Off the Kuff | Knowledge Is Good

254 Labs poll: Talarico 48, Paxton 45

Posted on August 7, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

A new 254 Labs poll of the Texas U.S. Senate race, conducted July 15-31 among 1,001 registered voters, weighted to likely voter targets provided by 254 Labs, finds Democratic candidate James Talarico leading Republican Ken Paxton in the race for U.S. Senate.

Key findings:

Talarico leads Paxton in the Senate race: Talarico leads Paxton 48% to 45%, with 6% undecided.

Independents prefer Talarico 2.5x over Paxton: Talarico leads Paxton 57% to 23% among independents, with 20% undecided.

Talarico enthusiasm advantage: Talarico leads Paxton 58% to 41% among voters who say they are more enthusiastic about voting in November compared to previous elections.

Full crosstabs, including results among oversampled Black and Hispanic likely voters and oversampled regional likely voters, along with issue priorities, are available to 254 Labs subscribers.

Methodology: YouGov Blue interviewed 1,001 Texas registered voters online from July 15–31, 2026 on behalf of 254 Labs. The sample fielded on quotas according to gender, age, race/ethnicity, education, county, and state geographic region based on voter registration lists, the U.S. Census American Community Survey, and the U.S. Census Current Population Survey, as well as 2020 Presidential vote, 2022 general election turnout, and approximate 2024 Presidential vote based on available results. Respondents were selected to be representative of registered voters in Texas. The sample was weighted to targets provided by 254 Labs. The weights range from 0.13 to 5.3 with a mean of 1 and a standard deviation of 0.6. The margin of error (a 95% confidence interval) is approximately 3.6%.

I’m not a subscriber to 254 Labs – I’d never heard of them before I got their email, though I did sign up for emails from them after this – so this here is all I know. It’s not an outlier, we know that much. A new poll from Texas Pulse is due out today, I’ll report on that tomorrow.

Posted in Election 2026 | Tagged Election 2026, James Talarico, Ken Paxton, polls, Senate, Texas | 1 Comment

It looks like Daniel Wong will remain in office for now

Posted on August 7, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

So says a judge.

A Fort Bend County judge said Tuesday that Daniel Wong will continue serving as county judge while a quo warranto lawsuit—a legal proceeding used to determine whether someone has the legal right to hold public office—moves through the courts.

The hearing before Judge Edward Krenek did not decide whether Wong will ultimately remain county judge. Instead, Krenek established a schedule for the case while repeatedly emphasizing that no court has yet ruled Wong should be removed from office.

One of the hearing’s most significant moments came when Krenek questioned Kevin T. Hedges, chief of litigation for the Fort Bend County Attorney’s Office, about Wong’s current legal status.

“So until there is a judicial declaration of some sort by a court of competent jurisdiction … Mr. Wong would continue to have the authority to act as county judge, wouldn’t he?” Judge Krenek asked.

“He is entitled to exercise the powers of the county judge,” Hedges responded.

A short time later, Krenek asked whether someone could simply declare Wong was no longer county judge before the court ruled.

“It would have no legal effect,” Hedges replied.

Krenek also emphasized that Wong is entitled to a full legal process before the court determines whether he has the legal right to continue serving.

“We can’t put the cart before the horse and make a determination before he’s entitled to his due process rights,” Judge Krenek said while discussing the procedures governing the case.

[…]

Rather than deciding the case Tuesday, Krenek established an accelerated schedule intended to move the lawsuit forward while giving both sides time to prepare.

“I do think we need to expedite it a little bit,” Krenek said before setting deadlines for discovery and future hearings.

The judge ordered:

Discovery responses due by Aug. 28.

Motions asking the judge to decide the case without a trial may be filed between Aug. 28 and Sept. 10.

A hearing on those motions is scheduled for Oct. 16.

If the case is not resolved by then, trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 10.

Krenek also directed both sides to submit written arguments addressing whether the court should consider temporarily removing Wong or otherwise limiting his authority before the case is decided.

Tuesday’s hearing answered one question, but not the biggest one.

Judge Krenek made clear that Wong will continue serving while the case proceeds because no court has yet ruled otherwise. Whether Wong has the legal right to remain county judge is the question the court will answer after additional legal filings, arguments and, if necessary, a trial.

See here, here, and here for some background. I have to say, if this is an expedited schedule, I’d hate to see what a slow walk looks like. As I’ve said before, I don’t think anyone’s arguments here are crazy. I just think this needs to be decided in a more timely fashion.

If nothing else, Judge Krenek’s timeline will have a profound effect on some immediate business for Fort Bend.

During a budget workshop, finance officials warned that if Commissioners Court cannot assemble enough members to adopt next year’s tax rate, the county would lose about $21 million in revenue, likely eliminating planned employee raises and delaying major road, parks and flood-control projects.

During a budget workshop, finance officials warned that if Commissioners Court cannot assemble enough members to adopt next year’s tax rate, the county would lose about $21 million in revenue, likely eliminating planned employee raises and delaying major road, parks and flood-control projects.

The stalemate stems from a months-long legal battle over whether acting County Judge Daniel Wong is still authorized to serve. Democratic Commissioners Grady Prestage and Dexter McCoy have refused to attend Commissioners Court meetings since June 25, arguing Wong lacks the authority to preside. Their absence has left Wong and Republican Commissioners Andy Meyers and Vincent Morales as the only three members regularly attending meetings and conducting county business while a court decides Wong’s legal status.

Fort Bend County Director of Finance and Investments Pamela Gubbels said the county’s proposed $792 million budget assumes the overall county and drainage tax rate will remain unchanged at 42.2 cents per $100 of taxable value. But Texas law requires at least four members of Commissioners Court to be present to adopt a tax rate.

“If we do not have at least four members of Commissioners Court, we would roll back to the no-new-revenue rate,” Gubbels told commissioners.

Remember when Harris County Commissioners Cagle and Radack busted quorum to force a lower tax rate that they couldn’t have otherwise achieved? And then Commissioners Cagle and Ramsey did the same thing three years later? Good times, which I’m sure have had no lasting effect on the county’s current financial status. The main difference here is that Cagle and Radack/Ramsey are arsonists who gleefully screwed with Harris County’s budget, while Commissioners McCoy and Prestage are caught between recognizing Wong’s authority and capsizing their own priorities. I don’t envy them the choice. They have until September 30 to adopt the tax rate, which you may note is earlier than even the hearing to decide whether to make a ruling without having a trial. Good luck, y’all.

UPDATE: KUHF has a good story on this now.

Posted in Election 2026, Legal matters | Tagged Bridgette Smith-Lawson, budget, Commissioners Court, County Judge, Daniel Wong, Dexter McCoy, Election 2026, Fort Bend County, Grady Prestage, Harris County, Jack Cagle, KP George, lawsuit, property taxes, quorum, Steve Radack, Texas, Tom Ramsey | 1 Comment

The Houston toad’s recovery

Posted on August 7, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

How about some good news? I think we could all use a bit of that, and the endangered Houston toad is here to give you some.

Houston Toad (Anaxyrus houstonensis)

The Houston toad may no longer live in the city it’s named for.

Urban growth pushed the small, warty amphibian out of most of the region decades ago. Today, it survives in only a few Texas counties.

But in Central Texas, the toad is showing signs of a comeback.

This spring, wildlife officials and conservation groups released 1.6 million Houston toad eggs into protected habitats in Bastrop County. The massive release was part of a decades-long effort involving the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Houston Zoo, the Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other Texas zoos.

Now researchers are finding breeding adults at sites where the species had nearly disappeared.

The effort is testing whether decades of captive breeding, egg releases and habitat restoration can rebuild a self-sustaining population of a species nearly wiped out by development, drought and wildfire. Scientists still don’t know whether those populations can sustain themselves without millions of additional eggs.

[…]

Scientists concluded in 2006 that the species needed a captive population as insurance against extinction. The Houston Zoo joined the recovery effort and began breeding toads.

The strategy shifted in 2014. Instead of focusing mainly on captive toads, the program began producing eggs for release into wild habitats. Conservationists also built and restored ponds where the toads could breed.

“The idea behind that was just to get as much biomass out into the wild as possible,” said Matt Lammers, the zoo’s Houston toad recovery coordinator.

The season begins in winter or early spring and lasts about 11 weeks, Lammers said.

The Houston Zoo keeps about 800 Houston toads. Roughly 12,000 live across all participating facilities, including other Texas zoos and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hatchery in San Marcos.

The Houston Zoo splits its breeding population among three rooms to guard against disease or another disaster and to preserve genetic diversity. About 99% of the eggs go into the field, Lammers said.

The program first released 1 million eggs in 2018. The Fort Worth Zoo joined the effort in 2016, followed by the Dallas Zoo and the federal hatchery in 2020.

Many of the eggs went to Griffith League Ranch, one of the program’s main recovery sites.

The ranch, now owned by Scouting America, is one of the few remaining land grants from the Republic of Texas. It became federally designated Houston toad habitat in 2006 and has participated in the recovery effort since the early 2000s.

Volunteers help clear vegetation on the property, said Charles Mead, director of marketing and public relations for Scouting America’s Capitol Area Council.

“You don’t often get the chance to truly have the values that you speak about come to life, and this is a chance for us to do that,” Mead said.

Forstner said successful conservation requires three tenets: landowners willing to protect habitat, government agencies willing to work with them and scientists who can guide the recovery.

“You need the nerds — the full-on, oh my God, horn-rimmed glasses nerds,” he said.

Let’s hear it for the nerd brigade, am I right? See here for the background, and read the rest, it’s a gift link. I did not know that the Houston toad existed, much less about its precarity and the efforts to save it, before this June. Now I’m fully invested in its recovery. They may not live here in Harris County again – we’re too developed, it seems – but as long as they can live and thrive somewhere in the state, that’s what matters.

Posted in Technology, science, and math, The great state of Texas | Tagged Bastrop County, Bastrop State Park, climate change, endangered species, Houston toads, Houston Zoo, Milam County, San Marcos, Scouting America, Texas, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | Leave a comment

Two South Texas stories

Posted on August 6, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Turns out that ICE raids aren’t so popular there either.

Leaders within the construction industry in South Texas delivered a clear message to lawmakers: Stop the mass deportation of workers or risk losing in November.

During a gathering Wednesday hosted by the South Texas Builders Association and the American Business Immigration Coalition Action, industry leaders discussed possible solutions for immigrant workers. Lawmakers who don’t engage with their concerns or don’t support worker protections, the group warned, will lose their races in the November midterm elections.

The South Texas Builders Association had been for months raising the alarm on how immigration enforcement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had scared immigrant workers from showing up to work sites, causing a labor shortage and a delay in construction projects.

After the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a construction worker in Houston who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier this month, ICE’s targeting of immigrant laborers has once again come into focus, and now, the builders association is demanding worker protections, such as permits that would allow immigrants to work legally in the country.

