The Paxton opportunity

Posted on June 21, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

From Axios:

Still a crook any way you look

A new private GOP poll is showing Republicans facing a growing problem in the Texas Senate race, the third such survey in just a month.

Why it matters: Republicans haven’t lost a statewide race in Texas in more than three decades, but party officials concede they may need to spend millions to keep the seat this year.

  • “The problem is nobody with the necessary gravitas seems to be willing to state the obvious: this is shaping up to be a f***ing disaster,” a senior GOP Senate aide told Axios.

Zoom in: Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) trails state Attorney General Ken Paxton by 16 percentage points in a new survey conducted by veteran Republican pollster Chris Wilson. A copy was obtained by Axios.

  • But Paxton trails a generic Democrat by three percentage points in a general election matchup.
  • The establishment-aligned Cornyn performs far better than Paxton in a general election, leading a Democrat by seven percentage points.
  • The survey results are similar to recent surveys conducted by the GOP-aligned Senate Leadership Fund super PAC and the American Opportunity Alliance, a network of influential Republican donors.

Between the lines: Paxton was impeached by the state House of Representatives in 2023 on bribery and corruption charges but was later acquitted by the state Senate.

  • “If the goal is to maintain a GOP Senate majority and maximize Trump’s down-ballot coattails in Texas, Paxton’s nomination is a strategic liability,” Wilson, who has advised Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), said in a memo accompanying the poll.
  • “If Paxton wins the primary, the GOP is on a path to hand Democrats their best Senate opportunity in a generation,” Wilson added.

See here for more on that previous poll. Without seeing the data, it’s hard to say what the magnitude of the threat for Republicans is. As I said before, it’s a different situation if Paxton is underperforming Cornyn while the Dem level stays more or less the same than it is if some amount of Cornyn’s support is getting transferred to the Dem. We also don’t know how well an actual named Democrat – there are plenty to choose from at this point – would do compared to the idea of a Democrat. This is all suggestive and no doubt a big part of the reason why so many Dems are circling around this race, but there’s a vast distance between these two insider polls and a Dem victory in this race.

Also, too, and with all due respect to my Republican pals, I have no idea who this person with “the necessary gravitas” might be that could calmly and persuasively explain to the seething horde that is the Republican primary electorate why voting for Ken Paxton might not be a great idea for them. Like, seriously, this isn’t 2002 and the whole reason why there’s so much fear of what those crazy primary voters might do is exactly because Republicans have been taking a blowtorch to all forms of the establishment for decades. Allow me to put this in simpler terms:

You’re welcome.

(Here’s another article about who’s publicly musing about running for this or that. It name-checks outgoing San Antonion Mayor Ron Nirenberg but otherwise doesn’t have much in the way of new information.)

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Humble ISD names a replacement Trustee

Posted on June 21, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

In with the old.

The Humble ISD board unanimously appointed former trustee Ken Kirchhofer to fill a vacant board seat after an extended executive session Tuesday night.

Kirchhofer, who abstained from the vote, lost a reelection bid on May 3 after having served on the board of the northeastern Harris County school district since 2021.

While the board, with new members Elizabeth Shaw and Oscar Silva, unanimously approved Kirchhofer’s appointment, trustee Robert Scarfo said there would be a caveat that Kirchhofer could not run again for the seat in May 2027, the district’s next regularly scheduled board election.

Kirchhofer had run for re-election on May 3, but he was successfully challenged by Brittnai Brown who won the race by just over 4,000 votes, and Tracy Shannon, a third challenger, who ended up with about 40 more votes than Kirchhofer.

Despite Brown’s win, she was declared ineligible as a candidate shortly after the results were announced when Shannon filed a lawsuit challenging Brown’s voter registration records. After a review, the district found that Brown was ineligible because she did not register to vote with her new Humble ISD address 30 days before the deadline to file for local office. In a statement previously emailed to the Houston Chronicle, Brown said she had changed her voter registration a few hours before she submitted her application for a place on the ballot under the assumption that if she changed her voter registration online, it would be immediately valid. In reality, it takes 30 days for changes to voter registration to be reflected in the record.

Since the seat was declared vacant, Kirchhofer was chosen to remain on the board under the holdover position of the Texas Constitution, said Humble ISD spokesperson Jamie Mount.

Kirchhofer said in a statement Tuesday that he was humbled by the appointment, and said it reflected the board’s “confidence and trust” in his candidacy.

However Shannon said that the move was a “slap in the face.”

“Other candidates who ran for school board also hoped to apply for the appointment or run in a special election, including Scott Ford and Natalie Carter. I think the community deserved for these candidates to also have a shot at it,” Shannon said.

“Voters made it clear that there was a call for accountability in this district,” she continued, “It appears as though it is going to business as usual for Humble ISD, and this is not a good thing for our district.”

See here and here for the background. I don’t have a problem with the Board making this choice. At least you know he’s qualified for the role. I can understand Shannon’s being upset about it, but she also has an interest in the outcome. If I were to quibble with this, it would be to say that the appointment should only be through the end of the year, and there should be a November election to fill out the rest of the term for this position. That would allow both Tracy Shannon and Brittnai Brown to run again, with Brown now qualifying for the election. Maybe Humble ISD didn’t have the option of a short-term appointment, and maybe they just didn’t want to incur the expense of another election, I don’t know. But that to me would have been the fairest option.

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Abbott appoints Sen. Hancock as Comptroller

Posted on June 20, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

New guy alert.

Kelly Hancock

Republican state Sen. Kelly Hancock launched his campaign for state comptroller Thursday shortly after taking a senior position at the comptroller’s office.

His appointment as chief clerk to Comptroller Glenn Hegar paves the way for Hanock, a North Richland Hill Republican, to become interim comptroller after Hegar leaves his office in June. And it gives Hancock an edge in a growing Republican primary race next year.

“Kelly is a great fit to serve as the chief financial officer of Texas,” Hegar said in a statement, who is stepping down to become chancellor of the Texas A&M University System. “As a long-serving member of the Texas Legislature, he helped shape sound financial policy and authored the state’s conservative spending cap legislation”

Hegar added that Hancock is honest, trustworthy, and an “all-around good guy.”

Hancock, in a statement, cited his conservative bona fides on border security, noting he was one of the first Republican senators to call for ending in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants, which the state did earlier this month.

“For over a decade, I’ve fought for Texas taxpayers in the Legislature, cutting red tape, passing conservative budget reforms, and holding government accountable,” Hancock said in his campaign announcement. “As Comptroller, I’ll make sure your tax dollars are spent wisely, transparently, and responsibly.”

A quirk in state law prohibited Gov. Greg Abbott from directly appointing Hancock comptroller. Senators cannot be appointed to another position that requires Senate confirmation.

[…]

Entering the primary season as the interim will almost certainly give Hancock a leg up in a race that’s already getting crowded. Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick and former state Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, are already in the race, and Huffines has been raking in endorsements — including one from U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

Abbott was quick to endorse Hancock, in the process throwing an elbow at Huffines, who as a state senator lost his reelection bid to Democrat Nathan Johnson in 2018.

“I endorse Kelly Hancock because I want a candidate who will actually win the election, not someone who has already lost an election to a Democrat,” Abbott said in a statement.

See here for the background. In my eyes, anyone who would advocate for a harmful and destructive policy as the repeal of the state’s DREAM Act is automatically disqualified from the label of “all-around good guy”, but that’s the modern Republican Party for you. Hancock was one of two Senators to vote to convict Ken Paxton in the impeachment trial, so he does have that much going for him. He’s probably capable of basic addition and subtraction, and he’s not completely insane, so as far as that goes I’d take him over Don Huffines. But that’s like saying I’d take leprosy over being eaten by a school of piranha.

The Fort Worth Report adds an important detail.

Hancock, who represents Fort Worth, resigned from the Senate before he was sworn in as the chief clerk of the Texas Comptroller’s office on June 19. He will assume the role of acting comptroller July 1 when Glenn Hegar, a Republican elected to the statewide position in 2014, assumes his new role as chancellor of the Texas A&M University System.

“Kelly is a great fit to serve as the chief financial officer of Texas,” Hegar said in a statement.

Hancock’s ascension to comptroller came with a hitch: A 2002 attorney general’s opinion required Hancock resign from the Senate and briefly take a job in the agency before becoming interim comptroller after Hegar’s exit.

[…]

Hancock has been in the Senate since 2013 after serving as House member from 2006 to 2012.

He represents Senate District 9, which is fully enclosed within Tarrant County and encompasses more than 46% of the county’s population in the northern and western part of the county.

The district includes a large part of Fort Worth and eastern suburbs reaching to Hurst and Bedford.

His departure from the Senate could likely touch off a scramble of candidates to replace him, though only one has been prominently mentioned as a potential candidate: Rep. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth.

“I am prayerfully considering a run for Senate upon a vacancy in SD9,” Schatzline told online news outlet The Texan.

If Schatzline runs for Hancock’s seat, it will create an opening for the Fort Worth Republican’s House seat in 2026.

I assumed Hancock had to resign for this, because you can’t hold two offices simultaneously. That should mean a special election in SD09 this November, possibly sooner if Abbott does decide to call a special session for re-redistricting. While SD09 was basically a 60-40 district in 2024, given the current environment it could make for an interesting race, certainly one that Dems should contest as fiercely as possible. Put a pin in that for later. Hancock’s term is up in 2026 anyway, so whatever else happens there will be an open Senate seat for someone to run for next year as well.

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Tarrant County plaintiffs amend their complaint

Posted on June 20, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

From the Lone Star Project:

Attorneys acting on behalf of an expanded list of citizen plaintiffs have amended claims against MAGA County Judge Tim O’Hare and Tarrant County Texas for the adoption of a mid-decade County Commissioners Precinct map that violates the Voting Rights Act and the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

O’Hare Confirms His Racism and Intentional Discrimination

The amended brief leads with damning evidence of intentional discrimination in remarks made by MAGA Republican Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare. On the day of the vote, in comments later aired by NBC affiliate KXAS TV, O’Hare reveals that race was top-of-mind. Quoted in Paragraph 1 on Page 1 of the brief, O’Hare says:

“The policies of Democrats continue to fail Black people over and over and over, but many of them keep voting them in. It’s time for people of all races to understand the Democrats are a lost party, they are a radical party, it’s time for them to get on board with us and we’ll welcome them with open arms.”

Pointing out O’Hare’s blunt assessment of race and political behavior, the amended brief states in Paragraph 2 on Page 2:

A government official casting the deciding vote in favor of a map that reduces from two to one the number of majority-minority districts cannot have as even one iota of his purpose the fact that “many of them”—referring to Black voters— choose different candidates than he would prefer. A political subdivision cannot redraw district boundaries along racial lines because the government official casting the deciding vote thinks that “[i]t’s time for people of all races” to start agreeing with his views. And a political subdivision cannot redraw district boundaries along racial lines because “[i]t’s time for them,” i.e., Black voters and voters of “all races,” “to get on board” with his policy views.

Over 150,000 Mostly Minority Citizens Disenfranchised

The amended brief further lays out in great detail how the shifting of over 300,000 citizens between commissioner precincts results in more than 150,000 being denied the right to vote at all in the 2026 county commissioner elections and forced to wait six full years to cast a county commissioner ballot. The number of Black and Hispanic citizens disenfranchised far outnumbers Anglos. The brief reads in Paragraph 7 on Pages 3 and 4:

Map 7 also disenfranchises over 150,000 people of voting age in Tarrant County who were next entitled to vote for a commissioner candidate in the November 2026 election by moving them from an even numbered precinct to an odd-numbered precinct. These voters are denied their right to vote in the 2026 election and their right to vote is abridged by forcing them to wait six years (from 2022 until 2028) to participate in the election of commissioners, who are elected to four-year terms. This disenfranchisement falls starkly along racial lines. Black voters and Latino voters are both disproportionately disenfranchised compared to Anglo voters, who are disproportionately unaffected. While Map 7 disenfranchises just 5% of Tarrant County’s Anglo adults, it disenfranchises 19% of the County’s Black adults and 12% of its Latino adults. Black adults are thus four times more likely than Anglo adults to be disenfranchised under Map 7 and Latino adults are over twice as likely to be disenfranchised as Anglo adults

Background

The redrawn Tarrant County Commissioners’ map was challenged by Tarrant County Texas citizens last week shortly after its passage. The map was adopted despite overwhelming objections of Tarrant County citizens who were forced to endure verbal abuse from O’Hare throughout the hearing and especially during the period of public comment. O’Hare cut off citizens mid-statement, routinely kicked them out of the building for exercising their right to free speech, and he ejected one person for just clapping.

Read the entire amended brief HERE and go to the Lone Star Project’s Tarrant County redistricting page for more background.

See here for the background. I will note, the claim about some voters being disenfranchised because they were moved from a precinct that had an election in the next year to one that would have it in the following two-year cycle was raised by plaintiffs against the Harris County Commissioners Court redraw and was largely disregarded by the Supreme Court in the mandamus that was filed to stop the plan from being enacted. This claim is a little different, partly because of the racial aspect, partly because it’s an off-year redo, and partly because of the six-year gap in voting that some people would endure. (*) Whether that will make any difference in court, I couldn’t say. For a fuller look back at the history of how we got here, see the Star-Telegram.

(*) I suppose this would have been the case in Harris as well – if you’d been in Precinct 4 and voted in 2018 and expected to vote in 2022 but had to wait until 2024 because you were moved into Precinct 3, or something like that. I don’t think this particular claim was raised in Harris, though – the story about the lawsuit cited a just-turned-18 plaintiff who expected to vote for Commissioner for the first time in 2022 but had to wait instead. Kinda sorta the same but not quite. Anyway, my point is I don’t think this particular claim was adjudicated in the Harris County lawsuit, so it’s at least something new to consider.

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Texas State appears to be headed for the PAC-12

Posted on June 20, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Wow.

Texas State is the heavy favorite, per ESPN sources, to be issued a formal Pac-12 invitation. The league is still engaged with other schools, per sources, but Texas State has clearly emerged at the forefront of that group.

On July 1, the buyout for Texas State to leave the Sun Belt for the 2026-27 season will rise from $5 million to $10 million. This is obviously a bigger motivator for Texas State than the Pac-12, but it’s seemingly a significant enough deadline to trigger action.

For the Pac-12 to bring in a new partner in a time of financial uncertainty for the league, it would make sense to offer Texas State prior to July 1. After all, the Pac-12 needs an eighth football member for 2026, so they have their own deadline looming.

