Ian MacLeod, a first lieutenant in the Texas Air National Guard, just wants his career back.

Ian MacLeod thought he would finally receive his separation from the Texas Air National Guard on May 1. He'd been stuck in the base library since the beginning of August -- his ordeal was detailed in this week's issue -- when an investigation into his personal life first began. His commanders had learned that MacLeod (not his real name, as the first lieutenant requested anonymity) had begun a relationship with a woman, Candse Ellis, on the verge of divorce. Despite the fact that she was physically and financially separated from her husband, Army Sgt. Brady Ellis, MacLeod's commanders saw fit to begin an investigation into the nature of his relationship with Candse, a nursing student, waitress, and mother of four.

That investigation, which ended in October, has seen MacLeod inhabit a purgatory far longer than he'd initially thought, and far stricter than he deserved. Not only did the investigation somehow find MacLeod guilty of carrying on an "inappropriate relationship" with Candse -- despite the fact that Brady admitted to tampering the emails that served as the initial basis for accusation -- but MacLeod's superior, Lt. Col. David Penney, who has since retired, placed a No-Contact Order on MacLeod on Candse. Not only could MacLeod not speak with Candse, but he couldn't even tell this grown woman, who presented no physical or logistical threat to the TXANG, that he'd no longer be able to contact her. (TXANG declined to comment on the story.)

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In December 2012, two Houstonians became the first defendants charged under the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act of 2010, which criminalizes the production and distribution of images of animal cruelty.

Ashley Nicole Richards and Brent Wayne Justice were originally charged in Harris County District Court with animal cruelty, which carries a two-year maximum sentence. But the District Attorney's Office soon dropped the charges without comment -- perhaps out of deference to the much steeper sentencing the couple faced in federal court.

But then something happened that shocked animal welfare advocates: U.S. District Court Judge Sim Lake tossed all the counts under the 2010 law, declaring it in violation of the First Amendment.

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The excitement was palpable as Governor Rick Perry strode into the House chamber just over two years ago to make his State of the State speech.

Months before the four-term Republican governor declared his run for president, Capitol observers were parsing his every phrase and praising his uncanny political intuitions. This was a man who served up defeat to a sitting U.S. senator, was an ace at retail politics and had found a sweet spot with conservatives: Washington-bashing.

"The differences between Texas values and Washington's self-serving games have never been more stark than they are right now. The federal government's efforts to accumulate more power by bribing us with our own tax dollars are simply unacceptable," Perry told a chamber crowded with elected officials. "We must continue to call attention to the essential truth of the 10th Amendment and commit these 28 words to memory: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

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Just a young man looking for some weed.

We usually let our sister blog Rocks Off handle the music business, but in case you don't regularly check them out (for shame!), allow us to point you to a story worth reading.

William Michael Smith takes a long and deep look at Willie Nelson's early years struggling to get by in Houston, in this week's cover story "Mr. Record Man."

"Willie Nelson wasn't always the Red Headed Stranger, king of outlaw country or a multi­platinum-selling national treasure," he writes. "But his short-lived tenure in Houston in 1959 and into 1960, which lasted maybe 18 months, was one of the most important developmental milestones in what would become an enormous career."

Willie's 80 now, and has far fewer tomorrows than yesterdays, so it's a good idea to appreciate him while he's here.

And for a while long, long ago, "here" was Houston, Texas.

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In 2012, the Harris County Appraisal District valued Robert Mandala's modest Spring home at $59,500. The property-tax agent who represented Mandala said HCAD, while establishing a value, purposely ignored the lower priced homes in the neighborhood and grabbed sales numbers from the most expensive properties.

Mandala, a Houston area construction worker, lost his appeal to HCAD's appraisal review board. Now he's stuck with paying more property taxes.

A months-long examination by Houston Press finds that while HCAD fought Mandala and other owners of moderate housing for every single assessment penny, the appraisal district routinely handed tax breaks worth several million dollars to big corporations.

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In 2009, a Houston police officer driving 60 miles per hour on a residential road at night, with no lights or sirens, slammed into a car carrying 54-year-old Mattie Etubom, who suffered severe injuries.