“I want to send a clear warning to every political leader: If you don’t stop the worksite raids, the mass deportations, if you don’t pass the work permits for long-term, law-abiding immigrants, or citizens, or our Dreamers, you will lose,” said Massey Villarreal, CEO and president of Precision Task Group, a business solutions firm based in Houston.

Villarreal, a Republican, serves as co-chairman of the Comité de 100, a bipartisan group of Latino business leaders who advocate for immigration policies that enable border security alongside a pathway for legal status for workers.

He said that Latinos in Texas should take it personally when ICE targets people like Salgado Araujo because he said it’s an attack on the community.

“I won’t tolerate it, even in our own party,” he said.

Ronnie Cavazos, chairman of the South Texas Builders Association, said his own father was an immigrant and a hard worker. He imagined that Salgado Araujo, who was killed on his way to work, was similar and questioned why the community had supported a presidential administration that would shoot and kill a worker like him.

“Let’s be real, we voted for it,” Cavazos said. “So whose fault was it?”

He would take the blame, but he and the organization are paying attention now, he said, adding that the only way to change things is to vote.

“When I go to that ballot box in November, Lorenzo’s name is going to be in my mind,” Cavazos said.

Not the first time that the immigration crackdown and ICE raids have been bemoaned by representatives of the home building industry, which relies heavily on immigrants not just to do the work but also to buy the finished products. I appreciate Ronnie Cavazos for recognizing where the fault lies, but I would like to press him about what he means by what he says about when he votes this year. Because honestly, nothing short of straight-ticket Democratic will carry any weight. Not after 2024 and everything that has happened since then.

Meanwhile, there’s this.

Just miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, Ken Paxton is trying to inherit President Donald Trump’s historic gains with Hispanic voters.

The Texas GOP Senate nominee, speaking to hundreds of supporters last week at his first campaign rally in this region that’s almost entirely Latino, revealed how Republicans believe that’s possible: by touting Trump’s closure of the border and hitting Democrats over the head with the culture war — while ignoring the drag his mass deportations have had on the region.

The GOP faithful, clad in signature MAGA red and a few scattered Trump 2028 hats, gathered at a beer hall outdoors in 100-degree heat to greet the Republican Senate nominee and other candidates. Attendees ate up the Republicans’ constant jabs at Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico. Eric Flores, the challenger to Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, called Talarico a “low T.” Paxton belittled Talarico, a seminarian student and critic of Christian nationalism, for referring to himself as a “Christian who hates Christianity.”

It’s an approach key to Paxton’s strategy, as Republican Senate nominee, to slice into Talarico’s widening polling lead with Hispanic voters, who could prove decisive for who wins the competitive Senate seat and a litany of other races that will determine which party takes power in Washington come November.

“Once this community knows what [Talarico’s] views are on transitioning boys into girls, and girls into boys, and boys and girls sports, they’re not going to support it,” Paxton told reporters after the rally, in response to a question of how he intends to keep Hispanic voters in the fold after they swung toward Trump in 2024.

This has worked before for the Texas GOP. Sen. Ted Cruz blitzed the airways in the 2024 Senate race with attack ads against former Rep. Colin Allred about transgender youth participation in sports. Republicans branded Wendy Davis “abortion Barbie” following her successful protest against an anti-abortion law in the state legislature.

But outside the carefully choreographed event is a community getting pummelled by the president’s increasingly unpopular immigration agenda — a reality that’s given Democrats a strong opening with Latinos as they attempt to end a decades-long losing streak in statewide races. Interviews with local lawmakers, business leaders and voters on both sides of the aisle reveal that Democratic candidates like Talarico and gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa have so far been successful at appealing to Hispanic voters feeling the economic strain under Trump.

I try not to have too much faith in people’s ability to see through bullshit and propaganda – it works for a reason – but this is one of those times. It’s partly because the attacks sound so pathetic and desperate, partly because they’re harder to land when people have bigger fears, and partly because Paxton and Abbott have the charisma of MLM drones as well as the yoke of being the establishment in Texas. None of this means that they won’t be able to drag themselves across the finish line – they do start out with big advantages and a long Republican winning streak. I just don’t think that this year they’re starting out as being the big kids on the block, at least not as they would have been in elections past. And while they have Donald Trump to blame for that, they have no one but themselves to blame for Trump.

Posted in Election 2026 | Tagged American Business Immigration Coalition Action, Donald Trump, Election 2026, Gina Hinojosa, Governor, Greg Abbott, ICE, immigration, James Talarico, Ken Paxton, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Massey Villarreal, Senate, South Texas Builders Association, Texas | 1 Comment

Why only Midland ISD in the latest school finance lawsuit?

Posted on August 6, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a good question.

A lawsuit by Midland’s school board to overhaul the way Texas funds education could have been a rallying cry for districts that have long bristled at having to turn over billions of local tax dollars to the state each year.

But two weeks later, it appears Midland will have few allies.

After years of crackdowns from the state’s Republican leaders, superintendents aren’t jumping on board to challenge Gov. Greg Abbott or his education commissioner, Mike Morath. Advocacy groups are silent or oppose it. Questions have swirled around whether the litigation is intended to help Abbott’s goal of eliminating school property taxes next year.

So far, no one has joined the suit.

“I think everybody’s gun-shy,” said Josh Sanderson, executive director of Equity Center, one of the groups that led the last legal effort, which ended in 2016.

“We’re definitely not going to get involved in this one,” he said.

The response is a dramatic change from a decade ago, when more than two-thirds of the state’s 1,200 school districts challenged the state’s byzantine school finance system at the Texas Supreme Court.

[…]

Midland trustees mentioned that Grapevine-Colleyville and Carroll school districts were interested in joining, but spokespeople for both districts would not say whether they were considering it. School districts that pay the most under Robin Hood, including Austin ISD, also haven’t joined.

If successful, the lawsuit could force the Legislature to overhaul how it finances public schools — and further inflame tensions between school and state leaders after a bruising legislative session, according to public school advocates. After more than 100 school districts sued the state in 2023 over how Morath’s office calculated their school performance ratings, lawmakers responded by trying to make it harder for schools to sue the state.

Midland trustees questioned whether the district would see some blowback. The board’s lawyer, Kevin O’Hanlon, a veteran of several school district lawsuits, didn’t directly answer. But he noted that the attorney general’s office called him ahead of the meeting and suggested depositing the $83 million owed to the state in a separate account, where it would be available if the district wins its case.

“I did not call them, which was interesting,” O’Hanlon said.

School advocates and observers have also noted that the case was brought by a district in a heavily Republican area instead of the usual coalition of districts from broader parts of the state.

Some questioned whether politics were behind the lawsuit. Abbott is campaigning on the promise of cutting school property taxes in next year’s legislative session.

“There’s lots of talk with Abbott about no property taxes,” board member Sara Burleson asked. “This doesn’t concern that at all, correct?”

The board president said it had “nothing to do with the governor.” But O’Hanlon noted that the lawsuit would bring the issue of property taxes to the forefront just as lawmakers return to Austin.

See here for the background. I noticed the lone-wolf aspect of this as well, but I guess I just assumed that everyone else was reluctant to try again given the lousy result the last time. Plus, most of the Supreme Court justices were put there initially by Greg Abbott, and I can’t blame anyone for thinking they might not get a totally impartial hearing from them. I can also understand the reluctance to give Abbott a platform for his insane “no property taxes” crusade, though I take Midland ISD at their word that they are not a stalking horse for that.

I do think it’s possible that some other districts, especially those that have been hit hard by recapture, will join in at some point. Who knows, maybe the results in November will affect the trajectory of this case. I’ll be watching regardless.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged Election 2026, Greg Abbott, Josh Guinn, lawsuit, Midland, Midland ISD, property taxes, recapture, school finance, school finance reform, schools, Supreme Court, Texas, The Lege | Leave a comment

Still more HISD AI obsession

Posted on August 6, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

I dunno, man. I’m so tired of this.

Houston ISD announced Friday that it will use an artificial intelligence platform developed by Alpha School at Clemente Martinez and Gregg elementary schools during the school year that begins Aug. 10.

The state’s largest school district will launch a pilot program using “personalized” Alpha School learning modules for students who earn high scores on district reading and math assessments, according to the announcement. Those students will spend part of their mornings on that material before joining classmates for the rest of the school day. “The pilot does not replace classroom teachers” and is “at no cost” to HISD, according to the statement.

Gregg and Clemente Martinez are two of nine schools becoming “Future 2” schools, which state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles has said would incorporate his reforms while also training students for a world in which artificial intelligence “will be ubiquitous.” Miles has told campus leaders he wants 100 “Future 2” schools within HISD by July 2031.

[…]

Alpha School seeks to condense the amount of time students spend on academics so that the rest of their days are spent on “life skills,” according to the private school network that has campuses across the country.

Future 2 schools focus on “core academics” in the mornings and “hands-on, screen-free learning” for “human-centered skills” in the afternoon, according to HISD.

The district said in the spring it would include AI technology in Future 2 classrooms. But Friday’s statement was the district’s first public announcement that it planned to work with Alpha.

See here for the previous update. There’s a quote at the end of this article from elected-but-powerless HISD Trustee Plácido Gómez, who reminds us all that the academic subjects that Miles wants to hurry through are valuable in and of themselves. Not that anything that anyone who represents the stakeholders in any way matters, but there you have it. Other schools and districts are being more circumspect about the use of AI in their classrooms, but Mike Miles can’t wait to have our kids be guinea pigs. The rest of us can stick it, because our input is not wanted.

Posted in School days | Tagged Alpha School, artificial intelligence, Future 2, HISD, Houston, Mike Miles, Placido Gomez, Texas Education Agency | Leave a comment

Texas blog roundup for the week of August 3

Posted on August 6, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

The Texas Progressive Alliance is missing daytime soccer and counting down the days till the 2027 Women’s World Cup as it brings you this week’s roundup.

Off the Kuff had the July campaign finance reports for US Senate and Congress.

SocraticGadfly from vacation experience, talked about just how bad Southworst has gotten, along with an ethical reason to stop flying them.

Neil at Houston Democracy Project said court decision ending Houston’s woman/minority setaside program, Whitmire still saying HPD does not contact ICE & HPD over-policing of protest shows how much work remains in so many arenas. The next action is when you organize it.

=================================

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Your Local Epidemiologist urges everyone (Republicans) to leave Dr. Fauci alone already.

The Current finds CD23 candidate Brandon Herrera being an even bigger douche than before.

In the Pink Texas has some parting words for Lindsey Graham.

The Texas Signal reports on the “Data Center Week of Action” at the Capitol.

The Bloggess explains why she sometimes disappears.

The Texas Observer analyzes ICE’s attempt to evade accountability in the Lorenzo Salgado Araujo killing.