In realignment, of course, nothing is official until it’s signed. And nothing is formal until it’s completed. So with Texas State and the Pac-12, sources said the best way to explain the courtship is that the league is currently exploring making an offer in the upcoming weeks.

Texas State has loomed for months as the favorite to join the league and was prominently discussed in the Pac-12’s virtual meeting earlier this week. It has been the league’s top target for months and is expected to have voting support, as the league’s presidents are enamored with a foothold in the state and [university President Kelly] Damphousse’s leadership.

Texas State is booming as a university with an enrollment of more than 40,000, and it boasts a lot of tenets of football potential, with a rich local talent base and a rising young coach, G.J. Kinne, at the helm.

The league’s presidents won’t vote on Texas State until they are ready for the process to unfold in rapid-fire succession. That’s expected to come before July 1. Texas State turned down a verbal offer from the Mountain West last fall, which athletic director Don Coryell called “preliminary discussions with an interested conference.”

Texas State, if the Pac-12 process unfolds as expected, would be the league’s ninth member overall and eighth football member. Part of the feeling of inevitability of the invitation is tied to necessity. The league needs to grow to eight football members in order to qualify as an FBS conference. (Gonzaga is the non-football member.) Internally at the Pac-12, Texas State has long been viewed as the best readily available option for that eighth spot.

The exit fee looms as a significant motivator, as Texas State would join to start the 2026 season.

See here, here, and here for some background. Gotta hand it to Oregon State and Washington State for making so much lemonade out of the mess they were handed. I don’t know whether the new PAC-12 will be considered to be a “major” conference anymore, but the fact that it still exists is nothing short of amazing.

CBS Sports adds on.

Texas State was a power at the Division II level before moving up to I-AA in the 1980s, winning a pair of national titles under legendary coach Jim Wacker. Dennis Franchione helped transition the Bobcats to the FBS level in 2012, and the program landed in a resurgent Sun Belt one year later. Until Kinne arrived in 2023, though, the program posted eight straight losing seasons and zero bowl appearances. In two years, Kinne has notched 16 wins and consecutive First Responder Bowl victories in the past two years.

So why is Texas State such a hot commodity in the realignment world? It has everything to do with being in the right place at the right time.

The college football landscape has shifted dramatically over the past five years, and no state has felt those changes more than Texas. The Longhorns’ departure for the SEC shook the state. If Texas State ultimately leaves the Sun Belt for the Pac-12, it will be the ninth out of 13 FBS teams in the state to change affiliations since 2021. The lower levels have been even more impacted, including Sam Houston’s ascension from FCS to the FBS level.

At this time, seven of the nine FBS conferences feature at least one team in the state of Texas. Three of the four Power Four leagues also boast a representative after the ACC added SMU last season. The only exceptions are Midwest-based conferences Big Ten and MAC.

The relationship between Texas and football goes without saying, and makes even the middle and lower class of FBS teams intriguing investments. The AAC was attracted by access to major markets when they added North Texas, Rice and UTSA. Recruiting inroads are also critical, and Texas is the greatest producer of football talent in the world.

But perhaps most important, Texas is one of the greatest growth markets in the country. Texas is adding more population than any state in the union, with much of it settling around Austin. That makes Texas State a major potential upside play as it continues to build its brand on the regional and national level.

They’ve come a long way in a short time, that’s for sure. I wish them good luck.

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Yes, make the Mayor report on cancelled projects

Posted on June 19, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

I support this plan.

CM Julian Ramirez

As Houston City Council prepares to vote on a whopping $16.7 billion plan for city projects over the next five years, one council member is proposing a greater level of transparency from Mayor John Whitmire when it comes to his administration’s plans for projects in their districts.

At-Large Council Member Julian Ramirez put forward three amendments Tuesday to the city’s capital improvement plan that would require the mayor to give monthly reports to each individual council member on projects that were canceled, delayed, redesigned or altered in their district.

A second proposal would allow council members to object to the administration’s change within 10 days of the report if three or more council members opposed it. After an objection is filed, the item would then appear on a council agenda within two weeks for the council as a whole to decide its fate.

A third would allow public hearings to happen for the procurement of goods or services related to the creation or removal of a project, per a council member’s request.

The first two proposals were co-sponsored by Council Member Abbie Kamin, who represents neighborhoods like Montrose and the Heights.

Ramirez told the Houston Chronicle after Tuesday’s meeting the proposal came about after he heard complaints from council members about projects included on the capital improvement plan that either weren’t done or continuously pushed back. When projects are lost or changed, residents often look to their council member for an explanation, Ramirez explained.

Houston operates under a strong-mayor form a government where the mayor holds near-total control over the city’s legislative agenda.

“It’s really beyond the council members control, because it’s up to the administration to to take care of all that,” Ramirez said. “This is a way for council members to stay better informed and be better able to communicate with their residents and advocate for their residents.”

Ramirez said changes without notification probably happen no matter who is the mayor, and that he’s had good luck working with Whitmire.

“That said, with a strong mayor, form of government, it is possible for a mayor to to punish, to try to punish council member, if so inclined, by changing the CIP, withholding projects, what have you,” Ramirez said. “I haven’t seen that occur under this administration. I’m sure that it has happened under other mayors, and so I think council should have a little better way of dealing with that.”

Whitmire told the Chronicle following the council meeting that he had heard the proposed change for the first time Tuesday, and planned to meet with Ramirez to discuss the amendments further.

Three guesses as to why CM Kamin might be in on this action. While I agree with CM Ramirez that this sort of thing can (and almost certainly does) happen regardless of who is the Mayor, I’d say it’s been more noticeable with this Mayor. Be that as it may, I like this idea and I hope Council approves all three amendments.

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KP George switches parties

Posted on June 19, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Hilarious.

Judge KP George

Fort Bend County Judge KP George has made the switch from Democrat to Republican as he faces felony charges of money laundering.

George stated that he is joining the Republican Party because, “The Democratic Party has embraced a corrupt and radical ideology” and “its positions no longer reflect the values of Fort Bend County families, small businesses also hardworking residents.”

The Republican party, he said at a news conference Wednesday, is more aligned with his values of “faith, family and freedom.”

“I realized the Republican Party that champions these values,” he said. “I chose a side, and it turned out to be the wrong place, and I’m fixing that.”

George says that he plans to run for re-election in 2026 as a Republican.

[…]

George, the county’s top elected official, is accused of money laundering between $30,000 and $150,000 in the form of campaign finance fraud that took place between Jan. 12, 2019 and April 22, 2019. George took office as county judge on Jan. 1 of that year.

George was also accused last year of trying to injure the reputation of Trever Nehls, George’s Republican opponent in his 2022 re-election bid, by collaborating with his former chief of staff, Taral Patel to create fake profiles to attack Nehls and his supporters.

Patel in a plea deal with the district attorney’s office on April 15 admitted that he committed online misrepresentation with George in order to sway the election in George’s favor.

See here, here, and here for some background. I’ve maintained all along that like everyone else, George is innocent until proven guilty, and I’m not going to change that tune just because he’s changed his stripes. That said, I think I speak for basically all Democrats when I say that we’re glad to have all that baggage off the books. A guy with multiple felony indictments running into the arms of the Republican Party? On brand, that’s for sure. I had previously said he should seriously consider stepping down so he could concentrate on getting his life back in order. Not going to happen now, obviously. Good luck in that Republican primary, dude.

KUHF adds some details.

George’s party change gives Republicans a 3-2 majority on the Fort Bend County Commissioners Court at a time when they are considering redrawing voters precincts in the diverse, largely suburban county southwest of Houston.

At a news conference Wednesday, George said redistricting is a priority for him as well as lowering taxes and decreasing spending.

“Like President (Donald) Trump, I will stand up and fight against the radical leftists who seek to tear down the values we hold very close to our heart,” he said.

Several Democrats have announced that they’re running for George’s seat in 2026. A former Sugar Land city council member has announced a run as a Republican and a former GOP state lawmaker also is considering a bid for the office.

[…]

George’s former and current Republican political opponents condemned his change in party affiliation as a way to avoid taking responsibility for his actions.

“I was one of the people targeted in that smear campaign,” Trever Nehls, a Republican who ran for county judge in 2022, said in a statement while referencing the misrepresentation of identity charge against George. “I saw how low he was willing to go. This isn’t a shift in beliefs. It’s a calculated move to escape accountability.”

Former Sugar Land city council member Daniel Wong will face George in the Republican primary. Wong accused George of “running from his record.”

“The Republican Party stands for accountability, transparency and service,” Wong said in a statement. “It is not a refuge for career politicians looking to escape the consequences of their actions.”

Former state lawmaker Jacey Jetton, a Republican who’s also considering a bid for county judge, expressed similar sentiments.

“Trying to play the victim now is not a strategy Republican voters should fall for in a Republican primary,” he said. “And Fort Bend County voters are not going to reward this kind of behavior with another term.”

The re-redistricting threat, which Republicans never seem to get tired of, makes this all a little less funny. At least Tarrant County had the fig leaf of not having redrawn their precincts in 2021, when they were supposed to have done it. Whatever happens here happens, I can’t control it. With a bit of luck it can be held up in court long enough to be moot, if they do try to move forward. And boy, is that Republican primary going to be fun.

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What’s next for Ron Nirenberg?

Posted on June 19, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Hopefully something political.

Ron Nirenberg

In his last official address as mayor, Ron Nirenberg described how a global pandemic shook the one of the country’s most impoverished large cities into action on addressing poverty — and shaped his own approach to leadership for whatever comes next.

To a City Council chambers packed with friends and supporters on Monday, Nirenberg said the role has taught him much about guiding principles.

“In short, you bet the farm on the potential of the people,” he said.

[…]

Rumors have been swirling for months about what might come next for Nirenberg, who managed a radio station at Trinity University before running for public office.

He unseated an incumbent to become mayor, then took office with a distinctly apolitical approach to the nonpartisan role — steering the city away from ideas like defunding the police that made progressive leaders in Texas’ other urban centers less popular.

Near the end of his term, however, Nirenberg, now 48, went full Democrat, hitting the campaign trail for Vice President Kamala Harris, helping approve a controversial abortion travel fund and sharpening his criticism of state GOP leaders.

At the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce gala roughly a week ago Nirenberg joked that by the next time he addressed the group, it could be with a different political title — and he vowed to keep finding ways to serve the community.

But as far as formal plans after leaving office, so far he’s only announced a part-time teaching gig at Trinity University this fall.

Still, as Nirenberg prepares for a potential future in the hyper-polarized world of partisan politics, he continued leaning into his attacks on Republican policies coming out of the state and federal government in Monday’s speech.

“We continue to weather the state and national politicization of disease, gender, autonomy, and the simple freedom of choice,” Nirenberg said. “We deserve to live our lives how we want to live them — and until all are able to do so, the work must continue.”

I am rooting for soon-to-be-former Mayor Nirenberg to stay active in politics. He’d make a good statewide candidate if that’s something he’d want to do. Big city mayors should be a key component to our bench, and outside of San Antonio the pickings are pretty slim. He’s young enough to bide his time and pick an opportunity that he really likes, but I hope he’s got a big swing in him.

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Texas blog roundup for the week of June 16

Posted on June 19, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

The Texas Progressive Alliance stands with the people of Los Angeles and against the rule of kings as it brings you this week’s roundup.

Continue reading →

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The other redistricting matter

Posted on June 18, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s a story from the Fort Worth Report on the redistricting trial going on in El Paso, with a focus on the effect in Tarrant County.

Federal judges in El Paso are reviewing a lawsuit that alleges Texas redistricting architects racially discriminated against minority voters in drastically reshaping a Tarrant County-based state Senate district.

Under the 2021 redistricting plan by the Legislature, state Senate District 10, which had been based largely in southern Tarrant County, was stretched across a half-dozen counties to the west and south, with a resulting demographic shift to higher numbers of both white and Republican residents.

Beverly Powell, a Democrat who represented Senate District 10 at the time, joined then-Tarrant County Commissioner Roy Brooks and other North Texas plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the plan and later withdrew from seeking reelection in the face of likely defeat.

Nearly four years later, the Senate District 10 case is part of a consolidated group of redistricting challenges being heard before a three-judge panel. Designating Gov. Greg Abbott as the chief defendant, at least six major plaintiff groups are contesting electoral maps on the grounds that they ignored surging Latino growth in the last decade and diluted the influence of Blacks and Hispanics at the ballot box.

The trial started May 21.

[…]

Matt Angle, Texas political analyst and founder of the Democrat-aligned Lone Star Project, said the Senate District 10 redistricting is “by far” a dominant issue in the El Paso trial as the “most egregious violation of the Voting Rights Act.”

The plan retained parts of Tarrant County and neighboring Parker County, but stretched much of Senate District 10 out of the populous Fort Worth-Dallas region to include all of Brown, Callahan, Johnson, Palo Pinto, Shackelford and Stephens counties.

“They cracked apart all the minority areas of that district and packed them into areas that were largely white areas,” Powell told the Fort Worth Report, using terms associated with redistricting tactics. “And it’s a sad shame that they completely — what’s the word I’m looking for? — annihilated the voice of minorities across Senate District 10.”

Powell, now a special assistant to Texas Wesleyan University President Emily Messer, spent one term in the Senate and moved to Fort Worth about three years ago with her banker husband, Charlie Powell. In 2018, she defeated Sen. Konni Burton, a Republican, for the Senate District 10 seat.

After the 2021 redistricting, Powell declared the reelection race as “unwinnable” and withdrew, giving an opening to former Fort Worth policeman and long-time state Rep. Phil King of Weatherford, who was unopposed as the only Republican in the 2022 general election.

See here, here, here, and here for some background on the SD10 part of this, and here for more on the ongoing trial, for which I’ve seen basically no news since it began. I’d forgotten that SD10 was still part of this, because once there was no temporary restraining order to prevent the new district from being used in the primary, it was already a loss from the Democratic perspective. Even with a win and an eventual opportunity to take SD10 back, the best case scenario is probably the 2028 election, meaning that it would have been illegally drawn for Republicans for nearly the entire decade. Pretty good deal for the lawbreakers, if indeed they are ruled to have broken the law. Needless to say, SCOTUS has done a lot to stack the odds in their favor.

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A “home rule school district” inside HISD?

Posted on June 18, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Today I Learned there is such a thing as a “home rule school district”, and some HISD parents want to form one.

A small West Houston group wants to create its own charter-governed district within the state’s largest school district, Houston ISD, as a way to return autonomy to the community.

The idea, spearheaded by about 20 people, would take advantage of a state law that allows for a “home-rule school district.” The group believes it would allow HISD’s Westside High School feeder pattern in the Energy Corridor to choose curriculum and learning methods outside of state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles’ mandates. They also said it would help area schools keep qualified teachers through “alternative, locally determined methods,” according to a June 8 statement from the West Houston Independence Movement.

