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March, 2014:

Precinct analysis: Democratic primary elections

I finally got around to asking for the canvass reports for the primaries in Harris County. I didn’t have any specific agenda in looking at the data from each, I just wanted to see what I could learn. Let’s start on the Democratic side with a look at the vote totals in each State Rep district for the Senate race.

Dist Kim Kesha Alameel Fjet Scherr ============================================= 126 119 276 513 40 165 127 128 346 531 25 234 128 128 163 603 43 145 129 175 318 991 133 275 130 121 201 431 35 146 131 412 1,200 1,827 72 361 132 131 319 384 41 139 133 131 169 1,040 82 297 134 277 246 2,773 176 613 135 134 280 483 29 135 137 97 193 447 27 107 138 117 224 635 45 203 139 353 1,140 1,735 97 366 140 152 227 455 37 95 141 283 721 1,307 54 273 142 310 864 1,243 72 264 143 232 436 814 50 193 144 123 117 514 24 113 145 232 285 995 80 265 146 391 1,068 2,391 106 374 147 422 1,018 2,738 134 411 148 260 300 1,521 76 376 149 224 326 539 45 145 150 121 273 500 50 129

The main conclusion I’d draw from this is that people seem to have gotten the message about Kesha Rogers. None of the districts had any surprises. Even in the African-American districts, where one might be concerned that Roger’s name could earn her some votes in a low-information race, she scored only 27%, not much higher than her 20% overall. Straight up against David Alameel, she got about 35% in the African-American districts. I was already feeling pretty good about the runoff, and the data here reinforce that.

Here’s what the Governor’s race looked like:

Dist Davis Madrigal ======================= 126 1,093 71 127 1,228 91 128 1,010 107 129 1,849 111 130 911 61 131 3,788 288 132 968 74 133 1,783 68 134 4,310 104 135 1,031 85 137 833 73 138 1,204 83 139 3,678 273 140 803 208 141 2,612 162 142 2,778 216 143 1,465 359 144 794 145 145 1,560 447 146 4,302 240 147 4,719 282 148 2,464 275 149 1,184 132 150 1,045 77

For all the tsuris around Davis’ performance in South Texas, she did just fine in the Latino districts here, scoring over 83% of the vote. More is always better, but hey, she didn’t campaign. There’s nothing to see here.

The headscratcher race was of course the Ag Commissioner race.

Dist Hogan Kinky Hugh ============================ 126 445 342 301 127 468 403 363 128 466 350 251 129 617 582 640 130 361 322 248 131 1,822 1,049 796 132 429 335 237 133 439 591 687 134 981 1,445 1,571 135 437 344 273 137 308 282 234 138 413 437 358 139 1,691 1,041 781 140 508 290 155 141 1,415 642 436 142 1,397 787 539 143 856 560 273 144 422 331 143 145 730 707 404 146 1,905 1,263 936 147 1,904 1,487 1,083 148 843 1,063 610 149 540 424 271 150 419 342 285

The voters in HD134 got the message about Hugh Fitzsimons, but that’s about it. Maybe if he’d had Alameel money, it would have been different. As for Hogan, I’m going with the theory that he did well by being the first name on the ballot. Doesn’t explain how he did in other counties, but it’s the best I can do.

And finally, the Railroad Commissioner race, which in its own was is also a mystery.

Dist Henry Brown ==================== 126 352 687 127 413 775 128 408 622 129 644 1,063 130 319 566 131 1,034 2,654 132 361 599 133 450 1,078 134 942 2,508 135 402 598 137 275 510 138 362 779 139 1,079 2,396 140 362 574 141 717 1,784 142 913 1,787 143 622 1,042 144 334 498 145 602 1,125 146 1,206 2,821 147 1,268 3,012 148 824 1,424 149 414 796 150 378 627

Like Jim Hogan, Dale Henry was first on the ballot, but unlike Hogan it did him no good. It’s reasonable to think that Steve Brown would do well in his backyard, and he is an active campaigner and social media presence. But let’s be honest, anything can happen in a downballot no-money race. I’m just glad the better outcome is what happened here.

A bumpy ride for Lyft in San Antonio

Ride sharing service Lyft has made its move into San Antonio, where much like it did in Houston it is offering free rides while regulatory issues are negotiated. Unlike Houston, the official reception they got was distinctly unfriendly.

Less than a week after the ride-sharing service Lyft launched in San Antonio, the city’s police chief has told the company to cease operations because its drivers are not properly permitted.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said he sent “a very strongly worded cease and desist letter” to San Francisco-based Lyft on Wednesday. Company spokeswoman Katie Dally said the company had not received a letter as of Thursday morning.

The company, which launched in the Alamo City on Friday night, matches drivers with passengers looking for a ride via a smart phone app.

Lyft has been operating as Lyft Pioneer in San Antonio, meaning passengers will not be charged for now.

To get a ride, a Lyft user downloads the smartphone app, then receives a text message, which says passengers can get 50 free rides in San Antonio (worth up to $25 each) for the next 15 days.

Lyft drivers are not licensed taxi or limo drivers. The drivers who sign up to work for Lyft must undergo a criminal background and driving background check, said Erin Simpson, Lyft’s director of communication. They must also have their own car insurance policy, and Lyft’s insurance will cover them up to $1 million. Passengers can rate their drivers, and drivers can do the same with passengers.

But McManus said that’s not enough — they still aren’t allowed to provide a taxi-like service.

The story has gone national, as you might imagine. Lyft has had a few problems here in Houston as well, but nothing quite like that. They also have some supporters, including Mayor Julian Castro and Robert Rivard, who write his own letter to Chief McManus:

I don’t understand your out-of-character move to try and shut down Lyft, one of the coolest, most innovative transportation solutions to ever hit San Antonio. It’s only been operating here one week and it isn’t even charging its customers yet. I could hardly believe my ears when I heard you threatening to arrest Lyft drivers if they persist in their unlicensed, unsanctioned ride share activities. Didn’t you see the congratulatory launch message from our friends at Geekdom? These guys are for real. We are not their first city.

[…]

Chief, everyone I have spoken to this afternoon and evening wonders what motivated you to take such forceful action given your cool demeanor. Are the taxicab owners pressuring the City? In a city with too few transit choices, cabs too often are part of the problem. I don’t particularly blame the owners or drivers. In a city of sprawl, where cabbies come only when called or if you happen to be at a downtown hotel or the airport, supply and demand seldom balance the way they do in more densely populated urban areas.

We need creative solutions like Lyft to attack some of the very big transportation problems in this city which get little attention because only crisis motivates people to act: air quality that worsens by the year, and highways clogged with commuter traffic moving at a rush hour crawl in the only Texas city that has no form of light rail.

How are we going to make San Antonio a more walkable city, safer for cyclists and pedestrians, unless we start taking some of the vehicles off the road, most of which carry exactly one person: the driver?

How are we going to get people to stop climbing behind the wheel after they’ve had too much to drink in a city that celebrates drinking?

[…]

Texas has already allowed one entrenched lobby – the automobile dealers – to prevent Tesla vehicles from being sold directly to consumers. That short-sightedness could cost us the Tesla battery factory the company hopes to build here or in some other Sun Belt city and the 6,500 good paying jobs it would create.

Let’s take a step back and ask ourselves: What’s the simplest, quickest way to make sure these companies have figured out the public safety and security thing. Let’s allow Lyft to operate through a probationary period, and if all goes well, let them stay.

I don’t know what the regulatory environment is in San Antonio – you can see their taxi ordinances here, but I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to compare it to Houston’s codes. San Antonio City Council is going through a similar process to get the ordinances updated to allow them to operate, with Uber also in the wings; the relevant committee meets Wednesday. If Randy Bear‘s experiences with taxis in SA are indicative, there will likely be a fair amount of public support for the new kids in town. A statement from Lyft about the letter and their entry is beneath the fold.

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AG opines against Early To Rise

This kind of snuck in there.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an opinion Monday saying a court would likely have found a petition effort last year to send a 1-cent property tax hike to voters to buoy local preschools to be illegal.

[…]

On Monday, Abbott wrote in a 4-page opinion addressed to state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, who requested it, saying: “Because the Legislature has not authorized an election for the purpose of increasing a tax rate of a (countywide school district), a court would likely conclude that” the law does “not authorize a CSD to hold a petition-initiative election to increase the county equalization tax.”

Read the opinion here.

“I am grateful for the attorney general’s clear opinion today confirming the illegality of the Early To Rise initiative,” Emmett said in a statement. “Despite numerous threats of lawsuits, it was clear to me that this bizarre proposal was illegal and wrong-headed. It’s gratifying to have the confirmation of both the appellate court and the state of Texas.”

See here, here, and here for the background. Basically, the Early To Rise campaign submitted petition signatures on behalf of the Harris County School Readiness Corp, but County Judge Ed Emmett refused to put the measure on the ballot, a decision that was allowed to stand when the 14th Court of Appeals declined to hear HCSRC’s appeal. County Attorney Vince Ryan also submitted a request for an opinion on Emmett’s behalf, not that it makes much difference. As we know, AG opinions aren’t binding but they do have an effect, and as such I don’t see how the same process, with a differently worded petition, would be viable again. I do think we haven’t heard the last of this, however. The question is where they go from here. Neither the webpage nor the Facebook page has any reaction to the AG opinion. I sure hope there is a way forward of some kind, because there are lots of benefits to universal pre-K. Judge Emmett opposed the petition process but supports the idea. Surely there is a way to work this out and have another go in a way everyone agrees is legally acceptable.

Just a reminder, the Ledbetter bill was bipartisan

I mean, it had to be bipartisan to pass in the Lege, but let’s keep that in mind as the debate continues.

State Rep. Senfronia Thompson

Rep. Senfronia Thompson

After 42 years in the Texas House, Rep. Senfronia Thompson has earned a nickname – “Miz T” – that evokes equal parts respect, affection and fear. When she filed the Texas version of the Lilly Ledbetter Act to promote equal pay last session, “Miz T” called some old friends at the Texas Civil Justice League, a business group dedicating to fighting lawsuit abuse, and drafted them as allies.

Aided by the group’s credibility with conservatives – and by the force of her own personality – the Houston Democrat gained bipartisan support for the measure and it narrowly passed, although her efforts eventually fell victim to Gov. Rick Perry’s veto pen.

Now, the issue has resurfaced in the Texas governor’s race, with Republican nominee Greg Abbott saying he would veto the bill if it is passed again. His comments drew a rebuke from Democratic nominee Wendy Davis, who had sponsored the bill in the Texas Senate.

The GOP candidates for lieutenant governor also jumped into the fray this week. Incumbent David Dewhurst tweeted that Davis’ bill would have “unleashed torrents of lawsuits,” while his challenger, Houston Sen. Dan Patrick, said the government should stay out of the issue.