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

TSU poll: Talarico 47, Paxton 45

Posted on August 5, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

That’s the headline, but this is the bulk of the story.

Rep. James Talarico

Fewer than one in 10 Black voters in Texas say they are less likely to vote in November’s midterm elections due to U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s defeat in the Democratic primary, according to a poll released Tuesday that suggests James Talarico could face limited electoral fallout from the racial tensions that have persisted since he secured the U.S. Senate nomination.

The survey of 500 Black Texans who voted in recent elections, fielded by Texas Southern University, provides a temperature check of the crucial voter bloc as Talarico continues efforts to coalesce Black Democrats behind his candidacy.

While numerous Black political leaders have backed Talarico, some elected officials and activists have said he, and the Democratic Party as a whole, have to do more to mobilize voters and listen to their worries. Those calls have fallen largely on Talarico, however, after he defeated Crockett, one of the state’s most prominent Black politicians, in a contentious primary that was fraught with racial issues and saw Black voters overwhelmingly back Crockett.

The poll found that Crockett’s defeat left just 7% of Black Texans less likely to show up in November, while an accompanying TSU survey found that 79% of likely Black voters intend to vote for Talarico, compared to 12% who supported Republican U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton, the attorney general.

The findings suggest that many Black voters appear to be sticking with Talarico even as an overwhelming majority — 77% of recent Black voters — said they believe the Democratic Party in Texas takes Black voters “for granted.” Eight in 10 also said they believed Crockett’s race influenced the decision by non-Black primary voters to support Talarico.

Pollsters at TSU’s Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center conducted both surveys starting July 27. The poll that surveyed a representative sample of the likely statewide electorate was in the field through Thursday and had a +/- 2.8% margin of error, while the one that focused on recent Black voters was conducted through Sunday and had a 4.4% margin of error. Respondents to the latter poll had voted in at least one election since the November 2022 midterms.

In the poll of statewide voters across all demographics, Talarico received 47% to Paxton’s 45%, continuing a stretch of surveys showing the Democrat with narrow leads within the margin of error. Republicans led by single digits in all other statewide races in the survey, with GOP Railroad Commissioner nominee Bo French leading by the narrowest margin at 3 points.

You can see the poll memo here. In the other statewide races, Greg Abbott (49-43) and Dan Patrick (46-39) had the biggest leads while as noted Bo French (44-41) had the smallest. In the limited crosstab data provided, it looks like the differentiating factor for Talarico is that he does better among white voters than the rest of the Dem lineup. He trailed Paxton 53-39 in that demographic, with every other Dem trailing by at least 20 and Gina Hinojosa’s 34 percent being the second best showing. This in turn is likely the result of a modest amount of Republican crossovers. From the poll memo:

Virtually all Democrats (97%) intend to vote for Talarico, with 1% intending to vote for Paxton and 2% undecided. In contrast, only 85% of Republicans intend to vote for Paxton today, with 5% intending to vote for Talarico, 4% for Brown and 6% still unsure for whom they will vote.

Finally, 98% of those voters who intend to cast a ballot for Gina Hinojosa in the Texas gubernatorial race intend to vote for Talarico, a notably higher percentage than that of Greg Abbott voters who intend to vote for Paxton (89%). The remaining 2% of Hinojosa voters remain undecided, while the remaining Abbott voters are split between 3% who intend to vote for Talarico, 2% who intend to vote for Brown, and 6% who are still undecided.

This is broadly consistent with other polls. Latino voters were 57-38 for Talarico, 55-41 for Hinojosa. There continues to be quite the range of results in this demographic subsample.

TSU’s poll data from just before the May primary runoff is here, with my writeup of it here. For what it’s worth, Talarico and Paxton were tied at 45 at that time. Also for what it’s worth, this TPR story from a month ago suggested that the “Talarico has problems with Black voters” narrative wasn’t really supported by polling evidence at the time. I’ll say this much, I’m very glad the Democratic primary for Senate was decided in March and not in May.

Via Daily Kos, I see that there was another positive poll for Talarico released this week, from an outfit called Wedgewood Polls, whose memo is here, I couldn’t find a decent news story about it. They had Talarico up 48-46. Daily Kos noted this was the fourth straight poll showing Talarico in the lead. According to the NYT poll tracker, there have been twelve Senate general election polls since Paxton won the runoff. Talarico has led in seven of them, Paxton in three, and they were tied in the other two. The most recent polls with Paxton in the lead were a Republican sponsored poll (49-47) and the June UT/Texas Politics Project poll, which had Paxton up 43-42. Both were in June. I’m not a big believer in momentum, but I’d rather be on a winning streak than a losing streak, that’s for sure.

Posted in Election 2026 | Tagged Bo French, Election 2026, Gina Hinojosa, Governor, Greg Abbott, James Talarico, Jasmine Crockett, Jon Rosenthal, Ken Paxton, polls, Railroad Commission, Senate, Texas | Leave a comment

Texas A&M sued over censoring professors

Posted on August 5, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

I wish them luck.

Four professors and a national faculty group asked a federal judge Monday to block the Texas A&M University System’s restrictions on teaching about race, gender and sexuality and to reinstate courses canceled under the policy.

The university system bars professors from “advocating” race or gender ideology or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity. It requires presidential approval to address those subjects in certain courses and, according to the lawsuit, prohibits them in core courses.

The lawsuit asks the judge to rescind instructions requiring professors to remove particular readings or subjects and declare the policy unconstitutional. They allege the restrictions violate the professors’ First Amendment rights and are so vague that faculty cannot determine what they may teach without risking discipline.

The American Association of University Professors brought the lawsuit alongside four professors: Texas A&M professors Leonard Bright, Vanita Reddy and Landon Sadler and Tarleton State University professor Aaron George. They are represented by the ACLU of Texas, the national ACLU and the Houston law firm Yetter Coleman. They sued the system’s regents in a federal court in Houston.

Chris Bryan, a spokesperson for the Texas A&M University System, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

It is the second Texas university system to face a lawsuit in recent weeks over academic restrictions. AAUP and one of its Texas chapters are suing Texas Tech as well.

The Texas A&M system implemented the policy after months of upheaval in College Station that began after a student secretly recorded her confrontation with a professor over a lesson on gender identity last summer. A Republican state lawmaker then posted the video on social media that fall, fueling conservative outrage over what the university was teaching.

See here for more on the Texas Tech lawsuit. Everything I said there applies here, with Glenn Hegar subbing in for Brandon Creighton. These are two very good universities being brought low by mediocre people with insecurity issues, who happen to have a friendly Legislature and a militant federal appeals court giving them cover. I support and applaud this action, I just fear it has no place to go. The Chron has more.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged ACLU of Texas, American Association of University Professors, censorship, diversity, Glenn Hegar, lawsuit, Tarleton State University, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, The Lege | Leave a comment

Houston sued for HPD detaining an immigrant for ICE

Posted on August 5, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Not a surprise.

A Honduran citizen allegedly detained by Houston police for more than two hours during a traffic stop before later being deported has sued the city over its policy governing how officers interact with federal immigration agents.

The filing is the latest development in a months-long fight between immigration advocates and Mayor John Whitmire’s administration over how officers respond when they encounter residents with civil immigration warrants, 700,000 of which officials in President Donald Trump’s administration added to a federal database last year.

The lawsuit alleges Houston police stopped Erick Lopez, 29, for a traffic violation on June 17 and held him for two hours. He was deported June 27, according to the filing.

“Erick has no criminal record,” said Lopez’s attorney, Randall Kallinen, in a press release. “He was supporting a girlfriend with two children, doing tile and other flooring work.”

[…]

Earlier this year, the city council approved an ordinance that restricted Houston police officers’ interactions with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The measure dictated that people with civil immigration warrants be released as soon as the original reason for the traffic stop was addressed, in keeping with legal experts’ and some police organizations’ interpretation of the Fourth Amendment.

But the council reversed that policy two weeks later, after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to pull $114 million in grant funding from the city.

Houston police have now returned to the policy they have used for most of Trump’s second term, with officers waiting a “reasonable” amount of time for ICE agents to pick up drivers detained with immigration warrants.

These warrants are civil, not criminal, documents, and do not by themselves give local police the authority to detain someone.

See here for some background on the City Council action. The Lorenzo Salgado Araujo story has faded a bit from the news, but that was never the only atrocity to be upset about. The story above is from Monday, here’s a followup from Tuesday after a press conference by attorney Kallinen.

By holding Lopez for two hours, Kallinen said, officers violated Lopez’s Fourth Amendment rights which protect people from excessive detention, regardless of citizenship status.

“The mayor and city council had a lot of debate about this, so they were fully aware of this going on prior to their final ordinance,” Kallinen said. “Yet we have all of these different cases which are violations of the Constitution, and when a government of any kind passes a law that doesn’t meet constitutional standards, the Constitution wins.”

The police department declined to comment, and referred reporters to the city’s legal department. Mayor John Whitmire’s office, which oversees the department, did not respond to a request for comment.

Travis Fife, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, said the city should have seen the lawsuit coming.

“This is the very thing we warned about months ago, that the city could’ve protected itself from by adopting and sticking to the ordinance passed limiting cooperation with immigration officials,” Fife said. “Instead, the city cowered under the governor’s threats. And now the plaintiff in this case has paid the ultimate cost of deportation. And the city is on the hook for the potentially huge monetary cost.”

Kallinen said that Lopez had lived in north Houston for about 10 years, and worked installing tiles to support his girlfriend and her two children.

Lopez was taken into custody on his birthday, after his family had cooked him dinner, his sister said. He is now back in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.

“They should stop detaining innocent people. The police are there to take care of us, so that we can trust them and not be scared of them,” she said. “He just worked and went home, he wasn’t out in the streets.”

Kallinen said he is requesting a class action lawsuit in this case, pointing to HPD’s own reporting that indicates 103 other people were referred to immigration agents in the first quarter of 2026 alone, 19 of whom were taken into ICE custody.

I’m going to say what I’ve said about several other recent lawsuits, which is that I support this, I wish them all the best, but I am not optimistic about the likelihood of success. I’ll be happy to be proven wrong. Houston Public Media has more.

Posted in La Migra, Legal matters | Tagged Erick Lopez, Greg Abbott, Honduras, Houston, Houston City Council, HPD, ICE, immigration, John Whitmire, lawsuit, Randall Kallinen | Leave a comment

Hemp industry sues over ban

Posted on August 4, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Good for them.

Three members of the hemp industry are suing the state of Texas for violating commerce protections after it was announced last week that nearly all hemp-derived THC products are illegal.

On Friday, two hemp retailers and a distributor filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas against the Texas Department of State Health Services; Attorney General Ken Paxton; and the Galveston County criminal district attorney and sheriff, alleging that classifying hemp-derived substances as illegal violates the 2018 Farm Bill, which removed it from the federal Controlled Substances Act.

