Round and round we go with City Council redistricting

Vidal Martinez made the case in yesterday's Chron for tackling the task of City Council redistricting in time for the 2009 elections, on the grounds that this is the deal the city agreed to with the Justice Department back in 1979. Marc Campos, who suspects that the city's reluctance to do so has everything to do with the messiness of redistricting, agrees with him. Greg gets into just how messy this is likely to be. And the Chron, in an unsigned editorial, criticizes the city for not taking action back in 2006, but argues that it would be best to aim for 2011 by starting to work on it now, to ensure we get the best result possible.

I have to say, I think the Chron's position is pretty persuasive. They note that a whole lot of candidates have been lining up to run for office this year; to start a redistricting process now would be very disruptive to them. If that were the only consideration, you could very easily argue that the needs of the voters as a whole outweigh that. But a new set of Council districts for November could effectively moot the special election for District H that's set for three months from now. It's not out of the question that the winner of the May race could find him or herself living outside the district in a new map. Since everyone with an opinion on this subject is concerned about this district - my district - and its current lack of a voice on Council, I think we ought to be sensitive to such a possibility.

While I think Martinez is right to stress that a deal is a deal, he kind of loses me here:

The next census will not be completed until at least 2011, and possibly longer if history repeats itself as to the dissemination of the data compiled.

If the next census isn't ready by 2011, we'll have bigger problems than just the disposition of Houston City Council. The Lege wouldn't be able to do its constitutional duty to redraw Congressional lines, which will include three or four new seats including one for Houston, under this scenario. There's a bit more time for that process to run its course, since the effective deadline is the January 2 cutoff for the March 2012 primaries, but with some early organization as advocated by the Chron, the task for Council should be less time-consuming in 2011. At the very least, a committee can be working on this during 2010, which the Lege cannot do because it's not in session. I feel confident that this can be done in time for the 2011 election. Given that, and given that we can't travel back to 2006 and do this then, I think that's the best choice. But if people want to push for this year, then as long as District H doesn't get screwed, I can live with that, too.

Senate committees

Elise Hu has the list of committees and members for the State Senate, which came out yesterday. Not much drama here - as she noted, Sen. John Carona, the on Republican vote against changing the rules for voter ID bills, got the same chairs as last time. One change was the appointment of Sen. Judith Zaffirini to the chair of Higher Education, which has been Sen. Florence Shapiro's job in 2007. Patricia Kilday Hart looks at the politics and rumors behind that, and says it was a good choice regardless of the motives. Michael Hurta thinks Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst gave a lot of power to Sen. Dan Patrick, though as noted in the comments Patrick did not get the assignment to the Finance Committee, which is the Senate version of Appropriations, that he's wanted since his election. Make of that what you will.

Healthcare Workshop

Public service announcement: Next Saturday, February 7, from 9 AM to 1 PM at Covenant Baptist Church (4949 Caroline, see map), the group Health Care For All Texas will be holding a workshop on "Health Reform: An Opportunity to Address Economy, Health and Equity". The goals are to discuss health reform basics, to debunk health care myths, and to promote civic participation. More information is available in this flyer (Word doc).

How much would you pay for that post office?

The US Postal Service would like to make you a deal.

The U.S. Postal Service is unloading as many as 200 facilities in an effort to offset some of its huge financial losses.

In Houston, just two properties have been put up for sale. But another four could go on the market soon.

[...]

The postal service, which lost $2.8 billion last year delivering 9 billion fewer pieces of mail, asked lawmakers this week to lift the rule requiring mail delivery six days a week.

Because mail volume has declined so dramatically, the service is adjusting carrier routes and employees' work hours within its mail processing plants and consolidating operations.

"This consolidation is going to leave us with excess properties we no longer require," said national spokeswoman Sue Brennan.

The two properties for sale in Houston are at 1900 West Gray at Dunlavy and 2802 Timmons, near West Alabama. They are classified as "stations," meaning they have both retail and delivery operations.

[...]

Before the commercial real estate market began to falter, the post office on West Gray might have sold for between $100 and $125 per square foot. Today, it could be worth much less.

"Is the West Gray site worth $125 per square foot? I don't know. Is it worth $50? I don't know, because there's nothing to measure it against," said David Cook of Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate firm.

Back when new developments were being readily financed, the Houston post offices might have swiftly sold to developers for apartments, condominiums, retail centers or office buildings.
Prime location

The West Gray site is particularly well-suited for retail space, Cook said, as it is surrounded by high-end neighborhoods, restaurants and shops. The building is about 18,000 square feet and sits on a 2.5-acre parcel. The Timmons office is just over 14,000 square feet on about 2.6 acres of land.

Here's a look at the USPS annual report. They actually did better in 2008 than in 2007 - revenues were up a hair, and expenses were down; as such, their loss was much greater in 2007. But they're now in the red on net capital, so I presume that's why they're looking at selling properties. For what it's worth, the drop in mail volume was only 4.5%; it's not clear to me that things won't improve along with the economy. Longer term, maybe they need to scale down. But I don't think it's necessarily as bad as all that.

I think you'd have to be pretty desperate to try to unload the sites on Gray and Timmons unless you could be sure you were getting top dollar for them. If I were them, I'd want to hold on and try to capitalize in a stronger market. I realize everyone and his sister is asking for a bailout these days, but the Postal Service is a pretty critical part of the economy. Surely we can do something in the short term to keep them from having to make sub-optimal decisions like this.

Friday random ten: Still more new music

Once more to the new music. I'll probably take another tour through Genius-land starting next week, but for now we're still mining the new music.

1. Fancy Footwork - Chromeo
2. Everybody Hurts - Elk City
3. Running Away - The Polyphonic Spree
4. Money (That's What I Want) - The Beatles
5. FM - Steely Dan
6. Safety Zone - Lou Reed
7. Jenny Jenkins - Lisa Loeb
8. Sunrise - Yeasayer
9. I Hung My Head - Johnny Cash
10. Dime - CAKE

What are you listening to this week?

Critics claim camera study shenanigans

So what else is new?

The Houston Police Department tried to influence the outcome of a controversial city-commissioned study by changing how crashes at intersections with red-light cameras were counted, according to documents included in a lawsuit.

HPD's request was refused by the study's authors, however, who concluded the number of accidents at 50 intersections with the cameras had increased, not decreased as city officials expected, documents say.

Attorneys fighting to end Houston's 2-year-old red-light camera program seized on the documents -- released after an open records lawsuit they filed against the city -- as evidence the study was tainted by a purposefully skewed methodology.

"As in other cities, the red-light camera system in Houston is increasing accidents," said Randall Kallinen, a lawyer who represents ticketed drivers in court. "This is very dangerous for the public, and we must end the red-light camera experiment."

I just want to point out here that by Kallinen's logic, if the next batch of data shows a decrease in accidents at these intersections, it must also be the cameras that caused that decrease. You can't have it both ways.

City officials and Rice University political science Professor Robert Stein, one of the study's main authors, contend the Houston Police Department's requests were part of an ordinary back-and-forth about how best to examine the efficacy of red-light cameras and were not a conspiracy to deliver false data.

[...]

Researchers have studied the impact of such cameras for decades, but the results are mixed and inconclusive, according to an analysis of numerous studies conducted by The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical and public health research.

The Cochrane analysis found only five studies that used statistically sound methodology to examine data from the U.S., Singapore and Australia.

The result was that red-light cameras usually reduce the number of fatal crashes but don't necessarily reduce total collisions.

The Houston study's authors and city officials expected that to be the result here. Instead, the review showed crashes doubled at intersections where at least one camera was installed, although the uptick in collisions happened in the approaching lanes without cameras. At the lanes with cameras, the increase was too slight to be statistically significant, the study's authors found.

According to an e-mail included in the lawsuit, an HPD official asked Stein in April to rule out accidents if they occurred more than 100 feet from the intersection. Kallinen also said that documents he obtained indicated the department attempted to rule out crashes that did not involve a red-light violation. Either of those steps would be more likely to lead to results showing the cameras reduced crashes, Kallinen said.

Stein, whose involvement has been criticized because his wife works for White, said the study's other authors rejected HPD's suggested change because they were using what they believed was the best methodology.

Mayoral spokesman Patrick Trahan said the police had legitimate reasons to consider limiting the crashes that way, as they did not want the study to include collisions that had nothing to do with running red lights or the cameras.

Doesn't seem like too unreasonable a request to me, but then I haven't been peddling conspiracy theories about the cameras. Your mileage may vary.

Can I make a simple request here? I know there's another study going on to gather more data about the cameras and the accident rate in Harris County as a whole. How about we make sure this study uses the statistically sound methodology that the Cochrane folks refer to? Maybe we could all even agree beforehand that if such a methodology were to be used, we'd all accept the results, whatever they are. And finally, maybe we could try to get other locations that have the cameras do the exact same kind of study, so we can see if Harris County is getting similar results as they are or not. I mean, it could be the case that we've just done a lousy job of implementation, and if we'd followed the example set by others we'd get better results. Or perhaps we'll learn that there are no better results, or that what we got in the first year was a fluke. All I'm saying is, it can't hurt to have more and better data.

Stein acknowledged that the cameras are not working in Houston as well as he believes they have been shown to work in other cities. The city and critics should be more concerned about why, he said.

"Why are these crashes going up at these intersections?" Stein asked. "Nobody really cares to get at the truth here. Cars are being damaged, people are being injured and a handful of people are dying. ... What I want to know is, why they aren't working in Houston, and what we can do to improve them?"

You know what my suggestion is. And while we're at it, let's please release the draft version of this first study. There's no reason not to, and holding onto it just fans the flames.

Another lawsuit filed against DPS

That makes two such suits over the new DPS policy of verifying residency status in order to get a drivers license.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed the lawsuit in state district court in Austin. It's on behalf of three men with permission to work in the country and a Lewisville landscaping business that employs seasonal foreign workers through a federal program.

The men are landscaping workers in North Texas who need to drive as part of their job but could not obtain a Texas driver's license under the new DPS policies because their visas are valid for only 10 months.

DPS rules exclude people from receiving driver's licenses if they have a visa for less than one year or have less than six months remaining on it, MALDEF said.

Officials also changed the appearance of driver's licenses for persons with legal permission to be in the U.S. so that they differ from licenses given to citizens and green card holders.

MALDEF contends the Public Safety Commission, which oversees DPS, exceeded its authority and did not have Legislative approval to adopt the rules.

Another suit had been filed two weeks ago by the Texas Civil Rights Project on the grounds that the new rules were discriminatory. At the very least, we know they're causing all kinds of grief for plenty of folks whose paperwork is all in order. I'd bet someone will win an injunction, at least for the time being, to suspend these new procedures.

A SUPERTRAIN for Texas?

It could happen.

The idea of high-speed rail is being pushed again in a big way in Texas, and backers hope to have $12 billion to $18 billion high-speed trains running by 2020. This time, they say they have taken care to ensure the idea won't fall flat the way a bullet-train push did some 15 years ago.

"In the past, high-speed rail was not completed in Texas primarily because it was a top-down model driven by lobbyists out of Austin," former Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, chairman of the nonprofit Texas High Speed Rail and Transportation Corp., told lawmakers at a Wednesday transportation briefing.

This time, he said backers from the consortium -- which includes elected leaders, cities, counties and two airlines among others -- reached out to past opponents to try to solve their concerns. Among them: Southwest Airlines, which fought the last high-speed rail project as a potential competitor. Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said the airline is neutral on this proposal.

The high-speed trains -- with an average speed of 200 mph -- would run to airports, allowing rail to work in conjunction with airlines by ferrying in passengers catching longer flights.

[...]

The rail would run along the so-called "Texas T-Bone" -- from Dallas-Fort Worth through Austin to San Antonio, and branching off in Temple to Houston. More than 70 percent of Texans live in the area that would be served.

Lawmakers and those pushing the project said it's crucial to come up with alternative transportation since the state population is expected to reach 40 million to 50 million by 2040.

You know I love me some trains, and I'll be happy to see this come about, if it really is possible. I don't think I'd prioritize this kind of rail construction over commuter or light rail in urban areas, and even if I did prioritize this I'd be sure to continue pushing for urban rail transit so as to take full advantage of the network effect. But I'm still happy to see this sort of thing on the drawing board, and I hope it gains traction.

(SUPERTRAIN is a registered trademark of Atrios.)

Let's always elect our Senators

U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, having seen what a farce the gubernatorial-selection process for replacing Senators has been this year, proposes to do something about it:

The controversies surrounding some of the recent gubernatorial appointments to vacant Senate seats make it painfully clear that such appointments are an anachronism that must end. In 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution gave the citizens of this country the power to finally elect their senators. They should have the same power in the case of unexpected mid term vacancies, so that the Senate is as responsive as possible to the will of the people. I plan to introduce a constitutional amendment this week to require special elections when a Senate seat is vacant, as the Constitution mandates for the House, and as my own state of Wisconsin already requires by statute. As the Chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee, I will hold a hearing on this important topic soon.

He goes into greater detail here.

I do not make this proposal lightly. In fact, I have opposed dozens of constitutional amendments during my time in the Senate, particularly those that would have interfered with the Bill of Rights. The Constitution should not be treated like a rough draft. Constitutional amendments should be considered only when a statutory remedy to a problem is not available, and when the impact of the issue at hand on the structure of our government, the safety, welfare, or freedoms of our citizens, or the survival of our democratic republic is so significant that an amendment is warranted. This is such a case.

The fact that the people of four states, comprising over 12 percent of the entire population of the country, will be represented for the next two years by someone they did not elect is contrary to the purpose of the 17th Amendment, which provides for the direct election of Senators. That is not to say that people appointed to Senate seats are not capable of serving, or will not do so honorably. I have no reason to question the fitness for office of any of the most recent appointees, and I look forward to working with them. But people who want to be a U.S. Senator should have to make their case to the people whom they want to represent, not just the occupant of the governor's mansion. And the voters should choose them in the time-honored way that they choose the rest of the Congress of the United States.

This proposal is not simply a response to these latest cases. Those cases have simply confirmed my longstanding view that Senate appointments by state governors are an unfortunate relic of the time when state legislatures elected U.S. Senators. This system was replaced by direct elections by the citizens of each state following the ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913. Direct election of Senators was championed by the great progressive Bob La Follette, who served as Wisconsin's Governor and a U.S. Senator. Indeed, my state of Wisconsin is now one of only three states (Oregon and Massachusetts are the others) that require a special election to fill a Senate vacancy. But the vast majority of states still rely on the appointment system. Changing this system state by state would be a long and difficult process, particularly since Governors have the power to veto state statutes that would take this power away from them. We need to finish the job started by La Follette and other reformers nearly a century ago. Nobody can represent the people in the House of Representatives without the approval of the voters. The same should be true for the Senate.

I think this makes a lot of sense, and even if it never gets officially ratified, I think Feingold's actions may spur more states to change their own processes. For what it's worth, I think Texas' process of an appointment followed by a special election on the next uniform election date is good enough for these purposes. I'd rather have someone in office for the few months it takes for the next election date to roll around than have only one Senator represent the state. But clearly a two-year appointment, however well-intentioned and however well-qualified the appointee may be, just doesn't cut it any more. I hope this proposal gets plenty of traction.

Blogging for "Houston Have Your Say 2.0"

I'm at KUHT along with Ree-C Murphey and Mike Reed of the Examiner newspapers, and we're getting ready to begin doing our stream-of-consciousness thing for Houston Have Your Say. You can follow us there, and I'm sure I'll post a longer summary here tomorrow. I'm looking forward to this discussion. If you tune in, let me know what you think, either here or there.

House adopts rules

Once again, not much drama in the lower chamber.

After an all-day debate, the House approved its rules for the 2009 legislative session in a relaxed atmosphere overseen by new Speaker Joe Straus.

The most intense squabble came when the chamber overrode the wishes of the speaker's point man on rules, Rep. Burt Solomons, over the assignment of bills relating to the telecommunications and electric industries.

Solomons, with Straus' approval, had first suggested eliminating the Regulated Industries Committee and spreading those issues over several committees.

However, the chamber ultimately moved the telecommunications and electrical industries into the State Affairs Committee in an 82-65 vote.

You can read the details on that debate here. The main event was over the procedure to remove the Speaker, which was the fulcrum that ultimately led to the successful overthrow of Tom Craddick before this session began.

[I]n response to attempts in 2007 to remove Craddick as speaker, the House passed a rule saying a majority -- 76 members -- can remove a speaker.

Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, urged members to raise that number to 90, saying removing the speaker is an emotional vote that could jeopardize legislation. (Craddick himself supported that higher bar Wednesday.)

But Rep. Jim Keffer, an Eastland Republican and one of the leaders in the revolt against Craddick, disagreed.

"It's a problem to build a firewall around a speaker who's not doing his job," he said.

In the end, the House voted 87-60 to allow a majority to remove a speaker.

Rep. Larry Taylor of Friendswood made a similar objection, also to no avail.

There was a move by the Democrats to pass a rule saying the House would not vote on any bill that cleared the Senate without a two-thirds procedural vote until the appropriations conference committee report is done. You know what that was in response to. The votes for it were not there, and it didn't make it to the floor. In the end, the rules were adopted by a 147-1 vote, with Speaker Straus casting a Yes and Houston Rep. Harold Dutton being the only No. There will be 34 committees instead of 40, with some committees having more members on them. Committee assignments are still a week or more away, though the Senate should get theirs today.

Houston Have Your Say 2.0

So last year I got to serve as an on-the-spot blogger for KUHF's production of Houston Have Your Say, which was about immigration. I blogged some of it at Kuff's World and some of it at a blog that was set up for the show. Tonight I'll be back in the KUHF studios along with my compatriot from the last time, Ree-C Murphy of Lone Star Times and Chronically Right, and the topic will be growth. There's a new blog for the occasion, which you can find here - expect to see our output there this evening.

That blog already has a few entries on it, from some of the guests who will be on the program to discuss the issues. One such entry is here, from Tory Gattis of Houston Strategies. In the spirit of kicking things off, I'm going to pick a nit about his case for why we shouldn't fear growth, a thesis with which I otherwise concur.

Houston has a pedestrian-hostile tropical climate five months of the year. While northern transit-based cities benefit from a personal warming technology - the coat - the only personal cooling technology that exists for southern cities is an air-conditioned vehicle.

All due respect, but as someone who grew up in a northern transit-based city and spent ten years of his life walking or taking public transit to get to school, it's cities like New York that are pedestrian-hostile for five months of the year; essentially, November through March. It's true one can wear that magical personal warming technology Tory refers to when it's cold, but up north we also have what's known as "snow", which turns into "slush", and trust me on this - your coat only helps so much in those conditions. I've seen snow as early as Halloween and as late as Easter - in fact, the last snow day I recall as a student was on Good Friday, in the first week of April. Some day, when I tell my daughters that I often went to school in a foot or more of snow, I won't be exaggerating. (The bit about it being uphill both ways will admittedly be a stretch.) You want weather that's not fit for walking, or for waiting for a bus? Let me introduce you to the concept of the "wind chill factor". That's my idea of an I'd-rather-be-driving climate.

As for Houston, well, I may be more heat tolerant than some, but for the most part outside of July and August, I'll take our weather over theirs. And you know, in a well-designed transit-oriented city, they do have a remarkable pedestrian-cooling technology available. It's called "trees", which when planted along sidewalks can make a big difference in the ambient temperature. You may recall a big argument over the redevelopment on Kirby Drive regarding the dispensation of its trees. And though it may not provide as much relief, unlike your car's technology, a tree canopy won't break down on you and require a costly repair.

Anyway. Like I say, Tory has some really smart ideas, but to me at least, the suggestion that Houston has worse walking weather than New York or Boston or Detroit is frankly ludicrous and in need of some pushback. For more on being a pedestrian in Houston, I'll refer you back to Andrew Burleson's recent post about walking as well as this earlier one about urban corridors and the need to value sidewalks and walking as much as we do cars and driving. May we have a lively and informative debate on all these topics tonight.

Election date set for District H

City Council has officially set the date for the District H special election. As noted in Item 42 of the Council agenda, the special election date is Saturday, May 9, which is the next uniform election date. If there are any other potential candidates out there, expect them to emerge soon.

It's been a week of formal declarations by candidates. Jeffrey Downing made an official announcement of his intent to run for District A on Tuesday, and Ed Gonzalez and Maverick Welsh made theirs yesterday in District H. I've got their press releases beneath the fold. I've also been informed of three potential candidates in District G, one of whom I was asked not to name yet on the blog. Houtopia mentioned two of them in the comments to the earlier post, HCC Trustee Robert Mills Worsham, and attorney Oliver Pennington. I can confirm the latter's candidacy thanks to the following message I received on Facebook from his daughter, Sarah Pennington Tropoli:

Oliver Pennington, who is a now an of counsel attorney with Fulbright and Jaworski - he has been a partner there and worked there since the 70's - will be running for District G. Penny Butler will be his treasurer.

Tropoli mentioned that Pennington's website, OliverPennington.com, will be up in the next few weeks. Jeff Downing also has a website in the works, but it's not ready yet, either. Welsh's website is MaverickWelsh.com.

We can also remove two names from consideration. In the same message to me that confirmed Pennington's candidacy, Tropoli said "George Hittner will not be running for Council - he has accepted a job in another state". That's one less possibility for At Large #4. And despite my fond wishes, HCDE Trustee Roy Morales left a comment in that previous entry stating that he will not be a candidate for Houston City Council this year. Ah, well, maybe next time.

I wish I could tell you just who exactly has filed their Treasurer's report for District H, or any other race for that matter, but according to the Houston City Secretary's office, you have to come downtown and ask them for the list in person. They don't give it out over the phone, and it's not available online. I do not care for this policy, and plan to do some complaining about it.

Finally, just as a reminder to District H residents, tonight is the CIP meeting at the West End Multi Service Center on Heights Boulevard. Go see what's in the works for the district, and scope out some hopefuls for the open seat.

Downing release:

Jeff Downing, a local attorney and native Houstonian, announces his candidacy for Houston City Council District A. The office is currently held by Councilwoman Toni Lawrence, who is term limited after six years of service to the District.

Jeff Downing is a lifelong resident of District A. He attended Aldine ISD schools; namely Ermel Elementary, Hoffman Middle School, and Eisenhower High School. Jeff then attended Texas A&M University, obtaining a BS in political science and a minor in religious studies. Jeff then furthered his education by attending South Texas College of Law, earning a Juris Doctorate. He began his law career in the Harris County District Attorney's Office, and then Jeff opened his own successful general practice firm, The Downing Law Firm.

"We have come to a time of change in our country; everywhere you look there is hardship and strife. As a city, the people of Houston must face these hardships head on with strong leadership...I feel that I can be that strong leader for District A," Jeff said. "I know that we, as Houstonians, can make a difference and usher in confidence and pride to our great city."

Jeff looks forward to the campaign and the opportunity to reach out and talk to all members of District A.

Jeff currently lives in Oak Forest.

Gonzalez release:

With today's announcement by the City Council that the special election to fill the vacancy caused by Adrian Garcia's election as sheriff will be held on May 9th, Ed Gonzalez officially entered the race for City Council District H.

"As a native Houstonian born and raised in the district, I know the community and am deeply committed to its continued success for our families and children," Gonzalez stated. "I was educated in area schools, I have proudly served in the Houston Police Department for the past 18 years, and for the past five years I have been Adrian Garcia's volunteer Community Liaison for District H. As the District H councilmember, I will use my law enforcement and business experience to build upon the relationships I have with district civic organizations and leaders to improve public safety, neighborhood protection, historic preservation, education and quality of life for all residents."

The first in his family to both go to college and receive an advanced degree, Gonzalez has served with honor and distinction in the Houston Police Department, rising to the rank of Sergeant in the Homicide Division, and was selected for its elite Hostage Negotiation Team.

Ed Gonzalez is the chair of the Crime and Public Safety Committee of the Houston Heights Association and is a member of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative Committee (JDAI), a project co-sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Harris County to identify alternatives to incarceration for troubled youths. He also sits on the board of the MD Anderson-YMCA which serves District H families and young people. And Gonzalez was a Gulf Coast Community Services Association (GCCSA) board member, helping families by administering Head Start and Early Head Start programs in the area.

Ed, his wife Melissa, and their family live in Lindale Park.

Welsh release:

Dear Friend,

Today, I'm honored to say that I am a candidate for Houston City Council. District H faces real challenges that will require strong leadership and bold ideas. The issues we face today -- inadequate historic preservation and neighborhood protection, crumbling roads and sidewalks, soaring electricity prices, crime, and a tough economy -- are issues that affect everybody in District H. We need a candidate who understands the needs of the whole district, and who will represent everybody.

All my life, I've been called to service -- from teaching high school History and Government, to volunteering with my neighborhood, and to working at City Hall. I firmly believe that everybody counts and nobody should be left behind, and with your help, we can make District H an even better place to live.

To get elected, I will need your help. So, please go to my website: www.MaverickWelsh.com. You can sign-up to volunteer and receive campaign updates, and, of course, make a financial contribution.

Remember to vote in the special election Saturday, May 9. Thank you so much for your consideration and support.

Sincerely,

Maverick Welsh

California breathin'

We may get some cleaner air to breathe here in Texas thanks to California and President Obama.

Obama ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to review the Bush administration's refusal to allow California and 13 other states to set the nation's toughest vehicle emissions standards.

During a ceremony in the White House East Room, Obama signed a directive requiring the agency immediately to review that December 2007 decision denying California permission to limit carbon dioxide emissions from cars and trucks.

"The federal government must work with, not against, states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Obama said.

State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, who pushed unsuccessfully for tougher car emissions standards in the 2007 legislative session, says his measure may have a better chance this session now that one key obstacle -- federal opposition -- is likely to disappear.

"It's an uphill battle to get the votes in the House and in the Senate," Ellis acknowledged. "But on my side in the Senate, members who in the past were very reluctant to consider environmental legislation have gotten much more educated, as I've seen in private conversations."

Ellis' legislation would adopt all of California's proposed emissions standards, as the 13 other states already have and several more are considering.

Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, has filed an identical bill in the House.

The bills in question are SB119 and HB776. I don't know that this will give them a leg up, but it does at least knock down one objection to them. We know Speaker Straus is much more open to green legislation than Tom Craddick was. If Sen. Ellis' assessment of his colleagues is accurate, then who knows?

Adopting the California standard in Texas would cost new-car buyers about $7 more per month if they financed a car over five years, Ellis said, but they would save up to $18 per month in fuel costs based on $1.74 per gallon of gas.

Many industry groups expressed opposition to the administration's move.

The American Petroleum Institute said it "supports President Obama's desire to fortify the nation's energy security with a comprehensive energy policy" and said that since 2000 the oil and gas industry has invested $42 billion in "zero- and low-carbon" research and development. But the action contemplated in Monday's announcement isn't the best approach, the group said.

"Creating a patchwork regulatory structure across multiple states would most likely impose higher costs on consumers, slow economic growth and kill U.S. jobs," the trading group said in a statement.

And carmakers have complained that developing vehicles that comply would cost billions of dollars.

But if the EPA agrees to California's standards, Texas likely will be affected regardless of whether the Legislature approves Ellis' measure. The 14 states that have adopted the tougher emissions standards represent more than half the nation's population, so the practical effect of EPA approval of California's rules would be to force automakers to raise fuel efficiency standards across their fleet.

Yeah, that would seem to be the obvious answer to the automakers' complaint. I mean, nobody is forcing them to maintain two different standards. And let's face it, when it comes to environmental matters, these guys are a bunch of weasels who generally need to be forced to do the right thing. So forgive me if I am unmoved by their argument.

Fish farming in the Gulf?

Not sure what I think about this.

Regional fishery managers have a plan to open the Gulf to the first industrial-scale fish farms in federal waters.

The proposal -- intended to help reduce the nation's reliance on imported seafood -- calls for raising millions of pounds of amberjack, red snapper and other Gulf species each year in submerged pens three miles to 200 miles off the coast.

But the plan has raised concerns from environmental and fishing interests about how to protect the Gulf's wild fish stock and waters from disease, pollution and other threats that have troubled fish farms in other countries.

What's more, some of the plan's critics contend that the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, which is responsible for the Gulf's fish population, shouldn't act before Congress establishes federal regulations for the emerging industry.

"We're not fundamentally opposed to fish farms," said George Leonard, director of the Ocean Conservancy's aquaculture program. "But we need to get it right the first time, and one way of doing it is to have a national debate."

The time is apparently now, because the plan was approved, though it still has to get past the Commerce Department.

Those against the plan say the large cages and pens that would raise fish far offshore would pollute the oceans with fish waste and chemicals. Farmed fish, which often get heavy doses of antibiotics, can also escape into the wild and interfere with native species.

"We simply do not want this," said Avery Bates, vice president of the Organized Seafood Association of Alabama. "Do not allow this, I don't care who's pushing your buttons ... Don't put us out of business."

Bates, who represents about 200 commercial fishermen in Alabama, said there was fear that foreign companies would buy permits to farm fish offshore and then sell the fish at reduced prices, undercutting U.S. fishermen.

The United States takes in about $10 billion in seafood imports a year and exports only about $2.7 billion, according to data from the Commerce Department. About 80 percent of all seafood consumed in the United States is imported.

Commercial seafood company owner John Ericsson favors the plan. He said the United States has fallen behind countries such as Greece, Norway and Chile, where offshore farming has taken off.

His said his company, Florida-based BioMarine Technologies Inc., is looking at growing fish in cages that could contain up to 60,000 cobia, also known as king fish in the Northeast, and amberjack. He said it would take about $10 million to set up an offshore fish farm.

"It's a serious business commitment," he said.

Besides creating jobs, fish farming is important for the nation's food security, he said. "Just think if someone was able to wipe out our cows and other land creatures with an anthrax. Where would we get our protein from?" he said.

I have to say, neither of those arguments strike me as particularly compelling. Surely the advocates on either side can do better than that. I think I'm just going to have to read around and see what I can learn about them before I come to any judgment about this. What do you think?

Don't fear a fight with KBH

I want to take a minute to recommend Karl-Thomas' analysis of the Governor's race, and why Democrats seem to be working towards a self-fulfilling prophecy of Kay Bailey Hutchison's inevitability and unbeatableness. I've talked about some of this stuff before, but his point about how Rick Perry's attacks on KBH from the right can give a Democratic nominee the opportunity to box her in early on is a good one; what's more, by having a good Democrat in the race early on, it could negatively affect her presumed strategy to lure non-traditional Republican voters into that primary to counteract Perry's base. Good stuff, and I'm glad to see more attention focused on this. I just hope the message gets received by those who can do something about it.

So much for the wine bar

The battle between Weingarten and its neighbors over the changes to the new River Oaks Shopping Center, which reached a resolution two weeks ago, may end up as having been over nothing.

Houston restaurateur Tony Vallone said he's canceled plans to open an Italian bistro and wine bar in the River Oaks area because of the ailing economy.

"I'm going to wait until the economy gets better," said Vallone, who was planning to operate the restaurant with his son Jeff.

Boy, if they'd only said that a few months ago. Anyway, we'll see if this crops up again in the future, when and if the Vallones decide that the climate has improved. Thanks to Houstonist for the catch.

UPDATE: The River Oaks Examiner has more.

"This is not the time for expansion," Vallone said of his decision.

Better to wait for the economy to recover, he said, and to focus on his flagship restaurant and catering business.

The spiked project was a restaurant with a patio and upstairs wine bar. It would have been an Italian restaurant, not a bistro, he said.

Meanwhile, the recent flak between neighbors and developer Weingarten Realty on such points as the building's setbacks and the use of the patio were not factors in pulling the plug, he said, adding the discourse was full of misinformation.

Vallone said, for example, rumors were circulated that the patio would have been used, at times, as a band venue, which would not have been the case.

"I would never do anything to jeopardize the relationship with the neighborhood," Vallone said.

So we may see this project again some day. I wonder what the neighbors think.

Talk to them about helmet laws

Last month, I noted that some police departments will be lobbying the Legislature to require motorcyclists to wear helmets, which would effectively repeal a law from 1997 that granted them the ride to ride bareheaded if they had sufficient insurance. I figured that wouldn't happen without a fight from the motorcycle enthusiasts, and sure enough, they've made their way to Austin this week to play defense on that issue, among other things. They also have their own legislation in mind.

Pegasus, a lifelong motorcyclist and vice president of the Texas Motorcycle Roadriders Association, said her organization came to discuss a bill concerning a driver's failure to yield the right of way to another vehicle. She, along with many other concerned bikers, said she believed the majority of motorcycle accidents occur when distracted drivers fail to yield the right of way to motorcycles.

Under Texas law, a driver who causes serious bodily injury or death to a victim is punishable by a maximum fine of $4,000 and 30 days or up to a year in jail.

"I'm tired of people killing motorcyclists and not being held responsible," Pegasus said. "That's bullshit. Driving is a privilege and a responsibility that needs to be upheld."

Pegasus endorsed higher penalties and prison sentences for anyone guilty of harming a biker by failing to yield the right of way.

"Cyclists have many rights that we don't have. Why? Because they lobbied," she said. "These people represent hundreds of people around the state. We're gonna get heard."

Now those will be hearings worth attending. Oh, and it's good to hear from Sputnik again, too. Good luck, y'all.

Who are you calling a knucklehead?

This article about a panel of experts coming together in Houston to assess the city's readiness to deal with disasters is moderately interesting - I look forward to reading their conclusions, that's for sure - but what really caught my eye was this:

"We are in an era when it is easier to attack than defend," said David McIntyre, director of the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M University.

"In the past, it was very hard for a single individual to launch an attack against a city," McIntyre said. "Technology is allowing disaffected people to have an inordinate impact on our lives -- terrorists for sure, but also homegrown knuckleheads like Timothy McVeigh or screwballs like the Unabomber."

Huh. I certainly agree that there's a dividing line between terrorists and knuckleheads, and that the latter can cause a fair amount of mayhem for which it would be best to be prepared. I just don't know how you can draw that line in such a way as to put Timothy McVeigh in the non-terrorist group. Maybe Mr. McIntyre has a different definition of the term than I do, I don't know. I just know how I'd have classified that particular example.

So how's the state of our state?

Well, you can read the text of Governor Rick Perry's State of the State speech and see for yourself what it was all about. Frankly, I think Matt got it in one: This was a campaign speech. I mean, stem cells? Ultrasounds? That he spoke about voter ID is no surprise, though how he framed it was a bit odd. Immigration, too, on which there was more muddled thinking. Point being, who other than a Republican primary voter thinks these are the top issues in Texas today? It was small ball, intended for a small audience. You'd have to ask them if the speech was effective, because it wasn't addressed to me, or to most of the people (I presume) who are reading this.

For responses to the Governor's speech, and a good sampling of what he should have talked about but didn't, here are responses from freshman State Reps. Joe Moody and Chris Turner, and State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte. Click on beneath the fold for press releases from State Reps. Trey Martinez-Fischer and Garnet Coleman. And here, much shorter than Perry's speech, is a YouTube response from Rep. Coleman.

Statement from Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer:

Today, Governor Rick Perry delivered his state of the state speech in which he outlined his legislative priorities for the 81st Legislative Session. Governor Perry focused on what will become the broad strokes of his campaign to be re-elected Governor of Texas. The only problem-- Texans are not interested in politics, they are interested in solutions.

"The only thing apparent was that someone is running for re-election." said Representative Trey Martinez Fischer (D-San Antonio), the Chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. "At a time, when 99% of Texans are worried about their paychecks and their pocketbooks, Governor Perry is worried about re-election."

In what most consider to be the race of his political career, Governor Perry is expected to face strong opposition in the Republican gubernatorial primary by sitting United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Governor Perry's speech was marked by references to controversial and partisan policies like voter identification.

"From the kitchen table to the Capitol, Texans are welcoming a new era of politics driven by what unites us--they are choosing policy over platitudes," said Representative Martinez Fischer.

"MALC stands ready to work to help create jobs, increase access to quality and affordable healthcare and create opportunities for small businesses. Divisive rhetoric above common sense doesn't create jobs," said Representative Martinez Fischer.

Statement from Rep. Garnet Coleman:

Today Representative Coleman responded to Governor Perry's State of the State address:

The state of our great State is strong, because Texans are a wonderfully diverse people. The people of Texas deserve a government that works for them, the same way they work for their families.

Too many things are broken, and today, the Governor failed to propose solutions to fix many of the things that have been broken during his tenure as Governor.

In the Governor's address to a joint session of the Legislature, he neglected to mention the Children's Health Insurance Program, the mismanagement of the state unemployment fund, and the need to make a real investment in clean, renewable energy sources.

"Whether we are Democrats, Republicans or Independents, surely we can agree that we can't afford to ignore the health of 1.5 million uninsured Texas children. Many Texans can no longer afford tuition at state universities, and we can do better than the Governor's fake freeze. Education is one investment that doesn't lose value in tough economic times, and it's time for the state to meet its responsibility to fix a system that's broken."

Representative Coleman pledged to reach across party lines to fix the things that are broken. Representative Coleman committed to:

-Provide health insurance coverage for every child

-Lower the cost of college.

-Invest in our children's classrooms

-Lower insurance and utility rates

-Make a real investment in clean, renewable energy sources.

Representative Coleman concluded by saying:

We can meet these needs without increasing taxes, provided state government's priorities are the priorities that offer every Texan an opportunity to succeed and contribute their talents to make the state of our state even stronger.

CIP meeting for District H

I don't know how widespread the email distribution list is for this sort of thing, so consider this to be a public service announcement for District H in Houston:

City of Houston Capital Improvement Plan Meeting for District H

Hosted by Council Member At Large Melissa Noriega and City of Houston officials

Thursday, January 29, 2009
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
West End Multi Service Center
170 Heights Blvd
Houston, TX 77007

Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) meetings are held every year to inform citizens of upcoming projects scheduled in their respective communities. The meetings also afford citizens an opportunity to voice their concerns and address their respective City Council member and City of Houston officials.

For more information and specific details of the Capital Improvement projects in your area, please visit: www.houstontx.gov/cip/09cipadopt/index.html.

If you have any questions, contact Cecilia Ortiz at 832-393-0945 or [email protected]

The West End Multi Service Center is between Center Street and I-10 on the northbound side of Heights Boulevard, just north of the Art Car Museum. I cannot be there for this - I have a prior engagement - but I feel confident that most if not all of the declared and prospective candidates for the open Council seat will be in attendance. Seek them out and get an early start on figuring out who you want to vote for in May.

Innocence

Lisa Falkenberg examines what Circuit Judge Jacques L. Wiener Jr. referred to as "the elephant in the room" in granting a stay of execution to Larry Swearingen.

The nation's highest court hasn't directly addressed whether a claim of actual innocence can be made in late appeals, so federal appeals courts are left to their own interpretations. The 5th Circuit takes the easy route: it uniformly rejects them.

But, apparently, refreshingly, there's at least one member of the court who disagrees: Judge Wiener.

In concurring with the stay, he wrote a special statement after Monday's order to address what he called "the elephant" in the room.

Wiener writes that even though the U.S. Supreme Court never "expressly" recognized the right to claim actual innocence in late appeals, justices have made statements that suggest they view the truly innocent in the same light as the insane or the mentally retarded.

Wiener quotes Justice O'Connor: "I cannot disagree with the fundamental legal principle that executing the innocent is inconsistent with the Constitution."

One would certainly think.

There's a very real possibility, Wiener writes, that the lower court to which Swearingen's case was returned "could view the newly discovered medical expert reports as clear and convincing evidence that he victim in this case could not possibly have been killed by the defendant."

That would represent a change in how the Court of Criminal Appeals has reacted to such evidence on Swearingen's behalf previously, but I suppose one can hope. What else can you do?

