the intent to sell them. No arrests have been made, he said.

However, McCraw said some of the details that came out last week had not been properly verified, adding that investigators with the Texas Rangers found no evidence that the children had been victims of sex trafficking while at The Refuge. McCraw’s letter did not say whether the accused staff member purchased illegal drugs and alcohol and gave it to the girls, as was alleged during last week’s court hearing.

Paul Yetter, the attorney representing foster care children in a yearslong federal lawsuit against the state, pushed back against McCraw’s letter, which declined to define the accusations as possible trafficking.

"The letter in question confirms the existence of pornographic photographs of these children in state care, and that the children’s photos were sold for drugs and alcohol. Based on that alone, an initial finding of no evidence of sexual abuse or trafficking is both surprising and extremely troubling, especially since the investigation is still ongoing,” Yetter said.

McCraw also detailed another previously unknown investigation into separate allegations at The Refuge. Two residents fled the facility on Feb. 20 with the alleged help of two staff members, according to his letter. Facility officials reported the incident to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and the local sheriff's office. Four employees were terminated as a result, McCraw said.

The Bastrop County sheriff's office is conducting a criminal investigation on the four employees and one was arrested for making a false statement to the FBI, McCraw wrote.

McCraw's letter did not address other claims that emerged last week, including that other relatives of the employee accused of taking the photos also worked at The Refuge or that other shelter staff members were allegedly also involved in selling the photos.

The governor’s office released a statement thanking the Texas Rangers but did not address the allegations against the employee accused of attempting to sell nude photos of two of the shelter’s residents.

“While it is a relief that no instances of child sex trafficking were found at The Refuge in the investigation conducted by the Texas Rangers, it is unfortunate that the letter DFPS submitted to the federal court monitors became the conclusion before the investigation by law enforcement was complete,” the governor’s office spokesperson Nan Tolson said. “Governor Abbott is committed to ensuring that any allegations of abuse or neglect are properly investigated by DFPS.”

The Refuge leadership also expressed relief.

"We are deeply relieved by the Texas Rangers' finding,” Brooke Crowder, founder and CEO of The Refuge, said in a statement. “We are committed to continued close cooperation with DPS, the Texas Department of Family [and] Protective Services and the Bastrop County Sheriff's Office as they pursue justice for the girls involved in the cited incidents."

The Texas Senate Child Protective Services committee will meet noon Thursday to discuss details of the situation at The Refuge. On Monday, there will be an interim hearing of the Texas House Human Services committee centered around these findings as well.

Texas officials ordered the shelter to close temporarily last week after the children had already been removed. Abbott said last week the Texas Rangers will investigate, arrest and pursue charges against any suspects related to the accusations.

The accusations against the shelter come at a time when the foster care system has yet to remedy numerous issues regarding its care of children. Multiple bombshell reports from federal court monitors have detailed abuse, neglect and deaths over the last several years.

Earlier Wednesday, Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic nominee for Texas governor, blasted Republican incumbent Abbott over the Texas foster care system and its decadeslong issues with caring for its children.

O’Rourke said the governor ignored longstanding problems that allegedly allowed the situation at the Bastrop shelter.

“I wish this was an anomaly, but it’s not,” O’Rourke said. “This didn't have to have happened. There are changes we could have made.”

O’Rourke, who will face off against Abbott in the November general election, laid out several strategies for how he’d tackle the problem if elected governor during a press conference Wednesday.

Texas is missing out on millions of dollars in federal funding by being out of compliance with federal programs, O’Rourke said. He said he would ensure Texas falls in line with the Family First Prevention Services Act, a federal law that restructured federal child welfare funding. New guidelines aim to reduce entry into foster care, limit the use of group homes and other congregate care and fund substance abuse and mental health services.

If Texas were to come into compliance with the act, which passed in 2018, it would unlock millions of dollars for the foster care system, O’Rourke said. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is expecting a loss of $43 million in 2022 and 2023 because the state is not in compliance.