The idea arises amid stringent reforms and classroom teaching methods enforced by Houston ISD’s state-appointed leadership. Such methods include the heavy use of timers in classrooms and district-determined curriculum with material generated by artificial intelligence. The district’s more than 270 schools have varying levels of autonomy to choose how instruction occurs.

Parents at West Briar Middle School, in the Westside feeder pattern, previously signed a petition to protest staff departures and culture at the school. That petition was followed by a protest in April.

Anna Heinzelmann, a Westside High School parent, said a home-rule school district would give the area more autonomy. They do not want to break away from HISD or change its boundaries, she said.

“Because we are pretty far from literally any other facilities in HISD. The next Sunrise Center (district-backed resource center) is about 20 to 30 minutes, depending where you are in the westside panhandle,” she said. “And we want more local control over staffing, funding, programming, facilities, so that maybe we can actually improve the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems and have that on during the day when most of them are breaking.”

State law indicates home-rule school districts have the powers of school districts and boards of trustees, including taxing authority.

The trustees would appoint a charter commission to frame a home-rule school district charter. This happens if the board receives a petition requesting the appointment of a charter commission signed by at least 5% of the registered voters of the district, or if at least two-thirds of the board adopt a resolution ordering that a charter commission be appointed. Fifteen residents would serve on the commission.

The proposed charter would be submitted to the Secretary of State, who will determine whether the proposed charter has a change in governance of the school district. If it does, the board of trustees will be notified, and the board will submit the proposed change to the U.S. Department of Justice or the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Following submission of the charter to the state education commissioner, the district’s board will order an election on the charter.

It is not clear how and if a home-rule school district charter could apply to a portion of the district and its potential effects on board representation and governance.

[…]

The home-rule school district law draws concerns even among takeover-opponents seeking more autonomy for schools.

Ruth Kravetz, with Community Voices for Public Education and a vocal opponent of the takeover, said she understands why west Houston parents are “rightfully concerned about the harm that the takeover is doing to the communities they live in.”

“I understand how people think this is an easy solution, but it solves the problem for a moment in time and then creates more problems,” she said. “It solves the problem for the individual, but not for the city as a whole… The takeover is harming kids. If they separate, it will still be harming kids. And all that happens is those who are most negatively impacted by the bad policies… there’ll be no change for them.”

As I said, I’d never heard of this before. The law was passed in 1995, when there was a lot of “education reform” stuff going on. The article doesn’t mention any existing home rule districts, though there has been some talk in the past about it in Dallas. I don’t know what the pros and cons might be, but philosophically I’m aligned with Ruth Kravetz here. I sympathize with the complaint these folks have about the Sunrise Centers – the previous wraparound services model was much better – but I’m getting uncomfortable “suburban flight” vibes from this. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe there’s more to this than meets the eye, but I’d need to be strongly persuaded otherwise. For now, pending significant new information, I’m deeply skeptical.

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Counties get temporary restraining order on prosecutor reporting requirements

Posted on June 18, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Good, but we’ll see how long it lasts.

Still a crook any way you look

A Travis County Judge temporarily blocked the enforcement of a new rule requiring prosecutors in counties with 400,000 or more residents to turn over data on active and closed criminal cases to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Paxton announced on March 31 that he would adopt a new rule requiring district and county attorneys to provide specific performance reports, and access to detailed report information upon request, according to a release by the attorney general.

Paxton said the rule is meant to “assist citizens in determining whether their local elected officials are inadequately prosecuting certain categories of crime, releasing dangerous criminals back into the community, engaging in selective prosecution, or otherwise failing to uphold their obligations.”

However, Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee called the ruling for the policy that took effect in April “nothing more than a power grab for the attorney.”

“Paxton is trying to intimidate locally elected prosecutors and use his office to score political points,” Menefee said in a written statement.

The ruling from the Travis County judge comes after a lawsuit filed by Menefee on behalf of Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, alongside several other Texas counties and district attorneys.

“We’re not going to let that happen in Harris County,” Menefee said.

See here for the background. There were two separate lawsuits, one filed by Dallas, Harris, and Bexar, and the other by El Paso and Travis. Not clear to me if this TRO applies to one or both; it may also be that the suits have been combined. The AG’s order would have taken effect on July 1 had this order not been issued. That is stayed pending the outcome of the lawsuit(s), modulo any appellate activity. Paxton normally contests rulings like these, so we’ll see where this goes from here.

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Beware of Flock

Posted on June 17, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

It started with this.

Flock, the automatic license plate reader (ALPR) company whose cameras are installed in more than 5,000 communities in the U.S., is building a product that will use people lookup tools, data brokers, and data breaches to “jump from LPR [license plate reader] to person,” allowing police to much more easily identify and track the movements of specific people around the country without a warrant or court order, according to internal Flock presentation slides, Slack chats, and meeting audio obtained by 404 Media.

The news turns Flock, already a controversial technology, into a much more invasive tool, potentially able to link a vehicle passing by a camera to its owner and then more people connected to them, through marriage or other association. The new product development has also led to Flock employees questioning the ethics of using hacked data as part of their surveillance product, according to the Slack chats. Flock told 404 Media the tool is already being used by some law enforcement agencies in an early access program.

The rest of that story is behind a paywall, but other media outlets have picked up on it and gone from there, starting with The Barbed Wire.

ICE does not have a contract with Flock, which 404 Media noted as an indication that the federal department is using local agencies as side-door access to the tool.

The data reveals that several law enforcement agencies in Texas have conducted searches of the Flock camera network for immigration-related purposes — underscoring the pervasive spread of mass surveillance technology and how local law enforcement agencies are quietly using it to support deportation efforts.

Another recent story from 404 Media punctuates the point and demonstrates that it’s not just a matter of immigration. The outlet reported that a sheriff in Johnson County ran a Flock search for a woman who they said self-administered an abortion, citing concerns from her family about her safety. Last summer, Attorney General Ken Paxton asked a judge to strike down a rule that protects the privacy of pregnant people who travel across state lines to get abortions. Several Texas counties also have tried to ban travel out of state for abortion, which is illegal in Texas. If such bans become law, there’s little to stop law enforcement agencies from using license plate readers to track and charge abortion seekers.

[…]

The Danville Flock Network Audit contains immigration related searches from Texas law enforcement agencies as far back as June 2024, including a total of 307 immigration related searches. Each search has a “reason” field, and all of the 307 searches related to immigration feature keywords in the reason field such as “immigration,” “ICE,” or “DHS.”

That data shows that at least five Texas law enforcement agencies have conducted at least 180 immigration related searches using Flock since January. The Texas law enforcement agencies that conducted immigration related searches in the Flock database and the number of searches they ran in 2025 are as follows: Dallas Police Department, 17; Houston Police Department, 109, Midland Police Department, 2; Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, 2; and the Texas Department of Public Safety, 50.

Prior to January 2025, the majority of those searches were related to Homeland Security Investigations, the primary investigative unit of the Department of Homeland Security. HSI has a broad criminal investigative mandate beyond immigration enforcement, meaning that such searches were likely not using Flock specifically for immigration enforcement. The Galveston County Sheriff’s Office only ran one Flock search in 2024 related to an HSI investigation. Out of the total of 91 searches from Texas law enforcement agencies in 2024, nearly 70% were for HSI related reasons.

Under the second Trump administration, that’s apparently changed. Since January, the majority of Texas law enforcement Flock database searches are for immigration related reasons. Out of 216 total lookups Texas law enforcement agencies made in 2025, more than 83% of them were listed for immigration related reasons such as “immigration,” “immigration enforcement,” “immigration status,” and “ICE+ERO” (ERO stands for Enforcement and Removal Operations, the arm of DHS responsible for immigration enforcement). With the exception of three Customs and Border Protection related searches, the remaining 17% of searches were related to HSI.

The data does not show exactly what information the searches turned up, or whether they resulted in or informed any actions by ICE. Some law enforcement agencies told 404 Media they are not engaging in immigration enforcement, despite the reason for the Flock lookup saying “immigration.” But that sort of denial is not an option for some of the agencies in Texas, whose reasons for the searches seem clear enough.

The Dallas Police Department made 17 Flock searches in 2025 with the reason “ICE+ERO” and one in 2024 with the reason “ICE+Suspect.” All of the Flock search requests the Texas Department of Public Safety made in 2025 were for “ICE Operation,” “ICE Support,” “Immigration Status,” “illegal immigration,” or simply “ICE.” Out of the 109 Flock search requests the Houston Police Department made in 2025, three list “immigration enforcement” as the reason, while the remainder simply list “immigration.” The Midland Police Department and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office both made two searches with the reason “immigration.”

Dallas recently expanded the number of Flock cameras in city limits. When reached for comment regarding 404 Media’s reporting and the data showing that the department searched the Flock database for “ICE+ERO,” a spokesperson told The Barbed Wire “It is not our practice to comment on other outlets’ reporting.” They did not respond to follow up questions.

After The Barbed Wire sent a follow up email asking if the Dallas Police Department would confirm or deny their use of Flock in cooperation with ICE immigration enforcement, the spokesperson wrote: “Per General Order 315.04, the Dallas Police Department does not enforce immigration laws.” No further explanation regarding the “ICE+ERO” searches in Flock was provided.

A Houston Police public information officer confirmed that the department has a contract with Flock, but would not comment on the data showing the agency conducted lookups in the Flock database for “immigration” and “immigration enforcement” reasons, and directed The Barbed Wire to file a public information request.

The Austin Chronicle reviewed the record in that city.

At multiple points during the pilot period of the Austin Police Department’s Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) program, one out of five searches conducted by officers of the vast license plate database were done without any clearly documented reason or justification, according to new data shared by Austin Police Department officials.

In an email sent by Assistant Chief Sheldon “Scott” Askew to multiple City Council aides late Monday evening that was obtained by the Chronicle, Askew reveals that in the second quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, more than 20% of searches did not have a case number attached nor a clear reason for the search listed in the resolution passed by Council three years ago when they re-authorized the ALPR program. In Q3 and Q4 of 2024, 11% and 16% of searches similarly lacked any clear justification.

The revelations come as Council considers a renewal of the program, which uses hundreds of cameras installed in fixed positions throughout the city and mounted on police vehicles to automatically snap photos of vehicle license plates. The license plate images are all stored in a database operated by Flock, one of the vendors the city has contracted with for the program, along with date, time, and location associated with each photo for a period of seven days to assist officers with specific types of criminal investigations.

APD did not respond to our request for comment before publication of this story, but at prior Council meetings, APD officials say that the program is a vital investigative tool, because it allows officers to quickly locate vehicles that were stolen or that may have been used in perpetration of a serious crime. At the same time, the tool is concerning to opponents, because all of the information in the database can be accessed by local law enforcement, with APD’s permission, but in some cases, state and federal law enforcement officials can require APD to turn over entries from the database.

The ALPR program has been fiercely opposed by criminal justice and technology groups who see the technology as a mass surveillance tool that could be exploited by federal law enforcement officials to help with immigration enforcement or other investigations that conflict with Austin values. Last week, 404 Media published a story showing how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has accessed ALPR databases in local jurisdictions across the nation to assist with deportations.

Council prohibited APD from using the technology in 2020 but renewed its use through a pilot in 2023 after adding guardrails intended to protect the privacy of Austin residents and limit the use of ALPRs outside of the investigation of crimes like vehicle theft, human trafficking, and other more serious crimes. The APD General Order written to outline proper use of the ALPR program states that any department personnel authorized to use the tool should receive annual training on the “appropriate use and collection of ALPR data” which should “emphasize the requirement to document the reason for the inquiry.”

The Chron has a long story that covers a lot of ground, including how many search requests provide meaningless reasons, including nonsense words, to obscure the object of the search, the relationship between HPD and ICE, and the rules that were written at the time of Flock’s adoption to provide guardrails that now look to be inadequate. You should read the whole thing, I’m just going to highlight the data the Chron found on HPD’s usage.

In Houston, police have access to as many as 88,000 different cameras run by local, state and federal law enforcement nationwide. In the city alone, officials said last year that 3,800 cameras were up and running.

Most of them are installed on private property, in the hopes of aiding police when crimes occur. Commercial property owners of some of Houston’s largest malls – including the Galleria and Memorial City Mall – have installed them at entrances and exits to parking lots and garages. Homeowners associations have added them to subdivision entrances.

Local community groups have also become clients of Flock, as have city departments other than the police. Houston Public Works has at least 72 cameras, while eight of the 11 district City Council members used their discretionary budgets for Flock systems as of 2022.

All Houston Housing Authority properties were outfitted with Flock cameras at vehicle entrances and exits in 2023, which at the time was cheered by city and federal officials as improving safety.

The intent, when officials expanded their use and signed agreements with Flock for more of the cameras in 2022, was a network to expand the reach of police investigations. Flock claimed on its website that year that it had captured data on over 1 billion vehicles nationwide.

Law enforcement experts across Harris County praised the promise of the Flock Safety cameras, saying they make a difference in solving crimes. The cameras have helped investigators solve some high-profile shootings across the Houston area, including the shooting of rapper BTB Savage.

The Flock system can also allow police to put in a description of the vehicle, and the cameras can decipher in great detail the color, make and model, as well as window decals and bumper stickers. So if police, say, are looking for a white Ford pickup or silver Nissan Altima with a bumper sticker, the cameras can assist.

In some areas plagued by persistent crime, they are making an important difference, officials said.

“I am a proponent of using technology to reduce crime wherever we can,” said Council Member Edward Pollard, who has deployed dozens of the cameras in southwest Houston neighborhoods. “Law enforcement should be given every available tool to aid them in every reasonable and relevant criminal investigation.”

Pollard said vehicle thefts in particular have been investigated and solved faster because of the cameras. Giving police a tool that lets them locate the vehicle in minutes, or see its path away from a crime scene, is crucial.

Thefts, burglaries and larceny were the most frequently cited crimes listed in the logs reviewed by the Chronicle. A reference to one or multiple of those crimes appeared in nearly 70,000 searches over the past year. References to robberies were also frequent, appearing nearly 21,000 times in the data. Nearly 300,000 more logs, however, provided no justification or only vague explanations as to the reason for each search.

HPD’s explanations for searches have grown more vague and infrequent as the agency’s use of the system has grown. HPD’s Flock camera searches have doubled from just over 6,600 on an average week last June to nearly 15,000 on the average week this May, a Chronicle analysis found. In the same timeframe, the share of searches listing a specific law enforcement purpose shrunk from about 44% to less than a third.

