Tag Archives: minimum wage

Texas Department of Agriculture sort of recognizes climate change

Posted on January 9, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a start, I guess. On the heels of a historic drought that devastated crops from the High Plains to South Texas, a new Texas Department of Agriculture report released Tuesday linked climate change with food insecurity and identified it … Continue reading →

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Ground Game Texas

Posted on June 11, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

This is good, too. Some of Democrats’ biggest regrets about the 2020 election in Texas had to do with organizing. It was not consistent throughout the cycle — and usually isn’t in any cycle. It was supplanted by TV ads … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The economic hardship of the freeze

Posted on February 25, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

We may have power and water again (mostly), but some things that were lost can’t easily be gotten back. Last Tuesday, as Houston temperatures hovered below freezing for much of the day, Gloria Sanchez’s lights — and heat — cut … Continue reading →

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Just raise the minimum wage already

Posted on January 31, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

It’s long overdue, it’s going to help a lot of people, and it’s just the right thing to do. More than a quarter of the Texas workforce — 3.5 million employees — would get a raise if Democrats succeed in … Continue reading →

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Let’s please find more opportunities to avoid using unpaid prison labor

Posted on November 30, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

More like this, in other words. As Houston officials hashed out the budget last spring, City Council members Abbie Kamin and Carolyn Evans-Shabazz quietly asked to send a routine contract back to the Turner administration. The $4.2 million deal was needed to … Continue reading →

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Texans’ cheer coach quits

Posted on August 24, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Of interest. Altovise Gary, the longtime director of the Houston Texans cheerleaders squad who was named as a defendant in one of two recent federal court lawsuits filed against the team, has resigned, a team spokeswoman said Tuesday. Gary resigned … Continue reading →

Posted in Other sports | Tagged , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Texans cheerleader lawsuit update

Posted on June 28, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Couple points of interest here. A former Texans cheerleader who says cheer director Alto Gary derided her as “skinny fat” and applied duct tape to her stomach before a 2017 game added her name Friday to one of two lawsuits … Continue reading →

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Texans move to dismiss one cheerleader lawsuit

Posted on June 22, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Standard stuff, I presume. Attorneys for the Houston Texans have asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the team by five former cheerleaders or to delay proceedings while the former cheerleaders’ complaints are submitted to arbitration. Team … Continue reading →

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Second group of cheerleaders sues the Texans

Posted on June 3, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Different group, same basic complaints. Hannah Turnbow spent the 2017 NFL season wearing a bright smile and a Texans cheerleaders uniform, dancing on the field, waving pompons on the sideline, meeting fans in NRG Stadium suites and concourses and attending … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters, Other sports | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Former cheerleaders file lawsuit against Texans over pay

Posted on May 25, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

I’d been wondering if something like this was going to happen here. Three former Texans cheerleaders sued the team and its cheerleading supervisor Tuesday, accusing the Texans of failing to pay minimum wage and overtime and accusing the cheer squad … Continue reading →

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Is there some fretting about Mayor Turner?

Posted on March 13, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Maybe? I don’t know. I guess it depends on how you define “fretting”. The resignation of Mayor Sylvester Turner’s top deputy – a social justice advocate and one of the mayor’s few confidants in a sea of senior staff appointed … Continue reading →

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Stop the “Save America’s Pastime Act”

Posted on July 5, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Pay minor league players a livable wage, I saw. When you think of overpaid athletes rolling in the dough at the expense of others, baseball players in the minor leagues are not usually the first people that come to mind. … Continue reading →

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You’ll take lower pay, ladies, and you’ll like it

Posted on April 13, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

From Lisa Falkenberg; Over at the Wall Street Journal, a 25-year newsroom union pay analysis found women earning 13.2 percent less, a finding that prompted the chief executive of parent company Dow Jones and Co. to vow an urgent review … Continue reading →

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More focus on inequality

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Good to see. As Houston’s mayoral candidates spar over the city’s largely agreed upon top issues – finances, infrastructure and public safety – a fourth policy concern is percolating: economic inequality. Concerns about disparity underpin discussions about the city’s revenue … Continue reading →

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Highlighting wages in the Mayor’s race

Posted on October 3, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: Coalition Calls on Next Mayor to Raise Minimum Wage for Publicly Funded Projects Today, a coalition of community and labor organizations staged a tour of of sites that received tax dollars to tell the story of how … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2015 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The local minimum wage fight

Posted on September 7, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Not quite on the radar here, but it could be. After years of failed proposals in the Texas Legislature to raise the minimum wage, organizers and advocates for higher hourly wages are going local. Leaders in two major Texas cities … Continue reading →

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TOP/SEIU Mayoral forum report

Posted on July 28, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

From David Ortez: After the dust settled, the forum commenced with the hosts explaining the four pillars of their platform. It boiled down to: 1) Good Jobs; 2) Neighborhoods of Opportunity; 3) Infrastructure; and 4) Immigrant Rights. At the end … Continue reading →

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Davis proposes minimum wage increase

Posted on September 6, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The Chronicle buries the lede. Down in the polls and facing an opponent with a cash advantage, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis on Thursday took her campaign to the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she told supporters the … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2014 | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Abbott’s appellate brief on same sex marriage is a complete loser

Posted on July 30, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

How weak does your case have to be to have to rely on this? Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed an appeal with the U.S. 5th Circuit Monday regarding the state’s same-sex marriage ban, which was ruled unconstitutional by a … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Helping the hungry of Montgomery County

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I have three things to say about this. Though many are familiar with [Montgomery County]’s growth, thanks to the wealth of The Woodlands and the coming Exxon corporate campus just down Interstate 45, fewer see the poverty and hunger dispersed … Continue reading →

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What do the Mayors want?

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Action on climate change. The U.S. Conference of Mayors, a bipartisan group that represents the leaders of 1,400 cities, each of which is home to at least 30,000 people, has called on the Obama administration and Congress to “enact an … Continue reading →

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The CFPB is almost ready to roll out payday lending regulations

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I can’t wait to see what they come up with. Whenever governments start thinking about cracking down on small-dollar, high-interest financial products like payday loans and check cashing services, a shrill cry goes up from the businesses that offer them: You’re … Continue reading →

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We have ways of making you talk

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Poor Greg. 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2014 | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

ECPS: Abbott 49, Davis 42

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Via Texpatriate, the Emerson College Polling Society has a poll of the Texas gubernatorial race that shows Greg Abbott with a seven point lead. According to a new survey conducted by the Emerson College Polling Society, Texas Attorney General Gregory … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2014 | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The coverage gap

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

As you may know, the intent of the Affordable Care Act was to get people below a certain income level onto Medicaid, with people at or above that income level receiving subsidized health insurance via the exchanges. Unfortunately, when the … Continue reading →

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Raising the minimum wage in Texas

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

It’s all the rage elsewhere, but so far I’ve not heard anything about a movement to raise the minimum wage in Texas. While most of the increases amount to less than 15 cents per hour, workers in places like New … Continue reading →

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Why do we want to subsidize the creation of minimum wage jobs?

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

That’s a question some people are asking in San Antonio. Thankfully, the local debate over whether to grant Maruchan Inc. of Japan millions of dollars to pay people very little money to make noodles has transcended the mere question of … Continue reading →

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