Some political observers, however, say conservatives may be having a knee-jerk reaction against the Lilly Ledbetter legislation simply because it was championed by President Barack Obama, and Davis, a rising Texas Democratic star. The policy it advances is not that controversial, they argue.

The vote favoring the bill “can absolutely be defended on conservative grounds,” says TCJL general counsel George Christian, whose group helped win passage of Thompson’s bill. “I would urge stepping back and taking another look.”

Lisa Maatz, vice president for government relations for the American Association of University Women, called Dewhurst’s claim that the law would unleash a torrent of lawsuits “a tired argument.” The predicted “torrent” has not occurred since the federal bill was signed into law in 2009, she said.

Emphasis mine. I think there’s a lot to this; we’ve all seen how a health care law that had its genesis in the Heritage Foundation has become synonymous with socialism. The question is whether people who once crossed the aisle to support it will continue to do so or if they’ll be swayed back by partisan considerations. The original bill passed by a 78-61 margin in the House after being amended in the Senate. Here’s the record vote of the House concurrence of the Senate changes. In addition to 53 Democrats (Anchia and Burnam were absent), these Republicans voted for final passage:

Anderson; Aycock; Bohac; Crownover; Dale; Darby; Davis, S.; Geren; Harless; Huberty; King, S.; Kuempel; Lozano; Otto; Patrick; Ratliff; Riddle; Ritter; Sheffield, J.; Sheffield, R.; Smith; Villabla; Workman; Zerwas

Some of these folks are not coming back – Pitts retired, while Patrick, Ratliff, and Ralph Sheffield all lost primaries. That might make passage in the House trickier when it comes up again in 2015; of the No votes, only Linda Harper-Brown and Stefani Carter, both of whom are in primary runoffs, might get replaced by a Democrat, while the retiring Craig Eiland could be replaced by a no-voting Republican. Lord only knows what might happen in the Senate, too, but the point is that we need to keep an eye on the overall attitudes. As with evangelicals and contraception, attitudes do change. We should keep track of that and note when they do change, so we can remind ourselves that it wasn’t always this way.

Weekend link dump for March 30

Time for Chief Wahoo to go away.

The anti-social network has finally arrived.

“Scientists have discovered a bizarre, bird-like dinosaur, named Anzu wyliei, that provides paleontologists with their first good look at a dinosaur group that has been shrouded in mystery for almost a century.”

Micro-entrepreneurship ain’t what it’s cracked up to be. Someone please gently inform Thomas Friedman.

“In any case, you remember the D-K phenomenon, don’t you? It’s the phenomenon whereby people who are unknowledgeable or incompetent about a topic have a falsely elevated estimate of their own knowledge base. In the antivaccine movement, the D-K phenomenon tends to take the form of parents who think that their University of Google knowledge trumps the knowledge of physicians and scientists who have dedicated large swaths of their lives to the rigorous study of conditions such as autism and the question of how vaccines work.”

RIP, conservative book publishing industry. I’ll not be attending the memorial service.

“Make no mistake: Denying women contraceptive coverage that they are legally entitled to, forcing them to pay much more out of pocket than they otherwise would have, amounts to a pay cut.”

Fast food and decent wages are not mutually exclusive.

We may have had a cold winter, but climate change is still occurring. Sorry about that.

Some writing advice from Stephen King.

To know the Koch Brothers is to hate them. Given their lying, money-grubbing ways, I don’t see what that is a surprise.

“Who cares if this scheme was effective? Maybe it was the Keystone Kops version of collusion. What matters is merely that they tried. These companies felt perfectly justified in conspiring to hold down wages in a tight labor market. Like so many titans of capitalism, they think free markets are great just as long as workers who are in high demand don’t get any fancy ideas about what that means.”

“But there’s no question that, overall, many fewer people will be underinsured because of the Affordable Care Act.”

Are my pants lowering your test scores?” (Spoiler alert: No.)

All about baseball in Australia. Now I have another reason to want to go there someday.

“On being faced with a noisy classroom, a maths teacher in a school in Belgium, threatened to reveal the deaths that take place in the third season of Game of Thrones.” And that’s why you should always read the books first, kids.

From the Questions That Answer Themselves department: “How do you tell a child when she wants to wear pants a shirt, and go out and play in the mud and so forth, how do you tell her, no you can’t, you’ve got to wear a pink bow in your hair, and you’ve got to let your hair grow out long, how do you do that?”

How do you say Lysistrata in Ukrainian?

“Data” the buzzword vs. data the actual thing.

How much would you pay for the new Wu-Tang Clan album?

Joe Biden has a dwarf planet named after him, and you don’t.

As a onetime devotee of Television Without Pity, this news makes me sad.

“I have to thank Obamacare for saving my life.”

As with many other industries, baseball players’ salaries are not keeping up with revenue growth.

It’s a conspiracy!

Pratt resigns

Good riddance.

Judge Denise Pratt

Under investigation by Harris County prosecutors for dismissing hundreds of cases without notice, embattled family court judge Denise Pratt resigned Friday, abruptly ending her re-election bid.

The freshman Republican jurist campaigned as a conservative advocate for children and families, touting her unique policy of keeping boyfriends, girlfriends and lovers of recently divorced litigants away from children. While a bevy of Houston-area lawyers and families who have rallied against Pratt challenged that claim, the Baytown native defended her record Friday in a statement that said her departure from the 311th state District Court was due to the damage that “relentless attacks by my political opponents” were having on the court, the local Republican Party and her family.

“I cannot, in good conscience, allow it to continue,” she wrote on her campaign website. “My goal has always been to serve the children and families of Harris County, but I won’t sacrifice my family’s well-being any longer to continue to serve as judge. … I don’t want to see my party, which I have worked to build, dragged down by the media circus.”

[…]

On Friday, Pratt critics said they were elated by the resignation, but also frustrated that she continues to deny wrongdoing.

“Instead of taking responsibility for her actions, she’s blaming people like me, when all the lawyers want are judges who show up to work and follow the law and treat people fairly,” Enos said. “Had she done that, she wouldn’t be in this position.”

See here for all the previous entries. I received a copy of Pratt’s statement on Friday, and it’s an epic miasma of whiny self-pity; I’ve pasted it beneath the fold so you can experience it for yourselves. Putting all partisan considerations aside, this is good news. Her incompetence and petulance were causing real problems for a lot of people, and her departure makes the judiciary better overall. I’m glad to see her service come to an end.

That said, as the story notes the deadline to withdraw from the ballot for the runoff was two weeks ago, so despite her resignation she could still be the nominee in the 311th District Family Court. If she manages to win the runoff against Alicia Franklin and then withdraws from the race, Democrat Sherri Cothrun will be unopposed in November. I’m thinking that might cause a bit of a hubbub in the media – if she really wanted to avoid any circuses, she should have submitted her resignation before the March 12 deadline for the runoff. Given Pratt’s refusal to admit any flaws on her part and her insistence that all the bad things we negative nellies have been saying about her are just dirty politics, one has to wonder what prompted this. One might speculate about the status of the latest complaint against her and the ensuing investigation. If we hear any news on that front, we’ll know. Beyond that, as I said I don’t really care. A bad judge is stepping down. That’s what matters. See below for her statement, and Texpatriate has more.

(more…)

When are we getting those trains again?

The Metro board has some doubts about railcar manufacturer CAF’s ability to keep its promises.

Houston transit officials, worried that the light rail system might run short of trains for months after two new lines open, are not satisfied with a new schedule for delivery of delayed rail cars.

Metropolitan Transit Authority officials expressed deep frustration as they got their first update Thursday on CAF U.S.A.’s revised schedule to deliver 39 new trains to Houston, meant to expand the city’s light rail service.

Two new rail lines are expected to open later this year, possibly in September or October. To have enough trains to run timely service, Metro needs most – if not all – of the new rail cars to increase its fleet from 37 to 76.

Under the most optimistic scenario, Metro would have 45 trains ready to ferry passengers if the lines open in September.

Board members told Metro staff and a CAF representative Thursday that they were skeptical that even the revised schedule is feasible. Even if the company holds true to its latest delivery promises, it still leaves light rail service in a lurch.

“We have gone out on limb, and we are hanging there,” Metro board member Cindy Siegel said, turning her attention to a CAF employee in the audience. “I still don’t have a lot of confidence, and you can carry that message to your CEO.”

[…]

Without the trains, Metro plans to start limited service on the two new lines by taking trains off the Red Line. Reducing double-car trains to single cars on the Red Line would lead to severe crowding, officials and riders said.

See here, here, and here for the background. As I’ve said before, I think Metro can muddle through with a shortage of trains for a little while, but the longer it goes the worse it gets, especially if the endpoint is unclear. At this point, I hope they’re warming up the lawyers, because however much oversight Metro may exercise at this point, I have a feeling they’re going to need to enforce some consequence clauses in their contract.

Dallas adopts plastic bag fee

A fee, not a ban.

plastic-bag

Stores in Dallas will charge customers five cents for most kinds of plastic or paper carryout bags, under a measure approved Wednesday by the City Council.

At the urging of council member Dwaine Caraway, the council voted 8-6 to assess an “environmental fee” for single-use carryout bags. The five-cent charge takes effect Jan. 1.

Single-use bags will be banned entirely at retail outlets in city buildings and at city-sponsored events. The ban apparently would apply, for example, to gift shops at city-owned museums, American Airlines Center, even the Omni Dallas Hotel, which adjoins the Dallas convention center.

Caraway has complained for months that plastic bags, in particular, were creating litter problems throughout the city.

[…]

The Texas Retailers Association opposed the bag fee, even though stores will keep 10 percent of the money they collect, and even though the measure approved Wednesday is less stringent than the outright ban on single-use bags that Caraway originally sought.

Gary Huddleston, a member of the association’s executive committee, said the fee will be burdensome to stores and customers alike.

“We personally believe the solution to litter in the city of Dallas is a strong recycling program and also punishing the people that litter, and not punishing the retailer,” said Huddleston, director of consumer affairs for the Kroger Co.

Stores will have to devote administrative resources to tracking the fees, he said, and the nickel that customers must pay for each disposable bag is a nickel that otherwise might have been used “to buy more product in my store.”

City officials said the money collected from the bag fee will go toward enforcement and education efforts. Those efforts could cost $250,000 and require the hiring of 12 additional employees, said Jill Jordan, an assistant city manager.

After the council vote, Huddleston would not rule out a legal challenge by the retailers association. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has already been asked to weigh in on the legality of Texas cities’ banning of single-use bags. Council member Sheffie Kadane, who opposed the five-cent fee, said the city can almost count on being sued by retailers or plastic bag manufacturers or both.

