Daily Archives: September 16, 2011

Mayor extends burn ban in parks

From the inbox: Mayor Parker Extends Parks Burn Ban to Include Smoking Mayor Annise Parker today signed an executive order extending the City’s temporary burn ban to include smoking in City parks.  The smoking ban applies to lighted cigars, cigarettes, … Continue reading

Posted in Elsewhere in Houston | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Friday random ten: The final frontier

This is a little late, as this was happening while I was doing the Songs of the Century, but here’s my tribute to the last flight of the space shuttle: 1. Space Oddity – David Bowie 2. Space Truckin’ – … Continue reading

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My overview of the 2011 election

Note: I was asked to write a guest post at BOR to summarize the 2011 Houston elections. I figure if I’m going to put all that effort into something, I may as well use it here, too. It’s mostly familiar … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2011 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Even their own experts think the Congressional map is wrong

Final arguments in the federal redistricting lawsuit should be heard today in San Antonio. On Wednesday, something truly remarkable happened during the testimony of the state’s expert witness: A Rice University political science professor, testifying Wednesday in a lawsuit over … Continue reading

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

We had a wildfire protection plan

We just weren’t willing to pay for it. Long before this month’s historic wildfires in Texas, the state’s forest service came up with a $20.4 million plan to stop the flames from starting or tamp them out before small blazes … Continue reading

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On paying for insurance at the pump

The Dallas Transportation blog comes out in favor of an old favorite. Our newspaper ran an editorial today about fighting the problem of uninsured motorists, those miserable characters who have complicated many of our lives. The news peg was a … Continue reading

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments