Law Education

AUSTIN (AP) — The Texas Legislature on Saturday passed along largely party lines a state budget that cuts billions from public schools, state universities and health care.

The vote brought to an end more than four months of debate on how to cut $27 billion in state services. The bill now goes to Gov. Rick Perry for his signature.

The House voted 97-53, after Democrats spoke for hours bashing the Republican supermajority for choosing budget cuts over tapping the state’s nearly $10 billion Rainy Day Fund. Five Republicans voted against the budget.

Facing a massive revenue shortfall, lawmakers crafted the $172 billion budget by making cuts and using deferrals rather than raising taxes or dipping into the $10 billion reserve fund.

The Republican-controlled Senate voted 20-11, mostly along party lines. M

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Want to win the lottery without buying a ticket? No, Im not referring to stealing a roll of scratch offs. The Michigan Lottery has more than $30 million in unclaimed prizes, including a $250,000 ticket sold in Madison Heights. The lucky ticketholder has until at least Friday to claim a quarter of million dollars won in the Mega Millions drawing held May 28. The ticket matched the first five numbers drawn, according to the Michigan Lottery website. So, you may want to check your pockets for that old lottery ticket you forgot about. [DetNews]

Speaking about forgetting, it appears forgetting to define resident in a 2002 state law, which created a seven-member board to run Detroit Metro Airport in the wake of contracting scandals, could cause some problems in Wayne County.

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Detroit police say a man accused of fatally shooting a native of Australia earlier this month is a member of a group of postal workers who won a multimillion-dollar lottery prize.Officer Dan Donakowski confirmed Tuesday that 62-year-old Freddie Young was one of the 13 current and retired postal workers in the “P1 Gold Lottery Club” who won half of a $93 million Mega Millions lottery prize this past winter.Authorities say Young killed 45-year-old Greg McNicol, a landlord who’d been involved in a rent dispute with Young’s daughter.Young appeared in Detroit’s 36th District Court on Saturday on a first-degree murder charge.The Wayne County prosecutor’s office says no attorney is listed for Young, who’s being held at the Wayne County jail.

The aunt and uncle of a 4-year-old Highland Park boy who starved to death were arraigned today on chargers of murder, torture and child abuse.

According to reports, Matilda Jane Brown Gardner, 30, and her husband, Randy Steven Gardner, 32, have been charged with first-degree murder, felony murder, first-degree child abuse and first-degree torture in the death of their nephew, Robert Byrd.

May 12, The Detroit Free Press: Police said Matilda Gardner called 911 around noon on Sunday to report that Robert was not breathing. Paramedics arrived at the home in the 200 block of California, but the boy was dead when they brought him to the hospital, police said.”

An autopsy says Robert weighed only 24 pounds when he died.

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It’s been more than two years since Michigan voters overwhelmingly made medical marijuana legal, but the state’s court system remains in a haze involving the law’s grey areas

This week, eight people associated with a medical marijuana clinic in Metro Detroit have been ordered to stand trial on drug charges.

A judge in Ferndale found probable cause to believe laws were broken when marijuana was sold to undercover officers last August at a clinic called Clinical Relief.

The defendants from Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties are charged with conspiracy and manufacturing drugs. The Macomb Daily says Judge Joseph Longo dismissed charges Friday against a clinic receptionist.

The owner of Clinical Relief has said he was running a legitimate business where people with medical marijuana cards could get pot and use it elsewhere. A

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