The complaint states that the reinstated definitions provide no delineation between lawful hemp and unlawful marijuana; that it’s preempted by the 2018 Farm Bill’s protections for the interstate hemp market; and that these classifications impose an unconstitutional burden on interstate commerce.

In addition to the complaint, the plaintiffs are also moving for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent the ban on these THC products.

“For more than seven years, Texans have built a multibillion-dollar hemp industry under laws that define these products as legal hemp. Without any change to those laws, the State now says they’re Schedule I drugs, like heroin,” said Andrea Steel, lead counsel for the hemp industry in this case, in a news release.

State officials banned at the end of last month several hemp-derived THC cannabis products, including those containing delta-8 and delta-10 THC variants, punishing people in possession of them with jail time and fines. However, delta-9 THC, the most commonly sold THC product in Texas, will remain legal.

Now that THC variants are classified as a schedule I drug, possession of illegal THC products will be treated as a state jail felony, which carries a punishment of 180 days to two years in prison and fines of up to $10,000, say cannabis experts.

“Our Constitution does not allow the government to jail a person under a framework no one can make sense of – our clients are asking the federal court to protect Texans from their own confused government,” Steel said.

Cannabis experts say if the ban is not removed, more than half of the THC products in stores might be removed from shelves.

“It’s a pretty big blow, and it’s recriminalizing a lot of cannabis products that have been completely legal and allowable in the state for many years, so we’re taking steps backwards toward prohibition,” Sarah Todd, media representative at Texas Cannabis Policy Center, previously told the Tribune.

See here for the previous update. I have no idea what the likelihood of success is here. I’m rooting for them, and I assume they’re not taking a wild shot in the dark because lawsuits are expensive and time-consuming, but I have no insight as to the law here. What I want most of all is for this to be visible, and for it to be clear that this was something that Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick did. That’s a win no matter what happens next.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged cannabis, Charles Perry, Dan Patrick, Election 2026, Galveston, Greg Abbott, hemp, lawsuit, Supreme Court, TABC, Texas, Texas Cannabis Policy Center, Texas Department of State Health Services, THC, The Lege | Leave a comment

Abbott keeps trying to back away from his love of data centers

Posted on August 4, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Hilarious. And kind of pathetic.

Amid growing public backlash to the rapid buildout of data centers across Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday announced a moratorium on the approval of data centers until regulatory agencies can audit proposed data centers seeking connection to the state’s electric grid.

It is unclear how long the audit will take, but Abbott is asking the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to ensure data center developers provide information on tax breaks they will receive; power use and generation; water use and cooling operations; efforts to reduce impacts on local communities; and ownership of the facility. Any projects that fail Abbott’s ordered “comprehensive verification and audit” should be denied connection to the grid, the governor said.

Abbott’s letter to the PUCT and ERCOT directs them to conduct the audit on all data centers advancing through ERCOT’s interconnection queue, or the line for energy intensive projects seeking connection to the electric grid. ERCOT is currently tracking more than 1,800 projects in the queue, representing over 474 gigawatts of electricity, or more than five times the grid’s record for peak demand, according to ERCOT. Approximately 90% of the new power requests are data centers, Abbott said.

ERCOT and the PUCT are already conducting a review of some of the projects in the queue through a process known as “batch zero.” It is unclear if Abbott wants agencies to audit those projects or all those currently in the queue.

“Our top priority is to protect Texans’ safety and quality of life,” Abbott wrote in a statement. “Any project that fails to comply with the requirements set forth by the PUCT and ERCOT, and by state law, must be denied connection to the Texas grid. Simply put, Texans must come first.”

[…]

Lawmakers have spent much of this year seeking clarity about the facilities’ electricity use, water use and access to tax incentives as the Legislature considers tighter regulation of the industry.

Abbott cited the failure of some data centers to comply with a recent PUCT’s survey measuring water and power usage as the reason the audit was needed because it hinders the agencies’ ability to make informed decisions.

Developed by the PUCT in collaboration with the Texas Water Development Board, the survey collects information about a data center’s water consumption, cooling systems, water sources, electricity demand and whether facilities are connected to the state’s electric grid or have their own on-site power source such as a gas-fired power plant. The responses are meant to inform long-term state water planning.

State law requires the PUCT to share the data with the water development board and state environmental regulators and to submit a report to the governor and the Legislative Budget Board by the end of the year.

Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, a member of the House Natural Resources Committee called survey participation “pretty pathetic” during a June hearing. Of the 377 companies PUCT staff said it notified when the survey was launched, 28 submitted responses.

See here for the previous update. It’s almost as if we should have tried to have some safeguards in place before we threw open the gates and started handing out sales tax exemptions like lollipops at a pediatrician’s office. Oh, and maybe not took away all discretion from local governments as they tried to be responsive to their residents. Who could have ever seen all these problems coming?

The Chron adds some details.

Experts said it is unclear how much of an effect the directive will have, in large part because the governor’s letter does not detail what the audit should include or how long it should take.

ERCOT is already studying the first batch of large projects — known as “batch zero” — for approval to connect to the grid. Those approvals are still six to nine months away, said Joshua Rhodes, an energy researcher at the University of Texas at Austin.

“It depends what they do with this information, how long they take, how long they give everyone to provide this information, what kind of assessment,” Rhodes said. “If they give everyone three months to get this information in and another three months to assess it, that would pause things.”

A coalition representing data centers said it hopes the audit will help separate the good actors from the bad ones and urged regulators to move swiftly.

“Done correctly, this review can showcase the good actors in the data center industry rather than delaying them unnecessarily, ensuring Texas will continue to be the national leader in economic development,” said Dan Diorio, executive vice president of state policy and government affairs at the Data Center Coalition.

Abbott’s position on data centers has shifted rapidly amid a bubbling backlash to them, especially in rural parts of the state that have long been GOP strongholds. The governor touted Texas as the “epicenter of AI development” as recently as November.

[…]

Democrats, meanwhile, have sought to capitalize on the backlash. State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, an Austin Democrat running against him, last month called for Abbott to halt all data center construction in the state until lawmakers craft rules for the projects.

“So nice to see another strongly worded letter from Abbott after he proudly made Texas the Wild West of data centers,” Hinojosa said Monday. “Abbott’s call for a ‘pause’ could be for one day – and no one buys it.”

Sid Miller, the outgoing Republican Agriculture Commissioner who Abbott campaigned against in the primary, called his directive “empty political rhetoric.”

“There’s no perimeters around it,” Miller said of the audit. “He’s a lawyer. That’s just lawyer speak for nothing. He’s just dancing around the issue. It’s another wink and a nod to his data center campaign donors that they’re going to be fine.”

Calling for an audit rather than embracing a direct moratorium could help Abbott avoid drawing the ire of President Donald Trump, who slammed New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for halting data center construction in that state and called the centers “tremendous WINS for the States and Communities that are lucky enough to get them.”

Yes, we wouldn’t want to upset Grandpa Trump, would we? You know how he gets. In the meantime, seeing Abbott flail about so desperately is quite the delight. Keep on keeping this in the news, Greg. You’re doing a heck of a job.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged Clayton Tucker, Data Center Coalition, data centers, Election 2026, electricity, ERCOT, Gina Hinojosa, Governor, Greg Abbott, local control, Paul Bettencourt, Public Utility Commission, sales taxes, Sid Miller, special session, Texas, The Lege, water | Leave a comment

AI cameras in the jail?

Posted on August 4, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

They’re thinking about it.

Sheriff Ed Gonzalez

Artificial intelligence could soon be used to monitor inmates at the Harris County Jail.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office recently invited companies to submit proposals for an AI-powered camera system capable of analyzing inmates’ behavior and detecting weapons and other contraband. While the sheriff’s office has not yet chosen a vendor, it’s the first step toward bringing the technology into the jail and follows a wider pattern of AI implementation across county government.

The jail is a multi-building facility in downtown Houston along the banks of Buffalo Bayou. Its location, and the complexity of its layout, make it difficult for staff to monitor the thousands of inmates who enter and exit each day, said Jason Spencer, a senior policy advisor to Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.

“There are lots of blind spots and little nooks and crannies throughout the jail,” Spencer said. “So it’s a challenge keeping eyes on every square foot of that building. I don’t know that this kind of technology would fix that entirely, but it seems like it has the potential to help.”

Spencer compared what the sheriff’s office is looking for to similar technologies already in use at stadiums and by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. The hope, he said, is that the same technology can be adapted for use in a jail setting.

[…]

Beryl Lipton is a senior investigative researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to defending civil liberties from digital overreach. The technology might have potential, Lipton said, but she said jails and prison facilities have consistently failed to implement emerging technology in a way that benefits both the inmates and the officers tasked with guarding them.

“Unfortunately you see these crazy cases where the moment (an inmate) needs the footage, all of a sudden it’s gone, or the cameras weren’t recording, or the footage got corrupted,” Lipton said.

Lipton said government agencies also have broadly struggled to deploy AI-powered technology with accompanying safeguards that ensure the data they collect and process remains secure.

Spencer said officials don’t know how much the AI project would cost or how long it would take to deploy. As companies pitch their capabilities, Spencer said the sheriff’s office learns the technology’s potential and the associated price tag.

They’re in the early stages of this process, so we don’t have a lot of information yet. It’s fine to look at this sort of thing, the jail setting makes it a pretty good use case given the limited space, lesser concern for privacy, and greater need for surveillance. That doesn’t mean there are current products that will do what they need at a reasonable price, but it’s worth checking out. I hope they have a long list of questions to ask the vendors about things like their security posture, data retention policies (I assume the data will be kept on vendor-owned cloud servers), who will have access to the data and under what conditions, how to get out of the contract, and so on. I’ll be interested to see what if anything comes of this.

Posted in Crime and Punishment, Technology, science, and math | Tagged artificial intelligence, cameras, data privacy, Ed Gonzalez, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Harris County, Harris County Sheriff, jail | Leave a comment

A brief note on “non-citizen” voters

Posted on August 3, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

I’m just going to leave this here.

Still the only voter ID anyone should need

Election officials across the state should immediately reinstate some voters who were incorrectly flagged as potential noncitizens through a federal program, the Texas Secretary of State’s Office told county officials Wednesday.

Christina Adkins, the state elections director, told county officials the state had reviewed Texas Department of Public Safety records confirming the citizenship of some of the 2,724 registered voters who were flagged as potential noncitizens, according to an audio recording of her comments obtained by Votebeat and The Texas Tribune, as well as election officials who heard them. The voters were flagged after the state checked its voter roll through a federal program called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, used to verify the citizenship of people registered to vote.

Adkins said the state is still working through the data and that she couldn’t yet say how many of the 2,724 people had provided proof of citizenship to DPS and should thus be reinstated if they were already removed from the voter roll. She characterized SAVE as having “some inaccurate information” but added that “most of the data that we got out of SAVE was consistent with what DPS had.”