See here for some background on the debate in Dallas. As you know, AG Greg Abbott has been asked for an opinion about the legality of municipal bag laws. This opinion was requested by State Rep. Dan Flynn, on behalf of the Texas Retailers Association and its CEO, Ronnie Volkenning. The Trib reports on environmental groups responding to this request.

Supporters of the ordinances say plastic bags harm the environment. The Texas Campaign for the Environment has been one of the most vocal supporters of the ordinances. “We want the attorney general to stay out of this issue altogether,” said Robin Schneider, the group’s executive director.

The Texas Municipal League was the first to submit a brief to the attorney general’s office. The brief included a statement from state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, from 2011 in which he argued for local control over the issue.

“For the state to determine what a city’s problems are or solutions that it may have or may not have is a little bit of an overextension of the Legislature,” Seliger said.

Because the cities are responsible for supplying plastic bags, they should be able to determine if they wish to ban them, he said in an interview.

“They spend much more time as garbage than they do as carriers of groceries anyway,” Seliger added.

The Texas Municipal League argued in its brief that a plastic bag should not be classified as a “container” or a package” — the two words specifically mentioned in the Heath and Safety Code.

“A plastic bag is not a container or a package, but merely the means by which a container or a package is transported,” the brief said.

Volkening said the most environmental position would be to encourage the recycling of plastic bags, not banning their use.

That may be Volkening’s opinion, but as you may recall from Tyson Sowell’s guest post here, groups like the Texas Campaign for the Environment think the ban is the way to go. In fact, they’d push for a ban on paper bags as well. Regardless, I like Seliger’s statement, which you would think would be appealing to conservatives. And it is for many, but there’s a significant number for whom local control is only for policies they like. We’ll see which group is happy with Abbott’s forthcoming opinion.

Darsh Preet Singh

Very cool.

Darsh Preet Singh

Basketball courts didn’t care that Darsh Preet Singh wore a turban.

Or that he is Sikh.

Hardwood is a great equalizer. The court’s 10-foot-high rim does not discriminate. If you can handle the rock, you’ve got a place.

Even better if you can dunk. Singh could do both.

And his turban always suited up with him.

Blessed with a 6-foot-4-inch frame and a 6-foot-8-inch wingspan, he was a lock-down defensive specialist at Trinity University from 2004 to 2008. As such, he was also the first turban-wearing Sikh to play in the NCAA.

And now, the Smithsonian Institute is displaying his No. 32 jersey in its “Beyond Bollywood” exhibit, which showcases contributions of Indian-Americans. It opened last month and lasts through August 2015 at the National Museum of Natural History.

That his jersey is in the halls of one of the world’s most famous museums baffles him. He said his parents and other first-generation Sikh Americans sacrificed and contributed much more.

“When I reflect on the accomplishments of the Sikh community in the United States, I don’t feel like I did much. I was just playing basketball,” he said. “I didn’t think I was doing anything special other than doing what I loved. … I think I was just at the right place at the right time.”

I’m just delighted that it was my alma mater where this trail was blazed. I salute you, Darsh Preet Singh, as a fellow alum and as someone who respects what you accomplished. Here’s the Smithsonian‘s page about the exhibit, a WaPo review of it, and a nice interview in Faith Street with Singh. Well done, sir.

Saturday video break: America

Has there ever been a better free concert than the one Simon and Garfunkel did in Central Park in 1981? Here they are doing “America”:

I love Simon’s joke about “the guys who are selling loose joints” donating half their profits to the city. And here, for the second week in a row, is Yes, a group that I don’t think of when I think of a group that does covers, doing a cover:

That’s about what I’d expect from Yes covering this song, wouldn’t you say? There are some longer versions out there, but I think the four-minute single is Yes-y enough.

Fifth Circuit does its thing again

There was never any doubt.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld the new abortion regulations that were passed in July by the Republican-led Texas Legislature.

The plaintiffs, who represent the majority of abortion providers in Texas, including four Planned Parenthood affiliates, Whole Woman’s Health and other independent abortion providers, challenged the constitutionality of two requirements that the state implemented Nov. 1: that physicians obtain hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles of an abortion facility, and that they follow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s protocol for drug-induced abortions, rather than a common, evidence-based protocol.

In a unanimous opinion by a three-judge panel, the court sided with the state, which argued that the rules should be deemed constitutional by the federal court because the state’s objective was to protect women’s health, and that there isn’t enough evidence to suggest that the rules create an undue burden on the majority of Texas women attempting to access abortion.

The author of the opinion, Chief Justice Edith Jones, wrote that the state’s “articulation of rational legislative objectives, which was backed by evidence placed before the state legislature, easily supplied a connection between the admitting-privileges rule and the desirable protection of abortion patients’ health.”

Jones also authored the 2012 opinion affirming Texas’ abortion sonogram law. The other justices, Jennifer Elrod and Catharina Haynes, served on another three-judge panel that reversed a lower court’s injunction on the law in October, which allowed the rules to take effect.

As I said before, the only question was whether Edith Jones wrote her opinion before or after hearing the arguments. There was never any question how she was going to rule. What happens next isn’t clear yet – the plaintiffs can ask for a ruling from the entire court, for all the good that will do, or they can start the process to take this to SCOTUS, with all the risk that entails. The one thing we know for sure is that no patient’s health is being protected by any of this. PDiddie, the Observer and Political Animal have more.

Tesla’s stealth visit to San Antonio

May mean something, or it may not.

A pair of executives from Tesla Motors Inc., the electric carmaker that’s scouting a location for its planned $5 billion “gigafactory,” secretly met here Wednesday with top city and county officials, a person close to the discussion said.

The meeting came less than a week after the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation submitted a proposal to the Palo Alto, Calif.-based manufacturer for the factory, which will produce lithium-ion batteries for Tesla vehicles and battery storage units for use in homes, commercial sites and utilities.

While details of what local officials offered Tesla weren’t available, the proposal included a separate section for CPS Energy, positioning the city-owned utility as a potential partner for the company.

“It appears San Antonio is back in the game for the project,” the source said, acknowledging the city’s chances had seemed to be remote — until recently.

[…]

A Tesla plant, which the company wants producing battery packs within three years, would need between 500 and 1,000 acres with 10 million square feet of production space. The factory would create 6,500 jobs.

The company has said that with its partners, it plans to produce 500,000 lithium-ion batteries annually by 2020.

Late Tuesday, Castro used Twitter and Facebook to stake out his position on a state law that prohibits Tesla from selling its all-electric vehicles directly to Texas customers.

“Today, Tesla is prohibited from selling its cars directly to consumers in Texas. State law requires that they be sold through a dealer. I respect our state’s auto dealers, but that law ought to change,” Castro wrote on Facebook. “That’s like telling Apple it can’t sell its products at an Apple Store but has to sell them through Best Buy or Walmart instead. Makes no sense.”

In a Wednesday interview, he said he agreed with Gov. Rick Perry that the law should be changed. Lucy Nashed, a spokeswoman for the governor’s office, confirmed Perry has no plans to call a special session to address the issue.

It’s unclear whether that’s a deal breaker for Tesla. Arizona lawmakers currently are deliberating changes there that would allow Tesla to circumvent dealerships and sell directly to the public.

See here for the background. I will note that even if Perry called a special session to address this issue there’s no guarantee a bill would pass. The Texas Automobile Dealers Association pushed back pretty hard on this during the last legislative session, and they surely won’t go away any time soon.

Chances are excellent that Red McCombs could get Gov. Rick Perry on the phone.

So I asked the San Antonio billionaire last week if he’d called the governor about safeguarding the state law requiring automakers to sell their vehicles through franchised dealerships, the bedrock of McCombs’ empire.

[…]

As one of the state’s biggest auto dealers, McCombs has a dog in this fight, and he’s a big-time Perry supporter. Just since 2008, he’s written checks totaling at least $302,500 to Perry’s gubernatorial and presidential campaigns.

So the question about calling Perry didn’t seem weird. But it did turn out to be awkward, for me anyway.

A couple of long seconds of silence on McCombs’ end of the phone line.

Then the 86-year-old answered in a low rumble: “No … Why would I?”

In other words, he saw no need. In fact, earlier in the interview, McCombs had talked about the franchise law as immutable.

“That is as set in stone as it can be,” he said. “It’s as sacred as Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.”

[…]

Even with the tantalizing prospect of the gigafactory, [Rep. Lyle] Larson thinks a measure allowing Tesla to make direct sales in Texas would fail once again.

“I do not see the chance for an option allowing Tesla to sell direct,” he said. “I don’t see any appetite for it.”

Yeah, you could say that. Unlike the microbreweries, my go-to analogy for Tesla, the number of people that have used Tesla products is very small, basically negligible in comparison to the existing players. I just don’t think they have the lobbying muscle or the grassroots support just yet to overcome the resistance they’re going to get from TADA and the many people who will be naturally sympathetic to the status quo. I absolutely think it will happen eventually, but it will take time and outreach on their part to familiarize people with what they’re asking and why it’s a good thing. The battery plant story is a great start, but that’s all it is. Besides, as Jalopnik notes, the proposed factory Tesla wants to build is itself no sure thing. Assuming it is, Tesla is going to have to decide where to build that factory without any assurances from Texas that the laws about selling cars will be changed. There just isn’t the time for it.

New Braunfels can ban is now officially canned

Pending appeal, of course.

A permanent injunction issued Friday bars the city from enforcing its controversial ban on disposable containers and cooler-size limits on the Guadalupe and Comal rivers inside the city limits.

“You can start drinking from cans and bottles on the rivers, effective immediately,” said Jim Ewbank, attorney for plaintiffs who had sued to overturn the city codes.

He declared “total victory” at the close of the hours-long hearing before visiting state District Judge Don Burgess.

Burgess had previously found the disposable container ban and cooler limits unconstitutional. On Friday he denied the city’s motion to suspend his injunction if the city appeals or to require the plaintiffs to post a bond of at least $2 million if he prevented the ordinances from being enforced.

The initial ruling was made in January. And speaking of appeals:

New Braunfels will appeal a judge’s ruling that struck down its disposable container prohibition and a limit on the size of coolers used by tubers on the Guadalupe and Comal rivers.

Also Monday, council voted 4-3 to increase a river management fee charged by local outfitters to $1.50 from $1.25 per tuber.

The fee increase may be cause for further legal action, but that to me seems more like your standard issue political fight, best settled at the ballot box. For this summer at least, you can pack your brewskis as you did before on the Comal River. Happy tubing, y’all.

No more wobbly tables!

I love this story.

A Houston businessman has an idea that could rid the world of having to use drink coasters and napkins to stabilize restaurant tables.

