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TEXAS, USA — When Nathan Hecht ran for the Texas Supreme Court in 1988, no Republican had ever been elected to the state’s highest civil court. His election foreshadowed a coming transformation of the court, civil legal procedure and Texas itself. Hecht is the longest tenured Supreme Court justice in Texas history. He won six reelections and led the court as chief justice for more than a decade. He heard more than 2,700 oral arguments, authored 7,000 pages of opinions, and retires now not because he’s had enough, but because state law requires him to. Late on a Friday afternoon, just two weeks before he hung up his robe, he was still in his office, his mind mired in the work that was left to be done. “This is always a really busy time for us, because the opinions are mounting up to be talked about,” he said. “It’ll be busy next week.” Hecht began as a dissenter on a divided court, his conservative positions on abortion, school finance and property rights putting him at odds with the Democratic majority and some moderate Republicans. But as Texas Republicans began dominating up and down the ballot, his minority voice became mainstream on one of the country’s most conservative high courts. In his administration of the court, Hecht has been a fierce advocate for the poor, pushing for more Legal Aid funding, bail reform and lowering the barriers to accessing the justice system. “If justice were food, too many would be starving,” Hecht told lawmakers in 2017. “If it were housing, too many would be homeless. If it were medicine, too many would be sick.” Hecht’s departure leaves a vacancy that Gov. Greg Abbott , a former justice himself, will get to fill. He may elevate a current justice or appoint someone new directly to the chief justice role. Whoever ends up in the top spot will have to run for reelection in 2026. In his typical understated manner, so at odds with the bombast of the other branches of government, Hecht told The Texas Tribune that serving on the court has been the honor of his life. “I have gotten to participate not only in a lot of decisions shaping the jurisprudence of the state, but also in trying to improve the administration of the court system so that it works better and fosters public trust and confidence,” he said. “So I feel good about the past,” he said. “And I feel good about the future.” A ‘sea change’ Born in Clovis, New Mexico, Hecht studied philosophy at Yale before getting his law degree from Southern Methodist University. He clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and returned to Texas, where his reputation preceded him. As a young lawyer, Tom Phillips, a former chief justice and now a partner at Baker Botts, reached out to a Dallas law firm that had promised to hire him the next chance they got. “I called them a few months later and said, ‘So I assume you never got a vacancy,’” Phillips recalls. “And they said, ‘Well, we did, but we had a chance to hire Nathan Hecht, so you’ll understand why we went ahead and did that.’” Hecht was appointed to the district court in 1981 and quickly made a name for himself, pushing the court to modernize their stenography practices and taking the unusual step of writing opinions as a trial judge. He was elected to the court of appeals in 1986, and ran for Texas Supreme Court two years later. This race came at a low point for Texas’ judiciary, after a string of scandals, ethics investigations, eyebrow-raising rulings and national news coverage made several sitting Supreme Court justices household names — and not in a good way. Seeing an opportunity, Hecht challenged one of the incumbents, a Democrat who’d been called out in a damning 60 Minutes segment for friendly relationships with lawyers who both funded his campaigns and argued before the court. Hecht teamed up with Phillips and Eugene Cook, two Republicans who had recently been appointed to the court, and asked voters to “Clean the Slate in ’88,” separating themselves from the Democrats by promising to only accept small donations. “Party politics were changing in the state at the same time, but the broader issue on our court at the time was to ensure that judges were following the law,” Hecht said. “That was a driving issue.” Since Phillips and Cook were incumbents, Hecht was the only one who had to take on a sitting Supreme Court justice. And he won. “It really was a sea change in Texas political history,” Phillips said. “He was the first person ever to do that in a down ballot race, to defeat a Democrat as a Republican.” Political changes Republican dominance swept through the Supreme Court as swiftly as it did Texas writ large. The last Democrat would be elected to the court in 1994, just