One outcome of this reporting has been that some cities are discontinuing, or at least reconsidering, their use of Flock.

Last week, The Barbed Wire delved into data first reported by 404 Media and found that at least five law enforcement agencies across Texas have conducted at least 180 immigration related searches using Flock, which provides license plate reader technology to thousands of communities across the nation.

That same week, Austin city manager T.C. Broadnax withdrew a vote to renew the city’s contract with Flock after community members and leaders urged the city to end the program during a city council work session that included Austin Police Department leaders.

“Austin should not be participating in Trump’s mass surveillance programs,” Councilman Mike Seigel told KUT Austin. “We have evidence that ICE is actively collaborating with Flock, and ICE essentially has side door access to Flock’s cameras and data sets and that data is being used to enforce ICE actions.”

A city audit of the program found that 75 million scans resulted in 165 arrests, 133 prosecutions and one missing person found. The audit did not find that information was being shared for immigration purposes, but recent data sent to council members showed that 10%-20% of license plate searches in the database did not include a clear reason or case number, in violation of rules laid out in a city ordinance.

“We are concerned about privacy and civil liberties and the increasing surveillance infrastructure that records our every movement and shares our social patterns with public and private actors,” Siegel told The Barbed Wire. “Whether you’re a union member on a picket line, a human rights advocate at a campus protest, an immigrant parent getting your kids from school, or a person seeking healthcare in another state, all of us have an interest in building real checks and balances for the tech surveillance complex.”

[…]

In San Marcos, the city council voted down a proposed expansion of Flock cameras in the city following a flurry of critical testimony from residents, civil rights advocates and city leaders.

Council Member Amanda Rodriguez, who voted against the proposal, expressed concerns regarding lacking transparency and safeguards, and noted that there have been no audits of how the San Marcos Police Department is using Flock data despite a 2022 policy mandating audits.

“We don’t even know how this technology is being used,” Rodriguez told CBS Austin. “And we’re being asked as a council to make an ill-informed decision to expand it.”

Rodriguez also said that the San Marcos Police Department currently shares Flock data with over 600 law enforcement agencies, including the Houston Police Department, which The Barbed Wire found has provided data to ICE.

San Marcos Police Chief Stan Standridge said that the department has never received a request from ICE, and that only police can access the data, but that didn’t assuage broader concerns from both citizens and council members regarding the vast data sharing that Flock facilitates between law enforcement agencies. There are 19 Flock cameras still operating in San Marcos.

“It’s not SMPD,” said San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson, who voted against the expansion. “It’s about how our data is used by others.”

Community leaders in Dallas have also expressed concerns regarding the Dallas Police Department and sharing Flock data with ICE.

“If ICE wants to use Flock, then they can secure their own contract,” Brandon Friedman, a member of the Dallas Police Oversight Board, told The Barbed Wire. “The Dallas Police Department has enough on its plate and doesn’t need to be doing ICE’s job. As for the department’s use of Flock in general, I’m not convinced there are enough safeguards currently in place.”

Friedman continued: “Dallas residents want the police to solve serious crimes and Flock can facilitate that. But at what cost? You’re going to be living in a lightly regulated, or unregulated, surveillance state for the benefit of maybe solving a few crimes a year. I’m not convinced the citizens of Dallas want that.”

It’s clear that Flock has use in helping police solve crimes. That’s definitely something we want HPD to do a better job of. It’s also clear that without very strict and enforceable limits, this technology and the power it grants will be abused. Cities should be pushed to review and revise their agreements with Flock, but let’s not kid ourselves. The Legislature will be standing by to overrule local actions if that’s a thing Republicans want, and the prospect of being able to more effectively harass anyone seeking an abortion will be a powerful lure. We can’t just fight this at the local level.

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Recall Houston sets a petition timeline

Posted on June 17, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Okay.

Mayor John Whitmire

The group aiming to oust Mayor John Whitmire has set a timeline for its efforts to petition for a recall election.

Recall For Houston announced it is eyeing to begin collecting signatures in the fall.

In the meantime, the group will work to generate awareness and assemble volunteers as it moves forward on its mission to remove the mayor from office through a recall vote.

The group, made up of Houstonians, hopes to collect the 64,000 signatures needed to initiate a recall process.

The petition will require 63,000 signatures collected in a 30-day period.

See here, here, and here for some background. I don’t know why one paragraph says 64K signatures are needed while the next says it’s 63K, but either way I’d advise Recall Houston to aim for at least 90K, to allow for the inevitable errors and invalid sigs. A tall order no matter how you look at it. At least I’ll get a chance to look at their July finance report, so I can see if they’ve actually raised some money for this (I have seen basically no indications that they’ve been active lately; I’d more or less forgotten about them) or if they’ve got little more than a wish and a prayer.

One more thing, if they are really collecting signatures in the fall, I can’t see how this could be on the November ballot. And if it’s not in November, then what, next May? Now you’re in primary season and I guarantee it will be that much harder to get people to pay attention to this. Again, it would be nice if they put out a professional-looking document that explained all of the details of how this process works, what we can expect, and when we can expect it. I’d be less skeptical if I saw that kind of organization.

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San Antonio to start construction on its first BRT line

Posted on June 17, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Exciting times.

Work starts next month on VIA Metropolitan Transit’s biggest construction project to date — a system of corridors designed to get riders faster to their destination using dedicated bus lanes, prioritized traffic signals, and more frequent pickups and dropoffs.

VIA’s Rapid Green Line, the first corridor in VIA’s Advanced Rapid Transit system, is a north-south route that will take shape along San Pedro Avenue, from the San Antonio International Airport down to Steves Avenue near the historic missions.

City and VIA officials gathered Friday at Roosevelt Park for a ceremonial groundbreaking on the Green Line, also a key part of VIA’s Better Bus Plan.

That plan, guest speakers said, is an ongoing, multi-pronged, longterm effort to improve public transportation and support San Antonio’s growing population.

Making one of his final public appearances as the city’s top elected leader, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said developing VIA’s ART system is the result of years of complex and oft-times passionate discussions among VIA, local elected leaders and community members.

“I know most of you who have lived in San Antonio and observed the debates about transportation in San Antonio for generations never thought we would be at this moment, but here we are,” Nirenberg said.

“And in my final days as mayor of San Antonio, there is no place I would rather be than with you today, celebrating such a truly amazing project, and one that will impact and change the trajectory of our great city,” he added.

VIA officials said Green Line service will resemble a commuter rail, featuring several stations that will offer accessible platform boarding, multi-bus door loading, and ticketing kiosks.

Each bus on the Green Line, like today’s standard buses, will accommodate riders with bicycles, and passengers using mobility devices. But every bus will also have more doors through which more riders can board or depart quickly.

With Green Line service running 4 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily, a bus will be scheduled to arrive at each station every 10 minutes on weekdays, and every 15 minutes on weekends.

Development of VIA’s Green Line will involve: new buses, more than 10 new pedestrian crossings, 30-plus intersections with upgraded and synchronized signals, more than six miles of new or repaired sidewalks, and 100-plus new or replaced storm water drains with other drainage improvements.

According to VIA, Green Line construction will begin simultaneously near Roosevelt and Steves avenues and at U.S. 281 and Isom Road, with road work set for completion in late 2027, and service kicking off in early 2028.

Altogether, the Green Line is estimated to cost $480 million, and is partially funded by federal grants and a one-eighth cent sales tax that VIA will begin receiving in 2026.

VIA is slated to build a similar Rapid Silver Line, a west-east route linking critical stops between the West and East sides, with construction beginning in 2027.

See here and here for the background. I am insanely jealous. How nice it must be to live in a city that cares about mass transit and invests in it. How nice it must be to have a Mayor that cares about these things. I used to know what that was like. Not anymore.

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A few 2026 statewide candidate tidbits

Posted on June 16, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This Politico story is mostly a lot of chatter from Texas Dems who have many different opinions about what kind of candidates ought to be running statewide next year. I’m not interested in that, but there were some newsy bits about a few of those potential candidates, so here we go.

Still a crook any way you look

Democrats acknowledge they’d stand little chance of unseating Cornyn, who’s been a fixture in Texas politics for decades. But Paxton, a Trump loyalist who was impeached by the Republican-held Texas House (and acquitted in the impeachment trial) and faced a federal corruption investigation, has been a polarizing figure in the Texas GOP, and, Democrats hope, an opponent they could defeat.

“Democrats are foaming at the mouth about Ken Paxton,” said Katherine Fischer, deputy executive director of Texas Majority PAC, which works to elect Democrats statewide. “We’re seeing in local elections in Texas and across the country there is already a backlash against Trump and against MAGA. Ken Paxton is about as MAGA as you can get.”

First they need to find a viable Senate candidate.

After coming up short in previous cycles, many Texas Democrats are hesitant about supporting former Reps. Colin Allred and Beto O’Rourke, both of whom have signaled their interest in another bid. O’Rourke, who unsuccessfully ran statewide in 2018 and 2022, has been hosting packed town halls across the state. Allred, who lost to Sen. Ted Cruz in 2024 by about 8.5 percentage points, has said he was “seriously considering another run. Recent polling shows Allred maintaining popularity among Texas Democrats even as he trails in a potential head-to-head with Paxton or Cornyn.

“Well, [Allred and O’Rourke are] both talking about it, and I hope that they will resolve that one person’s running and not all,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett.

Allred’s failed campaign has left a bad taste among some Texans, especially progressives, who believe he did not run aggressively or do enough grassroots outreach. And while O’Rourke is still a favorite son in Texas Democratic circles, many of those supporters believe he will be haunted by his position against assault rifles in a gun-loving state.

[…]

Texas Democrats have talked up potential bids by state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic seminarian and frequently viral member who helped prosecute Paxton during his impeachment.

Talarico told POLITICO: “I’m having conversations about how I can best serve Texas, and that includes the Senate race. But in my training as a pastor, you learn the importance of listening and how hard it is to truly listen. With so much at stake for Texas, I’m trying to listen more than I talk right now.”

His potential candidacy is generating some interest from players who have run successful upstart campaigns. “It’s going to take a Democrat who can make the case against Washington D.C., the status quo, and the powers that to be to win a senate race in Texas,” said Andrew Mamo, a veteran of Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign who is informally advising Talarico. “James is one of the rare people in the party with the profile and most importantly the storytelling skills to get that done.”

State Sen. Nathan Johnson, a Dallas lawyer, is in the mix but he’s also eyeing a run for attorney general. Some party insiders privately worry a state lawmaker won’t bring the necessary firepower, saying they need to find a candidate with experience running statewide — or at least someone who represents Texas in Congress — due to the sheer amount of resources required to compete in the second-largest state.

Veasey and fellow Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro have both been talked up as potential candidates, though Veasey in an interview ruled out a run. A person close to Castro said he was actively looking at the race.

See here and here for some background. Who knows what “actively looking at the race” means for Rep. Castro, from whom we’ve heard that before. I’m not surprised that there’s some buzz around Talarico, as he’s the new kid on the block and an interesting possibility no matter how you look at him, but let’s see him raise some real money first. If Sen. Johnson is looking at Attorney General – he’s not on the ballot in 2026, so any statewide run for him is a free shot – then that could expand the ticket at a good time. We’ll just have to see what people decide. My guess is we’ll start seeing some real movement soon – the nice thing about declaring a candidacy now is that there would be no pressure to report anything of substance for the Q2 period. I’m still waiting for someone to say they’re thinking about challenging Abbott. The Downballot, where I found that link, has more.

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New public defender incoming

Posted on June 16, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Congrats all around.

For the first time in more than a decade, a new face will lead the Harris County Public Defender’s Office.

Commissioners appointed Judge Genesis Draper of Harris County Criminal Court at Law No. 12 to lead the public defender’s office as its chief public defender Thursday. Draper was most recently elected in 2022, and has overseen the 12th criminal court since she first took office in 2019. Her appointment takes effect in July, when she will officially replace Alex Bunin, who has held the position since it was created in November 2010.

“We were appointed to the bench around the same time, and we just immediately bonded. You are a warrior for justice. You’re a warrior for change,” Commissioner Lesley Briones said at Thursday’s Commissioners Court meeting. “You are a person of deep integrity, deep authenticity, and you have the experience of being a federal public defender, a criminal court at law judge, and the conviction that we need to take our public defender’s office to the next level so that we can take at least 50% of the cases.”

Bunin is set to retire in December, and will work with Draper in the meantime as the office transitions under her leadership, according to a Thursday news release. Commissioners are expected to appoint a replacement for Draper to preside over the 12th criminal court in the coming months.

“Justice depends on not just the law, but people being willing to defend it. I appreciate the opportunity to do so,” Draper said in a statement. “We are living through a defining moment, where principles of due process and equal protection are being tested. I’m honored and privileged to join this fight, and excited to join the incredible team at the Public Defender’s Office.”

Draper’s appointment came more than two years after Briones first requested the county look into expanding the PDO, which in recent months has become a major priority for commissioners as ballooning indigent defense costs burden Harris County’s expected $270 million budget gap.

Officials hope that by expanding the PDO, the office can take more cases previously assigned to private attorneys, who are often appointed in place of a public defender at a significantly higher cost to the county. A March analysis conducted by data analysis firm January Advisors found that around 85% of defendants who cannot afford an attorney are assigned a private attorney as opposed to a public defender.

I’m a longtime fan of the public defender’s office, which does a terrific job at a lower cost to the county than the old (and still way too prevalent) way of hiring private attorneys for indigent defendants. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Alex Bunin and Genesis Draper, they’re both good people. Bunin built a great department, and it’s in good hands going forward. Draper’s bench will be filled by another appointment from Commissioner’s Court, and that person will be on the ballot in 2026, which is when Draper’s term expires anyway. Congrats and good luck to all.

Posted in Crime and Punishment, Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

LurkingHouston

Posted on June 16, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

I can’t be too mad at this.

Maybe don’t trespass

The Astrodome hasn’t seen a crowd in over a decade—but it got some unexpected visitors this week when three 18-year-old urban explorers slipped inside the iconic, long-shuttered stadium, exposing the eerily dilapidated “Eighth Wonder of the World” in all its forgotten glory.

Three 18-year-old men were arrested for trespassing after sneaking into the closed Astrodome, according to Harris County Precinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen. The iconic stadium, unavailable to the public since 2009, has remained off-limits due to safety concerns and legal restrictions.

The three men now face criminal trespassing charges.

Constable Rosen warned of the dangers: “Sneaking into closed old historic buildings is dangerous. You are taking a risk for yourself and first responders, and it is against the law.”