Steve Christian, owner of Houston burger institution Christian’s Tailgate Bar and Grill, believes so strongly in his invention that he sold interest in two of his restaurants, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, and is auditioning to get on an ABC reality show to make it succeed.

He says his patented device simply eliminates wobbly tables. It’s a catchy claim for something that costs around $20.

“Something I built in my garage outlasted everything else on the market,” Christian said of his Table Jack.

The invention, now being sold online, is already used at a number of Houston-area restaurants, including El Real Tex-Mex Cafe in the heart of Montrose and Mi Luna in Rice Village. The jack is also in use at a number of national restaurant chains, listed on the device’s official website.

[…]

The genesis of the Table Jack came when he opened his Midtown bar in the late ’90s and found that the flooring made tables unsteady. It took eight years and seven or so prototypes to get the jack that he has on the market today. The first jack debuted in Midtown in late 2008.

The device requires the installation of three glides to the bottom of three of the feet of a pedestal table. A small jack with a foot pedal is installed on the fourth foot. It allows for the table’s level to be adjusted as needed by stabilizing the three glides.

“I’ve probably spent thousands of hours engineering the jack,” Christian said. “And that number probably doesn’t do it justice.”

This is one of those “Why didn’t anyone think of this before?” stories. As someone who is easily annoyed by wobbly tables, I think this is a great idea. I hope he sells a billion of them.

Friday random ten: All in the family

We had family in town last week, and we went and visited more family in New Braunfels while they were here. So here are some family-oriented songs.

1. Aunt Avis – Widespread Panix
2. Uncle Dave – Leah White
3. Uncle John – Jonathan Coulton and John Roderick
4. Cousin Dupree – Steely Dan
5. Goodbye, Cousin Early – Asylum Street Spankers
6. Cousin Kevin – The Who
7. Sister Fatima – Don McLean
8. Sister Susie’s Sewing Shirts For Soldiers – Shorty Long
9. Brothers – The Vaughan Brothers
10. Me And Baby Brother – War

How’s your family doing?

Abbott sides with medical malpractice

Awesome.

Dr. Christopher Duntsch

The Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano, accused of protecting a neurosurgeon who allegedly killed and maimed patients, gained an ally this week in Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.

Abbott filed motions to intervene in three separate federal court suits brought against Baylor Plano by former patients of Dr. Christopher Duntsch. They have alleged that Baylor knew Duntsch was a dangerous physician but did not stop him from performing back surgery.

The suits challenge the constitutionality of a state law that requires the plaintiffs to prove that Baylor acted with actual intent to harm patients. Abbott seeks court permission to defend the statute.

If Abbott’s position is upheld, the patients would have a much harder time winning a suit against Baylor. One of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, James Girards of Dallas, criticized the attorney general’s motion.

“I think it’s absolutely insane that he has chosen to defend the hospital that enabled this … sociopathic neurosurgeon to wreak havoc on its patients,” Girards said. “I hate to think he’s doing it to pander to the medical lobby.”

Kay Van Wey, a Dallas lawyer who filed two of the suits, also attacked the attorney general. “Mr. Abbott is making it clear that his priority is to protect hospitals, not the patients they harm,” she said.

Wondering where you’ve heard the name Christopher Duntsch before? Let me quote from this Observer story, which I blogged about last October.

In late 2010, Dr. Christopher Duntsch came to Dallas to start a neurosurgery practice. By the time the Texas Medical Board revoked his license in June 2013, Duntsch had left two patients dead and four paralyzed in a series of botched surgeries.

Physicians who complained about Duntsch to the Texas Medical Board and to the hospitals he worked at described his practice in superlative terms. They used phrases like “the worst surgeon I’ve ever seen.” One doctor I spoke with, brought in to repair one of Duntsch’s spinal fusion cases, remarked that it seemed Duntsch had learned everything perfectly just so he could do the opposite. Another doctor compared Duntsch to Hannibal Lecter three times in eight minutes.

When the Medical Board suspended Duntsch’s license, the agency’s spokespeople too seemed shocked.

“It’s a completely egregious case,” Leigh Hopper, then head of communications for the Texas Medical Board, told The Dallas Morning News in June. “We’ve seen neurosurgeons get in trouble but not one such as this, in terms of the number of medical errors in such a short time.”

But the real tragedy of the Christopher Duntsch story is how preventable it was. Over the course of 2012 and 2013, even as the Texas Medical Board and the hospitals he worked with received repeated complaints from a half-dozen doctors and lawyers begging them to take action, Duntsch continued to practice medicine. Doctors brought in to clean up his surgeries decried his “surgical misadventures,” according to hospital records. His mistakes were obvious and well-documented. And still it took the Texas Medical Board more than a year to stop Duntsch—a year in which he kept bringing into the operating room patients who ended up seriously injured or dead.

In Duntsch’s case, we see the weakness of Texas’ unregulated system of health care, a system built to protect doctors and hospitals. And a system in which there’s no way to know for sure if your doctor is dangerous.

I’d call this a case of putting politics above people, and it’s completely in character for Greg Abbott. I think he just doesn’t believe anyone should be able to sue for medical malpractice. You can call it what you want – Texas Watch calls it “defending the indefensible” – I’m sure the Wendy Davis campaign will have a name for it as well.

The Mayors love high speed rail

As well they should.

The mayors of Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth announced Thursday their unified support for the construction of a privately funded bullet train between the two metropolitan regions.

“If successful, Houstonians will have a reliable, private alternative that will help alleviate traffic congestion and drastically reduce travel times,” Houston Mayor Annise Parker said at a press conference at Houston City Hall.

Texas Central Railway announced in 2012 its plans to build a 200 mph rail line that would transport passengers between Dallas and Houston within 90 minutes. The company has said it will not require any public subsidies to fund the multi-billion dollar project, which it is developing in partnership with a Japanese firm, Central Japan Railway.

The mayors praised the project and predicted it would aid the state economically and environmentally by reducing the number of people traveling by car.

“Not only will high-speed rail significantly reduce travel times and traffic congestion for Dallas and Houston area residents, but it will also create new, high-paying jobs and stimulate economic growth,” Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said.

The endorsements come as the Federal Railroad Commission is “30 to 60 days” away from formally launching an environmental impact study of the project, said Robert Eckels, a former Harris County judge and president of Texas Central Railway. The study, which will be funded by Texas Central Railway, is a critical step on the project’s path to drawing approval from federal regulators.

Mayor Parker’s press release for this is here. As you know, I’ve been following – and a fan of – this project for some time. What’s especially exciting about this is the news that Texas Central Railway will be getting the EIS process started soon, because from there is where it begins to get real. I had the opportunity along with a couple of my blogging colleagues to meet with Eckels and other TCR folks and ask them some questions about the project; PDiddie wrote up some notes from the meeting. I don’t have a whole lot to add to that except to say that you should check out TCR’s latest presentation about the state of their business, and then go look at Eckels’ presentation at a recent HGAC brown bag lunch, which is on YouTube. It’s an exciting time. Dallas Transportation and Texas Leftist have more.

Zipcar expands in Houston

Very cool.

A car-sharing service on Wednesday expanded from spots on the Rice University campus to other locations in Houston, providing city residents with another option for transportation.

Zipcar is making available 25 vehicles in 10 different locations in Houston including the downtown area, Mid-town, Greenway Plaza, and Upper Kirby.

“We want the locations to be five minutes walking distance from neighborhoods, so they can see it as their car,” said Kaye Ceille, president of Zipcar. “They also know that the car may be used by their neighbors, and that’s why its car-sharing.”

[…]

Zipcar was introduced to Rice University in 2008, allowing students, staff and faculty to use its services.

Of course I noted Zipcar’s arrival at the time. Here’s more from their press release.

Beginning today, 25 Zipcars are available by the hour or by the day for residents, students, businesses and visitors in the city of Houston. Zipcar’s revolutionary “wheels when you want them” service offers a wide variety of vehicles, from MINI Coopers to pickup trucks, and includes gas, a reserved parking spot, insurance, and 180 miles per day, making it a great option for those looking for convenient and cost-effective transportation. The launch, which makes Houston the company’s 27(th) major metropolitan area, will be supported by a retail office where members can interact with a local team.

Zipcars are parked in prime locations throughout Houston including the Downtown area, Midtown, and Greenway Plaza/Upper Kirby. Zipcar expects to expand the service to additional neighborhoods in the near future. The vehicles are parked in designated parking spots and can be reserved in seconds on Zipcar’s mobile app, online or over the phone. Rates start as low as $9 per hour and $73 per day. Membership information is available at www.zipcar.com/houston.

[…]

Zipcar’s consumer launch builds on its successful program with the city of Houston FleetShare program in which Zipcar technology is embedded in city-owned vehicles, increasing efficiency, accountability and lower overall fleet costs. Zipcar has also offered service to Rice University students on campus since 2009. In addition, the University of Houston and Texas Southern University will be adding Zipcars on and near campus to further provide alternative transportation options to students, faculty and staff. These programs are expected to launch in Fall 2014.

“I want to welcome Zipcar to all of Houston,” said Mayor Annise Parker. “This is another major step forward in Houston’s ongoing effort to change the way we live and get around the City. Sustainable transportation options offer convenience, are less of a burden on our pocketbooks and also have a big impact on our environment.”

Here’s the map of where Houston’s Zipcars currently livel there are actually several downtown spots for them. I’m sure it will expand to more locations soon. I guarantee that being a Zipcar member is cheaper than owning a car, and having that option available will make living and working in these places a lot more attractive. Sometimes you just need a car, but unless you need one every day having Zipcar around makes a lot of sense.

Endorsement watch: DMN goes Kinky

Since pretty much every newspaper endorsed Hugh Fiztsimons for the Democratic nomination for Ag Commissioner in the primary, they now have the choice of picking a new candidate for the runoff or ignoring it and hoping it goes away. The Dallas Morning News chose the former by endorsing Kinky Friedman.

Kinky Friedman

Kinky Friedman

Richard “Kinky” Friedman’s run for agriculture commissioner revolves around one issue, or more precisely, one crop. The comedian and author was carrying the flag for marijuana long before Colorado legalized it and Gov. Rick Perry softened his stance on the wacky weed. In politics, he’s mostly a one-song act.

But at least we know what Friedman, 69, stands for. And, when pressed, he is able to discuss the importance of water conservation and the need for immigration reform.

Jim Hogan, his opponent in the May 27 runoff, is basically a mystery. The Johnson County insurance salesman surprised everyone by finishing first in the March primary without really running any campaign at all. He spent a few thousand dollars and did some social networking from the Cleburne library.

In the handful of interviews he’s granted, he revels more in the fact that he managed to win without running than focusing on what he would do if elected. His message seems to be that he’ll figure it out when he gets there. That’s not good enough. The agriculture commissioner has to be a strong voice for policy that will help the state face important challenges. Hogan, 63, doesn’t offer that.