six years after the first Republican. But even among Bush-era Republicans filling the bench, Hecht’s conservatism stood out. In 2000, he wrote a dissent disagreeing with the majority ruling that allowed teens in Texas to get abortions with a judge’s approval if their parents wouldn’t consent, and a few years earlier, ruled in favor of wealthy school districts that wanted to use local taxes to supplement state funds. His pro-business bent stood out next to the court’s history of approving high dollar payouts for plaintiffs. Alex Winslow, the executive director of Texas Watch, a consumer advocacy group, told the New York Times in 2005 that Hecht was “the godfather of the conservative judicial movement in Texas.” “Extremist would be an appropriate description,” Winslow said. “He’s the philosophical leader of the right-wing fringe.” The only other justice who regularly staked out such a conservative position, according to the New York Times, was Priscilla Owen, who President George W. Bush appointed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2005. Hecht and Owen, who now goes by her maiden name, Richmond, wed in 2022 . Wallace Jefferson, Hecht’s predecessor as chief justice, said Hecht’s sharp intellect and philosophical approach to the law improved the court’s opinions, even when he ultimately didn’t side with the majority. “He was a formidable adversary,” said Jefferson, now a partner at Alexander Dubose & Jefferson. “You knew that you would have to bring your best approach and analysis to overcome Nathan’s approach and analysis ... You had to come prepared and Nathan set the standard for that.” Hecht briefly became a national figure in 2005 when he helped Bush’s efforts to confirm Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court. As her longtime friend, Hecht gave more than 120 interviews to bolster Miers’ conservative credentials, jokingly calling himself the “PR office for the White House,” Texas Monthly reported at the time . This advocacy work raised ethical questions that Hecht fought for years, starting with a reprimand from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Hecht got that overturned. The Texas Ethics Commission then fined him $29,000 for not reporting the discount he got on the legal fees he paid challenging the reprimand. He appealed that fine and the case stretched until 2016 , when he ultimately paid $1,000. Hecht has largely stayed out of the limelight in the decades since, letting his opinions speak for themselves and wading into the political fray mostly to advocate for court reforms. While Democrats have tried to pin unpopular COVID and abortion rulings on the justices in recent elections, Republicans continue to easily win these down-ballot races. Hecht is aware of the perception this one-party dominance creates, and has advocated for Texas to turn away from partisan judicial elections. In his 2023 state of the judiciary address , Hecht warned that growing political divisions were threatening the “judicial independence essential to the rule of law,” pointing to comments by both Democratic politicians and former President Donald Trump. But in an interview, Hecht stressed that most of the cases the Texas Supreme Court considers never make headlines, and are far from the politics that dominate Austin and Washington. “There’s no Republican side to an oil and gas case. There’s no Democrat side to a custody hearing,” he said. “That’s the bread and butter of what we do, and that’s not partisan.” Hecht’s reforms Unlike its federal counterpart, the Texas Supreme Court is often a temporary port of call on a judge’s journey. Many, like Abbott, Sen. John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett , leave for higher office. Others, like Owen and 5th Circuit Judge Don Willett, leave for higher courts. Most, like Phillips, leave for higher pay in private practice. But Hecht stayed. “I didn’t plan it like this,” Hecht said. “I just kept getting re-elected.” Hecht had been considering retirement in 2013, when Jefferson, the chief justice who replaced Phillips, announced he would be stepping down. “He wanted me to consider being his successor,” Hecht said. “So I did, and here I am. I didn’t say, ‘Let’s spend 43 years on the bench,’ but one thing led to another.” In 2013, Hecht was sworn in as chief justice by then-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, another great dissenter whose views later became the majority. While the Texas Supreme Court’s political makeup has changed largely without Hecht’s input, the inner workings of the court have been under his purview. And that, many court watchers say, is where his greatest legacy lies. Hecht ushered in an era of modernization, both to the technology and the rules