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January 25th, 2012:

Interview with Reagan Flowers

Reagan Flowers

Also running for Harris County Department of Education, Position 6, Precinct 1 is Reagan Flowers, who holds a PhD in Education Leadership from the Union Institute and University. She has been a science teacher, dean of students, and School Improvement Facilitator at different HISD campuses in her career, and today she runs an education support non-profit that she founded called CSTEM. Here’s what we talked about:

Download the MP3 file

You can find a list of all interviews for this cycle, plus other related information, on my 2012 Harris County Primary Elections page. You can also follow this blog by liking its Facebook page.

The Houston Not-Stros

Oh, hell no.

Even more drastic changes could come next year, when the [Astros move] to the American League.

Possible transformations include new uniforms and logos, changes to the playing field and “Tal’s Hill” in center field, and even a re-evaluation of the name “Astros,” which the team has used for the last 47 years of a 50-year history.

“We’re taking a look at everything,” [new owner Jim] Crane said when asked about the potential name change. “We’re going to do a study on it. We’re going to study the information, both from our fans and from all sorts of marketing people. I’m not saying we’re going to change. We haven’t made a decision. If the change is going to come, it’s going to come next year.”

I assure you, this will not go over well. Many people are already upset at the forthcoming change to the American League. Save yourself the money on the study.

Yes, I know, the team changed its name once, from the Colt .45s to the Astros, back in 1965. That was a long time ago, and it was a three-year-old franchise updating its name to fit a brand new, first of its kind stadium. That team had no history to leave behind, and the move into the Astrodome made the name change make sense. There’s no parallel here. Besides, the other time a team changed leagues, the Milwaukee Brewers kept their name.

Geek that I am, I got to wondering how often teams changed names. Often, the name change was accompanied by a relocation – the Expos became the Nationals, the Senators became the Rangers (and an earlier version of the Senators became the Twins before that), the Pilots became the Mariners, and the Browns became the Orioles. For teams that remained in the same place, the name changes I could think of were:

The Tamps Bay Rays dropped the “Devil” from their name in 2008.

The Oakland Athletics became the Oakland A’s in 1970, but then reclaimed the “Athletics” name in 1981.

The Cincinnati Reds were briefly known as the “Redlegs” during the 1950s. Yes, this was a craven response to McCarthyism and the hysteria over Communism.

The Boston Braves, which had numerous other nicknames early on, were known as the Bees from 1935-39, before becoming the Braves again. They remained the Braves through relocations to Milwaukee and then Atlanta, as the Athletics kept their name after moving from Philadelphia to Kansas City and finally to Oakland.

In 1933, the Brooklyn franchise officially became the Dodgers after previously being known as the Grays, the Grooms, the Bridegrooms, the Superbas, and the Robins. Let me just say now that I will drop my own opposition to an Astros’ name change if Jim Crane agrees to call the team the Houston Superbas, if only because I would love to know what a Superbas team mascot might look like.

Go back further and there are more and more examples of name changes. Even the New York Yankees were once known as the Highlanders, a name that was supposedly hated by New York’s many newspapers because it was impossible to fit into a headline. There’s plenty of examples of name changes, but none that I can see for a longstanding franchise that isn’t going anywhere. I personally would prefer the Astros make history in other ways than that. Hair Balls, which focuses on the positive things that were said like lower ticket prices, cheaper beer, and the ability to bring your own food and beverage into the stadium, and Greg, who’s with me, have more.

Parker joins other mayors in push for marriage equality

Good for her. Good for all of them.

On the right side of history

Houston Mayor Annise Parker seized the vanguard of a drive by 78 mayors Friday to win the equal rights of marriage for gay couples, donning a national leadership role that contrasts sharply with her low-key demeanor back home.

“This is an issue whose time has come,” Parker told the Houston Chronicle on Friday in Washington, where mayors from New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston and Tacoma, Wash., launched Mayors for the Freedom to Marry.