In 2010, a Houston police officer driving 84 miles per hour on a residential road at night, with no lights or sirens, slammed into a car carrying distinguished Baylor College of Medicine scientist Estela Medrano, killing her.

Etubom, and Medrano's husband, sued. City attorneys vigorously defended both cases, saying the officers were following both departmental policy and state law. But then, seemingly without reason, the city settled the Medrano matter. This caused Etubom's attorney to take a closer look at that case, and found that the city had turned over evidence that it withheld in his case. This was especially troubling, given that Houston police had literally blown up the car that should have been preserved for evidence in Etubom's case.

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Cathie Adams knows where she stands on slots. She's done the research. She's conducted the interviews. She's seen what can happen when someone finds his way to the bright, baubly machines from which casinos get a hefty chunk of their income.

"They're called the crack cocaine of gambling," Adams, president of the right-wing Texas Eagle Forum, told Hair Balls. "And if you can use credit cards instead of coins, they're even more addictive...Imagine having those in your state. Imagine having those in your neighborhood!"

Unfortunately for Adams, she may not have to imagine much longer. Because, as detailed in this week's edition of the Press, the Texas Legislature is currently debating a handful of bills that would bring the slots Mrs. Adams so loathes to one of the few states that still keep them illegal. And while some view the bills as a long shot for passage -- similar attempts at gambling expansion have been going on ever since the Texas Lottery was created in 1991 -- others see 2013 as the best bet yet.

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Puerto Rico has seen a murder rate comparable to Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Don Teo has lived in Houston since 1959. He still maintains a slight Puerto Rican accent, but his life -- now in retirement, five years after selling the Tex-Chick restaurant he founded 33 years ago -- is here in Texas.

But even Teo, much like the employees still working at Tex-Chick, cannot escape the violence still rampaging Puerto Rico, which is the subject of this week's cover story. The island sees one of the highest murder rates in the world. With nearly 150 murders in the first two months of 2013, it appears that this year will see as much bloodshed, as much violence, as the Isle of Enchantment has recently experienced. And Teo knows this as well as those who've just arrived, as those who've recently turned Texas into the third-most popular destination for educated puertorriqueños fleeing the island.

One month ago, Teo received a phone call from his family. Their house, the one with barred windows to protect the belongings inside, was targeted by ladrones -- the thieves and robbers that have become a cog in the island's burgeoning drug trade. Everyone was fine, but the parts the thieves could reach, less so.

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When kids in North Dakota and Minnesota started overdosing and dropping dead from synthetic drugs in a span of a week last year, authorities there knew they had a problem on their hands. It didn't take long for them to trace the drugs -- called 25-I or NBOME -- to a dealer in Grand Forks, North Dakota, who bought them online from a company in Houston.

The company, Motion Research, purported to sell "research chemicals" imported from various countries, and marketed as "not for human consumption."

This caught the eye of investigators of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; and when one of the founders of Motion Research decided to snitch his two coworkers out, a tough federal prosecutor in North Dakota had one hell of a case: he painted two Houston men as the ringleaders of a conspiracy that, all told, has embroiled 13 defendants. It is one of the first far-reaching prosecutions of analog drugs sold online.

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Zack Kopplin has rapidly become the target of creationists across the nation.

It's easy to see that Zack Kopplin, a 19-year-old student at Rice University, has fast become one of the leading faces of the anti-creationist movement. He's appeared on numerous national interviews, sharing his opposition to publicly funding creationist academies. He has latched onto outspoken evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins's website. He has just been awarded a $10,000 prize as the Troublemaker of the Year.

But there seems no greater signal of Kopplin's efforts and efficacy -- detailed in this week's Press cover story -- than a recent anti-Kopplin post from Ken Ham, the director of Kentucky's Creation Museum.

Though the two have never spoken, Ham deemed it necessary to counter Kopplin's anti-creationist efforts by lobbing both charges and epithets toward the 19-year-old. And it's worth dissecting a bit of Ham's screed to gain a better insight into those Kopplin is fighting against.

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