Off the Kuff | Knowledge Is Good

SCOTx hears Paxton’s appeal of the Annunciation House case

Posted on January 14, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

The Texas Attorney General’s Office told sometimes skeptical Texas Supreme Court justices Monday that El Paso’s Annunciation House migrant shelters are harboring undocumented immigrants and can’t use Catholic religious beliefs as a legal justification for its actions.

“Annunciation House is not immunized because of its religion,” Assistant Attorney General Ryan Baasch said in oral arguments over the agency’s appeal of an El Paso court ruling that blocked efforts to force the Catholic nonprofit to turn over records or face potential closure.

“Do you disagree that this is religious activity?” Justice Debra Lehrmann asked Baasch.

“It may be, and then there’s going to be a question of whether the activity at issue here substantially burdens the religious activity,” Baasch replied.

“If it’s a religious activity, how could it not substantially burden it? I think you want to shut it down?” Justice Jeff Boyd asked.

“The substantiality would be a big part of that inquiry, and I don’t think that there’s enough facts on the record here to determine if the burden has been substantial,” Baasch said.

The Texas Supreme Court is hearing the attorney general’s appeal of 205th District Judge Francisco Dominguez ruling in July, when he rejected what he called “outrageous and intolerable” actions by Paxton’s office in seeking to potentially strip Annunciation House of the right to operate in Texas.

The state’s highest civil court is considering several issues, including whether Annunciation House’s provision of offering hospitality to people who entered the country illegally violates a state law against harboring undocumented immigrants, and whether the attorney general’s efforts to compel Annunciation House to produce records violates the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prohibits government officials from interfering with a person’s free exercise of religion.

“There has been no violation of the harboring statute because Annunciation House, an established Ministry of the Catholic Church, does not hide undocumented people from law enforcement. Hiding them is an element of the harboring statue,” Warr told the justices.

She also stressed that the vast majority of people hosted by Annunciation House are legally in the country because they were released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement while courts consider their immigration cases.

“Most of the people who we house are brought to us by ICE after they have processed them and they need a place to stay,” Warr said.

[…]

Paxton has denied that his office is interfering with religious freedom, and argued in a brief to the Texas Supreme Court that Garcia acknowledged in testimony that Annunciation House “does not offer confessions, baptisms, or communion, and makes ‘no’ efforts to evangelize or convert its guests to any religion.”

The Texas Conference of Catholic Bishops filed a brief with the Texas Supreme Court in support of Annunciation House’s arguments. The bishops said that underlying Paxton’s argument “is the notion that his office, and not the Catholic Church, is the proper arbiter of who is ‘Catholic’ enough to be a Catholic ministry.”

First Liberty Institute, one of the nation’s leading Christian conservative organizations advocating for religious liberty, also sided with Annunciation House in a brief filed with the Texas Supreme Court.

The brief said the high court previously ruled that the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act “requires the government to tread carefully and lightly when its actions substantially burden religious exercise.”

“Shuttering a religious nonprofit like Annunciation House is hardly treading lightly,” First Liberty Institute said in the brief.

The First Liberty Institute support could be helpful to Annunciation House before the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court because of its conservative background and history of successfully arguing religious freedom cases.

The El Paso Chamber and El Paso County filed briefs to the Texas Supreme Court in support of Annunciation House. The America First Legal Foundation – a nonprofit advocacy group founded by Stephen Miller, an architect of President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration policies – filed a brief in support of Paxton.

See here for the previous update. A ruling is likely months away, and may wait until after a SCOTUS case that touches on some similar issues is decided. The newest member of the Supreme Court is sitting this out, for reasons that were not specified. I’m generally not a fan of statutes like the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which is based on the national law and which to my mind are generally enacted to favor conservative religious interests, and the First Liberty Institute is usually a villain in these matters. That both of them stand in the way of Paxton’s crusade is more than a little ironic. If that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes. The Trib and the Chron have more.

Posted in La Migra, Legal matters | Tagged Annunciation House, border, Catholic Charities of Dallas, El Paso, First Liberty Institute, Greg Abbott, immigration, Ken Paxton, lawsuit, Ruben Garcia, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Texas, Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid | Leave a comment

Oh, who needs board approval anyway?

Posted on January 14, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Heck of a job, y’all.

Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles’ administration greenlit about $870 million in spending over the past 16 months without receiving required school board approval, breaking district policy and frustrating some board members.

HISD administrators did not bring about 130 purchase agreements — all made through a process that allows HISD to skip soliciting bids from vendors — to the district’s state-appointed board for monthly approval, bypassing a step designed to provide oversight and transparency. Many purchase agreements dealt with day-to-day district operations, such as maintaining school grounds and renting equipment, while a handful were for consultants.

The total potential value of the purchase agreements amounted to about $55 million per month during the 16-month period, nearly double the monthly average of $30 million approved during the two years before that span, a Houston Landing analysis shows.

In a video posted Monday morning on YouTube, Miles said HISD administrators did not intentionally hide any agreements. Miles said district staff misunderstood district policy and have now corrected the issue.

“Prior to winter break, we discovered that we weren’t following all the policies related to procurement review process,” Miles said. “One important step is board approval, and that step was missed.”

[…]

Board members Adam Rivon and Rolando Martinez said none of the contracts immediately stood out to them as bad spending, but the breach in policy concerned them.

“While I appreciate efforts to address the issue retroactively, I’m not satisfied because these mistakes make it harder for parents and the community to trust that things are being handled the right way,” Rivon, a member of the district’s Audit Committee, said in a statement.

The district’s internal auditor reviewed each unapproved purchase agreement and found no violations of the law, Miles said. Similar audits will be conducted quarterly going forward, he said.

HISD administrators presented the full list of purchase agreements made from mid-August 2023 to mid-December 2024 to board members for retroactive approval during their December board meeting. At that meeting, board members raised the issue briefly without discussion, went into closed session out of public view for three hours and, ultimately, tabled the vote.

“It came to my attention, through communications with staff members, that the board had not seen all expenditures made under (HISD’s purchasing policy),” Board president Audrey Momanaee said in December, explaining why she had added the issue to the board agenda.

Board members are expected to reconsider approval of the vendor awards on Thursday. Actual spending has likely been lower than $870 million, because the purchase agreements set the maximum amount that district officials can spend on a specific expense.

[…]

In August 2023, about two months after Miles’ appointment, HISD passed a policy raising the amount Miles’ administration can spend without board approval from $100,000 to $1 million on contracts awarded through the bidding process. However, the change did not apply to vendor awards made through cooperative agreements, which were still supposed to receive board approval, regardless of their value.

However, starting in September 2023, HISD stopped bringing spending agreements made through purchasing cooperatives to the board. They did not bring any more to the board for approval until December 2024, aside from a $1 million contract for education consultant Kitamba MGT in February 2024.

Martinez acknowledged he “could have done a better job of looking at that policy” and recognized earlier that purchase agreements were no longer coming before the board. But Martinez said he wasn’t aware of the issue, and nobody in Miles’ administration informed him they had stopped presenting the contracts.

“I don’t feel like it’s a board issue. The superintendent has taken responsibility and they’ve owned up to the mistake. It really falls on them,” Martinez said. “This is an operational challenge. My expectation is that they come back to us and say, ‘This is how we’re going to correct it.’”

There doesn’t appear to be anything weird or questionable about the spending itself. The whole issue is that for reasons unclear, these purchase agreements stopped being presented to the Board of Managers for approval until someone finally noticed what was happening. It’s not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, but it is embarrassing, and despite what Board member Martinez says, it’s as much on the Board of Managers as it is on Mike Miles, because none of them ever managed to wonder why they weren’t being asked for these approvals any more. If the elected Board had done this, it would absolutely be held up as a failure on their part.

Which is why I strongly disagree with this:

Eileen Hairel, a member of the District Advisory Committee that provides feedback to HISD’s administration, said she is “deeply concerned” by the error. She sees it as an example of poor governance and a possible setback in HISD’s efforts to pull itself out of TEA intervention.

“HISD will only get out of the state takeover if the board and district meet the exit criteria set out by the TEA, one of which is improved board governance,” Hairel said in a statement. “The foundation of good governance is sound policy and district compliance with that policy.”

No. That failure of governance is on the appointed Board and the appointed Superintendent. If anything, this should be a catalyst for getting the Board out of there in a more expedited manner. The rest of us don’t bear any responsibility for it.

Posted in School days | Tagged Adam Rivon, Audrey Momanaee, Board of Managers, HISD, HISD Board of Trustees, Houston, Mike Miles, Mike Morath, Rolando Martinez, Texas Education Agency | 1 Comment

I-10 elevation project is now underway

Posted on January 14, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

I had managed to forget that this was out there. And then I had to get on I-10 west on Monday morning and was rudely reminded.

A major construction project off Interstate 10 has kicked off with the intent to elevate the highway, reduce flooding in the area, and remove a pesky bridge that has been the source of dozens of 18-wheeler crashes.

But the construction, which kicked off Monday, will cause a traffic nightmare.

The five-lane westbound highway will now shrink to a three-lane roadway from Taylor Street to the Heights Boulevard exit. The two closed lanes will open back up after that exit. Commuters might have to live with that change for the foreseeable future, as the entire project won’t be completed until late 2028.

One of the end results of the construction project will be the removal of the Houston Avenue bridge, under I-10. That bridge, which is the scene of dozens of incidents each year, is frequently hit by 18-wheelers trying to squeeze under the overpass. The work is expected to last from mid-2025 through late 2027.

[…]

According to previous Chron reporting, TxDOT made some changes to the original elevation plan, lowering I-10 main lanes east of Studemont, ten feet lower than existing lanes with a max height of about 120 feet above Houston Avenue due to community resistance.

Main lanes would be kept at or below existing HOV lanes, with a max height of 70 feet, according to the agency.

See here, here, and here for some background. I’m just going to say what I said before, because it remains the truth: This is going to suck, bigtime. And we’ll be hip deep in I-45 construction well before this is over. 2025 is already on my short list of “worst years ever” and we’re not even in February. ABC13 has more.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged construction, Heights, Houston, HOV lanes, I-10, I-45, Texas, TxDOT, White Oak Bayou | Leave a comment

Precinct analysis: County races 2024 part 1

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

PREVIOUSLY:

President
Senate
Railroad Commissioner

I’m going to break up the countywide race analyses into two posts, to make my life a little easier. I’m also going to reduce the overall amount of information I’m putting in them, to make it a little easier to read and so I can focus on the main highlights. This post will look at the races for District Attorney and County Attorney. Next up will be Sheriff, Tax Assessor, and HCDE Trustee.


Dist     Simon    Teare    Dist    Simon%   Teare%
==================================================
HD126   47,761   29,439    HD126   61.87%   38.13%
HD127   53,722   35,813    HD127   60.00%   40.00%
HD128   45,910   19,150    HD128   70.57%   29.43%
HD129   51,699   32,738    HD129   61.23%   38.77%
HD130   62,990   27,451    HD130   69.65%   30.35%
HD131   10,822   32,382    HD131   25.05%   74.95%
HD132   53,549   36,510    HD132   59.46%   40.54%
HD133   43,025   31,611    HD133   57.65%   42.35%
HD134   41,009   56,972    HD134   41.85%   58.15%
HD135   28,531   33,004    HD135   46.37%   53.63%
HD137   11,672   16,651    HD137   41.21%   58.79%
HD138   41,482   30,436    HD138   57.68%   42.32%
HD139   18,310   39,500    HD139   31.67%   68.33%
HD140   11,157   16,722    HD140   40.02%   59.98%
HD141    8,682   28,273    HD141   23.49%   76.51%
HD142   15,647   34,870    HD142   30.97%   69.03%
HD143   15,114   20,396    HD143   42.56%   57.44%
HD144   19,724   18,880    HD144   51.09%   48.91%
HD145   20,705   37,183    HD145   35.77%   64.23%
HD146   12,967   41,335    HD146   23.88%   76.12%
HD147   15,670   47,291    HD147   24.89%   75.11%
HD148   23,700   26,757    HD148   46.97%   53.03%
HD149   20,094   25,468    HD149   44.10%   55.90%
HD150   47,621   30,571    HD150   60.90%   39.10%
        	
CC1    106,312  255,522    CC1     29.38%   70.62%
CC2    148,063  136,468    CC2     52.04%   47.96%
CC3    300,785  189,308    CC3     61.37%   38.63%
CC4    166,403  168,105    CC4     49.75%   50.25%


Dist     Smith  Menefee    Dist   Smith%  Menefee%
==================================================
HD126   47,538   29,093    HD126   62.03%   37.97%
HD127   53,566   35,276    HD127   60.29%   39.71%
HD128   45,804   18,871    HD128   70.82%   29.18%
HD129   51,724   32,171    HD129   61.65%   38.35%
HD130   62,928   26,856    HD130   70.09%   29.91%
HD131   10,816   32,205    HD131   25.14%   74.86%
HD132   53,455   35,987    HD132   59.76%   40.24%
HD133   43,575   30,403    HD133   58.90%   41.10%
HD134   41,168   55,755    HD134   42.47%   57.53%
HD135   28,602   32,671    HD135   46.68%   53.32%
HD137   11,765   16,335    HD137   41.87%   58.13%
HD138   41,662   29,732    HD138   58.36%   41.64%
HD139   18,406   39,143    HD139   31.98%   68.02%
HD140   11,211   16,540    HD140   40.40%   59.60%
HD141    8,819   28,006    HD141   23.95%   76.05%
HD142   15,741   34,574    HD142   31.28%   68.72%
HD143   15,023   20,280    HD143   42.55%   57.45%
HD144   19,806   18,605    HD144   51.56%   48.44%
HD145   20,683   36,672    HD145   36.06%   63.94%
HD146   12,860   41,082    HD146   23.84%   76.16%
HD147   15,642   46,963    HD147   24.99%   75.01%
HD148   23,783   26,347    HD148   47.44%   52.56%
HD149   19,985   25,345    HD149   44.09%   55.91%
HD150   47,469   30,136    HD150   61.17%   38.83%
        	
CC1    106,578  252,985    CC1     29.64%   70.36%
CC2    148,161  134,624    CC2     52.39%   47.61%
CC3    300,642  185,786    CC3     61.81%   38.19%
CC4    166,650  165,653    CC4     50.15%   49.85%

These were the two closest races of the five, with Menefee winning by 1.16 percentage points and 17K votes; Teare won by 1.9 points and 28K votes. The closeness of the races is reflected in the district results, and yes that’s Menefee losing in Commissioners Court Precinct 4. The obvious takeaway here is that Democrats didn’t give themselves a lot of slack when they redrew the Commissioners Court map in 2021. They need to win countywide by a big enough margin to feel comfortable. Which I’m sure everyone was at the time, but here we are now. I believe we can get back to where we were, or at least close to it, but that’s what we need to be working on now.

And while I would really like to have that aggregate cushion, I think the incumbent Commissioners will have a bit of an advantage. Or at least, they’ve got more of their fate in their own hands than most. I have a lot of faith in them. I just don’t want to have to rely on it.

The other positive we ought to have going into 2026 that we didn’t have in 2024 or 2022 is a District Attorney who isn’t going to spend all his time and energy crapping on Democratic judges and Commissioners. I would say one of the best things that could be done for local Dems in 2026 is to have Sean Teare loudly and continuously tout his accomplishments, especially as they pertain to cleaning up the various messes he’s inherited. The more this helps ease up crowding in the jail, the better. Pairing that with funding for an ad campaign to provide a counterpoint to those obnoxious “stop Houston murders” ads, and we’ve got something. That part isn’t on Sean Teare, I’m just saying. But really, just not having that headwind should be beneficial.