According to election officials, the secretary of state’s office said it plans in the coming days to send voter registrars additional information from DPS showing some of the flagged registered voters had in fact provided proof of citizenship to DPS while registering to vote or obtaining a driver’s license or state ID.

There isn’t yet an exact number of how many U.S. citizens’ registrations were actually canceled or how many were canceled in total by counties after being flagged by SAVE, said Kristin Miles, the Bastrop County elections administrator and president of the Texas Association of County Election Officials.

“Counties are following appropriate list maintenance procedures under Texas law, and will ensure eligible voters whose registrations were cancelled are reinstated, and that only U.S. citizens remain on the voter rolls,” Miles said in an emailed statement.

See here, here, here, and here for some background. The point here is simply that plenty of actual citizens, who follow the rules and do the right things, get removed from voter rolls all the time because of bad data, bad timing, and human error. The people who are out there screaming about non-citizens voting and the need to take extreme measures to prevent that from ever happening never acknowledge that fact. The rest of us ought to do so.

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged Donald Trump, DPS, drivers licenses, Election 2026, Homeland Security, immigration, lawsuit, Secretary of State, Texas, Texas Association of County Election Officials, Travis County, voter registration | Leave a comment

Zoox gets regulatory approval for commercial deployment

Posted on August 3, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Get ready to see more of these weird vehicles in certain select cities.

Amazon’s Zoox unit has won U.S. approval for limited commercial deployment of its novel steering-wheel-free robotaxis, a first for the autonomous ride industry, the U.S. auto safety agency said on Thursday.

Zoox said that the National Highway Traffic Safety ‌Administration’s decision gives the company federal approval to begin charging for rides, and that it will soon begin charging for service, first in Las Vegas, with additional markets to follow as it completes various state requirements.

The exemption granted by the agency from federal rules requiring human controls, first reported by Reuters, marks a milestone for companies developing robotaxis from the ground up, rather than modifying conventional cars under safety regulations written long before self-driving technology emerged.

Along with Zoox, whose electric carriage-style vehicle has two rows of inward-facing seats and a top speed of 75 miles (120 km) per hour, others such as Tesla and Alphabet’s Waymo are ⁠racing to expand autonomous ride-hailing services in the United States.

NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison told Reuters that Zoox had received clearance to commercially deploy up to 2,500 vehicles in each of the next two years.

Zoox currently carries passengers in parts of Las Vegas and San Francisco as part of testing. The exemption would allow Zoox to charge them fees, subject to state and local approvals.

The agency said it determined the vehicle is as safe as an equivalent vehicle meeting federal motor vehicle safety standards that are being waived. Zoox cannot sell any of the vehicles to the public.

“We can say pretty clearly that the systems in place on the Zoox exceed the equivalent performance requirements of a compliant vehicle,” Morrison said in an interview. “But we still want to make sure that the automated driving system will operate appropriately.”

As part of the exemption, NHTSA is placing additional reporting requirements on Zoox for issues such as crashes or stopping inappropriately on roads, and the regulatory agency will adjust the conditions based on ‌how the ⁠vehicles behave.

“We have the ability to pull the exemption if we see major safety issues,” Morrison said.

All remote operators must be located in the United States, NHTSA said, and Zoox must publish maps of areas indicating where the vehicles are operating.

Morrison said NHTSA expects to develop the first federal safety standards for automated driving systems by the end of the Trump administration. It is also proposing to overhaul some existing rules written with human drivers in mind such as requiring brake pedals and rear-view mirrors.

See here for the background. Zoox is coming to Dallas and Austin, though at this time Amazon is just seeking approval to charge fares in Nevada and California. I don’t know if these vehicles with no steering wheels or gas and brake pedals present greater challenges for law enforcement than other robotaxis do, but 1) I hope Amazon is better at providing training and documentation than Google/Waymo has been, and 2) it’s just a matter of time before those other robotaxis make similar design and engineering choices. I’m sure it’s also just a matter of time before they show up in Houston, and as weird as those Waymos look, these will be next level. CNBC and Engadget have more.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged Amazon, Austin, Dallas, driverless cars, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, San Francisco, taxis, Tesla, Waymo, Zoox | 2 Comments

Abbott reappoints all the Business Court judges

Posted on August 3, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

From the Things You Didn’t Remember Were A Thing department:

Governor Greg Abbott reappointed all 10 Texas Business Court judges to new two-year terms Wednesday.

The terms will begin on Sept. 1, the judges’ second since the court was created in the 2023 legislative session.

“Businesses choose Texas in record numbers because Texas delivers results,” said Abbott in a release. “The Texas Business Court has resolved complex commercial disputes with unmatched speed and expertise. Hundreds of cases already filed and scores resolved prove these judges fuel Texas’ status as the economic engine of America. I have reappointed these skilled judges to protect that success and to ensure that Texas’ business jurisprudence is on steady ground for years to come.”

The Texas Business Court specializes in complex corporate litigation that normal district courts may not have the time or expertise to deal with effectively, and it is currently made up of five divisions each helmed by two experienced jurists. Unlike state district court judges, who are elected, business court judges are appointed by the governor.

The inaugural 10 judges were sworn in in September of 2024, and in their first year on the bench, the Texas Business Court saw more than 180 cases filed. The judges are:

Andrea K. Bouressa
Bill Whitehill
Melissa Davis Andrews
Patrick K. Sweeten
Marialyn Barnard
Stacy Sharp
Jerry D. Bullard
Brian Stagner
Sofia Adrogué
Grant Dorfman

See here and here for some background. The story kind of reads like a press release from the Governor’s office, but all of the real coverage (*) of this was on various paywalled sites, so this is what we’ve got. Unlike the 15th Court of Appeals, for which the first batch of three justices were appointed and are now up for election, this one is apparently going to be a special toy for the Governor. Here’s Bloomberg Law with a preview story for these reappointments.

No other judge in Texas is subject to reappointment by the governor every two years. But the business court’s unusual reappointment system is meant to give litigants confidence that the judge overseeing their complex, high-dollar case will be insulated from the unpredictability of an election and not get replaced with what could be an inexperienced candidate. Limiting terms to two years was done to avoid a constitutional challenge, as judges in Texas with four-year terms must face voters in elections.

Yet, the system brings uncertainty in a different form. A thumbs up or down governor review every two years puts judges on notice to produce in a way that satisfies the one person who is essentially their only boss. Only the Texas Senate can reject a governor’s appointment to the court, an unlikely scenario so long as Abbott holds the office and the upper chamber remains Republican-controlled.

[…]

There are no indications Abbott is going to pull the plug on the judges, and he’s likely mindful that getting rid of even one would send a confusing message to businesses about how things are going. Overhauling the benches would indicate problems when all signs point to the contrary: Parties say they’re pleased with the pace of litigation and prefer the experience in the specialized court to that of slow-moving traditional trial courts.

“Reappointments would signal stability. Switching that up might send the opposite message,” Nick Burns of Scale LLP said.

Case filings are up in the second year after lawmakers lowered entry barriers, and judges are generally resolving key motions with detailed opinions within weeks of hearings.

“It’s not a situation where there’s been clamoring from lawyers for eight of the judges to remain and two to be replaced,” said Rafe Schaefer of Norton Rose Fulbright LLP. “I think the expectation from practitioners is all 10 judges are going to be reappointed.”

Since the court’s creation — and, perhaps, because of its creation— Dell, Tesla, SpaceX, Dillard’s, and Coinbase Global Inc. moved their corporations to Texas from Delaware, and Exxon made the move from New Jersey. Elon Musk, who left Delaware in a huff after a Chancery Court judge slashed his $55 billion Tesla pay package, recently contributed $500,000 to Abbott’s reelection campaign.

Abbott, who is seeking a fourth term as governor in November, will appoint judges to the business court twice more if he wins, in 2028 and 2030.

“I think if all 10 judges are reappointed then that is a message that things are swimming along as the Governor wants them to and he’s happy with the progress of chipping away at Delaware,” said Kate Ergenbright of Norton Rose Fulbright.

There were some positive words said in the comments about the Houston-based judges in that second post of mine linked above, and I have no reason to think they’re not doing a decent job overall. That said, one of the motivating factors in creating this court, and giving Greg Abbott the power to appoint the judges, was to pacify Elon Musk after one of his toddler tantrums. I for one don’t give a damn about having a business-friendly court for the purpose of luring more asshole billionaires here – companies “moving” their corporate HQs here means little in terms of jobs or the economy – and so I don’t care about how they think these courts are operating or whether they’re sufficiently non-confusing for their business interests. If Gina Hinojosa wins in November, she should feel free to fully use the discretion that office has been given and appoint whoever the hell she wants to those courts. If the businesses and the fancy lawyers who argue before these courts don’t like it, maybe they should have been more careful about what they asked for.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged 15th Court of Appeals, Business Court, Delaware, Election 2026, Elon Musk, Gina Hinojosa, Governor, Grant Dorfman, Greg Abbott, Sofia Adrogue, Texas, The Lege | 1 Comment

Weekend link dump for August 2

Posted on August 2, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

“Olive Garden would be hard-pressed to sell its bottomless pasta bowl were such documentation required.”

“The closest thing you have to bottom-up institutions or organizations that are vehicles for popular democratic actions are groups like Indivisible, which have chapters across the country and are again and again at the forefront when you see today examples of grassroots mobilization.”

The Cybertruck is almost as successful as the Edsel was.

“The new teen pregnancy prevention plan isn’t that focused on prevention”.

“The rhetoric was very overblown. The headlines made it out that a model had run amok, and that it was a complete surprise, and that it was something people might be exposed to. But what was really happening was that OpenAI was testing a new version of a system made up of multiple of its models. It was specifically within a sandboxed environment, and they were basically trying to get it to demonstrate capabilities in executing cyber attacks. What ended up happening was that the system identified a vulnerability in a part of the sandbox setup, and it used that vulnerability to access the internet to find the answer key for the test, which led it to try to figure out if the answers to the test were on Hugging Face in a non-public setup.”

“The year climate change came for the Tour de France”.

When Ted Williams used his Hall of Fame induction speech to advocate for Negro League stars Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson to also be inducted, and what followed from there.

“If you’re “tough on immigration,” you’re all-in on sin. Period.”

“However, cyclosporiasis isn’t the only foodborne illness you need to worry about now, because there are also new outbreaks of salmonella and listeria.”

“I unfortunately believe we’re going to see a reversal in the health profile of this country. This current federal regime has decided that humanity and public health and justice don’t mean anything.”

Also, too, anti-vaxxers are the worst. Just the absolute worst.

“Taxpayers spend about $2 billion annually on Medicaid for Amazon and Walmart employees”.

Every word of this NYT story on data centers in Louisiana is infuriating. Read it, but take deep breaths as you do.