Security guards spotted the individuals just after midnight and alerted authorities. The suspects were apprehended after they were seen running across a nearby parking lot and jumping a fence near Fannin and Holly Hall.

In a rare and haunting glimpse into the decaying stadium, the footage showcases the explorers (who use the name @lurkinghouston) navigating through the cavernous, dimly lit Astrodome. The grainy footage revealed dark, dusty corridors, crumbling walls, rusted beams, and echoes of the Dome’s former life as Houston’s sports and entertainment epicenter.

The Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation, which oversees the entire NRG Park complex—including the Astrodome—did not confirm or deny the break-in. However, in a statement to Houston Public Media, the organization made its position clear: “We strongly discourage anyone from attempting to enter NRG Park without a ticket to an event or a legitimate purpose,” a representative said. “Unauthorized entry is strictly prohibited and will result in prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.”

I get it, these guys could have hurt themselves and put first responders at risk rescuing them, which also would have cost the county money. They trespassed, and it’s fine that they got into trouble for it. But let’s please ease up on this “fullest extent of the law” stuff. They’re kids on an adventure, not hardened criminals. Give them some kind of deferred adjudication, where their records will be expunged if they stay out of trouble for however long, along with some community service. Maybe they can use that TikTok account to highlight some county projects or programs that could do with a boost, I don’t know. They don’t need to be punished, just made to understand that what they did wasn’t a good idea and shouldn’t be repeated.

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Weekend link dump for June 15

Posted on June 15, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

“In sum, if the choice is between keeping money in the federal Treasury and reimbursing low-income individuals for medical treatment, DOGE has decided the individuals don’t count. If the choice is between financial institutions’ profits and their low-income customers’ savings, the customers don’t count. And, predictably, individuals overburdened by energy costs don’t count either. It’s not that these Americans’ interests lost out in a fair comparison of policy choices—their interests were ignored altogether. That’s the DOGE philosophy.”

“The fact that DOGE employees are now full-time federal workers shows that while Musk may be gone, his legacy of making cuts that damage critical government functions like Social Security, weather forecasting, and medical research will live on.”

“It was another win for a well-organized lobbying campaign led by manufacturers of dark roofing materials.”

“Beyond all of our correct fears about Trump’s budding autocracy, this is in a very direct sense an attack on the sovereignty of the people of California.”

“Warner Bros. Discovery, grappling with declines in its overall business, said Monday it planned to divide the company into two publicly-traded entities, one devoted to streaming and content production and one devoted to traditional television.”

“But were our ancestors ever truly so enamoured with rigid gender norms? And if they were, when — and more importantly, why?”

“Fenway Franks and Moneyball – What a French sportswriter saw at his first Red Sox game”.

RIP, Sly Stone, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame frontman and visionary for Sly and the Family Stone, whose many hits include “Dance To The Music”, “Hot Fun in the Summertime”, and “Thank You (Fallettinme Be Mice Elf Again)”.

CONCACAF did Greenland dirty. Justice for Greenland, I say.

“But when it comes to government, Musk has been in the business of destruction (except when accepting lucrative contracts). Taking a wrecking ball to the One Big Beautiful Bill would dwarf his DOGE chainsaw antics. He can easily convince a sufficient number of Republicans that supporting the bill is political suicide.”

Wait, Henry Winkler wasn’t already in the TV Academy Hall of Fame? How was that possible?

“Musk’s Government Business Is Too Vital for Trump to Cancel. There’s Still a Way He Could Punish Him.”

“Domestic abusers could have easier path to getting gun rights back under Trump proposal”.

MLB has purchased a stake in Jomboy Media, which among other things produced the YouTube videos that helped expose the Astros’ trashcan-banging scheme.

RIP, Frederick Forsyth, bestselling novelist whose works include “Day of the Jackal” and “The Fourth Protocol”.

“It’s part of the broader pattern we can see across the horizon: Trump takes the policing and military powers of the United States and the national tax revenues (drawn disproportionately from the blue states) and uses it to make war on states he considers enemies.”

“Meet the woman who sparked Joni Ernst’s ‘we all are going to die’ outburst“. She’s now running for the state legislature in Iowa.

“I mean, what am I supposed to do with that? This is your system, run by the government. And you’re raiding me because your system is broken?”

“As the Trump administration moves to dismantle the Education Department, federal cuts may make it harder to catch criminals and help victims of identity theft.”

RIP, Brian Wilson co-founder and primary songwriter for The Beach Boys.

RIP, Chris Robinson, actor mostly known for the soap operas General Hospital and The Bold and the Beautiful, and for uttering the iconic line “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV” in a commercial for Vicks Formula 44 cough syrup.

“One of the most entertaining shows in recent years will be coming to an end. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been renewed for a fifth and final season, Paramount+ announced on Thursday, June 12, 2025. The good news is this comes well in advance. The third season hasn’t even premiered yet — it does on July 17.”

RIP, Harris Yulin, prolific and versatile Emmy-nominated actor who was in a ton of things; I remember him for a guest spot he did on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine but you’ll probably recognize him for something else.

RIP, Terry Louise Fisher, three-time Emmy-winning writer and producer who co-created L.A. Law.

RIP, Rep. Melissa Hortman, former Speaker of the Minnesota State House, and her husband Mark Hortman, who were killed in their home by a political assassin.

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No Kings

Posted on June 15, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Good stuff.

AP photo

Thousands of demonstrators crowded into streets, parks and plazas across the U.S. on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump, marching through downtowns and blaring anti-authoritarian chants mixed with support for protecting democracy and immigrant rights.

Governors across the U.S. urged calm and vowed no tolerance for violence, while some mobilized the National Guard ahead of marchers gathering in major downtowns and small towns. Through midday, confrontations were isolated.

Atlanta’s 5,000-capacity “No Kings” rally quickly reached its limit, with thousands more demonstrators gathered outside barriers to hear speakers in front of the state Capitol. Huge, boisterous crowds marched in New York, Denver, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles, some behind “no kings” banners.

In Minnesota, organizers canceled demonstrations as police worked to track down a suspect in the shootings of two Democratic legislators and their spouses. Meanwhile, ahead of an evening demonstration in Austin, Texas, law enforcement said it was investigating a credible threat against lawmakers.

Intermittent light rain fell as marchers gathered for the flagship rally in Philadelphia’s Love Park. They shouted “Whose streets? Our streets!” as they marched to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where they listened to speakers on the steps made famous in the movie “Rocky.”

“So what do you say, Philly?” Democratic U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland shouted to the crowd. “Are you ready to fight back? Do you want a gangster state or do you want free speech in America?”

Trump was in Washington for a military parade marking the Army’s 250th anniversary that coincides with the president’s birthday. There, a massive demonstration toured the city’s streets, led by a banner reading, “Trump must go now.”

I’m heartbroken by the murder of the Minnesota legislator and her husband, and I’m rooting for the other legislator and his wife to recover. At least they caught the shooter. Unfortunately, there was a ripple effect of that crime in Austin.

The Texas Department of Public Safety warned state lawmakers and legislative staffers Saturday of “credible threats” to legislators planning to attend an anti-Trump rally at the Capitol in Austin, hours after two Democratic Minnesota legislators and their spouses were shot earlier Saturday morning.

The DPS alert was sent out just before 1 p.m. Saturday, according to screenshots of emails obtained by The Texas Tribune, and a DPS spokesperson told the Tribune the Capitol was evacuated shortly after. The warning came hours before several Texas federal, state and city elected officials are scheduled to speak at a protest against President Donald Trump in downtown Austin at 5 p.m.

DPS’ notice did not specify the nature of the threats to lawmakers and the agency did not immediately provide more details to the Tribune on Saturday.

Later Saturday afternoon, Jeffrey Clemmons, communications director for state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, told the Tribune that DPS arrested “what was going to be a copycat person who was going to agitate the protest. I don’t have more details about exactly who that person was, or what the threats in particular were.”

[…]

In a separate email also sent to Texas lawmakers and Capitol staff, Texas House Administration Chair Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, said officials are taking “all necessary precautions.”

“I am in communication with our federal partners, and currently, it seems to be an isolated incident,” Geren said in the statement. “However, we’re always concerned about copycats and those who this attack might inspire.”

The good news is that turned out to be a nothing, and the Capitol was subsequently reopened.

There were many protests around the state. Here’s the Chron’s coverage of the Houston event – scroll down to see an excellent overhead video of the march, with some dogs-at-the-protest photos after that. Houston reported 15K in attendance, Sugar Land had 900, Conroe another 100 and sone jerks trying to mess with them. Lisa Gray wrote a great piece about how peaceful the protest was, which you should also read. There’s plenty of pictures around, and some judicial social media scrolling will find you plenty more. Threads has been a great source for individual reports, from people all around the state. Whatever they’ve done with the algorithm on that app, it’s especially good for days like Saturday.

I will close with the best and by far most Houston protest sign ever:

IYKYK. My hat is off to you, sir.

Posted in National news | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Is CM Plummer running for County Judge?

Posted on June 15, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Maybe!

CM Letitia Plummer

Houston City Council Member Letitia Plummer might be entering the race for Harris County judge, according to a copy of a now-deleted document posted by the Spring Branch Democrats Club that was shared with the Houston Chronicle.

The Spring Branch Democrats Club posted a copy of a document on Friday that featured a logo that reads, “Dr. Letitia Plummer Democrat for Harris County Judge,” and a caption with the document reads, “Another candidate for County Judge.” Another line of text on the shared post read “Campaign Announcement Day: July 8.”

Plummer has not filed for the seat, according to Harris County campaign finance records.

Pati Limón de Rodríguez, president of the Spring Branch Democrats, told the Chronicle that she didn’t have a comment, and said she needed to check in with their elections support committee chair about how the post came to be. The club’s elections support chair David Galvin declined to comment.

Any announcement from Plummer could trigger a state law that prohibits an office holder from announcing a campaign for a position while actively holding another. The law forces the candidate to resign their current position if the announcement is made more than a year and 30 days before the election.

This means Plummer’s seat as at-large 4 City Council member could potentially be open as a result of the Spring Branch Democrats’ post.

But Plummer, when reached Friday for comment, said that since she did not make the announcement herself, her position on Houston City Council was safe and the law had not been triggered.

Plummer said the document was “inadvertently sent out” from someone on her campaign who no longer works for her. She did not confirm whether she was running for county judge, but said she is “strongly considering it.”

City Attorney Arturo Michel did not immediately return a request for comment on the resign-to-run law and how it would work in Plummer’s situation.

If CM Plummer does in fact announce her candidacy, then she would join Annise Parker in the primary. I will say, here’s the law that defines what it means to become a “candidate”, among other things. Here’s the constitutional provision that mandates resign to run for, among others, city officials with terms of office of three years or longer; here’s the constitutional provision about that. (This Texas Municipal League Q&A helped guide me to these places.) I think it’s clear from a reading of the law that CM Plummer has not done anything to make her a “candidate” yet, and as such she is safe where she is. But if this document is an accurate reflection of her intent, that will not be true in a few weeks. We will find out on or around July 8.

If she is running and she does resign, then there would be a special election to fill the vacancy in At Large #4. That would be in November, at the same time as the CD18 election. Mayor Whitmire gets to call that one, and there would be adequate time to call it before the filing deadline in late August. Not a whole lot of time for potential candidates to raise money and fire up a campaign, but we’ll cross that bridge when and if we get to it.

I did get an image of the document with the announcement – you can see it here. For what it’s worth, when I mentioned that I had heard of another prominent person who was supposedly thinking about running for Judge in the Dem primary, it wasn’t CM Plummer’s name that had reached me. So there may yet already be more out there. I have no idea how much money CM Plummer has on hand right now because as far as I can tell, she hasn’t filed any reports since she was re-elected in 2023. If she doesn’t announce her candidacy until July 8, she won’t have a county finance report for June. I sure hope she finally files a city report in June, regardless of what her intentions are for 2026.

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Dan Patrick shilling for his THC ban

Posted on June 15, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

He’s working for it.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick isn’t giving an inch on his push to ban THC products in Texas.

Despite polls showing middling support for the ban from GOP primary voters and backlash by conservative talk radio hosts who are usually on his side, the Houston Republican has been touring the state to tout all of the Texas Legislature’s accomplishments and in the process, explain why he’s trying to ban THC.

“It’s very potent; it’s very dangerous,” Patrick said during a stop in Wichita Falls on Tuesday, one of 12 stops he made early in the week.

As the leader of the Texas Senate, Patrick was the leading force in passing Senate Bill 3, which aims to ban all THC products in Texas starting in September. The bill passed the Texas Senate and Texas House. Now, Gov. Greg Abbott, also a Republican, has to decide whether to let the ban become law or veto it.

“Law enforcement across the state says we need to ban it and we passed a bill to ban it,” Patrick said.

Patrick has consistently said companies selling THC have exploited a loophole in the state’s hemp bill that was never intended to allow the legalization of THC. Texas now has more than 8,500 retailers selling those THC products, many of which can produce the high traditionally associated with marijuana, which is banned in the state except for certain medical uses.

He said those new stores are often popping up near schools and trying to hook underage users on the products.

Patrick said he’s never smoked marijuana before, but said he’s been told the THC products today are more potent than what people may have smoked 20 or 30 years ago.

I will give him credit for going out there and facing the voters to defend his unpopular and unwanted legislation. Considering how pusillanimous his Congressional colleagues have been, it’s almost honorable. Mind you, I doubt anyone’s getting in his face or challenging his childlike beliefs in any meaningful way. But at least they have the opportunity.

In the meantime, Greg Abbott is out here basking in the drama.

Gov. Greg Abbott said on Wednesday that he has still not decided if he will sign or veto legislation banning THC products in Texas.

“I’m going to give it the thoughtful consideration from every angle that it deserves,” Abbott said of Senate Bill 3, which would ban all hemp-derived THC products in Texas starting in September.

The Republican governor said he’s going to approach the decision like a judge, weighing the evidence on both sides of the issue before making a decision. Abbott was a judge in Harris County and later served on the Texas Supreme Court before becoming the state’s attorney general in 2002.

“This is a time when I will once again put on my judicial hat and weigh arguments on both sides and figure out a pathway forward,” Abbott said.

Gag me. Either he’s channeling Hamlet or he’s just stringing us all along. Greg Abbott will do what Greg Abbott thinks is best for Greg Abbott. Maybe he hasn’t figured out what that is yet, but that’s all there is to it.