Next up will be the next three countywide races. Let me know what you think.

Posted in Election 2024 | Tagged Christian Menefee, Commissioners Court, Dan Simons, District Attorney, Election 2022, Election 2024, Election 2026, Harris County, Harris County Attorney, Jacqueline Lucci Smith, Kim Ogg, precinct analysis, Sean Teare, Texas | 2 Comments

Harris County passes backup power rule for nursing homes

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Good.

Assisted living facilities and nursing homes in the unincorporated areas of Harris County now are required to install backup power generators to keep heating and cooling systems operational during electrical outages, making the county among the first in Texas to implement such a mandate.

The mandate, included in the county’s revamped fire code, comes after the derecho in May, followed by Hurricane Beryl in July, that left more than 2 million households and businesses without power during sweltering temperatures. During the hurricane, at least 14 nursing homes and 30 assisted living facilities in Harris County lost power for multiple days.

“This is for all of our families, whether it’s our parents, our grandparents, our great grandparents, all of us. We’re all aging, and this could be us,” Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones said at a Wednesday news conference to announce the new requirement.

At least 120 facilities throughout unincorporated Harris County will be required to have secondary power systems that switch on within three hours after an initial power loss. The updated code also requires facilities to implement emergency communication systems for rapid response, provide power for essential medical equipment and secure evacuation measures through powered doors and elevators.

Briones proposed the mandate be added to the county fire code at Commissioners Court’s Nov. 12 meeting. It passed unanimously.

Wednesday’s announcement sent at least one statewide association of assisted living facilities scrambling for answers.

Carmen Tilton, Vice President of Public Policy at the Texas Assisted Living Association, said that she did not learn about fire code change until it was enacted Jan. 1.

She said the association has been trying to find out details about the changes — the most she has heard from Harris County officials was at Briones’ news conference touting the mandate — and the organization already is fielding questions from assisted living facilities that are impacted.

“I wish we had been brought in on these conversations because I think we could have helped,” she said. “Right now, I have a whole lot more questions and answers.”

County officials said facilities will have until Jan. 1, 2026, to comply with the new requirements, which they said they hoped will be enough time to prepare and implement changes.

Harris County Fire Marshal Laurie Christensen said she recognized there likely will need to be some flexibility with that date because some facilities could face delays securing permits or generators.

[…]

Christensen said her team, along with other local officials and the Texas Department of Health and Human Services will collaborate to notify and educate facilities about the new backup power requirement. She added she is cognizant the new regulation likely will come with a steep price tag.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission in 2021 estimated the cost of installing a new generator capable of supporting certain air temperatures could range from $20,000 for a new and smaller facility to $720,000 or more for an older and larger facility, according to the Texas Tribune.

The fire marshal’s office already conducts annual inspections on nursing homes and assisted living facilities to ensure they are in compliance with state regulations for their licenses, making the new mandate “another box we need to check,” Christensen said.

A failure to comply with the new requirement could result in citations, but Christensen said the fire marshal’s office likely will try to steer facilities toward compliance.

“When you look at our fire code, a lot of people think of it as enforcement,” Christensen said. “It’s not about enforcement — it’s about education. Our goal is to prevent a fatality before it happens, whether it be by fire, heat or cold.”

There’s more, and there are some nuances to all of this, including what defines different types of facilities, so read the rest. I think this is a good approach, with the right goal of getting the facilities in question to comply by making sure they know what they need to do. I’ll be very interested to see where we are at this time next year. Note that this mandate is for unincorporated Harris County, not for within Houston city limits. Mayor Whitmire had a lot to say about the senior-living apartments in the city after several of them had issues during the derecho, but as yet there has been no action on the city’s part to do anything about it. Hopefully that’s on his agenda for this year. The Chron has more.

Posted in Local politics | Tagged blackouts, Commissioners Court, derecho, Harris County, Harris County Fire Marshal, HHSC, Houston, Hurricane Beryl, John Whitmire, Laurie Christianson, Lesley Briones, nursing homes, Texas, Texas Assisted Living Association | Leave a comment

Comet alums unite in support of Fertitta’s WNBA bid

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

They’re getting the band back together.

Cynthia Cooper did not get closure when the Houston Comets folded.

One minute, she was a star player on Houston’s four-time championship-winning WNBA team. The next minute, her phone was blowing up with texts and the dynasty was dead. And unlike some of her Comets teammates, Cooper didn’t go on to play for other teams in the league.

So that’s why Cooper said she is “thrilled” that Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta is submitting a bid for a WNBA expansion franchise — and including the Comets in his plan.

At a Rockets home game in late December, Fertitta met with Cooper, Comets coach Van Chancellor and Comets star Tina Thompson in his suite at Toyota Center. He wanted to gauge their interest in his expansion proposal. They responded with unbridled enthusiasm.

“And trust me, to get us all together, I think, demonstrated to him how supportive we would be and how thrilled we are,” Cooper said.

Cooper said the WNBA’s return would fill the “void” the Comets left in the Houston sports landscape.

“I don’t think you can talk about having a W franchise in Houston and not marry it with the legacy that the Comets left,” Cooper said. “It would be a very emotional thing to have the W back, an opportunity to pay tribute to friends like Tina Thompson and Sheryl Swoopes and get the public back rallied around the W as well as, more specifically, a Houston franchise.”

Chancellor coached the Comets for the first 10 of their 12 seasons. He, too, is advocating for the WNBA’s return to Houston, whether the new team is called the Comets or not. But if he has any say, it would be.

“Ever since I moved back here from LSU, all I’ve heard is, ‘Do you think we’re gonna get a team? ’ and, ‘Why don’t we get a team? ’ And I would love to see a team come back here,” Chancellor said. “I think we’re still in the hearts and minds of a lot of fans here in town.”

In a statement provided to the Chronicle this week, Fertitta said, “The Houston Comets helped put the WNBA on the map and the City of Houston deserves the chance to once again show how great of a place it is for women’s basketball. We still proudly display the Comets championship banners and retired jerseys at Toyota Center. It’s been far too long; it’s time to bring the WNBA back to Houston.”

See here for the most recent update. They need to get Sheryl Swoopes on board to really complete the team, assuming they can get her to knock it off with Caitlin Clark already. Be that as it may, as an oldtime Comets fan, this warms my heart.

It’s a long story, so go read the rest. Remember that one of our competitors for a WNBA team is Austin, and they seem to have their act together as well. You can learn more about that on this recent episode of CityCast Austin, featuring an interview with Fran Harris about her efforts.

Posted in Other sports | Tagged Austin, basketball, Cynthia Cooper, Fran Harris, Houston, Houston Comets, Sheryl Swoopes, Texas, Tilman Fertitta, Tina Thompson, Van Chancellor, WNBA | 1 Comment

Weekend link dump for January 12

Posted on January 12, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

“It may be a foolish optimism, but if Trump can be nudged in the right direction and convinced, he came up with the idea, as he did with the successor to NAFTA, he might not be quite the disaster so many of us rightly fear. It’s a long shot, but what is life without hope?”

“But then he’ll come out with something like the Truth Social post above, and I’ll be reminded that wealthy and powerful people like Trump or Andreesen or, of course, Elon Musk are often far more ignorant than policy wonks can easily imagine.”

“Counties across the southern half of the U.S., especially those with large and socially vulnerable populations, will be much more exposed to wildfire, drought and extreme heat than other parts of the country as the region’s climate warms in the coming decades, according to new research from the U.S. Forest Service and Resources for the Future.”

How to filter out AI crap from your search results.

RIP, Mike Rinder, former Scientologist turned whistleblower who won an Emmy along with Leah Remini for a documentary about that religion.

“Trump team takes aim at crown jewel of US climate research”.

“Yeah, America can still build stuff“, as shown in a bunch of charts.

“The FBI is warning sports leagues about crime organizations targeting professional athletes following a string of burglaries at the homes of prominent NFL and NBA players.”

“A better way to look at all of this is that we remain in an intense, sometimes violent and close to deadlocked struggle over the future of the country. It is no more done today or tomorrow than it was four years ago.”

There are a lot of reasons why second seasons of popular streaming shows tend to have fewer episodes than Season One did.

RIP, Perry, miniature donkey who inspired Eddie Murray’s Shrek character.

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule on Tuesday that will bar medical debt from being included in credit scores.”

“But many smaller bollards are evaluated to withstand impacts of 5,000-pound vehicles, a number that easily covers most cars and trucks but falls well below the weight of even a Tesla Model X, to say nothing of a big, new EV like a Silverado.”

“Is your car company violating your privacy rights?”

“The highly decorated soldier who exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas used generative AI including ChatGPT to help plan the attack, Las Vegas police said Tuesday.”

RIP, Peter Yarrow, singer-songwriter and co-founder of Peter, Paul and Mary. I had forgotten about this sordid aspect of his life before reading the obituary. Worth remembering, however you ultimately feel about it.

“In essence, the voice phishers are using an automated Apple phone support line to send notifications from Apple and to trick people into thinking they’re really talking with Apple.”

“This is what Musk has become: a machine for reposting red meat for the MAGA base that he almost certainly knows to be bogus.”

I’m sure there are plenty of potential buyers of TikTok. Doesn’t mean the Chinese will want to sell it.

Anita Bryant has died. Whether or not you know who that is, I heartily encourage you to listen to this episode of Slate’s One Year: 1977 podcast, which tells the story of her fight against gay rights in vivid detail.

“Merchan’s action Friday means that Trump’s criminal case is concluded and he enters office —ten days from his sentencing—a convicted felon.”

RIP, Sam Moore, legendary soul singer, one half of Sam & Dave, best known for hits like “Soul Man” and “Hold On, I’m Coming”.

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged linkdump | Leave a comment

Where the Lege might go next on abortion

Posted on January 12, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

There’s always further to go.

Last legislative session was the quietest in decades for abortion. After successfully banning nearly all abortions, Republicans were wary about continuing to push an issue that is widely unpopular with voters.

This session, coming off a Republican rout in November, Seago is hopeful that lawmakers will feel more empowered to continue restricting abortions, and especially abortion pills.

“Texas is uniquely positioned to lead on these cutting-edge pro-life issues,” Seago said. “Some of our friends in red states are still playing defense. They’re fighting off constitutional amendments. They’re still fighting off exceptions to their laws. We’re in a solid place to start fighting back.”

Texas has no mechanism to put a constitutional amendment to increase abortion access on the ballot without the approval of lawmakers, and while Democrats have filed bills to add more exceptions to the abortion laws, they are once again expected to not get any traction.

But whether conservative efforts to further restrict abortion pills will take hold also remains to be seen. Rep. Nate Schatzline, a conservative Republican from Fort Worth, has filed House Bill 1651, which would make it a deceptive trade practice to send abortion pills through the mail without verifying that they were prescribed by an in-state doctor after an in-person exam.

Another bill, HB 991, filed by Republican Rep. Steve Toth of The Woodlands, would allow lawsuits against websites that provide information about obtaining abortion pills. Elisa Wells, co-founder of Plan C, an information repository about telehealth abortion access, said they expect any challenge to their work to run afoul of free speech protections.

“Texas is a state that values free speech, but despite that, they’re taking action to try and limit free speech with respect to abortion,” she said. “It’s a bit hypocritical.”

Wells said they take seriously any legislation that might further restrict access to abortion in states like Texas. But she said even if all the domestic access routes were shut off by lawsuits and legislation, there are international providers prepared to keep providing pills to people who need them.

“It’s ironic that a lot of these legal actions and court decisions and attempts to restrict access are what is shining a spotlight on … the fact that abortion pills are available by mail,” she said. “Every time there’s a decision like that, we just see the traffic to our site just exponentially increase. These anti-choice actions are the best advertisement.”

I’ll be shocked if there isn’t a bill to follow in Louisiana’s footsteps by reclassifying mifepristone as a controlled substance. If one hasn’t been filed yet, I’m sure it will be. At this point, just about anything they could do will likely require a massive amount of surveillance and intrusiveness to work, run afoul of the First Amendment, materially harm other forms of health care as collateral damage, or some combination of the three. Look to see what’s on Greg Abbott’s priority list. Anything there is almost a sure bet to pass, even if it requires a special session.

The first part of the story is about the Paxton lawsuit against that New York doctor, which is more complex and unpredictable than I first thought. For sure, it won’t be the only shots fired in that direction. Read it and see what’s coming.

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged abortion, Ken Paxton, lawsuit, Louisiana, mifepristone, Nate Schatzline, New York, Plan C, Steve Toth, Texas, The Lege | 4 Comments

Very few minors actually get gender-affirming care

Posted on January 12, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Of interest.

How many transgender teens in the U.S. are receiving medical care related to gender transitions? According to a peer-reviewed research letter published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics, the answer is very, very few.

It’s a key data point as Republican lawmakers in Congress and around the country continue to focus on transgender youth in contexts ranging from sports to bathrooms to doctors’ offices. In a legislative sprint over the last few years, half of U.S. states have enacted bans on gender-affirming care. Some of those laws have been blocked in court, and one such legal case was just argued in the U.S. Supreme Court in December.

The care at issue includes puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone therapy — medications that help transgender teens develop characteristics that align with their gender identity. Use of these treatments is supported by major American medical groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“It’s important to put numbers to the debates that are currently happening,” says Landon Hughes, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. “There weren’t any peer reviewed studies that were looking at the rate of hormone use and puberty blocker use among youth in the U.S., and so we wanted to fill that void.”

Hughes and colleagues at Harvard and Folx Health, a virtual LGBTQ health care company, used a data set of private insurance claims from 2018-2022 that included more than 5 million adolescents.

“The total number of youth who had any diagnosis of gender dysphoria was less than 18,000,” Hughes explains. “Among those folks, there were less than 1,000 [youth] that accessed puberty blockers and less than 2,000 that ever had access to hormones.”

In other words, the study found that less than 0.1% of teenagers with private insurance in the U.S. are transgender and receive gender-related medicines.

A recent mental health survey from the CDC found a much higher percentage — 3% of high school students — self-identified as transgender. Not all transgender people seek a medical diagnosis or treatments related to their identity, notes Lindsey Dawson, director of LGBTQ health policy at the research organization KFF. “Much more common is to change hair grooming, style of clothing, using a different name,” she says, pointing to KFF research.

See here for some background. I doubt this changes many minds – if anything, I think it might make the leading anti-trans zealots feel more free to pursue their goals, since the constituency they’re attacking is so small. I will just note that when such zealots score a political victory, they never congratulate themselves and then move on to other pursuits. They take it as evidence they should push farther, which in this case would mean trying to pass similar bans on such care for adults, and seeking to criminalize any attempts to work around that. The best course of action is always to keep them from getting that foothold in the first place.

Posted in National news | Tagged American Academy of Pediatrics, Centers for Disease Control, health care, health insurance, puberty blockers, SCOTUS, transgender rights | Leave a comment

Tesla seeks permit for robotaxi service in Austin

Posted on January 12, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Who wants this?

Tesla is in early talks with the authorities in the city of Austin, Texas, about its autonomous vehicle technology, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

A Tesla employee has been in touch with the city’s autonomous vehicle task force since at least May to establish safety expectations for the vehicles, the report said, citing emails acquired by public records requests.

Tesla had revealed a prototype of the eagerly anticipated Cybercab, a driverless and pedal-less vehicle, at its Hollywood robotaxi event in October, with CEO Elon Musk later announcing plans to introduce an “unsupervised version” of its driver-assistance technology in California and Texas next year.

For several years, the electric vehicle maker has offered a package known as Full Self-Driving, or FSD, which, despite its name, is not entirely autonomous and necessitates continuous driver supervision.