that govern justice in Texas. He led a push to simplify the appellate rules, removing many of the trapdoors and procedural quirks that led to important cases being decided on technicalities. The court scaled back how long cases could drag on by limiting discovery, including how long a deposition can go. And he ensured every case was decided before the term ended, like the U.S. Supreme Court. “I think people generally don’t understand the impact the rules can have on the equitable resolution of disputes, but they’re enormous,” Jefferson said. “Nathan recognized that at an early juncture in his career.” Hecht pushed Texas to adopt e-filing before many other states, which proved prescient when COVID hit. Hecht, who was then president of the national Conference of Chief Justices, was able to help advise other states as they took their systems online. Hecht also dedicated himself to improving poor Texan’s access to the justice system, pushing the Legislature to appropriate more funding for Legal Aid and reducing the barriers to getting meaningful legal resolutions. He helped usher through a rule change that would allow paraprofessionals to handle some legal matters like estate planning, uncontested divorces and consumer debt cases, without a lawyer’s supervision. “Some people call it the justice gap. I call it the justice chasm,” Hecht said. “Because it’s just a huge gulf between the people that need legal help and the ability to provide it.” Hecht said he’s glad this has been taken up as a bipartisan issue, and he’s hopeful that the same attention will be paid even after he leaves the court. “No judge wants to give his life’s energy to a work that mocks the justice that he’s trying to provide,” he said. “For the judiciary, this is an important issue, because when the promise of equal justice under law is denied because you’re too poor, there’s no such thing as equal justice under the law.” What comes next Despite the sudden departure of their longtime leader, the Texas Supreme Court will return in January to finish out its term, which ends in April. Among the typical parsing of medical malpractice provisions, oil and gas leases, divorce settlements and sovereign immunity protections, the high court has a number of more attention-grabbing cases on its docket this year. Earlier this year, the court heard oral arguments about the Department of Family and Protective Services’ oversight of immigration detention facilities, and in mid-January, they’ll consider Attorney General Ken Paxton’s efforts to subpoena Annunciation House, an El Paso nonprofit that serves migrants. They’ll also hear arguments over Southern Methodist University’s efforts to cut ties with the regional governing body of the United Methodist Church. Other cases will be added to the schedule before April. Phillips, who has argued numerous cases before the Texas Supreme Court since leaving the bench, said Hecht’s loss will be felt, but he expects the court to continue apace. “It’s not a situation like it might have been at some point in the past where if one justice left, nobody would know what to do next,” he said. “It’s an extremely qualified court.” As for Hecht, he’s tried to put off thinking too much about what comes next for him. He still has opinions to write and work to finish. He knows he wants to stay active in efforts to improve court administration nationally and in Texas, and he’s threatened his colleagues with writing a tell-all book, just to keep them on their toes. But beyond that, he’s waiting for the reality of retirement to sink in before he decides on his next steps. “We’ve got 3,200 judges in Texas, plus adjuncts and associate judges and others,” he said. “I really think it’s such a strong bench, and I am proud to have been a part of it. I look forward to helping where I can.” ___ This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.Trae Young leads Hawks past Raptors 136-107; Toronto has season-high 31 turnovers
Part of Chelsea 's January remit will involve finding game time for those starved of minutes under Enzo Maresca . Cesare Casadei falls into that category, having only played in the UEFA Conference League and Carabao Cup this season despite enjoying regular football at Leicester City last campaign. Thankfully for the Blues, finding a destination for the 21-year-old is unlikely to be an arduous task, and his loan exit seems almost certain. A host of Serie A sides are reportedly lining up to sign Casadei in January. The Italian U21 international spent four years in Inter Milan 's academy but he has never played a minute of senior football in his homeland. Casadei's stellar reputation from his time in Inter's youth ranks means he retains plenty of Italian admirers. And reports indicate that no fewer than seven clubs have expressed an interest in taking him on for the remainder of the season. Lazio, AC Milan, Como, Genoa, Fiorentina and Torino are all believed to be in the running, while Monza are said to be in advanced talks with Chelsea . Maresca is set to put his head together with senior figures at Stamford Bridge to determine where would be best for Casadei's development. Chelsea are already well-stocked with talent in the middle of the park. Healthy competition between Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia and Enzo Fernandez has put Maresca in an enviable position, although others have been left to feed off scraps. