Pete Havel

The basic regulatory outline of doing business in Texas: 📎 Formation: Properly form your entity to gain the associated liability protections and access to the courts. 📎 Licenses & Permits: No general business license is required at the state level, but many state agencies require licenses or permits depending on the product or service. Sometimes, you may need a permit or license from multiple agencies. 📎 Labor. Employment is regulated in many ways and by many jurisdictions. Wage and labor, equal employment, workers’ compensation, payroll, and safety. 📎 Insurance. You’re probably going to carry multiple types of insurance. Each one is regulated in its own way. 📎 Taxes. Franchise, sales, and property are the big three you’ll pay to the state. 📎 Privacy. The new Texas Data Privacy and Security Act took effect on July 1, 2024. This law does not create a private right of action. Rather, the Attorney General has responsibility for enforcement and may seek fines, costs, and attorney’s fees against companies that are out of compliance. Check yourself!

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A Fake News Attack on Police Officers -  This article by the San Antonio  Express-Need is outrageous. It confuses the San Antonio police with the Castle Hills police. It goes on to question the effectiveness of SAPD police officers in responding to crime while ignoring the liberal politicians and the anti-police DA. Furthermore, the Fake News writer ignores the limitations placed on police work by liberals. The problem is not the police. It is the liberals and leftists who have undermined and neutered them. It is the liberals and leftists who are soft on crime but anti-police.  The high crime rate is the fault of liberals, not the police. #sanantoniopolice, #sanantoniocrime, #elconservador, #georgehrodriguez, #sapoa,

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“Did you know that if you put 100 black ants and 100 red ants in a jar, nothing will happen? But if you shake the jar hard, the ants start killing each other. The red ants consider the black ants their enemies, and the black ants consider the red ants their enemies. The true enemy is the one shaking the jar. The same thing happens in human society. So, before we attack each other, we should think about who is shaking the jar!” - Kurt Vonnegut 🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜 Whenever we find ourselves annoyed or “hating” someone in our presence Consider your source of conflict I have found as a PRIDE and DEI&A trainer that most people can find commonalities Or learn about each others’ struggles If someone gives them tools to opening up and understand one another Rather than pointing out how impossible it is to relate And instead, shaking the jar making communication difficult. ❤️ How many times have you carried a fixed mindset when talking to someone from a different social group as you ❤️A different experience and perspective ❤️Or a different way to process information or of thinking? 🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜 My communications business tackles social inequities that don’t have to present themselves as barriers of understanding. But instead as bridges between common human experiences that all of us share. One of the main things missing in PRIDE talks is intersectionality and inclusion of gender expansive + Trans people and trans Brown and Black folx. And the capability to bring these experiences to mixed audiences. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈👉🏽👉🏽If you’re looking for a PRIDE speaker who can educate on intersectionality in a way that both members of the community AND allies can relate to, DM me! I still have a couple of openings, and I love to share my wealth of knowledge with your team! I have always opened up my practice to Brown and Black folx, LGBTQIA+ and LGBTQ2S+, especially QPoC and TGI folx, neurodiverse and neuroqueer folx, introverts, and anyone who has felt left out as a speaker. I decided to use my PRIDE training and education to create open-access classrooms where we could share our stories. See my 30+ recommendations on LinkedIn to learn more about how my PRIDE talks include communications so your team can better empathize and respect LGBTQIA2S+ people. 👉🏽👉🏽👉🏽Please let me know by responding, sharing, or saving this post if you follow this page and if any of my content has enriched your life! #pride #intersectionality #tgi #equitychangecommunications

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On November 15, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled that the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2024 final rule on exempt salary thresholds is unlawful. The ruling has nationwide effect. At issue in the court’s ruling was the DOL’s final rule, passed on April 23, 2024, increasing the Fair Labor Standards Act weekly salary threshold for the overtime pay exemption for executive, administrative, and professional (EAP) employees in two phases. Lathrop GPM LLP attorneys Megan Anderson and Emily Neumann explain the courts recent ruling and it’s potential impact to employers. To read the full legal alert, click here: https://bit.ly/3Zl0KVq #overtimepay #employeecompensation #exemptsalary

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It's amazing to me how someone like Janet Mello can get away with years-long criminal fraud that resulted in the theft of over $100 million dollars via 49 fake grant applications without getting flagged. How did this mid-level Department of the Army civilian employee explain away her sprawling mansions across the country or the 80 vehicles she purchased? All her Gucci purchases? Didn't anyone suspect something? Not a single person remembered their DoD insider threat training where extravagant spending is a warning sign for potential malicious activity? More concerning, if the bulk of the funding came from the 4-H Military Partnership Grant that is run by USDA, weren't there any monitoring or audit activities to ensure grantees were using U.S. taxpayer money appropriately? Lesson learned here is that ongoing monitoring and auditing matters, and it's only effective it's meaningful vice a check-the-box activity. https://lnkd.in/g-52dPzh

