Monthly Archives: March 2014

The Texas Miracle that wasn’t

Posted on March 8, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Washington Monthly’s Phillip Longman takes a closer look at the claims made by the likes of Rick Perry about Texas’ economic success, and finds them largely wanting. Here’s a taste: It’s hard to think of any two states more different … Continue reading →

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State Bar investigating Charles Sebesta

Posted on March 8, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Good. The State Bar of Texas has opened an investigation into Charles Sebesta, the former Burleson County District Attorney who prosecuted death row exoneree Anthony Graves. The organization that oversees lawyers is investigating alleged professional misconduct by Sebesta, which, if … Continue reading →

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Friday random ten: We’re not an American band

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

So after reading about Bruce Springsteen’s tour down under, I went looking for songs by non-American artists in my collection. 1. Dancing Queen – ABBA (Sweden) 2. Shoot To Thrill – AC/DC (Australia) 3. Full Force Gale – Van Morrison … Continue reading →

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Davis and South Texas

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I have three things to say about this. Democrats are banking on the Hispanic vote as a key part of their strategy for finding a way back into state office, but Sen. Wendy Davis lost several heavily Latino South Texas … Continue reading →

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The Trib explains itself on its polls

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Good for them. The ongoing challenge of public polling is to reconcile popular expectations about what polls “mean” at election time with our own desire to provide the public with information about mass opinion on politics and policy. We begin … Continue reading →

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We may still have Steve Stockman to kick around

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I’m not sure if the right expression for this is “Praise the Lord!” or “Lord help us”. Rep. Steve Stockman is down for now, but not out forever, he says. In his first interview since Tuesday night’s primary defeat to … Continue reading →

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County enforcement of game room regulations halted for now

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Oops. A quest by the county and city to crack down on illegal game rooms has hit a legal roadblock after a civil court judge granted a temporary restraining order barring Harris County from enforcing strict, new regulations. The city … Continue reading →

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The UT/TT primary polls were completely useless

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I expressed my contempt with the UT/Texas Trib’s Democratic primary poll result for the US Senate race last night, which they richly deserved. Sure, pollster Jim Henson admitted that “the first person to raise some money and run some ads … Continue reading →

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SCOTUS declines to hear Farmers Branch appeal

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

By all rights, this story should now be at an end. The U.S. Supreme Court brought closure Monday to the seven-year legal battle in Farmers Branch over a local ordinance that sought to ban landlords from renting property to people … Continue reading →

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Good news and bad news on the Washington Avenue parking benefit district

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

As you may recall, a bit more than a year ago Council approved a plan to create a “parking benefit district” for the Washington Avenue corridor, which is a fancy way of saying they approved the installation of parking meters … Continue reading →

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Texas blog roundup for the week of March 3

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The Texas Progressive Alliance is delighted to see marriage equality take another big step forward as we bring you this week’s roundup.

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Primary results: Statewide

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

So Wendy Davis and Greg Abbott won easily. They never had to sweat their primaries, so on Tuesday night Attorney General Greg Abbott and Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis turned their attention to a fall election that is shaping up … Continue reading →

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Primary results: Legislature and Congress

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The big news on the Democratic side is the close loss by longtime Rep. Lon Burnam in HD90, who fell by 111 votes to Ramon Romero Jr. I know basically nothing about Rep.-elect Romero, but I do know that Rep. … Continue reading →

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Primary results: Harris County

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The big news here is that there were no surprises on the Democratic side, in particular no unpleasant surprises. By far the best news was that Kim Ogg easily bested Lloyd Oliver in the primary for DA, with over 70% … Continue reading →

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Watching election results

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I’m going to do my best to follow election results tonight, and will post updates as I can here. I’ve got family obligations this evening, and with polling locations opening late in some counties like Travis, I have no idea … Continue reading →

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Primary Day is today

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Today is the day when we begin to get a temporary respite from the mailers, robocalls, and TV/radio ads, as the people who didn’t vote early make their way to the ballot box for the primaries. In Harris County, a … Continue reading →

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We want Dan!

