Beyond City Limits

• According to the Bolivian newspaper Los Tiempos, Catholic lay missionary Michael Marroquin has been sentenced to 25 years in prison, after a Bolivian court found him guilty of child molestation and human trafficking. Marroquin moved from Austin to Bolivia in 1997 to run the Round Rock-based Project Angels of Hope charity designed to provide social-service support – including food and education – to more than 100 children in the poverty-ravaged Chapare region. Last spring, the charity's U.S. board of directors, headed by Monsignor Tom Frank of the Austin Diocese, began to receive reports from Angels of Hope workers and volunteers, describing increasingly irrational conduct by Marroquin – including arbitrary rages and sexual misconduct. The board on May 11 told Marroquin that it would no longer support his presence at the charity; five days later, after the international child-protection agency Defence for Children International initiated an investigation into Marroquin, he was arrested and jailed by Bolivian authorities. (For more on Marroquin, see "Angels in South America," Aug. 31, 2007.) Acccording to the Bolivian paper, the trial included the testimony of several child witnesses. The children's parents, the paper reported, are pleased with the verdict. – J.S.

• Ending months of speculation, former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell announced on July 20 that he will be running for Galveston’s Texas Senate District 17. The seat became unexpectedly vacant when GOP incumbent Sen. Kyle Janek announced in January that he would stand down with two years left in his term, triggering a special election in November. Bell, who mounted an unsuccessful challenge to unseat Gov. Rick Perry in 2006, became famous in Congress for filing a successful ethics complaint in June 2004 against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. So far, three Republicans have filed for the seat: Texans for Tax Limits founder Austen Furse, former District Judge Joan Huffman, and civil trial attorney Grant Harpold. – R.W.

• The State Board of Education is taking flak for its 10-5 approval of new public-school Bible class curriculum standards. The rules, passed July 18, provide implementation guidelines for school districts for House Bill 1287, which allows for electives in “academic, non-devotional study of the Bible.” But critics both devout and secular call the rules vague and ripe for misinterpretation. Texas Freedom Network Deputy Director Ryan Valentine said, “The State Board of Education just threw those districts and their teachers under the bus” by leaving them open to court cases for unconstitutional courses. Mark Chancey, chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said the guidelines will institutionalize the teaching of the most conservative doctrines in some districts. “Using public schools to promote some religious views over others is not religious freedom,” he said. “And it’s not constitutional.” – R.W.