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Measles update: Maybe I should call this the “RFK Rampage update”

Posted on June 14, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Welp.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Wednesday eight new members to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent vaccine advisory committee, some of whom have been critics of shots — especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It comes just two days after Kennedy removed all 17 sitting members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), claiming the panel was plagued by conflicts of interest and was a “rubber stamp” for all vaccines.

The ACIP makes recommendations on the safety, efficacy and clinical need of vaccines, and the CDC has the final say on whether or not to accept the recommendations.

Kennedy said in a post on X that the new members include “highly credentialed scientists, leading public-health experts, and some of America’s most accomplished physicians. All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense.”

The new members will be at an upcoming ACIP meeting scheduled to be held between June 25 and June 27, according to Kennedy. The meeting is to discuss new recommendations for several vaccines, including the HPV vaccine and the COVID-19 vaccine.

“The committee will review safety and efficacy data for the current schedule as well,” Kennedy wrote in the post on X.

The new eight members appear to have strong credentials related to medicine, public health, epidemiology and statistics, but with less of an emphasis on credentials related to immunology, virology and vaccinology in comparison with previous committees.

Kennedy told ABC News on Tuesday that the replacements for ACIP would not be “anti-vaxxers.” However, some of the new members have previously espoused anti-vaccine sentiments, especially around COVID-19 vaccines and mRNA technology.

One of them, Dr. Robert Malone — who made some early contributors to mRNA vaccine technology — spread misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming people were “hypnotized” into believing mainstream ideas about COVID-19, such as vaccination.

It goes from there, and Your Local Epidemiologist tried to make sense of it.

For 64 years, ACIP has been the backbone of vaccine policy in the U.S., guided by scientific processes, transparency, and collaboration. Its members are independent experts in pediatrics, immunology, vaccinology, and epidemiology who review the evidence to recommend who should receive which vaccines and when. It’s a critical step in ensuring vaccines are safe and effective.

ACIP appointments have always been somewhat opaque, but each member is rigorously vetted for conflicts of interest. Once appointed, members participate in a remarkably open process. Meetings are live-streamed, presentations and data are posted online, conflicts of interest are disclosed, and public comment isn’t just accepted, it’s required by law.

Historically, this process has been grounded in the nonpartisan belief that vaccine policy should be shaped by science, experience, and diverse perspectives—not ideology.

This has changed.

The Secretary of Health (a man named one of the Disinformation Dozen by the Center for Countering Digital Hate) now controls the levers of federal vaccine policy and is pulling them fast based on his decades of false beliefs about vaccines.

It doesn’t take much to counter his talking points yesterday:

  • No, ACIP doesn’t have undisclosed conflicts of interest. RFK Jr. reaffirmed this process himself after he called for a full review of the current committee’s disclosures. Nothing was found.
  • No, ACIP isn’t paid by big pharma. An investigation in March 2025 found no systemic evidence of undue pharmaceutical company influence on the members.
  • Yes, ACIP has voted against a vaccine. Some examples include RotaShield (1999), nasal influenza vaccines (2016-2017), Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccine (2021).

This move is the latest in a broader arc of undermining the long-standing process for assessing and approving vaccines in the United States: rolling back Covid-19 vaccine eligibility, bypassing FDA processes, imposing impossible standards, and pushing cherry-picked, incomplete, AI-generated policy statements. These moves have already prompted the resignations of senior vaccine officials at the CDC and FDA, citing misinformation and the abandonment of science.

She discussed this on a video chat with a colleague, if you’d rather hear people talking about it instead of reading their writing.

Other doctors are equally concerned.

“I hate to say this, but we are heading in the direction of U.S. vaccine policy becoming the laughing stock of the globe,” Dr. Jonathan Temte, former chair of the panel, told NPR. Temte told the outlet that the panel has historically been seen as “the paragon of solid, well thought out, evidence-based vaccine policy.”

The American Medical Association also criticized Kennedy’s action.

“Today’s action to remove the 17 sitting members of ACIP undermines that trust and upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives,” said Dr. Bruce Scott, president of the association in a statement. “With an ongoing measles outbreak and routine child vaccination rates declining, this move will further fuel the spread of vaccine-preventable illnesses.”

Dr. Tina Tan, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said in a statement, “Unilaterally removing an entire panel of experts is reckless, shortsighted and severely harmful.”

[…]

Ian Morgan, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow who signed the letter, told the outlet Important Context, “this is an extinction level event for biomedical research and for the health and well being of the American people and global public health more generally.”

The crazy and the malevolence goes a lot deeper than all that. You should click and read, the subject matter is nasty enough that I don’t want to quote from it here.

This is normally where I would put the measles case count update, based on the biweekly updates from the Department of State Health Services. Apparently, they’re now only doing those on Tuesday, when there were two new cases to report. Since then, there has been a case confirmed in Dallas County, which means another big population center needs to take care to make sure this doesn’t spread around. We’ll see soon enough if they are successful at that.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Miles given five-year contract extension

Posted on June 14, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This is some bullshit.

With no public discussion, Houston ISD’s Board of Managers on Thursday approved a five-year contract extension for state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles.

The five-year term will ensure that Houston ISD “can continue its transformation for the duration of the state intervention, while allowing for continuity and a smooth transition when the district returns to local control,” board president Ric Campo said in a statement shortly after the meeting. While official contract documentation and pay were not disclosed, Campo said the new contract “maintains rigorous evaluation criteria and compensation” that aligns the position with comparable districts in Texas.

The vote comes after Miles touted earlier that day improvements in state exam preliminary scores for the third through eighth grade, with increases on nearly every exam. The state recently extended its takeover of Texas’ largest school district for two more years to sustain these academic achievements, the state education commissioner said at the time of the announcement.

“With the recent release of STAAR exam results, it is clear that under his leadership, our schools and students are making extraordinary academic progress,” Campo said in a statement. “The HISD Board is proud of the incredible success of HISD students, and with Superintendent Miles’ ongoing leadership, we look forward to continued progress.”

This contract decision comes after the replacement of nearly half of the nine-member board by TEA Commissioner Mike Morath: Vice President Audrey Momanaee, Cassandra Auzenne Bandy, Rolando Martinez and Adam Rivon. In their places, the state put Edgar Colón, Marty Goossen, Lauren Gore and Marcos Rosales.

The board also chose Angela Lemond Flowers to become the new board vice president and Paula Mendoza to become the new board secretary.

Some elected trustees, who have no decision-making power during appointed leadership, were concerned by the removal of board members who they say asked the most questions and pushed back.

Trustee Plácido Gómez said at the board meeting that the Texas Education Agency sent a message to the community that it did not value collaborating with or listening to community members.

“So last week, when TEA announced that not only was the takeover going to be extended, but also four of the board members were being replaced — just so happened coincidentally to be the four board members who have the most questions, who have the most pushback,” he said to audience applause.

See here, here, and here for the background. Obviously, I’m glad for the academic improvements. It’s why Miles was foisted on us in the first place. But the deal, at least as I understood it, was that he’d make things better and then get the hell out. I guarantee you, no elected Board would have done this. The fact that this was done by an all-appointed Board, one that had been freshly purged of anyone who dared question anything Miles did, stinks to high heaven.

We don’t know yet if any of this is sustainable, academically or financially. As I asked before, what happens if student performance plateaus, or even starts to drop? What happens if the exodus away from HISD continues? What happens if the extra money Miles is spending on the NES schools, which again seems to be the basis of those improved scores, can’t be sustained because of Republican scorn for public schools? What happens if HISD’s finances get screwed as a result?

I’m being a bit of a doom-and-gloomer here, and that is perhaps not fair. All I’m saying is we didn’t have to extend Miles out past the two more years that HISD is under the state’s thumb. If he would have walked if we hadn’t thrown a bunch of money at him, then fine. I’m sure someone else could maintain the good parts of his reforms, while hopefully being a better communicator and leader. If not, if literally the only way any of the improvements could continue are with Mike Miles and only Mike Miles in charge, then that to me is the strongest possible evidence that all of this is unsustainable and nothing more than a sugar high. Extending Miles out five years is a reckless and irresponsible decision in addition to being a slap in the face of the voters. It’s a giant middle finger to all of us, and we should be extremely pissed off about it. The Press has more.

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A closer look at Waymo and Tesla

Posted on June 14, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Slate’s Henry Grabar takes a closer look at how the two main robotaxi ventures differ in approach and likely effect.

Waymo is now clocking more than 250,000 paid rides a week, on track to double last year’s total. It currently operates in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin, and plans to expand to Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, D.C.—with Boston, Nashville, New Orleans, Dallas, Las Vegas, San Diego, Orlando, Houston, and San Antonio in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, Tesla says it will deploy “full self-driving” taxis in Austin this month, the long-awaited debut of a service that Elon Musk has been promising for a decade—and one that, to his most bullish investors, will soon represent 90 percent of Tesla’s value as a company. The two approaches could not be more different, in ways that suggest different possible futures for what autonomous vehicles mean for society.

[…]

Google parent company Alphabet has sunk billions into the technology, and the business may lose nearly $2 billion a year. (The financials are buried in Alphabet’s Other Bets division.) It costs as much as $100,000 to equip Waymo’s cars with their array of lidar sensors, and further expenses include mapping, maintenance, electricity, insurance, parking, and on-call staff to help pilot the car if it gets stuck. Or, presumably, set on fire—as happened this week at anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles.

Tesla is trying something different: A low-touch approach based on cameras and A.I. “The issue with Waymo’s cars,” Musk said this spring, “is they cost way-mo money.” Tesla’s “full self-driving” hardware may cost as little as $400. But its safety is in dispute, to put it mildly. On Friday, Bloomberg published a video of a Tesla in “full self-driving mode” killing a woman on an Arizona highway in 2023. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced an investigation into the company last fall, but U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has seemed less than eager to press automakers on crash reporting, and the version of the GOP tax bill that passed the House would suspend states’ abilities to regulate artificial intelligence.

Certainly, Tesla’s tech is cheap. The question is whether the technology works well enough to avoid the kinds of gruesome accidents that halted its competitors. (The cars must also avoid construction sites, tractor trailers, snow banks, wet concrete, and other hazards of the urban environment.) For Waymo, it’s the opposite: The tech clearly works. The question is whether the cost can come down to make robotaxis profitable—and competitive with Ubers, public transit, and even private cars.

To fundamentally reshape urban transportation, robotaxis have to be both functional and cheap. Currently, ordering a Waymo costs as much as an Uber or more—and the company is largely competing for the same clientele (some data from San Francisco suggests Waymo is eating up Uber and Lyft trips). But without human drivers to pay, it is easy to imagine the service being substantially cheaper. If that happens, we might see a supercharged “Uber effect” like what happened in cities in the 2010s—increased mobility for people who do not or cannot drive themselves, including children, seniors, and people with disabilities. One estimate concluded that we might see 14 percent more traffic if those nondriving groups traveled at the same rates as current drivers. Every trip for which a robot replaces a human driver will come with a lower risk of crashing.

If Waymo’s higher-cost model proves to be the path for self-driving tech, we might see a divide between rich, deep markets that justify its presence—and those that don’t. Lewis Lehe, an assistant professor of transportation systems at the University of Illinois, notes on his Substack that this service will have different economics than today’s ride-hail. You can ride an Uber anywhere someone is willing to drive one, and drivers have different hours (and different wages) in low-demand places. Not so for a Waymo, which will cost the same to deploy in a rich city and a poor town—and see much less demand in the latter. “The divide will beget tropes about the ‘two Americas.’ ” Lehe writes. “Country musicians will never shut up about driving. President Vance will speak for the drivers whom global elites have left behind.”

As with the rise of Uber, this boom will decrease transit ridership and increase traffic congestion. Tens of thousands of full-time ride-hail drivers will struggle with auto debt, while cities try to wield congestion pricing against an adversary with little obligation to share data and considerable power to withhold service for leverage. Unlike Ubers, whose drivers flood the roads at rush hour and sleep at night, Waymo fleets could struggle to meet peak demand—but offer low-priced, off-hours service when there are more vehicles than riders. And while public transit agencies are required to offer paratransit services to people who use wheelchairs, the expectations for ride-hail companies are much murkier—and many wheelchair users report being stranded by Uber and Lyft.

Read on to see what the effect could be if Tesla wins the battle for hearts and minds. I admit, I didn’t consider any of this before I advised not doing business with Tesla. But I’m still comfortable saying not to do business with Tesla. Screw Elmo.

Meanwhile, here’s an update on the preparation for Tesla’s robotaxi launch in Austin.

Tesla is “tentatively” aiming to begin its robotaxi service in Austin on June 22. But leading up to the launch, residents in Southeast Austin are noticing some strange activity from the vehicles.

According to a report by Fortune, neighbors have spotted robotaxi tests in different forms. One neighbor noticed a Tesla Model Y with another Tesla closely following as it circled the same block throughout the day. Others have similarly shared Teslas driving by repeatedly, sometimes with a person in the passenger seat and other times with a person driving the car, or parked in the middle of the road or in front of homes for long periods. The community has even turned to Nextdoor to discuss the activity, with one resident posting, “it’s freaking me out.”

But beyond the repeated Tesla sightings drawing attention, the activity also raises questions about Tesla’s methods. CEO Elon Musk has previously criticized LiDAR technology, the laser-based system that other self-driving projects such as Waymo use in Houston and Austin to perceive objects and other road users. Instead of using LiDAR, radar and pre-mapping that competitors use, Tesla has opted for a camera-only system. Without the more common tech used for self-driving, it’s confounding that Tesla would still circle the same areas. Its approach would seemingly remove the task of mapping an area for months in order to test performance under various road conditions.

“Making people freak out on Nextdoor” is probably not the energy you want to bring to your product launch, but here we are. Have I mentioned that you should not engage with the Tesla robotaxi service? Do not engage.

Oh, and it turns out that Tesla’s robotaxis were supposed to be on the road as of Thursday, but we’re still waiting.

Everyday Texans will have to wait a little while longer for Elon Musk’s inaugural fleet of Tesla robotaxis to hit the streets of Austin.

The world’s richest man has been teeing up the rollout of a paid, self-driving robotaxi service launching in the Texas capital for months, with the fleet set to comprise autonomous Model Y Tesla vehicles. Initially, the robotaxis were reportedly set to role out on Thursday, June 12, according to Bloomberg; now, Musk himself confirmed it’ll be a little while longer for the self-driving vehicles to cruise through Texas.

On Tuesday, June 10, Musk shared on social media: “Austin >> LA for robotaxi launch lol.” When asked by someone when the first public rides will be available, he noted it won’t be this week.

“Tentatively, June 22. We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift,” he wrote on X. “First Tesla that drives itself from factory end of line all the way to a customer house is June 28.”