[…]

During an earnings call in October, Musk revealed that Tesla is currently pilot-testing a ride-hailing technology in the Bay Area with its employees, utilizing an in-house app and vehicles equipped with safety drivers.

I mean, I don’t trust anything Elmo says or does, and I wouldn’t give him a dime of my money if I could help it, but you do you. Austin already has Waymo robotaxis if you must get this kind of ride; as previously noted, Cruise is out of the picture. For better or worse, Tesla and Edlo are likely to have a smoother path to regulatory approval, so in the short term they need to show that they’ve got something worth certifying. I wouldn’t if I were you, but I’m sure someone will. Reform Austin has more.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged Austin, Cruise, Cybercab, driverless cars, Elon Musk, taxis, Tesla, Texas, Waymo | Leave a comment

Paxton sues TikTok

Posted on January 11, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Feels like this is about to be moot, but here we are.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday sued TikTok for the second time in recent months, accusing the social media company of violating deceptive trade law by downplaying its addictiveness and exposing children to explicit material.

The suit argues that TikTok, a short-form video app, violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by listing itself on app stores as appropriate for children and not enforcing its community guidelines effectively. The Apple App Store lists TikTok as rated for those 12 and older, while the Microsoft and Google Play Stores list the app as appropriate for users who are 13 and older.

The 66-page filing, which has several redactions, details several TikTok posts containing inappropriate material that seemingly violate the guidelines and ways the app can circumvent parental controls on smartphones through an in-app browser. At one point, the lawsuit states the inappropriate material also included child sexual abuse content, although that section of the suit is largely redacted.

“TikTok actively worked to deceive parents and lure children onto their app despite the presence of an overwhelming amount of profane and illicit material,” Paxton said in a statement Thursday. “Companies may not jeopardize the health and wellbeing of Texas children by blatantly lying about the products they provide.”

A spokesperson for TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Several times the suit references an investigation conducted by the state that found videos which contained depictions of drug use, self-harm and sexually explicit acts. In December, Paxton’s office announced it would investigate several social media platforms’ privacy and safety practices for children, however the office did not clarify in its announcement Thursday whether the investigation mentioned in the lawsuit was related.

[…]

This is the second lawsuit Paxton has filed against TikTok in just over three months, as the attorney general’s office filed a suit accusing the company of violating the new Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act. The SCOPE Act, which has received its own legal challenges, forbids companies from selling a minor’s personal information without parental approval, and the October lawsuit claims TikTok circumvented the law several times. The new lawsuit was filed in the same Galveston federal district as the first suit, and dozens of other lawsuits against social media platforms have been filed across the country in recent years.

I didn’t blog about that previous lawsuit, either I missed the news or just didn’t get to it. This all feels a little weird, since it looks like SCOTUS will uphold the federal ban that would take place on January 19, but I guess it’s not too late to aim for the news cycle. I should note that the SCOPE Act, the basis for that first suit Paxton filed against TikTok, was partially blocked by a different federal court last September. It’s not clear to me how that ruling affects Paxton’s litigation, which came after the ruling. My expectation is that this all goes away after SCOTUS does its thing. We should know soon enough.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged Attorney General, Ken Paxton, lawsuit, SCOTUS, Texas, Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, TikTok | Leave a comment

Hotze’s desperation

Posted on January 11, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

What a loser.

Republican activist Stephen Hotze asked a federal judge to step in on a civil case against him, saying the lawsuit was part of a Democrat-led conspiracy.

Hotze on Dec. 31 asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to issue injunctions that would delay a February trial over the lawsuit accusing him of instigating a 2021 assault and false imprisonment of an air conditioner repairman. A man who worked for Hotze’s Liberty Center for God and County was following the repairman as a part Hotze’s investigation of supposed ballot harvesting during the 2020 election.

The new lawsuit accused former District Attorney Kim Ogg of “conspiring” with private attorneys to use the civil lawsuit to obtain evidence that was later used to bring felony charges against Hotze.

The DA’s office hadn’t responded to Hotze’s lawsuit as of Thursday morning.

“[Hotze] was only criminally prosecuted due to his political views and the fact that Liberty Center was investigating voter fraud in an election where the Democrats were successful,” Hotze’s lawyer, Jared Woodfill, wrote in the filing.

It’s Hotze’s latest claim that the criminal and civil cases brought against him are part of a vast conspiracy.

Hotze accused the district attorney’s office of violating his rights to free speech and equal treatment under the law, and circumventing his protections against self-incrimination. The lawsuit seeks damages and asks for a restraining order stopping the DA’s office and other, unnamed people from participating in the civil trial before the criminal case against him is completed.

The state lawsuit brought by the repairman, David Lopez, is scheduled to go to trial Feb. 17, according to court records.

Hotze’s lawsuit accuses Ogg of targeting him for “exposing voter fraud,” in Harris County and claims the lawyers representing Lopez are connected to the Texas Democratic Party. Hotze claims he participated in discovery for Lopez’s lawsuit while being unaware he was under criminal investigation

See here for the most recent update. Don’t try to make sense of any of this, Hotze was brain-wormed before brain-worming was cool. I will admit that I thought the criminal case would come first, mostly because a conviction would greatly strengthen the civil case, but there’s no reason why it has to.

My take on this is simple: Hotze knows he’s guilty as hell, and he’s going to get creamed in the civil case. As such, he will do anything to put off that day of reckoning, in the hope that some deus will come ex machina-ing and save his sorry ass. I look forward to seeing the civil case begin next month. Reform Austin has more.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged David Lopez, Election 2020, Harris County, Houston, Jared Woodfill, Kim Ogg, lawsuit, Liberty Center for God and Country, Mark Aguirre, Steven Hotze | 1 Comment

More lawsuits involving Tony Buzbee

Posted on January 11, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

He sure stays busy.

Houston attorney Tony Buzbee is once again suing Jay Z’s Roc Nation, alleging that the entertainment company and others encouraged one of his former clients to sue The Buzbee Law Firm in exchange for lucrative gain.

Filed last week in the Harris County district court, the suit claims Roc Nation financed efforts by attorney Marcy Croft and law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, to persuade Buzbee’s former client Jose Maldonado to sue him in exchange for money.

The Quinn Emanuel law firm is representing Jay Z, formally known as Shawn Carter, in a lawsuit filed by Buzbee in October. Croft, a Mississippi-based attorney, has represented Roc Nation in previous lawsuits regarding prison reform, according to court records.

“Rather than focus on suits by former clients for allegations of misconduct, Tony Buzbee is trying to distract with nonsense lawsuits — which of course Roc Nation has nothing to do with,” a Roc Nation spokesperson said in a statement. “Buzbee will have to answer for his failure to vet his Jane Doe plaintiff, while submitting her demonstrably false story to a court where he hasn’t even been admitted to practice, and subjecting the world to an NBC News interview disaster. The lies on the court will not survive scrutiny.”

“On behalf of Defendant Marcy Croft, two individuals attempted to call Plaintiff (Maldonado) many times,” the lawsuit reads.”They then went to what they believed was Plaintiff’s home. They actually went to his father’s home. They identified themselves as federal officers. When they realized they had the wrong house, they continued to contact Plaintiff. They were pushy.”

Buzbee filed a similar lawsuit last month against Roc Nation for allegedly conspiring with and paying former clients to sue him. The Houston attorney is currently representing over 100 clients who claim Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sexually abused them. Buzbee said the efforts by Roc Nation are an attempt to intimidate him and his firm to not pursue cases against Combs.

See here, here, here, and here for the background. I have to wonder, when Tony Buzbee – who has plenty of other litigation to manage – filed that initial suit against Sean Combs, did he expect this kind of response? Was he aware of his potential exposure, or is this all penny ante stuff that any longtime high-profile lawyer might have faced? I have no idea, and maybe it doesn’t matter anyway. He sure likes being busy and being a main character, and he’s got that in plentiful supply here.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged California, Jay-Z, lawsuit, rape, Sean Combs, sexual harassment, Texas, Tony Buzbee | Leave a comment

Republican State Rep accuses state GOP Chair of ethics violations

Posted on January 10, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Oh, my.

Rep. Cody Harris

A Republican Texas House member is calling for the state party chair to be investigated, alleging that he illegally threatened and intimidated lawmakers who are not supporting the party’s preferred candidate for House speaker.

In a complaint filed to the Texas Ethics Commission on Wednesday, Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, alleges that Republican Party of Texas Chair Abraham George violated numerous ethics rules — including those related to bribery — by threatening to send mailers or censure lawmakers who support Rep. Dustin Burrows for House speaker.

Burrows, of Lubbock, and his main opponent in the race, fellow Republican Rep. David Cook of Mansfield, have been in an increasingly acrimonious political standoff since late last year, when a majority of House Republicans voted to support Cook’s speaker bid. The same day, Burrows announced that he had enough bipartisan support in the 150-member chamber to win a majority and become speaker.

Burrows’ defiance of the House caucus, by continuing his campaign for speaker relying on Democratic support, soon prompted a pressure campaign from the Texas GOP. The party and George have since vowed to send negative mailers about Burrows supporters into their districts, and to censure any Republican who does not vote for Cook — a move that, under recently adopted party rules, would bar those lawmakers from appearing on a primary ballot for two years.

Harris cited those two moves in his complaint. He alleged that George’s threats to “expend funds on mail pieces” amount to an “economic benefit” for a primary candidate who might run against Harris, and thus constitute a bribe. Harris also took issue with the party’s new Rule 44, which was passed last year and prohibits censored Republicans from appearing on primary ballots for two years.

“While the constitutionality of amended Rule 44 is doubtful,” Harris wrote, “the rule in conjunction with the respondent’s threatening rhetoric amount to a violation” of the Texas government code’s section on legislative bribery.

This is of course related to the ongoing Speaker’s race, which I confess I had not expected to drag on for this long. I still think this will all get settled by the time January 14 rolls around, but nothing would please me more than to see the House be unable to kick things off because the Republicans are too busy hating each other. This session will suck once it does get started, so the least they can do is provide us with a few cheap laughs before the carnage begins.

Lone Star Left picks up on a particular detail.

The complaint alleges that Abraham George’s conduct was intended to intimidate or coerce a state representative into selecting the Speaker of the Texas House, violating Sec. 302.032 of the Government Code.

[…]

Here’s the thing: Violation of Sec. 302.032 of the Government Code is a criminal offense, not a civil one. It’s a second-degree felony, which can result in a two-year prison sentence. The TEC’s jurisdiction primarily focuses on campaign finance, political advertising, and lobbyist regulations.

Complaints to the TEC can result in investigations and civil penalties, but the TEC cannot impose criminal penalties. If a case involves potential criminal violations, the TEC can refer the case to a district attorney.

We’ll have to monitor this case. RPT Chairman Abraham George may be jailed if the TEC refers it to a district attorney.

I mean, that would be hilarious, though whether anything further would happen is open to debate. And look, while I love me a good “Republicans in disarray” story, so far none of this has stopped them from passing bills and winning elections. It would be nice if that were to change, but we’re still waiting for the proof of concept. Enjoy this for what it is, but don’t lose perspective.

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged Abraham George, Cody Harris, David Cook, Dustin Burrows, Election 2024, Election 2026, HD08, primaries, Republican Party, Speaker's race, Texas, Texas Ethics Commission, The Lege | 1 Comment

HISD’s message about the forthcoming weapons detection systems

Posted on January 10, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

I got this in my inbox on Wednesday.

Dear High School Families,

The most important thing HISD does each day is keep your student safe while they are at school. At each high school campus, HISD employs a layered approach to campus safety that brings together campus-based HISD PD officers, the Raptor Technologies school security platform, and most importantly, the vigilance of our staff and students. All of these pieces work together to keep your students safely in school, and dangerous contraband out of school.

As a District, we constantly evaluate the tools we have in place. District leaders and HISD PD leadership have determined weapons detection systems in our high schools are a necessary tool to keep our high school campuses safe and secure.

When fully implemented, all students, staff, and visitors entering all high school campuses will be screened by the Open Gate weapons detection systems. In order to ensure minimal disruption to student learning, we will begin in January and February by implementing weapons detection at one new campus each week. Implementation will begin at campuses where firearms have previously been found. Beginning in March, we will add multiple campuses each week, until all high school campuses have weapons detection systems fully operating by May 2025.

Our goal is to ensure that these systems do not interfere with the learning environment at our campuses, but there are things that will be different once we implement these systems:

All students will need to enter their building through designated entry points each morning. This may be a change from current practice.

Students, staff, and visitors will need to pass through the screening towers and remove their laptops from their bags or backpacks.

When the system identifies a potentially prohibited item, the individual will receive secondary screening, typically a more thorough review of their backpacks, pockets, and other personal belongings.

Families at our high school campuses will be notified 1-2 weeks before weapons detection systems are implemented at their campus. That communication from your student’s principal will include all of the following:

An invitation to a campus community meeting to answer your questions before the system is formally implemented.

A detailed explanation of the new entry processes for students arriving in the morning, and visitors to the school during the day.

More information about items other than weapons or contraband that may trigger secondary screening that students may want to avoid bringing to school.

All campuses will practice the new entry protocols before the weapons detection system is implemented at their campus to minimize delays and disruptions once the system is installed.

Please review the attached Frequently Asked Questions document for answers to some initial questions, and plan to attend your campus’ information session when it is scheduled.

See here for the background. The FAQ mentioned above was linked in the email and it can be found here. It mostly restated what was in the main message, but it did include a link to a brief YouTube video, made by the Lee County school district, that showed how this works (that district appears to be using this for the lower grades as well). It notes that NRG Stadium uses OpenGate screening devices, and added this little bit extra:

What happens if the weapons detection system alarms for a suspicious item?

Answer: Weapon detection systems are primarily screening for firearms; however, they will alarm for other items as well. If an individual triggers an alarm, they will receive additional screening to determine the nature of the item that triggered the alarm. In many cases, secondary screening will determine there is no prohibited item and the individual will enter the building. If secondary screening reveals a prohibited item, school staff will work with HISD PD to determine the next steps.

What items may trigger an alarm other than firearms?

A: The systems in HISD will be set to alert to a certain trigger. As such, car keys, loose change, cell phones, etc should not trigger an alert from the system. Laptops, tablets, and other large metal objects may cause the system to alert. When this happens, individuals will receive additional screening, the item(s) will be cleared, and the individual will be allowed to enter the building.

So it doesn’t really say what else might trigger the system to alert. I think we can all infer that they’re also looking for knives, but beyond that it’s unclear. I suspect they just don’t want to tip their hand at this time.

As I said, I’m not surprised by any of this and I don’t think it’s worth fussing about. It is very much worth asking what this costs, now and going forward, and I would expect students at the high schools should plan for it to take longer to get in their buildings every day, because there’s no way this won’t slow things down significantly. If you have more questions, show up at the community meeting when your school announces the installation at their campus and ask your principal about it.

Posted in School days | Tagged gun control, guns, HISD, Houston, metal detectors, Mike Miles, OpenGate, schools | 1 Comment

Dispatches from Dallas, January 3 edition

Posted on January 10, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This is a weekly feature produced by my friend Ginger. Let us know what you think.

This week, in news from Dallas-Fort Worth, we have a short week for several reasons: first, we’re still recovering from the short week last week at New Year’s; second, we have a snowpocalypse going on in the Metroplex (no worries, sports fans, the Cotton Bowl is still on as of this writing); and third, I’m working on a project that I’ll talk more about later.

What we have for you right now is: the big stories of 2025; the fight for Speaker of the Texas House in North Texas; bills for the upcoming legislative session; one more departure from the Dallas city administration; Jay Hartzell is leaving UT-Austin for SMU; the Star-Telegram has an editorial about the Mercy Culture trafficking shelter fight; the first area jail death for the year; wild hogs in Irving; another local preacher who’s a sex offender, this time convicted for sexual assault of a teenaged girl; museum news in Dallas; and a sad story about a fire at a Dallas bazaar that resulted in the deaths of animals in a pet store.