“Political operative behind Graham Platner’s rise accused of sexual assault”.

“A Whole Bunch of People’s Claude Chats Are Publicly Accessible Online, and There’s Some Wildly Private Stuff in There”.

RIP, John C. Dvorak, longtime tech journalist and podcaster.

“Just as northeastern old money brought its culture to government and the oil men of the southwest brought theirs, now Trump and his world has brought theirs. It’s swindles all the way down and increasingly a culture of swindlery.”

“The first iteration of abstinence-only education was a billion-dollar failure. Its encore under this Trump administration is somehow even worse: A dumb idea that has mutated into a dangerous one.”

“In 2025, Americans placed roughly $166 billion in bets on sporting events. That’s more than the entire U.S. movie, music, book, and museum industries generated in revenue combined.”

RIP, Glen Hansard, Irish singer and guitarist who was in the movie The Commitments and won an Oscar for his role in the movie Once. If you’ve seen the video of the performance of “Fairytale of New York” at Shane MacGowan’s funeral, that’s Hansard playing the guitar and singing MacGowan’s part.

“To understand peptide mania, he said, you need to understand that wellness has become profoundly obsessed with masculinity.”

“California Does Medicaid Home Care Well. They’re Being Punished For It.”

“In new court filings last evening, James Comey unloaded a triple shotgun blast at the bogus “86 47” seashells prosecution against him.”

“HBO Is Getting Down In The Slop With Everyone Else”.

“The new mission for A-list dads—should they choose to accept it—is: don’t be like these guys. Then, maybe, your Hollywood stage name might live on to the next generation.”

“A federal judge Tuesday tossed FBI Director Kash Patel’s $10 million lawsuit against a blogger who called him a “googly-eyed Kremlin bitch.”” As they say, truth is a defense against libel.

Also: “Because Gordon’s ruling does not address the substance of Patel’s claims, the specific legal question of whether characterizing FBI Director Kash Patel as a “googly-eyed Kremlin bitch” is defamatory or mere rhetorical hyperbole protected by the First Amendment remains, for now, unresolved. As of this writing, Patel has yet to indicate whether he plans to sue Stewartson in a different, more appropriate forum. If he does so, and argues in a future legal filing that it would be objectively false to describe him as a “blatantly incompetent chud,” rest assured that I will be following up.”

“Prince ‘Purple Rain’ Musical Coming to Broadway in 2027″.

“Has the cyclospora outbreak impacted berries? What parents of berry-aged children need to know.”

“European nations have agreed to boycott the World Cup over FIFA’s plans to sell stakes in the tournament to private investors.” Fortunately, now they don’t have to as FIFA’a Gianni Infantino has backed down from his stupid plan.

“A US government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a state department presentation at a ⁠global conference in Brazil ⁠this week, causing a stir among attenders who took screenshots and posted them online.” It was apparently made with OpenAI tools.

RIP, Vincent Pastore, actor best known as Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero on The Sopranos.

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged linkdump | 2 Comments

Parental rights lawsuit filed against Ten Commandment law

Posted on August 2, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

We’ll see if this approach works better than the first one did.

A lawsuit filed this week against the state-mandated Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms argues the requirement violates a parental rights amendment voters added to the Texas Constitution last November.

The suit, brought by three Houston-area mothers, could be the first test of the GOP-backed constitutional amendment, which declares that parents have the “right to make decisions concerning the child’s upbringing.”

“The State has changed what I teach my children about religion, how I teach it, and when I teach it,” said Dr. Audrey Rosa Nath, whose two children attend Houston ISD. “I used to spend (my time) teaching them what our family believes. Now I spend it rebutting a text the State ordered into their classroom, in a room where I am not present and cannot answer.”

Their lawsuit, filed in Harris County, seeks to take down the Ten Commandments displays that are mandated by Senate Bill 10. Under the law, public school districts don’t have to purchase posters that list the Ten Commandments, but they must display them if they’re donated. It’s not clear how many districts across Texas have put them up.

The lawsuit also argues that SB10 violates a 1999 law signed by then-Gov. George W. Bush, the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The decades-old law bars a government agency from burdening a person’s free exercise of religion, and the lawsuit argues posting the text in classrooms violates that right.

The parents argue in their lawsuit that the harm is imminent because the school year is beginning next month. One of the plaintiffs, Emily Roth, tried in March to have Spring Branch ISD remove posters from classrooms or simultaneously include displays from other faiths, but the school board unanimously voted against her requests.

She told Hearst Newspapers at the time she felt “the system has failed.” Roth is the only one of the three parents seeking monetary damages from her children’s district.

This appears to have been filed in state court, which makes sense since the challenges are about a state law and a recent amendment to the state constitution. The federal lawsuits that had been filed previously all won in the district court but were then jacked up by the Fifth Circuit, on a very close vote that might actually run into problems with SCOTUS. I thought those lawsuits made a lot of sense and I think this one does too. It’s mostly a matter of how far sophistry, motivated reasoning, and a desire to consider some forms of religion to be more equal than others will go with the Supreme Court justices that will ultimately decide this. I wish everyone involved the best of luck. The Trib and Houston Public Media have more.

(I assume this is the same Audrey Nath who ran for HISD Board in 2025 and for the open District C seat earlier this year.)

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged Audrey Nath, Cy-Fair ISD, Emily Roth, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Greg Abbott, Harris County, HISD, Ken Paxton, lawsuit, Mike Morath, Sanjam Kaur Sohal, Spring Branch, Supreme Court, ten commandments, Texas, Texas Education Agency, The Lege | 3 Comments

Katy ISD restricts generative AI for its students

Posted on August 2, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

I approve.

Katy ISD is banning elementary students from using generative AI chat tools as parents and educators debate whether the technology belongs in classrooms at all.

School districts nationwide are trying to balance the need to prepare students for artificial intelligence with concerns about academic integrity, excessive screen time and whether the technology could interfere with the critical thinking that teachers want students to develop.

The new rules, which take effect at the start of the 2026-27 school year, give students more access to AI as they get older.

Students won’t be allowed to use generative AI from kindergarten through sixth grade. Seventh graders can use it only when a teacher directs them to. In eighth grade, students can use approved AI tools with a teacher’s permission.

High school students also will face restrictions on AI use.

The restrictions apply specifically to generative AI tools that students can interact with directly, such as Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini. Elementary teachers will still be able to use district-approved instructional programs that incorporate artificial intelligence behind the scenes to personalize reading instruction and other lessons under teacher supervision.

Students must disclose and cite their use of AI, verify the information it produces and use only tools vetted by the district, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Sanée Bell told trustees.

“AI can support the learning process, but it cannot replace the thinking, the struggle or the growth that learning requires,” Bell said. “That, in those moments, is when learning happens.”

See here and here for a look at how other schools, districts, and states are approaching this issue. I don’t think there’s one right answer but I do think that a more skeptical approach that keeps AI away from younger kids is the better direction. I certainly like this policy better than whatever it is that Mike Miles is doing at HISD, that’s for sure. Some parents wanted Katy ISD to go further than they did, but at least they got to be heard and have their perspective considered. They might even be able to persuade their Trustees to revisit the policy down the line. What a concept.

Posted in School days | Tagged artificial intelligence, HISD, Katy, Katy ISD, Mike Miles, schools, Texas | Leave a comment

John Oliver trolls Buc-ee’s

Posted on August 2, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Oh, this is going to be fun.

Bucky the Beaver may have finally bitten off more than he can chew. His litigious ways of suing seemingly the entire animal kingdom have gotten him noticed by one late-night host who says he has both the time and the money to take Buc-ee’s down.

John Oliver, host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, dedicated 13 minutes of his Sunday night show to Buc-ee’s, beginning with the awe of visiting World Cup tourists. Oliver then went on to detail Buc-ee’s numerous lawsuits against other convenience stores, T-shirt companies and even an underwear brand called “Nut Huggers,” where the company accuses them of trademark infringement.

Oliver notes that Buc-ee’s usually wins its cases because the smaller companies don’t have the resources to fight the case and either settle and redesign their logos or go out of business.

“But Buc-ee’s should be careful here because, as one legal expert has said, the more you do this, the more you might run into somebody who has the means or the will to fight with you,” Oliver said. “That’s where we come in, because it turns out, we very much have the will to get into a fight with Buc-ee’s.”

In response, Oliver and his show have debuted their own line of merch featuring the logo “Buc-Off” underneath encircled mascot Mr. Nutterbutter, “everyone’s favorite cartoon animal who doesn’t sue small businesses!”

You can see the abridged YouTube short of this video here; the Chron story embeds it from Instagram. The merch is now available, through September 8, at Buc-Off.com, with all revenue benefitting Hunger Free America. And good news, as first reported by the DMN and noted in an update in this story, Buc-ee’s has said they do not intend to sue Last Week Tonight over this. Probably for the best.

Oh, you know who else has noted Buc-ee’s litigious ways? This guy. Though I haven’t been keeping up with the beaver, as there have been many more lawsuits since the last one I noted. They seem to find any previously existing gas station/convenience store chain with an animal-themed mascot in whatever new state they’re opening up in, and go after them. Perhaps this will slow them down a bit. USA Today has more.

Posted in Bidness, Legal matters, TV and movies | Tagged Buc-ee's, Hunger Free America, John Oliver, lawsuit, Texas, videos | 3 Comments

Fox News poll: Talarico 51, Paxton 48

Posted on August 1, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Wow.

Rep. James Talarico

President Donald Trump won the Lone Star state by nearly 14 percentage points in 2024, but a new Fox News Poll of Texas registered voters suggests this year’s Senate race is far less settled. Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton has yet to fully unify the GOP despite the president’s endorsement in the GOP primary against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn.

In addition, more voters are concerned Paxton lacks the character to serve than worry Democratic challenger James Talarico is too extreme, and more Democrats than Republicans are extremely motivated to vote (by 7 points) and extremely interested in the midterms (by 6).

Those dynamics give Talarico a 3-point edge over Paxton (51% vs. 48%) in the Senate contest (within the survey’s margin of sampling error).

Talarico’s advantage in the race grows to 6 points among both extremely motivated and extremely interested voters (53% vs. 47% in each group).

Most independents (68%) and virtually all Democrats support Talarico (98%), while fewer Republicans are unified behind Paxton (89%).

In part, that’s because one quarter of non-MAGA Republicans back Talarico (24%).

[…]

By a 12-point margin, more voters are concerned Paxton lacks the character to serve as a senator than believe Talarico is too extreme (59% vs. 47%).

Twice as many Republicans are concerned about Paxton’s character as Democrats are that Talarico is too extreme (36% vs. 17%).

Still, about 8 in 10 Paxton and Talarico supporters say their backing is more about where the candidates stand on the issues than who they are as people.