“Tentatively”, says the man famous for predicting that we’d have full self-driving vehicles and be on Mars every year for at least a decade now. We’ll check back then and see where we are.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Republicans not saying anything about the re-redistricting proposal

Posted on June 13, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

A mostly no news update.

Texas Republicans were evasive Thursday about a request from the White House to redistrict the state ahead of the 2026 midterm elections after exiting a meeting in Washington to discuss the proposal.

President Donald Trump’s political team is pushing lawmakers to redraw Texas’ congressional districts to help Republicans to pick up additional seats next November as they look to defend their U.S. House majority against a potential Democratic surge.

“I’m sworn to secrecy,” said U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, after the gathering of Texas U.S. House members Thursday.

“I forgot everything that was said in there,” said U.S. Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Frisco.

But behind the scenes, many Texas Republicans are concerned the strategy could put incumbents at risk, opening the door for Democrats to gain more ground.

[…]

Back in Texas, state legislators are worried if they go ahead with redrawing congressional districts, their districts could be drawn in as well.

Right now, the state is in its third week of a federal trial in El Paso defending GOP lawmakers’ last redistricting effort in 2023, which civil rights groups claim intentionally diluted Hispanic voting power in violation of federal voter rights law. Even though Latinos drove the state’s population growth over recent years, the Legislature drew fewer majority Hispanic districts for Congress and the Legislature, according to court filings.

If lawmakers reopen the redistricting process this year, the judges hearing the case could potentially push them to redraw the state-level maps too. Even with those risks, Republican leaders in Texas may be reluctant to defy Trump, especially if his administration is pushing hard for the changes.

See here and here for the background. Greg Abbott also had a nothing quote in the story in response to a question about calling a special session, which he would have to do to make this happen. I can’t tell if everyone is being coy or if they just don’t have anything to say because there’s not an actual plan or proposed map, just some aggro BS from the White House. I’m also not sure what to make of the “behind the scenes” and “state legislators are worried” bits, as there are no quotes, not even anonymous quotes, associated with them. I just don’t know how seriously to take any of this. I don’t doubt that they could do it, they have no restraint or principles to hold them back. I do think they need to be convinced since it would be a significant change and some level of risk to themselves, and I think they haven’t gotten anything serious from the White House yet. If that changes, everything else could also change. We’ll see.

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Undocumented students want to challenge that ridiculous settlement

Posted on June 13, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Seems clear to me that they should be allowed to intervene, but the same judge that allowed the settlement has to allow this as well.

A group of undocumented students on Wednesday asked a judge to let them intervene in a case that revoked their access to in-state tuition, the first step in their ultimate goal of overturning the ruling.

The filing comes a week after the U.S. Department of Justice sued Texas over its 24-year-old law that allowed undocumented Texans who had lived in the state for three years and graduated from a Texas high school to qualify for lower tuition rates at public universities. Texas quickly agreed with the Trump administration’s claim that the law was unconstitutional and asked a judge to find the law unenforceable.

The quick turnaround — the whole lawsuit was resolved in less than six hours — represents a “contrived legal challenge designed to prevent sufficient notice and robust consideration,” lawyers for these students argued in their motion.

They’re asking U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor to allow them to join the lawsuit and argue for why the statute should remain in effect. The Justice Department and the Texas attorney general’s office oppose the motion on the grounds that the matter has been resolved and the case is terminated, court documents say.

[…]

The people who are most impacted by a lawsuit typically have a right to have their voices heard on a case, said David Coale, a Dallas appellate attorney. Getting O’Connor to agree to reopen might be a tough sell, he said, but if they’re denied, they could appeal that ruling and the rest of the case alongside it, to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“The 5th Circuit’s obviously a very conservative court, but part of that conservatism is a pretty limited view of the judicial role,” Coale said. “So if they get a chance to argue their case there … they may have some luck.”

See here for the background, and be sure to read the excerpt from law professor Steve Vladeck, who outlines clearly why the collusion in this case was so suspect. That doesn’t mean the students, who are represented by MALDEF, will prevail, but it’s a good starting point.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ogg may face contempt hearing

Posted on June 13, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Oops.

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office on Thursday said it was not opposed to a holding a criminal contempt hearing against former District Attorney Kim Ogg.

The announcement increased the likelihood that Ogg could be called to court, and potentially punished, for comments she made in a local news interview about one of the men accused of killing 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray.

Judge Josh Hill didn’t make an immediate decision on holding a contempt hearing. Lawyers, however, said they would be available for proceedings in July.

Lawyers for Franklin Peña last week said they believed Ogg, who left office in January, violated a judicial gag order that was supposed to prevent lawyers involved in the capital murder case from talking to the media.

Ogg on May 29 appeared on Fox 26, and revealed that a woman had told the DA’s office that Peña had assaulted her in Costa Rica.

In a motion filed Wednesday, the defense attorneys wrote that Ogg’s interview violated the parts of the gag order that were meant to prevent media interviews that could possibly prejudice a future jury against their client.

“At this point, the acts have already happened and the court must hold her in criminal contempt to vindicate the court’s authority,” the lawyers wrote. “Not doing so would set a dangerous precedent that any attorney involved in this capital murder case could go to as many media outlets as they please with no consequences whatsoever.”

The defense team also said that Ogg should be punished for an interview she gave to Fox & Friends in December, when she announced the DA’s office would seek the death penalty against Peña and Johan Martinez-Rangel.

[…]

Last week, prosecutors and defense attorneys both told Hill they believed Ogg violated the gag order and agreed it still applied to her despite her being removed by voters.

Both sides said they had filed complaints about Ogg to the State Bar of Texas, which would decide if Ogg violated ethics rules.

See here for the background. It should be noted that the general counsel for the DA’s office has said that he didn’t think Ogg crossed the line on criminal contempt. I’m sure the judge will take that into consideration. Let this stand as a lesson in discretion and knowing when to keep your mouth closed.

Posted in Crime and Punishment | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Annise Parker will run for Harris County Judge

Posted on June 12, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

A long-expected announcement.

Annise Parker

A familiar face is planning a comeback to Houston’s political scene.

Former Houston Mayor Annise Parker announced Wednesday that she will run for Harris County judge in 2026. Parker, who led Houston from 2010 to 2016 and made history as the first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city, declared her intent to run for Judge Lina Hidalgo’s office following a more than nine-year hiatus from office.

“Now more than ever, the people of Harris County need a strong, competent leader,” Parker said. “I have the experience, I have the background, and I’m ready to prove that to the residents of Harris County.”

Parker officially debuted her campaign during a news conference held in front of the Harris County Civil Courthouse Wednesday morning.

Beneath gathering rain clouds, Parker said the coming years will be challenging for Harris County, particularly as major flooding events become more common — an issue compounded by President Donald Trump’s recent cuts to the National Weather Service. Parker said her campaign promised to restore some sense of certainty amid a political climate dominated by uncertainty.

“Harris County residents need certainty. There’s no waffling, there’s no hesitation. I’m standing up and saying, I’m ready to lead. I’m ready to serve. Let’s go,” Parker said. “This is hurricane season. We’re on our own down here. They’re also working really hard to throw people off of Medicare, Medicaid, Harris County Hospital District, right in the line of fire. Everything rolls downhill to local government, and it’s going to come faster and harder.”

Parker is the first major Democratic candidate to emerge as a contender for Hidalgo’s seat. Hidalgo has not publicly stated whether she intends to run again.

But Parker said she feels confident in a Democratic primary election, regardless of who she’s running against.

“I am not running against anybody. I’m running for the citizens of Harris County,” Parker said. “I want to make sure that there’s strong leadership down here. It’s going to get tougher for all of us. I have no idea if the incumbent is going to run or not.”

Parker, who has championed herself as a major proponent of ensuring sound, responsible fiscal management, also addressed the county’s looming budget deficit.

“There is no government anywhere in America that has enough money to do all the things that they want to do. So it’s all about setting priorities, and just as I did as mayor with a priority on public safety,” Parker said. “I sincerely hope that in the next 18 months, as I’m running for this job, I have an opportunity to really get to know the ins and outs of the budget and look for opportunities.”

There’s a lot to be said here so let me bullet-point this:

– Parker’s name first came up as a possible candidate last May, after she stepped down as CEO and president of the Victory Fund. It’s well known that she thought about running against then-Judge Ed Emmett in 2018 but decided against it.

– Judge Hidalgo told the Chronicle she planned to run again in 2026 in an interview a couple of weeks after that. She has not made a formal announcement, but the last word we had from her was that she intended to run.

– That said, Judge Hidalgo has basically no cash on hand and has not only raised minimal amounts over the past year, she’s spent more than she’s raised. The Chron made note of this recently. As I have said in each of the last posts I’ve done on the semiannual finance reports, this is not the activity you want to see for someone who was sure to face not only an expensive general election, but was known to have at least one high-profile opponent circling around a primary challenge. We don’t know yet what her July 2025 finance report looks like, but I can’t say I’m aware of any big fundraisers she’s had. Money isn’t everything, Judge Hidalgo is widely admired by Democratic voters, and she could be busier behind the scenes than I’m aware of. But on the surface, this is not the behavior you’d expect from someone who is in fact gearing up for another race.

– If in fact Judge Hidalgo decides not to run, then as Campos says there will surely be other contenders in the primary. I’ve already heard one prominent name, which I won’t say now because it’s nothing more than chatter. There may be other entrants into this race regardless of what Judge Hidalgo decides to do; she did draw a crowd in 2022, though none of them put up much of a fight and she easily won renomination. Having a million bucks in the bank might have been a deterrent, but we’ll never know.

– Parker won a total of nine city of Houston elections, so she certainly knows what she’s doing. But as many people have pointed out, she’s never run in a Democratic primary before. It’s a different audience, and I feel confident saying the 2026 Dem primary electorate is going to be more interested in a candidate’s fighting spirit than bipartisan credentials. Parker is saying the right things about Trump and the state government in her opening statement. But if she does wind up running against Hidalgo, she’s going to have to position herself against her. That is going to be harder than it might look.

– Not mentioned in any of the coverage I’ve seen so far, but definitely on the mind of Dem activists, is the Victory Fund’s past support of former DA Kim Ogg, who let’s just say is not a popular figure with the primary electorate. I also feel confident saying that this will be a topic of debate in the 2026 primary election.

Now we wait to see what Judge Hidalgo has to say. I will say again, I hate the idea of Parker and Hidalgo, two people I know and like very much, running against each other. But it is what it is. KUHF, the Trib, and Reform Austin have more.

Posted in Election 2026 | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

More on the re-redistricting proposal

Posted on June 12, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Votebeat addresses a few questions.

How do Texans in Congress feel about the proposal?

On Capitol Hill, members of the Texas GOP delegation huddled Monday night to discuss the prospect of reshaping their districts. Most of the 25-member group expressed reluctance about the idea, citing concerns about jeopardizing their districts in next year’s midterms if the new maps overextended the GOP’s advantage, according to the two GOP aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private deliberations.

Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Lubbock, was skeptical of the idea.

“We just recently worked on the new maps,” Arrington told The Texas Tribune. To reopen the process, he said, “there’d have to be a significant benefit to our state.”

The delegation has yet to be presented with mockups of new maps, two aides said.

[…]

If Texas redraws its maps, what would it mean for the ongoing lawsuit over the existing maps?

A trial is underway in El Paso in a long-running challenge to the state legislative and congressional district maps Texas drew after the 2020 U.S. Census.

If Texas redraws its congressional maps, state officials would then ask the court to toss the claims challenging those districts “that no longer exist,” Levitt said. The portion of the case over the state legislative district maps would continue.

If the judge agrees, then both parties would have to file new legal claims for the updated maps.

[…]

Why does Trump’s political team view Texas as a prime target to pick up seats for House Republicans via redistricting?

When Republicans in charge of the Legislature redrew the district lines after the 2020 census, they focused on reinforcing their political support in districts already controlled by the GOP. This redistricting proposal would likely take a different approach.

As things stand, Republicans hold 25 of the state’s 38 congressional seats. Democrats hold 12 seats and are expected to regain control of Texas’ one vacant seat in a special election this fall.

Most of Texas’ GOP-controlled districts lean heavily Republican: In last year’s election, 24 of those 25 seats were carried by a Republican victor who received at least 60% of the vote or ran unopposed. The exception was U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg, who captured 57% of the vote and won by a comfortable 14-point margin.

With little competition to speak of, The Times reported, Trump’s political advisers believe at least some of those districts could bear the loss of GOP voters who would be reshuffled into neighboring, Democratic-held districts — giving Republican hopefuls a better chance to flip those seats from blue to red.

The party in control of the White House frequently loses seats during midterm cycles, and Trump’s team is likely looking to offset potential GOP losses in other states and improve the odds of holding on to a narrow House majority. Incumbent Republicans, though, don’t love the idea of sacrificing a comfortable race in a safe district for the possibility of picking up a few seats, according to GOP aides.

[…]

What comes next?

Texas Republicans are planning to reconvene Thursday to continue discussing the plan, according to Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Irving, and Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, who said they will attend the meeting. Members of Trump’s political team are also expected to attend, according to Hunt and two GOP congressional aides familiar with the matter.

See here for the background. The problem with the logic in the second item is that, as I showed, outside of the two South Texas seats that would be obvious targets, the rest of the Dem-held districts were also won with over 60% of the vote. It would take some significant changes to move the needle, and that’s before we engage with the idea that 2026 will be a good year for Dems, certainly a better one than 2024 was. I won’t be surprised if maps that make a decent effort at it can be drawn, but it’s interesting that Team Trump hasn’t presented any examples yet. You’d think they might lead with that.

Christopher Hooks at Texas Monthly has some thoughts as well.

In a certain light, the big plan here makes sense. The U.S. House has been closely divided since the last election, with a less than ten-vote Republican majority. It’s conceivable that if Texas can wring another two to three seats for the party, those gains might matter in the next Congress. But the cost to the Legislature for undertaking this scheme is great, and there are risks to the president’s party.

A major difference between 2003 and now is that DeLay’s gang could at least plausibly assert that it was ungerrymandering Texas—that it was illegitimate for a state that collectively voted for Republicans by about ten-point margins to have a congressional delegation in which a slim majority were Democrats. That popular-vote margin can be a little wider today—the GOP won congressional races by around 18 percentage points in 2024, though it was just 3 points in 2018—while the congressional delegation right now consists of 25 Republicans and 12 Democrats, with 1 seat currently empty.

The state is already heavily gerrymandered, in other words, and reopening the district map to try to get even more wins could backfire. “This has ‘dummymander’ written all over it,” said Texas redistricting expert Michael Li, of the Brennan Center, a legal advocacy group.