Even though Friedman is mostly about smoke, at least his positions are clear. That makes him the better choice for the nomination.

That’s pretty much how I see it, and kudos to the DMN for getting Kinky to talk about more than just pot. Lord knows, I tried when I interviewed him, but I was no match for his message discipline. I totally get it if you find this choice distasteful, but it works for me.

On a related note, in the Republican runoff, the DMN went for Tommy Merritt on the grounds that his opponent is much worse.

[Sid] Miller, on the other hand, lacks the disposition or even the willingness to work with those who don’t see eye to eye with him. The Stephenville rancher has aligned himself with flame-throwing rocker Ted Nugent and insists on calling the Civil War “the War of Northern Aggression.” We gave Miller, 58, the opportunity to explain, revise or downplay his position on both matters. He declined.

Miller either doesn’t understand the divisiveness of those relationships and words, or, even more disconcerting, doesn’t care.

“Both” is always an option with choices like this. I suspect it’s mostly the latter in this case. I’ll say this much, a Kinky versus Miller matchup would not be boring.

Vote fraud by impersonation just doesn’t exist

I mean, if Greg Abbott can’t find it, who possibly could?

Still the only voter ID anyone should need

Still the only voter ID anyone should need

Since taking office in 2001, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has called voter fraud an “epidemic,” and made cracking down on it a top priority. Now, as he runs for governor, he’s touting his ongoing battle to implement the state’s strict voter ID law, arguing that the measure is crucial to combat fraud.

But over the 13 years of Abbott’s tenure, his office can only cite two fraudulent votes that might have been stopped by the ID law.

To put that another way, such votes accounted for one out of every 18.7 million votes cast in Texas during that period—and that’s counting only the general elections for statewide races. Meanwhile, 796,000 Texans, by the state’s own numbers, lack an ID.

The glaring difference between rhetoric and reality in Abbott’s treatment of the issue underscores the comically weak case for voter ID measures, and highlights the lengths that their backers have gone to—still without success—to find evidence of large-scale fraud. It also raises questions about Abbott’s basic intellectual honesty as he works to persuade Texas voters to make him one of the most important Republican office-holders in the country.

[…]

No one disputes that there’s been illegal voting in Texas lately. In the FBI investigation into vote-buying in south Texas that Abbott refers to, three women working for school board candidates in the Rio Grande Valley have been accused of paying voters in cash, drugs, beer and cigarettes. Days after they were arrested, the school board president committed suicide, and the probe is continuing.

There’s just one problem with Abbott’s use of the case: The allegations involve absentee ballots, not in-person voting. That means the voter ID law that Abbott is championing would have done nothing to stop the alleged scheme.

Indeed, election experts say absentee ballot fraud is the most common form of organized voter fraud, since, because of the secret ballot, there’s no way to ensure that an in-person voter is voting for the candidate he promised to. That’s why voter ID laws are an ineffective tool for catching the small amount of fraud that exists.

We’ve been over this many times before, so I’ll spare us both the usual trawl through my archives. The bottom line remains that in person vote fraud remains the stupidest and least efficient way possible to try to steal an election. There’s a reason no one has ever uncovered anything but an isolated vote here and there. Meanwhile, the one place where vote fraud is known to occur – absentee ballots – remains largely unexamined, while Texas’ voter ID law is ludicrously strict. There’s just no justification for it.

Rick Perry feels your pain, ladies

You know what you ladies need? A big heaping dose of Rick Perry explaining to you why all this “equal pay” stuff is so silly.

Corndogs make bad news go down easier

Corndogs are for real men

Rick Perry said today it’s “nonsense” to focus on equal pay for women when there are other more important pressing issues like job creation and cutting regulations for business. Perry made the rounds of the morning cable shows Tuesday in New York on his “I’m the Jobs Governor” tour in advance of the 2016 presidential race. Perry stumbled badly in his last race for the White House. But he says he’s looking at another run. “I used to be bucked off those ponies all the time, and my dad would say, ‘Son, get back on.’”

[…]

On the MSNBC show “Morning Joe,” Perry defended his decision to veto the bill. “Why do we need to muddle up our statutes when we already have laws on books that clearly take care of this?” said Perry. Federal law allows women to sue for equal pay when the discrimination is discovered. State law makes it harder to file suit. Women must go to court within 180 days after the discrimination began, not when it’s discovered. The bill was designed to give women filing suit in state court the same opportunity as in federal court. Perry and Abbott say that’s unnecessary.

Perry says women have fared well in his administration: “I’ve probably had more female chiefs of staff than anybody in Texas history and they get paid well because of the performance they do. I support and lift up women in the state of Texas.” As for the Davis/Abbott dustup over equal pay, Perry said, “If they want to talk about substantive issues in this governor’s race, then let’s talk about tax policy and regulatory policy. But to go focus on this issue, a piece of legislation that we already have laws that protect, is nonsense.”

So buck up, little cowgirls. Rick Perry and Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick know what you really need to care about. Don’t you feel so much better now?

Goal Zero Fatalities plan for bikes adopted

From the Mayor’s office:

Mayor Annise Parker today announced the City and BikeHouston are joining forces to launch a major bike safety campaign to enforce and educate motorists and cyclists about the existing Safe Passing Ordinance, as well as create a Bicycle Master Plan for the City.

“As the name of this program implies, the goal is to end cycling fatalities,” said Mayor Annise Parker. “Whether on a bike or behind the wheel, we have to abide by the rules of the road and learn how to share the road safely. Unfortunately, a spate of recent bicycle fatalities on Houston streets indicates there is much work to be done in this area. As a first step, I am dedicating $50,000 toward the cost of a Bicycle Master Plan that will guide our future decisions regarding placement of dedicated on-street bike lanes and infrastructure.”

City initiatives such as Houston Bike Share and trail expansions have encouraged more cycling. Those numbers are expected to increase as Bayou Greenways 2020 projects are built and the City implements its new Complete Streets approach and Sunday Streets HTx.

“BikeHouston believes today’s steps will help make our city a safer place to cycle and an even better place to live, work and raise a family,” said Michael Payne, Executive Director of BikeHouston. “By investing in safe bikeways and setting specific targets to increase cycling, our city’s leader’s will become our country’s leaders in dealing with the challenge of creating healthy, economically sustainable communities which attract the best companies and employees.”

As part of the enforcement component of the campaign, the Houston Police Department has instructed officers to ticket drivers who violate the City’s new Safe Passing Ordinance and cyclists that disregard their responsibilities to obey traffic laws. The stepped up enforcement includes undercover sting operations along roadways popular for cycling. The Safe Passing Ordinance mandates at least three feet of distance when passing and at least a six foot buffer when behind a bicyclist or other vulnerable road user. HPD has produced a PSA to help educate the public about the ordinance. The PSA will be available to disperse through television, radio, internet, YouTube, and social media sites.

“I want to ensure everyone feels safe on Houston’s street,” said Mayor Parker. “By working together we can become one of the most bicycle friendly cities in the nation.”

The Mayor’s Office will work closely with HPD, the Planning Department, Public Works and Engineering, the Municipal Courts and BikeHouston on the campaign.

Basically, the city is adopting BikeHouston’s Goal Zero Fatalities plan, at least in part; BikeHouston calls for a ban on using cellphones while driving, and I rather doubt that’s in the works. Be that as it may, the Chron adds some details.

City leaders and bicycle safety advocates announced a plan Tuesday aimed at eliminating cyclist deaths in collisions with cars.

The announcement, which follows two recent cyclist deaths, includes the development of a Bicycle Master Plan, a public awareness campaign about a recent city ordinance intended to protect cyclists and stepped-up enforcement against drivers and cyclists who flaunt the law.

Mayor Annise Parker said the city would dedicate $50,000 to the bike plan, which will guide future bike lane locations as well as infrastructure to accommodate cyclists, such as barriers separating cars from bikes, connections between roads and trails or more off-street bike trails.

[…]

As for enforcement, Houston Police Department has conducted seven stings, mostly around downtown, along Washington Avenue and in Midtown, said HPD spokesman Kese Smith, and will expand to other areas. The stings generated three citations and a warning to motorists for violating the city’s safe passing ordinance.

That law, adopted last May, mandates a buffer of at least three feet when passing and of six feet when following a cyclist or other “vulnerable” road user such as a construction worker. Six months after the ordinance’s passage, the city had cited no violators.

HPD Capt. Larry Satterwhite, whose team conducted the stings, said the ordinance is difficult to enforce.

“It is very difficult to identify this violation without a complaint. Judging what’s three feet and what’s not is very difficult to do,” Satterwhite said. “My officers are communicating back to me that for the most part, motorists are giving wide berth. We’re happy to report that.”

Enforcement definitely needs to be on the menu. BikeHouston’s plan calls for traffic cops riding bikes to be out there looking for safe passing and other offenders as they would for speeders, which I think is a sensible idea. I’m glad to hear that people generally seem to be obeying the law, but there’s nothing like the threat of a ticket to really get compliance. Beyond that, citing and where needed prosecuting at fault drivers in bike/vehicle collisions would go a long way, too. This is a good start, and I look forward to seeing the city’s bike master plan, but it is just a start. Let’s build on it from here.

Texas blog roundup for the week of March 24

The Texas Progressive Alliance has no idea what’s so hard to understand about the concept of equal pay as it brings you this week’s roundup.

(more…)

Last minute health insurance enrollment help

From the inbox:

It's constitutional - deal with it

It’s constitutional – deal with it

The Houston Department of Health and Human Services (HDHHS) will open four of its multi-service centers on Sunday and extend their business hours next Monday to help people sign up for a health insurance plan by the Affordable Care Act’s March 31 deadline.

HDHHS will open Acres Homes, Denver Harbor, Northeast and Southwest multi-service centers on Sunday, March 30, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. It will also extend the four multi-service centers’ business hours on Monday, March 31, until 10 p.m., setting the last ACA enrollment appointment for 8 p.m.

Approximately 99,000 Houston-area residents have enrolled in one of the more than 40 low-cost ACA health plans available in the region. Those without health insurance have only one week left to sign up.

Residents can set up an appointment for one-on-one help from certified application counselors at HDHHS by calling 832-393-5423. The counselors are able to help residents compare health plans and find one that fits their budget and health care needs.

The phone number connects residents to an ACA call center that HDHHS set up as part of the Gulf Coast Health Insurance Marketplace Collaborative, a group of 13 agencies helping people obtain insurance coverage through the ACA.

Certified application counselors and outreach staff with HDHHS and the other agencies in the collaborative have met face to face with more than 151,500 area residents since the enrollment period began in October. They have also reached out or distributed ACA brochures and information to approximately 538,000 people.