I should note that when I wrote before about how our state leaders have always maintained that Texas has never executed a provably innocent man, there was already a strong possibility that they are wrong in this belief. There's the case of Cameron Willingham, executed in 1991 for setting a fire that killed his three children. Except that the forensic science used to prove the charge of arson was based on discredited procedures, and multiple experts who have reviewed the evidence today have all concluded the blaze was accidental. In a matter of propitious timing, the Texas Forensic Science Commission is getting close to rendering a final judgment on the matter.

Fire scientist Craig Beyler has been asked by the Texas Forensic Science Commission to conduct an independent review of the case's forensic evidence.

"He appears to be one of the pre-eminent people in the fire and arson investigation field," Samuel Bassett, an Austin attorney and commission member, said of Beyler.

Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project, a non-profit organization responsible for scores of DNA exonerations, called the hiring of Beyler an "encouraging sign" and said he hoped Beyler would be able to "get to the bottom" of the case that sent Willingham to a lethal injection.

"It's essential that this matter is resolved for the sake of those who have been wrongly convicted by unreliable arson evidence, as well as those under investigation in new arson cases," said Scheck, the Innocence Project's co-director.

[...]

The Forensic Science Commission was created in 2005 to investigate allegations of forensic error and misconduct in the country's busiest death-penalty state. The Willingham case is its first capital case.

Bassett said he hoped Beyler would be able to complete his review by early April. Beyler will write a report and may make recommendations to the commission.

It is not clear whether Beyler would conclude whether Willingham was innocent. Even if he finds that the science used at the time was flawed, as the other experts have, he may not take the next step and say Texas was wrong to execute Willingham, though that would be the clear implication.

"If [Beyler's report] is critical of the arson testimony," said Bassett, "then theoretically it's possible that could be the basis for a broader conclusion about the original conviction."

That's a fine distinction that unfortunately won't do Cameron Willingham any good, but may perhaps spur the debate forward, and who knows, might even act as a catalyst for Larry Swearingen. The Chicago Tribune was the driving force behind the re-examination of Willingham's case - you really should read their 2004 story, written ten months after Willingham's execution, to get the full background. Thanks to Grits for the link to today's story.

The state of the state 2009

Governor Perry will be making his State of the State address today at 11, in which he's expected to talk about the budget, hurricane relief, and some red meat for his primary voters. You can get a preview of it in this Chron story. For those of you who want to follow it live, along with some sure-to-be-lively commentary, try KXAN, which will stream the speech along with blogging from Charlie Ray (formerly of the late, lamented PinkDome.com) and Karen Brooks. For those of you on Twitter, I'd recommend Eileen Smith, Gardner Selby, Brandi Grissom, and Elise Hu. I'll have something to say about it later. Tune in now and be glad you didn't have to fight for a seat or be outside in the nasty weather Austin is having (and Houston will soon have) today.

City Council lineup update

Via Carl Whitmarsh, we have a third potential candidate for the to-be-open Council seat in District A, attorney Alex Wathen. Wathen joins Bob Schoelkopf and Jeffrey Downing in eyeing that seat. Wathen has been a candidate for City Council before - he ran for At Large #2 in 1999, finishing last in a field of 11 that was eventually won by Gordon Quan. He also ran for Justice of the Peace in 2002 against Justice David Patronella, garnering 33.66% of the vote and causing a bit of a stir as a local Republican wingnut put out a robocall urging other Republicans not to vote for Wathen on the grounds that Wathen is gay. (Shocking, I know.) A press release from the Log Cabin Republicans, of which Wathen was a local leader, noted the attack against him while mistakenly stating he'd won the election anyway.

Anyway. Here to the best of my recollection is an up-to-date list of declared and potential candidates for various city elections this year. Please chime in and let me know where I've missed something.

Mayor: The lineup is pretty stable at this point, with City Controller Annise Parker, At Large #1 City Council Member Peter Brown, and former City Attorneys Gene Locke and Benjamin Hall in the mix. Former Kemah Mayor Bill King has apparently dropped out, and former Governor Mark White was in there for a minute, but hasn't been heard from in a few months.

City Controller: Not very much chatter about this one so far, but three of the remaining term-limited City Council members - Ronald Green in At Large #4, MJ Khan in District F, and Pam Holm in District G - have been mentioned as potential candidates.

City Council At Large: For sure, At Large #4 will be open. Noel Freeman is a declared candidate, while Terence Fontaine, the Deputy Chief of Staff to Mayor Bill White, and former candidates for District C George Hittner and Brian Cweren have all expressed interest in the past. More recently, former HPD Chief and District Attorney candidate CO Bradford has said he's considering a run.

At Large #1 will be open unless Peter Brown makes like Michael Berry in 2003 and decides to run for re-election rather than pursue his Mayoral ambitions. Former State Rep. and Harris County Democratic Party chair Sue Schecter has said she'd be interested in running here. Bill King has apparently turned his attention towards an At Large Council race and may wind up here. HCDE Trustee and former At Large Council candidate Roy Morales has also expressed some interest in another Council run.

Finally, in At Large #5, freshman Member Jolanda Jones has drawn the attention of former State Rep. candidate Carlos Obando. And though I have not heard any names recently, there was definitely talk after the 2007 election that two-term Member Sue Lovell could draw a real challenger in At Large #2 after she won a surprisingly close race against perennial gadfly Griff Griffin. As yet, no word of an opponent for At Large #3 member Melissa Noriega.

District A: Covered above. For purposes of comparison, there were five candidates for the open seat race in 2003, which Toni Lawrence won outright after two unsuccessful attempts to unseat Bruce Tatro.

District F: Mike Laster is the only name I've heard so far. There were four candidates for this seat in 2003.

District G: Nada. If anyone is out there looking at this one, I've not heard about it yet. There were seven candidates in 2003.

District H: Karen Derr, Maverick Welsh, Ed Gonzalez, and Hugo Mojica are in. Gonzalo Camacho and Rick Rodriguez are reportedly in, while Yolanda Navarro Flores and Diana Davila Martinez are reportedly mulling it over, but I don't have direct confirmation of their interest. There were six candidates in 2003, including Martinez and Camacho.

So that's what I know about who is or may be running for a given city office this year. Who am I missing?

The border camera boondoggle blues

Your tax dollars at work, courtesy of Governor Perry.

A virtual border surveillance program Gov. Rick Perry has committed millions of taxpayer dollars to fell far short of expectations during the first six months of operation.

Border sheriffs, who Perry gave $2 million to line the Texas-Mexico border with hundreds of Web cameras, installed only about a dozen and made just a handful of apprehensions as a result of tips from online viewers.

Reports obtained by the El Paso Times under the Texas Public Information Act show that the cameras produced a fraction of the objectives Perry outlined.

Perry's office acknowledged the reported results were a far from the expectations but said the problem was with the yardstick used to measure the outcome and not with the camera program.

"The progress reports need to be adjusted to come in line with the strategy," said Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger.

How about aligning it to the cost of implementation? Crazy idea, I know.

In the first six months of the grant period, the coalition spent $625,000 to get the cameras running.

The Web site went public Nov. 19, and in the first month saw nearly 2 million hits.

All those hits didn't translate into much law enforcement work, though, according to a six-month progress report required for the grant.

The report describes both the objectives for the program during the first year of the grant and how much progress was made in achieving those goals.

The coalition's goal was to make 1,200 arrests as a result of tips from the online cameras in the first year of the project.

They made three arrests in the first six months, according to the progress report.

Of some 4,500 suspected immigration violations they expected to report to U.S. Border Patrol in the year, the first six months produced six.

The report also showed the group installed just 13 of 200 cameras it planned to install this year.

Boy, that makes it almost as effective as the high school steroid testing program. Which was declared a success by its boosters, by the way. Gotta love that alignment of progress and strategy.

As the story notes, Perry has had a long fascination with the idea of border cameras and an army of online border-camera-watchers. The fact that the first, smaller-scale version of this was about as effective hasn't cooled his ardor for them.

Some lawmakers panned the program as ineffective, and in 2007 legislators denied Perry's request to fund more cameras and resume the online offensive.

Last year, though, Perry secured $2 million in federal grant money to get the cameras online.

But when his office sought a vendor, none would do the job for that price.

So Perry turned to the border sheriffs, a group he had previously given tens of millions for border security operations.

The sheriffs contracted with a social-networking company called Blueservo to set up the cameras and the Web site.

Once enough users sign up, the company says it plans to sell advertising on the site to generate a profit and pay for the border camera effort.

Cesinger said Perry is committed to the camera program because it uses technology to help secure the border, a mission the federal government has failed to accomplish.

"It's utilizing technology so you don't have to pay for an extra set of eyes," she said.

You know, I'm thinking that for two million bucks you could probably get more than one extra set of eyes, and that you'd get a lot more results from them as well. I know, I know, that's crazy talk. But at least it's not as crazy as the idea that you could pay for these cameras in perpetuity with advertising revenue from a border camera social networking scheme. Seriously, who thinks this stuff up? I hope this program meets the same fate as its predecessor.

One more reason to be glad he's in Dallas and not here

I don't need another reason to be glad that former President Bush chose someplace other than Houston to retire to, but if you do, here's one for you.

The tab to provide crowd and traffic control at the new Preston Hollow home of former President George W. Bush could reach $1 million a year, Police Chief David Kunkle said Wednesday.

For now, the department will probably post officers in the neighborhood around the clock to deal with crowds of onlookers.

The $1 million figure is based on the cost of providing two officers in a squad car on a 24-hour basis for one year.

"We have had officers out there frequently because of the crowds and traffic," Kunkle said. How long the department will post officers in the neighborhood "depends on the amount of interest and curiosity. I don't know how long we will have to commit people."

City Manager Mary Suhm said the city does not plan to ask the federal government to reimburse Dallas for police patrols of Bush's neighborhood.

"I don't believe that it'll be a massive expense," she said. Dallas "is going to take care of the president like we would take care of any of our citizens."

I'm just glad he's someone else's problem now. And I'd be a failure as a blogger if I didn't include this:

Oh, yeah.

Texas blog roundup for the week of January 26

It the first official Texas Progressive Alliance blog roundup of the Obama Administration. And no, it's not going to get old saying "Obama Administration" any time soon. Click on for the highlights.

Would you like a Cheeseburger in Paradise made from Texas Black Angus raised on drilling waste? Get yours at Bluedaze: Drilling Reform for Texas. Served up by TXsharon.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders why John Cornyn is dropping poo in our collective punch bowl. Why be reasonable when you can be a Republican?

WhosPlayin was glued to the TV all day Tuesday, popping the cork on champagne at 11 AM. But ultimately there were more important things.

jobsanger thinks it was wrong for federal and state representatives to threaten the El Paso city council with cutting off state and federal funds if they passed a resolution asking the government to reconsider the failed "war on drugs" in Legislators Threaten El Paso Council.

At McBlogger, we're all about things that make your taco go POP!

Off the Kuff commented on the actions of the State Board of Education in which efforts by religious conservatives to weaken science education were (mostly) thwarted.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston has posted how much money Bob Perry has donated in 2008.

Gay divorce comes to Texas once again, forcing the hand of the judicial system to do what is right in civil law. The Texas Cloverleaf examines the case in Dallas.

Neil at Texas Liberal inquires about Barack Obama's urban policy.

The Texas Congressional GOP delegation is still voting to deny poor children their health insurance, and John Cornyn continues acting like a massive bleeding hemorrhoid. It's just a gambit to establish himself as the conservative foil to President Obama, and perhaps presage a White House bid of his own in 2012. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has the bloody details.

BossKitty at TruthHugger illustrates how Homeland Security can justify any risk. All euphemisms aside, taking the most lethal pathogens in the US arsenal into America's heartland and breadbasket seems suicidal. Plum Island to Manhattan - Pathogens On The Move. Instead of taking researchers to the lethal experiment, they are placing the experiment among us.

Burnt Orange Report formalizes and announces its Right to Respond Policy.

Though the Three Wise Men have been as critical of Isreal's actions in Gaza as anyone, we're as quick to point out-as historian Mark LeVine makes clear-that Hamas' embrace of violence hasn't exactly helped the cause of Palestinian self-determination either.

Swearingen gets a stay

Thank goodness.

Accused killer Larry Swearingen has been granted a second stay of execution.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit handed down the ruling this morning.

Swearingen was set to be executed by injection on Tuesday.

"We're glad that someone has stepped in,'' said Swearingen's attorney James Rytting. "We think this is an extraordinary case of actual innocence. We're hopeful that the federal courts will give the evidence a fair review.''

Swearingen has been on death row in the Polunsky Unit in Livingston since 2000. He was found guilty by a Montgomery County jury of kidnapping, raping and strangling 19-year-old Melissa Trotter on Dec. 8, 1998.

Monday's ruling is the second time Swearingen has been given a reprieve. The Texas Criminal Court of Appeals granted him a stay on Jan. 23, 2007, one day before his scheduled execution date.

[...]

In granting Swearingen another stay of execution, the federal appeals court said his due process rights were violated because his trial attorney failed to develop evidence from Trotter's body tissue and did a poor job in cross examining [former Harris County medical examiner Dr. Joye] Carter. The panel also found that the state sponsored "false and misleading forensic testimony regarding when Trotter's body was left in the forest.''

The same arguments were rejected by the state court.

Circuit Judge Jacques L. Wiener Jr. wrote a concurring statement, he said, "to address the elephant that I perceive in the corner of this room: actual innocence.''

Wiener said he sees a "real possibility'' that the district court could view the new evidence "as clear and convincing evidence that the victim could not have been killed by the defendant.''

He noted, however, that lower federal courts dealing with actual innocence claims might have to deny relief to someone who is actually innocent because of existing Supreme Court rulings.

The appeal will now go back to a federal district judge for review.

Go read the Texas Monthly story if you haven't already to review the details. Note how once again, a federal appeals court has slapped our morally bankrupt Court of Criminal Appeals for its indifference to due process and exculpatory evidence. What really needs to happen here is for Swearingen to get a new trial, but at least the executioner has been avoided for now. Kudos to the FIfth Circuit Court of Appeals and to Attorney Rytting.

Harris County tackles jail overcrowding

Well, what do you know?

Harris County's burgeoning jail population is expected to swell to 12,600 this spring, prompting newly elected officials to take a fresh look at ways to alleviate overcrowding, including releasing low-risk offenders.

The new sheriff, district attorney and eight new criminal district court judges will consider ideas championed for years by local lawmakers, defense lawyers and advocates for the poor and mentally ill.

The new Democratic judges, for example, have indicated they will consider releasing more low-risk offenders on personal bonds, returning to a policy virtually abandoned in recent years when Republicans controlled the courthouse. Such bonds, better known as personal recognizance bonds, allow defendants accused of nonviolent crimes to leave jail without having to post bail.

[...]

The county's criminal district judges voted earlier this month to devote one court to felony cases involving defendants diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression.

The idea is to defer those defendants to treatment, rather than to repeatedly jail them for relatively minor crimes such as loitering or trespassing.

New Republican District Attorney Pat Lykos also hopes to launch a pilot project to divert nonviolent, mentally ill defendants with less severe diagnoses to a secure facility where they can receive medical care and counseling.

Major Mike Smith, who runs the jails for new Democratic Sheriff Adrian Garcia, said he has been overwhelmed with requests for meetings with judges, prosecutors and other officials who want to discuss ideas for reducing the inmate population.

"That's the ultimate answer -- to get some of these people out of the jail and into other locales or in the free world where they're under monitored supervision or enhanced bonding," Smith said.

It's a beautiful thing to see every involved agency working on this in a positive way, rather than just demanding more money to deal with their actions. Elections really do have consequences.

In November 2007, voters defeated a $245 million bond referendum to build a 2,500-bed jail downtown. Commissioners Court considered putting a new, smaller request on last November's ballot, but decided against it.

Smith said it would be naive to think the county will never need a new jail, given its booming population.

"But I also don't think we can build our way out of the overcrowding issue," he added.

We've pretty clearly demonstrated that. I'm just glad to see that we've now finally recognized it. I look forward to seeing what can and will be done about it. Grits has more.

It's 2009 and we're still arguing about CHIP

It's hard for me to believe that after all this time, and after all of the candidates who've lost elections over it, that the Children's Health Insurance Program, a/k/a CHIP, still has dedicated opponents. It's especially hard for me to believe that in this time of budget crunch, anyone would want to turn down the very generous federal matching funds that come with an expansion of CHIP, which by the way still isn't at the level it was in 2003 when it was so drastically cut back. Yet here we are.

The debate over children's health care this year will be as arduous as ever, but so is the ante: More than 160,000 Texas children whose cash-strapped parents can't get state help to pay medical expenses for maladies as common as chronic ear infections or as daunting as cancer treatment.

The argument among legislators will be whether to raise income-eligibility levels so that those children can join the 451,000 now covered by the Children's Health Insurance Program.

Supporters say reducing the number of uninsured youngsters -- now one in five -- would benefit not only the children's physical health but the fiscal health of Texas taxpayers. The federal government picks up 72 percent of the cost and providing health care in doctors' offices is almost always cheaper than treating children in public hospital emergency rooms.

Critics worry about undermining employer-sponsored health coverage and point to the growing costs for the state. CHIP enrollment increases over the past two years have driven the state's tab from $102 million to $267.5 million.

Putting that increase in context, that $165.5 million increase in state funding for CHIP represents 0.2% of the state revenue total. It also surely represents a far smaller total than what counties and hospital districts would have paid for emergency room visits by otherwise-uninsured children. Honestly, I want to understand the argument against this, but I just can't.

Well, there is this:

A pending federal bill that renews CHIP is expected to allow Texas to increase income limits so more can enroll. The current limit for a mother and two children of $35,200 could be increased to $52,800.
Sliding-scale proposal

State health and human services officials estimate the income expansion could draw 164,000 additional children to the program by 2012 at an annual cost to the state of about $100 million.

Rep. Ellen Cohen, D-Houston, said the price tag could be lowered if the middle-income families were charged premiums on a sliding scale. Cohen this week plans to introduce a bill that would expand CHIP and take advantage of the anticipated new federal funds.

"Since 2003, Texas has turned away almost $1 billion of federal matching funds by failing to invest in CHIP," Cohen said. "As a result, we are left with the highest uninsured population of children in the nation."

Cohen said getting the bill passed won't be easy in a tight budget year when competing needs include Hurricane Ike recovery, public education and transportation.

Gov. Rick Perry's spokeswoman, Allison Castle, said the governor does not support expanding CHIP's eligibility standards because of the higher income families who would be covered. She said Congress is trying to lure the state into expanding programs in tough times and doing so would put the state on a "slippery slope to socialized medicine."

Yes, I suppose I should have added the Slippery Slope To Solicalism! to my list of campaign issues for the 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary. You can be sure that whichever way Kay Bailey Hutchison eventually votes on the S-CHIP bill that's still pending in the Senate, she'll get bashed for it by Rick Perry. Because we can't have those looming specters in this state, nosiree.

In the current economy, where pay is being frozen for many workers, an automatic 3 percent raise should have been a blessing for Josh Hebert of Pasadena.

But he wants to turn back part of the hike because it bumped him over the CHIP limit.

The younger of Hebert's two daughters, 3-year-old Katie, suffers from brain lesions that have triggered deafness in one ear, digestive problems and a host of other symptoms. His employer plan would cost 30 percent of the family's monthly income and does not offer the type of comprehensive coverage that Katie gets through CHIP.

"It seems unbelievable that a cost-of-living raise can become a major crisis, but it is when our children's health hangs in the balance," said his wife, Kyla.

Yes, well, don't you understand that the Slippery Slope To Socialized Medicine is more important than your daughter's health? I'm sure Governor Perry and his supporters who care so much about the sanctity of life would be happy to explain it to you.

UPDATE: Rep. Ellen Cohen has filed HB787 to increase CHIP participation. The changes to the text of the statutes is simple:

[A] child who is younger than 19 years of age and whose net family income is at or below 300 [200] percent of the federal poverty level is eligible for health benefits coverage under the program.

[...]

During the sixth month following the date of initial enrollment or reenrollment of an individual whose net family income exceeds 285 [185] percent of the federal poverty level, the commission shall:

(1) review the individual's net family income and may use electronic technology if available and appropriate; and

(2) continue to provide coverage if the individual's net family income does not exceed the income eligibility limits prescribed by this chapter.

A press release from Rep. Cohen's office is beneath the fold.

State Representative Ellen Cohen filed House Bill 787 today to expand the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to cover more children and thereby maximize federal matching funds for Texas.

"In difficult times, Texas must make hard choices," Cohen said. "My hope is to work with members of both parties in making the needed expansion in CHIP. Clearly, this expansion isn't just money well spent; it is a needed investment in the health of Texas children."

The Children's Health Insurance Program provides a federal match of $2.52 for every dollar invested in the program by the State of Texas. Texas leads the nation in the number of uninsured children and to date has turned away almost $1 billion in matching funds. In Harris County, one out of every three people do not have insurance coverage. The uninsured then turn to emergency rooms which were stretched to capacity even before Hurricane Ike's damage to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

"Property tax payers are tired of paying for expensive emergency care. Texas must do the fiscally responsible thing by ensuring emergency rooms are available for real emergencies and expanding access for more cost-effective preventative care. And we will do it in a way that serves the taxpayer as well as the patient," Cohen noted.

Cohen's bill would increase eligibility to 300% of the poverty level, maximizing the funds available from the federal program. Using a sliding scale of premium assistance, Cohen's measure would cover almost 100,000 additional children at a cost of between $15 to $20 million per year. Texas currently spends $267.5 million to cover 451,000 children in the Fiscal Year 2008 budget for CHIP.

Current federal legislation on the State's Children Health Care Program has passed the United States House of Representatives and should come before the Senate shortly where it is expected to pass by a wide margin. President George Bush twice vetoed similar CHIP legislation, but President Barack Obama has signaled his strong support.

Derr files, Bradford contemplates

Karen Derr made her treasurer's report filing on Thursday last week, becoming at least the second candidate for District H to do so. I know that Maverick Welsh has filed his report, and I know that as of Friday, Ed Gonzalez had not yet done so but would likely do it this week. Beyond that, I don't know anyone else's status. I think I may place a call to the City Secretary's office this week to inquire about who has filed, and to ask why I can't find that information online. It sure would be handy to have. I've reproduced a press release from Derr's campaign beneath the fold. I figure with the opening of fundraising season a week from now, we'll start to get a lot more action on this front.

In the meantime, I heard a report on Saturday that former HPD Chief and candidate for District Attorney CO Bradford is contemplating a run for an At Large City Council seat. Isaih Carey has now blogged about this - he's looking at At Large #4, currently held by Ron Green, for which Noel Freeman has already filed his papers. As with all such contemplations, this may turn out to be nothing, but Bradford has been talked about as a citywide candidate before, and he would clearly be a strong contender for that seat. So we'll see what happens.

One more report I heard on Saturday, which Carl Whitmarsh reminded me of in an email he sent out about his birthday party, which is where I heard both of these things, is that there's another contender looking at District A: attorney Jeffrey Downing. He joins Bob Schoelkopf in expressing interest in that seat, and if Carl's reaction is any indication, he'll get the bulk of the Democratic support for that race. Which, as I've said, is enough to make a race of it in that district. This is going to be a fun year.

On local entrepreneur Karen Derr's 50th birthday her husband Robert Derr made her lifelong dream a reality. He delivered his designation as treasurer for her campaign for City Council District H Position to City Hall. With the special election expected to be called by city council next week, Karen Derr, broker for Karen Derr and Associates, is ready to gear up her campaign. A celebration and toast to changes ahead in the new year was held [Thursday] night at the firms office at 1545 Heights.

Bio:
Largely due to her creative approach to business and a strong work ethic instilled in her by her parents, Karen Derr is now able to devote herself to her lifelong dream of public service. For the past 15 years Karen Derr has owned a successful business headquartered in the Houston Heights. She and her company have relocated clients to homes in all the diverse neighborhoods which make up District H. She has worked volunteering and supporting community efforts concerning education, crime prevention, business development, hike and bike trails, historic preservation, animal welfare, and the arts. As a City Councilwoman she would work to enhance the quality of life for District H residents by focusing on these areas of concern full time. Karen is also committed to a hometown that recycles on a larger scale and is more energy efficient.

Karen Collins Derr is a longtime resident of District H and currently resides in the Houston Heights. She is the founder and broker for Karen Derr and Associates Realty which has four offices in Houston and Galveston. The firm is almost 15 years old and listed in the top 25 residential real estate companies in the greater Houston area according to the Houston Business Journal. She is a successful business woman who is often asked to speak about diversity in the workplace, the Houston real estate market, small business marketing and other topics affecting Houston businesses. She has a special interest in entrepreneurship and small business concerns, having owned four small businesses in her life if you count the fireworks stand she and her sisters had at the age of 14.

Karen servers or served in the following positions...

Board member with the Houston Association of Realtors
Board member with the Texas Association of Realtors
Board member with the Houston Heights Association
Board member of Opera in the Heights
Steering committee of the White Linen Night in the Heights
Co-chair of the Houston Heights Association Education Committee

Karen was born in New Braunfels Texas. Her mother retired from Southwestern Bell Telephone and worked at the Ashland office in the Heights for many years. Her father retired from the city of Houston as the Director of Airfield and Grounds at IAH, but he had served as the Assistant Airport Manager, the Chief of the Airport Police and as a City of Houston warrant officer. She comes from a long line of police officers. Karen has lived in the greater Houston area since the second grade, attending Katherine Smith Elementary in Oak Forest, Black Junior High, Conroe High School, North Harris County College and the University of Houston. Her husband and business partner of 15 years is Robert C. Derr, Jr.

Robert Derr - Treasurer/Karen For Houston City Council
http://www.KarenForCouncil.org
713-875-7049

Lobby money

My first reaction upon reading this story about lobbyist spending on food and drink and entertainment for elected officials and their staff is the old chestnut about how government should be run like a business. People who say that, especially people who run for office on that kind of platform, are often ignorant about the ways in which the two are supposed to be different, but this is one area where the business model would be useful to emulate. That's because businesses often have fairly strict rules about conflicts of interest and accepting gifts from other parties with whom you are doing or contemplating doing business, and those rules get enforced. A more businesslike approach here would not be a bad idea, to my mind.

Another way to approach this - all this assumes you think there's something wrong with what was reported in the story; if you see no problems, then none of this matters - is to treat this kind of expense like campaign funds. Impose stricter rules on reporting them, and consider reasonable ways to put limits on these expenditures. Of course, as with campaign finances, this all breaks down if there isn't an enforcement mechanism that has some teeth to it. But the model is a perfectly viable one, and I'm hard-pressed to think of any valid argument against greater transparency in this arena. Even if we did nothing else, shining some more light on this kind of spending would be a boon.

Finally, again as with campaign finances, I think it's important to remember that whatever protestations the parties in question may make about the quid pro quo nature of these transactions, the simple fact is that rational, profit-maximizing enterprises would not spend this kind of money if they didn't expect to get some kind of return on that money. As such, if one wanted to discourage or diminish this sort of thing, one could examine ways to increase its cost. Levying a tax on this kind of spending by lobbyists, for example, might have the desired effect, at least if the tax were steep enough. You could try the same approach for political contributions made by corporations, if one wanted to make the case in the inevitable lawsuit that corporations should not enjoy the same rights to make these contributions as individuals do. Regardless, such a tax if successfully imposed could then be used to fund the better enforcement mechanism I referred to earlier. It's a win-win situation.

Of course, none of this will ever happen. Certainly, neither the politicians nor the lobbyists have any reason to want to change things, and frankly the voters by and large don't pay it any attention, except for about five minutes after they read a story like this. Maybe some day the public will demand a change, but until then, expect very little to happen unless a big scandal occurs. In the meantime, you can take a look at how things are now via this handy database the Chron set up.

The lap bands of Collin County

I have four things to say about this story, which appeared in the print edition of Monday's Chron but which I could not find on the chron.com site.

About 150 obese Collin County employees have achieved dramatic weight loss with lap-band surgery. And they've done it at taxpayer expense.

The county has spent more than $3 million in public money on stomach-reduction procedures in the past seven years, records show.

Each operation costs $15,000 to $30,000, and the county insurance plan covers almost all expenses.

"I'm totally against it," said new county Commissioner Matt Shaheen, who took office Jan. 1.

He railed against the procedure at his first commissioners' meeting last week and got plenty of support. Other commissioners said they were shocked at the number of lap-band surgeries performed and the expense incurred.

"I think it's probably being used more than it was intended," Commissioner Joe Jaynes said.

Commissioners say they intend to stop covering the procedure. They're scheduled to vote on the issue at their Jan. 27 meeting.

"In an economic situation like we're in now, we need all our spare dollars," Commissioner Kathy Ward said.

Commissioners decided to cover the weight-loss operation several years ago in hopes of cutting down on long-term medical expenses. If morbidly obese employees lost weight, they would incur fewer costly health problems, commissioners reasoned.

Now, however, they say far too many of the county's 1,700 workers are turning to lap-band surgery instead of relying on diet and exercise to shed weight.

"Employees can control what they put in their mouth," Commissioner Jerry Hoagland said. "They don't have to get a rubber band placed around their intestine, or however the procedure works, in order to lose weight."

[...]

The county covered 14 lap-band operations at a cost of about $350,000 last year, records show. County Judge Keith Self, who heads Commissioners Court, asked the human resources department to determine if many public or private insurance plans cover the procedure.

Collin County is self-insured, meaning it pays employee health claims from the general fund budget.

"We have limited dollars," Mr. Self said. "That's what government is all about - allocation of scarce resources."

1. If what I observed on the (now defunct) TV show Big Medicine was any indicator, the answer to Judge Self's question is that some do and some don't. The docs on Big Medicine spent a lot of time wrangling with insurance companies over coverage of their procedures. Big shock, I know.

2. As much as Collin County has spent on their employees getting this procedure over the past few years, if they really have that many morbidly obese folks on the payroll then it's not clear to me that this hasn't been fiscally prudent, at least in the long run. Perhaps they would be better served to tighten their approvals process rather than to just unilaterally disallow this. Maybe implementing a wellness program would be a good idea, too. You know, an ounce of prevention and all that.

3. At the very least, it seems to me they ought to get some better data about what benefits they may have gotten as a self-insurer, to compare to the costs. Surely they should know more about the pros and cons of lap band surgery versus other methods of weight management before they make a decision, lest they act as ignorantly as Commissioner Hoagland sounds. Who knows? Maybe if they had it to do all over again, they'd have done the same thing.

4. Whatever else one might say about Collin County Commissioners Court, they're quite consistent in their attitude towards health care for their citizens.

Weekend link dump for January 25

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling more optimistic already...

Meet your new benevolent overlords.

The Great Bush Leadership Casualties, domestic and foreign.

Dancing with Cindy McCain. I got nothin'.

The hardest job in football.

It's hilarious and pathetic to see Republicans try to claim that the Rev. Martin Luther King was really one of them (see the first comment). Because clearly a guy who once said "When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered" would be right at home in today's GOP.

Last week's miracle on the Hudson River was brought to you by America's unions.

Another reason to fear clowns.

Why does Rush Limbaugh hate America?

The full transcript of the oath of office.

Wolverines!

Eight bad tech habits to break in 2009. Like Katherine, I'm guilty of some of these, too. But I'd never do this.

The TexBlog PAC promises to never waste your money.

Chris Rock says it's hard to make fun of Barack Obama. Bill in Portland Maine shows how it's done.

Kay and Rick, Rick and Kay

So Kay Bailey Hutchison and Rick Perry were rallying supporters yesterday for the primary they'll eventually have for Governor, which I'm already sick to death of since it seems like it's been going on since 2005. It's a whole lot more heat than light - Bailouts! Abortion! Positive happy warriors! - and I don't imagine that will change much in the next 13 months. It is interesting that KBH has lined up as much establishment support against a sitting Governor who hasn't been indicted for anything as she has, and it's interesting as Evan and BOR note that some of these folks owe Rick Perry for a cushy appointment. But expect there to be a lot of stories almost exactly like this one as we go along, because there really isn't much else to say. Neither one sees any need to change anything; both of them will spend vast amount of time burnishing their own credentials and pooh-pooh-ing their opponent's. Clip 'n' save for later, it's all the same from here on out.

Two other points to note. One is on the inevitable question of KBH's immediate future.

Although Hutchison has said she plans to step down from the Senate before her term is up in 2012, she said she hasn't decided when that will be. It will be no earlier than the end of this year, but she could wait until the 2010 election, she said.

I'm telling you. No special election till 2011, if at all. She's not going anywhere unless she's forced to do so.

And on the matter of whether or not she really means it this time:

Asked if there's any reason at this point for news organizations to say she's not running for governor, Hutchison replied: "No."

"I will have a formal announcement this summer, but in our state you have to file legal papers before you can ever ask someone to support you for governor." She started a gubernatorial campaign committee in early December, saying then she was exploring a run for governor.

She said today: "I thought the signals were pretty clear, but it takes some people longer" to understand.

Maybe the fact that people have thought she'd be running for Governor in every election since 2002 has a little something to do with that. I'm just saying.

Here we go again with City Council redistricting

Or at least, here we go again with arguing about when we should be redrawing City Council lines.

Mayor Bill White's decision to delay redrawing the boundaries of City Council districts has angered numerous community activists, who say his stance is defying Houston's charter.

Under a 30-year-old legal settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, the number of council members "shall increase" from 14 to 16 when Houston's population hits 2.1 million. That settlement later was incorporated into the city's charter.

The mayor, City Council members and officials all acknowledge that the triggering population threshold has been crossed.

But White and several council members have resisted the push for redistricting, asserting that the city lacks population data needed to redraw district lines accurately. That data will come from the U.S. Census Bureau's decennial survey in 2010. Pressing on without it, they say, could lead to a court challenge under federal voting rights laws.

[...]

Houston has had more than 2.1 million people since 2006, according to population estimates the city has been using in official documents. To create new districts and change boundaries, however, the city would have to use detailed population estimates for specific tracts of land, city officials said. Though demographers are assumed to estimate the overall city population accurately, the only accurate tract-level data would have to come from the 2000 Census.

Redrawing district lines now would, in effect, be based on almost 10-year-old data, said Jerry Wood, a former city planner and redistricting expert. He noted that the city went through redistricting in 1982 and 1985, based on dated census figures. The estimates used those years were shown to be wrong in the 1990 Census, Wood said.

That possibility, and any lawsuit that could stem from it, led City Attorney Arturo Michel and Chief Administrative Officer Anthony Hall to advise the mayor against redistricting now.

"I have no doubt that our actual population exceeds the threshold number, but there are substantial legal issues about whether federal law allows us to draw districts based on guesses about where people live," White said.

I appreciate that perspective, and as far as it goes, I agree we'll have much more accurate data real soon now. But we've been talking about this for over three years, and the city could have taken action in 2006 in time for the 2007 elections, but demurred on the grounds that we weren't really sure we were past the 2.1 million mark. That seems to have been an erroneous belief. Anyway, the last time this came up, the word was wait till 2010. Which makes sense in a vacuum, but it didn't have to be this way. I have a lot of sympathy for the people who are complaining about it again now.

Presently, in a city made up of 41.7 percent Hispanics, 24.3 percent African-Americans and 5.3 percent Asian-Americans, there is one Latino council member, four African-Americans and one Asian-American.

"We're the fourth-largest city in America. Let's act like it," said Vidal Martinez, an attorney and former Port of Houston commissioner who urged council members recently to take up redistricting now.

But council members noted that much of the city's growth that would be addressed in redistricting has happened in west Houston.

"We're going to have to peel away (new districts) from existing western, white districts," Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck said. The problem with drawing out districts to address a certain population, like a Hispanic population, is Hispanics are scattered across the city."

We're likely, though certainly not guaranteed, to have another Latino member after the special election for District H. That would make Council exactly half Anglo, half non-Anglo, and while that's not really aligned with the overall population, I'll bet it's a pretty fair representation of the population that actually votes. Some Latino leaders have a summit coming up in three weeks to talk about issues like that - see Marc Campos for details. More voter participation, and more Latinos running At Large would make a big difference even with the current lines.

If you've read any of my precinct analysis posts from the 2008 election, you know I agree with Council Member Clutterbuck about the electoral map out west. Another question that will need to be dealt with for the eventual map-drawers is what to do with District E. It really doesn't make sense to glue Kingwood and Clear Lake together, but splitting them apart is likely to create two districts that will tend to elect Anglos, instead of just one. If the goal is to increase minority representation, that will come into conflict. Whenever we do get around to this, it's going to be a tricky and contentious task.

Armstrong versus secondhand smoke

The Chron had an interview earlier this week with Lance Armstrong, in which they discussed his current focus on getting a statewide ban on smoking in public places passed.

Q: What made you want to join the Smoke-Free Texas initiative?

A: Smoke-Free Texas is a logical extension of what we've done with Proposition 15. Polls overwhelmingly show that the people of Texas want smoking banned from public places. The science on secondhand smoke is overwhelming. I don't want to infringe on the rights of what people do on their own time, but you shouldn't smoke in public places. You can't risk others' lives.

Q: There's so much positive news about Americans beating cancer. Yet the news recently was that, worldwide, cancer is expected to overtake heart disease as the world's top killer by 2010, which isn't far away. They cite increased tobacco use in China and India. Any chance you will take your initiatives worldwide?

A: Cities all over the world -- in Ireland, France, Germany -- are banning public smoking. But you're right, smoking is increasing in China and India. I suppose big tobacco has to take its marketing efforts somewhere.

Q: As you've worked on behalf of cancer research funding, you've gone into meetings with physicians, scientists and economists -- yet you're the guy everyone wants to hear from. Does that surprise you?

A: You mean that they want to talk to a guy from Plano on a bike? (laughs). People know I take this very seriously. I can talk about it at great length without being a physician or economist or scientist. I understand the disease and am comfortable talking with anyone.

Q: Is there anything else you'd like to tell Texans?

A: This is an important measure for this session. It ties in real well with the cancer initiative it created. The headline should be that Texas is leading the way. In Texas, with M.D. Anderson, UT, Baylor and all the other great hospitals, we're suited to truly change lives.

I've noted Armstrong's involvement in this effort before. Whether you agree with him or not, having Armstrong on board with this is going to be a big plus for the proponents of this legislation. Anyone who can get a proposal for three billion dollars in cancer research funds through the Lege and approved by the voters, all on their first try, is a force to be reckoned with.

The Speaker speaks

Evan Smith had a sit-down with new Speaker Joe Straus, which was broadcast Thursday on KLRU in Austin. You can watch the video of it at that link; it's a little less than 30 minutes. Straus has made a good impression so far. Assuming there's no shenanigans on committee assignments and there's no Senate-like outbreak of voter ID madness, this may be a productive session.

For purposes of comparison, have a look at the interview Elise Hu conducted with former Speaker Tom Craddick. Like another formerly powerful Republican I can think of, apparently none of the bad things that happened on his watch were his fault. Funny how that goes.

Meanwhile, Burka has a look at the proposed new House rules, which should go a long way towards putting the Craddick era behind us, and Elise has a list of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's top priorities for the session, to which Eye on Williamson adds a few thoughts. Finally, this doesn't have anything to do with the Lege, but I wanted to note that Governor Perry and local religious conservative Steven Hotze have kissed and made up. Do yourself a favor and scroll through the comments for an awesome assortment of creatively-spelled reactions from the type of voter Perry is trying to woo in 2010 with this reconciliation. It's really...well, just go see for yourself.