Trump received a 55% favorable vs. 44% unfavorable rating in the 2024 Texas Fox News Voter Analysis (FNVA) election survey. Today, those numbers have flipped: 45% favorable vs. 54% unfavorable, for a minus-9 net negative rating.

Paxton garners a minus-6 net personal rating, 45% favorable vs. 51% unfavorable, while Talarico is in positive territory by 6 points, 49% vs. 43%.

Talarico is more popular than the Democratic Party while the GOP edges out Paxton.

While both parties are viewed negatively, the GOP is underwater by only 2 points (48% favorable vs. 50% unfavorable), compared with the Democratic Party at minus-9 (45% vs. 54%).

[…]

In the race for governor, incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is favored by 1 point over Democrat Gina Hinojosa.

Part of Abbott’s edge comes from a touch more crossover support: 12% of Talarico supporters back Abbott, while 9% of Paxton supporters back Hinojosa.

Hinojosa has the advantage among extremely motivated (+6) and extremely interested voters (+5).

Abbott has a net positive personal rating by a single point (50% favorable vs. 49% unfavorable). Hinojosa is in positive territory by 11 points (45% vs. 34%), although nearly 1 in 5 are unable to rate her.

That’s two strong poll results in a row, following the TPOR poll. It’s also Talarico’s high score in any poll so far. You can see the toplines here and the crosstabs here. Fox News has a giant pile of sins to atone for, but its polling is generally well-regarded, so while I always look funny a poll results that have little to no “don’t know” or “other” answers, this is a reputable result. Talarico takes 10% of GOP voters, wins indies by a 68-29 landslide, is competitive with white voters (42-57), gets fairly normal numbers from Black (87-13) and Latino (59-41) voters. Gina Hinojosa does almost as well across the board (9% of GOP voters, 61-34 for indies, 85-14 for Black voters, 58-42 for Latino voters), and this is the best result she has seen so far. All the usual caveats apply, we’re just adding this to the pile. The Chron has more.

Posted in Election 2026 | Tagged Election 2026, Gina Hinojosa, Governor, Greg Abbott, James Talarico, Ken Paxton, polls, Senate, Texas | Leave a comment

Say good-bye to smokable hemp

Posted on August 1, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

There it goes.

Texans’ access to a variety of hemp-derived THC products will significantly narrow on Friday.

Texas will ban several hemp-derived THC cannabis products, including those containing delta-8 and delta-10 THC variants, punishing people in possession of them with jail time and fines. However, delta-9 THC, the most commonly sold THC product in Texas, will remain legal.

This is the latest blow to the state’s hemp industry, which has been consumed with uncertainty over the last several months as flurries of court of actions have ripped products off shelves and then put them back on.

The recent change stems from a Texas Supreme Court decision in May that allowed the Texas Department of State Health Services to reclassify all hemp-derived THC, except for low-dose delta-9 THC, as a schedule I drug, prohibiting its possession and sale in the state. The ruling ended a 2021 injunction that paused DSHS from enforcing the new classification, which effectively allowed stores to stock different kinds of THC for the past five years.

Cannabis experts say Friday’s ban could remove more than half of the THC products off some stores’ shelves.

“It’s a pretty big blow, and it’s recriminalizing a lot of cannabis products that have been completely legal and allowable in the state for many years, so we’re taking steps backwards toward prohibition,” said Sarah Todd, media representative at Texas Cannabis Policy Center.

See here for the previous update. It’s going to be rough for a lot of small businesses.

When Molly Mathias first opened her cannabis shop in Dallas’ Bishop Arts, she hoped to create space in the industry that she hadn’t found elsewhere.

In a departure from the intimidating, confusing and sometimes unfriendly tone of the shops she was used to, she built Go Easy to be welcoming, women-led and self-care focused.

But after six years navigating the industry’s erratic legal landscape, Mathias, who grew up in Grand Prairie, is tired of her own state working against her.

Go Easy will permanently close its doors after July 31 — when Texas will ban smokeable hemp products and other items containing delta-8, delta-10, and several other cannabinoids.

For the over 9,000 businesses that are licensed to sell hemp products in Texas, the move is just the latest blow after years of uncertainty and legal back-and-forth as state lawmakers attempt to squander the industry.

Gov. Greg Abbott cleared the path in 2019, when he signed House Bill 1325 legalizing the sale and production of products containing less than 0.3% delta-9 THC.

“That’s kind of like just a little bit glimpse of what this business is like, especially in Texas,” Mathias said. “One week you’re doing good, you’re successful, the next week, your business could completely get shut down and go bankrupt. The back and forth for small businesses is just so intense and crazy for us.”

Mathias said smokeable products made up about 50% of the shop’s sales. Without them, it would be too difficult for the small business to compete with larger corporations that sell non-smokeable hemp products, like Target and Total Wine, she said.

The effect on businesses like this one has been a large part of the discussion about the attempt to ban most hemp products, which eventually became Abbott’s executive order about smokable hemp. I have wondered what effect it may have on this election, since the idea of a ban is largely unpopular. Obviously, there are bigger issues that have dominated the conversation – data centers, ICE raids, gas prices, etc – but I bet a lot of those affected business owners vote. And they also know the threat of a broader ban is still present.

Key Republicans are already planning another attempt at banning all THC products in Texas, insisting that the tighter regulations Gov. Greg Abbott imposed through an executive order last year aren’t doing enough.

“I’m filing the ban again,” state Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, said during a hearing at the Texas Capitol last week. “There’s nothing good in this stuff. There’s no virtue in it.”

Perry’s comments come just over a year after Abbott vetoed Perry’s previous attempt to ban all hemp-derived THC products. Abbott said then that the bill was “well-intentioned” but would not have survived legal challenges. Instead, Abbott pushed for tighter regulations and tougher enforcement of current laws to lower the potency of what is available on the market and keep other products from getting into the hands of children.

Texas has more than 8,500 retailers selling hemp-derived THC products, including gummies and drinks. Some estimates say the burgeoning industry is now worth $8 billion.

Perry said attempts to regulate the industry aren’t working. He accused the THC industry of constantly changing its methods to get around whatever regulations the state puts in its way. And he pointed to data from the Department of State Health Services that show an increasing number of hospitalizations and calls to poison control hotlines for THC and cannabis complications over the last few years.

“So there’s no path to fix this other than getting rid of it,” Perry said of his plans for the next legislative session, which starts in January.

I would think that the people in the THC business are generally aware that Dan Patrick has been the driving force behind this, and I would hope they’d vote accordingly. It’s on the ballot, however visible it is.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged cannabis, Charles Perry, Dan Patrick, DPS, Election 2026, Greg Abbott, hemp, Hemp Industry & Farmers of America, HHSC, lawsuit, Supreme Court, TABC, Texas, Texas Cannabis Policy Center, Texas Department of State Health Services, Texas Hemp Business Council, THC, The Lege, veto | Leave a comment

Metro contemplates doing something with the Inner Katy Line

Posted on August 1, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Not clear what, which is par for the course with this version of Metro.

What was promised…

Metro officials are recommending a new approach to improving transit along the Interstate 10 corridor after the estimated cost of the Inner Katy Bus Rapid Transit project nearly tripled to $800 million.

Instead of building Metro its own dedicated bus rapid transit route, board members discussed using the Texas Department of Transportation’s future I-10 managed lanes to move buses between West Loop 610 and downtown, and studying alternatives.

“The Inner Katy project was a great project, but because of the existing circumstances, we as an agency cannot proceed,” board member Roberto Treviño said before voicing support for the recommendation at a committee meeting.

TxDOT Houston District spokesperson Danny Perez said in an email that TxDOT can accommodate Metro’s buses in the managed lanes, as it now does west of Loop 610.

Metro spokesperson Meredith Johnson said in an email that the agency is also evaluating the other options to approve mobility for the corridor that keep costs down and ensure the project can be maintained long term.

“We will present the best options to the Metro Board of Directors upon completion of our review,” she said.

[…]

Metro evaluated several concepts to fit the Inner Katy BRT into the corridor, including an elevated structure that would carry both highway traffic and bus rapid transit, said Shri Reddy, Metro’s executive vice president for planning, engineering and construction.

He said the joint elevated structure “became very complicated” to construct, would have caused “major impacts to existing traffic,” and carried a high cost, making it “not a very viable option.”

“So, it came to a point where we’re at an impasse in terms of having a feasible and a reasonable solution,” Reddy said.

Perez explained that the alternative highway design requested by the city of Houston and Harris County Precinct 4 on the west end of the project — if that option is selected by TxDOT — would leave little room for Metro’s initial Inner Katy BRT plan.

He said Metro could also study acquiring additional property to make the Inner Katy BRT project work, but the limited space in the corridor would require close coordination between agencies.

See here for the previous update. Besides inventing a time machine and telling the 2019 version of the Metro board to start building something as soon as the referendum passed, I don’t know what the best option at this point is. It would be nice if the city of Houston didn’t further restrict those options, but that bus appears to have left the terminal. Let’s just say I don’t expect much at this point, and leave it there.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged BRT, construction, Election 2019, Elizabeth Brock, Houston, HOV lanes, I-10, I-610, Inner Katy line, John Whitmire, LINK Houston, Metro, TxDOT | Leave a comment

July 2026 campaign finance reports: Senate and Congress

Posted on July 31, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

We have our finalized field for Congress, managing to avoid a catastrophic outcome in what is now one of the better-funded races, and we’re seeing a decent amount of activity across the board. The April 2026 reports are here, the January 2026 reports are here, the October 2025 reports are here and here, the July 2025 reports are here, and the April 2025 reports are here.

James Talarico – Senate

Shaun Finnie – CD02
Evan Hunt – CD03
Lizzie Fletcher – CD07
Leticia Gutierrez – CD09
Caitlin Rourk – CD10
Bobby Pulido – CD15
Christian Menefee – CD18
Kristin Hook – CD21
Marquette Greene-Scott – CD22
Katy Padilla Stout – CD23
Kevin Burge – CD24
Henry Cuellar – CD28
Sylvia Garcia – CD29
Justin Early – CD31
Vicente Gonzalez – CD34
Johnny Garcia – CD35
Melissa McDonough – CD38


Dist  Name             Raised      Spent      Loans    On Hand
==============================================================
Sen   Talarico     68,555,930 47,007,775          0 21,548,155

02    Finnie        2,729,676  1,260,476  1,961,000  1,469,200
03    Hunt            446,505    402,627     78,338     43,877
07    Fletcher      1,426,056  1,040,012          0  1,702,706
09    Gutierrez        55,357     36,700        500     18,657
10    Rourk           363,958    271,818          0     92,140
15    Pulido        2,960,461  1,804,525          0  1,155,936
18    Menefee       3,637,578  3,481,562          0    156,015
21    Hook            243,839    144,127        131    104,069
22    Greene-Scott     53,760     53,614          0        126
23    Stout           488,813    311,556      7,392    176,111
24    Burge           149,621    127,433          0     22,187
28    Cuellar       2,231,952  1,150,307    301,000  1,129,603
29    Garcia          987,247  1,158,183          0    200,972
31    Early           123,521    106,122     58,737     17,399
34    Gonzalez      3,773,915  1,523,562          0  2,532,412
35    Garcia          931,699    608,591          0    323,108
38    McDonough        66,928     45,689    113,239     43,939

I do enjoy the July Congressional finance reporting period, because there’s a much smaller group of candidates I need to follow. This is still a somewhat optimistic list, but everyone on here at least has a shot at raising $100K. Before 2018, outside of whoever was running in CD23, you’d have had a hard time finding a non-incumbent in that group. That to me remains worth noting.