But getting into compliance is easier said than done.

DFPS officials have said it has not implemented all provisions of the federal program because Texas does not have enough qualified residential treatment programs to “serve the highest needs kids and draw down federal money.”

The state also does not have enough providers who offer the kinds of services required under the act, the department said, and the state says it’s unclear what services would qualify for funding. A statement on the DFPS website claims the department is awaiting federal guidance for how to proceed, along with feedback from Texas lawmakers.

Advocates and the federal judge overseeing a decade-old lawsuit over Texas’ foster care have called for the state to increase those services and use the funds drawn down to fund them.

Family preservation is paramount, O’Rourke added, and Texas should be investing to keep children with their immediate families or other family members before moving them to the foster care system. He said the state needs to invest in mental health resources for both children and their families to prevent unnecessarily removing them from loved ones and into a system found to be harmful.

O’Rourke also called for increased funding to Child Protective Services workers, to increase the number of case managers and its retention rate. The agency has been understaffed and experiencing high turnover rates for years, with many citing long hours for little pay.

“Typical Beto O’Rourke—all rhetoric, no real solutions,” Abbott’s campaign spokesperson Renae Eze said in a statement after the press conference. “It’s sad that Beto O’Rourke is resorting to politicizing the well-being of Texas children to benefit his campaign and distract from his disastrous interview during SXSW this weekend, where he discussed his true passions of taking away Texans’ guns, opening our borders, and supporting President Biden.”

During the press conference, O’Rourke cast doubt on Texas’ approach to its foster care system in relying on private contractors to care for children in its care.

The Texas foster care system is privatized and relies on the private sector to provide placements for foster care children. The state manages the placements and removals of foster care children and is seeking to expand responsibilities for placement and therapeutic care to private partners.

“Why are we privatizing the care for the most vulnerable in this state? You’re bound to have problems,” O’Rourke said. “We outsource the state of Texas’ responsibility, but I can't think of a more important job.”

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2022/03/16/beto-orourke-greg-abbott-foster-care/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING - Bastrop, Tx | fACILITY CLOSED - RE-TRAFFICKING OF THE VICTIM CHILDREN

 

 

SEX TRAFFICKING - TEXAS

A chapel and buildings located at Refuge Ranch in Bastrop. The Texas-contracted facility is meant to provide residential tre…

Nine employees of The Refuge, a Texas-contracted shelter for child sex trafficking survivors, are accused of trafficking children under their care, according to a federal judge. Credit: Via Refuge Ranch website

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can receive confidential help by calling the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network’s 24/7 toll-free support line at 800-656-4673 or visiting its online hotline.

Texas ordered a shelter for female foster kids who have been victims of sex trafficking to immediately shut down Friday, a day after a court revealed that staff members were trafficking the children in their care.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission issued an emergency suspension of The Refuge’s license to care for children and told shelter officials to close the facility immediately. The Refuge, in Bastrop, had been contracted by the state to care for victims of sexual assault between the ages of 11 and 17.

All of the children housed in the shelter had already been removed as of Wednesday.** SEE texastribune.org.

THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!  By any stretch of the imagination, we are not doing enough.  We KNOW that foster care, CPS, HHS, etc. are some of the largest (over 23%) human trafficking organizations in the country.  A sad fact when you see our tax dollars being budgeted to the same organizations that are supposed to save our children - not harm them.  Where do we finally #SAVETHECHILDREN? Instead of shuffling them from one deepstate government funded organization - back to the hands of the traffickers (themselves) - then back to the same criminal government funded deepstate organizations - rinse and repeat? 

 WE are going to have to do it.    Not through our tax dollars but directly, in our communIties.  Our humanitarian efforts are more important than ever while the Biden crime oligarchs are in office now.  We know we are going to have to totally dismantle and re-vet these organizations.  How soon can we do it before thousands of children are beaten, traumatized, and sexually abused or killed again?  The system is totally broken.  

God, save our children. Amen