[…]

Despite personal support for awarding same-sex couples the legal rights of married heterosexual couples, Parker said it was not her role to fight for an amendment to the Texas Constitution to override the state’s defense of marriage act or to win a ballot referendum to overturn it.

Nor was it her role to push to overturn the city’s voter-approved charter amendment banning same-sex couple benefits for city workers.

Those changes “are going to have to be something that is important to the citizens of Texas and the citizens of Houston who want to step up,” said Parker. “It needs to come from the community.”

Not sure what is meant by “ballot referendum” here. We don’t have ballot referenda at the state level, we have votes on Constitutional amendments. And before it gets to that stage, it takes a two thirds vote in both chambers to put the amendment on the ballot. Which is why backers of the Double Secret Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment were pushing it, because then a future legislative majority in favor of marriage inequality would be insufficient to overturn it. Here in Houston, a charter amendment would be required to restore domestic partner benefits for city employees, since it was a charter amendment that forbade them in the first place.

As for the leadership question, the Mayor is right that ultimately it’s the will and the actions of the people that are going to make change happen. It doesn’t hurt to have people in leadership positions speak out and take what steps they can to move the people in the right direction, however. Mayors are people, too, after all. The more people speaking out about doing what’s right, the better. I mean, there’s no shortage of people speaking out about what’s wrong:

The latest effort builds upon a resolution unanimously adopted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors in 2009 supporting “marriage equality for same-sex couples, and the recognition and extension of full equal rights to such unions, including family and medical leave, tax equity, and insurance and retirement benefits, and opposes the enshrinement of discrimination in the federal or state constitutions.”

However, Dave Wilson, one of Parker’s mayoral opponents in November, was critical of the mayor’s appearance, saying, ” It’s totally uncalled for. She needs to be back here dealing with the issues rather than in Washington promoting her agenda.”

Hey, Dave, how about you take care of your own business and file that campaign finance report with the county that was due last week before you start telling other people what to do with their time? I mean, I know you’re only running for County Commissioner to screw with the Democrats, but that doesn’t excuse you from obeying the law.

Anyway. Texas on the Potomac has more, or you can go straight to the source and check out the bipartisan Mayors for the Freedom to Marry initiative, via BOR.

Anti-tax zealots plump for casinos

Gambling yes!

Grover Norquist, the nation’s most prominent anti-tax crusader, wrote a letter last week to Texas legislators to call for expanded gambling.

“In light of the adverse economic impact that higher taxes would have, it is imperative that lawmakers consider all other options for balancing the state’s budget,” Norquist wrote. “There are a number of alternatives to raising taxes, the most preferable being an expansion of economic activity, and thus, the tax base. One way to do that would be to permit legitimate businesses to operate that are currently not allowed to do so. Research has found that permitting lawful and responsible gaming operations in Texas is one simple way to grow the Texas economy, thereby generating more tax revenue for the state.”

Representatives from groups that tried to pass gambling measures in the 2011 legislative session said they had nothing to do with the letter.

Gambling no!

The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s executive director, Arlene Wohlgemuth, and it director of fiscal policy, former state Rep. Talmadge Heflin, sought to counter a pro-gambling letter sent to state leaders last week from anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform.

[…]

“While we generally agree with our friends at ATR on tax and spending issues, when it comes to gambling, that is not the case. Their suggestion that gambling is a way ‘in which to rectify the anticipated budget imbalance’ is wrong,” Wohlgemuth and Heflin wrote.

The foundation’s preferred approach would lean more toward fiscal discipline as the state faces the likelihood of another budget shortfall ahead of the 2013 legislative session.

I’m generally agnostic to deeply ambivalent on the gambling question, but if those are my choices I say bring on the casinos and the racetrack slot machines. There are of course other choices, just not ones that these one-percenter chuckleheads are interested in. As we well know, we’ll need a better legislature for any other options to get traction.

Beyond that, I have no idea if any of this will make a difference or not. Neither argument is particularly original, so at this point it’s more a matter of which article of faith one subscribes to. The real question at this point is whether or not gambling will have a higher profile in 2013 than it did in 2011. My money’s on yes.