What is a dummymander? When lawmakers draw districts, they do so imagining a certain set of future political conditions. But if something unexpected happens politically—say, prosperous suburban voters in rapidly growing neighborhoods across Texas defect from the Republican Party en masse, as happened in 2018—the lines you drew for one set of conditions may end up screwing you. If the GOP pushes its advantage too far by spreading solidly Republican voters too thinly across too many districts, it creates the risk that a high blue tide washes candidates that should have been safe out of office.

The Texans in Congress, unlike Trump’s team, will be keenly aware that this came close to happening at the end of the previous decade. Texas had grown and changed so fast that the lines Republicans drew in 2011 started to look less favorable for them in 2018 and 2020, when traditionally right-of-center voters were revolting against Trump. When it came time to draw new lines in 2021, they created safer districts for themselves, trying to shore up the seats they had rather than press their advantage further. In 2024, only two Congressional seats were won with a margin of less than ten percentage points.

This reflects a nuance in how gerrymandering actually takes place. The desire to boost the ruling party’s numbers is sometimes in tension with the desires of incumbents in both parties to protect themselves. Members of the Texas congressional delegation—Republicans and Democrats alike—would prefer to stay in Congress. But the Trump administration now wants incumbent Republicans to accept riskier seats in order to benefit him and the national party. This may work out fine. But if the economy is in the toilet when early voting starts next year, all bets are off. While others are keeping mum about the Trump redistricting push, Congressman Pete Sessions is telling the media about it. He lost a once safe seat in 2018 and had to move to a different part of Texas to win a safer one in 2020, and you can bet that he would prefer not to do that again.

Again, I will note that this gambit could succeed, especially if the target is two or three seats and not the five suggested in the original story. Make CDs 28 and 34 a little redder, shift a bunch of West Texas voters into CD16 without screwing over Tony Gonzales in CD23, and hope for the best. Getting beyond that feels awfully greedy to me, but then it would.

Hooks also notes that blue states like California and New York could retaliate, and Texas Dems could attempt to delay matters to past the point of the 2026 filing deadline by fleeing the state a la the Killer Ds of 2003; the Texas Standard also notes the latter possibility. Both of those are a bit more complicated than that. California has a non-partisan commission that draws its maps, and New York’s top court threw out an aggressively gerrymandered map in 2021 on the grounds that it violated state law. Both the Texas House and Senate have passed rules to punish members who break quorum, and a special session to pass a new map could also mandate a later primary in 2026, as we had in 2012. I’m not saying these aren’t considerations, especially for the queasier and more risk-averse among the Republicans, but they may not be as risky as they first appear.

If there’s a meeting today, we’ll probably know more about what they plan to do soon. I have no idea what to expect.

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Some people are big mad at Dan Patrick

Posted on June 12, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

It’s fun to watch.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was clear from the start.

Weeks before this year’s legislative session began, and before he announced any other priorities, the Republican Senate leader said he wanted lawmakers to ban, at any cost, products that contain the psychoactive compound in weed. His target was the multibillion-dollar hemp industry that had sprouted up thanks to a loophole in a 2019 state law that legalized products providing a similar high to marijuana.

Patrick justified his conviction by contending that retailers had abused that loophole to sell products with dangerous amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. He accused the retailers of preying on the state’s young people with shops posted near schools and marketing aimed at children.

“I couldn’t, in good conscience, leave here knowing if we don’t do something about it in the next two years — how many kids get sick?” Patrick said in March, talking about his willingness to force a special legislative session by blocking must-pass legislation from making it through the Texas Senate.

And ultimately, Patrick got his way — and an explosion of backlash.

As pressure mounts on the governor to veto a THC ban sent to his desk, Patrick finds himself in the unfamiliar position of taking flak from conservative activists and media personalities outside the Capitol, many of whom typically march in political lockstep with a man who has long been a darling of the right and done more than perhaps any other elected official to drive Texas rightward.

After spearheading the THC ban, Patrick has been accused by some on the right of creating a nanny state and giving Mexican drug cartels a business opportunity to fill demand in the black market. He has been labeled a booze lobby shill for beer distributors who stand to benefit. A hardline conservative state lawmaker who voted against the ban said it contradicted “the Texas mantra of being pro-business, pro-farmer and pro-veteran.”

[…]

Some opponents of the total ban have vowed retribution against Patrick, who is running for reelection in 2026 armed with an endorsement from President Donald Trump and more than $33 million in his campaign coffers. Those factors — and Patrick’s long history of promoting policies that most primary voters see as higher priorities than preserving THC access — mean it is unlikely the blowback will cost Patrick much, according to political observers.

“It’s hard to imagine given Patrick’s position and where he is now that somehow this is going to be in and of itself the source of some fundamental political threat,” said Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. “Honestly I think we’re not used to seeing Dan Patrick criticized very much from within his own party and so it’s really sticking out, and that’s fair.”

I do not for a minute think this will have anything more than a marginal effect on the 2026 Republican primary, where I expect Patrick to draw the usual no-name challengers. He may lose some protest votes, but likely not enough for anyone to raise an eyebrow. But I am of course hoping this spills over into the general election, where plenty of nominal Republicans who aren’t regular primary voters are. I hope very much that they are mad enough about this to take it out on him next November, and I have expressed that sentiment many times. I hope Vikki Goodwin makes this a part of her campaign. It may well not be enough, but it’s a good opening and seems to have legs from a news perspective. No reason not to press forward with it.

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Texas blog roundup for the week of June 9

Posted on June 12, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

The Texas Progressive Alliance has always known about hurricane season as it brings you this week’s update.

Continue reading →

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Texas Congressional Republicans considering a new map for 2026

Posted on June 11, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

WTF?

President Trump’s political team is encouraging Republican leaders in Texas to examine how House district lines in the state could be redrawn ahead of next year’s midterm elections to try to save the party’s endangered majority, according to people in Texas and Washington who are familiar with the effort.

The push from Washington has unnerved some Texas Republicans, who worry that reworking the boundaries of Texas House seats to turn Democratic districts red by adding reliably Republican voters from neighboring Republican districts could backfire in an election that is already expected to favor Democrats.

Rather than flip the Democratic districts, new lines could endanger incumbent Republicans.

But a person close to the president, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to talk publicly, nevertheless urged a “ruthless” approach and said Mr. Trump would welcome any chance to pick up seats in the midterms. The president would pay close attention to those in his party who help or hurt that effort, the person warned.

At an “emergency” meeting on Monday night in the Capitol, congressional Republicans from Texas professed little interest in redrawing their districts, according to a person briefed on the gathering who was not authorized to comment publicly. The 20-minute meeting, organized by Representative Michael McCaul, a senior member of the state delegation, focused on the White House push.

Representative Pete Sessions, Republican of Texas, said lawmakers plan to gather again to share data and “be on the same page” on the possible redrawing of the map.

“We assured each other, you need to bone up. We need to have a conversation. We need to think about what those impacts would be on the entire delegation,” Mr. Sessions said.

[…]

The maps that were drawn by the Republican Legislature in 2021, after the last census, are still being fought over, in forums including a trial that began last month in a federal court in El Paso.

But talk among Republicans of taking the task on again has been swirling around the Texas Capitol since the Legislature was in session earlier this year. The governor, the lieutenant governor and the attorney general have all discussed the possibility in recent weeks, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

In recent days, that talk has become more serious. It appeared to be driven in part by President Trump’s concern that the Republican Party could lose its slim majority in the House, derailing the second half of his term and empowering Democratic investigations of his administration.

[…]

Still, those pushing for the plan believe that Republicans could potentially pick up as many as four or five House seats in 2026, according to two of the people with knowledge of the discussions.

To do that would involve pushing Republican voters from safe Republican districts into neighboring Democratic districts to make them more competitive. In a wave year for Democrats, that could endanger incumbent Republicans as well as Democrats.

“The only way you make the state more competitive congressionally is you do it at their expense,” State Representative Trey Martinez Fischer, a San Antonio Democrat, said of congressional Republicans. “I think the Republicans have already maximized their map, given the demographic changes in the state.”

[…]

Any attempt at a mid-decade redistricting would require the Texas Legislature to approve new maps. Since the Legislature is not in session again until 2027, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, would have to call a special session.

“From my understanding, this would be in July,” said Ron Reynolds, a Texas House Democrat from the Houston area, saying his information had come indirectly from a Republican member of the Texas House. “This is something that they’re keeping very tight-lipped.”

Gotta say, I did not see this coming. On the assumption that the gains made by Republicans among Latino voters in South Texas last year were real and not transitory, it’s not hard to imagine tweaking things in a way to make CDs 28 (Henry Cuellar) and 34 (Vicente Gonzalez) at least red-leaning. To get to four or five new seats, well, here are the next three closest blue districts:

2022


Dist  Incumbent   Dem %   GOP %
===============================
CD16    Escobar  63.46%  36.54%
CD07   Fletcher  63.79%  36.21%
CD32     Allred  65.36%  34.64%

2024


Dist  Incumbent   Dem %   GOP %
===============================
CD16    Escobar  59.50%  40.43%
CD32    Johnson  60.45%  36.97%
CD07   Fletcher  61.28%  38.72%

Eight GOP Congressfolk has percentages lower than Rep. Escobar in 2022, with three under 60%. Another two had percentages lower than Allred. 2024 was a stronger year for Republicans, as only two GOP members had lower percentages that Fletcher’s 61.28%, though another nine were within three points of her. I’m sure there’s a map out there that could endanger one or more of those folks, at least in another decent Republican year. I can’t imagine what a hellish spaghetti bowl such a map might resemble, but that’s not an issue right now. But for sure, there would be some potentially very narrow margins for a number of Republican incumbents, especially if 2026 is a good Democratic year. You know the old saying about pigs and hogs, right?

Basically, all other considerations aside, this is an exercise in risk assessment. Going after just Cuellar and Gonzalez is the least risky action on paper, but some of the Republican votes you’d need to harvest are going to come from CDs 15 and 23, which were both under 60% for the GOP in 2022 (Tony Gonzales did better in 2024 against a lesser opponent), so the downside is there as well. Beyond that, I dunno. It’s all pretty wild to consider. I’m not surprised that the Congressfolks themselves are maybe not too thrilled about this.

If this happens, it would have to happen quickly. Candidates need to be recruited and money needs to be raised, not just for the new challengers but for some number of less-secure incumbents. This will also attract a lot more Democratic action and fundraising, in a year where Dems once again have statewide dreams. There’s also a non-zero chance that a court could order a halt to any new map-drawing until the ongoing redistricting litigation has concluded. I don’t think the Republicans are stupid to consider this – evil, sure, but not stupid – but it’s a big swing and could definitely come with a steep price. Never a dull moment around here. Via the Trib.

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HISD enters its AI slop era

Posted on June 11, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Ugh.

The Harlem Renaissance produced a rich tapestry of poems, novels and paintings of Black life in the early 20th century, all expressing the artistry and brilliance of people whose equal citizenship and full humanity had long been denied.

Yet this February, when eighth graders in the Houston Independent School District sat down for a lesson about the movement’s significance, they were treated to a slideshow with zero images made by Harlem Renaissance artists.

Instead, students were shown two obviously AI-generated illustrations. Both depicted Black people with missing or monstrously distorted facial features, a tell-tale sign of “AI slop.”

Buildings pictured were inscribed with gibberish, including a misspelling of the word “Renaissance.”

And when students turned to a passage about poetry and literature in the Harlem Renaissance, they found more AI-generated illustrations in the margins — but no actual poems. With strictly-timed exercises forcing students to move swiftly through a set of multiple-choice questions like those they would see on end-of-year tests, there was little time for verse.

On May 8, the HISD Board of Managers approved the controversial curriculum that contains lessons like this one for use again next year. The rubber stamp was expected, given the Board’s unstinting support for the state-appointed superintendent Mike Miles and his New Education System (NES).

But this decision is only the latest of many reasons why we — as educators at Rice University and parents of HISD students — are so concerned about the district’s direction since its takeover by the Texas Education Agency in 2023.

[…]

Little is publicly available about the content of HISD’s centrally planned curriculum, aside from the district’s decision to hire a new “artificial intelligence” company called Prof Jim to help generate worksheets, slides and reading passages for use in Miles’s schools. HISD is the company’s first school-district client.

Most Houstonians therefore remain in the dark about the district’s materials, which are already part of the curricula at all but a handful of HISD campuses. In our experience, it’s not always clear where a given lesson has come from. Elements of our own children’s curriculum this year were culled from or generated by a variety of sources, including Canva, Edmentum, Khanmigo, voronoiapp.com and flocabulary.com. More sources are listed in the district’s AI guidebook.

HISD parents, though, can see what is going on. All school-year long, in online forums and community meetings, we have shared troubling findings from our students’ computers and backpacks: worksheets riddled with errors and lifeless lessons that stifle curiosity and emphasize standardized tests.

We commiserate about the lazy misspellings in district-provided PowerPoints (Brahmins, not Bhramins!), YouTube videos of questionable origin, and generally confounding discussion questions — with incorrect punctuation to boot: “What is the exclamation point(s) to something that surprised you.”

We try to laugh about our most absurd discoveries, like the worksheet on transportation technology that asked seventh graders to analyze a picture of an automobile mashed up with a chariot — pulled by an AI-generated horse with three hind legs.

Or the one for a third-grade “Art of Thinking” class that asks students to match prompts to a chatbot’s responses and then “identify how AI positively impacts critical thinking.”

Or the Harlem Renaissance slides without Harlem Renaissance art.

All of these examples come from students and parents we personally know, but we worry over the future for all of Houston’s children as alarm bells about HISD sound.

[…]

For-profit “educational technology” companies like Prof Jim are eager to turn the crisis of public disinvestment into a money-making opportunity. In a public talk last year, the company’s CEO and founder proudly claimed that, “We are now able to use AI to automatically create things like slide decks for teachers … You just push a button.” He predicted that within 10 years, robots would be good enough to enter physical classrooms and teach.

Hell no to that. This is from a long op-ed that ran in Sunday’s print edition. Among many other things, I feel confident saying we would not be in this position of having moronic AI content in our schools if we still had elected representation. When we finally do get that back, undoing or at least very strictly reviewing and revising this bullshit needs to be a top priority. I would argue that imposing this kind of curriculum, with its associated costs, is outside the bounds of Mike Miles’ mandate. But of course he’s never felt confined by any mandate, and he can simply wave away any unfortunate obstacles. It’s going to be such a big damn celebration when he finally slinks out of town.

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