This week’s post was brought to you by the final part of the NPR Music’s 124 Best Songs of 2024 playlist. That was an eight-hour playlist and I felt like I learned a lot about where music was last year.

Let’s get on with the news:

Axios is watching a number of stories in 2025: vouchers at the Lege, the exodus and replacement of Dallas city officials, World Cup preparations, the power grid, airport expansions at DFW and McKinney, housing affordability, and population growth. I expect to see all of these topics come up here as well.
It turns out that the gun Shamsud-Din Jabbar used in his New Year’s attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans was purchased in Arlington. Thanks, Texas gun control laws.
The Dallas Observer has a list of North Texans who may be pardoned over their role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Let’s hope Trump’s short attention span focuses somewhere else and the justice system gives these folks their due.
The fight on the Republican side for Speaker of the Texas House is getting hot and heavy. Earlier this week Collin County’s favorite boy, Attorney General Ken Paxton, rallied in North Texas with a rogue’s gallery of North Texas hard-right folks to support David Cook (R-Mansfield) for speaker. Also at the rally: Rep. Nate Schatzline (R-Fort Worth), Rep. Tony Tinderholt, (R-Arlington), Rep. David Lowe (R-Fort Worth), Rep. Mike Olcott (R-Graford), Rep. Mitch Little (R-Carrollton), and Rep. Andy Hopper (R-Denton), among others. The Texas Tribune has more, including planned future stops in Tyler, Leander, and Conroe.
Fort Worth’s goals in the upcoming Lege session include amending SB 2038, which allows property owners to leave a city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction if they vote to do so. Given how much the Lege hates cities, I don’t think that’s going to happen.
My state senator, Nathan Johnson, is yet again trying to expand Medicaid here in Texas, larding the proposal with elements that have passed in other conservative states in hopes that Republicans will vote for it. KERA has more. I agree with Johnson that the outlook for Medicaid expansion is poor but I still wish him the best with this bill. In related news, a national survey has found Dallas County is the least-insured major metro area in Texas and among the least-insured areas nationally.
Dallas officials are keeping an eye on Senator Borris Miles’ (D-Houston) proposal to mandate big cities implement civilian oversight boards for their police departments. That’s another one where I wish the author luck and don’t think it’s going to happen, for all that Dallas really needs more civilian oversight given how many more police we’re about to hire.
The Dallas Morning News identifies the key players in the push to legalize casino gambling in Texas. The big pro-gambling player is Miriam Adelson, who donated 13.7 million to PACs last year; everybody else is Republican and their attitudes range from gambling being a low priority to hardline opposition.
The City of Dallas is losing its Environmental Director, who is going to a job in private industry. D Magazine has a scathing description of his term in office, so maybe this isn’t an entirely bad thing. Either way, add one more to the list of folks getting out of Dodge.
It’s been a year since the historic Sandman Hotel exploded in downtown Fort Worth and we still don’t know why it happened. The Star-Telegram reports irregular construction practices during the hotel’s renovation and the smell of a gas leak before the explosion. KERA’s story notes that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation was closed with no fines because the investigator had emergency surgery and the statute of limitations ran out. The real reason we don’t have an answer, as both stories suggest, is that it’ll all come out during the civil trials where injured workers are suing the hotel.
The Star-Telegram has an editorial about the Mercy Culture shelter approval, which correctly points out that Mayor Mattie Parker gave Mercy Culture a blueprint for how to push the city (the Star-Telegram uses the word “bully”) into approving the shelter over neighborhood objections. Mercy Culture is well-connected (Rep. Nate Schatzline preaches there) and has religious liberty lawyers on speed-dial. They won’t be the last church to use such tactics to get something they want from Fort Worth. If you’re interested in church and state separation, you should read this editorial.
After the problems with the pollbook in Dallas County elections in November, the state decertified the flawed ES&S software that caused the problems. Now Dallas County is worried the updated software won’t be ready by April 21, when early voting for the May election starts. I’m not pro-pencil and paper voting, but I have to admit this is not one of the many problems the old-school methods had.
In unwelcome but unsurprising news, Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare will run for reelection.
Last Friday there was a protest about the deaths in the Tarrant County Jail under Sheriff Bill Waybourn. Waybourn was reelected in November. Since the beginning of his tenure as Sheriff in 2017, 70 inmates have died in the jail.
We have our first jail death in the Metroplex of 2025 and this time it’s in North Richland Hills. The deceased was arrested on New Year’s Eve on a DWI charge and died the next day. The medical examiner has not yet released a cause of death. The Star-Telegram also has the story.
Here’s one of my problems with vouchers: state money will end up sending kids to financially questionable schools like New Hope Christian Academy in Plano, which shut down with three days’ notice in early November, leaving students with nowhere to go, families with tuition payments lost, and teachers with no paycheck.
Speaking of school closures, here’s a list of eleven public schools in the Metroplex that will close in 2025 due to declining enrollment and budget crunches.
You probably have already heard the news, but Dallas’ gain is Austin’s loss for a change: Jay Hartzell is stepping down as President of UT Austin to lead SMU. The DMN has an exclusive interview with Hartzell about the decision and a look at how the two schools compare. The Texas Tribune also has the story.
Rhome, a northeastern exurb of Fort Worth, is quitting Facebook in favor of an app called GoGov. This story came out before the news about Meta ditching its fact-checking and loosening its moderation standards.
Wild hogs are rooting the suburban lawns in Irving. It looks like there are only ten instead of thirty to fifty.
McKinney didn’t get a bond for airport expansion to pass in 2023, but they’re plowing ahead with an expansion anyhow. Apparently this is the second time the city has pushed ahead with the airport after a failed bond package.
The Daystar Network is losing churches and pastors who broadcast with them over their child sex abuse scandal. Among those who have departed: local Dominionist preacher Lance Wallnau.
A local minister who works with a church in Duncanville and local megachurch Watermark turns out to have a 30-year-old conviction for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl; he was her youth minister, had sex with her, and “ran away with her” to Las Vegas. Watermark has him in their prison ministry but he doesn’t work with minors; the DMN covered this scandal in 2012 with dueling opinion pieces and also have a current article on the matter.
I post about this every year but here’s the story about the 2024 Prestonwood Baptist Christmas show, which is a celebration of Jesus’ birth by way of suburban excess. Prestonwood, in Plano, is a well-connected Baptist megachurch. It counts Attorney General Ken Paxton among its members.
We’re about to see some high-speed rail lawsuits in Dallas. Hunt Realty Investments, which owns the property on the southwest side of downtown that includes the Hyatt and Reunion Tower, is lining up to sue the City and the The North Central Texas Council of Governments Regional Transportation Council over plans for Dallas-Fort Worth high-speed rail that would impinge on that property. The transportation council is expected to ask for $1 million in legal fees to prepare for the impending lawsuit after receiving demand letters for information. The Fort Worth Report also has the story, including a map of the property involved and the likely ultimate route. Houston folks, this story is about the intracity rail between Dallas and Fort Worth only; it doesn’t include the proposed Dallas to Houston rail line.
Unsurprisingly, in the split between MAGA Republicans and tech barons, the DMN falls on the side of the tech barons. Here’s the DMN’s editorial in favor of H-1B visas to demonstrate their stance.
Dr. Harry Robinson, Jr., the founder of the African American Museum in Fair Park, has retired after a long career envisioning, building, and collecting for the museum. Here’s an interview with him with a local station and another with D Magazine. The African American Museum has been on my list for a while, but these stories have definitely increased my interest.
In other museum news, the Dallas Historical Society has just clinched two major donations totalling $8 million that will transform the society and its Fair Park museum. Spouse and I were members briefly before the pandemic, but haven’t gotten back to it yet; this seems like a good moment to get reacquainted. The DMN article also serves as a puff piece on the Executive Director of the Society, who seems like a great leader for the group.
Last, a sad story from northwest Dallas, where a fire at the Plaza Latina Bazaar killed almost 600 animals in a pet store on the premises. The animals were mostly birds who died of smoke inhalation. A dozen animals were saved and treated, including a turtle; the only two humans on the premises escaped unharmed. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged Dallas, guest post, linkdump, Texas | Leave a comment

Who wants to sell Houston’s water to West Texas?

Posted on January 9, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

I have questions.

Gov. Greg Abbott is said to be exploring a plan to buy water from Houston and send it to West Texas — a potentially contentious idea that comes as he has teased “totally transformative” measures in the upcoming legislative session aimed at keeping the state from going dry.

Mayor John Whitmire told the Houston Chronicle that the governor called him to discuss the state purchasing “excess” water from the city — an idea Whitmire said he is open to if it means Houston can get much-needed infrastructure funding.

“He called me and said, ‘Would you consider selling your excess water to the state that we then sell to West Texas?’” Whitmire said in an interview. “We get monies for our infrastructure. They get their water. It would be a win-win.”

Conversations between the city and state began sometime in the fall, said Greg Eyerly, director of Houston Water. Houston produces 183 billion gallons annually and supplies it to millions of Southeast Texas residents, as well as infrastructure critical to the state like the ship channel and refineries.

Communities and businesses that operate in the Permian Basin have been clamoring for access to more water as their aquifers run low after decades of largely unrestricted drilling. And data centers for AI and cryptocurrency that are cropping up around the state need vast supplies of water to cool their servers.

But the idea of moving water across the state has long faced pushback from some state lawmakers, including advocates in East Texas who worry about draining the region’s lakes and reservoirs. And according to a recent State Water Plan, the 15-county region that includes Houston could face a water shortage for municipal needs by 2030.

[…]

In September, Abbott told a gathering of local officials in South Texas — a region facing significant water needs — that “substantial conversations” were already underway with lawmakers about bills that would be “totally transformative” for the state’s water supply.

“We’re working on plans to ensure that we will be water plenty way past 2050,” Abbott said, without offering details. “This is going to be a generational-type approach to comprehensive water development across the state.”

A report filed last month by a state Senate committee said the chamber “must act to address water supply shortages soon in order to avert serious consequences.”

Whitmire said the city could build new reservoirs to hold water it sells to the state, and in exchange, the city could receive funding to help shore up its crumbling infrastructure. Houston needs about $15 billion in estimated water fixes alone, Eyerly said – some of which the city is obligated under an agreement with the federal government to complete. Houston has lost 36 billion gallons of water due to leaky pipes in the past two years – enough to supply the 900,000-person city of Fort Worth with water for a year.

Local leaders have long cited a need for repairs to the Houston water system, namely pipes and the rebuilding of an entirely new East Water Purification Plant, which supplies 65% to 70% of city residents with water.

Local officials could try to use the water infrastructure demands as a bargaining chip with Abbott.

Josh Sanders, Whitmire’s head of intergovernmental affairs, said the administration is still determining what the city needs for its water infrastructure. Projects like pipe replacement, new pump stations that treat water for the ship channel and for chemical plants on the southeast side, and emergency water for the Texas Medical Center could all be on the table.

Let me start by saying some of these numbers are confusing. Early on there’s a sidebar link to an earlier Chron story titled “Houston needs $4.93 billion for water repairs. Will Texas lawmakers help pay the bill?“, but Houston Water director Greg Eyerly is saying the price tag is $15 billion. To me, the starting point for any negotiations about this is the state picking up most if not all of the tab to fix these problems. There’s a big difference between $5 billion and $15 billion, though, so especially if the actual cost is on the higher end, Houston should expect to be on the hook for some of it. Let’s see how good we are at these negotiations.

One thing that fixing the system would accomplish is we’d stop losing all of that water to leaks. This story cites a 36-billion gallon loss for 2023, and a story from 2022 said “Houston lost nearly 20 billion gallons of water from January to August of this year”, so we are talking massive amounts of water that we’re losing along the way. Addressing that would make any plan to sell water elsewhere a lot more palatable. So what will the state do for us?

And yes, if they do play ball here, I would consider it a win for Whitmire’s make-nice-with-the-state-overlords approach. There are times when I’m happy to be proven wrong, and this would be one of them.

One more thing:

Charles Perry, a Republican from Lubbock who has long pushed for more state investment in water infrastructure, said he plans to introduce a bill in the coming weeks that would dedicate state dollars to new supply projects like marine desalination. Rather than leaving water funding to local jurisdictions, Perry said, lawmakers need to “move to a statewide infrastructure conversation, just like we do roads and bridges.”

But it’s still unclear whether Houston has the water to spare. While the city may have plenty of water, Perry questioned whether the region has enough to supply other parts of the state. Parts of Harris County and surrounding counties already face water shortages, he said.

Perry, however, said Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have both asked whether work could be done to collect flood water from the San Jacinto River and other waterways that could be sent to other parts of the state.

“The conversation early on was, ‘Can we help the flooding in Houston by diverting this water and creating a new supply?’ And I’ve said absolutely, and always have said that,” Perry said.

If Houston were to show that it does have plenty of excess water, Perry said, the state should consider it.

Desalination, both of brackish groundwater and of water from the Gulf of Mexico, has been a topic of interest for over a decade. There are issues with that approach, such as “what do you do with all that salt”, but it’s on the menu of possibilities. I’d still like to get Houston’s issues addressed, whatever else we do.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged aquifers, Charles Perry, desalinization, East Water Purification Plant, Greg Abbott, Houston, John Whitmire, Sylvester Turner, Texas, The Lege, water | 5 Comments

Houston and Harris County to get Beryl relief funds

Posted on January 9, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Good news.

The Biden administration announced Tuesday that Houston and Harris County will receive a combined $382 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to assist in recovery from May’s flooding in Kingwood and Hurricane Beryl in July.

Houston will receive nearly $315 million. Harris County will get more than $67 million. The state of Texas, as a whole, will receive $555.6 million.

Mary Benton, Mayor John Whitmire’s spokesperson, said the city will assess how leaders plan to distribute the cash.

The funding is part of a $12 billion package being distributed by HUD to communities impacted by disasters across the country.

“Over the last two years, too many communities have been impacted by devastating disasters — damaging homes, destroying infrastructure, and stretching local capacity to recover,” said HUD director Adrianne Todman.

“This $12 billion in disaster discovery funds will help rebuild homes, develop affordable housing, assist impacted small businesses, and repair roads, schools, water treatment plants and other critical infrastructure. The impacts of these funds will be felt for years to come — especially for disaster survivors and communities in the most impacted areas.”

[…]

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said via email that it’s crucial for the county to receive funds directly from the federal government to speed up recovery projects.

“This direct allocation of funding is not only going to help us recover from past disasters, but to build up our resiliency against future disasters,” Hidalgo said.

That’s the best part of it, the money is coming straight here. We don’t have to kiss the Land Commissioner’s ass, or compete with Grimes County for whatever H-GAC decides to dole out. Sure seems to me to be the better way to do this. May it be a long time before we have to do it again.

Posted in Hurricane Katrina | Tagged Harris County, HGAC, Houston, Hurricane Beryl, John Whitmire, Land Commissioner, Lina Hidalgo, Texas, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | 2 Comments

Texas blog roundup for the week of January 6

Posted on January 9, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

The Texas Progressive Alliance still thinks that 2025 is a science fiction year from the future as it brings you this week’s roundup.

Continue reading →

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged blog roundup, TPA | Leave a comment

HISD’s progress on special education

Posted on January 8, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This is a big part of the takeover mandate, so making progress on fixing the identified issues with special education is a must.