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

We say we do, anyway. Ask Democratic Sen. Leticia Van de Putte which Republican candidate for lieutenant governor she would like to battle in the general election — incumbent David Dewhurst, Houston Sen. Dan Patrick, Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson or … Continue reading →

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HFD union reaches a deal with the city to avoid “rolling brownouts”

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

From the Inbox: Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association (HPFFA) President Bryan Sky-Eagle joined Mayor Annise Parker this morning to announce a tentative agreement on an interim contract that will avoid the brown-outs of fire apparatus proposed earlier to solve an … Continue reading →

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Endorsement watch: The Chron still loves Orlando

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

They don’t love him enough to endorse him during or before early voting, but they do still love him. [Republican] primary voters should give [County Treasurer Orlando] Sanchez a place on the November ballot. Sanchez, 62, is a former three-term … Continue reading →

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What the Trib’s pollsters miss about their own polls

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Having published their poll results, Jim Henson goes back and analyzes their gubernatorial poll, pronouncing it all a big success. The partisan responses to the poll results have been similarly predictable. The Republican chorus is singing I-told-you-so, chalking up Davis’ … Continue reading →

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Kirkland v Fleming goes national

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Lisa Falkenberg writes the followup column on George Fleming and his repeat attempt to underwrite a campaign challenge to Steven Kirkland that I figured she’d write. Fleming’s contributions to a political action committee called Moving Texas Forward – $75,000 from … Continue reading →

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More evidence of Cameron Willingham’s innocence

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The scientific evidence against Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 for the arson deaths of his three children, has long been discredited. The other piece of evidence used against him at trial was the testimony of a jailhouse … Continue reading →

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Texas Farm Bureau unhappy with anti-immigrant Republicans

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

It’s an opportunity for Democrats, assuming they actually mean what they’re saying. When Republican agriculture commissioner candidate Eric Opiela appeared on television sets across Texas recently to declare “No amnesty under any circumstances,” he was no doubt attempting to appeal … Continue reading →

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Weekend link dump for March 2

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

No, the Scooby Gang has nothing to do with the Five College Consortium. The credit card data theft will continue for the foreseeable future. The power of third parties compels you. Sometimes it’s better to help from a distance than … Continue reading →

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Early Voting concludes for the primary

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Here are your final daily early voting totals for the March primaries in Harris County. As is usually the case, the last day was the biggest. Republicans ended up with 75,400 early votes, Democrats with 30,108; that’s about 10,000 more … Continue reading →

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No stopping the San Felipe Skyscraper

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Not at this time, anyway. A Harris County district court judge has denied an opposition group’s request to immediately halt construction on a 17-story office tower in a River Oaks area neighborhood. The group, which filed suit in February against … Continue reading →

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Pushing marriage equality into new frontiers

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I love the idea behind this. Less than two weeks after a federal judge declared Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, a new effort has been launched in the South seeking to build wider acceptance of gay and lesbian couples … Continue reading →

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Who will be the next Steve Stockman?

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

No one can truly replace Steve Stockman, one of the most gifted performance artists that the Congress has ever seen, but many are trying to win his now-vacated seat. In some ways no one can replace Steve Stockman, who chose … Continue reading →

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Saturday video break: Alcohol

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Just because two songs have the same name, it doesn’t mean they’re the same song. In theory, there’s an unlimited number of song titles; in practice, there are a lot of repeats. We’ll be looking at some examples of those … Continue reading →

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City to Uber: Enough with the emails already

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

So this happened. The battle over Houston’s taxi rules moved Thursday from the streets to cyberspace, reflecting ongoing tension between an aggressive newcomer and a city government determined to proceed cautiously. Thousands of email messages urging elected leaders to allow … Continue reading →

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State of the county 2014: Let’s keep working together

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Time for Judge Emmett to tell us how things are going in Harris County. (Spoiler alert: They’re going fine, thanks for asking.) On the eve of what could be his final term as Harris County’s top elected official, County Judge … Continue reading →

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Harris County GOP to yell at cloud on Monday

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Lone Star Q: Calling gay people “sodomites” and U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia a “would-be dictator,” the Harris County Republican Party announced it will host a news conference Monday morning in response to Garcia’s ruling Wednesday striking down Texas’ bans … Continue reading →

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Vaccinating skunks

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

To prevent rabies, of course. Texas, which has long campaigned for family pets to be vaccinated against rabies, is now attacking from the sky one of the state’s foulest carriers of the disease: skunks. Skunks would obviously put up quite … Continue reading →

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