Chron coverage of yesterday's SBOE actions

Here's the Chron story about yesterday's happenings at the State Board of Education, in which the good news was that the anti-science "strengths and weaknesses" language had been removed from the curriculum, and the bad news was that a subsequent attempt to back-door similar nonsense made it in for now.

The "strengths and weaknesses" standard has been a staple in the curriculum for about 20 years.

On Friday, however, the board looked again at the issue and decided students should have to evaluate a variety of fossil types and assess the arguments against universal common descent, which serves as a main principle of evolution -- that all organisms have a common ancestor.

The board's effort to undermine "universal common descent" in public schools will make the state's science standards "an object of ridicule," said Steve Schafersman, president of Texas Citizens for Science.

"It's really unscientific. It promotes creationism. It says that students will be required to learn arguments against common descent or ancestral connections," Schafersman said. "The only alternative to common descent is creationism in their minds."

Scientists vowed to fight the plan before the board takes final action in March. New science curriculum standards will influence new science textbooks for the state's 4.7 million public school children beginning in the 2010-11 school year.

One board member who pushed for the change said that fossil records create scientific evidence against universal common descent -- and students should be allowed to study the possibility.

"There are many, many gaps that don't link species changing and evolving into another species, so we want our students to get all of the science, and we want them to have great, open discussions and learning to respect each other's opinions," said Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, a former science teacher.

[...]

They are asking students to explain something that does not exist, said David Hillis, a biology professor at the University of Texas at Austin and MacArthur Foundation "genius award" winner.

"This new proposed language is absurd. It shows very clearly why the board should not be rewriting the science standards, especially when they introduce new language that has not even been reviewed by a single science expert," Hillis said.

Yeah. I mean, you wouldn't want someone who doesn't use the Internet setting standards for broadband, would you? The "fossil gap" argument is an old, long-discredited one that keeps getting trotted out anyway. As Daniel Davies posited in The D-Squared Digest One Minute MBA - Avoiding Projects Pursued By Morons 101, good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance. Not that this would stop the zealots on the SBOE.

The good news is that there should be time between now and March to get the same votes as before to reject this absurdity. That's the hope, anyway. Martha has more. I've also got some testimony by 2008 candidate for SBOE Laura Ewing beneath the fold. We wouldn't be going through this nonsense if Ewing had been elected, as there would then have been a clear majority for maintaining scientific standards, but sadly that was not to be. All the more reason to make sure we take out Cynthia Dunbar next year, that's for sure. Click on for her account.

Testimony by Laura Ewing, Friendswood, TX

Dear Members of the SBOE:

I am here today as a retired public school educator and as a person who cares so much about decisions impacting TEKS, testing and textbooks that I ran for the SBOE in 2008. Most importantly, I am a parent of a son who has attended public schools in Fort Bend as a kindergartner and Friendswood from 1st through 12th grade. He is now a college student at UTSA.

I ask that you vote FOR the current language of the Science TEKS. Our students must be educated with the ability to succeed in the 21st century, and that means teaching them with scientific theories which have been corroborated through research and testing.

In December my family spent almost two weeks hiking in the Davis Mountains and Big Bend. As I viewed the majesty of the mountains and terrain formed by volcanic action and oceanic movement, I marveled at God's beautiful creations. And, I also realized that solid scientific study has determined that these structures are billions and millions of years old. We visited with a paleontologist/archeologist who has discovered on his property the fossilized remains of a 75 million year old turtle, first of its genus and species. It was important for my son to hear about the methods used in scientific research of these lands and this particular discovery. Our trip allowed him to use his 21st century scientific learning, which includes his critical thinking skills, to analyze the world around him. There was no need to discuss whether or not the turtle has evolved. Critical thinking skills were utilized in determining HOW the species has evolved. I want for all of our 4.5 million public school children to continue to learn scientific methods that will allow them to be successful in their future endeavors and competitive in the 21st century global economy.

I have taught Sunday school at my local Methodist church for over a decade, and as our junior high students discussed the story of Adam and Eve this last Sunday, I realized again why I don't want politicians politicizing what and how issues of faith will be taught in public schools. The lesson reinforced the role that houses of worship need to play in educating our children in faith-based issues. Our students need to be guided to their religious beliefs by their families so that they truly have freedom of religion. Let's support the role of public school education in teaching science and truly prepare our students for the 21st century. I know that down the street there is at least one bill introduced to strip this body of much of its oversight powers because the majority vote decisions have not been following process and have politicized and jeopardized the education of our children. You have the opportunity to show students, parents and the legislature that you can make educationally sound decisions and not ones that promote personal political agendas. Please open the door for our students to learn and be successful in today's world.

Thank you,

Laura Ewing

Not so Tolerance Bridge

Remember Tolerance Bridge? When it was first announced, a lot of people expressed ambivalence (at best) about the name. Now the city has joined in on that.

"It has too many hints of negativity," said Councilman Jarvis Johnson. "It's like my grandmother saying 'I will not tolerate somebody yelling.' I don't want to just 'tolerate' any other culture, I want to embrace it, if you're really talking about unity."

After announcing the project in early December, Mayor Bill White received some feedback about the title, and asked the Houston Arts Alliance to contact its membership for more ideas. The organization is taking suggestions through Jan. 31.

Here's the Alliance's website. I don't know who is supposed to be suggesting alternate names to them, since I don't see anything there that's soliciting feedback, but I suppose you can use their contact page if you feel so inclined.

Neither the city nor Houston Arts Alliance could say who will make the final decision on a name, although [philanthropist Mica] Mosbacher said she is still looking for donors, so someone who gives "a major gift" could have "final input" on the name.

[Artist and blogger Bill] Davenport predicted it would all be for naught in the end.

"Inevitably, public art projects get nicknames," he said. "They should just build it and wait to see what people nickname it. The people will win out."

I kinda like that idea, and I say that as someone who had no objections to the original name. With the unique design this bridge will have, some wiseguy will come up with something.

HIWI presents "Ike: The Book"

The folks at ttweak, who created Houston: It's Worth It, have an announcement. From their press release:

Dear HIWI contributors and fans,

Thanks to all of you, we have had not one, but two, extremely successful holiday seasons with HIWI: The Book. Also, HIWI will soon be available at the Hudson bookstores at Houston's Intercontinental and Hobby Airports; don't forget to tell your traveling guests.

On account of this sustained HIWI interest and momentum, we feel it necessary to come out with a new book - an Ike remembrance - to remind Houstonians that, despite the occasional natural disaster, our city is still very much "worth it."

Obviously this subject is still an open wound for many of our neighbors and we don't want to be insensitive to those who still have a long road of recovery ahead. Rather, we want to highlight the camaraderie and support brought about in the storm's aftermath - refrigerator cookouts/recipes, extension cord jungles, and neighborhood cleanups. Tell us your stories or poems, dig up a "day ten without power" journal entry, find that song you penned by candlelight and of course, send us your photographs (even those taken on your iPhone or BlackBerry); if you made a hurricane song playlist, go ahead and send that too.

Basically, we want to present a more personal account of Hurricane Ike - from the perspective of those who lived through it, not just from The Galveston Daily News or Houston Chronicle.

Thanks again for making HIWI a success, you are indeed the city's greatest ambassadors.

Deadline Friday, February 13
Questions? Email [email protected] or phone 713.942.0722

Update on yesterday's evolution happenings

In the comments to yesterday's post about the vote taken by the State Board of Education that stripped out "strengths and weaknesses" language about evolution, Martha noted that there was another vote on this to be taken today. I haven't seen any newspaper coverage of that, but according to TFN insider and Thoughts from Kansas, both of which did extensive liveblogging of the hearings yesterday, today's vote went the same way as yesterday's. There's still a final vote to be taken in March, and as reported by both Martha and TFN there was some other anti-evolution language slipped in the back door as an amendment to the Earth Science TEKS, but overall things are looking better for science education in Texas than they were before. Keep your fingers crossed.

UPDATE: I missed Martha's blogging on this - see here and especially here for more.

Friday random ten: We the people

This just seems appropriate:

And now a brief break from all the new music for a selection of patriotic tunes from my collection.

1. The Star Spangled Banner - Eddie from Ohio
2. America the Beautiful - Ray Charles
3. This Land Is Your Land - Bruce Springsteen
4. Get To Know Your Electoral College - from "Schoolhouse Rock"
5. Take Advantage of You - Guy Forsyth
6. Centerfield - John Fogerty
7. Stick Magnetic Ribbons On Your SUV - Asylum Street Spankers
8. American Tune - Paul Simon
9. Living in America - Feo y Loco
10. Stupid Texas Song - Austin Lounge Lizards

What's got you in the patriotic mood this week?

Beware Lt. Govs bearing gifts

On the surface, hearing that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst now favors tuition re-regulation sounds like a good thing. A lot of people, Democrats especially, have been screaming about this for months. But as always, the devil is in the details.

Facing a major state budget shortfall in 2003, Dewhurst got behind a fiscal rescue package that triggered a 53 percent increase in tuition and fees at Texas universities.

But now Dewhurst and many legislators who favored that tuition "deregulation" bill believe it's time to once again regulate the rates students and families pay.

"We just can't afford to price out deserving young people going to college," Dewhurst, Republican leader of the Texas Senate, told reporters. "I think there is so much built up pressure that there's a likelihood that a bill will come out of the Senate putting some cap (on tuition)."

Dewhurst said a consensus is building in the Legislature to limit tuition increases, but a method is still being worked out. He said discussions have included a two-year moratorium on hikes, limiting increases to 5 percent a year or tying rising tuition to inflation.

[...]

While the idea of college affordability has broad appeal among lawmakers, some warn it could spark potentially devastating cuts at universities and reduce the value of a degree from Texas public colleges. Opponents of regulating tuition say the state shouldn't force universities to lower tuition without offsetting the resulting loss in revenue.

Dewhurst did not spell out how much state funding he envisioned for higher education. However, he warned that with a declining economy, there would not be as much money available as in 2005 and 2007 sessions.

The reason that tuition was deregulated in 2003 was so that the public universities could get by with less state funding. They made up for that shortfall by jacking up the cost to the students. If their ability to set tuition rates is then capped - as I believe it should be - they need a commensurate increase in state funds, or else it's the worst of both worlds. I want to see costs under control for students and their families, but what we have now would be better than re-regulated tuition with the same funding levels as before. Let's not fall for a trap here.

More on Larry Swearingen

I've blogged before about Larry Swearingen, who is on death row and is scheduled for execution on January 27 even though forensic evidence clearly demonstrates his innocence of the murder of Melissa Trotter. Multiple experts, including the Harris County medical examiner who originally testified against him at his trial, now say that Trotter's body was dumped while Swearingen was sitting in a jail cell. Yet the Court of Criminal Appeals, that bastion of injustice and illogic, has refused to order a new trial. It's appalling, and is going to be a huge, avoidable tragedy if nothing happens to prevent it.

Now the Chron's Lisa Falkenberg has picked up on the Texas Monthly story about Swearingen. She adds a few new details, including this:

Attorneys with the New-York based Innocence Project are also working feverishly on requests for DNA testing on the panty hose, Trotter's clothing and more blood scrapings. They plan to appeal to Gov. Rick Perry's office for a stay, and have unsuccessfully tried to get newly elected Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon to support a request for DNA testing.

Ligon didn't return my call. Marc Brumberger, who handles the office's appeals, said the new evidence doesn't prove Swearingen didn't kill Trotter. It only "throws in the prospect" that Swearingen may have initially refrigerated or frozen her body, then had help from an accomplice moving it into the woods while he was in jail.

[Swearingen's attorney James] Rytting calls that far-fetched theory "guilt by imagination." He said the DA's office is grasping for explanations now that their case is crumbling.

"Their case is a lie and they're going to kill him anyway," Rytting says.

I shouldn't be by now, but I continue to be amazed at how utterly pigheaded some DA's offices can be about this. Have we learned nothing from Dallas' experience? Let me put this in the simplest terms I can, simple enough that even Brett Ligon and Mark Brumberger can understand it: The actions of the Montgomery County District Attorney's office will enable a murderer to walk free and possibly to kill again. Even if you don't care about Larry Swearingen, you ought to care about that.

We have the beginnings of a budget

And with it, some idea of how deep the hole is.

Maintaining basic state services over the next two years will cost Texas almost $84 billion, $3.7 billion more in general revenue than the state expects to raise during that period, according to the Senate budget introduced Tuesday.

To close that gap, lawmakers will have to choose between cutting costs, raising more money or dipping into a rainy day fund that is projected to have $9.1 billion available.

The key words in those paragraphs are "maintaining basic state services". In other words, if we just do what we did two years ago, we're $3.7 billion in the red. Keep that in mind when you hear people talking about cutting spending.

That gap could also grow considerably because the base budget, prepared by the Legislative Budget Board staff, will serve as the starting point for the Senate and House to begin hammering out the nitty-gritty of the 2010-11 budget.

Nor does the proposal cover increased demand for services in all areas, said Eva DeLuna Castro, a budget analyst with the Center for Public Policy Priorities, which advocates for low- and moderate-income families.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said in a statement that the budget meets his priorities of "holding the line on state spending, continuing the record local school property tax cuts and funding essential services for the most vulnerable in our society."

But Talmadge Heflin, a former House appropriations chairman, said more spending restraint was needed.

"The Texas Legislature needs to get to work on pruning the next state budget back within the available revenue," said Heflin, director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an advocate for limited government.

Heflin had more to say than that - Burka has his statement, along with a suitable reply. Heflin is delusional, but he's got a lot of company. I hope that people will associate him and his positions with the budget disaster that came out of the 2003 session and will at least consider other possibilities.

The Morning News has more details:

The Senate's version spends $171.5 billion over two years - 1 percent more than in the current two-year budget cycle; the House, $170.8 billion.

The key differences between the two chambers' plans were that the Senate's would spend $200 million to fix state schools for people with mental retardation; $148 million to expand teacher merit pay programs; and $200 million to maintain current financial incentives for better performance by state universities and colleges.

Both versions would leave intact most of the $9.1 billion that Comptroller Susan Combs last week predicted would pile up in the rainy day fund by September 2011.

The Senate plan proposes $3.7 billion of spending that's not covered by Combs' revenue estimate - of which $1.4 billion would occur only if textbook money can't be distributed from the Permanent School Fund, battered by recent stock market dips.

The House's base budget would draw down the rainy day fund by $3.3 billion, or maybe only $1.9 billion if the textbook money is freed from the school fund.

Both bills include a provision spelling out how cuts would be made to balance the budget, if lawmakers balk at tapping the rainy day fund. Spending the money, derived mostly from oil and natural gas production taxes, requires a supermajority in each chamber.

So if all goes well and there's enough votes to tap into the rainy day fund, we'll spend about $2 billion of the $9 billion that it contains. That doesn't seem like too big a withdrawal to me. If not, if there's enough Heflin acolytes to insist that we leave all that money under the mattress, then we get to cut basic services again. Which will be just a dandy thing to do in an economic turndown. The fun begins next week when both chambers reconvene. You can see both proposals on the Legislative Budget Board's website, and you can see Sen. Ogden's SB1 here. Thanks to Eye on Williamson for the links.

Evolution remains legal in Texas

Whew! That was a close one.

In a major defeat for evolution critics, a sharply divided State Board of Education voted Thursday to follow the advice of a panel of science educators and drop a long-time requirement that "weaknesses" in the theory of evolution be taught in high school science classes.

Under the science curriculum standards tentatively adopted by the board, biology teachers and biology textbooks would no longer have to cover the "strengths and weaknesses" of Charles Darwin's theory on how humans evolved.

Opponents of the strengths and weaknesses requirement had warned that it would eventually open the door to teaching of creationism - the biblical explanation of the origin of humans - in science classes, while board members backing the rule insisted that was not their intention.

The seven Republican board members supporting the rule have been aligned with social conservative groups that in the past have tried to publicize alleged flaws in Darwin's theory that humans evolved from lower life forms.

The key vote Thursday was on an amendment to the proposed curriculum standards that would have restored the "weaknesses" rule. It was defeated on a 7-7 vote, with four Democrats and three Republicans voting no. Another Democrat was absent.

"We're not talking about faith. We're not talking about religion," said board member Mary Helen Berlanga, D-Corpus Christi, who opposed the amendment. "We're talking about science. We need to stay with our experts and respect what they have requested us to do."

If you'll pardon the expression, amen to that. Just so we're clear, since it's painfully obvious that the twits on the SBOE are not, this is what we're technically arguing over. It's very easy to get bogged down in nonsense in these debates, since the anti-evolution side is extremely prone to pushing things that have nothing to do with evolution as biologists understand it.

As seemingly silly as much of this is, this little squabble on the Board had potentially far-reaching consequences, as Julie Pippert noted. It would have been both ironic and deeply tragic if a handful of zealots in Austin had managed to dumb down science education across the country at a time when the country has new leadership that embraces science. Thankfully, we managed to dodge that bullet, for now.

On a related note, Evan Smith contends that the SBOE and its ridiculous antics are the biggest contributor to Texas' negative image in other parts of the world. I left a comment there saying that I think our fascination with the death penalty does us more harm than these clowns do, but they're certainly a factor. What do you think?

When you look up "short-sighted" in the dictionary, this will be cited as an example

That's our Governor, for whom the expression "penny-wise and pound-foolish" is a way of life.

Nearly a year ago, Gov. Rick Perry trumpeted $90 million in savings to businesses by temporarily suspending some of the burden of paying unemployment insurance taxes -- money meant to replenish the unemployment compensation trust fund.

The suspended tax was reinstated this month, but officials said it won't be enough to bridge the gap between the $414 million the state expects to be in the fund Oct. 1 and the $861 million it's supposed to have.

By law, the fund must keep an amount equal to 1 percent of all taxable wages in Texas.

Now the Texas Workforce Commission must decide whether to raise the tax, issue bonds to meet the shortfall or see if the state could use an interest-free federal loan, said commission Chairman Tom Pauken, a Perry appointee who took office after the tax was suspended by the commission last year.

Pauken said jobless claims will be paid, and that last year's suspension of the tax didn't cause the problem.

"We will have the money to pay for the claims," Pauken said Wednesday. "Here would be my concern: You don't want to raise taxes substantially on employers at a time when it's really tough to keep the doors open and keep people employed.

"So we want to try to -- if taxes have to go up -- make it as modest as possible to fund the system and look at other alternatives first," he said.

[...]

The replenishment tax is just one part of the unemployment insurance tax. Last March, Perry directed the state to "bring that (replenishment) tax to a screeching halt for this year" when the fund stood at $1.6 billion.

By the end of 2008, the trust fund balance had fallen to $1.3 billion, Pauken said.

So we'd have still had a deficit, but it would have been $300 million less had it not been for Perry's profligacy, the consequences of which no one could have possibly foreseen last year, when the economy was still peachy. Yeah, that's the ticket.

More on streetcars and sidewalks

Andrew Burleson had a couple of good posts last week that followed up on Christof's streetcar suggestions and my post about a KIrby light rail line. Here they are: West Gray Streetcar, in which he takes Christof's concept for a streetcar line on West Gray and runs with it, and Will and Won't, which gets into the reasons people walk and don't walk in Houston. I think he's right on about this:

My contention is that most people in Houston will walk single-digit block distances without complaining too much. If you get into double digits, most people think it's too far. I've told people before, "let's walk to the train station, it's about 8 blocks," and their reaction is, "woah, that's a long walk!" I've told other people, "let's just walk to the train station, it takes less than 10 minutes and it's a lot easier than messing with parking." That gets a more positive reaction usually. It seems that as you get to about 10 blocks distance people think "that's pretty far." If you phrase it as time rather than distance, people usually think 10-15 minutes (which is probably more like 12-18 blocks depending on who is walking) is reasonable, and longer than that is "far."

In my experience, however, once you're actually walking, people quickly get tired of it if you're walking on broken old sidewalks or no sidewalks at all. They'll almost immediately ask "are you sure we shouldn't just drive?" But on nice sidewalks, especially when there's retail opening on to the street and other people out walking, most people will go longer distances without noticing.

That's something that I've thought about a lot as I've tried to imagine rail lines along Washington and Kirby, as I've proposed them. Washington is a street that should be far more walkable than it is, and I know that it's in line for a big overhaul in the nearish future, but for now it's got narrow sidewalks that abut the street, with no grass or anything as a buffer, with utility poles and other obstacles for walkers to dodge. Fixing that, hopefully in conjunction with planning for a rail line, will go a long way towards improving that whole area. (Fixing Studemont as well would go even further.) Kirby is reasonably walkable in most places, and it's already undergoing a facelift north of 59, but for the rail line I've proposed something would have to be done to it between Bissonnet and Richmond, and to Yale Street on the north end of the line. I don't know what can be done about this now other than talk about it and hope to get other people talking about it, so consider this a contribution towards that end. What parts of town should have better sidewalks than they currently do? Leave a comment and let me know.

UH-Downtown to move ahead with name change

They still don't know what they want to be called, however.

School leaders are going ahead with plans to rename the University of Houston-Downtown, despite opposition from students, alumni and some faculty members.

"If it has its own distinctive name, it can move forward (and) be known," said Welcome Wilson Sr., chairman of the board that governs UH-Downtown and other schools in the UH system.

He and university president Max Castillo said Tuesday they believe the benefits of a new name would outweigh the disapproval of those who don't want it to change.

Any new name would have to be approved by the Legislature, and Castillo said a new name could be in place by fall. He and Wilson met with the Chronicle editorial board Tuesday to explain their reasoning.

Regents voted last month to support the change but stopped short of recommending the name Castillo proposed: Houston Metropolitan University.

That's still under consideration, however, along with University of South Texas, University of Southeast Texas, Gulf Coast State University and other options. Faculty, staff and students will vote on their top five choices; the vote ends Tuesday.

Regents will select a new name in February.

Michelle Moosally, an associate professor of English and president of the faculty Senate, said it's been hard to gauge reaction, partially because classes just resumed after the holiday break.

Some people don't want the name changed, she said. Others support a change, but don't like any of the proposed names. And some feel rushed into making a decision.

Castillo acknowledged that the idea is not universally popular. "Right now, I'm the kiss of death on campus," he said.

Hey, I liked Houston Metropolitan University, even if the regents didn't. While it would probably be better to build a stronger consensus for whatever new name they choose, the fact is that the Lege is only in session for so long, and the more time you have to shepherd a bill through the process, the better your odds of success are. Frankly, I won't be surprised if they don't get a bill through and have to wait till 2011 to get this done. There's also now some organized opposition to this - I got notice of a Facebook group called UH-D Community Standing Together, with the description "As students, graduates, faculty, staff & friends, we say NO to the name change." I don't really have a preference as to whether they go forward with this or not, I just wish them all luck in figuring it out, whatever happens.

How many wrongly convicted people are there in prison?

A new study takes a crack at quantifying it.

Criminal justice scholars often say that the true number of innocent people convicted of crimes is unknown--in fact, unknowable. A new University of Michigan study challenges that belief in one important context.

Among defendants sentenced to death in the United States since 1973, at least 2.3 percent--and possibly more--were falsely convicted, said U-M law professor Samuel Gross in a study co-authored by Barbara O'Brien, a professor at Michigan State University College of Law.

If defendants who were sentenced to prison had been freed because of innocence at the same rate as those who were sentenced to death, there would have been nearly 87,000 non-death row exonerations in the United States from 1989 through 2003, rather than the 266 that were reported, the study said.

"The main thing we can safely conclude from exonerations of falsely convicted defendants is that there are many other false convictions that we have not discovered," said Gross, whose research has focused on the death penalty, false convictions and eyewitness identification.

Since 1989, nearly all exonerations in the United States fall into three categories: rape convictions, because of post-conviction DNA testing; murder convictions, and especially death sentences, which are subjected to much more detailed post-conviction reinvestigation than other convictions; and a few groups of false drug and gun possession convictions that were produced by concerted programs of police perjury that later unraveled.

As result, researchers know little about false convictions among crimes of violence other than murder or rape, even though false convictions for robbery could greatly outnumber those for rape and murder. And researchers know next to nothing about false convictions for other types of crimes, such as property crimes, misdemeanors and white collar crimes.

Food for thought. Link via Grits, who does a similar exercise for Texas prisons.

You there! Stop evolving this minute!

Someone once said that no one's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session. I'd extend that observation to note that no one's intelligence or education is safe when the SBOE is in session. For those who want the gory details of today's farce hearings, I'll point you to the Texas Freedom Network's exhaustive liveblogging of the proceedings:

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV

Vince has some background as well. You have to admire their fortitude - as Elise Hu said, "SBOE meetings really sap the life out of me."

What all this comes down to is whether or not Texas will acquire a reputation for being hostile to science and research, and thus an unattractive place for high-tech companies to locate. Not really what you want to happen, especially in tough economic times, is it? If it does, you can thank the loony fringe of the Texas GOP for it.

UPDATE: Hair Balls is also on this - one, two, three.

And now the real work begins

Yesterday was a lot of fun, wasn't it? (Well, for most of us, anyway.) I suspect there was a pretty big dip in productivity right around 11 AM at most workplaces. But now that the pomp is over, it's time to get down to the hard work of fixing everything that's gotten screwed up over the past eight years, and Lord knows that's a long list. President Obama seems pretty determined, the public is largely with him, and even Congress appears to be ready to move forward. It's going to be busy around here.

I should note that my cousin Jill's crusade, along with the Handmade Toy Alliance, to revise the way the Consumer Products Safety and Information Act (CPSIA) was to be implemented for small businesses, made it to the top ten list at Change.org. They've also got some momentum in Congress, as you can see in this letter (PDF) from Rep. Henry Waxman and others to the chair of the CPSC. I'm feeling optimistic about their chances to get this resolved.

Musical chairs

When the State House reconvenes next Monday, I presume one of the first orders of business for new Speaker Joe Straus will be to name committee chairs. This sort of thing may seem like the most boring of inside-baseball stuff, but it's what makes the Lege go 'round. Good committee chairs not only mean good legislation coming to the floor, it more importantly means bad legislation will get quietly strangled without that ever happening. So to that end, I'm liking Burka's list of guesses about chairs. Two in particular stand out to me:

Elections: Joaquin Castro or Trey Martinez-Fischer. This is one of the committees that the Democrats really want to control. Anchia, a veteran of the Voter I.D. battle with penalty-box-bound Leo Berman, is the obvious choice, but his skills could be put to better use elsewhere. Because of Dallas's concerns with coal plants, I have him as a possibility for Environmental Reg; other contenders there could be Menendez and Strama. Castro or Martinez-Fischer could provide a decent burial for the Voter I.D. bill.

[...]

Environmental Regulation: Dennis Bonnen has been a controversial chairman; two years ago he bottled up a host of clear air bills, promising a comprehensive bill in 2009. I doubt that he will get that opportunity. I would not be surprised to see Kuempel, a member of the committee, move up to chairman, although this change in leadership may not produce a change in philosophy. If Kuempel doesn't want it, Straus, who is pretty green himself (no pun about inexperience intended), could turn to a green Democrat such as Anchia or Menendez or Strama. As is the case with Elections, Environmental Reg is one of the committees the D's would dearly love to control.

Something to look forward to next week. As with the Presidency, the out-with-the-old is as consequential as the in-with-the-new. Obviously, this is just one person's guess, and none of it could be right, though I think Burka made some decent guesses and for a change his commenters haven't jumped all over him. Some of my colleagues think the Democrats got suckered on voter ID. I tend to disagree with that, but I've been saying all along we'll know for sure once we see the list of chairs. Here's hoping.

Now how much would you pay for that toll road?

So we still don't know how much the Katy Freeway managed lanes will cost you to use.

Harris County Commissioners are expected to consider a fee schedule and the opening date next month. The new lanes -- two in each direction that opened last fall for limited usage -- are expected to be transformed into toll lanes no earlier than May, officials said.

The county intends to use a flexible-rate system based on congestion, called dynamic pricing. Initially, certain rates will be set for rush-hour commutes, and different prices may be set for other periods. After about 90-days, the prices may change based on traffic observations.

Signs near the entrances to the Katy Freeway lanes will announce the rates.

Just an idle thought here, but how much usage do we think these managed lanes are going to get? Given the state of the economy, I don't think too many people are going to be willing to shell out five or six bucks a day to get to work a little faster. Plus, as things stand right now, the traffic on the main lanes of I-10 isn't all that bad. At least, in my limited experience driving out that way in the afternoon of a weekday, traffic has flowed pretty well. That surely won't last forever as we get more development further out west, but it is the case today.

Normally, I wouldn't care that much about this. Like I said, I don't drive that way very often. But considering that the Harris County Toll Road Authority spent a half billion dollars to build those managed lanes, it would be nice to know if the demand they projected for them at the time is still about what they're expecting now. Are they in the soup, or are things going as they envisioned? I'm curious what an updated estimate might look like.

The case for freight rail

I've seen this linked several places, and finally got around to reading Phillip Longman's article on freight rail and the very strong case for investing in it as part of an economic stimulus package. It's got something for everyone, including the promise of relieving highway congestion by getting big trucks off the interstates. Read it and see what you think.

Filing report: Noel Freeman

Noel Freeman, who had been a candidate for the At Large #3 position in the May 2007 special election that was eventually won by Council Member Melissa Noriega, has sent out a press release saying he'll officially file his Treasurer's report on Thursday for the At Large #4 seat. Freeman had announced his intent to run for that seat last month. As far as I know, he's the first official candidate for this seat.

I'm going to try to keep up with these as best I can. I feel like there ought to be a way to look up who's filed a report with the City Secretary online, but I don't see anything obvious on the City Secretary's web page. Am I missing something?

UPDATE: Some action on the Mayoral front as well. City Controller Annise Parker is planning to announce her candidacy on February 2, which is a day after the official start date for raising money. Also, a group of Latino leaders, including the suddenly-ubiquitous Vidal Martinez, has been busy vetting the Mayoral wannabees. I have a feeling this campaign will be in full swing a bit earlier than the 2003 version was.

Whitehouse.gov

I just love the way Whitehouse.gov looks now, on just about every level. And they have a blog, too, though as some people have noted, one without comments. Not that there's anything terribly unusual about a commentless blog, mind you. Besides, can you imagine how much spam and troll filtering they'd have to do?

I also love this picture. The Olmos Pharmacy in San Antonio is walking distance from the Trinity campus, and they make the best milkshakes - the old-fashioned, ice cream kind - in town. Seeing that photo makes me wish that's how I watched the inauguration, while downing a massive chocolate shake. Mmmm...

In reality, I watched the inauguration and Obama's speech from our company cafeteria, where the TVs there that are usually tuned to some idiotic daytime program were put to good use for a change. How and where did you watch?

Hail to the Chief

As of today, we can stop saying "President-elect Obama" and start simply saying "President Obama". I'm wearing a really goofy grin just typing those words. We can also finally start the really hard and long-term work of undoing the incredible damage that now-former President Bush (and it's mighty sweet to type that, too) has wrought. The polls show that the public appears to be ready and willing to do that work to get back on track. President Obama appears ready to hit the ground running and be the leader we need. May we all be up to the task.

UPDATE: Nothing says "Presidential inauguration" like an oatmeal party.

Cisneros for Governor?

Last week, Harvery Kronberg posted an anonymous analysis of former San Antonio Mayor and Clinton cabinet member Henry Cisneros as a Democratic candidate for Governor in 2010. I've put a copy of it here (rich-text format document) for ease of download. Todd Hill at BOR goes into this at some depth, so I'll leave the heavy lifting to him. For now, I'll say that while the BOR commenters were more negative than positive to the idea, I think on balance Cisneros would be a decent candidate. I'm less worried about his baggage than some, on the grounds that if Rick Perry is the Republican nominee, he'll go negative on whoever the Dems put up, and if it's KBH the Democratic candidate will have to do the same. I don't think we'll get any more or less a negative campaign with Cisneros on the ticket, it'll just be a matter of what gets said. Finally, if neither Bill White nor John Sharp changes his mind about what race to run, Cisneros would at least qualify as someone with statewide name recognition and fundraising potential. If those two are out, we could certainly do worse than Henry Cisneros; we may wind up doing worse regardless. What do you think?

Representative Walle

Really nice story in (somewhat oddly) the lifestyle section of the paper about freshman Rep. Armado Walle, who won the Democratic primary against long-term incumbent and former Craddick D Kevin Bailey last year. Walle has a great from-the-bootstraps story to tell and a track record of hard work and dedication that will make him a fine representative for HD140. I supported his candidacy, and I'm happy as heck to see him in Austin. Check it out.

Texas blog roundup for the week of January 19

Today we get a new President. Damn, it feels good to say that. While you wait for that historic moment to take place, here's the weekly roundup from the Texas Progressive Alliance. Click on for more.

Easter Lemming Liberal News is pondering the future of newspapers with net marketing guru Seth Godin and the Dean of the Columbia School of Journalism.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston is counting down till the end of an error

The Texas Cloverleaf looks at an outgoing Denton County Commissioner becoming a TxDOT spokesperson.

Off the Kuff takes a look at the early campaign finance reports for KBH and Rick Perry.

CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme notes that while the house plays nice with Straus, the senate went all Craddick/DeLay/Rove batsh*t crazy. Many think that Republican bully partisanship will continue to bite them at the polls.

Neil at Texas Liberal contuines to wonder how Houston Democratic Councilman James Rodriguez, and others, can support a Republican for citywide office. This post also includes a happy picture of dancing from Singing In The Rain.

McBlogger gets some answers from Sen. Carona (well, from Steve Polunsky who was channeling Sen. Carona) about why Sen. Carona is still keeping CDA's on the table. It'll come as a HUGE shock that McBlogger is still not buying it.

jobsanger takes on a couple of the Panhandle's worst legislators. He notes that while the Panhandle is a natural for renewable wind energy, Sen. Kel Seliger is pushing coal energy in Has Seliger Flipped Out Or Sold Out? and points out that Rep. Warren Chisum is the Panhandle's Biggest Embarrassment.

As Kay Bailey Hutchison starts her semi-annual tease about running for Governor, Texas Kaos diarist Libby Shaw notes that Fat Cats (are) Emptying Pockets for Senator-Will-She-or-Wont-She. Some folks never learn. At least with this week's Quorum Report analysis about Henry Cisneros as a potential candidate there will be something else to talk about for 2010...

After Twittering his experiences in the Capitol on the first two days of the 81st Session of the Texas Legislature, Vince at Capitol Annex takes a look at why Lt. Governor David Dewhurst has adopted the personality of former House Speaker Tom Craddick.

refinish69 continues his harrowing journey through the homeless situation. Part 6 of the series leaves more questions than answers but gives some insight into his situation. While not having access to Doing My Part For The Left, he does appreciate Texas Kaos and other blogs for allowing him to post his story.

Burnt Orange Report compiles all the information from the first campaign finance reports for candidate seeking to join the Austin City Council or become the city's Mayor.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson takes a look at Diana Maldonado's first day in the Texas Legislature.

Big Oil is just exactly like Big Tobacco so even though the Texas Railroad Commission recommended legal action against Braden Exploration for illegally dumping drilling waste in Wise County, TXsharon won't be surprised if nothing much happens. We just keep trying over at Bluedaze: Drilling Reform for Texas (DRTX).

There was some contentiousness in the blogosphere last week, as a dinner with John Sharp and and a photograph of James Rodriguez created a little friction among kindred spirits and fellow travelers. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs rounded that up.

Let the candidate filings begin!

Today is the first day that hopefuls for Houston City Council can file a Treasurer's report, at which time they become official candidates for said office. As noted before, that is not set in stone until the filing deadline, which is months away for the November elections and in March for the District H special election, so even though someone may be in now, they may not be in at the end; they may also switch offices, as Michael Berry did in 2003 when he abandoned his Mayoral campaign just in time to run for re-election to City Council.

I've been getting a lot of news about Council candidacies since last week. In District H, Maverick Welsh, the chief of staff to City Council Member Peter Brown, who had previously said he was not planning to run at this time, has changed course and made his Treasurer filing today. He will be resigning his position with Council Member Brown effective January 30. That brings the number of known candidates in H up to four.

And there may be quite a few more in District H. The word I'm hearing now, which I'd heard before it was included in an email by Carl Whitmarsh to his list this morning, is that current HCCS Trustee Yolanda Navarro Flores is getting into the race as well. I don't have any confirmation on this, so take it for what it's worth. I've also heard that former State Rep. Diana Davila Martinez - not HISD Trustee Diana Davila, who had been mentioned previously as a possible candidate but is now apparently no longer so - and Gonzalo Camacho, both of whom ran for this seat in 2003, with Martinez losing in the runoff to Adrian Garcia, as well as HPD Officer Rick Rodriguez, are looking at it. We could have ourselves a pretty big field when all is said and done.

Finally, Mike Laster, who is a former Senior Assistant City Attorney in the Whitmire and Lanier administrations and who is a founding board member of the Greater Sharpstown Management District, has filed his Treasurer's report for District F. As I said before, I believe F is very winnable for a Democratic candidate. Laster is a former committeeman for the State Democratic Executive Committee in SD17 as well as the current chair of the Harris County Democrats (note: not the same thing as the Harris County Democratic Party) and the Sharpstown Democats, so he certainly fits that bill. I've met Mike and think he's a pretty good guy, and am glad to hear that he's getting into this race. I'll let you know as I hear more.

Rebuilding the seawall

This sure seems like a no-brainer to me.

For a century, this vulnerable barrier island's famed Seawall has protected, comforted, enabled and endured.

But the hopelessly romantic notion that the Seawall could stand tall forever, holding back storm surges while preserving Galveston as a place apart, disappeared with Hurricane Ike.

The September storm threatened the wall by exposing the wooden pilings that support its older sections, state and local officials said.

Ike left so little sand to shield the Seawall's base that the underpinnings could corrode or wash away, causing the 17-foot-high concrete structure to collapse.

The danger has prompted a multimillion-dollar effort to replenish the beach in front of the Seawall before the next hurricane season.

"We wouldn't be spending millions of dollars if we weren't really concerned about the wall," said Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who is responsible for the state's coastline. "We want it to be there another 100 years."

[...]

Orrin Pilkey, a nationally known coastal geologist at Duke University, said it could take as much as $20 million a mile to create a lasting beach.

"The fundamental problem with a seawall is that it encourages shorelines to retreat," Pilkey said. "With each storm, it becomes harder and harder to put in a beach that will stay there."

Patterson, the state's land commissioner, said the latest beach-rebuilding project is large enough to protect the Seawall for at least a decade.

"The bigger the renourishment project," Patterson said, "the longer it will last."

Hey, make it as big as you want. The stronger we can make the Seawall, and the longer we can go without having to do this again, the better. The task will serve as a bit of economic stimulus for the Island, which makes it that much more important. And though there was no mention of funding concerns in the story, this would be an excellent use of the Rainy Day Fund if need be; the amount in question is a drop in the bucket compared to the RDF's bottom line. Let's hope this is something we can all agree on and get done as effectively and expeditiously as possible.

Evan Smith's 2012 reality check

Evan Smith has a brief essay in Newsweek in which he takes the position that Texas will not be truly competitive at the Presidential level until 2016 at the earliest. He invited people to argue with him on this; Democratic operative Glenn Smith was the first to take him up on it. I'm going to throw in my two cents' worth here.

Couple of things first. One, I actually think Smith is making the smart money bet, at least if we're wagering on who will win Texas' electoral votes in 2012. Being competitive is a more nebulous concept, but let's not get bogged down in that. I think we'll know it if and when we see it. I'm making two assumptions in my argument here. One is that the economy has substantially improved by 2012. If not - if things are as bad as they are now - the question won't be whether Obama can win Texas but whether he can still win Illinois. And two, that Team Obama will make some kind of genuine effort to compete here. I agree with Glenn Smith that the result this year could have been better had the Obama campaign directed resources here instead of using the locals to help efforts in Ohio and New Mexico and wherever else. On those assumptions, I see three ways in which Obama can improve his performance here.