Houston ISD’s state-appointed superintendent and Board of Managers have maintained a laser-like focus on improving schools’ state-issued accountability scores since taking over the district in June 2023, overhauling 130 campuses with staffing and curriculum reforms to improve academic results.

That’s because one of the most challenging criteria for the district to exit the state takeover is that no HISD campus can receive failing ratings from the TEA for consecutive years. Forty-one campuses received a D or F rating from the Texas Education Agency in 2024, according to unofficial results.

But another exit criterion demands that HISD meet all state and federal requirements in its long-struggling special education department, according to the TEA. In 2024, the state issued “needs intervention” as the district’s special education determination status. HISD enrolled more than 18,000 children in special education services in 2024, or about 10% of the student population. (The third and final criteria to exit state takeover is improving board governance.)

Reports commissioned by the district in 2011 and 2018 detailed major gaps in HISD’s special education practices, and in 2016, just 7.4% of HISD students received special education services — about half the national average. A 2020 TEA investigation found that HISD had “significant, systemic and widespread” issues with its special education services, violating state and federal laws designed to ensure students with disabilities receive needed supports.

A state-appointed conservator began monitoring HISD in December 2020, including setting goals and publishing monthly reports on the district’s progress. New exit criteria were added at the advent of the state takeover in June 2023.

HISD reported that it “significantly improved” its services for special education students in the 2023-24 school year, although conservators wrote in May that the district still remains slightly “off track” to reach full compliance with its goals and legal mandates.

See here, here, and here for some background. There are seven criteria by which HISD is being measured, which the story gets into. It looks like decent progress is being made, which is great both for the stakeholders and for everyone’s wish to usher Mike Miles back to Dallas. Check it out.

Posted in School days | Tagged HISD, Houston, Mike Miles, schools, special education, Texas Education Agency | Leave a comment

Possibly the last time I will write about Kim Ogg

Posted on January 8, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Congrats on the new gig.

Former Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg has been hired in a new position within the county.

On Sunday, it was confirmed that Ogg had been hired as a senior policy advisor for Harris County Pct. 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey’s office.

“Commissioner Ramsey is looking forward to the wealth of knowledge she’ll bring to Precinct 3,” a spokesperson tells KPRC 2.

Cool, whatever. Jobs like that tend to be out of the public eye, but you never know. What I do know is that I’d been hearing a lot of speculation that after Ogg’s heel-turn endorsement of Ted Cruz, she was somehow in line for a major appointment under Trump. As in, US Attorney for Houston, or a federal bench, that sort of thing. I suppose those things are possible – one never knows what kind of backroom deals are struck when such unexpected alliances are formed – but my reaction has always been to guffaw when I hear it. I imagine the list of people who have been Republicans for more than five minutes and who might reasonably expect to be higher on the favors list than Kim Ogg is quite lengthy. I can’t imagine they’d appreciate being sprung over by an opportunistic johnny-come-lately.

Not my problem, to be sure, and if I’m mistaken and the whining is as I’d expect, I’ll certainly enjoy it. But there are still some traditional rules of politics that apply, and this is one place where they likely will. Go ahead and prove me wrong. The Chron, which notes that Ogg will be taking a bit of a pay cut for this new gig, has more.

Posted in Local politics | Tagged Commissioners Court, District Attorney, Donald Trump, Election 2024, Harris County, Kim Ogg, Sean Teare, Ted Cruz, Texas, Tom Ramsey | 2 Comments

The “Enron Egg”

Posted on January 8, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

I know, I know, I need to stop paying attention whatever this is. It would seem I can’t help myself.

The very unserious company that took over the defunct Enron brand on Monday unveiled its supposedly “groundbreaking” product: the Enron Egg.

But the Enron Egg is no normal egg, company leadership claimed the device is a “micro-nuclear reactor” capable of powering entire homes. Enron CEO Connor Gaydos made the announcement in a video that the company claimed was from the Enron Power Summit, an event for which the Chronicle was unable to confirm the location, date or time.

Gaydos, the 28-year-old behind the satirical conspiracy theory “Birds Aren’t Real,” claimed the Enron Egg could continuously power a home for 10 years.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have harnessed the power of the atom, introducing the Enron egg, the world’s first micro nuclear reactor for residential, suburban use,” Gaydos said in the video. “This little device can power your entire home for up to 10 continuous years.”

Gaydos and Enron have made lofty promises for the company’s supposed return in what has appeared to be a publicity stunt thus far. Skeptics have pointed to a clause on Enron’s website labeling its content as parody. Gaydos addressed that criticism in a post on X made Friday afternoon.

“As if I didn’t know people would immediately find that in our Terms of Service. People sharing it around like they’re forest gumbo discovering the shrimp business,” Gaydos wrote. “Putting performance art in our terms of service is the highest IQ behavior possible in the age of rogue government bureaucrat witch hunts.”

Gaydos claims the Enron Egg is safe for in-home use because it has 20% enriched uranium, which is below the 90% threshold typically used in nuclear weapons, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a public policy organization geared toward the responsible and ethical application of science. Uranium that is 20% enriched is still classified as “highly enriched uranium” and can still be used in weapons, according to the union.

Let’s just cut to the chase, shall we?

Learn more about the Egg here:

— Adrian Bott (@Cavalorn) 1:09 PM – 6 January 2025

I got nothing. I wonder again who this joke is for. It’s elaborate and multi-layered, I’ll give them all that much. But even the Chron reporters are wondering who’s paying for this gag.

But with the company erecting billboards and taking out full-page ads in both the New York Times’ and the Houston Chronicle’s print editions — the latter of which can cost as much as $1.4 million, according to WebFx, a digital marketing firm — it’s clear that, while Enron’s revival may be an elaborate prank, there’s very real money at stake.

The phrase “more money than brains” comes to mind, but maybe I’m the sucker. We’ll see what’s in the next episode.

Posted in Enronarama | Tagged Connor Gaydos, Enron, Houston, The College Company | Leave a comment

Abbott appoints a bunch of judges

Posted on January 7, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

It’s good to be the king.

Justice Jimmy Blacklock, a conservative ally of Gov. Greg Abbott, has been named the new chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court. He replaces Nathan Hecht, the court’s longest serving justice, who stepped down at the end of December due to the mandatory judicial retirement age.

Abbott appointed his general counsel, James P. Sullivan, to take the seat vacated by Blacklock’s promotion.

“The Supreme Court of Texas plays a crucial role to shape the future of our great state, and Jimmy Blacklock and James Sullivan will be unwavering guardians of the Texas Constitution serving on our state’s highest judicial court,” Abbott said in a statement.

As chief justice, Blacklock will take on a larger role in the administration of the court. During his tenure, Hecht helped reform the rules of civil procedure and was a fierce advocate for legal aid and other programs to help low-income Texans access the justice system. But, as he told The Texas Tribune in December, when it comes to rulings, “the chief is just one voice of nine.”

Adding Sullivan to the court will further secure the court’s conservative stronghold. While Hecht came up in an era when state courts were less politically relevant, Blacklock and Sullivan are both young proteges of an increasingly active conservative legal movement.

Blacklock attended Yale Law School and clerked on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and after a stint in private practice, he joined the Texas Office of the Attorney General under Abbott. He helped lead Texas’ aggressive litigation strategy against the Obama administration, defending the state’s restrictive abortion and voter identification laws, gay marriage restrictions and crusade against the Affordable Care Act.

When Abbott became governor, Blacklock became his general counsel. Abbott appointed him to the bench in December 2017, when he was just 38 years old.

The Texas Supreme Court has transformed over the last few decades from a plaintiff-friendly venue dominated by Democrats to the exclusive domain of increasingly conservative Republicans. Abbott, a former justice himself, has played a huge role in this shift, appointing six of the nine current justices, including Sullivan.

Sullivan graduated from Harvard Law School and clerked for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. He spent four years as Texas assistant solicitor general during Abbott’s tenure as attorney general, and in 2018, became Abbott’s deputy general counsel. In 2021, he became the governor’s general counsel.

Justice Hecht had his merits and I wish him well, but boy is it a sign of the times to be feeling even a little nostalgic about his time on SCOTx. But the right-wing legal movement keeps 3-D printing newer and more efficient drones to replace guys like him, so here we are.

But wait, there’s more.

Gov. Greg Abbott made nine December appointments to district court seats to fill posts opened due to incumbents’ moves, resignations, new court seats or election losses.

On Tuesday, Abbott appointed Lance Long to the Harris County 183rd District Court, effective Jan. 1. Long’s predecessor, Kristin M. Guiney, a Republican, won election to the First Court of Appeals.

Long leaves his post as assistant criminal district attorney for the Smith County District Attorney’s Office. His prior experience includes serving as a Harris County prosecutor, managing his own law firm, and as a staff attorney for the Harris County Office of Court Management.

Maggie Jaramillo was appointed Dec. 20 to the Fort Bend County 458th District Court, a seat left vacant by Judge Chad Bridges’ election win to the Fourteenth Court of Appeals.

Jaramillo was an associate judge for the 268th District Court in Fort Bend County. Previously, she served as judge of the 400th District Court, was a prosecutor in the same county, an attorney in private practice, and she started her career as an assistant county attorney in Starr County.

Caroline Dozier was appointed Dec. 20 to the Harris County 228th District Court, which was abruptly left vacant by the death of Judge Frank Aguilar, a Democrat who was killed in a car crash accident.

Dozier was chief of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office misdemeanor trial bureau. She served with the district attorney’s office for over 30 years.

[…]

Lori Ann DeAngelo was appointed Dec. 19 to the Harris County 495th District Court, a court that was created by the legislature, effective Oct. 1, 2024.

DeAngelo was previously appointed to the 487th District Court in Houston but lost the seat in the general election to Democratic Party opponent Stacy Allen Barrow.

All of them, Blacklock and Sullivan included, will be on the 2026 ballot. Let’s make sure we channel some energy into those races next year. Oh, and for those of you who complain about our partisan judicial elections, this is a reminder about how many of our judges got their start by being appointed. Most of them by Greg Abbott.

UPDATE: One more:

Failed district attorney candidate Dan Simons was tapped by Gov. Greg Abbott to preside as a state district court judge for the next two years, officials said.

Simons, who narrowly lost to newly elected District Attorney Sean Teare on the Republican ticket, was appointed Tuesday to the 496th District Court, one of Harris County’s three new courts. His term will expire either Dec. 31, 2026, unless he runs for that seat and wins.

Simons applied for the judicial position after the November election. He plans to start hearing cases in late January after closing his criminal defense practice, he said.

[…]

Simons, like Teare, worked for Harris County District Attorney’s Office, rising to chief prosecutor for a misdemeanor court before his 2017 departure, when Ogg started her first term, according to county records.

His final months at the office were marked by mixed performance reviews and allegations of questionable ethics. One supervisor lamented that Simons was unprepared and sought to win cases, rather than seek justice. Some presentation of cases were misleading, according to the review. Simons disputed the review.

Another prosecutor accused Simons of instructing her to lie during plea negotiations. A disciplinary committee considered the allegation but said it lacked sufficient evidence. No disciplinary action was taken but Simons was ordered to watch a video on prosecutorial ethics instead, records show.

Must be nice to have Greg Abbott there to help you fail upward.

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged Dan Simons, Election 2024, Election 2026, Fort Bend County, Greg Abbott, Harris County, James Sullivan, Jimmy Blacklock, judicial races, Nathan Hecht, Texas | Leave a comment

Arlington wants in on flying taxis

Posted on January 7, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Every time I come across a story about flying taxis, I learn something new.

[Arlington] Mayor Jim Ross announced with dramatic flair during his State of the City address in October that the city will take commercial transit to the skies by 2026. Experts told KERA News that might be a stretch, but it’s not implausible.

The air taxis would be based out of Arlington’s airport, according to the city.

The most likely scenario is that Arlington has the equipment and infrastructure for special demonstrations during the World Cup, according to Ernest Huffman, aviation planning and education program manager at North Central Texas Council of Governments.

Huffman said getting flying taxis to Arlington won’t depend as much on determination or hard work by city leaders as regulations and technology.

“There’s a few things that we’re going to need in place,” Huffman said. “We’re not looking to have flying taxis as a viable transportation mode for the World Cup games. All we’re looking to do is demonstrate the technology for the World Cup games.”

[…]

The Federal Aviation Administration told KERA News in an emailed statement that it’s been working to get regulations ready for flying taxis. The agency has already made progress, finalizing rules for flying taxi pilot and instructor qualifications. Most of them are expected to be electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL.

The administration has also been working with three companies to approve designs for eVTOL taxis. Archer Aviation and Joby are the furthest along, with certification expected soon.

[…]

Huffman said the biggest hurdles to clear will be regulations.

Flying taxis won’t require too much special infrastructure. Much of what they would need is easy to build.

Takeoff and landing happen at one of two places: vertipods and vertiports.

Vertipods would be most commonly seen and would look similar to a helicopter pad. In Arlington, they might be in places like a parking lot at one of the stadiums, downtown or somewhere at UT Arlington’s campus. They don’t need to be flashy as long as they provide a safe designated place to land.

Vertiports will require a bit more. Huffman said they’ll be two or three stories tall and offer places to park and charge eVTOL aircraft. They’re more likely to be seen at major airports but could also be found in downtown areas with taller buildings where the elevation would be a benefit.

Huffman said neither of those will create too many issues when implementing flying taxis.

Those regulations will be the toughest hurdle for cities like Arlington.

Each company producing eVTOL aircraft will have to get certification from the FAA, and that can take years.

Price will be an obstacle when eVTOL does become available.

Jinzhu Yu, an assistant professor of civil engineering at UT Arlington, said early adopters should expect to pay high prices for trips through the skies of North Texas. He’s been working with the Council of Governments in research to predict the price of flying taxis.

“What we’re looking at in terms of passenger per mile, the range is pretty wide,” Yu said.

Right now, that range looks to be about $4 per mile to $11 per mile for passengers. Uber is expected to charge around $5.70 per mile.

“If we use that number in our model, there will be very few flying taxi trips,” Yu said. “Flying taxis are similar to other technologies where in the very beginning it’s very expensive but as technology improves or infrastructure develops, those costs are going to go down.”

In the end, he expects Uber will try to make it below $3 per mile. In the long run, eVTOL is expected to relieve traffic congestion, reduce emissions and draw tourists who might come to Arlington just to try out flying taxis.

Earlier this month I learned what a “vertiport” is, and now I see that I didn’t have its complete definition. I suspect some of that places that I had thought were vertiports are actually vertipods instead. The more you know!

Aviation guy Huffman says in this story that he doesn’t think flying taxis will have regulatory approval for public use until 2027, which would be too late for the FIFA World Cup. But his wording makes me think that private use could be in play. Given the discussion in this story about the price point for this service, all my questions about who the market is for this remain.

That said, depending on the range of these aircraft and the future adoption of other types of aircraft, I could see the market for longer trips being potentially pretty robust. A lot of that I think will depend on how convenient and affordable it is to get to and from the vertiports/vertipods, since the main competition at least at first is just driving yourself from, say, Houston to Galveston or one far-flung part of the Metroplex to another. The flying part of it may well be fun and relaxing, but the first and last miles count, too.

Another point mentioned in this story is the noise factor. The comp for an individual eVTOL is a refrigerator, which we can all agree is pretty quiet overall, but in the aggregate that could be quite noisy. That said, in comparison to any main road, or especially a highway, it’s likely a lot less bothersome. But it could mean bringing that noise to places that are much quieter now, and it will be an add-on rather than a replacement. We’ll just have to see what it’s like.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged air taxis, Archer Aviation, Arlington, eVTOL, Federal Aviation Administration, flying cars, Joby Aviation, North Central Texas Council of Governments, Texas, Uber, vertipod, vertiport, World Cup | 1 Comment

Water cremation

Posted on January 7, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This is fascinating, and also something I knew nothing about.

