Perry vetoes TV recycling bill, environmentalists disapprove
Gov. Rick Perry vetoed a bill Friday that would have created a television recycling program, prompting criticism from state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin.
The program would curb increasing electronic waste by mandating television manufacturers take back their televisions and recycle them. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than 2 million tons of electronic waste were disposed of in U.S. landfills in 2005, potentially leaking harmful chemicals into the environment.
Amy Rames, a Goodwill Industries spokeswoman, said it costs the company 25 cents per pound of television recycled. Unlike computers, televisions don’t have precious metals that can be extracted in the recycling process to offset costs.
Waston said the recycling program would have been free and convenient for consumers.
“The bill represented a compromise between environmental groups and industry,” Watson said. “Advocates of the environment saw the bill as a step forward for recycling, and as an important environmental protection, preventing toxic contamination of our soil and water. Industry saw the bill as a solution to a problem and hoped that the bill would become a model for other states to follow.”
He said the governor disavowed environmental practice.
“Regrettably, the governor is choosing to protect big business rather than the people of Texas, even when business is eager and willing to step up and assume responsibility for the end-of-life treatment of their own products,” Watson said.
The governor’s office could not be reached by press time.
— Erin Mulvaney
Man shot Friday near Riverside, suspect claims self-defense
A 33-year-old black male was found dead Friday morning in a residential neighborhood near East Riverside Drive.
Police continue to investigate the murder of Jerry Duane Still. Police responding to a disturbance call Thursday night found Still’s body in the 2200 block of Town Lake Circle at 2:43 a.m., according to the affidavit. Another man, also found on the scene, was taken in for questioning the same morning and admitted to killing the man in self-defense.
The second man was released Friday afternoon, after being questioned by police. The nature of the men’s relationship is undetermined, said APD Corporal Scott Perry, a spokesman for the police department.
“We are still investigating his claim to self-defense,” Perry said referring to the second male. “There was an altercation and that’s why we were called out.”
Perry said the investigation is still pending but said the police department believes there is no more danger to the public following Friday’s possible murder.
APD asks anyone who may have information regarding the incident to call the Homicide Tip Line at 477-3588 or Crime Stoppers at 472-8477(TIPS).
— Pierre Bertrand
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