1. He'll do better in East Texas and in general in the counties where he underperformed John Kerry. I believe one of the effects of not running a campaign here was that there was nothing to counteract the underground campaign - forwarded emails, talk radio blather, etc - that painted Obama in a dark and scary light. I suspect that helped contribute to the abnormally large number of people in Texas who still thought he was a Muslim. Even if Obama runs no formal campaign in Texas in 2012, I think some of this antagonism towards him will soften, if for no better reason than he'll be on TV and in the papers every day as The President instead of some newcomer on the scene with a weird name. At the very least, I'd expect him to run closer to the Democratic baseline vote in these counties.

2. He'll do better in South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley. Not that he didn't do pretty well in these counties to begin with - places like Hidalgo and Cameron and Webb went much more Democratic last year than in 2004. But again, as I noted in my analysis of Obama's performance in Harris County's Latino-majority State Rep. districts, he lagged the Democratic field. Here's a peek at what I mean:

County     Obama   Noriega   Houston    Yanez

=============================================

Cameron  +17,809   +23,797   +25,562  +30,002

El Paso  +60,238   +61,572   +68,217  +70,077

Hidalgo  +50,593   +52,809   +54,927  +60,599

Nueces   - 4,479   +   120   + 7,695  + 7,035

Webb     +20,333   +26,176   +25,561  +28,236

The numbers represent the vote margin in each county for Obama, Rick Noriega, Sam Houston, and Linda Yanez. Add it up and there's a potential 50,000 vote swing sitting there. There's also the potential for better turnout. We saw what happened in places like Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico with the Obama campaign's Latino outreach strategy. What might happen if they use that strategy in Texas?

3. There's still room to grow in the big counties, especially Harris. You know that I believe the coordinated campaign here did a great job. There's always room for improvement, however, especially if there are more resources available as there would be with a national campaign here. There's a lot of voters out west and northwest in Harris to be tapped into. Most importantly, the 2012 campaign will have the benefit of two things the 2008 did not have: The experience of doing this before, and a whole lot of incumbent countywide officeholders running for re-election. Harris in particular may take another big step in the Democratic direction in 2012.

Does this put Obama over the top in 2012? I won't go that far - it is a big gap to close, after all. But I think this puts Texas firmly into the "in play" category, and in a competitive environment, who knows what can happen? Again, it comes down to whether or not Team Obama chooses to make an effort. If they don't try, then we're all wasting our time even thinking about it. For now, let's get our new President inaugurated, and go from there.

From the "It's not what you say, it's how you say it" department

From Alan Bernstein's Sunday conversation with Jessica Benkovic Colon, who chairs the Young Republican National Federation and has this to say about why Barack Obama won the national youth vote so handily:

A: It's an interesting time to be a YR in that we are rebuilding our party and we want to see the Republican Party realize the importance of young voters.

President-elect Obama said that government is the only solution to getting us out of this economic crisis and that is in direct contrast to the very nature of who Generation X and Generation Y are. These two generations, I believe to be two of the most entrepreneurial, individual-oriented generations this country has ever seen.

Q: Then why did Obama capture so much of the youth vote?

A: Because he marketed to them. He talked directly to them. Obama used the tools at hand (such as the Internet) to go after the younger generation, and he dedicated the time and effort to it. It's just that simple. It really is.

Yeah, the content of Obama's message, not to mention the content of the Republicans' message, that had nothing to do with it. No need to make any changes here! It's all about doing it in the Facebook, with the Twittering. It's just that simple.

As The Court Turns

Richard Morrison, onetime candidate against Tom DeLay, the newest Commissioner on Fort Bend County's Commissioners Court, and all-around mensch, has a blog. Those of you in FBC who want to know what your duly elected local officials are up to, that will be a good source of genuine insider information. Check it out.

Weekend link dump for January 18

Our long national nightmare is finally almost over...

With all due respect to the estimable James Fallows, I find that my visceral dislike of out outgoing President comes as easily as it ever did.

Why in the name of all that is holy is anyone still paying attention to this clown? Oh, and Atrios is right about how we lefties perceive him.

Is this really a good use of the US Marshals Service?

Heckuva job, Cornie!

I think if you can crack a botnet, you should be able to take action to make it stop. If there are legal considerations, they should be dealt with. The chance to do good is too much to pass up. Via Dwight.

A reply-to-all mail storm at the State Department. I can't believe people still do that.

Find a bar near your train station. Brilliant! Unfortunately, in Phoenix, not here. But still brilliant. Via Atrios.

As we know, the Texas House was distinctly lacking in dramatics to start the session. So Tennessee picked up the slack for us.

A Short History of the Modern GOP, Told With Hugh Hewitt Books. I'm still upset that How Sarah Palin Won the Election and Saved America never found a publisher.

Someone once said that real fame was to be the answer to a crossword puzzle clue. That's pretty cool, but I think this tops it.

So would being a question on "Jeopardy!". Hopefully, though, one would be remembered for something, well, more memorable.

Once again, there is no problem, from economic malaise to the heartbreak of psoriasis, for which Republicans will not propose more tax cuts as the solution. It's the only trick they have in their bag.

Some criminal justice-related bills that have been filed so far.

The fifty dollar flop

Guess those fifty-dollar scratch-off Lottery tickets weren't such a big deal after all.

The Texas Lottery Commission is set to cut several poorly performing scratch-off games, even though more than $25 million in promised top jackpot prizes have yet to be awarded or claimed by winners.

Though its Web site still advertises "9 prizes from $1,000,000 to 5,000,000" for its priciest scratch-offs, a $50 ticket called $130 Million Payout Bonanza, the game will close next month, and as of Thursday only three of the nine jackpots had so far been claimed by winners.

Another $50 game, $130 Million Spectacular, the state's first $50 game, which became the nation's priciest ticket when it was rolled out in May 2007, is due to close the same day, though only $10 million of its $21 million in top prizes has been doled out to winners.

Boy, remember when these pricey games were going to be the next big thing? When we thought this was going to be so successful there was talk of a $100 scratch-off ticket? Those were the days.

Lottery officials say the soon-to-be-closed-games are not selling well and take up valuable shelf space in the stores where they're sold. Yet Lottery spokesman Robert Heith concedes the agency has no set criteria for closing games.

Since early 2007, the commission has allowed itself to close games for any one of three reasons: its sales were sluggish, its top prizes had been claimed, or 85 percent of its total prizes had been claimed. Earlier this month, the commission authorized game closings for reasons that don't fall into the previous three categories.

"It could be anything," Heith said.

Michael Anger, the director of the agency's operations division, said flexibility is critical if the agency is going to give players games they want.

But Gerald Busald, a math professor at San Antonio College and frequent Lottery observer, said the lack of specific criteria for closing games could be used to disadvantage players. By closing them, the commission avoids paying out the promised big prizes.

"You ought to have procedures for doing anything," he said.

Dawn Nettles, a Lottery watchdog who runs a Web site for players on Texas Lottery games, believes the commission may close games knowing full well that its winning tickets have never left its Austin warehouse.

Heith scoffs at any suggestion the Lottery commission knows where its winning scratch-off tickets are -- or that it holds them back.

It's not exactly a ridiculous suggestion, is it? I mean, in one game two-thirds of the big winners will go unclaimed; in the other, more than half the big prize money stayed home. Given that these games are being shelved more or less on a whim, it's not at all hard to understand why some people are suspicious. The ironic thing is that just before the $50 scratch-offs were introduced, the Lottery was being accused of continuing to sell games long after all the top prizes had been won. Heck of a job, Texas Lottery Commission!

Early contender for District A

I've had a lot of posts about possible contenders for the open Mayoral and At Large Council seats, plus the special election in District H, but there are other seats that will be open this November, and we'll start hearing about possible candidates for them soon. One such possibility has emerged in District A.

Northwest Houston businessman Bob Schoellkopf has announced his intention of running for the District A City Council seat. The seat is currently held by Toni Lawrence who is in her final term.

A native Houstonian, Schoellkopf attended Reagan High School in the Houston Heights and the University of Houston. He and his wife Pat have owned The Schoellkopf Co. Properties since 1973.

Schoellkopf, 69, has been a community activist for many years, and was responsible for working with the Houston Fire Department to get a blinking safety light in front of Fire Station #4 at 6530 West Little York.

He continues to be involved with traffic safety issues. He is a proponent of installing OptiCom sensors at major intersections for emergency vehicles to cross safely.

As a council member, Schoellkopf says he will lobby for more solutions to Houston's traffic problems, such as traffic signal timing and speed limit adjustment on four and six lane boulevards.

He also pledges he will not give a rubber stamp vote of approval on tax and utility rate hikes that come before city council, and will work to lower taxes.

As a realtor and 34-year resident of Woodland Trails, Schoellkopf says he is familiar with the problems neighborhoods are having with high density development and encroachment, and wants to see more emphasis by the city on planning and neighborhood protection.

I'm sure we'll be hearing plenty more stories like this in the coming months. In addition to District A and District H, which would have been open in November, Districts F and G have term-limited members as well. Like District A, F and G are held by Republicans. Given the results of the 2008 election and the sizable shift towards Democrats at the Harris County level, I would not assume that Republican candidates will be favored to hold all of them. (Yes, I know, these races are officially non-partisan. But anyone who pays any attention can tell who flies which flag.) From what I've seen of the precinct results, both A and F should be competitive, F more than A, for a Democrat. That certainly doesn't mean this is how it will play out, but it should affect the calculus of those who are thinking about mounting a campaign.

Generation whatever

I'm rather surprised I haven't seen more of these stories lately, since the genre seems to be a media favorite.

When George W. Bush lifts off in his helicopter on Inauguration Day, leaving Washington to make way for Barack Obama, he may not be the only thing disappearing into the horizon.

To a number of social analysts, historians, bloggers and ordinary Americans, Jan. 20 will symbolize the passing of an entire generation: the baby boomer years.

Generational change. A passing of the torch. The terms have been thrown around with frequency as the moment nears for Obama to take the oath of office. And yet the reference is not to Obama's relatively young age -- at 47, he's only tied for fifth place on the youngest presidents list with Grover Cleveland.

Rather, it's a sense that a cultural era is ending, one dominated by the boomers, many of whom came of age in the '60s and experienced the bitter divisions caused by the Vietnam War and the protests against it, the civil rights struggle, social change, sexual freedoms, and more.

I confess, it was the idea that we might finally put all the boomer crap behind us that first attracted me to Obama over Hillary Clinton in the primaries. It wasn't the only thing, of course, but it helped. I was and am as ready for us to all move on from Baby Boom hegemony as I was to move on from the World War II generation back in 1992. I figure we'll have to read about a million more of these thumb-suckers before we really get there, but that's a price I'm willing to pay. My own generation may not be the brightest bunch of porch lights on the block, but at least we'll provide a new set of flashpoints to fight over. I don't know about you, but I'm sure ready for that.

Judge sides with Garcia on fired employees

New Sheriff Adrian Garcia won a round in court yesterday against two of the command staff members he fired upon taking office.

Former Majors Jule Brownfield and Kim Stelter had sought an injunction to hold two captains' positions open while they fight to be reinstated. They claimed civil service rules and the Texas local government code entitled them to the lower positions.

But state District Judge Jaclanel Moore McFarland ruled that Garcia does not have to hold any positions open and is free to continue building the command staff of his choosing.

Brownfield and Stelter said they will continue trying to go back to work at the Sheriff's Office. They already have filed appeals with the civil service commission and are hoping that hearings before that panel will take place in the next 30 days.

Their attorney, Michael Fleming, said he is confident his clients will prevail.

Well, good luck to them. Doesn't seem to me they're likely to win, but it's certainly their right to try.

More on voter ID and the House

Rick Casey discusses the single most important issue facing Texas today, at least according to the Republican Party, and turns his attention to what might happen to Voter ID in the House.

It's not unusual for members of one chamber to vote for a bill if they are confident the other chamber will kill it.

In 2007, the House passed the voter ID bill by 76-68. Two Republicans joined all Democrats in opposition. In November's elections the Republican advantage in the House shrank to two votes, so the same dynamic would lead to a tie.

More likely, newly-elected Speaker Joe Straus, who won with overwhelming Democratic support after pledging to end the bitter divisions of the Craddick era, will ensure that the bill doesn't make it to the floor, something that can easily be done in committee without leaving fingerprints.

Like I said, the first indicator will be who he names to chair the Elections Committee. Which means he'll be under pressure from his colleagues to put Leo Berman back in charge. Keep an eye on this.

The Texas Observer does some thinking along these same lines, and talks to the two Republicans who voted No last time.

The two Republicans were Rep. Tommy Merritt, R-Longview and Rep. Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock.

[...]

If Republicans Merritt and Jones vote against the bill as they did last session, the vote could be 76 against the bill and 73 for it.

So, will Merritt and Jones vote with their party or with their consciences?

Contacted by the Observer, Merritt would not say one way or the other, but did say he would concentrate on the issues important to his district, as well as Real ID.

"In my district, I don't have a Voter ID issue," Merritt said. "For me, Real ID is way more important along with the budget and education the other [issues]. If we do the Real ID then the Voter ID will be solved."

(The Real ID Act of 2005, passed by the U.S. Congress and housed at the Department of Homeland Security, requires state-issued licenses and ID cards to meet minimum standards, including additional security features and a more stringent application process to establish a card-holder's identity and immigration status. The rule should have gone into effect May 31, 2008, but states could apply for a deadline extension, as Texas did. Texas does not yet issue Real ID-compliant identification cards because of the cost of program implementation.)

Jones would not comment on the two-thirds resolution or the possibility of Voter ID coming up again in the House, but spoke briefly about his "nay" vote during the last session.

"I figured [the bill] was not real practical," Jones said. "You're putting more restrictions on the people who have to work at the election polls."

This is all well and good, but let's not forget the possibilities in the waning days of a voter ID amendment being tacked onto some other bill, one that has enough support to pass. These things are never truly dead until sine die.

On a related note the Observer talks about Sen. John Whitmire and his rhetoric about the change to the two-thirds rule, which he believes will come up again in this session. The irony, of course, is that Whitmire broke from his Democratic colleagues and their quorum-busting trip to New Mexico during the special sessions on redistricting in 2003 precisely because he feared for the future of this tradition. Seems he was right to worry, but wrong about the reasons why.

For uniform early voting hours

I'm not going to try to note the filing of every bill of interest - Vince has that segment of the market pretty well cornered - but one that I'd like to highlight is HB512, filed by Rep. Solomon Ortiz, Jr (D, Corpus Christi), which would standardize early voting hours at 7 AM to 7 PM for counties of 100,000 people or more. (Some counties already do this.) Given the huge boost in participation of early voting, this just makes sense. I wish we could extend early voting further, to include a second weekend for regular elections and at least one weekend for special elections, but that will have to be a fight for another day, or at least another bill. I've got a release from Rep. Ortiz beneath the fold. I'll be rooting for this one to pass.

State Representative Solomon Ortiz, Jr. announced today that he has filed HB 512, which standardizes the hours of operation at early voting polling places in large counties across the state.

"Currently, early voting hours vary significantly from week to week and from polling place to polling place," Ortiz said. "This bill will standardize the hours at permanent locations and help people avoid confusion when they're making plans to go vote."

The bill requires that permanent early voting polling places remain open from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. for the duration of weekday early voting in counties with 100,000 or more people.

"During the entire first week of early voting during the November general election, the polls in some counties were only open until 5:00 p.m. " Ortiz said. "That left many Texans without the opportunity to go vote after work."

Before filing the legislation, Ortiz consulted elections officials who conduct elections at the local level.

"As it stands, polling place hours vary from one week to the next," said Nueces County Clerk Diana Barrera. "Rep. Ortiz's legislation will eliminate voter confusion and help make sure more voters make it to the polls."

Ortiz represents House District 33, which includes part of Nueces County and the City of Corpus Christi. Rep. Ortiz encourages constituents to contact his office on this or any issue of interest at (512) 463-0484, email him at [email protected] or visit the House of Representatives website at www.house.state.tx.us.

Friday random ten: New music, take two

More new music on the iPod, while I ponder whether to get more now or wait till later.

1. For What Reason - Death Cab for Cutie
2. Skankin' To The Beat - Fishbone
3. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
4. How Do You Do It - The Beatles
5. The Butcher - Final Fantasy
6. In A Big Country - Big Country
7. Sleepyhead - Passion Pit
8. Like I Give A Care - You Say Party! We Say Die!
9. Inside A Boy - My Brightest Diamond
10. Life Itself - Bruce Springsteen

Technically, "Hallelujah" isn't new music for me, but as I simply included all the music I've bought so far through the iTunes store in this go-round, that picked up a few tunes that I'd gotten earlier in the year last year, of which this is one. Seeing it here makes me wonder if that Genius list I got based on this song might be different now. I'll have to see if these things can be updated.

Day Of Service - Call for Action

A little late notice, but just in case you can do this:

The Harris County Tejano Democrats, Greater Heights Democratic Club & Keep Houston Beautiful

Day Of Service - Call for Action

President -elect Barack Obama has called all Americans to take part in a national day of service. This renewed call for volunteerism is to remind all Americans what ordinary people can accomplish when we stand together.

The Harris County Tejano Democrats and The Greater Heights Democratic Club will co-host a trash clean up along White Oak Bayou in the Houston Heights area. We along with President -elect Barack Obama are calling you to action.

Join us this Saturday January 17, 2009 at 9:00am in the parking lot for the upper softball field on White Oak Dr. in The Houston Heights. Look for the The Greater Heights Democratic Club and Tejano Democrats Banners on a White Tent. Please bring your own set of gloves. We will provide water and Trash Bags.


"It will take ordinary citizens working together with a common purpose to get this country back on track. This national day of service is an important first step in our continuing commitment.

Now is the time to remind all Americans what ordinary people can accomplish when we stand together" - Michelle Obama

If you cannot make this event but would like to answer President -elect Barack Obama's call to service please check out his web site for other local projects that will be happening between Jan 17 - Jan 20, 2009. www.USAservice.org/calltoservice

For more info please contact Kevin at [email protected](713) 305-5468 or Sandra at [email protected](713) 303-7247

Kay and Rick on the money

Well, there was never any doubt that they'd be swimming in cash.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison moved nearly $8 million into her state campaign finance account last year -- a high-stakes signal that she is committed to running for Texas governor in 2010.

In December she transferred most of that money from her U.S. Senate campaign account, according to campaign finance reports released Thursday. She started the year with $7.9 million in the bank.

Gov. Rick Perry, who intends to seek re-election, will prove a formidable foe with $6.6 million in the bank so far, according to the reports. A political battle between the two could cost each of them more than $20 million.

Remember how many ads there were on the TV this past fall, even though the Presidential campaigns didn't do much? We got off way easy compared to what this might be. Be prepared to be very sick of this in another year or so.

So does this mean that KBH is for sure running for Governor? She thinks she is, and I think she is, too. But I still think you never really know with her, and you won't know for sure till she files for the primary. And even if she does run, it still doesn't mean she'll resign from the Senate first. Go read that Politico article again and see just how much KBH and her decision are in the spotlight. If it were just a matter of her winning next November, that would be one thing. But she has to win a Republican primary first, and I don't see how she can afford to give Rick Perry that kind of ammunition to use against her. I just cannot imagine her resigning any time before March of 2010, if at all.

Which brings us to the eventual election, special or otherwise, to fill her seat. This bit from that Politico story is worth considering:

If Hutchison gives up her seat, national Republicans would likely move quickly to recruit their candidate and help raise money to ensure the seat stays in the party's hands. But doing that would divert precious resources that would otherwise be used to help the party recover from two disastrous elections and defend four open seats in 2010.

"It's more than a casual interest that we at least maintain 41 senators," said Texas' junior senator, John Cornyn, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He told reporters Wednesday that Hutchison might not resign if she pursues her governor's bid.

Hutchison's resignation likely would set off a primary battle between state and congressional lawmakers and state officials, according to local political operatives. A couple of prominent GOP names have also recently bubbled up as potential Hutchison successors, including state Attorney General Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

And even though Democrats would have a tough climb to win the Senate seat, some already have their eyes on it, including Houston Mayor Bill White. The national party would undoubtedly put a huge amount of resources into the race if winning it would get Senate Democrats to the magic number of 60.

The prospect of national money changes things in a couple of ways. For one, I think it renders the Rick Casey scenario essentially moot. If the election were this May, with the current field of Bill White, John Sharp, Roger Williams, Michael Williams, Florence Shapiro, and Elizabeth Ames Jones, I could imagine the two Dems splitting 45% and the four GOPers splitting the rest, with none of them breaking 20% and thus yielding an all-Dem runoff. That's because none of the GOPers has a particularly high profile, so none of them would be likely to break away from the pack. A few million dollars, plus some big endorsements and whatever help the NRSC - conveniently chaired by Texas' junior Senator - can offer goes a long way towards distinguishing one of these contenders. Under those conditions, I can't imagine whichever one of them drew the golden ticket would not do far better than 20%; he or she would probably lead the field, and then win the runoff comfortably.

It gets a bit more complicated if a Dewhurst or an Abbott, both of whom have statewide profiles as well as a boatload of their own money, jumps in. Most likely, either one of them gets in because he's the chosen one, or they both stay out because it's made clear to them that they're not. Dewhurst could still run anyway if he got piqued about it, but I wouldn't expect that. Bottom line is that someone on the Republican side is going to have a ton of resources available. That person will be a huge favorite to win. We can spin theories and possibilities and what-ifs all we want, but that strikes me as the most probably outcome.

So given that one Republican contender will almost surely have the near-full force of the national and state parties behind him or her, doesn't this change the math for the two Democrats? For one thing, we come back to the same question we started off with, which is how do you win the inevitable runoff? I seriously doubt either of them has an answer to that question right now. Sure, the national Dems will be there to help as well, but in a war of statewide turnout with a motivated Republican electorate, how do you win? I don't have an answer for that, either.

Which brings me back to the question I keep asking: Why not try for Governor instead? KBH hasn't won that primary against Rick Perry yet. She may stay in her seat through November of 2010 - or at least through September of 2010, which would be good enough for special election purposes - which would give you a second bite at the statewide apple if she beats both Perry and you. The national GOP isn't going to care about that race. The issues won't get tied up nearly as much in the state of the nation and the Obama administration, so you'll have hopes for crossovers. Just based on the non-trivial chance that Perry takes the primary, I don't see how this race doesn't offer better odds of a Democrat winning. And yet here we are. It's still a little too early to be officially worried about 2010, but it's certainly not irrational to be.

The state of the city 2009

Mayor Bill White gave his last State of the City address yesterday.

Mayor Bill White used his last "State of the City" address Thursday to reassure Houstonians that they and the city will weather the coming economic storm, just as they survived Hurricane Ike last year.

"We emerged more durable, with a tighter sense of community and with a real pride," White said during the annual luncheon sponsored by the Greater Houston Partnership. "We can weather this economic storm if we keep that spirit intact in Houston and build on it."

White warned that the city will not escape the economic downturn in 2009. But he called Houston a resilient "comeback city" that would find ways to constructively deal with hardship. For example, he said, landlords may bemoan office vacancies, but start-up businesses may welcome a period of lower rents.

White spoke before a crowd of more than 1,400 business and civic leaders at the downtown Hilton Americas-Houston. White, 54, mentioned nothing of his campaign for a U.S. Senate seat and declined to outline any new projects for his final year in office, except for expanded recycling efforts.

But the speech offered hints at how the former Wedge Group CEO will frame his six-year mayoral legacy for the Senate bid. White began by praising the region's economic muscle, citing 380,000 new jobs in five years, and built from there. He tied the success of the public sphere to "partnerships" and "bridges" with the thriving private sector -- emphasizing his political philosophy that government can improve life, but only with the help of committed citizens.

You can read the whole speech here. The Mayor has a lot of accomplishments to tout, and when he goes out on the road to run for his next office, whether he continues to pursue a Senate bid or changes course for Austin, he'll have a very good story to tell. I wish he had mentioned mass transit in his speech, just as I wish that after five successful years of light rail in Houston there was more of it to talk about. There's still time for further achievements on this front during Mayor White's tenure, but the bulk of it is going to be left for his successor to do.

There are still a few Republican grownups left

Good to know they still exist.

A day after Gov. Rick Perry touted the chance of more tax relief for Texans, the Senate Finance Committee chairman said he doesn't see how the state can afford broad tax cuts without a big increase in federal funds.

"I don't see how we do broad-based tax cuts and pay for it," Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, said Wednesday.

The one exception -- absent a dramatic economic recovery -- would be a big federal funding increase.

"There could be a possibility for tax relief if the federal government in their stimulus package provides a lot of budgetary relief that we don't necessarily anticipate," Ogden said.

[...]

Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, House Appropriations chairman, said Perry's idea is "not fiscally responsible."

"We'll be lucky to maintain the tax relief we've already got on the books and then pass a budget that doesn't severely impact the operations of the state," Chisum said.

That's about the reception that Governor Perry's big idea deserves. And I note with interest that I'm not the only one wondering how the Lege can pay for its grandiose property tax cuts from last session. I know Rep. Chisum was only speaking rhetorically, but if the thought had occurred to him, it's occurred to everyone else as well.

Pennies from HCTRA

Maybe it's just me, but I thought this story about a potential toll road rate increase in Harris County was amusing.

When the Harris County Commissioners Court gave the Toll Road Authority permission to raise rates by 25 cents in 2007, it also authorized annual smaller increases to keep up with the rising cost of building and maintaining the toll road network. To make future increases transparent and objective, the court set the annual increase at the rate of inflation or 2 percent, whichever is greater.

But Peter Key, HCTRA's deputy director, said he and his staff still are trying to determine how much of an increase to seek this year as they weigh varying inflation estimates and evaluate a rate hike's potential impact on the system.

For example, Key said, the toll road authority is not sure whether it should use the current inflation rate or the average rate for 2008 and whether it should rely on figures for the nation or the Houston area.

There also is the question of rounding.

Many main lanes and ramps charge drivers with EZ-Tags $1.25, while drivers paying cash are charged $1.50.

It would be easy to charge EZ-Tag users $1.28, assuming a 2 percent increase were adopted, because their accounts are linked to credit cards. But if toll booth operators have to make change for $1.53, or even $1.55, "traffic will be bogged down to a level that basically breaks" the system, Key said.

About one-fourth of the HCTRA's 1 million daily transactions are paid in cash.

I guess installing those "Take a penny/Leave a penny" cups outside each manned tool booth wouldn't help, would it? Too bad.

Here's the thing: I think HCTRA should view this as an opportunity, not a problem. I mean, so what if making the toll $1.55 for cash-paying customers makes those lines longer? Seems to me HCTRA's ultimate goal here is to get away from using cash for the tolls altogether. If the experience of waiting in line to hand a buck fifty-five to a person becomes sufficiently unpleasant, wouldn't you expect more people to get themselves an EZ Pass tag so they don't have to deal with it any more? I'll bet this problem solves itself in a matter of weeks. It's basically the same concept as congestion pricing, only here you get to pay less for the faster ride. I can't believe this thought hasn't occurred to them. What do you think?

In the end, it may not matter much, since Commissioners Court didn't exactly receive this news with open arms. One way or the other, though, I think this will happen eventually, and I think the effects may wind up being mitigated by more people shifting to EZ Pass tags.

Non-profit social media

Ever wonder if your favorite Houston non-profit does social media? The Commit for Life blog rounds up the various social media sites for the local orgs. Check it out, and tell them who they might have missed. (My contribution to the Who They Missed list: The Children's Museum on Twitter.)

Miles found not guilty

Former State Rep. Borris Miles, who was indicted on two charges of deadly conduct in April, was acquitted today of all charges.

In closing arguments earlier this afternoon, Rusty Hardin, Miles' attorney, said leading members of Houston's African-American business community orchestrated a campaign to unseat Miles and ruin his insurance business by lying about what happened.

"These people, who had an incredible motive to lie, did in fact, lie to you," said Hardin, Miles' attorney. "What's happening here is a disgrace."

Prosecutors said that believing all of the witnesses conspired is ridiculous.

"Do you think all of these people want to come down here and talk about this?" Assistant District Attorney Jon Stephenson asked jurors.

"Of course not. It's ridiculous."

Clearly, the jury didn't think it was. I'm happy for Miles, and I hope he can get his life back on track now that this is behind him.

The calm after the storm

So after yesterday's fun and games in the Senate, things will be quiet for a while, for the simple reason that the Senate stands adjourned until Monday, January 26. It'll be interesting to see what the mood is like when everyone comes back. I think we can be sure of three things: One, this "exception" to the two-thirds rule will not be a one-time thing; two, the Democrats are not going to take this lying down - expect them to find some creative countermeasure, if not on the inevitable voter ID bill then on something else that is a priority for Lt. Gov. Dewhurst and the Republicans; and three, expect things to be a lot less collegial this session in the Senate. Clearly, there can be only one calm chamber.

Which leads to the question: What happens to voter ID in the House? I think we'll have a better idea of what might happen once we see how Speaker Straus assigns committee membership and chairs. I expect him to be fair in general to the Craddick loyalists, but that doesn't mean he has to retain Leo Berman - who was vocally putting Straus down in the immediate aftermath of his nomination - as the chair of the Elections committee. If Berman gets the chair again, then the fix is in and you can expect there to be a lot of unhappy House Democrats once again. If a more sane Republican than Berman gets it - not a high bar to clear here - then it could go either way, but at least there's a chance it could get killed. If a Dem gets it, it's all over and the Senate posturing was just theater. If I had to guess, I'd bet on option #2. We'll know soon enough. Lots more on yesterday's action from Burka, Evan Smith, BOR, Vince, Muse, Houtopia, EoW, and Stace.

One more step for Dynamo Stadium

The journey towards the construction of Dynamo Stadium, which took a big step forward last month, is another step closer to its destination.

Houston Mayor Bill White asked the county in July to contribute $10 million to the project by joining the city's East Downtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, which includes the stadium's proposed site.

Harris County Commissioners El Franco Lee and Sylvia Garcia tentatively agreed late last month to join the project as long as the city agreed to conditions including restricting the use of county money to building the public amenities and infrastructure serving the stadium, rather than the physical structure itself. That could include water and sewer lines for the stadium, or the parking lots and tree-lined plazas surrounding it.

Other conditions include guarantees that Texas Southern University will be allowed to play home games at the stadium and that 15 percent of the seats never will be sold for more than the average price of a movie ticket. The county also wants Dynamo to be held responsible for all facility upkeep and proposes the team fund such repairs through a monthly fee in addition to the lease.

Dynamo president and general manager Oliver Luck said the team is amenable to working with the county on the conditions that involve its operations.

White spokesman Frank Michel said the city is reasonably optimistic it will be able to reach an agreement with the county.

"I think we're pretty close on almost every point they have, and, certainly, we're not in radical disagreement, but there's just things to work through," Michel said.

Among the details being discussed are ways to define affordable tickets and to ensure the facility is properly maintained, said Andy Icken, Houston's deputy director for planning and development in the Department of Public Works and Engineering.

Icken said negotiations are going well enough that he believes the Harris County Commissioners Court could vote on the proposal at its Jan. 27 or Feb. 10 meeting.

[...]

The Harris County Republican Party announced Friday that it opposed public funding for the Dynamo stadium, calling the project a "$20 million corporate welfare program."

Republican County Judge Ed Emmett said he would vote "no" if the Dynamo asked for a $10 million donation from the county's general fund. But he said the TIRZ proposal is more complicated than that as it involves tax money the county would not otherwise receive and because the money may be used for infrastructure updates that would be needed anyway if the stadium were built.

"We'll have to wait and see what finally comes out of all the negotiations that are going on," Emmett said.

Commissioners Court protocol dictates that formal proposals to participate in such projects must come from the commissioner whose precinct would be affected. The lion's share of the site is in Lee's precinct, while a smaller portion is in Garcia's.

As long as those two commissioners want to participate in the TIRZ, the court is likely to sign off on the proposal.

That's really the key. The Harris County GOP can stamp its feet all it wants, but if Commissioners Lee and Garcia want this to happen, it will happen. Remember the motto of Commissioners Court:

The power each commissioner exercises over these budgets is as absolute as it can get in a democracy. That's because each commissioner respects the turf of the others and expects his or her turf to be respected in return.

"El Franco Lee knows his precinct better than I do," [Commissioner Steve] Radack said. "If he has the money and wants to do something, I'm not going to second-guess him."

It's good to be the king.

Special election date for District H not set yet

Now that Adrian Garcia's City Council seat in District H is officially empty, the special election to replace him can be set for the next uniform election date, which is May 9. That was on the agenda for Council yesterday, but it got off track when the possibility of appointing an interim replacement was raised.

"Common sense tells us all that leaving this office vacant, no matter how well the intentions of any caretakers looking after the district might be, leaves District H, and 42 percent of the Latino community in this city, woefully underrepresented," said Vidal Martinez, a lawyer and former Port of Houston commissioner.

He suggested Garcia's wife, Monica, as a possible temporary appointment. He said he supports Ed Gonzalez, who works for the Houston Police Department and also is favored by Garcia, as a candidate for the District H special election.

But Councilman James Rodriguez said it was too late to consider an appointment and questioned whether Martinez really was speaking on behalf of District H residents, since many he knows already have been preparing for a special election. That process is the best way to ensure a fair outcome, he said.

"It's not a backroom process," Rodriguez said. "We need to be better than that."

White said he had heard little from District H residents about the need for an interim appointment and would not support it unless there were widespread calls for such action.

Several council members said the district was sufficiently represented by the at-large members and questioned whether the racial makeup of council should have any relevance.

[...]

Garcia said he has not been involved in any discussions about his successor and had no position on whether an appointment was needed.

"I think the mayor and the council will do the right thing by the city and the district," he said. "I've been busy focusing on my responsibilities here at the county."

For what it's worth, speaking as a District H resident, this is the first I'd heard of that. I can see the merits of the idea, but I think Martinez's way of proposing this (see more here) was not very adept. I see no reason to stray from the usual process. Let's set a date - that will happen in two weeks, at the next Council meeting - and may the best person win.

I have been asked if I am supporting a candidate for this race. The answer at this time is no, I have not made any decisions yet. I intend to try to meet and talk to all of the candidates - I definitely intend to try to do interviews with all of them - before I make any decisions. Since November when it became known that we would have a special election, I have had the chance to meet Karen Derr, who lives in my neighborhood. I've been to an open house at her office and to a holiday party at her house. I've had a phone conversation with Ed Gonzalez (he called me), and some email correspondence with Hugo Mojica, who sent out a statement opposing the idea of an interim appointment, which I've reproduced beneath the fold. This is going to be a tough decision, because there are some good candidates running. I'm glad for that, and I'm looking forward to the official start of this race.

UPDATE: Marc Campos has a long post on this subject, which is worth reading. Of particular interest is this excerpt from an email sent to him by his clent, District I Council Member James Rodriguez:

The day before the election, the City Attorney and the administration sent out a memo that set out a procedure on filling the vacancy. Let me say that according to the memo, state statue does give Council the authority to appoint - if there were less than 270 days between when Adrian was sworn in and the next general election. We fall beyond the 270 days and trust me - a lot of folks in District H are aware of this.

That would seem to settle the matter. Let's get this election declared so candidates can start raising money and officially campaigning.

Greetings Mayor White and Council Members,

As a resident of District H, I wanted to express my strong opposition to the appointment process mentioned in today's Council meeting. I believe appointing someone instead of having an election goes against our democratic system of government. Moreover, the appointment process rewards only those who are politically connected. The process should be about transparency and fairness not the typical "coronation mentality" proposed by some within our community.

In closing, I urge you to please approve ordinance 13, setting the special election for May 9, 2009, so that we can ELECT who we want to be our representative at City Hall.

I am available anytime at (713) 256-7277 if you would like to discuss this issue further. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best Regards,

Hugo J. Mojica
District H Candidate

Waiting for KBH, the saga continues

Could someone please inform Brownsox that while it is certainly possible that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison may resign this year and thus set up a special election for her seat in May of 2010, it's rather an overbid to say that she is "expected" to do so? Some of us think she'll stick it out in DC a lot longer than that, and some of her Republican colleagues would prefer she make that choice as well. For sure, we could be wrong about this. Nobody really knows with Kay - that's my point. It would be nice if the national guys could broaden their perspectives a bit on this.

And then, of course, there's this.

Gov. Rick Perry expressed doubts Tuesday that U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will enter the 2010 Republican primary race against him and said Texans want a leader like him with "big ideas."

Perry, after addressing lawmakers on opening day of the Texas Legislature, talked about his record as governor and his ideas for the future in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press. The state's longest-serving governor, Perry said he wants to run next year for a third full term in office.

Hutchison has formed an exploratory committee to run for governor in 2010.

Perry noted that she hasn't formally jumped into the race and, when asked whether he has doubts that she will, Perry said: "Oh yeah. I mean, there's plenty of time for the senator to think that it's not in her best interest, Texas' best interest or the country's best interest to leave the United States Senate and come run for governor. But that's, again, that's her call.

"I'm running," Perry added. "I've announced, I'm in, I'm here and I'm enjoying continuing to move Texas forward."

God help us all. This is all mind games, of course, and for all we know this time it will have the opposite effect. Some of Perry's own supporters have already jumped ship on him in favor of the promise of KBH. The point remains, however, that she has a track record of waffling on what she wants to be when she grows up. I don't expect anything from her but uncertainty right up until the very end.

UPDATE: As if I needed more data:

At the Capitol on Wednesday, Hutchison told Politico that she's going to "stay here this year regardless." She subsequently equivocated a bit, saying she still could resign very late this year -- or "stay for two years."

But even waiting until late this year could be a big help to the GOP. Under Texas law, Gov. Rick Perry -- a Republican -- would appoint a short-term replacement for Hutchison. A special election would likely be held in November 2009 if Hutchison resigns before Sept. 28. If she resigns later in the year, the special election wouldn't be held until May 2010.

[...]

Hutchison, who plans to run for governor in 2010, has been under pressure from Republican colleagues to stay in her Senate seat as long as she can.

"She's a great lady, and I don't blame her if she wants to run for governor, but the fact is we'd like her not to," said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). "We'd like her to stay right here."

Added a senior GOP aide: "I cannot imagine that ... Sen. Hutchison would abandon her seat to pursue her own ambitions and even risk giving Democrats a supermajority in the Senate."

The more I think about it, the more likely I believe she is to remain in office through at least 2010. You think her junior colleague, the chair of the NRSC, who's already dealing with three open seats in swing states created by retirements, with more perhaps to come, might beseech her to keep her butt in place a little while longer? Yeah, me too.

S-CHIP passes the House again

Good news from Washington.

The House of Representatives [yesterday] approved a major expansion of federally funded health coverage for children, kicking off what Democrats hope will be a historic legislative campaign this year to overhaul the nation's healthcare system.

The legislation -- which passed on a largely party-line 289-139 vote -- would commit about $33 billion over the next 4 1/2 years to the popular State Children's Health Insurance Program.

It would cover an additional 4 million children, nearly cutting in half the number of children in America without insurance, a top priority of Democrats since the party took control of Congress two years ago.

The Senate, where senior lawmakers are working on their own version of the bill, is expected to back the expansion soon.

President-elect Barack Obama has indicated he will sign the measure -- funded primarily by a 61-cent increase in the federal tax on a pack of cigarettes.

"This is a new day in Washington," Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), a leading champion of the bill, said on the House floor today.

"Soon we will have a new president who has committed himself to reforming our nation's healthcare system so every American can access affordable and quality healthcare. The bill . . . makes a down payment on that promise."

