Latest news with #FernandoRodriguez
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Meet the men who cleaned 240,000 pounds of trash off Oregon's highways
Interstate Business Solutions is an Indiana-based company that contracts with transportation departments across the U.S., including Oregon's, to provide highway cleanup services. About 50% of its staff consists of formerly incarcerated individuals, alongside others with resume gaps. (Courtesy of Interstate Business Solutions) May 31 marks one year since Fernando Rodriguez was released from prison. Now 25, he spent seven years in an Idaho prison for a drug possession conviction from when he was a teenager. After his release, he moved to Oregon and secured a full-time job cleaning litter from Oregon's highways — a job that gives him financial stability and helps provide for his family. However, it's unclear whether he'll still have this job after June 2025. With no long-term funding plan yet approved by the Oregon Legislature, the Oregon Department of Transportation is facing significant budget shortfalls driven by declining tax revenue, inflation and spending restrictions. The department estimates it needs $1.8 billion more each year to pay for road maintenance and repairs. Without new ways of adding revenue, the department could scale back essential services like road maintenance, snow removal, customer support and highway and graffiti cleanup. Rodriguez works at Interstate Business Solutions, an Indiana-based company that primarily hires formerly incarcerated individuals, veterans and people facing homelessness for jobs cleaning highway litter. The company has contracts with state departments in several states — including Indiana, Ohio, Missouri and Kansas — and began contracting with the Oregon Department of Transportation in April 2024. Since then, workers like Rodriguez have cleaned nearly 240,000 pounds of litter off sections of Interstates 5, 84 and 205 and U.S Highway 26. Most of the litter comes from homeless encampments on the highway, Rodriguez said. 'For years, those encampments have been neglected and trash has developed from people living on the side of the highway. The daily garbage you'd find in the garbage can in your house is all over the highways in piles,' Rodriguez told the Capital Chronicle, adding that his supervisor has to pick up used needles they regularly find. Interstate Business Solutions has received $4 million from the Oregon Department of Transportation to clean state highways. Using a contractor to clean litter off the highways allows the Oregon Department of Transportation to increase litter service removal without adding more tasks for maintenance employees, department spokesperson Katherine Benenati told the Capital Chronicle. The Oregon Department of Transportation spends about $250,000 each month in all of Clackamas, Multnomah and Hood River Counties and eastern Washington County, Benenati said. Highway litter causes environmental degradation and motor vehicle accidents and negatively impacts tourism and a business' decision to move to a city, Interstate Business Solutions spokesperson Morgan Johnston told the Capital Chronicle. However, the company sees its work as more than just cleaning up highways. 'Our mission is to not only keep Oregon clean and beautiful but to change the lives of our employees for the better,' Johnston said. Formerly incarcerated individuals make up 50% of the company's workforce. Without the company's services, the Portland metro area would see a significant increase in litter on the more than 500 miles its staff regularly cleans, Johnston said. The job helps employee Eric Gamble provide for his daughter and granddaughter. Gamble was released from an Oregon prison in 2020 for a gun offense, and he worked at gas stations before joining the cleanup crew. Dante Patton, another crew member, has achieved sobriety, steady income and job security since joining the highway cleanup crew. 'People used to love to come to Oregon, and they would say how beautiful it was,' Interstate Business Solutions Field Supervisor Dale Schultz told the Capital Chronicle. 'You don't get that much anymore because of the way the highway was looking, but now people are starting to look again and say 'Wow, they're cleaning it up.'' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
7 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
41 suspected drunk drivers arrested in Harris County Pct. 4 over Memorial Day weekend
The Brief 41 people were arrested and charged with DWI in Harris County Pct. 4, according to county officials. Deputies say tests were administered on each person, and law enforcement discovered they were all intoxicated, according to Harris County Pct. 4. Nine of the 41 had at least one prior conviction for DWI. HOUSTON - Over Memorial Day weekend, Harris County deputies conducted an impaired driver initiative to proactively reduce the number of DWI-related offenses and fatal crashes within the Precinct 4 boundaries. Big picture view Over the long weekend, 41 people were arrested on charges of DWI. Deputies say the suspects were each stopped for traffic violations and each displayed several signs of intoxication. Deputies say tests were administered on each person, and law enforcement discovered they were all intoxicated, according to Harris County Pct. 4. Five of the 41 people arrested have been charged with DWI Third Offense: Paula Bruner, Armando Dehuma, Fernando Rodriguez, Daniel Tam and Rayumond Mazon. Charles Zayadeth, Cory Jackson, Adam Frank and Nashon Ondiek were charged with DWI 2nd offense. Kayla Wilson and Joshua Rivas were also charged with unlawful carry of a weapon. Ryan Hon was also charged with possession of a controlled substance. What they're saying "All suspects were arrested and booked into the Harris County Jail and charged with driving while intoxicated. Drinking and driving is not tolerated in Precinct 4. If you choose to drive drunk, you choose to go to jail," said Constable Mark Herman in a news release., The Source Information in this article is from the Harris County Constable Precinct 4 office.