An illegal cremation method got a medical center in North Texas a cease-and-desist letter from the Texas Funeral Service Commission and its body donation program under internal review in November. But water cremation — or alkaline hydrolysis — is legal in 28 other states, and its ecological benefits have piqued the interest of a growing number of Texans.

So much so that a few years ago, a cremation service in Austin started offering to fly the body of a person’s loved-one on a Southwest flight to St. Louis, Missouri, to liquefy them using alkaline hydrolysis.

Water cremation has faced the Texas Legislature multiple times in the past few years with no success. The most recent attempt came through a senate bill that died on the table last legislative session.

To some, the back and forth speaks to an issue of separation of church and state. To others, the process is too new to cut the red tape on. And to complicate a debate about what Texans get to do with their bodies when they die, and who decides, there’s a statutory conflict about the process that has led to confusion over what exactly is allowed.

So what is alkaline hydrolysis, and why is it so contested?

Alkaline hydrolysis — also known as water cremation, green cremation and flameless cremation — uses water, heat and alkaline chemicals along with pressure to speed up the process of natural decomposition. It leaves a small amount of bone fragments and a neutral liquid called effluent, according to the Cremation Association of North America.

The body goes in an air- and water-tight chamber with approximately 100 gallons of liquid. The process typically uses 95% water and 5% alkaline, or basic chemicals, which include potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide or a mix of the two. Pressure or heat are often added, and the process takes anywhere from 3 to 16 hours depending on the equipment and body mass.

Essentially, the process accelerates the decomposition a body goes through after its burial by using chemicals.

It’s generally considered more gentle than traditional cremation and releases less fossil fuels. But to Barabara Kemmis, executive director of the Cremation Association of North America, the carbon-footprint point depends on how you look at it.

“If you’re looking at fossil fuels, there’s almost no usage, but hundreds of gallons of water — there’s some usage,” Kemmis said.

[…]

A good number of folks have a bone to pick with the process — enough so, that bills to authorize alkaline hydrolysis in Texas have all failed in the legislature.

The opposition can be geographically dependent, Kemmis said. But in the Lone Star State, the loudest voice against it is religious.

“For people in desert areas, it’s a big objection. It’s ‘how can we justify doing this in the desert?’ But in Texas, it’s been primarily the Catholic church,” Kemis said.

When a house bill was introduced in 2019 to authorize alkaline hydrolysis as a method of cremation, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops published a statement against the bill, calling it “disrespectful.”

“For this committee to approve of this method of disposition would be a direct contradiction to the state’s profound respect for human life and human remains as expressed by other laws,” the statement reads.

Texas proponents of legalizing alkaline hydrolysis argue the religious opposition bars on blurring the lines between church and state. Beyond that, they consider the legislature’s power to decide what happens to a person’s remains unfair — whether lawmakers agree with liquid cremation or not.

“It’s important for all people to have the option to choose the method of disposition, and the state government combined with religious groups keep these important options out of the hands of many Texas families,” [Eric Neuhaus, founder of Green Cremation Texas] said. “I think a healthier separation of church and state could change that.”

“Having the overreach of the Texas government is an embarrassment as a life-long Texan.”

Another natural alternative to burial and cremation that has also attracted religious opposition is human composting, which is legal in a handful of states that are not Texas and is also exactly what you think it is. I’m not sure any of these are right for me, but I do think people should have the option. As the Chron story notes, Sen. Nathan Johnson has filed bills in the past to allow for water cremation, and will likely do so again. Perhaps someday he’ll find a more receptive audience. This Smithsonian article from 2022 has more if you’re interested.

Posted in Technology, science, and math, The great state of Texas | Tagged alkaline hydrolysis, cremation, Cremation Association of North America, Green Cremation Texas, Nathan Johnson, Texas, Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, Texas Funeral Directors Association, The Lege | 3 Comments

Precinct analysis 2024: Railroad Commissioner

Posted on January 6, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

PREVIOUSLY:

President
Senate


Dist  Craddick  Culbert      Lib      Grn
=========================================
CD02    99,112   65,117    3,921    3,996
CD07    66,167   95,853    3,751    5,025
CD08    71,653   66,412    3,176    5,058
CD09    31,772   90,778    2,260    4,700
CD18    61,743  139,540    5,594    8,483
CD22    16,983   10,714      706      758
CD29    53,055   84,694    2,793    8,434
CD36    93,185   54,483    3,636    4,175
CD38   209,116  115,654    7,421    7,149
      		
SBOE4  144,116  303,971    9,583   20,025
SBOE6  324,158  250,499   14,084   16,055
SBOE7    1,743    4,598      106      188
SBOE8  232,769  164,177    9,485   11,510
      		
SD04    75,213   47,859    3,051    3,078
SD06    69,664  105,281    3,781   10,180
SD07   212,146  131,261    8,010    9,277
SD11    78,346   42,310    3,019    3,127
SD13    37,147  125,543    3,283    6,336
SD15   122,253  184,683    7,852   10,515
SD17    78,670   60,200    3,043    3,419
SD18    29,347   26,108    1,219    1,846
      		
HD126   46,572   28,491    1,795   2,012
HD127   52,454   34,911    2,101    1,922
HD128   45,069   18,387    1,508    1,485
HD129   50,334   31,533    2,135    2,186
HD130   61,876   26,437    2,156    1,759
HD131   10,161   31,625      713    1,824
HD132   52,402   35,183    2,021    2,351
HD133   43,010   30,091    1,565    1,546
HD134   40,812   54,725    2,086    2,206
HD135   27,597   31,849    1,380    2,572
HD137   11,385   15,880      663    1,162
HD138   40,880   29,366    1,574    1,858
HD139   17,462   38,232    1,406    2,137
HD140   10,497   16,130      540    1,893
HD141    8,196   27,561      753    1,588
HD142   14,911   34,106    1,030    1,943
HD143   14,314   19,773      618    2,148
HD144   19,018   18,188      752    2,121
HD145   19,684   35,133    1,729    2,810
HD146   12,316   40,331    1,058    1,593
HD147   14,989   45,537    1,549    2,519
HD148   22,682   25,448    1,356    2,270
HD149   19,664   24,722      889    1,855
HD150   46,501   29,606    1,881    2,018
      		
CC1    102,345  247,214    8,216   12,470
CC2    142,792  131,392    6,215   12,565
CC3    294,960  182,839   11,217   11,783
CC4    162,689  161,800    7,610   10,960
      		
JP1     89,208  142,105    6,183    8,511
JP2     34,916   37,739    1,476    3,597
JP3     53,273   56,668    2,373    3,670
JP4    230,183  165,212    9,428   10,984
JP5    202,470  182,146    8,592   12,278
JP6      8,410   20,662      730    2,239
JP7     18,768   83,172    1,981    3,670
JP8     65,558   35,541    2,495    2,829
      		
HISD   148,086  283,328   10,295   15,830
Else   554,700  439,917   22,963   31,948

Dist  Craddick  Culbert      Lib      Grn
=========================================
CD02    57.57%   37.83%    2.28%    2.32%
CD07    38.74%   56.12%    2.20%    2.94%
CD08    48.98%   45.39%    2.17%    3.46%
CD09    24.53%   70.09%    1.75%    3.63%
CD18    28.67%   64.79%    2.60%    3.94%
CD22    58.24%   36.74%    2.42%    2.60%
CD29    35.61%   56.85%    1.87%    5.66%
CD36    59.93%   35.04%    2.34%    2.69%
CD38    61.62%   34.08%    2.19%    2.11%
				
SBOE4   30.17%   63.63%    2.01%    4.19%
SBOE6   53.60%   41.42%    2.33%    2.65%
SBOE7   26.27%   69.30%    1.60%    2.83%
SBOE8   55.69%   39.28%    2.27%    2.75%
				
SD04    58.21%   37.04%    2.36%    2.38%
SD06    36.88%   55.73%    2.00%    5.39%
SD07    58.82%   36.39%    2.22%    2.57%
SD11    61.79%   33.37%    2.38%    2.47%
SD13    21.56%   72.86%    1.91%    3.68%
SD15    37.58%   56.77%    2.41%    3.23%
SD17    54.13%   41.42%    2.09%    2.35%
SD18    50.15%   44.61%    2.08%    3.15%
				
HD126   59.05%   36.12%    2.28%    2.55%
HD127   57.40%   38.20%    2.30%    2.10%
HD128   67.82%   27.67%    2.27%    2.23%
HD129   58.40%   36.59%    2.48%    2.54%
HD130   67.09%   28.66%    2.34%    1.91%
HD131   22.92%   71.35%    1.61%    4.12%
HD132   56.99%   38.26%    2.20%    2.56%
HD133   56.43%   39.48%    2.05%    2.03%
HD134   40.88%   54.82%    2.09%    2.21%
HD135   43.53%   50.24%    2.18%    4.06%
HD137   39.14%   54.59%    2.28%    3.99%
HD138   55.48%   39.86%    2.14%    2.52%
HD139   29.48%   64.54%    2.37%    3.61%
HD140   36.12%   55.51%    1.86%    6.51%
HD141   21.51%   72.34%    1.98%    4.17%
HD142   28.68%   65.60%    1.98%    3.74%
HD143   38.84%   53.65%    1.68%    5.83%
HD144   47.45%   45.38%    1.88%    5.29%
HD145   33.16%   59.19%    2.91%    4.73%
HD146   22.27%   72.93%    1.91%    2.88%
HD147   23.20%   70.50%    2.40%    3.90%
HD148   43.82%   49.17%    2.62%    4.39%
HD149   41.72%   52.45%    1.89%    3.94%
HD150   58.12%   37.00%    2.35%    2.52%
				
CC1     27.64%   66.77%    2.22%    3.37%
CC2     48.74%   44.85%    2.12%    4.29%
CC3     58.90%   36.51%    2.24%    2.35%
CC4     47.42%   47.16%    2.22%    3.19%
				
JP1     36.26%   57.76%    2.51%    3.46%
JP2     44.92%   48.55%    1.90%    4.63%
JP3     45.93%   48.86%    2.05%    3.16%
JP4     55.36%   39.73%    2.27%    2.64%
JP5     49.93%   44.92%    2.12%    3.03%
JP6     26.25%   64.49%    2.28%    6.99%
JP7     17.44%   77.30%    1.84%    3.41%
JP8     61.60%   33.40%    2.34%    2.66%
				
HISD    32.37%   61.92%    2.25%    3.46%
Else    52.85%   41.92%    2.19%    3.04%

Whatever the year is, you can generally count on the Democratic candidate for Railroad Commissioner to bring up the rear in the statewide vote count. That’s not a candidate recruitment issue – since 2018, we’ve had a string of well-qualified people run for this office. Our Grady Yarbrough days seem to be behind us, thank goodness. It hasn’t made any difference in the final score.

This is partly because no one knows what the Railroad Commission does and no one knows who’s running for it – there’s just no money raised, at least on the Dem side, for these races. It’s also because of the disproportionate number of third party votes cast in these races. This was a down year for third party candidates overall/ For statewide offices this year, there were only two Green Party candidates, one for President and one for Railroad Commissioner. The Libertarians were slack as well, just those two races plus US Senate and one judicial race. In 2016, by way of comparison, there was a Libertarian and a Green for President, RRC, and five of six judicial races; the sixth had just a Libertarian. In 2020, there were both Libs and Greens for President, Senate, and RRC, with a Libertarian for two of seven judicial races. No idea where they all were this year, but you can see where they weren’t.

Be that as it may, in the Presidential race there were 150K votes cast for an L or a G. In the Railroad Commissioner race, it was 587K votes, nearly four times as many, and that’s with about 400K fewer votes cast in the RRC race. Both Christi Craddick (293K fewer votes than Trump) and Katherine Culbert (560K fewer votes than Kamala Harris) suffered for it, with Culbert getting more of the damage. The Green candidate in this race was a Latino, which as I’ve noted before tends to make things a little worse for the Democratic candidate.

Not that it would have made that much difference had it been Craddick versus Culbert straight up, with Culbert having a few million dollars at her disposal. Dems lost statewide by roughly year-2012 margins for reasons that were mostly about national conditions. But my point, as I made in that post I linked above is that both parties, but Dems more than Republicans, seem to lose votes in the lower-profile races for no particularly good reason to third party candidates. Eight years after I pondered that question, nothing has changed.

I continue to see this as a brand issue, one that Dems don’t take seriously at all, and it’s one that in a better overall year – which, who knows, might be 2026 if we’re about to enter a real shitshow biennium – could be costly at the margins. Given that at least as far as the RRC goes the candidates are not the problem, then to me it’s mostly a matter of money. With a few exceptions, our non-incumbent candidates don’t have the resources to get a message of any kind out to voters. That’s not good for them, and it’s not good for the larger project of giving voters reasons to maybe consider voting for a Democrat.

I wish I had a better answer than “we need more money for more Democratic candidates in more races”, because it’s not prescriptive and no one likes to talk about money in campaigns except to say there’s too much of it. In the aggregate that’s true, but it’s also true that many people like to hear from candidates on their ballot before they’ll consider voting for them, and that doesn’t happen for free. I don’t know what to tell you.

Posted in Election 2024 | Tagged Christi Craddick, Election 2016, Election 2020, Election 2024, Green Party, Katherine Culbert, Libertarian Party, precinct analysis, Railroad Commission, Texas | 1 Comment

Bald eagles

Posted on January 6, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

I don’t know why it had never occurred to me before, but there are numerous bald eagles in the greater Houston area, if you are of a mind to try to spot one in the wild.

The bald eagle has been synonymous with the U.S. since the dawn of the country more than 240 years ago.

But it wasn’t until President Joe Biden signed a bill into law on Christmas Eve that the bald eagle officially became the national bird of the U.S. Formerly on the endangered species list, the bald eagle has made a tremendous comeback in recent years with more than 300,000 birds flying across the United States.

That includes birds in the Houston area.

“This is a great place to see bald eagles because we’re the Bayou City, and there’s a lot of waterways. We have green spaces, plenty in the region, along the Brazos or along some of the other rivers,” said Richard Gibbons, the director of conservation for the Audubon Texas. “If you’re along a river and you’re looking up or by a lake, there’s a good chance you’re going to be near an eagle.”

[…]

The most recent bald eagle population report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which was released to the public in March 2021 on population numbers in 2018 and 2019, estimates 316,700 individual bald eagles in the contiguous U.S. The department said that’s four times more than its estimates from the previous decade.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department says bald eagles can be found year-round in the state, especially with breeding bald eagles found along the coastal communities from Rockport to Houston.

Gibbons said he sees bald eagles all the time in Sienna and suggests people going out to look for bald eagles also look at what juveniles look like. It takes a few years for the iconic white head and tail to fully develop in bald eagles so an amateur bird watcher might see a black bird in the sky and not realize it’s a young bald eagle.

He also recommends asking people in wildlife areas for advice and guidance on where they might be able to spot bald eagles because they might be able to direct you to a good place to watch.

Binoculars also help.

“It’s possible if you live along a water body that you could just get out in the backyard and stare up into the sky but that’s not very good advice,” Gibbons said. ‘I would say, go to a nearby wild area near water. But more importantly, ask the park rangers or ask anybody that’s there.”

Specifically, the TPWD says:

Bald Eagles are present year-round throughout Texas as spring and fall migrants, breeders, or winter residents. The Bald Eagle population in Texas is divided into two populations; breeding birds and nonbreeding or wintering birds. Breeding populations occur primarily in the eastern half of the state and along coastal counties from Rockport to Houston. Nonbreeding or wintering populations are located primarily in the Panhandle, Central, and East Texas, and in other areas of suitable habitat throughout the state.