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall - a £30million summer signing from Leicester - has only played 56 minutes in the Premier League this term, while Casadei and Carney Chukwuemeka have not seen any action aside from cup games. All three could seek out first-team opportunities in January. Maresca already has sufficient depth to field two entirely different line-ups, with the likes of Cole Palmer and Wesley Fofana left out of his European squad entirely in an effort to manage workload. Ben Chilwell and Deivid Washington could also be offloaded this January after finding themselves on the fringes, and Christopher Nkunku is said to be unsettled by his back-up role behind Nicolas Jackson. Competition will only increase at the end of the season, when Chelsea prepare to welcome two prodigious teenagers. Estevao Willian and Kendry Paez - both 17 - are still pulling up trees in South America and they could make a push to go straight into Maresca's starting XI in 2025/26.
(BPT) - Every year, roughly 20-30% of older Americans head to warmer climates for the colder winter months. Snowbirds are often retirees on fixed incomes, though flexible work environments now provide more opportunities for anyone to spend several months escaping the chill. Whether on a fixed income or an empty nester with disposable income, consumers are interested in saving money where they can. With this in mind, snowbirds can look to their AARP membership to take advantage of relevant discounts and offerings as they fluff their feathers and get ready for takeoff. From savory breakfast options while driving to your seasonal destination, to home and auto protection, and even resources to support mental and physical health, AARP member benefits offer deals and savings that will help snowbirds take flight this winter. "Spending winters in warmer places has so many benefits that come with being able to be outside more often. Warmth and sunlight not only increase serotonin levels , which can result in more positive moods and a calm, focused mental outlook, but they also stimulate vitamin D production and may even boost immunity ," said Elvira Christiansen, Director of Retail and Loyalty for AARP Services. "An AARP membership makes it even better by offering savings as you plan your trip, as well as at many dining, entertainment and retail locations you will come across in your winter getaway destination, helping you to enjoy it to the fullest." 1. Order Up Road trips are often the preferred way to travel to a winter home for the flexibility of having a car once there. Whether your drive will have you behind the wheel for hours or days, you'll want to make sure you have your meals planned out. Fill up with a tasty breakfast or lunch with a stop at Denny's, which is easy to spot from most major highways. AARP members can save when heading to Denny's . With over 1,500 locations nationwide, members save 15% on everything from diner classics to breakfast items every day; maximum discount not to exceed $10. Restrictions apply. 2. Primary Care from Almost Anywhere Feeling under the weather can put a damper on your winter travels, so it's a good idea to make sure you can access quality healthcare even when you're at your winter destination. If you are on Medicare, you can check whether there is an Oak Street Health primary care clinic near you. Oak Street Health , the only primary care provider to carry the AARP name, provides primary care for adults on Medicare and focuses on prevention with personalized care to help keep you healthy — physically, mentally and socially. Benefits include same-day/next-day appointments where available, convenient locations, a dedicated care team and a 24/7 patient support line. AARP membership is not required to visit an Oak Street Health clinic. 