Wall Street Journal
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
A Conservative Judge Blocks Trump
An introduction is in order. After graduating from the University of Texas Law School, Fernando Rodriguez Jr. clerked for Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan L. Hecht , who has been described as 'the godfather of the conservative judicial movement in Texas.' Mr. Rodriguez then practiced law for more than a decade with Baker Botts, a conservative-leaning Texas firm whose partners and employees have included Justice Amy Coney Barrett , Sen. Ted Cruz , and the staunchly antiabortion Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas. Mr. Rodriguez then joined the International Justice Mission, a faith-based nonprofit whose employees are required to be practicing Christians. He was a field office director, first in Bolivia and then in the Dominican Republic, helping these countries' local and national governments investigate and prosecute perpetrators of child sexual assault and human trafficking.
Irish Independent
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Donald Trump's use of Alien Enemies Act to deport gang suspects is illegal, judge rules
US president had sought to remove Venezuelans under 18th-century law ©UK Independent Today at 21:30 The Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport Venezuelan immigrants accused of being gang members 'exceeds' the scope of the law and runs 'contrary to the plain, ordinary meaning' of the wartime statute. Texas District Judge Fernando Rodriguez, who was appointed by Mr Trump himself, ruled yesterday that the administration cannot rely on the 18th-century law to detain and deport alleged Tren de Aragua members, which is 'unlawful'. Register for free to read this story Register and create a profile to get access to our free stories. You'll also unlock more free stories each week.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US judge blocks use of Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans
A Trump-appointed federal judge has ruled that the US president cannot use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants. US District Judge Fernando Rodriguez said Donald Trump's use of the wartime power was "unlawful" and had been improperly invoked. The law was written in 1798 to allow the removal of non-citizens in times of war or invasion. It has been used by Trump to deport Venezuelans to El Salvador on the basis they were members of the Tren de Aragua gang and "conducting irregular warfare". The judge said the act only applied when the US was facing an "armed organised attack", which it is not. The administration has not commented. President Trump in March issued a proclamation claiming that Tren de Aragua was invading the US, and justified the use of special powers to deport immigrants identified as gang members without court proceedings. He used the act to deport two plane loads of alleged migrant gang members to the El Salvadoran terrorism prison known as Cecot. Neither the US government nor El Salvador has provided details of the deportees' alleged criminality or gang membership. The ruling is the first time a federal judge has ruled the use of the act is "unlawful". "The historical record renders clear that the president's invocation of the AEA... is contrary to the plain, ordinary meaning of the statute's terms," the judge wrote. "As a result, the court concludes that as a matter of law, the executive branch cannot rely on the AEA... to detain the named petitioners... or to remove them from the country." The judge pushed back against the Trump administration's argument that the president's use of the act was beyond the purview of the courts. "Allowing the president to unilaterally define the conditions when he may invoke the AEA, and then summarily declare that those conditions exist, would remove all limitations to the executive branch's authority under the AEA," he said He added that allowing such a move would "strip the courts of their traditional role of interpreting Congressional statutes". The Alien Enemies Act has only been used three times before in US history - during World War Two, World War One and the War of 1812. US top court allows Trump to use wartime law for deportations What is the 1798 law that Trump used to deport migrants?