The roll call vote is here. I'm sure you'll be shocked to learn that not a single Republican member from Texas voted in favor. Not that it matters any more, but as TPM Election Central noted, enough Republicans switched from Nay to Yea this time around to provide for a veto override. FDL and the MOMocrats have more. I'll just add that when this one does get to the Senate, you can count on Sen. John Cornyn to say something wrong about it. Oh, and will Sen. Hutchison support S-CHIP as she has before, or will she decide she needs at least some of Rick Perry's social conservative vote in the 2010 primary? You never know with KBH.

DPS sued over new drivers license rules

Can't say I'm surprised by this.

Civil rights advocates sued the Texas Department of Public Safety today, contending that new driver's license requirements for immigrants discriminate against people legally in the United States.

The suit, filed in state district court in Austin by the Texas Civil Rights Project, seeks to force the DPS to stop enforcing the rules, which went into effect Oct. 1.

Jim Harrington, the group's director, called the rules "an unconscionable burden on immigrant survivors of domestic abuse and discriminatory against the Hispanic community."

He said the policy also "creates a danger to the public safety because it forces people to drive without insurance.....It is ill-conceived, unconscionable and counterproductive."

[...]

The new rules require non-citizens to show official work authorization proof in the form of an official employment authorization document (EAD) every six months to renew their licenses.

Harrington said the federal government is slow in processing many EADs and the DPS won't renew or issue a license without them, even if the immigrants have other work documentation.

As noted previously, this little bit of security theater is tripping up legal immigrants whose paperwork is in order. At the very least, this policy needs to be reconsidered. I wish the plaintiffs good luck.

Voter ID is the single most important issue facing Texas today

As far as the Republicans are concerned, at least. That's the only conclusion one can draw from the actions in the Senate, where there's a big Republican-led fight going on to suspend the two-thirds rule for voter ID bills only. The budget, rebuilding Galveston, CHIP, windstorm insurance, roads, property taxes, college tuition, utility rates, you name it - they all take a back seat to voter ID. There must be some kind of universal Law of Legislative Insanity Conservation, because that's about the only explanation I can think of for the role reversal between the House and the Senate. Well, there is one other possible explanation, a pretty plausible one at that. I suspect that fighting demography is a bit like fighting gravity, but that doesn't stop people from trying.

In the end, despite some clever tactical moves, it looks like the Republicans will prevail. Which is as much a win for Dan Patrick as it is for Dewhurst and the rest of the GOP caucus. Whether this gets scuttled in the House or not - there are what, 500 ways to kill a bill? - remains to be seen. Early reviews of Dewhurst's actions are negative. All this and we're only two days in. Eileen has more.

Hey, there's an idea!

There are many possible ways that the Rainy Day Fund could be used to help offset some of the bad budget news we got this week. Some of them will be better than others. Nearly all of them will be better than this.

Despite a tightening budgetary outlook, Gov. Rick Perry said Tuesday that he wants to find a way to return some of the state's savings to taxpayers, perhaps in the form of additional school property tax cuts.

He said that could be done by tapping into the rainy day savings account, which is expected to have $6.7 billion by this summer, and collect another $2.4 billion over the next two fiscal years.

"Go talk to the people of the state of Texas and say, 'Would you like to have some of your money back or would you rather have it spent?' I know what their answer is," Perry said in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News.

They would think "it's a good idea you give it to us and let us decide how it's going to be redistributed rather than government," he added.

Amazing. Is there ever a question to which Rick Perry, like the vast majority of his Republican colleagues, would propose something other than a tax cut as the answer? I guess you have to admire his ability to stay on-message, if nothing else. Thanks to Cory for the catch.

Birthday party for Rick Noriega

There's a slightly belated 51st birthday party being thrown for Rick Noriega tomorrow at Marbella's Banquet Hall, 6632 Harrisburg Boulevard, just off of I-45 and Wayside - here's a Google map for you, and you can look at the invitation (PDF) for more details. Come on out and wish Rick a Happy Birthday and thank him for all he's done as a public servant.

Streetcars and the next step for Houston transit

Christof completed a three-part look at streetcars in Houston (see parts one and two for background) by discussing possible places that streetcars in Houston might make sense. Not surprisingly, they tend to mirror the places where streetcars had been built over a hundred years ago and led to the development of neighborhoods that are still walkable today. All of them look like they would still fit in and be useful today.

Two of the locations Christof flags are of particular interest. One is the Inner Katy Corridor, which is being studied for light rail in the next expansion phase beyond 2012. The other is Kirby Drive, which isn't identified at this time as a possible light rail corridor, but which (as Christof notes) should be, at least in my opinion. I've been thinking about what a light rail line might look like in both of these locations. Here are a couple of Google maps that I've put together with my suggestions. Click the More link to see them.

View Larger Map

View Larger Map

These are just my concepts of what an Inner Katy and Kirby Drive lines might look like. There's a million ways you can quibble with them - Christof thinks that the Kirby line needs to turn down Holcombe instead of taking the path I've drawn, for instance. I've thought about that and don't quite agree - I think that comes too close to the Main Street line and thus doesn't really add much functionality. If I had to alter the southern end of the line, I'd think about having it turn east on Old Spanish Trail and terminate at Almeda, where it would serve the various new and previously existing medical facilities in between. There are other possibilities as well.

There will be many technical, political, and financial issues to overcome before any of this could be turned into something real. I'm more than happy to discuss and debate any aspect of these ideas. The one thing that I won't yield on, however, is my belief that both of these are needed. An Inner Katy line is already on the drawing board; it's just a matter of where, and my argument is for a line that serves Washington Avenue and Memorial Park, then connects to the Uptown line, thus providing a one-train ride from downtown to the Galleria. As for the Kirby line, it corrects the one glaring omission on all the current and future light rail maps I've seen, which is a north-south route for central Houston, through the densest part of town outside of downtown. There's enough population to support this line, there are multiple employment and retail centers along the way, the traffic and parking situation is bad and getting worse, and as drawn this route would provide a non-highway means to get from north of downtown to points south, thus potentially helping to ease congestion on the Pierce Elevated. I believe the case for this couldn't be clearer. The question is whether there's the will to fight the battles. As Christof said about his imagined streetcar lines, if this is to happen it will be because a neighborhood -- residents, merchants, institutions, landowners -- decides it wants it. I hope I can do a little something about that.

The silliness shifts to the Senate

So one phrase I do not expect to type this year is "All hell has just broken loose in the House". It would seem that I should not expect the same from the Senate, based on the shenanigans of the first day. Just goes to show that one should never underestimate the willingness of someone who desperately wants to win a statewide Republican primary to pander to the base. This can go one of two ways: Lt. Gov. Dewhurst can back away from the divisive distractions and focus instead on the real work of the session, of which there is plenty, or he can ensure that all hell breaks loose in the Senate. It's up to him which direction gets taken.

Don't forget Frew

While we all continue to ponder what the state's budget situation will mean, we must remember that certain allocations are mandatory. One example of such is Medicaid funding, for which the state of Texas settled a lawsuit in 2007 that had accused the state of not providing federally-mandated preventative care by not providing sufficient funding for physicians' visits. See here and here for some background. That issue may get brought up again, because the attorney for the plaintiffs says that the state has not met its obligations under the court's order.

State officials said they're complying with the order in the case of Frew v. Hawkins, which, among other things, requires Texas to spend $150 million in state funds "toward strategic initiatives to improve ... access to services."

Susan Zinn, who represents Texas children on Medicaid, said the court requires that the money be spent in the 2008 and 2009 budget years, but the state plans to spend less than a third of that during that period.

"They're obliged under the court's order to spend all of that this biennium, and they seem to be violating that order," Zinn said. "That money is not just money -- it's supposed to result in improved access to health care."

About a third of Texas children are on Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program.

Zinn said she hasn't decided whether to take further legal action.

[...]

Goodman said that proposals recommended by an advisory council are forwarded to the Legislative Budget Board and Gov. Rick Perry for approval.

"This means it takes some time to get proposals up and running," she said.

"We want to make sure the funding for strategic initiatives is spent wisely," she said.

Yes we do, though we also want to make sure that the meaning of the ruling isn't rendered moot by bureaucratic delays. This may or may not turn into anything big, but it is a reminder that whatever the level of revenue the Lege has, there will be many competing interests for it. We may not have as much money as we thought we did, but we do have $9 billion in rainy day funds, plus another $3 billion that was earmarked last session for property tax cuts. We can find the money for things like this if we really want to.

Grand jury investigating Clemens

May be nothing, may be something.

A federal grand jury is investigating whether Roger Clemens lied to Congress last year, two people briefed on the matter told The Associated Press on Monday.

Both spoke on condition of anonymity because grand jury proceedings are supposed to be secret.

Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin, said in Houston this afternoon that he was not surprised by the news.

The grand jury "is a mechanism for prosecutors to investigate, to have subpoena power," Hardin said.

Congress asked the Justice Department to look into whether the seven-time Cy Young Award winner lied last February when he testified under oath at a deposition and a public House hearing that he never took illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

That contradicted the sworn testimony of his former personal trainer Brian McNamee, who said under oath that he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone.

By bringing the case to a grand jury, the Justice Department escalated the case from an FBI investigation. A grand jury allows prosecutors to get sworn testimony from witnesses and collect documents.

I don't know about you, but the lesson I take from this is that once you lawyer up, unless compelled to do so you let the lawyer do all the talking. And if compelled, you don't say anything you can be hung for later. I hope I never need to take this advice, but if I ever do, would someone please remind me of it at that time? Thanks.

Straus swears in and the Lege stands down

Boy, if you'd told me a month ago that today's opening ceremonies for the 81st Lege would be all about pomp and comity and no drama, I'd have requested a sample of whatever you were ingesting. Funny how things turn out, isn't it? We officially have a new Speaker, voted in by acclimation, and after a motion to adjourn for the day by his predecessor, which to my mind is somewhat akin to the Grinch carving the roast beast, we'll be able to get down to the serious business of naming committee chairs and deciding how long to adjourn for the Inauguration next week. Which means that everyone who blogs, reports, or tweets about this stuff will have a few quiet days. It's a beautiful thing.

Some links of interest from Day One:

Meet the newly-elected and TexBlog PAC-supported member from El Paso, Rep. Joe Moody.

Congrats to State Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer of San Antonio on the arrival of his newest constituent.

And from the great city of Fort Worth, meet State Sen. Wendy Davis.

Thank God we still have the Senate for some antics and shenanigans. Much as I enjoy tranquility, it wouldn't be the Lege if things went too smoothly. If you're a Lege fan and you're not following Dan's Secret Tweet, you should be.

Till tomorrow, y'all.

Does it look like it's raining to you?

We have the bad budget news. We also have nine billion dollars in the rainy day fund. What are we going to do about it?

[Comptroller Susan] Combs' forecast was grimmer than anticipated by some leaders, noted House Appropriations Committee Chairman Warren Chisum, R-Pampa: "It was kind of a little bit less than our worst-case scenario." He predicted lawmakers will dip into the rainy day fund to pay for "one-time expenses."

But he said, as he has before, that new ideas such as putting significant money into higher education to stem rising tuition rates "are at least on life support" because of the constricted budget. "The focus has got to be to live within that revenue estimate," Chisum said.

GOP Gov. Rick Perry generally believes the rainy day fund should be used "for one-time expenditures that don't obligate the state to ongoing costs," said spokeswoman Allison Castle.

"It (Combs' estimate) certainly was unpleasant news," said Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, Senate Finance Committee vice-chair.

Zaffirini said lawmakers have no choice but to dip into the rainy day fund: "I do believe that it's raining. Simply cutting programs is not the solution. We cannot shift the burden from the state to local governments."

Burka has more on this. It takes a 3/5ths majority in the House to authorize spending from the Rainy Day Fund, so the default action will be for the fund to go untouched. Putting aside the screaming need for Hurricane Ike relief and windstorm insurance replenishment, which I actually think are reasonably likely to qualify as "one-time expenditures" here, I'm not sure what the justification is for hoarding nine billion dollars. How much of this fund do we need, and why are we still adding to it if we don't intend to use it? It's not like the state of Texas is going to retire some day, after all.

Dick Lavine of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, which works on behalf of lower-income people, said, "The people we're concerned about rely on the state for the most basic services, like health care and education.

"We're very concerned that the state make them a priority and devote as much as necessary of the rainy day fund to make sure that people who are already going to be hurt by the recession aren't hurt further by the elimination of services."

If we're looking for suggestions on how to make cuts in state spending without screwing the poor, the sick, and the school kids again, Scott has a few thoughts.

We'll have the Treasurer to kick around awhile longer

Alas.

Harris County Treasurer Orlando Sanchez can breathe easy for at least two more years.

After county leaders made abolishing his office a top priority going into the last legislative session, it's not even on the county's platform this time.

A proposed constitutional amendment to shutter the office went nowhere in the 2007 session amid staunch opposition from county treasurers across the state, who argue the $110,000-a-year posts provide crucial, independent oversight of county activities.

Republican Commissioner Steve Radack, the main proponent of abolishing the office last session, said it would be a waste of time to try again since the plan still has little support in Austin.

"I don't have any burning desire to pursue it," Radack said. "There's other things going on that, frankly, I'm more interested in than that."

I can't say I blame him. It's not going anywhere, and the Lege has bigger things on its mind as well. The office as it exists here is a waste of time and money, but we're stuck with it for now.

Though perhaps a different occupant of that office would make it seem less like flushing money down the drain.

After Treasurer Jack Cato died in office in 2006, County Budget Officer Dick Raycraft told the court that his staff could take on most of those responsibilities, as well.

Sanchez was elected to the post later that year after Republican precinct chairs picked him to replace Cato on the ballot. He fought the effort to shutter the office, saying taxpayers deserved to have an extra pair of eyes watching over county spending. While the auditor and officials in the budget office also serve as watchdogs, they are appointed officials and are not directly accountable to the voters, he said.

Sanchez has been fairly quiet since then, issuing no reports and speaking little in public about the state of Harris County finances.

But he said that does not mean he has not been scrutinizing the county's spending.

"Let's say commissioners court has an item on the agenda for, you know, $7 million for some questionable activity," Sanchez said. "I'm not saying this would ever happen. I'm just saying if something ridiculous like that ever happened, it would be my duty to say, 'Wait a minute. This doesn't look right.' "

When asked whether he makes the same effort to ensure county contracts do not include suspicious charges, Sanchez said he does not review every contract, but has seen no problems with the ones he has examined.

"I haven't seen anything that would raise my suspicion about any activity that is questionable, and if that were to happen, I certainly would say something," he said.

I can't even parody that. I can confirm Orlando has been quiet as a church mouse - my annual search through the Chronicle archives for mentions of his name came up basically empty yet again. What the man does all day is anybody's guess. Enjoy it while it lasts, Orlando, because this is the best job you'll ever have.

National ban on phoning while driving urged

I suppose this was just a matter of time.

A national safety group is advocating a total ban on cell phone use while driving, saying the practice is clearly dangerous and leads to fatalities.

States should ban drivers from using hand-held and hands-free cell phones, and businesses should prohibit employees from using cell phones while driving on the job, the congressionally chartered National Safety Council says, taking those positions for the first time.

For what it's worth, this is already company policy where I work. I don't know if there's any kind of enforcement mechanism in general, but I imagine there'd be some consequences if you are involved in an accident on company grounds or in a company vehicle while you were talking on a cell.

The group's president and chief executive, Janet Froetscher, likened talking on cell phones to drunken driving, saying cell phone use increases the risk of a crash fourfold.

"When our friends have been drinking, we take the car keys away. It's time to take the cell phone away," Froetscher said in interview.

No state currently bans all cell phone use while driving. Six states -- California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Utah and Washington -- and the District of Columbia ban the use of hand-held cell phones behind the wheel, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Also, 17 states and the district restrict or ban cell phone use by novice drivers.

Council officials acknowledged a total ban could take years.

"Public awareness and the laws haven't caught up with what the scientists are telling us," Froetscher said. "There is no dispute that driving while talking on your cell phone, or texting while driving, is dangerous."

I can't argue with the rationale. The research is clear on this point, driving while talking or texting is dangerous. I can hear Scott Henson's voice in my head saying "Why is the solution to every social problem more cops, courts, and punishment?", however, and it's a fair question to ask. Perhaps here, a massive PR campaign is the way to go, at least during those years it will take to get a law passed. People used to believe a lot of myths about driving while intoxicated too, after all.

Supreme Court declines to hear TDP's appeal in voting machine suit

No surprise.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to revive the Texas Democratic Party's lawsuit complaining that eSlate voting machines widely used in the state don't properly record straight-party votes.

The court declined without comment to hear the case. Democrats had sued Texas and lost in lower-level federal courts.

[...]

Attorneys for the party argued that the voting machines, which are used in about 100 of the state's 254 counties, are prone to undercounting votes in general elections if someone casts a straight-ticket ballot but then marks an individual candidate's name, as if for emphasis. They said because the equipment doesn't record votes the same as other machines, use of them is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

The Texas Secretary of State's Office has said that if a voter chooses a straight-ticket option first, but then goes through and pushes buttons for individual candidates on eSlate, those candidates are deselected and a vote for them won't be cast. If a voter chooses individual candidates first, then decides to pick the straight-ticket box, all of that party's candidates are selected.

All I can say is that my experience with the eSlate machine matches the SOS description of its behavior, and that I thought it was sufficiently obvious what was happening as to meet a reasonable standard for such things. There's certainly room for the interface to be improved, and we won't get into the issue of printed receipts, which I still think would be a fine idea, but I never bought the TDP's argument in this one. A statement from TDP Chair Boyd Ritchie is beneath the fold.

Statement by Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie regarding the pending eSlate lawsuit:

"While we are disappointed the United States Supreme Court chose not to hear our case at this time, it is clear that among thousands of cases of concern, the Court is able to hear only a few. The eSlate voting system, and others that operate like it, fail to record votes in certain circumstances, and we are hopeful Texas' new Secretary of State will exercise her authority to require manufacturers to repair these faulty systems. The Texas Democratic Party will continue working vigilantly to support efforts in our State Legislature, in Congress and in our courts to ensure that all eligible Texas citizens are able to register to vote and cast a ballot that counts for the candidate of their choice."

Texas blog roundup for the week of January 12

It's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your Legislature is? If you do, you probably also know that the Texas Progressive Alliance does a weekly roundup of its blog highlights at about this time. Click on for more.

refinish69 is still having problems with connecting to Doing My Part For The Left but continues his series- Homeless in Austin-An Insider's View Part 5.

Off the Kuff enjoys a little schadefreude over the resolution of the Speaker's race.

Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News is back with another graphical map look at the election results in SR-144.

Why did the 5th Judicial Circuit give Judge Kent a vacation and a slap on the wrist while a grand jury decided several felony counts for sexual assault and obstruction of justice was more appropriate? CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants to know if the 5th Judicial Court has any shame at all.

BossKitty at TruthHugger sees our only option is to communicate with current senators, like them or not. Even though John Cornyn is Republican of questionable contribution to Texas, he sits in the position to help or hinder America's recovery. I encourage everyone to write to Cornyn and remind him he must represent ALL his constituants, regardless of party affiliation. Fill his inbox with your comments. This is my Letter to John Cornyn.

WhosPlayin was dismayed by TxSharon's discovery of apparent oil and gas waste dumping into a creek, and spent some time on the Google Earth figuring out where it was, and whether there could possibly be any legitimate excuse.

Look what TXsharon found in Wise County: The hose stretches from toxic drilling waste, downhill to the creek. On Bluedaze.

Stace at DosCentavos opines on theproblem with the anti-immigant bills that have been submitted for the 81st Lege. Some say that "Joe the Speaker" won't allow them to progress, but the hateful rhetoric will still be there.

McBlogger takes a moment this week to review one of the candidates for Austin Mayor. I'm sure it'll come as a shock that he found Brewster McCracken, well, lacking.

The Texas Cloverleaf, and the nation, reminds Obama to end DOMA, among other things that were promised.

Californians passed Proposition 8 in the last election, denying equal rights to some citizens. jobsanger reviews the court fight over Prop 8 and the legal argument for overturning it in The Fight Over Prop 8.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson takes a look at TxDOT's Transportation Promise.

Neil at Texas Liberal takes a look at the ides of casino gambling in Galveston and in Texas, and compares it to an opportunistic infection such as a staph infection.

Wondering why Tom DeLay hasn't been served justice yet? PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has the story.

Vince at Capitol Annex takes a look at the possibility that cyclist Lance Armstrong will run for public office in Texas and hopes it doesn't come to pass.

Strayhorn makes it official

She wants one of her old jobs back.

A no-holds-barred campaigner, Strayhorn will spice up an already lively mayor's race. Austin City Council Member Brewster McCracken, a high-energy and ambitious figure, began his mayoral campaign in December. Former Texas Monthly publisher Mike Levy -- who, like Strayhorn, is unafraid to speak his mind -- and Council Member Lee Leffingwell have also said they are seriously considering running.

The winner will replace Mayor Will Wynn , whose second term ends in June and who won't run again. Election day is May 9.

Strayhorn filed paperwork in November allowing her to start raising money for a mayoral bid without having to declare a candidacy.

[...]

On the campaign trail, Strayhorn can claim that, as a former comptroller, she boasts financial know-how at a time when the city faces serious budget woes, Austin political consultant Mark Littlefield said. And Strayhorn is a feisty campaigner who connects with crowds, he said.

"She will say what she believes and say it with a wit and vigor that's comparable to (former Texas governor) Ann Richards. She has a lot of skill as a messenger," Littlefield said.

But Strayhorn's previous tenure as mayor also means she risks being seen as a throwback to the past, he said.

"I'm sure she'll try to spin herself as a maverick and an independent thinker, but the other candidates can say: 'It's time to look forward instead of backward.' "

Austin political consultant David Butts , who backs Leffingwell, said Strayhorn will draw solid support from older and conservative voters. But because she's run other races as a Republican and an independent, she'll have trouble wooing the Democratic voters who dominate city elections, he said.

In the five -person governor's race in 2006 , Strayhorn won only 14 percent of the vote in Travis County.

BOR made that same observation when Strayhorn first announced her intent to run. She did slightly worse in the city of Austin, finishing behind the other three contenders. I don't know how much effect that might have on this race, but it's not particularly auspicious. They're not too impressed over there, that's for sure. Anyone else in Austin care to weigh in?

Rickey and Rice

So the Hall of Fame Class of 2009 is Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice. No Bert Blyleven, no Alan Trammel, no Tim Raines, no Mark McGwire. Twenty-six members who bothered to put at least one name on a ballot (two sent in blanks), including this genius, did not think that the all-time record holder for runs scored, one of the twenty or so greatest players ever, was worthy of enshrinement. That and Jim Rice gets in, while Raines sees his support drop. I usually keep the language pretty clean around here, but I can't think of any better way to say this: What a fucking joke.

That sound you hear is state revenues falling

Look out below!

Comptroller Susan Combs today estimated that Texas has about $9 billion less to spend - $77 billion - than it did two years ago.

Combs called her revenue estimate, which caps how much lawmakers can spend in the legislative session that begins Tuesday, "decidedly cautious."

While Texas dodged many bullets in a national economic slowdown that began just over a year ago, the Republican comptroller said the state's prosperity has cooled because of raging turmoil in financial, housing and auto markets.

"The effects of what may become the worst national recession in many decades will be too large to avoid," she said. "The state is not immune."

It gets worse.

Dick Lavine, of the Center for Public Policy Priorities says this downbeat revenue number is worse than the even-keel number many had expected.

More headlines:

--Some 111,000 non-farm Texas jobs will be lost in the first three quarters of this year.

--Legislators cannot count on the Permanent School Fund generating money traditionally counted on by schools to pay some costs. A constitutional provision keeps those transfers from happening if there's not enough interest revenue coming from the corpus. Punchline: More than $700 million will flow from that source this year; Combs says none will be available in 2010-11.

Depressed yet? Here's more.

Combs says job growth has already peaked in Texas. We're going from adding an average of more than 20K jobs a month to job losses. The housing sector has similarly slowed, with existing home sales down 16% and new home starts down 30%.

As for the state's sources of revenue, sales tax revenue is down "considerably", margins tax (in the first full year of collecting under the revised structure) came up way short, and oil and gas revenues are "much lower" -- down to $3.3 billion from $4.5 billion.

Words heard during her announcement included "down", "slowing economy", "worst national recession in decades", "cooling", and "gloomier".

"I really understand that people are worrying about the future, and that is reflected in reduced spending," Combs said. "But we are still innately optimistic in this state".

Hard to imagine why that might be the case right now. You can see the Comptroller's report in its full gory detail here. Two things to consider: One is that the eagerly awaited federal economic stimulus package will surely include some coin for Texas, which may lead to a revised estimate that bumps the revenue numbers up a bit; it seems Combs took a fairly conservative viewpoint to begin with, so at the very least we're unlikely to see a downward adjustment later. And two, this total isn't the final word regardless of whatever President-elect Obama and the Congress do, as noted in the DMN story:

Comb's estimate that lawmakers will have $77.1 billion to spend doesn't include $3 billion of surplus money that was recently transferred to pay for school property tax cuts.

And it doesn't include money in the state's self-replenishing "rainy day" fund for emergencies.

Mostly drawn from oil and gas revenues, the rainy day fund outgrew all estimates last year and this year. It will have $6.7 billion by Aug. 31. Combs foresees it growing to $9.1 billion by September 2011.

Tapping the funds requires a two-thirds vote by lawmakers in each chamber.

Remember how I wondered what the Lege might do to fund future property tax cuts in the event of a revenue downturn? I have a feeling the answer might involve the words "rainy day fund". Putting aside the question of whether or not such a thing qualifies as the kind of emergency this fund is supposed to cover, I can imagine a deal being brokered where some RD funds are released to pay for (say) Galveston relief or an expansion of CHIP in return for a set-aside in the next biennium like what we have here for more property tax cuts. It's something for everyone, and it doesn't involve raising taxes or fees. It's also crazy and irresponsible, but hey, when has that ever stopped anyone? All I'm saying is be prepared to not be surprised by whatever does happen. Burka has more.

Weingarten, neighbors settle

The battle between Weingarten and its neighbors over the changes to the new River Oaks Shopping Center has been resolved.

Weingarten's plans for a two-story Italian restaurant and wine bar, to be operated by Jeff and Tony Vallone, required encroachment on the Shepherd Drive setback. The three pertinent changes by Weingarten:

Will reduce the size of the balcony seating and enclose the seating area. That will result in a 30-inch encroachment into the area of the 25-foot setback.

Lower the restaurant's sign on the west side of the building facing Shepherd Drive

Will remove external LED lights on the west side of the building and turn off flashing security box lights inside the parking garage.

Link via Swamplot, which characterizes this as a big win for Weingarten. A comment from Stop Shepherd Noise disputes that.

The original plans included an outdoor wine bar, to be available for private parties and open until 2am, encroaching more than 11 feet into the setback - in addition to light and signage issues.

In the end, Weingarten agreed to essentially everything the neighborhood had asked for. They agreed to remove all outdoor occupiable space above the encroaching port-cochere and completely enclose the remaining wine bar, in addition to significantly dimming the lights at the top of the structure, and lowering the higher sign by approximately six feet to decrease its visibility in the surrounding neighborhood.

Neighbors supported the variance request subject to these modifications, and the Commission approved the variance subject to the modifications.

We have received a written agreement directly with Weingarten that memorializes these changes, and are awaiting an amended version that, as previously agreed, makes the changes permanent on the property in case it is sold and does not limit remedies in case the agreement is ever breached.

Glad to hear it. I've got a statement from the group, which I've reproduced beneath the fold. It's mostly the same as this comment, but it notes that the occupiable space is now ten feet further from the street, which was a big point of contention. Good for the neighbors to get what they asked for. On to the next battle.

We are glad to say that Weingarten has agreed to the changes requested by the neighborhood to mitigate their setback encroachment and resolve the other issues presented by the encroaching portion of the River Oaks Shopping Center.

At the Planning Commission hearing held on Thursday January 8, 2009 at 2:30, Weingarten presented modifications to its variance request to address the concerns of neighbors and community members. The modifications included removal of all outdoor occupiable space above the encroaching port-cochere, complete enclosure of the remaining wine bar area at the western end of the structure, significant dimming of lights at the top of the structure, and lowering the higher sign by approximately six feet to decrease its visibility in the surrounding neighborhood. As a result of these changes, the occupiable space will now end almost ten feet further from the street, and be enclosed rather than outdoor space. Neighbors supported the variance request subject to these modifications, and the Commission approved the variance subject to the modifications.

We have received a written agreement directly with Weingarten that memorializes these changes, and are awaiting an amended version that, as previously agreed, makes the changes permanent on the property in case it is sold and does not limit remedies in case the agreement is ever breached.

The Chron on the Straus effect

The Chron takes a look at what life in the House might be like under new Speaker-to-be Joe Straus.

For Texans, that means a new team of House lawmakers will lead critical committees involving everything from future college costs to hurricane relief, from new roads to prison security.

A new political playing field also will make a huge difference in what issues get the most attention from the Legislature when it convenes Tuesday.

New doors will be open for regulation of utilities and homebuilders, for environmental regulation and changes to the Windstorm Insurance Pool, according to legislative observers.

Odds for casino gambling may have improved.

And if state budget cuts are needed, they may not be as draconian as those made during a 2003 state financial crisis.

The changes come with the end of Speaker Tom Craddick's three terms of iron-handed leadership in the House. Craddick was known for handling legislation with a no-prisoners approach.

When Republicans joined with Democrats in 2005 for legislation to grant property tax relief to homeowners with expanded homestead exemptions, Craddick pressured his fellow Republicans into killing the bill instead because the measure didn't give businesses any tax breaks.

Those tactics led to Craddick's demise.

[...]

Cathie Adams, president of the conservative Texas Eagle Forum, said she fears Straus will take a Republican House and give in to Democrats because they helped boot Craddick out.

"If the Democrats chose him, he's going to have to pay back the favors," Adams said.

Rep. Edmund Kuemple, R-Seguin, one of the Republicans who helped Straus succeed, said there is no reason to believe Democrats will have extra influence over the new speaker.

"We're starting at ground zero to be inclusive," Kuemple said. "There's nothing they owe us, and there's nothing we owe them. No promises were made in any way, shape or form."

[...]

Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, said the Republican majority in 2003 not only pushed through deep budget cuts but also made changes in the Children's Health Insurance Program and in the regulation of college tuition. Those kinds of permanent changes will not be made in the House now with its near-even partisan divide, he predicted.

"Clearly, the fact we are about at a 50-50 split in the House means you have to stay away from the extreme positions in order to pass anything," Hochberg said.

I've convered some of this ground before. Clearly, the Democrats are going to have some more influence this session than they had before. That's not just a result of Craddick's ouster, it's a fact of the 76-74 partisan split. It's not 2003 any more. The Republicans can't cram legislation through any more, because they don't have the numbers. Democrats will get a more representative share of committee chairs, and everyone will get a fairer shot at preferred committee assignments, as that's one of the things Straus has promised. We won't really know what things will be like till we see what those committees look like, and then again what the calendar looks like, but I think it's safe to say we'll see a different House. Certainly, that's what the fight over the Speakership was all about.

A question that can't be avoided even at this early date is who will be Speaker in 2011? Tom Craddick won't go away, and the Democrats still hope to win those last two seats to gain a majority, which would bring calls for a Democratic Speaker with them. We may all love Joe Straus now, but a seat on the Legislative Redistricting Board ain't something to pass up. The best outcome for a second term of Speaker Straus is probably a net change of no more than one seat in either direction. So enjoy it while it lasts, Rep. Straus, because it may not last that long.

Open Letter to Artisans and Authors Regarding CPSIA

My cousin Jill, who has been working on making changes to the Consumer Protection and Safety Act (CPSIA) that will be less onerous to small businesses that make toys and children's products, points me to this open letter to artisans and authors by a local writer named Holly Jahangiri. That post points to this Publishers Weekly article, which notes the effect the CPSIA has had so far on the publishers of children's books, which are also in scope for this law. There's a lot of confusion and a high potential for unintended consequences here, so again I urge you to check out the Handmade Toy Alliance and make your voice heard. Time is running out.

Bye-bye, DRM

Like just about everyone, I'm glad to hear that Apple will be selling DRM-free music via iTunes. But I think I'm even more excited by this:

In return, Apple agreed to a long-standing demand of the music labels and said it would move away from its insistence on pricing all individual song downloads on iTunes at 99 cents. Instead, the majority of songs in the store will drop to 69 cents beginning in April, while the biggest hits and newest songs will go for $1.29. Others that are moderately popular will remain at 99 cents.

I suspect, given my tastes, I'm more likely to be downloading 69 cent music than $1.29 music, so what's left on my Christmas gift cards will stretch that much further. I'll have to decide if I also want to pay the music tax and upgrade the existing songs I have to DRM-free, but that can wait till another day. In the meantime, I'll probably just collect some ideas for downloads and wait till April to pull the trigger on them.

Weekend link dump for January 11

Blah blah blah linkposts...

48% of Americans spend at least an hour a day on the internet. The remaining 52% lie about how much time they spend on it. Via Racy Mind.

Please, in the name of all that is holy, no more Bushes for President! Even if Jeb is supposed to be "the smart one".

I'm sure someone will want to buy The Big Bopper's casket. I'm just not sure why.

Only 34 percent of Texans polled in a University of Texas survey approved of Bush's handling of the presidency, with just under 10 percent approving "strongly.'' By contrast, 55 percent disapproved, with 38.7 percent strongly disapproving. How the mighty have fallen. They're even tiring of him in Highland Park.

Obsidian Wings observes the one-year anniversary of the death of Andy Olmsted.

Is that a fence to keep people out or to keep them in?

You gotta hate it when this happens.

The US Air Force is keeping a close eye on what bloggers are saying about them, and plans to push back aggressively in comments as needed.

The Bush years, by the numbers. Now I'm all depressed.

Are we sure there isn't a Texasaurus Rex out there somewhere?

Yet another reason to look forward to the change in State House leadership.

Twittersquatting. It's always something, isn't it? Via Dwight.

No drivers license for you!

I have three things to say about this story concerning the difficulties that legal immigrants go through in Texas to get drivers license renewals thanks to a new policy put in place by the Department of Public Safety.

Three months after the policy took effect, critics are pointing to a growing list of cases involving legal immigrants who have been significantly delayed or outright rejected in their efforts to get or renew licenses, despite being authorized to live and work legally in the U.S.

"I have always maintained my legal status," [Pakistan native Adeel] Mehmood said. "It's not fair to people who want to live here and follow the law."

Under the policy change, only applicants who have documents showing they have permission to stay in the U.S. for at least six months are eligible for Texas driver's licenses.

But immigration attorneys are reporting that people who meet that criterion -- but are unable to produce documents required by the DPS to prove their legal status -- are still being turned away.

For example, Mehmood said he was rejected by the DPS after being told his letter from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services granting him asylum wasn't specifically listed on DPS's list of acceptable forms.

[...]

Supporters of the new policy, including Gov. Rick Perry, said the state is safer because of the more stringent document checks, which are designed to stop illegal immigrants from getting licenses and to combat fraud and identity theft. The agency has issued more than 15,000 "visitor" licenses to immigrants statewide since October, said Tela Mange, a DPS spokeswoman.

Allan Polunsky, chairman of the Public Safety Commission, which oversees the DPS, said the policy change was not intended to deny legal immigrants the opportunity to drive.

"If there is a problem in the process, then it should and will be addressed," Polunsky said. "We have to look at all the facts before we make any changes, but certainly we want to be fair."

D. Jackson Chaney, an immigration attorney in Irving, said the DPS did not consult any immigration lawyers or experts when it put together the rule and left out several forms of legal status that allow immigrants to stay in the country beyond six months. The list includes refugees as well as some immigrants who were granted green cards before those documents had expiration dates.

"They're being denied licenses on ridiculous grounds, frankly, because DPS simply does not know immigration law," Chaney said. "It's really a mess."

[...]

Mathias Ricken, a doctoral candidate and computer science instructor at Rice University, made four trips to the DPS office in November and December to get his temporary driver's license approved.

Ricken, who is in the U.S. on a student visa from Germany, called ahead on Nov. 19 to find out what documents he needed, but each time he went to the office, he was asked for more. He eventually got approved for the license after presenting documents including: his Texas ID card, his German passport, three different immigration forms, a Social Security card, a certificate of enrollment, a tuition receipt and a signed and stamped letter from the director of Rice's Office of International Students and Scholars.

1. The phrase I often hear when the idea of offering some form of amnesty to the undocumented immigrants that are currently in the US is that it's "not fair to those who play by the rules". All the folks in this story have played by the rules, and they're still getting screwed. How fair is that?

2. If you went down to a DPS office to renew your drivers license and were challenged by the clerk to prove your citizenship, could you do it? I guarantee that at some point, some born-in-the-USA person is going to have this happen to him or her, through some screwup or database error or whatever. Maybe when that happens, especially if said person lives in a suburb, there will be enough political cover for there to be a call for changes from elected officials.

3. Whatever Governor Perry may think, this is just security theater. It's not going to catch anyone truly nefarious - such a person will simply acquire a license through the black market. Frankly, looking at that list of papers Ricken toted with him to a DPS office, it seems to me a much more likely result of all this is a spike in thefts of these valuable pieces of paper. Needless to say, that will decrease public safety. But hey, it makes the kind of person who votes for Rick Perry feel more secure, and that's what really matters.

The bad times are coming

While most of the country has been experiencing the full brunt of the economic downturn for months, Houston has been fairly well insulated from the worst of it. That won't be so this year.

After spending most of 2008 as the nation's No. 1 net job producer, Houston's star is starting to dim. Two local economic observers predict that Houston will be losing more jobs than it's creating within a few months.

Local job growth has been slowing, said Joel Wagher, a labor market analyst for Workforce Solutions, which manages employment services, education and training for the area.

"Nothing is going on nationally or internationally that will speed up our growth," he said.

In fact, the slump in economic activity is accelerating, so it may only take six months before the Houston area begins to see a net loss of jobs, he said.

"I think the real declines will start sooner than that," said Barton Smith, director of the University of Houston's Institute for Regional Forecasting. He's betting Houston shifts to a net loss of local jobs by about April.

[...]

"It's not like all the sectors will get creamed," Smith said. "But if there are a handful of sectors shedding jobs and there are no sectors that you can count on to make up the deficit, then it's inevitable that the metropolitan area as a whole will lose jobs."

"I think 2009 will be rough," Smith said. It will probably be harder than anything Houston has experienced since the mid-1980s.

Economic stimulus package, anyone?

Gambling and Speaker Straus

I don't think the election of Rep. Joe Straus as Speaker of the House really changes the equation for the gambling industry and its hopes for an expansion of their business in Texas, but I can understand why they're feeling better about their chances these days.

Joe Straus, the San Antonio Republican who's likely to become the next House speaker, comes from a family intimately entwined in Texas horse racing -- a family that would stand to gain from legislation easing the restrictions on racetrack betting.

Since emerging over the weekend as the sole candidate to replace House Speaker Tom Craddick, Straus has promised a hands-off approach to gambling of any sort: "As speaker, I'll stay away from it ... and not allow it to be a distraction or an issue," he said this week.

Gambling supporters say they welcome Straus, but they're not yet counting their fortunes.

"I don't think we win or lose anything" with Straus at the helm, said Rep. Ismael "Kino" Flores, D-Palmview, a fierce gambling advocate who chairs the House committee that oversees gambling.

[...]

State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, said he strongly supports passing a constitutional referendum that would allow voters to decide if they support legalized gambling.