3. Wellness Checklist Once you check off primary care needs for your winter destination, don't overlook other priorities like maintaining your prescriptions and protecting your vision. Start by making sure your prescriptions are up to date before you head out of town. If you do need a refill while you're away, you have access to a free prescription discount card from AARP ® Prescription Discounts provided by Optum Rx ® that can be used at over 66,000 pharmacies nationwide for savings on FDA-approved medications. You do not need to be an AARP member to take advantage of these benefits, though AARP members receive additional perks, including deeper discounts on medications, home delivery, coverage for your dependents and more. If you're having trouble with your vision, want to update your sunglass prescription, or simply want to maintain your annual visits to an optometrist or ophthalmologist while away, AARP members have access to information on vision insurance options that offer individual and family plans, featuring a large doctor network, savings on frames, lens enhancements, progressives and more. 4. Home (Safety) Away from Home One thing that should always be a priority is keeping your home safe while you're away for the winter. While Neighborhood Watch is always helpful, long periods away from a home require additional security systems. With an AARP membership, homeowners can secure their homes for less. Members save 5% on monthly home security monitoring with ADT Home Security , which covers smart home security systems including intrusion monitoring, connected smoke and CO detection, and smart automation for video doorbells, security cameras and smart locks. 5. Pack Auto Coverage in Your Luggage Driving south for the winter? Utilize AARP member benefits to save on auto care so you can road trip worry free. AARP members save up to 20% on annual membership fees for Allstate Roadside Assistance plans, which provides access to assistance for towing, jump-starts, tire changes, lockout assistance, fuel delivery and more. Allstate Roadside plan benefits can be used 24/7 in any car you drive, including rented and borrowed ones. And, if you want to bring any personal items with you but don't have room to squeeze them in your car, Budget Truck Rental has a variety of trucks for you to choose from. AARP members can save 20% on local or one-way truck rentals on Sunday through Thursday and 10% on Friday and Saturday, plus receive a $10-per-day Physical Damage Waiver. Regardless of how you're traveling or spending your winter months, AARP member benefits can help you maximize your budget while you prioritize the things that matter. To learn more about the benefits and discounts for AARP members to help you prepare for your relaunch, please visit aarp.org/save . AARP member benefits are provided by third parties. AARP receives a royalty fee for the use of its intellectual property. These fees are used for the general purposes of AARP. Provider offers are subject to change and may have restrictions.
Daily Post Nigeria Barau Jibrin ya zama Sanatan da ya fi kowanne gabatar da kudiri Home News Politics Metro Entertainment Sport Hausa Barau Jibrin ya zama Sanatan da ya fi kowanne gabatar da kudiri Published on December 24, 2024 By Kabeer Bello Rahotanni daga ofishin Ka’idoji da Harkokin Majalisa na Majalisar Dattawan Najeriya sun bayyana cewa Mataimakin Shugaban Majalisar Dattawa, Sanata Barau Jibrin, ya zo na ɗaya wajen gabatar da kudirin doka, inda ya gabatar da kudirori 21 cikin watanni 18 da suka gabata. Ɗaya daga cikin kudirorin dokar da Sanata Barau ya gabatar shi ne ƙudirin dokar Kafa Hukumar Raya Yankin Arewa maso Yamma, wanda ya zama doka bayan amincewar Shugaban Ƙasa Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Bisa wannan gagarumar nasara, ƙungiyar ‘yan jarida masu ruwaito harkokin majalisa suka karrama Sanata Barau da lambar yabo kan mafi yawan ƙudirin dokar gina kasa da ya gabatar. Shugaban ƙungiyar, Mista James Itodo, ya bayyana cewa an ba wa Sanata Barau wannan lambar yabo ne bisa nasarorinsa da aka wallafa a ka’idojin majalisa, ba wani dalili na daban ba. “Mataimakin Shugaban Majalisar Dattawa, Sanata Barau I. Jibrin, CFR, ya zama zakara wajen gabatar da ƙudirin doka a Majalisar Dattawa ta 10 tun daga ranar 13 ga Yuni, 2023, zuwa yau. “Saboda wannan nasara ne wakilan kafafen yaɗa labarai a Najeriya da waje suka yanke shawarar ba shi lambar yabo ta Gudunmawar Manyan Dokokin Raya Ƙasa,” in ji shi, yayin miƙa lambar yabon ga Sanata Barau. Da yake karɓar kyautar, Sanata Barau ya ce wannan lambar yabo zata kara masa ƙwarin gwiwa wajen cigaba da jajircewa. “Tabbas ganin irinku suna yabawa da irin gudunmawar da na bayar a Majalisar Dattawa cikin watanni 18 da suka gabata, musamman kan kudirorin dokokin raya kasa da na gabatar, zai ƙara min ƙwazo da kuzari na ci gaba da yin fiye da haka. Related Topics: Don't Miss An kama jigon NNPP a jihar Borno You may like Advertise About Us Contact Us Privacy-Policy Terms Copyright © Daily Post Media Ltd