Documents needed to enroll during an appointment include:

  • Proof of U.S. citizenship: social security number or copy of U.S. passport for all family members
  • State residency: driver’s license, housing lease or utility bill
  • Income:  W-2 forms or pay stubs; unemployment or disability; social security, pension and retirement income; or copy of 2012 tax return
  • Current health insurance: policy numbers for any current health insurance and information about job-related health insurance
  • Immigration status or legal residency: Immigration document status numbers.

The press release is here, and Stace was also on this. There are going to be a number of rallies and other events aimed at getting people signed up while they still can. Another event, via State Rep. Jessica Farrar, will be Saturday, March 29th from 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. at the Harris County Department of Education Conference Center, 6300 Irvington Blvd. Anyone who has questions about the exchange or is currently without health insurance is encouraged to attend. Here’s a Trib story about the pre-deadline push.

The Affordable Care Act requires most individuals to purchase health insurance by 2014, specifically by March 31, which will mark the final day of canvassing and enrollment outreach by nonprofits, local governments and community organizations.

At the start of March, 295,000 Texans had selected a coverage plan in the federal marketplace, but the number of total enrollees represents a small fraction of the uninsured in Texas.

National advocates for health reform have homed in on Texas’ enrollment in recent weeks, including U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, who was in Texas last week to promote enrollment efforts, including a final push to mobilize young adults to sign up for insurance through the marketplace.

Enroll America, a nonprofit group promoting the federal health reform law, launched a six-city bus tour through Texas last week to help people enroll in the exchange. Anne Filipic, president of the group, said it has focused on Texas because of the amount of people “who stand to benefit” from the federal health reform.

The organization has also set up a series of enrollment events throughout the state, including the one Donnell attended, as part of the final week of enrollment and is following up with individuals who started their process at one of the events to help them complete their enrollments.

Locally, state Democratic legislators have hosted their own enrollment efforts or have worked with entities like the Texas Organizing Project, a group that advocates for low-income Texans, to host regular enrollment events in Dallas, Bexar and Harris counties.

Federally qualified health centers in Texas also received more than $15 million federal grants to help individuals enroll in the marketplace. Lone Star Circle of Care clinics was among the top recipients in the state, receiving a combined $600,000 in grants to provide enrollment assistance.

Lone Star spokeswoman Rebekah Haynes said its 35 certified application counselors have seen an uptick in demand for enrollment assistance in the last few weeks, and they are working with hundreds of individuals to verify whether they qualify to purchase health insurance through the marketplace.

Texas could have delivered half of the enrollees the Obama administration is banking on. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 3,143,000 Texans are potential marketplace enrollees, but only 9.4 percent of that population has enrolled. (Potential enrollees include uninsured Texans who are U.S. citizens and have incomes above the amount needed to qualify for Medicaid.)

You have to wonder what might have been if anyone in the Republican leadership cared even a little bit about the vast number of uninsured people in Texas. Be that as it may, if you know someone who needs coverage but still hasn’t signed up yet, do whatever you can to encourage them to get it done now. Time is very much running out.

The Galveston oil spill

This is just awful.

While the oil spill resulting from Saturday’s collision between a ship and barge was small by global standards – less than a third of what it would take to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool – the local impact is proving far more than a nuisance.

The heavy marine fuel oil is washing up on nearby beaches, killing or injuring waterfowl that come into contact with it, and keeping commercial traffic bound for local ports at a standstill.

The commercial ships should get relief soon as a fleet of oil-skimming vessels continues to scoop up what remains of the estimated 168,000 gallons of oil from the waters near the southern mouth of the Houston Ship Channel. Shipping operations were suspended immediately after the accident to prevent vessels from spreading the oil and getting it stuck to their hulls.

By late Monday, some of the oil could be seen floating in patches in Galveston Bay. But a large portion of the spill was driven by wind, waves and currents into the Gulf of Mexico and was headed southwest, Coast Guard Capt. Brian Penoyer, captain of the port, said at a Monday news conference. An aerial survey will determine where and how far the oil had spread, he said.

[…]

The waterfront oil made its way from the Texas City Dike to the eastern end of Galveston Island, and a small amount reached beaches frequented by tourists on the Gulf side of the Island, said Charlie Kelly, Galveston emergency management director.

Kelly said a number of tar balls had washed ashore between 29th Street and eastern end of the island, but the amount was so small that it was easily picked up. No tar balls could be seen on the beaches Monday afternoon.

“I’m not worried about anything,” Galveston Mayor Lewis Rosen said.

Less sanguine were environmentalists who noticed oil covering a section of island beach that fronts the Ship Channel. Mort Voller, who heads the Galveston Island Tourism and Nature Council, said several oiled birds, all dead, were seen on an area near the Galveston jetty known as Big Reef.

“Big reef is hugely natural, a wonderful collection of salt water lagoons, sand flats and intertidal marsh and prairie-type uplands,” Voller said. It’s far enough away from the tourism beaches that animals are largely unmolested, he said.

The potential impact on wildlife is tremendous.

The heavy oil spilled into Galveston Bay showed signs Monday of harming one of the nation’s great natural nurseries, with biologists finding dozens of oiled birds on just one part of the Bolivar Peninsula.

Scientists found the birds on a wildlife refuge just two miles from where a partially sunken barge leaked as much as 168,000 gallons of thick bunker fuel oil after colliding with another vessel Saturday.

“We expect this to get much worse,” said Jessica Jubin, a spokeswoman for the Houston Audubon Society, which manages the Bolivar Flats preserve where the birds were found.

The concern comes as tens of thousands of birds are passing through the upper Texas coast on their annual flight north. But the worry also extends to the bay’s oyster reefs and the shrimp, crabs and fish that rely on the coastal marshes for shelter and food.

Scientists said that while the spill’s damage will be magnified by its awful timing, it could take years for a fuller picture of the ecological toll to emerge.

Galveston Bay was under stress from development, drought, pollution and storms. But its oil spills are typically small, averaging about 100 gallons per incident, according to an analysis by the Houston Advanced Research Center. The latest spill is the largest in the Ship Channel since a facility leaked 70,000 gallons of bunker fuel in 2000.

For now, the primary concern is the marshes, which have declined over decades because of sea-level rise, erosion and subsidence, a condition caused by sinking soil.

Here’s the optimistic view.

Officials believe most of the oil that spilled Saturday is drifting out of the Houston Ship Channel into the Gulf of Mexico, which should limit the impact on bird habitats around Galveston Bay as well as beaches and fisheries important to tourists.

“This spill — I think if we keep our fingers crossed — is not going to have the negative impact that it could have had,” said Jerry Patterson, commissioner of the Texas General Land Office, the lead state agency on the response to the spill.

The best-case scenario is for most of the slick to remain in the Gulf for at least several days and congeal into small tar balls that wash up further south on the Texas coast, where they could be picked up and removed, Patterson said. Crews from the General Land Office are monitoring water currents and the movement of the oil, he said.

Let’s hope that it’s not as bad as it could be. There’s a great irony in this happening almost exactly 25 years after the Exxon Valdez disaster, the effects of which are still being felt today. I pray that isn’t the case with this spill. Statements from the Environmental Defense Fund are beneath the fold.

(more…)

Collier hammers Hegar for property tax idiocy

Good.

Mike Collier

Mike Collier

During the recent Republican primary for state comptroller, state Sen. Glenn Hegar repeatedly endorsed eliminating local property taxes in Texas.

Borrowing from GOP opponent Debra Medina’s 2010 playbook, Hegar urged a shift to sales taxes to make up the more than $40 billion a year of revenue that cities, counties, school districts and other local governmental entities would lose.

Hegar, R-Katy, even suggested a very rapid transition to the new tax system. At a Longview tea party gathering in January, he told a man in the audience, “You just do it.”

This week, though, the governing implications of so massive a shift seem to have cooled Hegar’s jets.

Burying the property tax, after all, would require leaders to more than double the current rates of all state and local sales taxes.

See Exhibit 1 on page 1 (or page 5 of the PDF) of this comptroller’s report. You can readily see that state and local sales taxes, combined, yield about 32 percent of all state and local tax revenues in Texas. That compares with a whopping 47 percent raised by local property taxes. You get the picture.

On Thursday, Hegar campaign manager David White said Hegar “has been clear that we are many years away from being able to implement such” a shift from property tax to sales tax.

White repeated a response he gave The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday, saying “Glenn will review all options to reduce the burden on taxpayers.”

Democratic comptroller nominee Mike Collier, though, has blasted Hegar’s happy talk on property tax during the primary. Collier, a Houston businessman, called it an “unimpeachably bad” policy idea that would produce a monster increase in sales tax, shift power away from localities to the Legislature and “put our schools at unnecessary risk.”

He warned Hegar’s “promise” to eliminate the property tax would require sales tax “to be at least 20 percent — and possibly as high as 25 percent.” In most Texas cities today, the combined state-local sales tax rate is 8.25 percent. Collier even created an online petition drive so voters can protest “Senator Hegar’s sales tax.”

However, in a Thursday email blast that urged people to sign the petition, Collier incorrectly called Hegar’s proposal a “massive tax increase.” In recent years, Republicans have only advocated tax swaps, which presumably would be revenue neutral.

Still, Hegar seems to be switching gears on property tax abolition, pivoting from a “just do it” battle cry to a chin-stroking, “many years away” proposition. The rhetorical shift has given Collier an opening to start the general election battle — in March, not September.

Actually, Hegar’s idiotic idea would be a “massive tax increase” for a large majority of Texans. The whole idea of a tax swap is that some people wind up paying more, while others wind up paying less. The Republicans have floated various tax swaps in the past, and I’m sure you’ll be shocked to learn that a wealthy minority benefits greatly from them, while everyone else pays more. It’s true, as some people note in the comments to that story and on Collier’s Facebook page, that renters pay property taxes as part of their rent. Let me ask you a question: Which do you think is the more likely outcome of a Hegar-style tax swap – a massive, statewide reduction in rents, or a massive, statewide increase in profits for landlords? Take all the time you need before answering.

Anyway. Whether someone finally explained the math to Hegar or he realized that he might need to do more of a campaign than just pandering to fanatics, he has shifted from “we can do this right now!” to “this idea is many years away from implementation”. And in doing so, he earned a bit of media for Mike Collier. More like this, please. BOR and EoW have more.

Calculator apps

This seems reasonable to me.

Despite concerns about test security, Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams announced Thursday that he would allow some students to use calculator “apps” on state exams next school year.

Under current rules students may use only traditional calculators. But with more districts giving students iPads or other tablets, some school officials said students should be allowed to use less expensive graphing calculator “apps.” Williams conceded, just for eighth-graders, but ruled out the use of mobile phones.