He believes the public would approve the idea, particularly if a portion of the revenue would go to cash-strapped state priorities, such as Hurricane Ike relief or higher pay for teachers and corrections officers.

If voters approved, the Legislature could in a later session settle the thorny issue of whether to allow traditional casinos or the more limited idea of slot machines in horse racing tracks, Whitmire said.

"Before you get to working out those complications, you first have to ask the people to vote on it," he said.

[...]

Gambling has faced intense opposition in Texas. Suzii Paynter, director of the Texas Christian Life Commission, an arm of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, argues that gambling is an unstable, unreliable revenue source, and takes money from people who can ill afford it.

"The last thing the state of Texas should be doing is encouraging people, in this economy, to gamble away their money," Paynter said.

I don't think the basic dynamics of the gambling issue have changed with Straus' elevation. I've been saying for a long time now that I think gambling will be on the agenda for the Lege, thanks to budgetary pressures and the effects of Hurricane Ike on Galveston. Either or both of those things may persuade the ambivalent to give in, but neither will sway dedicated opponents. And whatever might happen in the Lege, the main obstacle gambling proponents will face remains Governor Perry, who a few years seemed willing to soften his stance on the issue only to get his leash yanked by the social conservatives. Since his entire strategy for winning the Republican primary against Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2010 is to out-conservative her, you can be sure he'll do whatever he can to thwart these efforts. I can imagine a Constitutional amendment like what Sen. Whitmire mentioned being passed early enough in the session to allow time for a veto override, but beyond something like that, I'll be surprised if anything happens.

UPDATE: My bad, I forgot that joint resolutions do not require a gubernatorial signature. Thanks to Matt and David for the correction.

The sales tax slowdown

I note this in anticipation of Monday's revenue report from Comptroller Susan Combs.

The state collected $1.86 billion in sales taxes last month, a 2 percent increase from December 2007. The collections represent sales that took place in November.

While an increase, it's a smaller one than the state has been enjoying in recent years.

Sales tax collections increased 12 percent in 2006 from the previous year. The increase was 10.9 percent in 2007 and 6.6 percent in 2008.

The increase in collections for the first four months of the 2009 fiscal year, which began Sept. 1, was 3.9 percent, compared with the first four months of 2008.

Two things to keep in mind. One is that this trend is likely to continue and almost surely worsen, as retailers such as WalMart have reported below-target results lately. Retail is struggling, and that means sales tax revenues are hurting.

And two, even a slowdown in the growth of sales tax revenue, much less a decline, will have a big impact on the budget, if not in this biennium then then next one. As we know, the buydown of property taxes from $1.50 to $1.20 was paid for in large part by general revenue surplus; the larger buydown to $1.00, for which revenue was set aside in 2007, will rely on surplus funds even more (if it is to happen) given the underperformance of the business margins tax. Which leads to a question: What happens when the surplus runs out, or becomes inadequate, to fund this massive bit of government spending? Do we roll back, or at least not roll any farther forward, the property tax cuts, or do we go looking for another quarter million or so kids to throw off CHIP? Remember, the 2009 Lege is split 76-74 among the parties; in 2003, the last time we had to confront difficult budgetary choices, the Republicans had an 88-62 majority. That says to me that at least some kinds of spending cuts, like CHIP, are going to be a lot harder, if not impossible, to push through (and thank God for that). So what does happen? My guess is that the Lege closes its collective eyes and tries its best not to think about the next biennium, but maybe, just maybe, there's some momentum for pushing back on the scheduled cut from $1.20 to $1.00. Should make for some fun times on Appropriations, that's for sure.

The wind farms are running

The wind farms of South Texas are now operational.

After three years of studies, development, lawsuits and environmental problem solving, the Gulf Wind project, a $740 million wind farm on 7,851 acres of the Kenedy Ranch, is all but complete.

"This project is going to set the example for environmental stewardship," said [John Calaway, chief development officer with Babcock & Brown]. "We're delighted this whole project has come together."

Project leaders, Kenedy Foundation members and guests celebrated Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting .

Only a handful of turbines were spinning, but Calaway expects 100 of the 118 turbines to be producing electricity by the end of the month.

The other 18 turbines won't be ready until March. Parts for those turbines were at the port in Galveston during Hurricane Ike, so they were sent back to the Mitsubishi company in Japan to check for possible damage.

Each of the turbines can produce about 2.4 megawatts of power. With all 118 turbines spinning, that is enough energy to power 80,000 Texas homes annually.

There was a considerable amount of opposition to these turbines, mostly from environmentalists concerned about their effect on migratory birds. The Express News discusses that aspect of the story.

The wind farm will sport a bird radar detection system that company officials tout as the first of its kind. The system can automatically stop the blades if the potential for a mass bird kill is detected. Crews currently are running 16 windmills to test the system, but in a month all 118, each standing as high as a 40-story building, should be producing power.

[...]

The [Coastal Habitat Alliance] is petitioning the Federal Aviation Administration to require environmental studies, but it already has failed in its attempts in federal court, the Public Utility Commission and in the state's administrative court

Calaway, who described the often-bitter battle as "a pretty bloody tough situation," said Babcock & Brown has gone above and beyond to protect the environment. The windmills and the roads on the wind farm have been built to avoid the wetlands, he said. And radar crews plotted the flights of birds in the area for three years before determining that most flew far higher than the windmill blades, which reach 419 feet off the ground.

The radar and shutdown system is a precaution against the unlikely event of a weather system forcing birds down into the blades, Calaway said.

"This project is going to set the example for environmental stewardship," he said.

Killing a migrating bird is illegal, according to the international Migratory Bird Treaty Act, said Dawn Whitehead of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's Corpus Christi office. And although her office can take action if birds are killed, because the project is on private property, it can't stop the project or require environmental analysis.

Whitehead said her biologists have been to the property a "couple of times" since 2005 and have reviewed wildlife reports produced by Babcock & Brown's consultants. She also is trying to formalize an agreement to regularly review the wind farm's bird monitoring data and create an avian and bird protection plan.

"At first blush it would seem a risky project," Whitehead said. "But they really did a lot of work, so we'll just have to wait and see."

I've been a supporter of the wind farms all along, but I certainly hope that Fish and Wildlife will follow up on this and create that bird protection plan. We need to know how effective the efforts have been to minimize the impact of the turbines, and we need a commitment from the Kenedy Ranch to make adjustments if that impact is higher than expected. And if they're as good as their promises have been, then we need to learn from what they've done, because others will be following in their footsteps.

Most of the state's wind power is produced in West Texas, which generally is windier than the coast. But Calaway said the coastal wind, particularly that between Corpus Christi and the Mexican border, has the advantage of blowing in the afternoon, when the power is most needed. West Texas wind generally blows at night.

The coast also is attractive for wind farms because, unlike West Texas, there's also transmission capacity on the coast to move the power. The state has approved a $5 billion transmission project to eventually alleviate the bottleneck in West Texas.

We have a responsibility to get this right. Thanks to South Texas Chisme for the tip.

Prison reform

This is what leadership looks like.

This spring, [Sen. Jim] Webb (D-Va.) plans to introduce legislation on a long-standing passion of his: reforming the U.S. prison system. Jails teem with young black men who later struggle to rejoin society, he says. Drug addicts and the mentally ill take up cells that would be better used for violent criminals. And politicians have failed to address this costly problem for fear of being labeled "soft on crime."

[...]

"I enjoy grabbing hold of really complex issues and boiling them down in a way that they can be understood by everyone," he said. "I think you can be a law-and-order leader and still understand that the criminal justice system as we understand it today is broken, unfair, locking up the wrong people in many cases and not locking up the right person in many cases."

In speeches and in a book that devotes a chapter to prison issues, Webb describes a U.S. prison system that is deeply flawed in how it targets, punishes and releases those identified as criminals.

With 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States has imprisoned a higher percentage of its population than any other nation, according to the Pew Center on the States and other groups. Although the United States has only 5 percent of the world's population, it has 25 percent of its prison population, Webb says.

A disproportionate number of those who are incarcerated are black, Webb notes. African Americans make up 13 percent of the population, but they comprise more than half of all prison inmates, compared with one-third two decades ago. Today, Webb says, a black man without a high school diploma has a 60 percent chance of going to prison.

Webb aims much of his criticism at enforcement efforts that he says too often target low-level drug offenders and parole violators, rather than those who perpetrate violence, such as gang members. He also blames policies that strip felons of citizenship rights and can hinder their chances of finding a job after release. He says he believes society can be made safer while making the system more humane and cost-effective.

If he can do that, it would be a huge achievement and a major step forward. It would also hopefully serve as an example for Texas, where the need for equivalent reform is at least as great. And hey, with the change in the Speaker's office I can even feel a little optimistic about that.

Friday random ten: New year, new music

There's nothing like an iPod loaded with new-to-you music, which is what I've been enjoying this week. My sources are the iTunes store, Cactus Records for a few CDs, and Stereogum.com for a load of free MP3s (with thanks to Crooked Timber for the tip). Here we go:

1. Turning Japanese - The Vapors
2. You May Be Right - What Made Milwaukee Famous
3. Me and Mr. Jones - Amy Winehouse
4. Roll Over, Beethoven - The Beatles
5. Thank You, Mario, But Our Princess Is In Another Castle - The Mountain Goats and Kaki King
6. And The Girls Go - Men Without Pants
7. I Want Candy - Bow Wow Wow
8. Navigate, Navigate - These New Puritans
9. Crystal Stilts - Crystal Stilts
10. Don't Stop Believin' - Marnie Stern

I think song #5 is the longest title/artist name combination I've got. #4 is from the two-disc Beatles "Anthology" that came out awhile back. I'd gotten it as a Christmas gift from my sister Kristin way back when, and hadn't listened to it in years. Which means it's new enough for these purposes. More new music coming next week. What's on your list this week?

The state of Texas is about to execute an innocent man

Even as DNA evidence has freed numerous wrongly convicted men, mostly from Dallas but some from Houston, the official party line in Texas, from former Governor Bush to current Governor Perry, has always been that the state has never executed a provably innocent inmate. As things stand today, I believe that will change on January 27. Go read this story about Larry Swearingen and Melissa Trotter, the woman he could not have murdered, and see if you don't agree. And get enraged all over again at the corrupt, obscene travesty known as the Court of Criminal Appeals and its utter indifference to justice.

More contenders

We're a long way off from the filing deadline for the 2009 City of Houston election, and the main sport in the meantime is the game of Who Might Be Thinking About Maybe Running For Something. Various names I can recall from the 2003 cycle who were at one time or another mentioned in the same sentence as "running for Mayor" include Ned Holmes, former City Council member Joe Roach, then-HPD Chief CO Bradford, and then-Council Member Michael Berry, who actually mounted a campaign before deciding at the last minute to run for Council again. I say all that as a prelude to this Houston Politics post by Alan Bernstein in which another potential Mayoral candidate is floated.

After Benjamin Hall III left as city attorney under Houston Mayor Bob Lanier, he was replaced by Gene Locke.

Locke is expected to run in the November election for Houston mayor. And now Hall says he is strongly considering becoming a candidate for mayor, too.

In fact, Hall said he has met with Locke about the race and hashed over the idea that two succeeding city attorneys would be among the contenders to succeed Bill White.

"Pretty ironic," Hall said.

Hall said he has not seen any other potential candidate championing the issues that he would want to pursue, such as using the city's energy production know-how to develop new energy sources.

Hall was mentioned as a potential candidate in previous mayoral races, but said his serious look at the contest this time is inspired partly by Barack Obama's "change" agenda.

I don't know much about Benjamin Hall, nor do I know anything about how serious he is this time around. What I do know is that the list of potential candidates we have now will surely differ from the actual lineup we eventually get. That's just the way it goes.

Meanwhile, while there are some names being circulated for the not-yet-but-almost-sure-to-be-open At Large #1 position now held by Council Member Peter Brown, Miya Shay reports on the first potential challenger to a Council member who (barring anything bizarre) will be running for re-election.

Having recently finished up an unsuccessful bid for State Rep. District 134 race, it looks like a young politico is willing to take on another big challenge. Carlos Obando didn't pose a serious threat to State Rep. Ellen Cohen during his last foray into politics, but he's hoping for a different set of circumstances this time around.

Apparently, Obando has decided to take on At Large Council Member Jolanda Jones.

Obando wasn't a serious threat to Rep. Cohen because he lost in the primary to Joe Agris, who then proceeded to do exactly nothing for the general election. Obando, who actually had a couple of visible yard signs during the primary, would have in my opinion been a bigger threat to Cohen than Agris was just because he would have made an effort. He still would have gotten crushed, as Agris was, but at least people would have known he was running.

As for this, well, I've been saying that more Latino candidates need to run citywide. This isn't quite what I had in mind, though I note in looking at that list I put together that half of the Latinos who had run citywide since 1997 were Republicans. Given how heavily Democratic the Latino electorate is here, that's out of balance. But hey, give them credit for making the leap. I'd like to see more Latino Democrats follow that example.

Pierre claims uncounted votes in his lawsuit

Here's an update on Democratic judicial candidate J. Goodwille Pierre, who filed a lawsuit in December claiming that votes were improperly rejected in his race, which he lost by 230 tallies to incumbent Judge Joseph "Tad" Halbach.

The Harris County Clerk's Office sent [Shilonda R.] Williams a letter after the November election saying her ballot had been disqualified because there was no record of her voter registration.

But the bipartisan Early Ballot Board, formed to make final decisions on whether thousands of questioned ballots should have been counted, never got to deliver a verdict on whether Williams was missing from the registration list. The clerk's office withheld Williams' ballot from the referees because election workers apparently lost track of the electronic record of the choices she had marked on a voting machine.

Because there was no way to retrieve a record of her votes, it was uncertain Thursday whether her votes were rejected prematurely -- or counted when they should not have been.

The ballot board, chaired by Republican retired business executive Jim Harding, rejected more than 5,000 ballots cast by people who were allowed to vote on the condition that questions about their registration status would have to be resolved weeks later. Each of those voters had to fill out a "provisional ballot affidavit," swearing he or she was qualified to vote, before getting to touch a voting machine.

But more than 200 affidavits never made it through the system because there was no record of cast votes to go with them.

In some cases, people completed the affidavit without subsequently voting, according to ballot records. In others, election judges mistakenly gave provisional voters a code that allowed their votes to be recorded permanently, with no way for county workers or the ballot board to decide whether the votes should have been counted.

"My mistake -- went through as a regular vote," an election judge in northwest Houston wrote on a woman's ballot.

But in Williams' case and others, there was no ready explanation for why the clerk's office said it never received a ballot along with the affidavit.

It's clear from reading the story that there was some confusion over provisional ballots, and that some procedures might not have been followed completely. What's not clear to me is whether you can say this necessarily had an effect on the outcome. I would think the only possible remedy if you accept Pierre's arguments is a do-over. I don't see that happening, but I guess that's the judge's headache. The case is apparently now being litigated in Montgomery County, and there's no hearing date set yet. Makes me wonder if we'll have a resolution before the 2010 filing deadline. Cory has more.

A little schadenfreude before the session begins

So now that the Great Speaker Race of '09 is over even before the Legislature officially opens for business, let me take a moment to enjoy a little smug satisfaction at the fate of Tom Craddick and his most loyal sycophants. I figure I better get this out of the way now, since Straus appears to be headed for a 150-0 win, and once that happens we'll all forget what went on beforehand. Plus, Lord knows once the Lege gets down to business they'll do plenty of things I don't like. So, without further ado, here's Gardner Selby on the man himself and how he helped engineer his own downfall:

I can't shake two other numbers due to be cherished by Democrats and gnawed on by Republicans. They're also the numbers that explain why Craddick was imperiled right after November's elections and why both parties view the 2010 elections as do-or-die-pivotal for controlling the House.

They're 26 and two.

In 2003, when Craddick became the House's first Republican speaker since Reconstruction, he rode GOP wins in 2002 converting what had been a six-vote Democratic House majority into a 26-vote Republican advantage. But by the time Craddick slumped this year, the GOP's House edge had shriveled to two.

[...]

Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, who helps guide the House Democratic Campaign Committee, rates as significant the quality of Democratic candidates, among them a decorated veteran, school board members and a county judge. Vinegary issues -- such as opposition to private-school vouchers and tuition deregulation and support for children's insurance -- played well with voters, too.

"The unifying thing about our wins has been experienced and qualified Democrats running at a time when voters are fed up with what has happened in Austin and Washington," Gallego said, giving a "Democratic infrastructure that gets consistently underestimated the opportunity to capitalize."

In the end, Craddick hurt his chances of holding on in the closely divided House with his style.

Gallego said that after Democrats felt raked over by Republicans in 2003 and 2004, he spoke with Craddick on ways to calm the waters. He said Craddick replied: "I don't care," adding that Democrats were free to howl and vote as they pleased, but he expected to prevail.

That was before 26 plunged to two.

Here's Jaime Castillo on San Antonio Rep. Frank Corte, the only member from the Alamo City not on board yet with Speaker-to-be Joe Straus, and the limits of ideological rigidity:

Corte was quoted Sunday as saying he had "never looked at (Straus') record," but knew he could count on Craddick's support for issues involving "limited government, traditional family values and opposition to abortion."

The comments were in keeping with a statewide effort by social conservatives to vilify one of their own. Straus, a lifelong Republican and an appointee under two GOP presidents, was the subject of e-mails and phone calls describing him as too soft on pro-life issues and inadequately supportive of things such as private school vouchers.

Interestingly, this same brand of hard-core allegiance to a few issues is the primary reason why, after 17 years in the Legislature, Corte's effectiveness has never equaled his experience.

At a time when many lawmakers were making compromises, including state Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, a local Democrat who belatedly switched from Craddick to Straus on Sunday, Corte stubbornly chose the dogma of one wing of his party over big-tent practicality and the greater good of his community.

"We are talking about real politics, and the reality is there is a hometown boy who could be speaker and that is good for Bexar County," said Jim Lunz, a longtime local Republican activist who said Corte would be "foolish" not to team with Straus.

It would be one thing if an unyielding socially conservative agenda was growing the Republican Party, Lunz said. But Republicans have lost seats in Congress and the Legislature for several cycles running, culminating with the 2008 presidential election.

"I think one of the things November told every Republican is that we weren't popular and we better change our ways," Lunz said.

I believe there's some poll data (PDF) to that effect as well. And finally, here's Karen Brooks on Rep. Leo Berman and sore loserdom:

A lot of [Craddick supporters] have said they didn't like the Straus candidacy because it was bouyed by Democrats - a common accusation was that they "chose" him - and there were rumblings among them that they didn't want to work with him.

Personally, I find it amusing that they can claim to have a right to the speakership with no support from Democrats in a chamber in which they barely - barely - have the majority. Welcome to Wonderland, honorable ones. You want a united House? Try governing one in which one less than half of had no say in who the speaker was.

Oh, wait. That already happened.

There are also people [like] Leo Berman who were blatantly calling former Craddick Republicans liars and thugs, "there is no honor among them" (way to bring people to your side, Mr. Chairman), giving the impression that they would never come around.

They were, demonstrably, upset and heartbroken. That's understandable. They got their hats handed to them and they were not, initially, part of the decision. By all accounts - not just mine, but ALL accounts - they could have been a part of the decision had they come up with an alternative to the ABC pick before last week. They did not. Game over.

Man. If I were a smoker, I'd totally be lighting up right about now.

Oh, and since Burka brings up the question of who the great villain for the Democrats - in particular, their campaign managers - will be now that Craddick has been sidelined, the obvious answer is Rick Perry and David Dewhurst, with maybe a little Dan Patrick thrown in for the locals. Surely you don't think that defenestrating Craddick removes the last obstacle to a Democratic agenda, do you? Craddick was convenient, but he wasn't the whole story, not by a longshot.

More on the Handmade Toy Alliance

Just to follow up on my earlier post about the Handmade Toy Alliance and their efforts to modify the Consumer Protection and Safety Act (CPSIA) from last year, here's a story my cousin Jill's local paper ran about her business and participation in this group.

The crafters are asking for two concessions from the government: exemption for natural products and adoption of component testing, which would allow artisans to use certifications from their materials suppliers instead of paying for tests of each product.

"With those two things many of us can stay in business," said Chuckas.

The Handmade Toy Alliance is hoping that as the government works to implement the law, those concessions will be made.

"We fully support all government efforts to safeguard consumers and reduce their exposure to lead and other materials that could affect their health and safety," stated Chuckas. "We also acknowledge that our membership, and thousands of other similar small businesses throughout the country, have been setting and adhering to high safety standards in children's products for many years."

Go here to learn more about this effort if you'd like to help.

Republican women write letters

According to an email I was sent, the following letter was sent to Governor Perry from the Galveston Republican Women concerning the state of UTMB. It's beneath the fold for your perusal.

30 December 2008 The Honorable Rick Perry, Governor of the State of Texas P.O. Box 12428 Austin, Texas 78711

Dear Governor Perry:

Please accept this letter from the Galveston Republican Women as both an
expression of our great concern for the future of the University of Texas Medical
Branch at Galveston (UTMB) and our request that you provide the leadership
needed to reverse the decisions that were made by the University of Texas Regents.

Since 1891, this proud institution has cared for the citizens of Texas in the true
spirit of the Hippocratic Oath without regard to their social standing or wealth. It
has cared for the poor, many of whom are either under insured or uninsured
citizens of Texas. These patients were not just citizens of Galveston County, but
citizens from the Rio Grande Valley to the Louisiana and Oklahoma borders.

Unlike many other hospitals and medical schools that turn away non-paying patients,
UTMB took advantage of the medical diversity of this huge patient base and used it
to provide thousands of students, interns and residents with a first class medical
education and thus provided the state of Texas with some of the finest and best
trained doctors in the world.

On September 13, 2008, Galveston and UTMB were severely wounded by
Hurricane IKE. However, that disaster was followed by unconscionable decisions
made by the University of Texas Regents in El Paso and Austin to minimize this
viable institution. The citizens of Galveston County depend on the medical care and
economic impact of those who work, teach and learn at UTMB. Thousands of our
citizens are left without jobs at this time when at least half of those citizens have also
lost their homes.

The Regents' decisions have:

• Driven away many of our primary care physicians;


• Left UTMB medical school students, interns and residents in limbo unsure as
  to where or how they will complete their training, much less how to finance
  that training;


• Disregarded the number of senior citizens who chose to retire and now live
  here without the medical care that was one of the main reasons that they
  chose to retire on Galveston Island; their justified sense of security has been
  destroyed;


• Has left the petrochemical industry just north of us and on platforms and rigs
  in the Gulf without a Level 1 trauma center;


• Has hurt our tourist industry, for without a trauma center there is no
  immediate way to care for the inevitable injuries and accidents; and


• Has eliminated UTMB care as a choice for patients flying in from around the United States, Latin America and Canada;

In short, we believe that the decisions that have been made are wrong and need to
be reversed. Therefore, we urge you to work with the State Legislature to provide
the funds necessary to complete the restoration of UTMB, and with the Regents of
the University of Texas to restore full support of one of the most important medical
facilities in Texas before that facility is lost as both a prime medical education
center and the economic mainstay of both the City and the County of Galveston.

Do not forget that UTMB at Galveston has been - and IS - an extremely valuable
resource to the State of Texas.

We need your leadership to coordinate the participation of office holders, both
Republican and Democrat, to work with UTMB at Galveston as it strives to survive
both Hurricane IKE and the Regents' decisions concerning UTMB's future.

Sally H. Prill (Mrs. George C. Prill)
President, Galveston Republican Women

CC Dr. David Callendar, President, UTMB, Galveston
The Regents, University of Texas
The Honorable Lydia Ann Thomas, Mayor of the City of Galveston
The Honorable Jim Yarborough, County . Galveston Commissioners Court
The Honorable Mike Jackson, Texas State Senator, SD 11
The Honorable Joan Huffman, Texas Senator-Elect, SD 17
The Honorable Craig Eiland, Texas State Representative, District 23
The Honorable Larry Taylor, Texas State Representative, District 24
The Honorable John Cornyn, U.S. Senator
The Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchinson, U.S. Senator
The Honorable Ron Paul, U.S. Representative, District 14
The Honorable Peter Olson, U.S. Representative-Elect, District 22
The Galveston County Daily News

Utah AG wants to sue BCS

I suppose this was just a matter of time.

Utah's attorney general is investigating the Bowl Championship Series for a possible violation of federal antitrust laws after an undefeated Utes team was left out of the national title game for the second time in five years.

Attorney General Mark Shurtleff contends the BCS unfairly puts schools like Utah, which is a member of a conference without an automatic bid to the lucrative bowl games, at a competitive and financial disadvantage.

"We've established that from the very first day, from the very first kickoff in the college season, more than half of the schools are put on an unlevel playing field," Shurtleff said Tuesday. "They will never be allowed to play for a national championship."

I guess the question I have is if we've known it all along, why wait till now? Maybe President-elect Obama will follow through on his wish to do something about it. Who knows, it might even make him competitive in Utah in 2012.

Where the business margins tax money came from

I'm sure this will spark a lot of debate.

At a time when the oil and gas industry was reaping record profits, producers got a break under Texas' new business tax, according to a draft report from a state advisory committee.

Oil and gas producers paid nearly $411 million last year under the new business tax, down from nearly $489 million in 2007. The industry also separately pays state levies including severance taxes, which skyrocketed with 2008's higher oil prices.

Most other industries ended up paying more last year than in 2007 under the business-tax expansion, according to a draft of the Business Tax Advisory Committee's report to the Legislature due to be released within days.

[...]

The receipts studied for the report, which were not complete, yielded $1.36 billion more to the state than the $2.97 billion collected under the old tax in 2007. But last year's collections were more than $1 billion smaller than projected.

Of 27 business categories listed in the report, the only sectors that paid a smaller dollar amount under the new tax were oil and gas, agriculture, wholesale trade and rail transportation.

The remainder paid more. Among the largest percentage increases were those in the telecommunications industry, whose tab rose 298.3 percent from $24.5 million to $97.6 million.

The figures compiled by the State Comptroller's Office also indicated that despite reports from small business owners that they were hammered by the new tax, they weren't hit harder than others.

More than 85 percent of the new tax is paid by firms with more than $10 million in gross receipts, compared to more than 81 percent under the previous tax, according to the report.

That's one way of looking at it. Another is to say that since $3 billion was collected under the old tax and $4.7 was collected under the new tax, then it broke down as follows:

Old Tax

Firms with over $10 million in gross receipts paid $2.43 billion
Firms with under $10 million in gross receipts paid $0.57 billion

New Tax

Firms with over $10 million in gross receipts paid $3.995 billion
Firms with under $10 million in gross receipts paid $0.75 billion

So the share declined but the absolute amount went up. Whether you consider the ratio of the burden to be fair or not for smaller businesses, the reason for their complaints should be clear.

Of course, who's paying how much for this tax is only part of the equation. Remember, even though the Business Margins Tax does collect more money than the generally ineffective franchise tax used to, its job was to help pay for the massive property tax cuts that the Legislature passed in the 2006 special session. Here's what the Legislative Study Group said about HB2 from the 2007 legislative session, the bill that allocated the money for the property tax reduction, which I blogged about at the time:

HB 2 is bad public policy because it uses money for other state priorities to pay for an under funded tax cut. An inadequate amount of revenue has been raised by the tax package that was passed during the 3rd Called Special Session of the 79th Legislature. Only $8.1 billion is available in the property tax fund to pay for the $14.2 billion needed to buy down local school maintenance-and-operations (M&O) tax rates from $1.50 per $100 of property valuation to $1.00.

HB 2 spends $6.1 billion in current General Revenue to make up the amount lacking on tax cuts before the Legislature has the opportunity to review and debate the state budget. According to estimates from the Center for Public Policy Priorities, the $8.1 billion in the Property Tax Relief Fund would only buy down property taxes to $1.20 for the coming biennium instead of $1.00.

To fund the property tax cuts for 2008, HB 2 spends $4,231,466,000 from the Property Tax Relief Fund and an additional $2,724,934,000 from General Revenue. For 2009, HB 2 spends $3,846,492,000 from the Property Tax Relief Fund and $3,846,492,000 from General Revenue.

We were expecting $5.9 billion from the margins tax, some of which was for the property tax cuts and some of which was for general revenue; we got $4.7 billion. The rest was paid for by surplus funds from the last biennium. Thanks to the demands of reconstruction and insurance due to Hurricane Ike, as well as the general downturn in the economy, we shouldn't expect much of a surplus this time around. Yet the idea was to make the property tax cuts even deeper in this biennium. Something has to give.

Can this city be saved?

Galveston really needs help.

Officials pleaded with a state legislative panel today for sales tax rebates, emergency loans and other steps to keep this island city functioning as it struggles to rebuild after Hurricane Ike.

Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas and City Manager Steve LeBlanc asked that the Legislature refund all or part of the state's 6.25 percent share of the 8.25 percent sales tax for two years to help the city provide basic services. LeBlanc also asked that the state put some money into its disaster recovery fund so that Galveston and other storm-stricken communities could apply for loans.

State Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, who chairs the House Select Committee on Hurricane Ike, said the Legislature created the fund but never appropriated any money for it.

Almost four months after Ike made landfall, LeBlanc said, cash flow is Galveston's most pressing need. Layoffs of city employees are imminent, he said, even after the city has slashed spending and cut employee pay by 3 percent.

"I'm getting to the point of being, in a sense, desperate for help," LeBlanc said, citing sharp reductions in sales and property taxes and other revenue sources. "It's becoming very difficult to serve our citizens."

I don't know what there is to say to this. Either you believe the city of Galveston is worth saving, or you don't. Either you believe that this kind of last-chance safety net is a viable and necessary function of government, or you don't. Either you think this is something we need to spend money on, or you don't. If you fall into the latter camp, I truly don't know what to say to you.

And the same goes for UTMB and the UT Board of Regents, which seems hellbent on doing its part to make Galveston non-viable.

Galveston itself had become economically dependent on UTMB. On the eve of Hurricane Ike's arrival, the city's population was more than 57,000 people; UTMB employed around 12,500. With so much at stake, the enmity between the residents of Galveston (an eccentric lot in the best circumstances) and the regents in Austin (a little insensitive in the best circumstances) flourished predictably. Once UTMB president David L. Callender and UT System interim chancellor Kenneth I. Shine started initiating changes that heralded program cuts and layoffs, the long-standing rumor that UT wanted a medical center in Austin--and might kill UTMB to get it--spread across the Island with, well, hurricane force.

Then the real hurricane hit.

[...]

[I]n a closed meeting of questionable legality held in El Paso on November 12, the regents drew a line in the sand: To staunch the bleeding, the university would lay off up to 3,800 UTMB employees, everyone from clerks to world-class surgeons. (As this article went to press, a lawsuit was being filed on behalf of the Texas Faculty Association alleging that the regents had violated the Texas Open Meetings Act.) A reserve fund would be used to pay staff salaries, but that money would run out by April or May if the remaining 10,000 employees remained on the payroll. Promises of dubious value followed: Yes, John Sealy Hospital would reopen, the UTMB administrators announced--but in a scaled-down state, with 200 beds instead of the 550 available before the storm. The trauma center would also reopen--but only for emergency medical services. Care for the indigent and the uninsured would be restored--eventually. The regents publicly declared support for UTMB, but to many in Galveston, and to Senator [Steve] Ogden, this plan looked suspicious at best. "UT is using the hurricane as an excuse to do what they've wanted to do for a long time, which is to reduce their presence in Galveston and go somewhere else," he says.

The choice is ours. Do we value it, or do we kill it? There's no middle ground.

Thor goes pro

He will be missed.

Rice sophomore utility back James Casey, who famously manned seven positions in one game as a freshman, announced Monday that he'll forgo his final two seasons of eligibility and enter the NFL Draft.

Casey, 24, signed with Rice in January 2007 after spending four seasons playing professional baseball. He was a seventh-round selection of the Chicago White Sox out of Azle High School in 2003, but retired in 2006 and shopped around for a program where he could revive his football career. Casey joined the Owls as a free safety but spent his first spring practices working at defensive end before later shifting to offense.

"It's really just speculation, but I've heard anywhere from like the second to fourth round," Casey said of his draft stock. "I didn't really put too much weight on that because I am an underclassmen and a lot of stuff goes into the draft as far as the combine. Just being older, I'm excited about it and ready to get started.

"Some teams might see me as a tight end or an H-back, but that's just each individual team. Some of them might have in mind what they might like, but that's out of my control so I'm going to keep working hard."

Rice coach David Bailiff utilized Casey in multiple roles in 2007, going so far as to play him at seven different positions against Southern Miss. As the season progressed, it became obvious that Casey had promise as a receiver, and he finished the year posting 46 receptions for 585 yards and four touchdowns.

Casey (6-4, 235) also played quarterback in short-yardage situations, a role he reprised as a sophomore. However, Casey made his greatest contributions as a hybrid tight end, setting a Conference USA single-season record for receptions (111) while also breaking the school mark for receiving yards with 1,329. Casey posted 13 touchdown receptions, rushed for six touchdowns, and passed for two additional scores.

"He is the greatest player I've ever been around because of what he can do at so many positions offensively (and) what he did for us a year ago defensively," Bailiff said of Casey. "Then to go pick up a javelin and score points for the track team, he looked like that guy in 300. He's the most amazing all-around athlete, but he's a true student-athlete too. When you see what he does in the classroom, he is the total package."

I feel confident I speak for the vast majority of Rice fans when I say that while I wish we'd get Casey back next year, I wish him nothing but the best in the NFL. He's already done great things for the Owls, and I suspect we'll hear of many more. Thanks for all you've done, Thor. Now go get 'em in the pros.

Quit stealing my recyclables!

So a few months ago, I noticed that when I put recyclables out to the curb on Sunday night, the bags with paper - mostly newspaper, but with other stuff as well - would be gone by Monday morning, before the trucks arrived. I further noticed, and subsequently confirmed with a neighbor, that I wasn't the only one to whom this was happening. So, being slightly paranoid even though we routinely shred anything that has identifying information on it, I made it my habit to put the non-paper out on Sunday night, and the paper on Monday morning before I go to work.

Which is what I did this Monday. And then, while herding the girls out the door to go to school and work, I saw a gray pickup truck stop in front of my driveway, and an older guy in what looked like a vintage yellow Houston Rockets "Clutch City" t-shirt get out and start to pick up the bags with paper in them from my bin. What the hell?

I stepped out the back door and said to him "Excuse me, what are you doing?" He made some lame excuse about needing the paper for his nephew, said he wouldn't take the paper if I didn't want him to, and drove off. Sadly, I didn't get his license plate number.

Anyway, Tiffany wound up calling the city's 311 line to complain about this, and was transferred to the HPD non-emergency line; an officer came by awhile later, and explained this wasn't a crime. Which we already knew - we just wanted to let the city know this was happening, since presumably it would affect its ability to make money off of recyclables if some "entrepreneurs" were getting to them first.

I have no idea what this guy was up to. The market for scrap paper isn't exactly robust right now - if he'd been lifting the aluminum cans, I'd have understood. The most likely explanation would seem to be that he was fishing for identities for some kind of scam or another. Which at least justified my paranoia, however annoying it may be that his actual action wasn't illegal. We may wind up dealing with the paper recyclables separately as a result of this. Like I say, we do shred, but why take a chance? Regardless, I thought I'd put this out there as a warning to folks in my neighborhood, and to anyone else who might be interested. Has this ever happened to you? Let me know.

From the "Two wrongs don't make a right" department

I appreciate that Jerome Solomon is willing to call the BCS "championship" game tonight the sham that it is, but unilaterally declaring some other team to be #1, in this case Utah based on their undefeated record, isn't the answer. (Rick Reilly wants to do the same thing.) The problem isn't that tonight's game won't pick a viable top team - surely both Florida and Oklahoma would always be in the conversation - the problem is that the process for deciding who gets to play for it is too limited. That's why so many people keep harping on the playoff idea - it's the only way to ensure that all the teams who might have a legitimate claim on the crown get a shot at it. Let them settle it on the field instead of making a subjective determination - and yes, the computer ranking are subjective; some human designed them, after all. That certainly doesn't guarantee that the best team will win, but it at least guarantees that we will all agree about who the champion is afterward. I know, I know, there's nothing new about any of this, and the argument is beyond tiresome these days. But given what a boondoggle the bowl system is, and what a travesty the voting system is, how can you not keep bringing it up?

Garcia talks recruitment again

New Sheriff Adrian Garcia echoes a theme he sounded at his swearing-in about hiring more deputies to increase patrols.

Garcia promised to put more "boots on the ground" in his inaugural address Sunday, saying about 800 deputies now patrol an area that would be the seventh-largest U.S. city.

The county's new top lawman declined to specify how many more deputies he believes the department needs and how they would be used, saying in an interview this week that he and his top aides still are assessing the staffing.

He said his first priority will be filling about 60 vacant positions in the patrol division, and he promised to personally recruit as many new deputies as he could.

"I will do everything possible every day to attract people to this department," said Garcia, a Democratic former Houston police officer and city councilman who soundly defeated 14-year incumbent Republican Tommy Thomas in November.

In this economy, it should be a little easier to do that. There ought to be more people looking for work, which will help to overcome some of the issues of competition from other law enforcement agencies, prisons, and the military. The downturn is an opportunity for all of those entities to relieve their staffing shortages. It's also an opportunity for those who have somewhat different motives.

Commissioner Steve Radack said the economic slump may help the county lure new recruits without spending more money on salaries or benefits.

"There's some tough times ahead, so let's not just say, 'OK, we're increasing pay here; we're increasing pay there,' " Radack said.

He said Garcia should fill all the positions he has before asking the court for more employees.

Never turn down a chance to put the squeeze on salaries, I guess. While there will surely be a larger pool of applicants for the Sheriff's Department from which to choose, let's not lose sight of the fact that they won't be the only such agencies hiring. HPD, for one, is pretty busy recruiting as well. Don't get too cheap or you may miss out.

Garcia said he would like to move some or all of the 425 deputies assigned to the jail to patrol jobs, but they would have to be replaced by civilian jailers.

The Sheriff's Department historically has struggled to find people willing to take that job, though nearly all of the approximately 630 civilian positions in the jail currently are filled.

Getting deputies out of jail duty would be a big step forward in getting more "boots on the ground". Having a need for fewer guards would help, and would also go towards assuaging Commissioner Radack's budgetary concerns. Nice how it all works out, isn't it?

The Speakership and redistricting

Professor Murray takes a look at the legislative redistricting of 2001, which was directed by Tom DeLay with the express purpose of electing Tom Craddick Speaker and ultimately drawing Congressional lines as he saw fit, and why that same map ultimately helped lead to Craddick's downfall.

Craddick lost his job and power, in my opinion, because the 2001 DeLay redistricting plan, which he signed off on, turned out to be badly flawed over the next seven years. While the original plan delivered in the 2002 General Election, it worked less and less well in every succeeding cycle so that by November 4, 2008 the Republicans had been whittled down to a 76 - 74 majority, and that 76th GOP member prevailed by just 19 votes out of about 40,000 total votes in Dallas County district. In my view, it was the steady erosion of the Republican majority that gave enough members the gumption to stand up against a powerful speaker known for his vindictiveness.

Where did the 2001 House Republican plan fail? The answer is: in the big urban counties of Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, and Travis. In the 2002 General Election, Republicans won 38 of the 67 House districts in these five counties. In November 2008 the GOP held on to just 25 of these seats while the Democrats won 42 - a 13 seat swing that accounts for all Democratic gains since 2002. The table below shows the county-by-county changes.

