With the registration deadline to vote in the upcoming Primary Elections fast-approaching, the Texas Secretary of State’s Office has launched a new web tool which enables Texans to check their registration status online. Additionally, the new “Online Voter Central” web portal allows individuals to determine their polling place as Election Day nears and provides contact information for local county voter registration officials.
With the implementation of the Texas Election Administration Management system, the Secretary of State’s Office now maintains a, “uniform, official, centralized, interactive, computerized statewide voter registration list,” as mandated by the Help America Vote Act of 2002. Texans who registered to vote using their driver license will be able to check their status using their driver license number. All other Texans can enter their Voter Unique Identifier found on their voter registration card to check their voting status and find polling locations.
The deadline to register to vote in the March 4th Primary Elections is Monday, February 4, 2008. Voter registration applications are available on the Secretary of State’s website, as well as county Voter Registrar’s offices, and most libraries, post offices and high schools.
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The owner of Starlight Health Care pleaded guilty to theft by a governmental contractor last week. The Houston-area medical supply company admitted to receiving Medicaid reimbursements for medical supplies that were never delivered.
In a case investigated by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, owner Nene Akpaffiong, 57, was sentenced to 10 years deferred adjudication. Under the terms of the plea agreement, she must reimburse the government for $126,540 in stolen funds and pay a $500 fine.
Indicted last October, Akpaffiong surrendered to authorities at the Harris County Jail on Oct. 18. She was charged with billing Medicaid and receiving reimbursements for incontinence supplies such as adult diapers, some of which were never delivered to recipients. Between January 2003 and April 2006, Akpaffiong billed Medicaid $660,000 for medical supplies. The Medicaid program remitted $399,000. An investigation by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit revealed the government paid $126,540 for supplies Akpaffiong did not actually provide.
State and federal authorities have been investigating providers of durable medical equipment and supplies, including billing schemes under Medicaid and Medicare for adult diapers, wheelchairs and other medical supplies that were never delivered. In Akpaffiong’s case, she primarily billed Medicaid for incontinence supplies, such as adult diapers, that were never delivered.
Harris County Assistant District Attorney Joni Vollman prosecuted the case.
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Attorneys Claude Ducloux of Austin and Roland K. Johnson of Fort Worth will face off in an election of the state’s 80,000 lawyers this spring for the chance to lead the State Bar of Texas. The president-elect candidates were nominated during a meeting of the State Bar Board of Directors Jan. 25 in Grapevine.
The president-elect will serve as the president of the State Bar of Texas from June 2009 through May 2010.
Ducloux is a principal at Hill, Ducloux, Carnes & Hopper in Austin. Board certified in civil trial law and civil appellate law, Ducloux specializes in business formation, transactions, trial and appellate law and mediation and arbitration. He has served as president of the Austin Bar Association (formerly Travis County Bar Association), and in numerous leadership positions on State Bar committees. A sustaining Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, Ducloux earned a B.A. from the University of Texas and a J.D. from St. Mary’s University.
Johnson practices with the Fort Worth firm of Harris, Finley & Bogle, P.C. as managing shareholder. He is board certified in civil trial law and practices primarily in the areas of commercial litigation, professional liability litigation and arbitration. Johnson has served as president of the Tarrant County Bar Association, on the State Bar board and as chair of the Professionalism Committee and in numerous other leadership positions. He earned his B.S. and J.D. from Baylor University.