“While I recognize this revised policy will not address all concerns and may still require some districts to purchase additional technology, I am hopeful this policy will enable us to provide some flexibility,” Williams said in a statement.

Graphing calculators typically cost about $100, though districts may be able to get cheaper bulk rates, said Debbie Ratcliffe, spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency. The apps cost $15 or $20, she said.

“The problem from our end was the security risk it created,” Ratcliffe said, referring to students using tablets. “They’d have a camera. They’d have access to the internet. Initially we said no, but we had enough feedback that the commissioner said it would be worth it to try — but at the same time warning districts they really need to make sure their test security and test monitoring occurs at a high level.”

As Jason Stanford points out, there are ways to cheat with the TI graphing calculators as well. Seems to me if the concern is that great there are steps that can be taken to temporarily disable wireless data communications where the tests are being taken if one wants to do so. Personally, I think the benefit of not making the kids spend $100 on a tool they likely won’t ever need outside the classroom far outweighs that risk. This was the right call, and it should be extended to other students as well.

We have ways of making you talk

Poor Greg.

A code of silence sounds pretty good right now

Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott, under fire for dodging the details on some policy questions, is filling in the blanks on issues that could be key in his race for governor against Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis.

The answers are coming as Abbott faces pressure not only from Davis but from the potential fallout of a fight within his own party.

[…]

The fact that Abbott is talking specifics at all shows the issues are having an impact. His campaign has its own timetable for rolling out proposals, and he still hasn’t answered all the questions that Davis has brought to him.

For example, Abbott won’t say if he agreed with 2011 school funding cuts. Davis filibustered those cuts and worked with other lawmakers to restore funding last year. Abbott, whose office is defending the school finance system in court, says he’s focused on the future and will have a comprehensive education plan.

Abbott also won’t say if he thinks he made a mistake by campaigning with rocker Ted Nugent, although he said Nugent was right to apologize for calling President Obama a “subhuman mongrel” (a comment that came before their campaign trip).

When and whether Abbott addresses those issues will depend on more than whether we want to know the answers.

“If they had their way, they would never talk to you unless they wanted to get a certain message out, and they needed you,” said Trinity University political scientist David Crockett, speaking of politicians and reporters in general.

For a frontrunner like Abbott, there’s particular risk, so speaking out means an issue is in play.

“The challenger has to be more aggressive, and the frontrunner is running more cautiously because it’s theirs to lose,” Crockett said. “If he starts talking about these things, it’s because there is a concern that they need to get it behind them. If they don’t see the Ted Nugent thing, for example, hurting them, they’re not going to talk about it.”

So. I guess this means the “Wendy Davis is running a bad campaign” meme is officially inactive now. I mean, if you’re forcing the other guy to do things he’d rather not have to do, that’s pretty strong prima facie evidence that you’re running a good campaign. Of course, Abbott is still trying his best to not talk about anything that isn’t in his comfort zone, which is limited to things that can be safely discussed at a Tea Party rally. Davis has had a great run with the equal pay issue, and she’s still pushing it.

After two weeks of debate in the Texas governor’s race over equal pay, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis on Monday renewed her criticism of Republican opponent Greg Abbott on the issue, saying that the attorney general’s statement that he supported the “concept” of equal pay for women wasn’t enough.

“I’ve never heard of a concept that could pay the rent, put food on the table or buy a tank of gas for the truck,” Davis said to a packed room of supporters during a campaign stop in Austin, where she reiterated several attacks that her campaign has directed at Abbott over his opposition to a Texas version of the federal Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

This will and should be a centerpiece of her campaign, but it can’t be the only thing. There are many other issues, some of which are detailed in Peggy Fikac’s story like cuts to public education and the ongoing school finance litigation, and some of which aren’t like Medicaid expansion and raising the minimum wage, that Davis needs to press aggressively. Some of them are to pressure Abbott, some are to fire up the base. There’s a risk in talking about too many things, as too many people have too short an attention span, but unlike Abbott, Davis has been aware from the beginning that she can’t play it safe. She’s got to push, to do what she can to direct the narrative, and keep Abbott off balance and on the defensive. Keep working the equal pay pressure point – it’s a beautiful thing when you are clearly on the right side of an issue – but keep coming at Abbott from multiple angles as well. Make him talk about the things he’d rather no one asked him about. BOR has more.

Burnam files challenge in HD90

This ought to be interesting.

Rep. Lon Burnam

State Rep. Lon Burnam filed a lawsuit Monday challenging his 111-vote re-election loss earlier this month.

Burnam, D-Fort Worth, said the goal of the lawsuit is to review data from the Texas House District 90 election “to determine if there were hundreds of illegally cast ballots.”

“I believe I have no choice after receiving multiple reports of an illegal computerized-signature vote-by-mail operation run to benefit my opponent,” Burnam said in a statement. “This operation appears to have clearly violated state law.”

Local businessman Ramon Romero Jr. won the race for this House seat, besting Burnam — dean of the Tarrant County delegation — earlier this month, local election records show.

[…]

In a lawsuit styled Lon Burnam v. Ramon Romero, Burnam noted that nearly 1,000 of the 5,078 votes cast in this race were absentee mail-in ballots — which could have been a deciding factor.

On Election Night, the race for this seat was close, sometimes only separated by a handful of votes. When the final count was released, Romero pulled ahead by 111 votes to claim victory.

“I have received reports from voters in the district who say they were approached at their door by campaign workers of unclear affiliation who asked them to fill out a vote-by-mail application on an electronic tablet device such as an iPad,” Burnam said in his statement.

“Texas law clearly does not allow the practice of filling out vote-by-mail ballot applications electronically, which the Texas Secretary of State’s has confirmed. Other questionable practices about this operation aside, this renders the entire operation illegal.”

Quorum Report was first with the story, and they have a copy of Burnam’s lawsuit, which was filed in district court in Tarrant County. Here’s the relevant bit from the lawsuit:

6. The Contestee (Romero) canvassed neighborhoods seeking persons to apply to vote by mail. His representatives used an iPad with an application on it that that was an application for a ballot by mail. The canvassers would simply ask the voter to sign the iPad. These signatures would be downloaded as a printed application and sent to the election officials so that a ballot could be mailed to the voter. Such assistance provided to a voter requires the signature of the assistant on the application for ballot by mail. Texas Election Code, S 84.003.

7. On information and belief there are in excess of 180 such applications obtained in this manner. This exceeds the margin of votes between Contestant and Contestee.

CAUSE OF ACTION

8. Obtaining ballots by using this device invalidates the votes. The only time that the code allows electronic signatures is at the polling place. See Section 63.002′ Electronic devices used in the voting process must be approved by the Secretary of State, which in this case, has not been done. The Secretary of State says that the only authority for using electronic signatures is code Section 63.002 which limits such signatures to use at the polling place. There is no other authority for using electronic signatures in an uncontrolled environment as was done here. See the attached communication from the Secretary of. State on this issue which is attached hereto as Exhibit ” A” and incorporated by reference herein in this petition.

The attached email correspondence is pretty clear. On the one hand, if Burnam is correct in his interpretation, which basically comes down to claiming that an iPad is not a “telephonic facsimile machine” and that an electronic signature is not acceptable in this scenario, then depending on how many votes really were affected it could swing the race. On the other hand, if this is the way Texas law currently is then it ought to be updated. There may be a good policy rationale for not allowing handheld devices to handle these applications, but I can’t see it off the top of my head. Barring the revelation of any such rationale, I’d support changing the law to allow what Romero’s team did – honestly, it strikes me as a good way to increase turnout. But if this is how the law is, then however sensible this use of technology may have been it would not be legal. Burnam is represented by Buck Wood and Art Brender, former Chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party, so I presume they know what they’re doing. I’ll be very interested to see Romero’s response. No idea as yet what the timetable is for this. If any lawyers want to weigh in on this, as always please do. Thanks to Texas Redistricting for the heads up, and BOR has more.

Makeup days

Sorry, kids.

Houston area schools are facing possible cuts in state funding, and a bruising in the court of public opinion, by making up days missed earlier this year because of icy roads.

With little fat built into the spring school calendar and several days of mandatory state testing, Houston schools have little choice but to make up the two days missed because of January ice scares on Good Friday, Memorial Day or at the end of the school year.

“There hadn’t been a bad weather day for so long, no one was paying attention,” said Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers. “Our winters are usually not the problem. It’s usually those fall hurricanes.”

The Houston Independent School District has opted to make up the two missed days on April 18 and May 26. By holding classes on Good Friday, HISD can take advantage of a little-known exception that permits Texas schools to receive state funding for absent students with a written notice that they are observing a religious holiday.

Districts making up class on April 17 could also grant excused absences for a travel day ahead of a religious holiday, according to state law.

Typically, schools are funded at a daily rate of roughly $35 per student in attendance each day, meaning low attendance on a single day could cost HISD and other districts millions of dollars, according to Texas Education Agency data.

Some folks are upset that HISD picked Good Friday and Memorial Day as the makeup days as opposed to shaving a day off of Spring Break or adding a day at the end of the year, but from a budgetary perspective these choices made the most sense. If you’re unhappy about this, I recommend you direct your displeasure at the Legislature and Rick Perry for their devastating cuts to public education in 2011 and their refusal to fully restore those cuts in 2013. I would also point out that one candidate for Governor this fall promises to fully fund public education, while the other continues to defend those budget cuts in court. You want to do something about this, that would be your best opportunity.

Park and Ride parking

I have no problem with this.

Park and ride buses are among the cheapest options for suburban commuters who work downtown, in part because Metro provides free parking.

But just as new highways increasingly require drivers to pay tolls, officials are considering changes to the park and ride system that would shift more costs to consumers.

“This city has changed and we are going through an economic explosion right now,” said Burt Ballanfant, a Metropolitan Transit Authority board member. “We have got to look at those changes and realize the costs are changing.”

A Metro committee Thursday directed staff to report back in 60 days with analysis of parking policies at Metro’s 28 park and ride lots, including whether charging for parking is warranted.

“We want to take a look at this in terms of the economic issues, get board direction and go from there,” Metro president Tom Lambert said.

Only one of the 28 park and ride lots, Fannin South, charges a parking fee. Drivers pay $3 per day to use the lot. Another park and ride location in Cypress charges those who park, but the fee is waived with a valid fare on a park and ride bus.

[…]

The discussion occurred as board members considered a proposal to move the Grand Parkway park and ride location about three miles west by leasing parking spaces from Katy Mills Mall.

On average, the current 423-space lot near the I-10 interchange with the Grand Parkway has 188 fewer spaces than needed, based on an October count, and sometimes 200 or more commuters are forced to park in spots Metro isn’t supposed to be using.