        Partisan Makeup After 2002    Partisan Makeup After 2008

County     Republicans Democrats         Republicans  Democrats

Harris              14        11                  11         14

Dallas              10         6                   6         10

Bexar                3         7                   2          8

Tarrant              8         2                   6          4

Travis               3         3                   0          6

Total               38        29                  25         42

Why did the House gerrymander fail? For two reasons. First, the DeLay map-drawers overestimated Republican strength in these urban counties by relying on recent statewide election results from 1998 and 2000 that had been unusually favorable to their party's nominees because of weak Democratic opponents like gubernatorial candidate Gary Mauro, matched up against popular Governor George W. Bush. But more importantly, the map-drawers did not foresee how quickly the demographics in urban districts could change to the detriment of Republican representatives.

This analysis makes me think that the Dems start out in better shape for the 2011 redistricting than I'd originally thought. One thing to note is that with the exception of last year, when there was generally very little variation between candidates on the ballot in Harris County, our countywide candidates have generally outperformed statewides. In 2006, for example, the average statewide Democratic candidate did about three points worse than the average countywide Democratic candidate. The effect is exaggerated by the fact that in the four top non-gubernatorial races - Senate, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, and Comptroller - the gap was even wider. My impression is that the same is true elsewhere - it was certainly so in 2004 and 2006 in the places I looked - and it won't surprise me if the same is true in 2010, especially if the Dems have an uninspiring top of the ticket. (Gotta find your silver linings where you can, I guess.) In other words, the possibility for some similar overreach in 2011 is there, though my guess is that the underlying philosophy will be more "incumbent protection" and less "partisan maximization". The point is simply that any legislative boundaries that are drawn based on partisan performances in races like those will overestimate Republican strength.

The other thing to note is that the Dems have added two more seats to these, one in El Paso (Joe Moody in HD78) and one in Williamson County (Diana Maldonado in HD52). They've lost three, all in rural areas, to bring the net total to +12 for them - HDs 18 (John Otto over Dan Ellis, mostly Liberty and Polk counties) and 56 (Doc Anderson over John Mabry in McLennan County) in 2004, and HD17 (Tim Kleinschmidt over Donnie Dippel for Robbie Cook's open seat) last year. The thing is, there's still a number of Republicans in urban and inner-suburban areas who are going to be imperiled in the short to medium term, and only a handful of Dems remaining in rural areas. I'll take those odds.

Schecter for Council?

The 2009 Election Speculation Season is officially in full swing.

Former Harris County Democratic Party Chief Sue Schechter confirmed Tuesday night (Jan. 6) that she is considering a run for Houston's At-Large Position 1 City Council seat this year.

The seat has been held for two terms by Peter Brown, who has had a support committee operating for a year to raise money and garner endorsements in a possible bid to become Houston's mayor.

"We don't even know if Peter Brown is going to run," said Schechter, "so it's not clear whether there's even a seat available."

I think we're pretty sure. Peter Brown wants to be Mayor. I don't see him deviating from that path.

Schechter is an attorney by profession and served as state representative in southwest Houston's District 134 for two terms, 1991-'95, before stepping down and taking on the party chair position.

More recently, she managed Democrat Rick Noriega's U.S. Senate primary campaign and briefly served as interim president of the Greater Southwest Houston Chamber of Commerce. She left that position when Hurricane Ike dealt serious damage both to the Chamber office and to her home in the Hermann Park/Medical Center area.

The residence is repaired now, and she said she's been "looking for the right challenge."

I like Sue. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who knows her who doesn't like her. I think she'd do a fine job on City Council and I hope that she does decide to make a run for it.

Skilling to get a new sentence

Some good news, but mostly not-so-good news for Jeff Skilling.

An appeals court today upheld former Enron Chief Executive Jeff Skilling's 19 federal felony convictions, but ordered a trial court to resentence him.

The three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans sided with the government, ruling that a theory of guilt that backfired in other Enron cases didn't taint Skilling's convictions. But the court said U.S. District Judge Sim Lake improperly boosted part of Skilling's 24-year punishment under federal sentencing guidelines.

Without the specific sentence enhancement deemed improper by the panel, Skilling would face a sentence ranging from more than 15 years to more than 19 -- a reduction anywhere from five years to nearly a decade, said Brian Wice, a Houston attorney and expert in appeals.

Daniel Petrocelli, Skilling's attorney, said today they will continue to fight, whether it starts with a request that the entire 5th Circuit hear the case or an appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"There are more battles to fight and we will fight them," he said.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich, said the Justice Department is "gratified" by the decision.

"Today's ruling is a victory for all those harmed by Jeff Skilling and his co-conspirators," Friedrich said. "Skilling was an architect of the crimes that caused Enron's collapse, the fallout of which is still being felt today."

Petrocelli said Skilling, who is imprisoned in suburban Denver, was disappointed, but committed to fighting on.

"This is a big setback," Petrocelli said. "He had his hopes pinned on winning this appeal, and we just have to fight in a different venue."

Would that include asking for a pardon? Time's running out on that front, I would imagine.

I don't really have an opinion on this one way or the other. I think Skilling was convicted fair and square, and I don't have much sympathy for him. Loren Steffy has more, while Tom has a contrary view.

Washington Quiet Zone

Though I'm sorry to see the Heights Village project go under, I've often wondered about the spate of construction close to - in some cases, right next to - the freight train line that parallels Washington Avenue and Center Street. I live a mile and a half away from the tracks, and I can hear the train whistles from inside my house, so I can only imagine what it must be like for those who have this in their back yards. (I didn't blog about it, but I commented on it in a couple of photos I took of one such residential development in 2007.)

As the area has gotten denser and more populated, the issue has gotten a higher profile. A coalition of neighborhood associations and activists have been pushing for the Washington corridor to be designated as a quiet zone, which would forbid the trains from sounding their whistles in that area. This article from the Houston Association of Realtors has a good discussion of what quiet zones are all about. They've got a website, WashingtonQuietZone.com, to support their efforts. If you care about this issue and want to help, check it out and see what you can do to help. I wish these folks good luck with this.

RIP, TTC

Boy howdy is this way overdue.

In response to public outcry, the ambitious proposal to create the Trans-Texas Corridor network has been dropped and will be replaced with a plan to carry out road projects at an incremental, modest pace, a state transportation official announced today.

"The Trans-Texas Corridor, as it is known, no longer exists," said Amadeo Saenz Jr., executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, at the agency's annual forum in Austin.

The state, he said, will carry forward with modifications to proposed projects and will rely heavily upon input from Texans through more town hall meetings and an updated Web site.

He also made clear that, should toll lanes be added to various roads, tolls will be assessed only on those, and not existing lanes.

The renewed effort now will operate under the name "Innovative Connectivity Plan."

The decision won applause from a number of officials and watchdog organizations. David Stall of the citizens' group Corridor Watch called it a major victory for Texans.

"We're real pleased that a project once described as unstoppable has now screeched to a halt," he said.

I guess you can't piss off all of the people all of the time after all. I don't see any quotes from Cintra or Zachry, the two private firms that were most heavily involved in the TTC as it was, but I have to think that the current financial crisis had something to do with this as well. They were going to pony up a large amount of cash at the front end for their long-term ownership of these roads, and I'm guessing they're not as well-positioned for that as they used to be. I suspect we'll hear more about that another time.

In the meantime, this all sounds good. Rather than sell off these assets in what was sure to be a boondoggle, the state is quite rightly going to focus more on specific and local needs, which I hope has a chance to be more urban-centric than rural and exurban, as the TTC was designed to be. And perhaps with the specter of that privately owned monolith out of the way, more routine toll-road or toll-lane projects will be less controversial.

[Governor Rick] Perry, who is visiting troops in Iraq, said today that the name Trans-Texas Corridor is dead, but that the state will still look at public/private partnerships to build roads, including toll roads.

"The name Trans Texas Corridor is over with. We're going to continue to build roads in the state of Texas," Perry said.

"Our options are relatively limited due to Washington's ineffectiveness from the standpoint of being able to deliver dollars or the Legislature to raise the gas tax," he said. "So we have to look at some other options."

I suppose someone might point out to our Governor that there's been a Republican President in office for the entirity of his term in Austin, and that for the vast majority of that time there's also been a Republican majority in both houses of Congress. As such, one might wonder who exactly he's trying to blame for that "Washington ineffectiveness". But of course, that really isn't a mystery - indeed, the only enigma is why he's being so subtle about it. This is a slam on Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison; what else could it be? Pretty much everything Perry says between now and March of 2010 needs to be considered in that light.

As for the Lege and its apparent ineffectiveness in raising the gas tax, who knew Governor Perry favored that approach? Quick, please, someone get him on the record about that.

Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Chairman John Carona said the announcement "should be of great relief to literally thousands of Texans we heard from who were opposed to the Trans-Texas Corridor as first envisioned."

It also removes a distraction for the Legislature, which will convene on Jan. 13.

"We can now focus on the real issue, which is additional road capacity and the means to finance the same," said Carona, R-Dallas.

He said his goals are to win passage of a proposed constitutional amendment that would, if approved by voters, dedicate all of the motor fuels tax to highway funding.

Additionally, he said, the Legislature should pass a bill that ties the gas tax to inflation.

"Operating off a 1991 motor fuels tax makes funding our transportation needs impossible," he said.

Carona said raising the gas tax will be politically difficult.

"I try to remind people, we're not just talking about the inconvenience of congestion," he said. "Insufficient road capacity affects the quality of life and economic development. It also effects air quality."

Well hey, having Governor Perry on board with it ought to make it a lot easier. But if we're going to change how gas tax revenues are allocated, let's keep two things in mind. One, 25% of gas tax revenues now go towards public education. Those monies would have to be made up elsewhere under this scenario. And two, I'd prefer to see gas tax revenues be dedicated more broadly to transportation projects, not just highway construction. Let's think about 21st century solutions, not 20th century ones. This is a good start, but it's not quite good enough yet.

UPDATE: Lots of people - Vince, EOW, BOR - think this is more cosmetic than anything else. Boy, where's Sal Costello when you really need him?

Saavedra backs off magnet transportation plan

Glad to hear it.

Houston ISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra has temporarily withdrawn a proposal to cut spending on busing to the district's beloved magnet schools after failing to get enough support from parents and school trustees.

Saavedra said Monday he would bring a final transportation plan to the school board in the spring, rather than next week as he had intended. The delay, he said, will allow time to look at the magnet program more comprehensively -- reviewing the unequal funding among the schools, the lack of academic standards and inefficient bus routes.

Criticism immediately followed Saavedra's announcement in early November that he wanted to limit transportation to the specialty schools, perhaps by moving bus stops farther from students' homes. During several recent community meetings, parents complained that the proposed changes would trap students in neighborhood schools they don't want to attend.

"We heard over and over, 'You've got to slow things down,' " Saavedra said. "At this point I agree with that. That's what we'll do."

Had Saavedra asked the board to approve a final transportation plan this month, he likely would have lost the vote.

Nothing like the specter of ignominy to alter one's perspective on things. Like I said before, I can see what Superintendent Saavedra is getting at, and there's some merit to it. But a little consensus and stakeholder involvement goes a long way, you know? You'd think that message might have been received by now, but apparently some lessons need to be revisited. In any event, perhaps now that we have a different Speaker in the House, we might be able to improve funding for HISD to the point where this sort of marginal cost-cutting isn't seen as necessary. The School Zone blog has more.

By the way, Saavedra may have back off, but he isn't backing down from a larger discussion of the HISD magnet program. Which means there'll be more drama and controversy on the horizon. Not that this is a bad thing, if the conversation is substantive and productive. Let's just hope this time everyone who feels they have a stake in the outcome also feels like they're being involved in that discussion.

No Heights Village

Missed this last week.

[Bobby Orr] was planning a mixed-use project on Heights Boulevard, but his prospective residential partner couldn't get financing.

Now he's put the 5-acre tract on the market.

"The timing wasn't right," he said.

That project, called Heights Village, was just north of the train tracks at Center Street, between Heights and Yale, just south of I-10. I was just driving by there the other day and was wondering what its status was; now I know. John wrote about it a year ago when it first appeared on the radar; Swamplot reminds us what it was about. I think John had the right take - it was a nice sounding idea that could have been something better. But alas, now it's nothing again. Maybe whoever buys the lot will have more luck.

Harris County GOP turns to the Internet

Well, good luck with that. You know, I recently came across an article that talked about how for all of the technical prowess of the Obama campaign, they never lost sight of the fact that it was all about enabling personal contact between supporters and those they hoped to persuade. I can't remember where it was, so I'll leave it as an exercise for Jared Woodfill and his student surfers to Google out. Oh, and if I may offer one more piece of advice: watch out for those Ron Paul supporters. They're tricky.

The Handmade Toy Alliance

My cousin Jill runs a small business that makes baby toys and accessories - she sent us a handmade bib and diaper-change pad that we got a lot of use out of when Olivia was born. Recently, she's been active in a group called the Handmade Toy Alliance, which was formed in response to HR 4040, a bill passed by Congress last year after all those reports of Chinese-made toys that contained lead. The bill itself is fine and addresses a real need, but the language has been interpreted by the Consumper Products Safety Commission to require all toy and baby-product manufacturers, including small crafts shops like Jill's, to perform third-party testing in regards to lead and phthalate levels for each batch of each product they create and label or mark the product accordingly. That's a big burden on small businesses, and the HTA has been asking for a clarification that removes this burden on them. From an email she sent out to family members:

The group I have joined, www.handmadetoyalliance.org, is proving to be a great alliance. I have taken an active role in the organization, helping to draft a letter to the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission), expressing our view to allow alternate means of certification for mine and others product lines. Other letters were also written in support of various petitions and groups. A press release was put out to share our groups' views with all. I am listed as one contact on the press release.

[...]

On change.org, our proposal was passed through to the second round of voting. This is HUGE and was a place that all of you were extremely helpful when you cast your vote. The top ten issues will be presented to President Obama as a call to action for the very beginning of his presidency. The second round of voting begins today, Monday, January 5, 2009, and goes for 10 days. Please vote again at this link:

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/save_handmade_toys_from_the_cpsia

I am attaching our press release to this letter. If you have any press contacts or are so inclined to submit it to your home town's paper as an area of interest for you, please, I urge you to do so. The more press we get on this, the better position we will be to push our legislators to make a change in the way the law is implemented. You can also refer to this article in this link for further reference for the press.

If you are so inclined, write your Congress people. Tell them that the CPSIA has "unintended consequences" for small business owners of children's products throughout the USA and that you are urging them to consider a "technical amendment" in support of the Handmade Toy Alliance's recommendations to the CPSC. Feel free to list my name as a contact and do list the web-site (www.handmadetoyalliance.org). If you would like any other supporting documentation to go with your letter, just let me know. Be sure to use the key phrases that I have listed in quotations. Remember, even if you don't buy products for children under age 12, this issue does affect you through your taxes. Schools, too, will be forced to prove that everything that comes in contact with children under age 12 have been tested and certified.

I've reproduced the press release beneath the fold. Any assistance you may be able to give on this is greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: Today's Chron has a story related to this effort, focusing on children's resale stores.

"We will have to lock our doors and file for bankruptcy," said Shauna Sloan, founder of the Salt Lake City-based Kid to Kid Franchise, which sells used children's clothing in 75 stores across the country.

There is the possibility of a partial reprieve. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is responsible for enforcing the law, will consider exempting clothing and toys made of natural materials such as wool or wood.

But exempting natural materials does not go far enough, said Stephen Lamar, executive vice president of the American Apparel and Footwear Association.

Clothes made of cotton but containing dyes or noncotton yarn, for example, still might have to be tested, as would clothes that are cotton-polyester blends, he said.

Clothing and thrift trade groups say the law is flawed because it was rammed through Congress too quickly. By deeming that any product not tested for lead content by Feb. 10 be considered hazardous waste, they contend, stores will have to tell customers that clothing they were allowed to sell Feb. 9 became banned substances overnight.

These groups say the law should be changed so that it applies to products manufactured after Feb. 10, not sold after that date.

That would require action by Congress, however, because the Consumer Product Safety Commission's general counsel has determined that the law applies retroactively, commission spokesman Scott Wolfson said.

Seems like critical mass has been reached on this, and the justifications for the desired changes are clear and compelling. Let's hope Congress and the CPSC do the right thing. But don't count on it - make your voice heard and see to it that they do. Thanks.

Boston, MA, January 2nd 2009--Today the Handmade Toy Alliance (HTA) announced their endorsement of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) petition to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The HTA is a grassroots alliance of 139 toy stores, toymakers and children's product manufacturers from across the country, who want to preserve consumer access to unique handmade toys, clothes and children's goods in the USA.

The NAM Petition, released December 18th 2008, calls for the use of component-testing certification for children's products manufactured under the new CPSC law, as opposed to the currently mandated unit testing. HTA, in agreement with NAM, is urging the CPSC to consider the "common-sense, risk, health and safety-based exemptions," that will "protect the public while minimizing unnecessary economic impacts on business that lack any added safety benefit to consumers."

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008 was passed by Congress in August of this year in response to the children's products recalls in 2007. Currently under the CPSIA, which goes into effect February 10th 2009, all goods produced for children aged 12 years and under must undergo expensive third-party tests for lead, phthalates, and other chemicals as finished products. Goods must also contain a permanent "batch" label indicating where, when and by what company the product was manufactured.

It's the one-size-fits-all nature of the law that is causing waves in the children's goods industry. Small or micro manufacturers point to the concept of batch labeling as an important inventory-tracking mechanism in the event of large-scale recalls of an item that was produced in the tens of thousands, but suggest this makes much less sense in the case of a company that produces only 250 felted baby slippers a year. According to HTA member Cecilia Leibovitz of CraftsburyKids.com in Vermont, a handmade children's items store, "The owners of our companies are personally involved in every aspect of production, from procurement to storage, design, and assembly. The scale of these businesses does not permit outsourcing or loss of control over the production process."
HTA members acknowledge the importance of the improved safety testing for children's products, but believe that manufacturers large and small will incur exponentially greater compliance costs if they are required to test every product component individually at the finished product stage, instead of relying on testing results for each product's component materials prior to assemblage.

Without component-based certification, many small businesses will be forced to shut their doors, according to HTA members. "In essence, only large-scale companies that produce massive lots of plastic toys or kid's t-shirts in China will be able to comply with the law. Do we want that? I know my customers don't." says Jen Grinnell owner of LivingPlaying.com a specialty children's retail store in Massachusetts.

"But component-based testing would allow many of us to continue our business, while adhering to the current regulations outlined in the CPSIA," says Jill Chuckas, owner of Crafty Baby, a hand crafted children's accessories company in Connecticut.

Simply, the HTA is calling for common-sense rules that fit with the realities of the children's goods industry without compromising consumer safety. An example of this type of regulation exists already for Organic Food Certification. According to Dan Marshall of Peapods Natural Toys & Baby Care in Minnesota, "Materials-based certification is also used in other industries, including organic food certification. Component testing is already a federally recognized and reliable method, to ensure the overall end product's safety for consumers."

The CPSC has proposed new rules excluding "natural materials" from redundant testing processes. According to Dan Marshall, "The reasoning behind the proposed exclusion of natural materials from the new law is that the CPSC believes there is little to no risk that a piece of wood, cotton or wool by itself could become contaminated with lead during storage and manufacturing." The same reasoning, according to HTA members, should apply to all other materials that are commonly used in children's goods and have already been properly tested before being made into a finished product. Many of these components, such as flour, food coloring and flax seed are currently regulated by the FDA as foodstuffs. The HTA is compiling a preliminary list of these natural materials to submit to the CPSC.

Dan Marshall, Peapods Natural Toys & Baby Care (St. Paul, MN)The Handmade Toy AllianceTel. [email protected] www.handmadetoyalliance.org

Jill Chuckas, Crafty Baby, Owner, Designer (Stamford, CT)The Handmade Toy AllianceTel. [email protected] www.handmadetoyalliance.org

Rob Wilson, Vice President, Challenge & FunThe Handmade Toy AllianceTel. [email protected]

National Association of Manufacturers Petition: http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/document-to-share/CPSCPetition1208.pdf

The Handmade Toy Alliance (HTA) is a grassroots alliance of 139 toy stores, toymakers and children's product manufacturers from across the country, who want to preserve unique handmade toys, clothes and children's goods in the USA.

Texas blog roundup for the week of January 6

New year, new Speaker, same good old Texas Progressive Alliance blog roundup. Click on for the highlights.

BossKitty at TruthHugger sees the USA is not the "goodie two shoes" it claims to be. Among other discrepancies, euphemisms don't change hard cold facts, US Teaches Terrorism As "Irregular Warfare"

SHOCKING! How Exxon Fixes Benzene Leaks. Also at Bluedaze links to the five part series, Behnd the Shale. Part five highlights blogger TXsharon and her blog, Bluedaze.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes the monarchists are using words like 'insurgency', 'coupe d'etat' and 'overthrow' to describe the Speaker's race.

Neil at Texas Liberal wrote about how our terrible Texas Senator John Cornyn is silent on hard economic times in Texas, but quite vocal about the Senate race in Minnesota.

The Texas Cloverleaf looks at the possibility of a higher federal gas tax, and offers suggestion on new ideas.

Off the Kuff looks at various possibilities for the presumed eventual special election to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Senate.

jobsanger addressed both political and lifestyle issues last week. First, he answered those who questioned the qualification of Caroline Kennedy to be a senator in Is Kennedy Qualified?, and then expressed his amusement that a swinger's club exists in the absurdly religious Texas Panhandle in Panhandle Swingers - Who Knew?.

PDiddie at Brains and Eggs remains skeptical about the prospects of Tom Craddick being unseated. He's still got Hope for Change, he just isn't sure that the Republicans have it in them.

McBlogger this week takes a look at the hard times some are having the Bush's 'Economic Miracle'. Mayor McSleaze gives us an inside look at a Wendy's in DC metro that has a Supreme new employee.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson says that Ronnie Earle should run for Governor of Texas.

Vince at Capitol Annex takes a look at Joe Straus, the candidate for speaker anointed by the 11 "Anybody But Craddick" Republicans and now the presumed Speaker.

What might we expect with Straus?

So let's assume that nothing crazy happens, and that Rep. John Smithee - or as Rep. Leo Berman would call him, Rep. John What's-His-Name - can't peel away enough of Rep. Joe Straus' supporters (now up to 94, make that 96), and Straus gets elected the next Speaker of the State House. Given this, what can we expect? I have a couple of thoughts on that.

1. Less turmoil. At least, less turmoil generated by things like declarations of absolute authority, for which ex-Speaker Craddick was notorious. I also presume there will be less turmoil due to the lack of Craddick henchmen in positions of authority, like Terry Keel and Ron Wilson. I suppose that will make for less blog fodder, but I'll take that trade. Of course, as I have suggested and Burka has echoed, Craddick can still cause chaos in any number of ways, legitmate and otherwise. On the one hand, he may prefer to bow out with dignity. On the other hand, what has he to gain from magnaminity? We may yet see unprecedented shenanigans.

2. Fewer egregious bills on the floor. I have to presume that the List of 64 Dems got themselves some kind of plums for their unified support of Straus. They did always have the option of being coy and letting the chips fall where they may. Some people believe that the Dems would be better positioned for 2010 with Craddick still in charge, after all. I'll have more on that in a minute, but I heard rumblings to that effect well before November 4, so it's not like that's a radical notion. In any event, whether it's a better assortment of committee chairs or just keeping stupid stuff like xenophobic anti-immigration bills and voter ID legislation from getting oxygen, I trust the Dems extracted a few promises along these lines before they gave it up for Straus. I sure as hell hope they did, anyway. And if I don't hear some way-off-the-record whispers to that effect within an hour or two of posting this, I'll be surprised.

3. A chance to actually address some of Texas' real problems. It should be clear by now that Tom Craddick didn't give a damn about things like school finance, the encironment, or CHIP. While it may still not be possible to really move meaningful legislation through the House on these subjects - and even if you could, there's still David Dewhurst and Rick Perry to contend with - at the very least I expect to have to play less defense against measures to do even more damage in these areas. I also expect that even if the kinds of bills I want to see ultimately get voted down, we'll still see debates on them on the kind of terms they deserve to be debated on. I see the possibility of being for stuff, instead of just against stuff.

For that reason, I agree with Phil that the change in Speakership will not put the Dems at a political disadvantage in 2010. The effect may wind up being neutral, since I think 2010 is likely to be fairly static in legislative races anyway, given the current makeup of the House and the paucity of districts that appear ripe for turnover. But being able to debate better legislation, regardless of whether it gets passed or thwarted by nefarious foes other than the former Speaker, should be something we all welcome.

I could certainly be wrong about any or all of this. As I say, we still haven't even officially voted Straus in yet, and we don't know who his leadership team and committee chair choices will be. But I know I feel a whole lot better about this session now than I did a couple of weeks ago. BOR has video and Elise Hu has photos from Straus' press conference today.

UPDATE: It's official. Straus is the last man standing as Smithee and Gattis withdraw. All hail the new Speaker!

UPDATE: The ubiquitous Elise Hu has video of Smithee's concession speech.

Five years of the Main Street Line

Christof notes that with the arrival of the new year, the Main Street Line has reached its fifth birthday.

Today, by every measure, the Main Street Line is a huge success:

• It carries 40,000 people on an average weekday. That's remarkable for a line so short; it's more than the 12-mile line in Minneapolis, the 25-mile system in Pittsburgh, 27-mile system in northern New Jersey, the 30-mile system in Baltimore, or the 42-mile system in San Jose. Only one other light rail system in the United States carries more passengers per mile, and that's Boston's, which had a 100-year head start. Dallas carries less than twice as many passengers on seven times as much track built for $2 billion.


• It's turned out to serve a lot of trips very well. About half of rail riders have a one-seat ride, compared to only 34% of Houston bus riders.


• It has attracted new riders to transit. Half of riders have a car available; 40% didn't ride transit before the line opened. It even seems to have attracted people to connecting bus routes: 12% of Houston bus riders weren't riding before rail opened.


• It's made service faster, more reliable, and more frequent for many existing transit riders.


• It has proven (again) that Houstonians will walk. 2/3 of light rail trips start on foot.


• It has attracted a wide range of riders going to a wide range of destinations. Unlike the Park-and-Ride buses, which are full during rush hour but idle during the day, the light rail line is carry lots of people all day, every day. Average weekend ridership is around 15,000, more than any Houston bus route carries on a weekday. Only about half of trips are home-to-work. I've found myself on standing room only trains on every day of the week and nearly any time of day.


• It's reduced the number of accidents on Main Street. Yes, that's true: there were more car wrecks on Main before rail was built than there are now.


• It has supported extensive development along the line: new highrises Downtown, new hospitals in the Medical Center, and new apartments in the Museum District: at least 50 significant projects.

Hard to believe it's been five years already. Almost as hard as it is to believe that this is still all we have so far. It's hard to imagine conditions being much more favorable than they are now not just for finishing off the remaining projects from the Metro 2012 referendum, but also for starting the discussion about where we go from here. How shall we expand the system to accommodate more riders and make more of Houston accessible by means other than driving and parking? I plan to do some of that discussing myself in the coming weeks, but in the meantime feel free to leave any ideas or wish list items you may have in the comments.

Sheriff Garcia asks for more recruits

Yes, Sheriff Adrian Garcia. Not Sheriff-elect any more, as he's been officially sworn in now, and a new era is underway.

Harris County needs more "boots on the ground" to arrest criminals, prevent crime and help residents of its far-flung neighborhoods feel safer, newly elected Sheriff Adrian Garcia said Sunday.

In an inaugural address to hundreds of supporters, Garcia said he would ask county commissioners to pay for additional academy classes while he took steps internally to free up more deputies for patrol duties. About 800 deputies now patrol an area that would be the seventh-largest U.S. city, Garcia said.

The sheriff's department has no "cold case squad" to re-open old investigations, Garcia said, and its academy needs more trainers. Deputies complain of being overworked while residents say they rarely see a patrol car, he said.

"Among the highest priorities," the county's first Hispanic sheriff said, "is getting more boots on the ground. I will serve as the chief recruiter for the Harris County sheriff's department."

[...]

After the event, [County Judge Ed] Emmett said commissioners would carefully consider any requests by Garcia for new positions in the sheriff's department. The timing of the request is good, Emmett said, because the county is just starting its annual budget process.

Garcia didn't specify how many more deputies he needs, but said it should be enough that deputies can get to know people in the neighborhoods they serve and establish a regular presence. Such tactics reassure the public and deter criminals, Garcia said.

That's good to hear. I hope that one of the things our new Sheriff will focus on is removing deputies from jail guard duties, in order to get them back on the streets as he wishes. That will necessitate some work on reducing jail overcrowding in Harris County, which perhaps is something else Commissioners Court can assist with, by making it clear that we've got all the jail space we need, we just need to use it more sensibly. I really hope that's a direction we'll take, though that will be up to our new District Attorney and the judiciary as much as it will be for the Sheriff and the County Commissioners. Here's to some new policies for the new year and beyond.

After the event, Garcia said two former high-ranking deputies who sued him last week after he fired them had every right to take their grievance to court. The officers claim civil service rules and state law entitled them to demotions.

Garcia said his actions were justified.

"I need to be able to determine who shares my vision" for the department, Garcia said. "The taxpayers who elected me voted for change."

I tried, I really did, to feel...I don't know, something...about that weekend story concerning the ousted employees and the persona-non-grata fliers that appeared. All I can say is that if that's the worst thing that happens during Garcia's tenure, he'll be the best Sheriff we've ever had. Greg has more.

The "scourge" of straight-ticket voting

I continue to be surprised at how much attention the "issue" of straight ticket voting has received since November.

[I]n the legislative session starting Jan. 13, Republican state Sen. Jeff Wentworth of San Antonio plans a second run at deleting the straight-ticket option from Texas ballots. His repeal proposal didn't advance in 2007 .

"Both political parties need to stop being quite so partisan," Wentworth said.

He said that if a voter wants to favor every Republican or Democrat running, "that's fine with me; I'm not trying to tell them how to vote. I'm just saying they ought to be more informed by seeing the name."

[...]

Wentworth traced his interest in the issue back to when he served on Bexar County's Commissioners Court three decades ago.

Despite working for African American support, he said, he didn't draw much; many voters pulled the Democratic lever. He said supporters told him: "If they'd seen your name, some of them would have voted for you."

"I have been aggravated by that actual fact ever since."

I take Sen. Wentworth at his word when he says he's been interested in doing something about this for years. I suspect, however, that this is the first time his interest has merited a stand-alone story in the newspaper, however. Amazing what a little change in the electorate can bring about.

Richard Winger, editor of San Francisco-based Ballot Access News , a nonpartisan newsletter that tracks the attempts of individuals to appear on ballots, opposes the one-shot, straight-ticket option.

"People ought to make up their minds what they're doing and not vote unconsciously (on candidates)," Winger said. "It's also extremely unfair to independent candidates because they don't have a straight-ticket device."

Richard Niemi , a political scientist at the University of Rochester , said the option doesn't irk the major parties, who want voters to embrace their tickets, but individual officeholders can see the choice as a threat.

"It almost certainly increases the number of voters who don't know who they're voting for, other than their parties," Niemi said.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I knew who I was voting for, in every race. I voted straight ticket this year, for the first time in my voting life, because there wasn't a Republican worth voting for. If that's different in 2010, I'll vote differently. The straight ticket option saved me a few minutes of my lunch hour, and freed up my voting machine quickly for whoever was on line behind me. So there.

College issues

Once we finally do get past the Speaker's race, various college-related issues will be on the agenda for the Lege.

[E]xpect lots of debate about freezing tuition when the Legislature convenes in mid-January.

But with dozens of bills dealing with higher education already filed, it won't be the only topic under consideration. Other measures look to expand financial aid, cut the cost of textbooks, make schools more accountable and help veterans attend college.

Legislators often pay lip service to higher education, but several say this year may be the tipping point, sparked by a middle-class outcry over tuition rates, national reports blasting lack of affordability and access, and a growing acknowledgment that Texas needs more and better universities to serve its growing population.

One bill already filed would freeze tuition at public universities for two years. Another would limit tuition and fee increases to 5 percent a year.

All sound good to cash-strapped families, who saw tuition at Texas' public, four-year schools rise an average of 53 percent in the first four years after legislators allowed them to set their own rates.

But changing the status quo may not be so simple.

Legislators deregulated tuition in 2003 in exchange for cutting state higher education funding during a budget crisis. Public universities rely on a mix of state funding and money from tuition and fees for their operating costs, along with money from endowments, donations and other sources.

State spending has increased since 2003 but hasn't kept up with enrollment growth and inflation.

"It's easy to say, 'Freeze tuition,' " said Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, chairwoman of the Senate Higher Education Subcommittee. "I don't think it would be fair to freeze tuition without raising state funding."

Forget fairness. It simply won't be possible to freeze tuition without raising the state's share of funding. The whole reason for tuition deregulation in the first place was to enable the state to cut its funding level back in 2003. You can't have one without the other. The question is where the funding comes from, not just for tuition relief but also for all those other items on the wish list, including Tier 1 status for UH and others. The ends are noble, but what are the means? I think this is a high enough priority that there will be a real effort to answer that question, but for now it's a mystery.

By the way, since the Speaker's race will never be too far from the surface of this session, tuition deregulation was something Tom Craddick pushed for. Even though he won't be wielding the gavel, I can't see him sitting back and watching that work be undone. Maybe he'll go all Talton on the House and become an assassin by point of order. You don't think he's going to go quietly, do you?

Thus endeth the Tom Craddick era

I still can't believe it's happened.

Rep. Joe Straus trotted out more than enough names of supporters Sunday night to virtually guarantee that lawmakers would elect the San Antonio Republican speaker of the Texas House next week -- assuming they don't waver.

The move came as a key ally of incumbent Tom Craddick said the Midland Republican has dropped his bid to be re-elected leader of the House and has released lawmakers pledged to support him.

"He has withdrawn his candidacy and freed up his pledges," said Rep. Will Hartnett, R-Dallas. He said the "vast bulk" of those who had been pledged to Craddick -- including himself -- are now supporting Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo.

Craddick, who was meeting with supporters at a downtown Austin restaurant this evening, arrived in a white Lexus but continued driving around the block after seeing a media mass gathered at the entrance. Later, at a side entrance, Craddick emerged from the vehicle and tersely said, "We're not talking" before entering the restaurant.

Hartnett said those who had supported Craddick "are regrouping quickly and reaching out to folks that have not been on Craddick's team" to try to win over support for Smithee.

Quite a change in tone for Rep. Hartnett, who had talked a lot of trash in the comments at Burkablog all during this saga, as well as for Craddick spokesperson Alexis DeLee. No worries, though, I see that Rep. Sid Miller has taken up the slack.

Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, tonight dismissed a list of 85 supporters released by Speaker candidate Joe Straus, R-San Antonio.

"I don't think it will matter," Miller said. "The dynamics of the race have changed. It's not a Straus-Craddick race any more. It's a whole new day."

Psst! Hey, Sid! You might want to check your figures. According to Elise Hu, Straus is up to 88 names now, with former Craddick Ds Sylvester Turner and Ryan Guillen, plus Republican Rep.-elect Angie Chen Button jumping ship. That just leaves Al Edwards and Harold Dutton among Democrats still out in non-Straus-land, for those keeping score at home, and it officially removes Turner from the Speaker sweepstakes.

I think at this point I've just about run out of things to worry about. The anti-Craddicks did everything they said they would, and the momentum has been in their favor from the beginning. I suppose it's possible Smithee could woo a few of them, but it's hard to see how he gets past 75 names, and it's hard to see how he could be a unifying force as Craddick's designated alternative. I suppose anything can still happen, but it's stretching my imagination at this point to think of a plausible scenario where Straus fumbles the ball. It's a little weird, but in a very good way. Now we just have to wait and hear what happened behind the scenes. I'm sure the gossip and scuttlebutt will be freely flowing soon.

UPDATE: The Straus number is now 89, I am told.

The Straus list

Rep. Joe Straus has released a list of 85 supporters - 15 Republicans and 70 Democrats - which would seem to put Team Craddick in a pretty tight spot. You can see the list here (Word doc) sorted by name, or at the end of that KXAN story, broken out by party. I'm going to reproduce it here with some comments:

Democrats:

Alma Allen
Roberto Alonzo
Carol Alvarado
Rafael Anchia
Valinda Bolton
Lon Burnam
Joaquin Castro
Norma Chavez
Ellen Cohen
Garnet Coleman
Yvonne Davis
Joe Deshotel
Dawnna Dukes
Jim Dunnam
Craig Eiland
Kirk England
Joe Farias
David Farabee
Jessica Farrar
Kino Flores
Stephen Frost
Pete Gallego
Helen Giddings
Veronica Gonzalez
Yvonne Gonzalez Toureilles
Roland Gutierrez
Joe Heflin
Ana Hernandez
Abel Herrero
Scott Hochberg
Terri Hodge
Mark Homer
Chuck Hopson
Donna Howard
Carol Kent
Tracy King
David Leibowitz
Eddie Lucio
Diana Maldonado
Barbara Mallory Caraway
Marisa Marquez
Armando Martinez
Trey Martinez Fischer
Ruth Jones McClendon
Jim McReynolds
Jose Menendez
Robert Miklos
Joe Moody
Elliott Naishtat
Rene Oliveira
Dora Olivo
Solomon Ortiz
Aaron Pena
Joe Pickett
Paula Pierson
Chente Quintanilla
Richard Raymond
Tara Rios Ybarra
Allan Ritter
Eddie Rodriguez
Patrick Rose
Mark Strama
Kristi Thibaut
Senfronia Thompson
Chris Turner
Allen Vaught
Marc Veasey
Mike Villarreal
Hubert Vo
Armando Walle

Members listed in bold were not on the List of 64 from last week. The four remaining holdouts are Reps. Harold Dutton, Al Edwards, Sylvester Turner (all of Houston) and Ryan Guillen (from South Texas). For the rest:

Republicans

Dan Branch
Byron Cook
Rob Eissler
Gary Elkins
Charlie Geren
Delwin Jones
Jim Keffer
Edmund Kuempel
Brian McCall
Tommy Merritt
Doug Miller
Jim Pitts
Burt Solomons
Todd Smith
Joe Straus

The four bolded members here are from outside the Gang of Eleven. In total, that's ten new supporters for Straus since he emerged as the consensus candidate on Friday night. Note that Dan Gattis and his three acolytes are missing as well - according to the Statesman, they're headed to Rep. John Smithee's camp. According to Brandi Grissom, it's officially Smithee versus Straus. Can Smithee peel away some of those 85 names? He'll need at least ten. Once again, game on.

Is this really the end for Craddick?

It is, according to Rep. Pena on Twitter:

The Speaker's race is over. Straus will be the Speaker for 81st Legislative Session.

And now according to the Statesman as well:

Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, confirmed that Speaker Tom Craddick is dropping his bid for a fourth term as House leader.

"He's pulled out," Miller said of the Midland Republican.

Miller and other Craddick loyalists are meeting tonight to see if they can block San Antonio Republican Joe Straus who claims he has the votes to be the next speaker.

Meanwhile, Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, confirmed that she told Craddick this afternoon that she would be supporting Straus.

"He was very congenial," she said. "He was a gentleman."

According to KXAN, Craddick may have an alternate candidate in mind:

Craddick supporters are convening at Sullivan's Restaurant in Austin at 7 p.m. Sunday evening to discuss the possibility of replacing Craddick with [Rep. John] Smithee as their candidate. This move would allow Craddick to step out of the controversial spotlight and still maintain control of the House through his ally, Smithee. KXAN's Jenny Hoff is stationed outside the restaurant as members approach and filing reports as the continuing drama unfolds before the first gavel comes down on the next legislative session.