This Chron story from April, which is a sidebar link from the one above, contains a map of where the known eagles’ nests are, mostly in south-southwest Montgomery County and north Harris County, more or less northwest of IAH. There’s a well-known nesting pair in a particular development of The Woodlands that would be easy enough to find; beyond that I’d probably do some Googling or looking on Reddit for more detailed directions. I suppose I had always thought of bald eagles as more northern birds, so I’m happy to have that misperception corrected. Have you ever seen one of these creatures? Leave a comment and let us know.

Posted in Elsewhere in Houston | Tagged bald eagles, endangered species, Harris County, Houston, Joe Biden, Montgomery County, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | 3 Comments

Weekend link dump for January 5

Posted on January 5, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

“Election Day Went (Relatively) Smoothly Because States Prepped For Violence Like 2020″.

“I mean, no, I don’t know what to do about 20 million aggrieved and anti-social young men. But what to do about just one such young man? I’d cast him in a community-theater production of Oklahoma.”

“Faith organizations have a complex relationship to disaster relief”.

“It’s one of the reasons former campers are saddened by the news that One Heartland in Willow River, Minn., about 40 minutes southwest of Duluth, is for sale. The 80-acre site is home to a camp that has served kids living with or affected by HIV/AIDS for more than 30 years. But the number of babies contracting the virus through their mothers has declined to the point where such a camp no longer needs to exist.”

“Costco is battling an anti-DEI wave with a stern rebuke to activist shareholders looking to end the warehouse retailer’s diversity ambitions.”

RIP, Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the US, world class human being.

RIP, Linda Lavin, Tony-winning actor with a long career on Broadway and TV, where she was best known as the titular character in Alice.

Here are your 2024 Golden Duke Award winners.

“This idea would solve one thorny question: Why does the Moon orbit Earth closer to the plane of Earth’s orbit around the Sun, and not over our equator?”

How to update your DNS settings to improve home Internet security.

RIP, Lenny Randle, former MLB player for multiple teams who is probably best known for trying to blow a ground ball on the third base line foul; the umpires awarded the batter first base.

“The rift reveals the larger paradox beating at the heart of MAGA: They venerate masculinity, but cannot tell you what it is. Look closely at their manhood discourse and the contradictions are immediately apparent.”

“Let us begin by making one thing clear: Our players are the lifeblood of our leagues. We celebrate their ever-increasing skill, which thrills us and our fans on a game-to-game basis. However, we believe that in some respects, our talented athletes’ exploits have fundamentally distorted the ways our sports have historically been played.”

“As of today, Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina join the list of 17 states that can’t access some of the most popular porn sites on the internet, because of regressive laws that claim to protect children but restrict adults’ use of the internet, instead.” The lawsuit over Texas’ law that resulted in this block will be heard this month.

RIP, Aaron Brown, journalist and anchorman whose first day on the air for CNN was 9/11.

“Alcoholic drinks should carry a warning about cancer risks on their label, the U.S. Surgeon General said on Friday in a move that could signal a shift towards more aggressive tobacco-style regulation for the sector.”

Lock him up.

RIP, Jocelyn Wildenstein, Swiss socialite known for her extensive plastic surgery.

RIP, Marilyn Oshman, leading art advocate who helped to found the Orange Show Foundation and Art Car Parade.

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged linkdump | 2 Comments

A brief look ahead to when the HISD Board will contain elected members again

Posted on January 5, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This Q&A with elected HISD Trustee Plácido Gómez has some good insights, but I want to note these questions towards the end.

Plácido Gómez

Fast-forwarding, if you, in an imaginary world, became a voting member of the board tomorrow, how would you describe your approach to working with the appointed board members?

We’ve got to get out in the community more. I can actually make this even easier, like right now, at this moment, as somebody who’s not on the appointed board. Myself and other elected board members need to get out in the community with the appointed board to repair trust between HISD and the community. So that means going out, meeting people where they are, not making people go all the way to (central office), which is about 45 minutes to an hour drive from some parts of my district in traffic, which is where the school board meetings are, in order to be heard. So that is the first thing I would do before addressing anything policy-related, is going out to folks and giving an honest attempt to to listen.

I thought it … showed an impressive amount of self-awareness, it was actually your story, where they rated themselves 1 out of 10 in community engagement. Self-awareness is a good place to start going forward, but self-awareness doesn’t actually mean anything unless we have some action that follows from that. So that would be the first thing I do is get out in the community with the appointed board to ask questions and hear what people have to say.

From a policy approach, what are some of the key components of the intervention that you would seek to maintain versus change?

I would seek to maintain the science of reading. That’s arguably the most important change that’s been made. I would seek to maintain the rise in teacher pay and find a way to incentivize the best teachers to teach in schools that are struggling the most.

The second part of the question was about things I would do away with. … It seems to be a mindset amongst the administration that when the community disagrees, the community must be putting adult interest over students, which is just not the case. And so changing that mindset first, before going into any policy things.

And then going into the policy things, I mentioned the philosophy course. … The one-size-fits-all-ness of the program I don’t like. I’m all for student discipline, but there are places where it goes too far, like students taking massive traffic cones in order to go to the bathroom. That is something I definitely would want to do away with. The midyear firing of principals. I would want a clear policy that outlines what would cause a principal to be fired midyear.

Then finally, something absolutely has been done about teacher turnover. I know from my experience as a teacher, my first year teaching I was not very good, which is something I have in common with just about every first-year teacher who’s ever lived. So with an extremely high rate of teacher turnover, the people who replace these folks, … every teacher has to be a first-year teacher at some point by definition. But having disproportional amounts of first-year folks cannot be good for student outcomes.

One last question here, and I’m gonna put you on the spot a little bit. There are a number of members of the community that have said the district should fire Miles, and of course, only the board can do that. So if you were a voting member, where would you stand on that issue?

I don’t mean to compare him to a pirate, but have you seen the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”? There’s a scene where Elizabeth Swann is on the pirate ship, and she’s not quite aware that everybody’s a skeleton ghost on the crew, and she’s having dinner with Hector Barbossa, and at one point she strikes a knife through Barbossa’s heart in an attempt to kill him, and Barbossa takes the knife out of his heart, and just gives a perfect line to say, “I’m curious, after killing me, what is it you had planned on doing next?” And then Elizabeth goes out and sees the horror show of the pirate ship.

So I would give the same answer about firing a principal or as firing a teacher. There has to be a plan. What’s going to happen after that? It’s going to depend on what the plan is. So let’s say, for example, the board fired Mike Miles, what happens after that is actually unclear to me when it comes to policy. Because does the board get to pick a new superintendent, or is it the commissioner who gets to pick a new superintendent. When you make a decision as drastic as firing somebody, you have to have a good understanding of what the alternative is, and I don’t have a clear understanding right now of what the next step would be.

I’m pretty sure that Mike Morath would pick the successor, but the real answer to that question is that someone with a fuller understanding of the law that foisted Miles on us in the first place would have to try to tell us. There would almost certainly be litigation, either at the point of Miles being fired or someone – Morath, the Board, Elon Musk, who knows – picking the successor, in which case the courts would decide. Isn’t that something to look forward to?

My interview with Plácido Gómez from his election campaign in 2023 is here, and the interview I did with him and fellow Trustee Dani Hernandez in support of the bond referendum is here if you want some more insight into his thinking. I’m ready for him and as many of his colleagues as possible to be given back their power.

Posted in School days | Tagged Board of Managers, Election 2023, Election 2025, HISD, HISD Board of Trustees, Houston, Mike Miles, Mike Morath, Texas Education Agency | 1 Comment

Yolanda Saldivar seeks parole

Posted on January 5, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Not sure how I feel about this, other than it’s another reminder of how old we all are.

Yolanda Saldívar, the woman found guilty of killing the late Tejano icon Selena Quintanilla-Perez, has applied for parole for 2025. The New York Post reports that inmates have indicated there is a “bounty on her head,” prompting the move to file for parole.

Saldívar, 64, was found guilty of the shooting death of Selena in 1995. Saldívar is eligible for parole after 30 years due to her clean record with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Quintanilla-Perez’s family is anticipated to be informed of her possible release in January.

According to reports, Saldívar is still targeted by other prisoners who still want “justice for Selena” despite having spent 30 years in prison at the Patrick L. O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas.

[…]

Before her death on March 31, 1995, two weeks before her 24th birthday, Selena was dubbed the “Queen of Tejano” and was a dominating force in Spanish music set to expand her audience into the mainstream.

Selena had secretly met with Saldívar at a motel in Corpus Christi to obtain tax paperwork after Salazar was dismissed as president of Selena’s fan club for embezzling more than $30,000 in fan club dues. That same day, Selena was killed.

Following the murder, Saldívar withdrew to her pickup truck and engaged in a nearly 10-hour police standoff. Afterward, she claimed that she intended to turn herself over to authorities and that the shooting was an accident. However, Saldívar, a former nurse, did not contact 911 and did not attempt to save Selena’s life.

“I was convicted by public opinion even before my trial started,” Saldívar said in a prison interview for last year’s documentary Selena and Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them.

A jury convicted Saldívar of first-degree murder in October 1995 and she was given a life sentence with the possibility of release.

According to a relative of Saldívar, who spoke to the Post recently, the convicted murderer feels that she has paid her obligation to society and is a “political prisoner” in prison.

“Keeping her in prison isn’t going to do any good,” the relative said. “It’s time for her to get out.”

Thirty years, man. It’s hard not to wonder how big a cultural and musical force Selena could have been. I mean, the fact that someone like me, a white boy from New York who spoke no Spanish and only listened to rock music at the time, knew who she was in the pre-Internet of 1995 and was shocked by her death gives some idea of how big she was already. I’ve been perfectly happy for Saldivar to spend her days in obscurity in prison, not having to think about her. I’m not impressed by her claims of being a target – she’s still here, after all – or that she didn’t mean to kill Selena and was going to turn herself in. She’s gotten what she deserved.

But is it enough at this point, and is there any value to society in letting her out? She’s clearly not a danger to anyone, and we vastly over-punish people convicted of crimes in general. Most likely, she’d continue to be a little nobody outside of jail, though there’s a real chance she’d take up a bunch of offers to make money off of her notoriety, which I at least would find annoying. I think maybe where I land is that she should get parole, but not on her first try. Give it another year or two, to get past the 30-year retrospectives of her crime, and then process her out. What do you think?

Posted in Crime and Punishment | Tagged jail, parole, Selena Quintanilla, Texas, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Yolanda Saldivar | 3 Comments

Teare recuses his office from the Hidalgo aides’ cases

Posted on January 4, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

As he said he would.

Sean Teare

Recently-elected Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare filed a motion on Thursday to recuse the Harris County Attorney’s Office from three cases related to the prosecution of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s former staffers.

In April 2024, former Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg brought in the Texas Office of the Attorney General to assist in the state’s prosecution of three former aides’ cases. However, Ogg did not formally recuse the district attorney’s office from them at that time.

Thursday’s motion, which Teare’s office announced in a press release, formally requests such recusal and the appointment of the Attorney General as attorney pro tem.

“For years, the worst kind of politics has marred the investigation and orderly administration of justice of these cases,” Teare said in the release. “Despite never having been involved in the prosecution or defense of any of these staffers, our community deserves a DA who not only removes politics from the prosecution of any criminal case, but who will also bend over backwards to avoid even the appearance of any conflict of interest. My hope is that moving forward, these cases will be adjudicated quickly, fairly, and with integrity.”

See here for the background. Teare had said he would recuse the office from this case back in March. A motion by the defense to do exactly this has been pending since June of 2022, not that long after the indictments were first handed down. I thought that was the right move for Teare when he first announced it, and I still think that way. One way or the other, this case needs to be brought to a resolution, and it’s best for someone not directly involved in the politics of it to take it from here. The next public hearing for this case is scheduled for May, we’ll see where we are at that time. Thanks to Campos for the heads up.

Posted in Crime and Punishment | Tagged Aaron Dunn, Alex Triantaphyllis, Attorney General, Democratic primary, District Attorney, Election 2024, Harris County, Kim Ogg, Lina Hidalgo, Sean Teare, Wallis Nader | Comments Off

Bird flu update

Posted on January 4, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Just something to keep an eye on.

Federal health officials say that not only has a Louisiana resident contracted the first severe case of bird flu in the U.S., but that the virus likely mutated in the patient. The findings raise concern regarding the adaptability of the virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday announced that it had sequenced the bird flu, or avian influenza, viruses collected from a Louisiana patient who “was severely ill from an A(H5N1) virus infection.” The person has not been identified, but according to reports, they are older than 65 and have underlying medical conditions.

The New York Times reported the individual, who was hospitalized with respiratory symptoms, is from southwestern Louisiana. They came in contact with sick and dead birds; the CDC found that the viruses collected were closely related to those found in wild birds and poultry in Louisiana late in 2024. The CDC confirmed the case on Dec. 13.

The CDC said that to its knowledge, the individual has not passed the virus on to anyone else. The Louisiana Department of Public Health is working with the CDC to continue virologic analysis. As of mid-December, 61 human cases of bird flu have been reported in the U.S. Bird flu has also been detected in chickens in Mississippi.

[…]

“Is this an indication that we may be closer to seeing a readily transmitted virus between people? No,” University of Minnesota infectuous disease researcher Michael Osterholm told the Associated Press. “Right now, this is a key that sits in the lock, but it doesn’t open the door.”

According to the CDC, bird flu remains a low risk to the general public.

We don’t know where exactly this goes from here, but it could be a bigger issue in the near-to-medium term future. The numbers for now are pretty low, but we know that can change. I will say with confidence that if it does become something bigger soon, we will not handle it well. Stay up to date on your vaccines, and be ready to take further precautions when conditions warrant. Slate has more.

Posted in Technology, science, and math | Tagged Centers for Disease Control, flu, Louisiana, vaccinations | Comments Off

Whitmire’s first year

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron has a story about how Mayor Whitmire’s first year has gone, and I’ll get to that shortly, but first I want to look at this story, about his efforts to get help from the state government for the city. You may recall that was a key component of his platform, and it turns out that even his fifty years of relationship building has its limits with the leadership we have now.

Mayor John Whitmire

Throughout his first year in office, Mayor John Whitmire has consistently mentioned one solution for addressing the city’s financial struggles – turning to his connections in Austin.

But those connections might not come to fruition the way the former state senator has long promised.

In a recent interview with the Houston Chronicle, Whitmire admitted that where he thought he’d find congeniality among his former peers at the legislature, he’s instead found resistance when it comes to boosting the city’s revenue.

The city’s critics say Houston “doesn’t need that kind of money,” Whitmire said.

“Nobody works as hard as we do,” Whitmire said. “The people saying that, they don’t even stop to consider we got a tougher revenue cap than any big city. We’re growing rapidly. We are the life growth of the state of Texas. How Houston goes is how the state goes.”

The opposition may come as a surprise to some, especially given Whitmire’s 52 years as a state lawmaker. But experts say the phenomenon isn’t necessarily unique to Whitmire.

Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said it’s a difficult time to ask state leaders for money, despite Texas’ healthy surplus. The state doesn’t often view more progressive cities like Houston as being able to govern themselves, he added.

“That’s a conundrum that the mayor is going to face, no matter who the mayor is,” Rottinghaus said.

Nancy Sims, who also lectures on politics at the University of Houston, said the resistance comes down to the conservative views in the legislature.

“They don’t like the urban areas because they do tend to be more Democratic, and it’s true of every major city in the state,” Sims said.

As concerns about Houston’s financial future grow, Rottinghaus warns Whitmire will have to start painting a clearer picture sooner rather than later.

