Texas Tidbits: Disaster recovery trips set for summer.

Disaster recovery scheduled for summer. Disaster recovery trips to Southwest Texas, Colorado, Japan and the Philippines are scheduled for summer mission teams and individuals. The Baptist General Convention of Texas disaster recovery program is working in partnership with River Ministry to help flood victims in Eagle Pass, June 22-28. Cleaning and rebuilding efforts in Jamestown, Colo., suspended due to ice and snow will resume this summer. All assignments in Colorado are filled in June and July, but 25 volunteers still are needed Aug. 3-9. Volunteers are needed June 5-14 and Aug. 14-23 in Japan to minister to people still living in transitional housing after the earthquake and tsunami that hit three years ago. Construction crews will serve in July in the Philippines, rebuilding homes lost to Typhoon Haiyan. For more information about the projects in Eagle Pass and Colorado, contact Gerald Davis at [email protected]. For more information about the projects in Japan and the Philippines, contact Marla Bearden at [email protected].

Lottery Commission delays vote on expansion. The Texas Lottery Commission delayed a vote April 16 on a proposal to let bingo halls use a pull-tab game coupled with a video component. The proposed “video confirmation” machines would show players whether paper pull-tab tickets—similar to lottery scratch-off tickets—are winners. Rodger Weems, chairman of the Texas chapter of Stop Predatory Gambling, called the proposal “back-door gambling expansion, with games that would have resembled casino-style gambling.” He called the measure before the commission “an attempt to expand gambling by agency rulemaking without legislative approval,” and he considered it “especially outrageous.” The commission did not set a date to reconsider the proposal.