Staff members are working on a proposal to lease around 800 spaces at Katy Mills Mall, west of the current spot. Metro’s board would have to approve a deal to move the lot, then adjust schedules to accommodate the change.

The existing lot would house carpool and vanpool users, while all park and ride commuters would relocate.

Moving the park and ride lot would cost between $400,000 and $500,000 per year, mostly by renting the 800 spaces from the mall property owner, said Miki Milovanovic, Metro’s real estate and property management director. Another $120,000 would be spent preparing the site with signs and bus shelters.

At every site, whether Metro owns it or not, those costs have been borne by the agency.

“The sort of unspoken agreement was we would not charge for parking,” Ballanfant said.

If Metro is not recovering enough of its cost on park and ride parking, then a fee for parking is one possible option for it to consider. By the same token, if Metro needs to fund the acquisition and/or construction of more parking spaces, a fee for parking is again a possible option. There are certainly other possibilities like shared parking, as discussed above, and it should by all means explore those as well. But I don’t see why parking in these lots has to be free if the cost and revenue structure doesn’t support it. Fares have gone up on buses and the light rail before; this to me is no different than that. The Highwayman has more.

We still have no idea what the effect of the voter ID law will be

From the inbox, Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart declares victory for voter ID.

Still the only voter ID anyone should need

Still the only voter ID anyone should need

The final results of the 2014 Democratic and Republican March 4th Primary Elections have been approved by the Democratic and Republican Parties. The results show that less than 0.01% of the voters did not present one of the forms of photo identification required to vote at the poll.

“Thus far, voters have adapted quickly and have made the implementation of the photo identification requirement at the poll a success,” said Stan Stanart, Harris County Clerk and Chief Elections Officer of the County. “The predictions of dire consequences of the Photo ID law simply did not happen. The doom and gloom rhetoric has not matched the positive results in the third largest county in the nation.”

Total turnout for the March 4th Primary Elections was 193,491 voters; a 9.7% turnout. In the Republican Primary, 25 of the 139,703 voters voted provisionally because they did not present an acceptable photo ID. In the Democratic Primary, 10 of the 53,788 voters voted provisionally because they did not present an acceptable photo ID. As provided by law, within 6 days after Election Day, 4 Republican voters and 1 Democratic voter provided an acceptable Photo ID to the voter Registrar so that their provisional vote was counted.

“The fact that almost all of the voters have complied with the photo ID law does not surprise me. The Texas Secretary of State’s office and my office have worked very hard to inform the public about the photo identification requirement,” asserted Stanart. The County Clerk’s office launched a comprehensive effort to make voters aware of the photo identification requirement as soon as the law went into effect last year. The campaign included billboards, social media, press releases, contact with community organizations and other contemporary forms of outreach. The Texas Secretary of State’s office, along with assistance with the Department of Public Safety, conducted an extensive outreach campaign as well.

“I’m certain our educational efforts had an impact on compliance. But, an inherent awareness among citizens that a government issued photo identification is vital to the conduct of important daily personal transactions may be the underlying reason the voters were prepared to vote in these elections and will be prepared to vote in future elections,” concluded Stanart.

I’m sorry, but this is meaningless. There were fewer votes cast in all of Harris County this March than there were in just the city of Houston last November. It is highly likely that the number of people who voted this March but didn’t vote last November is tiny, especially in the context of Harris County’s two million registered voters. As such, the overwhelming majority of people who voted this March are people who have had experience with voter ID. The reason there were fewer problems with enforcing the voter ID law in this second election is the same reason why there were fewer problems coping with the second ice storm we had this winter: The people who’d endured one of them before had some idea of how to cope with it the second time around. That doesn’t mean any of us welcomed the experience or saw any value in it.

This November we are likely to see turnout in Harris County on the order of 700K to 750K, or as much as five times as many people as we had show up this March. The vast majority of the people whose first time dealing with voter ID will be this fall are people who by definition aren’t as engaged in the voting process and who very likely have received – and paid attention to – far fewer communications from campaigns, party officials, and election officials about what to expect. In addition, with turnout being so much higher, the likelihood of delays and people being frustrated by them will be that much higher. Stanart’s office has had its share of bumps in administering past elections. I’d be careful with the triumphalist rhetoric until after this November if I were he.

But even if this November’s election goes without a hitch, the bottom line remains that the voter ID law essentially disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of people in Texas who don’t have a drivers license and for whom getting a form of government-issued photo ID that is legally acceptable at the polls falls somewhere between majorly inconvenient and completely impossible. Remember, the Legislature deliberately made it as difficult as possible to qualify to vote. Consider how they do things in that notorious liberal haven of Alabama:

  • In Texas, student IDs are not acceptable forms of ID for voting. In Alabama, an ID from any public or private college or university in the state can be used.
  • In Texas, government employer IDs, other than military IDs, cannot be used for voting. In Alabama, any federal, state, county, or city employee ID is acceptable.
  • In Texas, only Texas drivers’ licenses and identification cards can be used. In Alabama, any ID issued by a state can be used.
  • In Texas, to obtain a ‘free’ voter ID, a voter must use a birth certificate or other narrowly proscribed official documentation to get a voter ID. In Alabama, voters may use private employer IDs, high school IDs, and nursing home IDs to obtain a voter ID – and, if they don’t have any of those, they can use any non-photo documentation with the voter’s name and date of birth, including Medicare and Medicaid statements and official school transcripts.
  • In Texas, election identification certificates are available only from select Department of Public Safety offices – and those notably aren’t available in every county. In Alabama, a voter ID can be obtained in each county at registrars’ offices.

The problem with voter ID isn’t that it presents a minor inconvenience to a relative handful of zealous regular voters. The problem is that it presents an insurmountable obstacle to a roughly equivalent number of people who for all intents and purposes are now ineligible to vote for no good reason. Furthermore, this is exactly what the law was intended to do. That’s why this law is bad, and that’s why it needs to be declared unconstitutional. The successful execution of a low-turnout primary election has no bearing on that. Peggy Fikac, who also wrote about this, comes to similar conclusions.

The Trib writes about One Bin For All

Mostly familiar information if you’ve been following this story, but a good overview if it’s new to you.

Laura Spanjian, Houston’s director of sustainability, says the city is spending millions to expand its conventional recycling service and is still evaluating all the options for its one-bin concept. The city hopes that the one-bin idea would eventually divert three-quarters of its trash from landfills and that new facilities would create more than 100 “high tech” jobs.

Spanjian said the city believes its proposal is the best way to boost dismal recycling rates and save money.

“We’re not paying the capital at all,” she said. “Our goal is to keep it cost-neutral.”

Kim Jones, a a professor of environmental engineering at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, said that recyclable material is most valuable when it is dry, so mixing it with trash such as food could make it harder to sell. “That’s going to contaminate your paper, and your end user is not going to want that material,” he said.

The Texas Campaign for the Environment, an advocacy group, said that China, a major market for America’s recyclables, has recently begun rejecting contaminated paper. And the group’s program director, Melanie Scruggs, is skeptical about the city’s promise of jobs.

Sorting facilities “depend on workers to sort out the waste from the recycling, so whatever objects you’re telling people to throw in there with recyclables potentially creates dangerous working conditions,” Scruggs said. “Nobody wants to create jobs where you’re sorting through trash.” While Houston points to Roseville, Calif.’s one-bin system as a model, Scruggs said her group has visited the town’s facility and found workers who had to sort animal waste from other trash, a potential health risk.

Spanjian said the sorting and drying technologies for waste have improved. She added that the city would turn whatever is not recyclable into energy through some form of gasification. That would involve heating the waste in a chamber to create synthetic gas, which could then generate electricity or be turned into fuel.

But questions also remain about the waste-to-energy strategy. A study released last year by SAIC, an engineering and consulting firm, found that the cost of turning waste into usable energy could run higher than $100 per ton. Houston now spends just $24.60 per ton on landfill fees.

“There’s a huge interest in the topic,” said Scott Pasternak, an environmental consultant who worked on the study. “It can technically be done, but the cost of doing that is going to be, at this point in Texas, substantially greater than existing technologies.” Pasternak said landfill costs are much higher in California, which is why waste-to-energy strategies may be more feasible there.

Here’s the One Bin website. The main thing I learned from this story that I didn’t already know is that Austin’s recycling rate – 24% – is nothing to write home about. The city’s strongest argument is that it can get a much higher diversion rate via One Bin than it could via single stream recycling. That’s hotly disputed by opponents like the Texas Campaign for the Environment, who argue (among other things) that a broad-based education and outreach campaign combined with finishing the job of bringing single stream recycling to all eligible Houston households would boost diversion rates considerably. I get what they’re saying, but I think that would need to be an intensive and long-term project. As it is, even in neighborhoods like mine, lots of people don’t use the big green bins, and in my experience every public space that has separate garbage and recycling receptacles there’s more garbage in the recycling bins and more recyclables in the garbage bins. It’s going to take a long time and a lot of work to change habits, is what I’m saying. Taking an approach that doesn’t depend on people doing the right thing has some appeal to it.

Be that as it may, TCE has launched a new website, Zero Waste Houston, to push back on One Bin. Their strongest argument to me is the fact that none of this is proven technology yet, and claims about turning non-reusable waste into energy are suspect at best. I had the opportunity to hear Don Pagel, the director of the One Bin program, and Melanie Scruggs of TCE talk to our civic association recently. They both do a good job advocating for their respective positions, and as much as they disagree on this strategy they both agree on the ultimate goal of diverting less waste to landfills. The main fact I learned from that meeting was that the city will be putting out RFPs in the next month or so. RFQs were put out last year, and this is the next step. If anything is going to happen with this – and there’s no guarantee of that – we’ll know it in the next twelve months or so.

Endorsement watch: None of the above

The Texas Farm Bureau is unhappy with its choices in the Ag Commissioner runoffs.

The political arm of the Texas Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farming organization, will refrain from endorsing a candidate in the GOP runoff for agriculture commissioner after the group’s preferred candidate lost in the March 4 primary.

For the first time in its 25-year-plus history, the board of the Texas Farm Bureau Friends of Agriculture Fund voted Tuesday not to back a candidate.

“Our board and our members feel strongly that all remaining candidates in both primaries should address the serious issues concerning Texas agriculture’s uncertain future,” Kenneth Dierschke, Texas Farm Bureau and AGFUND president, said in a press release. “We will leave this decision in the hands of the voters of Texas.

I’m a little surprised they didn’t go for Tommy Merritt, who unlike Sid Miller wasn’t a complete tool while in the Legislature. I’ll be voting for Kinky Friedman in the Democratic runoff, but I can understand why the Farm Bureau is sitting this one out. As long as they do the right thing in the Lt. Governor’s race, it’s all good by me.