“The vagueness about the relationships and money has to come to fruition before too long,” Rottinghaus said. “The city’s financial woes will become more pressing and the voters become more impatient.”

The look-back story is here, and I’ll agree he’s gotten some stuff done while also being dealt a challenging hand. He’s made some of those challenges more complicated for himself, with the massive firefighter deal for which there’s no articulated plan to pay being #1 on that list, but what he must face would legitimately bedevil anyone.

But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I’m here to talk about Whitmire’s promises and plans to use his half-century in state government to help fix some of the city’s problems, which as noted above has turned out to be not as easy as perhaps he thought it might be. In fact, I’ve already talked about it, over a year ago when the Chron endorsed him for Mayor. I’m going to take the liberty of quoting myself here:

Senator John Whitmire, with his fifty years in the Capitol and personal relationships with anyone who ever was anyone in Austin, is confident that that experience and those personal relationships with the various power brokers and other People Of Influence will be to Houston’s benefit as Mayor. And again, if we had a non-malevolent state government, I would not only agree with that, I’d tout it as a unique strength that Whitmire has. It should be a strength. As recently as when Mayor Turner took office, I for one would have seen it as a strength. Mayor Turner, with a similar level of experience and personal relationships, was the right person at the right time to push pension reform through, and it was a huge win for the city. I’d like to think we could have something like that for our next set of challenges going forward.

The problem is that many of those challenges are the result of the state putting its boot on our neck. Even before the “Death Star” bill, there’s been an inexorable march towards taking away the ability of cities to govern themselves. Republicans in the Legislature and their seething primary voters, including those who live in these cities, see us as a decadent force that needs to be dominated. They’re not interested in nice bipartisan solutions to thorny problems; quite the reverse. I don’t doubt that John Whitmire could get Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick and Dade Phelan and whoever else on the phone and tell them what Houston’s needs are (and aren’t) and ask them to help us out. What I do doubt is that they will see any reason or incentive to do their part.

The larger concern there is that a Mayor Whitmire would see his experience and connections and overvalue them, on the understandable but (in my view) mistaken idea that they mean something to the people on the other end of those connections. I fear that he could get strung along by his colleagues, in the way that President Obama got strung along in the first debt ceiling fight by the “moderate” Republicans in Congress, and in doing so foreclose other avenues to address issues. I fear that given the chance to improve the city’s political standing by working to vote out particular members of state government, Whitmire will value his connections above that possibility and thus contribute to leaving us in a position of subservience that much longer. Yes, of course there’s a risk in campaigning against someone who has a good chance of winning. You can’t avoid risk in politics. I’m just saying that the risk of not going for it tends to be downplayed in ways that it shouldn’t be.

There’s an analog here to the value of then-State Rep. Sarah Davis, the mostly moderate (certainly by modern GOP standards) Republican from HD134, whose presence in the Lege and on various committees was supposed to be a tempering factor against the majority’s baser and more troglodytic instincts. If you thought she was effective in that role, it made sense to support her re-elections even against strong Democratic opponents. If you didn’t – if you thought the real way to moderate our government was to have at least one part of it be under Democratic control – then it made sense to support her Democratic opponents, as hers was a rare swing seat. You know where I stood on that, and I maintain that I was correct.

I stand by everything I wrote then. One thing I didn’t mention then was that every two years, the number of people in Austin who have a personal connection to former Senator Whitmire declines – there was quite a bit of turnover this past cycle, you may recall – so whatever influence he had at the start of his Mayoral administration, it will only go down from there.

I don’t want to underestimate the Mayor. I’m sure he and his team have a list of things they want to ask the Legislature for, and they may get a lot of it. We’ll know in six months how that went. If it’s a big success, great! That will be excellent for Houston and he should keep at it. If not, I would like to gently suggest that this was as good as it will get, and it’s time to change horses and start pushing in chips on electing more legislators – and maybe some statewide officials – who don’t actively hate us. Call me crazy, but I think you can get more done working with people who already value you than you can with people that you have to convince of your value. I freely admit that’s a risky strategy, but a longshot is still better than a no-win bet. Sometimes the path of least resistance is also the path of least reward. Just something to think about.

Posted in Local politics | Tagged budget, Dan Patrick, Election 2023, Greg Abbott, Houston, John Whitmire, Mayor, Sylvester Turner, Texas, The Lege | 5 Comments

Dispatches from Dallas, January 3 edition

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This is a weekly feature produced by my friend Ginger. Let us know what you think.

This week, in news from Dallas-Fort Worth, we have the tail end of 2024 and looks forward into 2025. In addition to the big Kay Granger story that wasn’t at all what you initially heard, there are: updates on bills filed in the Legislature; the Texas convicts whose sentences were commuted by President Biden; the Dallas City Manager search (sigh); yet another death at the Tarrant County Jail; the Dallas County Juvenile Board picks a a new leader in secret; churches and the politics of building new facilities in Fort Worth and Fairview; and local star St. Vincent played my neighborhood taqueria and I missed it! And more.

This week’s post was brought to you by more of NPR Music’s 124 Best Songs of 2024. I realize at my age, I’m not hip to what the kids like, but there’s sure a lot of music I’ve never heard. And it’s not just the move from guitar rock to hip-hop and rap; it’s also the move to foreign-language music, particularly, but not just, Spanish. I have a lot to investigate in 2025.

Let’s start with the biggest story of the last two weeks: the kerfuffle about Kay Granger, who ended her term as a Congresswoman with the end of the year. Our host hit the high points, but of course it’s gotten a lot more coverage in the Metroplex. The gist is Granger, who now suffers from early-stage dementia, stopped voting in late July (note that Congress has been in recess most of the fall to campaign for the November election) and has moved into a ritzy senior residence in Fort Worth, which the Express incorrectly alleged was a dementia care unit. Granger had already withdrawn from the primary before it took place in March–you may remember the last-minute entry and the reshuffle of several local primaries as folks dropped one to move to a new one that was suddenly open–and resigned from the Appropriations Committee, but she was still able to make it to DC as late as November, when she was honored for her work in Congress. See the Star-Telegram; the Dallas Morning News; Axios; the Fort Worth Report; and the Texas Tribune. Some of these were linked in our host’s post; I add them here for completeness.

All of the early stories spring from the Dallas Express, which, as our host notes, has been covered by the Texas Observer here. More recently, we’ve looked at this article about the Express and its owner, Monty Bennett, who’s behind Props S, T, U, the three really terrible charter amendments on the city ballot here in Dallas. (S and U passed; T failed.) My initial speculations on why the Express was going after Granger were all wrong, but I did find out while chasing the tail of this issue that Chris Putnam, the editor of the Dallas Express (mentioned in this D Magazine post about the HERO campaign because I won’t link to the Dallas Express on principle) ran against Granger in the 2020 Republican primary as documented on Ballotpedia (scroll down). Given the tendency of the Express to gin up trouble for its perceived enemies, I’m not surprised to see a potential grudge in the mix.

There’s been local pushback in Fort Worth on the story. One of Fort Worth’s city council members wrote a valedictory farewell for Granger. There’s also a piece on her impact on the city over her decades in Congress. And her successor, who is being sworn in on January 3, so probably as you read this post, also, unsurprisingly, had hugely complimentary things to say. And, as this recent CBS story notes, because she was still officially in Congress, her office could continue to help constituents. But the real story here is, as the Dallas Observer notes, a lot of our Texas representatives are OLD, and the same is true nationwide. And this is on both sides of the aisle: Lloyd Doggett, who was my representative my last few years in Austin, is only a few months younger than Donald Trump and I’ve wondered whether he was going to leave Congress by retiring or by being carried out. Obviously it’s too late to consider this for 2024, but it’s something people ought to consider for the next election cycle. Doggett and Trump are at the upper end of the Boomers and Granger is either at the tippy top of the Boomers or the very bottom of the Silent Generation; folks in that age group need to retire. I personally think they’re going to be pushed out by millennials and not my generation (X) for demographic reasons. I also think it’s going to take a while to happen if the kids do it at all, but I look forward to them coming in and hopefully bringing some fresh perspectives.

In other news:

The DMN’s political reporter Gromer Jeffers makes his predictions about the political dramas of 2025.
They’re still arresting people for January 6 crimes, including this man in Colleyville; it’s probably unfortunately moot because Trump is probably going to pardon a lot of the insurrectionists.
President Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 convicts who were on federal Death Row. The DMN and the Star-Telegram have the details on the Texas and the local criminals whose sentences were reduced. In tangentially related news, I learned that Texas is one of four states that carry out three-quarters of executions and that there were fewer than thirty executions in 2024. As someone who remembers the 90s, when we saw a lot more executions annually, I thought this was good news.
Representative Jasmine Crockett (D-Dallas), one of those millennials who replaced a Congressional elder and is doing good work there, is pushing the state of Texas to report on maternal deaths for 2022 and 2023. The Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee is skipping reviewing those years and it has nothing to do with the fact that abortion restrictions came into effect in 2021 and a near-total ban hit in 2022, honest, officer. Good for her and the other representatives who signed on to this letter.
The DMN selected their Texan of the Year and this year there are two: Texas House Reps Jeff Leach and Joe Moody for their bipartisan work on criminal justice, which goes beyond the Roberson case that we know so much about. This is a good call because Leach and Moody have been doing great work, but I notice that it’s bipartisanship, as always, that gets kudos from the Dallas establishment. Also, in case you’re wondering, here’s the latest on the Roberson case: it’s all up to the courts.
Let’s look at some quick headlines about the upcoming Lege session:
- KERA: DART wants cities to reconsider funding cuts in the Texas Legislature. Either the burbs get some of their money back from Dallas Area Rapid Transit or they’re going to get the Lege to make DART give it back.
- Fort Worth Report: North Texas leaders seek funds to expand, improve transportation infrastructure. This is about the Regional Transportation Council, which serves 16 counties, so a lot bigger than DART and also about the rail options.
- WFAA: Fort Worth mayor says city must prepare for reality of school vouchers. Also has some details about the city’s priorities.
- Fort Worth Report: Here’s what Arlington ISD wants the Texas Legislature to prioritize in 2025. Too long; didn’t read? More money and no vouchers.
- Dallas Observer: 3 Texas Legislature Bills for 2025 That Make Austin (Really) Weird. Local connection: Rep. Giovanni Capriglione (R-Southlake) wants a strategic bitcoin reserve.
- Fort Worth Report: Taylor Sheridan asked Texas legislators to support film incentives. Here’s what could happen.
- North Texas lawmakers lead push to require display of Ten Commandments in public schools. The culprits are Rep. Mike Olcott (HD-60) and Sen. Phil King (R-Weatherford). This is also a Dan Patrick priority.
Moving on to the City of Dallas, let’s talk about the most recent developments in the disastrous City Manager search. Before Christmas, one semifinalist dropped out and another re-upped his contract where he was, and the DMN reported a third candidate had dropped out out as well. We now have a new three-person list: interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert; Mario Lara, assistant city manager of Sacramento, California; and William Johnson, Fort Worth Assistant City Manager. At least the two candidates from the Metroplex have an idea of what trying to cooperate with the mayor and city council with the constraints of the HERO propositions will be like. The DMN also has some editorial opinions about the whole thing: Dallas City Council meltdown over city manager search an embarrassment. Hard agree.
The Star-Telegram has an analysis piece on how Mercy Culture Church got its anti-trafficking shelter despite opposition by its neighbors on the second try. The gist of it was bringing Rep. Nate Schatzline, who’s a pastor at Mercy Culture, into the fight more directly and threatening to sue the city if they blocked the shelter. The DMN also has a story on what comes next now that the shelter has been approved. A couple of things to note: Mercy Culture, as the DMN mentions, is politically active, openly endorses political candidates, and the pastor has called Democratic policies demonic. Also, while I know QAnon is no longer as big as it used to be, human trafficking is a QAnon touchstone. That tells you what you need to know about Mercy Culture and its shelter.
Meanwhile, in Fairview, local residents aren’t having any of the compromise the city made with the LDS church over its proposed temple. They did a Christmas Carol fundraiser in hopes of financing the city in case the LDS church decides to sue over a future denial.
Frisco ISD lost on all four of the bond issues in the November election. They have a survey out so residents can tell them why. It closes on January 5. If you’re a Frisco voter, check it out here.
The scandal-plagued, under-investigation Dallas County Juvenile Board picked a new leader after its former director resigned in July. There was no public vote and a public records request for the names and resumes of the candidates was initially denied by the board. The board is expected to confirm the offer at the end of January. The winner, if you will, is H. Lynn Hadnot, director of Juvenile Services for Collin County. I wish him well; he’s got a mess to clean up and this is not an auspicious start to his work.
There has been one more death in the Tarrant County Jail, making 70 since Sherriff Bill Waybourn took office in 2017. This time it was a 31-year-old who was apparently detoxing in the jail. The Star-Telegram and the DMN have the details.
You may remember that several members of the Tarrant County Appraisal Board were elected by the public in the November election. The county’s taxing entities have now voted for the appointed members of the board and the Star-Telegram has the results. Of the four appointed members, two, including the chair, lost, and two were reelected. A fifth member, Wendy Burgess, who serves in her capacity as county tax assessor-collector, will also return next year.
Tarrant County Commissioner Roy Charles Brooks retired this year after twenty years in public service. The Star-Telegram has this tribute to his work by one of his mentees.
The DMN an op-ed by the former District Attorney of Cameron County on the Daystar Network case which involve the son of the founder of the Christian TV network and his now-remarried mother squabbling over his job and his daughter’s allegation that she was sexually abused by a family member. As the opinion writer suggests, we need to get both the child’s parents and the unnamed suspect under oath.
Dallas PD spent more than $25,000 on personnel, vehicle, and helicopter costs to police a viral Christmas light display at a home in Preston Hollow, a wealthy Dallas neighborhood. This is in on top of the cost of off-duty police the neighbors hired to direct traffic. City Council is going to figure out how to balance people’s enjoyment of lights with the rights of neighbors and, of course, police expenditures.
The Container Store has filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. I got the news when they emailed customers to tell us we could continue to order with confidence.
In good news, Dallas nonprofit Bonton Farms broke ground on an affordable housing development and a resource center and cut the ribbon on a wellness center in South Dallas. Rep. Jasmine Crockett was also there to present a $600,000 grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
D Magazine has a lovely remembrance of Jimmy Carter’s work in Oak Cliff for Habitat for Humanity. In 2014, a team including the Carters built 30 houses and renovated another 20.
The Dallas Observer has four local Bum Steer moments in addition to Texas Monthly’s Bum Steer for Jerry Jones: the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight; the embarrassing City Manager search; Charlotte (Jerry’s daughter) Jones’ performance in the Netflix documentary about the Cowboy cheerleaders; and our north Texas public universities, specifically UT Dallas’ crackdown on pro-Palestinian protestors and the corpse-selling debacle at the University of Texas Health Science Center, to which Dallas County was giving its unclaimed corpses.
Viral social media food critic Keith Lee is moving to Dallas. I don’t follow him but I’ll be interested to see which places he spotlights.
The Dallas International Film Festival is officially an Oscar-qualifying festival for short films. This is a big deal. It recognizes the importance of the DFW market and boosts the potential of Texas filmmakers, since winners for the short-form Oscars can use it to jump into feature films.
Last, but not least, Dallas’ own St. Vincent played Resident Taqueria on the Saturday before Christmas. I was hanging out at home doing nothing and Resident is in walking distance! And her show at the Factory this spring is standing room only. Also, St. Vincent was one of the DMN’s finalists for Texan of the Year.

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged Dallas, guest post, linkdump, Texas | 1 Comment

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