Seems a bit late for that, especially if Straus releases a list of 80 supporters, as he's reportedly about to do. Burka thinks it's too late for Smithee, and I agree.

One "Dear Colleague" letter from him in the past seven weeks could have ended Craddick's speakership. He wouldn't do it. His decision to wait from Friday until Monday was typical. He doesn't yearn for power. His reticence doesn't stem from fear. It's just his personality. The two day delay from Friday makes it hard for him to pull it together. It may be too late now, depending upon whether Straus has gained some new recruits, and how many. The pool of uncommitted members is shrinking, particularly on the Democratic side. The only reason for D's to switch to Smithee is if Straus can't close the deal and Craddick stays viable. Otherwise, why would they go for a rural guy at the backside of his career than an urban guy on the way up? On the R side, the only way for Smithee to get traction is for Craddick to give up and pass the torch.

Which may happen, but 80 supporters would trump that, if it holds. For what it's worth, I think Smithee as Craddick's man would hold less appeal for most members than Smithee as his own man would have. He's going to try to appeal to Straus' supporters anyway. There may yet be some twists to this. I sure hope not.

Weekend link dump for January 4

Have we forgot auld acquaintance yet?

The twelve days of HMNS. And may I be the first to wish y'all a happy hundredth birthday.

Sixteen more days.

Why, Australia, why?

Is there any problem for which Republicans do not prescribe tax cuts as the solution? Anything? A related question that really needs to be asked these guys is "What level of taxation is low enough that no further tax cuts are needed, and why don't you just propose that instead of all these apparently insufficient intermediate steps?" I think we all know what the answers to those questions are, but they should still be asked.

Did 2008 feel like it would never end? It did last a little longer than usual.

Ask a question about cheesy 80s hair bands, get an answer.

Congratulations to Karen Brooks on her new gig.

Mike Tomasky's 19 Worst Americans of 2008. Plus a few suggested additions from Steve Benen.

Along similar lines, here are some of the worst predictions of the Presidential race.

James Kendrick's Tech Predictions for 2009.

Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control, according to a new study. Yeah, no one could have predicted that.

Flickr: "The Far Side" Re-enactment Pool. Have I mentioned lately that I love the Internet? Via Chad.

Straus says he has the votes

I certainly hope so.

Republican lawmaker Joe Straus said he collected enough pledges from House colleagues Saturday to knock out incumbent House Speaker Tom Craddick.

"We're at 76, and we're adding them up," Straus said of the threshold number needed to clinch the top leadership spot. "I feel real good about our numbers."

Straus, who emerged as the consensus candidate of 11 maverick Texas House Republicans on Friday night, planned to formally announce his victory today, when he hopes to have close to 90 pledges.

The controversial Craddick, however, was in no concession mood, and he plans to meet with his own supporters today.

"We have grown stronger in the last 24 hours. The size of the field has narrowed, and the speaker has picked up momentum and is in a great position," Craddick spokeswoman Alexis DeLee said. "The meeting is on, and I am not going to discuss strategy."

I'm going to agree with Burka here. The sooner Straus releases the names of his supporters, the better. He says he's got 90, and I believe that's possible - BOR claims Rep-elect Doug Miller is in Straus' camp, Chron reporter Gary Scharrer mentioned a new convert in the comments to that Burka post, San Antonio Craddick D Ruth Jones McClendon will likely go along, Gattis' crew may not go back to Craddick - and it's likely to build on itself once members see that his support is real. Everyone wants to be with a winner, and if that looks to be Straus, the rest will take care of itself. It can all still fall apart, mostly if some of the Dems on the list of 64 get cold feet, but so far, so good. Team Craddick meets today amid rumors (hotly denied by Craddick loyalist Will Hartnett in Burka's comments) that it will have a number of no-shows. We'll see if they can live up to Alexis DeLee's big talk or if this is the end of the road for Big Tom.

For much more on Straus and the state of the Speaker's race:

RG Ratcliffe reports on Straus' campaign finances, and has both podcast and video interviews of him.

Laylan Copelin says both sides are focusing on six Dems from the List of 64, including Houstonians Carol Alvarado and Hubert Vo. All I can say is that Alvarado told me when I interviewed her before the March primary that she would not support Tom Craddick; as for Vo, I can't imagine what the appeal would be for him in crossing over. Whatever.

John Coby rounds up some newspaper editorials that call for Craddick's ouster.

PDiddie and McBlogger think Craddick will still pull it out.

TFN Insider rounds up the religious right's support for Craddick, while Vince examines a particular charge the social conservatives are making against him. Meanwhile, Rick Perry Versus The World speculates that there will be an effort for require Republican legislators to support "the pick of the majority of the House Republican Caucus". You know, technically the Democrats already have such a rule - they're supposed to vote for a Democrat for Speaker if one is running. Needless to say, that isn't much of an obstacle in real life; there are still five Democrats who have filed for Speaker this session, after all. I'll simply observe that this whole saga has some real potential to expose a sizable rift in Republican unity. That would be just fine by me.

UPDATE: Via Twitter, Rep. Pena says Rep. John Smithee has filed for Speaker. Burka had previously suggested the possibility of Straus versus Smithee for Speaker. Rep. Pena also says that Rep. Senfronia Thompson has withdrawn from the Speaker's race.

UPDATE: Laylan Copelin reports Straus may have a formal announcement that he's got all the votes he needs to win as early as today, possibly tomorrow. Harvey Kronberg says Rep. Thompson is supporting Straus:

Thompson told QR, "I am going to support this guy. I looked at the other candidates but he is the best. I think it might be the beginning of something different."

Maybe this really is the endgame. I almost can't believe it. Finally, BOR is trying to sniff out where the Team Craddick meeting is. If you're in Austin, see if you can help them out.

UPDATE: Rep.-elect Marisa Marquez of El Paso confirms her support of Straus. All San Antonio Dems, with the notable omission of Ruth Jones McClendon, do likewise. And Rep. Hubert Vo's chief of staff, Karen Loper, sent out the following email:

[Laylan Copelin's] report in not correct. Hubert Vo signed a pledge card for Joe Straus on Saturday.

More details as they come.

Third Court absolves itself again

I imagine that if the Austin-based Third Court of Appeals had a Christmas party this year, it was an awkward affair.

The 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin, split along partisan lines, has ruled that Republican Justice Alan Waldrop did not have to excuse himself from a case against two associates of former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land.

The ruling does not immediately affect the money-laundering charges against DeLay and his associates, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis. But the justices question one another's motives in how the polarizing case has been handled by the appellate court.

[...]

In August, Justices Waldrop, [Kenneth] Law and Robert Pemberton, all Republicans, upheld the constitutionality of the money-laundering statute but added that they did not think that the law in 2002 covered checks. The $190,000 in the DeLay case involved corporate checks, not cash.

That ruling prompted a firestorm. Prosecutors argued that the three-judge panel had gone beyond the legal question before it. Earle spoke of "the dark shadow of corruption" looming over the case as he filed a motion asking Waldrop to withdraw or be dropped from the case. His complaint was that before Waldrop became a justice, he helped a group of DeLay's political allies, Texans for Lawsuit Reform, stay out of a lawsuit arising from the same circumstances as the criminal case.

Waldrop characterized the lawsuit as "politically motivated."

Two Democratic justices on the 3rd Court objected.

Justice Diane Henson complained that her GOP colleagues were wrong about the money-laundering law and had bottled up the case for years to thwart prosecution of the high-profile case.

Justice Jan Patterson accused Law of ignoring her dissent when the 3rd Court ruled earlier this year on Waldrop's standing in the case. She also questioned why the two men's constitutional challenges were combined into one case and assigned to an all-Republican panel of justices to consider. Previously one man's challenge was assigned to an all-GOP panel and the other case was being handled by a panel containing one Democrat.

On Wednesday, the Republican majority struck back in an opinion written by Justice David Puryear. Law and Pemberton joined in Puryear's opinion.

There's also been a criminal complaint filed against now-former Justice Law, who was defeated in November, for allegedly violating the Texas Elections Code in his campaign filings. Previous blogging about the "checks aren't cash" ruling is here. I swear, we should have just sent the whole thing to the International Court in the Hague at the beginning and been done with it. We might even have a resolution by now. No such luck here.

Study claims smoking ban leads to fewer heart attack deaths

Consider this to be a data point in the ongoing debate over a potential statewide smoking ban in bars, restaurants, and other indoor workplaces.

A smoking ban in one Colorado city led to a dramatic drop in heart attack hospitalizations within three years, a sign of just how serious a health threat secondhand smoke is, government researchers said today.

The study, the longest-running of its kind, showed the rate of hospitalized cases dropped 41 percent in the three years after the ban of workplace smoking in Pueblo, Colo., took effect. There was no such drop in two neighboring areas, and researchers believe it's a clear sign the ban was responsible.

The study suggests that secondhand smoke may be a terrible and under-recognized cause of heart attack deaths in this country, said one of its authors, Terry Pechacek of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At least eight earlier studies have linked smoking bans to decreased heart attacks, but none ran as long as three years. The new study looked at heart attack hospitalizations for three years following the July 1, 2003 enactment of Pueblo's ban, and found declines as great or greater than those in earlier research.

"This study is very dramatic," said Dr. Michael Thun, a researcher with the American Cancer Society.

"This is now the ninth study, so it is clear that smoke-free laws are one of the most effective and cost-effective to reduce heart attacks," said Thun, who was not involved in the CDC study to be released Thursday.

The study is dramatic but not necessarily conclusive, as it didn't take some other possible factors into account, such as an overall decline in smoking in Pueblo. Of course, it's also possible that some number of people quit smoking once it became impossible, or at least highly inconvenient, for them to smoke at work. The point is that there's a clearly identifiable public health benefit to such bans, and that the benefits accrue to people who are not taking part in the unhealthy behavior. I say that since several people complained in the comments that the next step would be to ban unhealthy food. The key distinction is that your Big Mac habit doesn't threaten my health. Like this or not, expect to hear more about it in the spring, when the Lege debates Sen. Rodney Ellis and Rep. Myra Crownover's bills.

The gas tax

I was listening to the podcast version of Car Talk the other day, and towards the end of the show Ray went off on a rant about how we should implement a 50-cent-per-gallon gas tax. You can read what he said here. (Thomas Friedman is also on it.) Basically, he noted that gas was far cheaper now than it had been in recent months, the tax would encourage less driving and incentivize fuel economy, and the revenue collected could be used towards rebuilding infrastructure. He even suggested funding high-speed rail infrastructure with the money, and suggested that was something the Big Three could get into. Click over and see what you think, and check out the discussion that goes with it and is surprisingly non-negative towards the idea.

I don't know what the economic implications of such a tax in a recessionary economy might be, but I do know this: Ray's argument that at least in terms of the price of a gallon of gas there's never been a more opportune time to raise the gas tax works just as well here in Texas as it does nationally. We all know that the gas tax here is woefully inadequate, thanks to the fact that it hasn't been raised since the early 90s. We know we have a large number of unmet transportation needs, even if the only numbers we have are bogus self-serving TxDOT numbers. And we know we need more money for our schools, which get a piece of the state gas tax as well. We could solve an awful lot of problems right here if we embraced even a ten-cent gas take hike, and indexed future increases to inflation, which won't do much to raise it further right now. Naturally, it'll never happen because folks like Rick Perry and David Dewhurst aren't interested in solving these problems, at least not with solutions that have aren't ideologically pre-approved. But if the rest of us care about them, this is what we should be looking at. Who will take up the mantle for this in the Lege? Don't all raise your hands at once.

We have a contender. Now what?

So as we know, we have a designated champion to take out House Speaker Tom Craddick, San Antonio Rep. Joe Straus. Early reaction from people whose support he'll need is positive. Here's a roundup of that.

Chron:

Straus emerged as the unanimous choice after several rounds of balloting, said longtime Rep. Edmund Kuempel, R-Seguin -- himself a candidate before the group chose Straus.

"He's a fresh face. He's a uniter. He brings new ideas and lets every member have their say," Kuempel said. "He's been a lifelong Republican, a precinct chairman and a businessman. He's got solid credentials. He's the foundation of the Republican Party."

Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, said Straus will draw strong Democratic and Republican support.

"I am part of an effort making phone calls to Democrats, and we're hearing very positive things," Villarreal said.

He said he was ecstatic with the choice of Straus.

Express-News:

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, called Straus "an excellent choice," saying, "In the two terms that he's been there, he's demonstrated a true spirit of bipartisanship. He's been able to stay above partisan fights, and he's shown that he can work with everyone," Castro said.

Straus also would be a powerful ally for San Antonio and South Texas in getting critical infrastructure, Castro said.

[...]

Several conservative groups worry that Craddick's defeat would result in more liberal legislation moving through the House and are calling upon members to contact their lawmakers.

"It is crucial that you call your state representative immediately and demand that he/she not participate in this coup," the Free Market Foundation said in an e-mail message to members. "Ask for an answer. Let him or her know that if he joins in this effort, you will take it as a message that he is opposing everything you care about and the traditional values of life and family for which you stand. This will dramatically impact every issue you care about."

The Free Market Foundation promotes limited government, opposes abortion, supports traditional marriage and family, parental rights, and public religious expressions.

I'll pause here to note that Straus is pro-choice and has been honored by the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, so the Free Market Foundation has reason to fret. Which is fine by me.

Straus' outreach efforts will extend to about 10 Democrats who have been aligned with Craddick to see if he can switch their allegiance. One of them will be Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, who prefers to be called "an independent Democrat" instead of a Craddick Democrat.

McClendon said she wants to talk to all of the remaining speaker candidates -- including Democrats Sylvester Turner and Senfronia Thompson of Houston -- before deciding whom she will support.

"Several of the speaker candidates have indicated some of us will not be able to serve in leadership positions again," said McClendon, who is chair of the Rules and Resolutions Committee under Craddick.

She also expressed concern about the ability to represent her district but chuckled when asked if she thought Straus would impede her efforts to represent San Antonio.

Needless to say, getting some of the Craddick D's on board would be a big step forward for Straus.

Statesman:

House members had been anticipating Friday's meeting of the 11 ABC Republicans to give direction to the speaker's race.

Ten of the lawmakers met at the Tarrytown home of Rep. Byron Cook of Corsicana, for more than two hours.

Rep. Rob Eissler of The Woodlands was on the phone and a webcam. Reps. Burt Solomons of Carrollton and Ed Kuempel of Seguin were thought to be front-runners, but after three ballots, the less-experienced Straus won the support of his colleagues.

Except for Eissler and Rep. Delwin Jones of Lubbock , who left early, the group emerged together to announce their choice. They all emphasized Straus' GOP credentials and his ability to unify the House.

Morning News:

"I look forward to hearing what he sees as his goals for the session," said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Jim Dunnam of Waco, adding that he hadn't talked to Straus yet. "I think we're on our way to change."

[...]

Republicans who form "the Group of 11" are trusting that their number, coupled with 64 Democrats who have signed a pledge not to vote for Craddick under any circumstances, will prove a momentum and a math that is hard to overcome: 75 out of 150 House members oppose Craddick's re-election as speaker.

Those 64 Democrats, presumably, will be hearing from Straus over the weekend.

"I do know from observing him during the session that he's a thoughtful person who is a person of his word," said Dunnam, contacted by phone after the meeting. "Those are good traits. I haven't talked to him, and I imagine every Republican and Democrat is going to want to visit with him."

Star Telegram:

"Things are falling into place very well," said state Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine. "He's a conservative that people can talk to. He has a reputation for being fair."

Nearly a dozen lawmakers known as ABC Republicans -- "Anybody But Craddick" -- united behind Straus during a meeting at a home in central Austin. Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, a member of the group, praised the selection.

"He listens well. He's a consensus-builder. He understands how the House should be run," Geren said. "I think he'll do a great job."

[...]

Incoming freshman Rep. Chris Turner, D-Burleson, who spoke with Straus by phone, said that the San Antonio lawmaker's urban credentials could make him more sensitive to problems in North Texas, such as transportation and pollution.

"I think from Tarrant County's perspective, it will be great to have a speaker from an urban area," Turner said.

El Paso Times:

El Paso legislators, who are among 64 Democrats who have pledged not to vote for Craddick under any circumstances, mostly cheered the choice of Straus.

State Reps. Joe Pickett, Norma Chávez and Chente Quintanilla and state Rep.-elect Joe Moody all said they would support Straus, who has served just two terms in the Texas House.

"I have full confidence he will help us restore peace and respect on the House floor, and that is beneficial to El Paso's entire legislative agenda," Chávez said.

State Rep.-elect Marisa Marquez said she would not commit to supporting Straus until she met him.

"I think it's the most responsible thing to do," she said.

So there you have it. Some blog reactions are here, here, here, and here. Team Craddick is meeting Sunday, but you can be sure they're working the phones as hard as Team Straus is. Nobody knows yet where John Smithee or Dan Gattis or Gattis' three followers will wind up. If a bunch of previously uncommitted-but-presumed-for-Craddick folks start talking up Straus, or if some of the Dems on the List of 64 start wavering, this could be over one way or the other very quickly. I think there's a pretty decent chance that the official vote for Speaker on the 13th will be a formality, but it's too soon to say yet. What do you think of this choice?

Rep.-elect Walle to hold town hall meetings

State Rep.-elect Armando Walle, who will be sworn in to represent HD140 in ten days, is holding a few town hall meetings in the district before he heads off to Austin. Here are the details:

Monday, January 5th - 6:00 PM
MacArthur High School Cafeteria
4400 Aldine Mail Route

Tuesday, January 6th - 6:00 PM
Sam Houston Math, Science & Technology Center Cafeteria
9400 Irvington Blvd.

Tuesday, January 6th - 7:30 PM
Aldine-Greenspoint YMCA
10960 North Freeway

If you want to RSVP for one of these meetings, please send an email to [email protected]. As you know, I think highly of Walle, so if you live in his district please take the opportunity to get to know him and tell him how you want him to represent you. Thanks very much.

A pardon for Clemens?

Seems unlikely to me, too.

Two Houstonians -- former Enron executive Jeff Skilling and former Astros pitcher Roger Clemens -- are on a watch list kept by P.S. Ruckman Jr., a political science professor in Illinois who writes a blog on pardons and has written a book on the subject.

Skilling's lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, said no request is being made on behalf of Skilling, who is in prison and appealing his conviction. No other Enron defendants were on Justice Department request lists as of Wednesday.

But Clemens' lawyer, Rusty Hardin, notes that a clemency request would make no sense, since Clemens is not charged with any crime, although the FBI is investigating whether he lied to Congress about steroid use.

There have been only very rare pre-emptive pardons, like President Gerald Ford's pardon of President Richard Nixon.

"That's an insane invention of people who have too much time on their hands," Hardin said of the question of a pardon for Clemens.

The blog post in question is here. It also mentions former baseball player Willie Aikens and quarterback Michael Vick; like Clemens and Skilling, none of them have an application in. Much ado about nothing, if you ask me, but it's a slow news period, so what the heck.

Speaking of Clemens, Richard Justice writes about the recent decision by Memorial Hermann to remove his name from the sports medicine institute he helped fund. He's critical of Memorial Hermann, but I found these paragraphs the most interesting:

This column isn't a defense of his behavior. He chose a path that might land him in prison and probably will keep him out of the Hall of Fame.

[...]

Few reporters ever get to know the people they cover. We don't usually know if they drink too much or chase women or pull the wings off butterflies when they disappear into the night.

That's the problem with confusing accomplishments on the field into judgments on character, integrity, etc.

So since Justice apparently does understand the distinction between the two, does that mean he'll vote accordingly when Clemens is up for induction? Check back in four years and find out.

RIP, Sharon Levine

Sharon Levine, who was a Houston defense attorney that played a key role in the ultimate downfall of former Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal, has died at the far too young age of 38, from Hodgkins' disease. Defense attorney Paul Kennedy fills in the details.

Ms. Levine represented one of the Ibarra brothers who were arrested for videotaping a police raid on a house in their neighborhood. Believing that her client had been arrested without cause, Ms. Levine took the matter to trial - twice. After the first trial ended in a hung jury, the state offered a $1 fine in exchange for a guilty plea. Again Ms. Levine and Mr. Ibarra declined and set the matter for trial.

The jury in the second trial found Mr. Ibarra not guilty. That verdict set the stage for the civil rights suit filed by the Ibarra's against Harris County. The judge in that matter ordered then-D.A. Chuck Rosenthal to turn over e-mails to the Ibarras. After defying the court's order, Mr. Rosenthal was forced to resign from office earlier this year.

The toppling of the Rosenthal regime was the result of Ms. Levine's tireless devotion to her client in a fairly meaningless (except for Mr. Ibarra and his family) case.

The rest you know, but the history of her representation of the Ibarra brothers was something I hadn't known. It's amazing what can happen when one refuses to accept an injustice, isn't it? My sincere condolences to Sharon Levine's family and friends. She made a difference in her lifetime, and that's more than most of us get to say. Thanks to Mark Bennett for the link.

Straus for Speaker?

As you know, today is the day of the ABC meeting, in which a consensus candidate for Speaker is supposed to emerge. According to Harvey Kronberg, we have ourselves a Speaker alternative:

ANTI-CRADDICK REPUBLICANS PICK JOE STRAUS AS UNIFIED SPEAKER CHALLENGER

Reliable sources tell QR, the eleven Republicans have picked San Antonio Rep. Joe Straus as their candidate.

That's interesting, because speculation had shifted to Plano Rep. Brian McCall after he filed his paperwork for a Speaker candidacy this afternoon. I know Rep. Straus is generally well-regarded, and frankly if I had to pick among the Republicans he'd have been close to the top of my list, but he's not exactly long-serving - he won a 2005 special election to replace former Rep. Elizabeth Ames Jones, who had been appointed to the Railroad Commission. Burka, in a writeup of each ABC's credentials for the Speakership, said "Straus has a great political future, but speaker in 2009 is too much too soon". Well, if Kronberg's sources are correct, we'll find out soon enough. Keep an eye on Kronberg and Elise Hu, who's been staking out the ABC meeting, for more.

UPDATE: Corroboration comes from Rep. Pena on Twitter.

UPDATE: And now Gary Scharrer reports it as well.

Straus quickly filed his official paperwork after the group unanimously turned to the San Antonio lawmaker, who arrived in the state House after a 2005 special election.

"It's gratifying to have the support of fellow Republican members who are committed to moving past this difficult spot that all House members have been in for a long time," Straus said. "We are going to be making calls over the weekend to show our solidarity. and our commitment.

Game on, y'all.

UPDATE: Burka is dubious, while his commenters go bat$#!+. Elise has video. Vince hates this development and disagrees with my take on it. I'll leave the last word to Rep. Garnet Coleman.

"This is a choice made by Republicans. All we would be doing in reality is saying, 'yea' or 'nay' on that choice," Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, said Friday afternoon.

All I know is we can't afford another session with Tom Craddick in charge. I did everything I could last year to get him out of that position. I wanted that done with a Democratic majority in the House, but I say that goal was a worthy one even having fallen short. I see no reason to back off now.

Friday random ten: My sister's list

My sister sent me the following Christmas-themed Friday Random Ten list after reading my list from last week. Since I really didn't get a chance to do much iPod listening this week, I figured I'd use her tunes today instead. Here you go:

1. "Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey" by Lou Monte
2. "Deck the Halls" by Twisted Sister (Declan's Favorite!)
3. "Jingle Bells" by Barenaked Ladies
4. "The Twelve Pains of Christmas" by Bob Rivers
5. "Up on the Housetop" by Gene Autry
6. "We Need A Little Christmas" by Percy Faith
7. "White Christmas" by The Drifters
8. "You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch" by Thurl Ravenscroft
9. "Sleigh Ride" by Amy Grant
10. "(I'm Gettin') Nuttin for Christmas" by Bill Pressman

Declan is her five-year-old son, and also my godson. Clearly, she's raising the kid right. Thanks for the list, Eileen!

While I haven't had much time to really listen to the iPod this week, I have been busy getting new music, mostly from the iTunes store. There's still plenty of time to recommend some songs to me as I work my way through the gift cards. Please leave your suggestions in the comments. As we begin the new year, I'll have a lot of new music on which to base the next few Random Tens, so that ought to be fun. So please take the opportunity to affect those future entries and tell me what tunes I should be downloading. Thanks very much.

Speaker strategizing

Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day for pretty much everyone in the Lege.

On Friday evening, a group of Republicans informally known as the ABCs -- Anybody But Craddick -- are planning to huddle at an undisclosed location in Austin, and one of their leaders is predicting that a consensus candidate will emerge by the end of that gathering.

"When we finish Friday night, there will be one candidate," said Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, one of the main coup plotters. "Hopefully a lot of people will get behind that person."

A group of Democrats vowing to oppose Craddick "under any circumstances" is also expected to hold a speaker strategy session on Friday. Craddick, meanwhile, has asked his supporters to gather in Austin on Sunday. His aides won't say where.

"I think if I was a betting man, I would bet that Tom Craddick is still going to be speaker," said Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, a Craddick loyalist. "You always want to bet on the man with the gavel."

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Team Craddick will be getting together for its own jam session, but can't remember where I saw it. Even if such a thing hasn't been reported, you can be sure they'll all be in constant contact. Hope everyone got themselves an unlimited call/text plan for Christmas.

As for Geren's statement about the One True Challenger for Craddick, you know where I stand on that. If that person and his or her former rivals for that role present a united front, then I will begin to truly believe Craddick's days as Speaker are numbered. If not, well, I'm used to disappointment by now. A key indicator will be whether the Craddickites who are associated with one challenger and aren't themselves ABCs - specifically Lois Kolkhorst, Mike Hamilton, and Patricia Harless - have left the reservation permanently or are crawling back to their master, begging for forgiveness. It's going to be an interesting weekend, that's for sure.

On a related note, I received an anonymous email that made the following claim:

There is another layer of "gossip" and whipsering gathering steam in the hallways out there about the aftershocks of Craddick's likely departure. Lege council executive director [Milton] Rister is a long time Craddick protege. The gossip in the capitol, senate and house, is that Rister is toast as council executive director if Craddick exits because of Rister's past heavy handed past campaigning and loyalties to Craddick.

You can read more about Milton Rister here, here (see comments), and here. I do not know who sent me this email, so I cannot personally vouch for its accuracy. But I hope it's correct.

Was the red light camera study flawed?

I don't know the answer to that question, but it's certainly the case that the long-awaited study of Houston's red light cameras didn't give any clear answers about what effect they might have had on the accident rate at intersections where they were installed.

One specialist from a renowned traffic research organization who reviewed the study for the Houston Chronicle said the methodology was "flawed" and has serious "limitations."

The main problem is a statistical one, said Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The institute has conducted several studies that were published in peer-reviewed journals on traffic research.

Because red-light cameras are known to have a spillover effect -- meaning that they have been shown to impact the number of accidents at intersections where there are no cameras -- robust examinations of camera programs always compare crash data with that in other cities.

It's what statisticians call a control group. Unless the study authors compare crashes at the 50 intersections where red-light cameras have been installed with other intersections in which they have not been -- preferably in other cities -- no conclusions can be drawn from it.

"The design of the study doesn't allow you to draw a conclusion about the effect of the cameras," McCartt said. "We believe very strongly based on lots of other good studies that red-light cameras reduce violations and crashes. ... But I don't think this study allows a person to draw a conclusion about the effects of the program."

Bryan Porter, an associate professor of psychology at Old Dominion University who has conducted red-light camera research, said he believes study authors did the best they could with the data.

"The methods are different, as they admit, which has some weakness, as well as some interesting twists on how cameras can be evaluated," Porter wrote in an e-mail.

You could say that. All I know at this point is that more data is needed. Maybe the next one will tell us something more clearly.

He added that most research has shown red-light cameras are not revenue generators. Over time, as people learn and remember where they are, they either break even or cost money.

Somehow, I don't think that's going to settle anything, either. I suspect that whatever level of revenue these things ultimately generate, it will always be about that for some. Having said that, there is a danger that, as with cigarette and lottery revenues, the city will project a certain amount from the cameras and budget accordingly, then find itself in a squeeze because of fewer violations than expected. That happened in Dallas, and it could certainly happen here. Grits adds his criticism of the study.

The border fence versus nature

Dear President-elect Obama,

When you take office (in 20 days, not that I'm counting or anything), please make sure that one of the first things you do is to order that lawsuits filed by Homeland Security to take land to build the border fence are dropped. Like this one, for instance. Thank you very much.

Sharp makes it official

As expected, former Comptroller and two-time candidate for Lieutenant Governor John Sharp has officially filed the paperwork for a run at Kay Bailey Hutchison's presumably-to-be-open-eventually Senate seat.

In a news release, Sharp announced that he had filed his campaign papers with the Federal Elections Commission. He also said he would work to halt Wall Street bailouts and focus instead on using emergency funds to give homeowners mortgage relief.

"The challenges we face at home and abroad demand innovative solutions, not politics as usual," Sharp said. "Texans are looking for that kind of leadership."

Hutchison, whose Senate term expires in 2012, has said she may leave the Senate as early as next year to campaign. She has formed an exploratory committee to run for governor in 2010. If she leaves her Senate seat before her term ends in 2012, the governor would appoint a replacement until a special election is held.

I've reproduced the press release beneath the fold, if you're interested. Looks like he wants to talk about the economy and the Wall Street bailout, which seems like a good idea to me.

The question at this point is when exactly will the election to fill KBH's not-yet-vacated seat take place? Here are the scenarios as I see them:

November 2009 - There was a time when this was likely. Last year, I was told by a Republican insider that KBH was planning to resign just after the legislative session, to establish to any remaining doubters that she really did want to be Governor and wasn't just teasing again. With Bill White's announced entry into the race, this now seems very unlikely, since there isn't a Republican in the state who'll want that race taking place at the same time as a high-turnout Houston Mayoral election. Barring a change of direction from White, I think this just won't happen.

May 2010 - The main advantage to this scenario for the Republicans - and let's face it, the main consideration for KBH's timing is going to be what works best for the GOP, since anything she does that might be seen as a bad thing for the party will be gleefully latched onto and hammered relentlessly by Rick Perry - is that it can be timed for after the November 2010 filing deadline. That puts the Dems in a box regarding their statewide lineup for the fall. While I still think that anything can happen regarding that, I guarantee you this possibility will cause a lot of hand-wringing, and more than a few attempts to push someone one way or another. The main disadvantage from the GOP perspective is that if a Dem actually wins, then with Al Franken's apparent victory in Minnesota, the Dems will achieve the magic 60 in the Senate, if only for a few months. The Rick Casey scenario is a low-probability one, but it's still greater than zero, and who knows what may happen in a D-versus-R runoff. I think this option has a small chance of coming true, but not much more than that.

November 2010 - Has most of the advantages and disadvantages of the May 2010 scenario, though a hypothetical 60th Democratic Senator would have less time to help break filibusters. This obviously assumes KBH has won the GOP gubernatorial primary - while she could still resign anyway if she loses, I think she sticks it out till the end, if only to ensure Rick Perry doesn't choose her successor. This option has the most to do with what's best for KBH. Will she be a more effective fundraiser and get more positive press if she's still in the Senate while campaigning, or will she need to quit and concentrate full-time on her hoped-for new gig? I rate this case as slightly more probable than that of May 2010.

May 2011 - Here, KBH sticks it out in the Senate, wins her race for Governor, and resigns as close to her swearing in as she needs to in order to ensure that she taps her fill-in. That may not be as sweet a prize now thanks to the current unpleasantness in Illinois, but I'll bet it's still pretty irresistible. I think this is the single most likely choice for her, which is why I think Bill White should shift his focus to Austin, as I've suggested before, and give himself a contingency plan. And I think I'm going to be pounding on that horse till the bitter end.

November 2012 - Until KBH actually resigns, we can't say for sure she really means it this time. And even if she does resign, she hasn't won anything yet. Rick Perry certainly won't roll over. The candle I've lit for the Bill White For Governor dream is still flickering. We'll all feel pretty silly if she winds up serving out her term, won't we? Hell, she may run for re-election to the Senate at that time. You just never know. I actually think this is the second most likely outcome. Stranger things have happened.

So there you have it. Which scenario do you think is most likely? Leave a comment and let me know.

Making good on his pledge to get into the race, John Sharp today filed the official papers to run for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat held by Kay Bailey Hutchison, launching a streamlined campaign website that features a survey on his innovative plan to stop bailing out Wall Street and instead use existing emergency funds to provide nationwide mortgage relief for current and future homeowners.

"The challenges we face at home and abroad demand innovative solutions, not politics as usual," Sharp said. "Texans are looking for that kind of leadership."

Sharp filed his campaign papers with the Federal Elections Commission and took his campaign website live at http://www.johnsharp.com.

Visitors to the site can sign up for regular campaign updates, make financial contributions, and complete a brief survey on Sharp's plan to allow every current U.S. homeowner to refinance his or her mortgage at a fixed rate of 4.5 percent during the next year. Homebuyers would also qualify for the fixed rate during the same period.

"All Americans should have the right to participate in our economic recovery, and that means no more bailing out of the speculators who caused this crisis in the first place," Sharp said. "The real problem is residential mortgages so let's solve it there with a plan that benefits all homeowners and creates a housing demand that will not only solve the foreclosure problem but lower monthly payments for virtually every homeowner in America."

The mortgage buy-down plan would cost less than $100 billion while helping as many as 2.5 million households, according to an analysis by the respected Barron's. In November, Congress appropriated $700 billion for the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) to bolster the nation's financial system. About half that amount went to financial institutions and insurance corporations with little accountability. Meanwhile, credit markets remain frozen, confidence in the banking system is at record lows, and home foreclosures and plunging home values continue to threaten families and communities across the country.

Sharp said he will expand his website and add new features and detailed information about his campaign in the weeks and months ahead.

A former Texas Comptroller, Sharp earned a national reputation for innovative solutions that saved taxpayers more than $8.5 billion, helped divert a proposed state income tax, and safeguarded vital public services. His efforts served as the model for Vice President Al Gore's National Performance Review, which Sharp set up and directed.

Sharp is a native of the South Texas farming community of Placedo, near Victoria. He graduated from Texas A&M University, where he was elected student body president and commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserves. He earned his master's in public administration from Texas State University in San Marcos while working fulltime as a fiscal analyst at the Legislative Budget Board in Austin.

Meet the new bosses

Today and through the weekend, the newly-elected county officials and judges who haven't already been sworn into office will take their oaths.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett will administer the oath of office to Adrian Garcia, who becomes sheriff after having defeated incumbent Tommy Thomas in the Nov. 4 election.

Garcia, who gives up his seat on the Houston City Council, will swear his duty to the office in a private ceremony.

But Democrat Garcia will be sworn in again Sunday -- in a public celebration at Union Station at Minute Maid Park, with Emmett and Mayor Bill White scheduled to speak.

For out-in-the-open pomp and speech-making, the seating of a new district attorney, Patricia Lykos, tops today's oath-takings by dozens of public officials elected two months ago.

Her event will be stuffed with references to the justice system. D. Gibson Walton -- a former Texas Bar Association and Houston Bar Association president whose late father, Dan, served as Harris County DA -- will administer the oath to Lykos, who becomes the county's first female chief prosecutor.

Lykos and Dan Walton served together as felony court judges in the 1980s.

Her 10 a.m. ceremony will take place in the county Jury Assembly Room, 1019 Congress.

Lykos' swearing-in has caused some controversy. I suspect that while she will almost certainly be a large improvement in many ways over Chuck Rosenthal, there will be no lack of colorful stories that emerge.

As for Garcia, now that he is officially a former Council member, the process to fill his seat should begin soon. I believe the vacancy has to be formally declared, then City Council has to call for the election, which will be in May. If there are any more potential candidates out there, expect to start hearing their names soon.

More on e-waste recycling

My post on e-waste recycling drew an interesting comment from Zac Trahan, Houston Program Director for Texas Campaign for the Environment that I thought was worth sharing on the front page:

You are correct -- municipal governments throughout Texas do collect mountains of electronic waste. Each city or county must then decide on a recycling partner, and as you might guess, cities and counties must usually go with the lowest bidder. As you might also guess, the lowest bidder is in many cases a company that exports e-waste overseas, since this shameful practice is currently more lucrative than real recycling.

So far as Houston's recycling efforts go, the picture is cloudy. If a recycler is listed as an "E-Steward" then we can be sure they are not exporting. As the article mentions, there are no E-Stewards in Houston. However, if they are not E-Stewards, that doesn't mean they are exporting -- it just means we can't be sure they aren't. And we the taxpayers are paying for it whether it's really recycling or not.

This touches on the heart of the issue. Even if none of the e-waste Houston collects is exported, the companies that design and sell electronics have no concern for where they might end up. Instead, the manufacturers should be responsible for the entire life of their products. Producers should be accountable for what happens to their toxic electronic waste, not local governments and taxpayers.

Texas passed such a law to cover computer equipment in the 2007 session. Although its provisions to stop export were lacking, now all computer manufacturers selling products in Texas must offer free recycling. You can see the results so far at www.texasrecyclescomputers.org. We have also been successful in convincing several TV makers to offer recycling. Visit www.texastakeback.com for more on how to recycle your e-waste in Houston. We urge people to make use of the manufacturer recycling programs whenever possible.

Texas Campaign for the Environment will be pressuring lawmakers to strengthen this law and extend it to cover other e-waste, such as TVs. We are also working with U.S. Congress member Gene Green on federal legislation to stop export. We make progress by building broad community support and public pressure to hold our lawmakers accountable. Visit www.texasenvironment.org for more on this issue.

Good to know. And it seems to me that a simple thing that cities like Houston can do to ensure that they are not part of the problem here is to partner with computer manufacturers, and hopefully eventually TV and other electronics makers, to use their recycling centers like Westpark as dropoff locations for such e-waste, since they are already generally well known. The manufacturers can then take it from there by whatever arrangement is mutually agreeable. People will still be free to take their stuff directly to the manufacturers, but those who continue to patronize the city locations should be accommodated as well. That seems like a no-brainer to me.

And speaking of the city's recycling centers, now is the time to take your Christmas tree in to be mulched. The city's Christmas tree recycling program is going on now through January 7, though locations are closed today. There are 14 locations around the city for this. Please note the following:

Please remove tinsel, plastic bags, tree stands and water bowls. NO FLOCKED TREES ACCEPTED. Trees will be collected curbside.

For more information, call 3-1-1.

At least you know your tree will be disposed of properly this way. Please take advantage of this.

RIP, Penthouse Club

Back in September, the city won a temporary injunction against The Penthouse Club, as part of a wider effort to sue a bunch of strip clubs out of business on the grounds that they represent public nuisances. That injunction has now been made permanent.

[Tuesday's] ruling, issued by outgoing State District Judge Caroline Baker, is permanent. The location will be shut down as any kind of business for the next year, and as real estate, the location can never again be used as a sexually oriented business, no matter who the owner is, the ruling states.

I'm not sure what the point is of requiring the location to be fallow for a year. Seems to me that has a fair amount of potential for being a nuisance as well. Be that as it may, this is another big win for the city in its decade-plus war on strip clubs. The Penthouse Club was one of four establishments that the city sued as part of this tactic; as far as I know, it's the only one to have been closed, temporarily or otherwise. I don't know what the other clubs are or what the disposition of their legal cases are, but I suspect that one of Mayor White's legacies when he leaves office in a year will be fewer such places operating than when he came in. I'll leave it to you whether you consider that a positive development or not.

UPDATE: From the updated version of the story:

Now, the city intends to file a massive lawsuit this month using similar measures to close 30 to 40 of the businesses at once.

Police and city officials believe as many as 120 sexually-oriented businesses in Houston may be operating against the law, although about a dozen have obtained a legal permit.

Better plan that bachelor party now, while you still can.