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This article from the Austin American-Statesman appeared in the Legislative Reference Library's clips yesterday. It is a look ahead at the 89th Legislature from a couple of different advocates' positions, including harm reduction advocates. Last year, my boss, Senator Royce West carried a fentanyl test strip bill that the Harm Reduction Alliance brought forward. Unfortunately, it did not get a hearing in the Senate, and neither did the House bill that came over that would have legalized fentanyl test strips. While harm reduction--including test strips--is of vital importance to saving lives in the short term, as a state it is important that Texas take the long view with regard to substance abuse, which should include a moon-shoot with regard to treatment. Only through a robust system of both prevention, harm reduction, AND treatment can we actually reduce the number of addicts. Right now, the vast majority of the spending that the state does for drug and alcohol treatment comes from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) block grants received and distributed by Texas Health and Human Services. The Rider 50 Report (https://lnkd.in/gVC9c-NN) produced by HHSC and released just over a month ago shows some numbers on how these funds are spent: First, the report notes that, in terms of harm reduction, Texas spent $11.162 million on overdose prevention, education, and naloxone in FY 2023. This in particular came from COVID Supplemental Awards (from federal COVID legislation). In terms of treatment, from the regular block grant funds for FY 2023, the state spent: + $12.659 million for medication for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) + $41.252 million on treatment for Texas adults + $8,346,015 on treatment for Texas youth under 18 That seems like a TON of money, but remember it is split and block-granted down to locations that take these funds from the state, which are all over Texas (https://lnkd.in/g6Y9huJ9). Remember that these facilities use this money not all for actual medication and actual treatment, but the overhead costs necessary to keep their doors open. What will ultimately be necessary in Texas to do the moon shoot necessary for treatment is an infusion of general revenue into the state budget. Other states have done major cash infusions for treatment and to fight the opioid epidemic, including Florida. In 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis ensured that additional funding for substance abuse treatment made it into Florida's budget (see comments for details) For between $25-$50 million each year of the budget, Texas could create a substance abuse and treatment fund that could be sunset in ten years that would fund areas identified in the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Texas Opioid Abatement Fund Council's Density and Capacity Study.

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Everything about our system of government—courts, legislatures, city councils—is adversarial. Meaning that pretty much everything in these arenas is going to be characterized by conflict and opposition. We peer-test ideas and policies. At every stage, someone will be on the other side of you playing critic. Voicing concern and poking holes in your arguments or your methods. Trying to undo what you are building. That’s the design. When you step into this field, whether as a lawyer, an advocate, an elected official, a journalist, an active business person, or a regular ol’ voter with beliefs and opinions, your job is to participate in the organized conflict. Advance and shepherd your ideas—or those of your clients—through the adversarial system. Make your case. Articulate your vision. Stay disciplined and focused enough to say the same things over and over and over. But here’s the paradox: You can be in the adversarial system all day and still be a happy person. You don’t have to be a contentious person to work in a contentious system. You can refuse to allow your personal character to be formed by a system that thrives on conflict. In fact, the people who have the most staying power in law and politics are the people who engage the adversarial system with a smile and good cheer. They understand the design. They welcome the opposition. They are ready to test their ideas and make their case. They respect the nature of the system—that it is contentious—and they are not offended by that. And they understand their existence and their identity *apart* from the adversarial system of law and government. They’re formed by other things. Personal fulfillment is found in other places and people. If any fulfillment is found from the adversarial system, it is the satisfaction of putting the system to work for themselves. Mastering its landscape. Understanding its quirks. Respecting its risks. Learning to harness its power for their own good and the good of those around them. If you’ve ever seen someone do this well, it’s quite admirable. They have the ability to fight and yet make friends at the same time. So relish the challenge and competition. But remember that one day it will stop. And then what?

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Gratuities provided to state, local, tribal, and certain other officials are getting a bi-partisan hard look by Congress. The House Judiciary Committee is reviewing the “No Gratuities for Governing Act of 2024” and the Senate Judiciary Committee the “Stop Corrupt Gratuities Act” – both responding to Snyder vs. U.S. – in which an after-the-official-act $13K payment to an Indiana mayor by a winning city contract awardee was found permissible under the US Supreme Court majority opinion’s tortured interpretation of 18 USC 666. Yesterday C4I made detailed written bill recommendations to both committees, following on our August letter recommending legislative action. We argued for the use of a causal “for or because of” standard tied to an official act, rather than “intent,” and specified gratuity value thresholds. Snyder is bad law and provides a safe haven for corrupt gratuities-related behavior. 18 USC 666 needs amendment. 

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The death must be due to someone else's wrong action, negligence, or misconduct, like reckless driving, medical errors, faulty products, work accidents, or deliberate harm. #SexualAssaultAwarenessMonth https://lnkd.in/eRFTx9DA

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