I’d say it’s likely that James Talarico tops $100 million in funds raised this cycle. That will do a lot of work for him and for downballot Democrats. Ken Paxton is not performing at that level, or anywhere close to it. Money isn’t destiny and we all know the statewide Dem track record. But still, wow.

Some of the Congressional hopefuls that have raised a decent amount have also been spending it at a fast rate. I don’t scan through the forms so I don’t know what Evan Hunt has been spending his money on – he didn’t have a primary opponent, so it wasn’t that – but I hope he’s gotten some value out of it.

Of the candidates in races that are being targeted by the DCCC, Bobby Pulido is in a class by himself, outpacing the MAGA incumbent and making her say some tentative things about ICE maybe being not so good. Johnny Garcia, who had to win a vital runoff in May, and Katy Padilla Stout, who was a later entrant into that primary and who didn’t really garner much attention until Tony Gonzales self-destructed, are both doing well. I would really love to see some help for Leticia Gutierrez – I will say this again, don’t be fooled by the 2024 numbers in that district, it is a winnable race – but that hasn’t happened as of July.

Shaun Finnie has raised some big money on top of the almost $2M he’s lent himself, which is quite impressive in a much redder district. I’ll be interviewing him soon. CD24 has been one of the least red Republican districts since 2018, even after two more rounds of redistricting. It’s a reach, but in a year like this it’s one of those districts that could surprise you. If there were such a thing as venture capital for Congressional races, I’d advocate for a round of funding for Kevin Burge, who had to win a runoff to get here. You never know, that’s all I’m saying.

That’s all for now on the finance reports. I’ll wait till January for HISD and HCC. Hope you found this useful, as always let me know what you think.

Posted in Election 2026 | Tagged Caitlin Rourk, campaign finance reports, CD02, CD03, CD07, CD09, CD10, CD15, CD18, CD21, CD22, CD23, CD24, CD28, CD29, CD31, CD34, CD35, CD38, Congress, Democratic primary, Election 2026, Evan Hunt, Henry Cuellar, James Talarico, Johnny Garcia, Justin Early, Katy Padilla Stout, Kevin Burge, Kristin Hook, Leticia Gutierrez, Lizzie FLetcher, Marquette Greene-Scott, Melissa McDonough, redistricting, runoff, Senate, Shaun Finnie, Sylvia Garcia, Texas, Tony Gonzales, Vicente Gonzalez | 2 Comments

The 2021 election isn’t quite finished yet

Posted on July 31, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Amazing.

A recent court ruling invalidating an amendment to the Texas Constitution could complicate Harris County’s plan for financing the Toro District and send ripples through a network of little-known taxing districts the county formed prior to the ruling.

The amendment, which voters approved as Proposition 2 in 2021, was framed as giving county reinvestment zones the ability to issue debt. But some counties responded by creating these zones for the first time. Harris County has since created four and is negotiating with the Houston Texans and Howard Hughes Communities to form a fifth in northwest Harris County.

The deal would fund infrastructure around a new headquarters and training facility for the Texans on an 83-acre site in the Bridgeland area.

But state District Judge Jan Soifer’s July 10 ruling in a lawsuit brought by a group of conservative organizations may frustrate those plans.

Soifer agreed with the plaintiffs’ allegation that the ballot language used to describe the amendment failed to inform voters how the zones’ investments would be paid for – namely, by issuing bonds.

“Therefore,” Soifer wrote, “the ballot language of Proposition 2 … omitted a chief feature of the amendment and misled the voters.”

The lawsuit was brought against the Texas Secretary of State’s Office by Texas Uniting for Reform and Freedom, Grassroots America — We the People PAC and the True Texas Project. The organizations warned the language was misleading in a letter one of their lawyers sent state officials in August 2021, before the issue appeared on the ballot.

Attorney Garrett McMillan pointed to a “nearly identical” proposal voters rejected in 2011. That proposal, he wrote, made clear that the reinvestment zones would fund projects through property taxes, unlike the 2021 measure.

McMillan warned that his clients intended to sue should the proposition be put before voters unchanged.

“Our clients would prefer that Texas voters be informed of what they are voting on rather than misled and would like the wording of the proposition to be changed to reflect (its) effect,” McMillan wrote.

While Proposition 2 primarily empowered counties to issue debt against the tax revenue collected through reinvestment zones, some counties took it as a signal that they could begin creating zones, as cities had for decades before them.

Commissioners Court approved the first county-run reinvestment zone in December 2022 covering the Aldine area. Commissioners have voted to create three more since then, with the commissioner whose precinct the zone is in typically appointing a majority of the board members.

I didn’t pay much attention to this proposition, which was broadly endorsed and seemingly anodyne. I don’t know if the outfits that filed this suit waited until a county did something that they claimed was illegal based on the wording of the proposition or if it just took a long time to get to this point, but it sure is at least a bit annoying that it took almost five years to get to this point, well past the time that counties had been doing things based on its passage. What happens next is unclear – there will surely be appeals, but in the meantime counties need to interpret the ruling based on what they have done. That’ll be Abbie Kamin’s assignment. Maybe there’s a workaround for this, and maybe counties will have to completely redo what they’ve done or risk getting sued by their own local antagonists. I guess I’m a little mad at whoever worded the prop as they did, but whatever concerns there were about that at the time were not taken seriously enough to affect it. So here we are.

Posted in Election 2021, Legal matters | Tagged Abbie Kamin, bonds, Commissioners Court, constitutional amendments, Election 2021, Grassroots America — We the People PAC, Harris County, Harris County Attorney, Houston Texans, lawsuit, Lesley Briones, Secretary of State, Texas, Texas Uniting for Reform and Freedom, TIRZ, Tom Ramsey, Toro District, Travis County, True Texas Project | Leave a comment

City’s minority business contracting program ruled unconstitutional

Posted on July 31, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

This is bullshit.

A federal judge has ruled Houston’s minority-owned business contracting program unconstitutional and blocked the city from “using racial preferences” in awarding public contracts as affirmative action programs come under fire nationwide.

A white couple from Spring sued the city in 2023, alleging their lawn care business, Landscape Consultants of Texas, Inc., could not “compete on an equal footing with other businesses” as they were ineligible for certification in the city’s longstanding program designed to even the playing field for minorities, women and small businesses.

Houston since 1984 has set goals to give certain percentages of various types of city contracts to certified small businesses and those owned by women and minorities.

The city’s Office of Business Opportunity also runs programs to help businesses owned by veterans, those with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

In a Tuesday ruling, U.S. District Judge David Hittner said the program was in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Houston awarded $2.5 billion in construction, professional services, and other goods and services contracts in its 2025 fiscal year, $579 million of which went to certified minority, women, and small businesses across more than 1,600 separate contracts.

Hispanic-owned businesses received 34% of that $579 million in contracts, followed by Asian-owned businesses 22%, firms owned by white women at 17% and Black-owned firms at 14%.

Carol Guess, current chair of the Texas Association of African-American Chambers of Commerce and former president of the Greater Houston Black Chamber of Commerce, said it appeared as though the judge had unjustly applied a narrow ruling the U.S. Supreme Court made in relation to racial preference in college applications to a local program.

Guess called the ruling a “huge blow” to Black-owned businesses across the state, especially those in Houston where city leaders weren’t yet meeting contracting goals. She worried about the possibility of other municipalities complying with the ruling and walking back their MWBE programs to avoid costly court battles.

“This court has opened the door for other courts to expand the application of (the Harvard ruling),” Guess said. “They made a choice to do that. And now the door is open for many other municipalities, for their MWBE programs to be enjoined.”

Arturo Michel, the city’s lead attorney, said his team is evaluating a potential appeal to the court’s decision, and said the ruling would not impact other areas of the Office of Business Opportunity.

This program has existed for over 40 years, but now that we have a corrupt Supreme Court, nothing matters. Using the 14th Amendment, one of the pillars of the Reconstruction, as the pretext for this is grotesque. The same chuckleheads who filed here are also suing Harris County, so I do unfortunately expect dominoes to fall. All over a program that ultimately directs less than 25% of the contracting funds to these firms, of which about one in six are owned by white women. It’s ridiculous, and it’s hard to imagine a successful appeal. I wish I had something constructive to say about this but I don’t. Houston Public Media has more.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged Arturo Michel, diversity, Greater Houston Black Chamber of Commerce, Harris County, Houston, lawsuit, racism, SCOTUS, Texas Association of African-American Chambers of Commerce | Leave a comment

Greg Abbott would really like everyone to stop talking about data centers already

Posted on July 30, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Gina Hinojosa is talking about them.

Gina Hinojosa, the Democrat running for governor, on Thursday called on Gov. Greg Abbott to halt all data center construction in the state until lawmakers craft rules for the projects, which have voters up in arms.

The Austin state representative accused Abbott of trying to punt the potentially toxic political issue to after November’s high-stakes midterms, arguing he should call lawmakers back to Austin now for a special session to set regulations.

“Greg Abbott talks a big game about what he will do after the election. The thing is, he has the power to do it today,” Hinojosa said during a press conference. “This problem is in his lap and in his lap alone.”

[…]

Hinojosa said data centers are the “embodiment” of the populist themes she is campaigning on.

“Is this a state that is by and for the people, or the billionaires’ playground and we just live here?” she said.

Abbott’s position on data centers has shifted rapidly amid his run for a record-breaking fourth term. He has gone from touting Texas as the “epicenter of AI development” in November to vowing to push back against “AI data centers” earlier this month.

[…]

She was joined at her Thursday press conference by a handful of residents living in communities with data centers, including Tom Weeks of Granbury. Weeks said his community is “under siege” by the noisy developments that rumble throughout the night leaving him and his neighbors sleep deprived.

Weeks told Hearst Newspapers he is a lifelong Republican who has voted for Abbott every time he’s been on the ballot. Now Weeks said he is a “one-issue voter” and will not support Abbott again.

“I think Abbott right now is just pandering,” Weeks said. “If he wins, he’ll go right back to his former stance. I don’t think he’s going to change.”

So are other people.

Calls are growing among data center opponents for Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session for lawmakers to rein in the projects that have roiled rural communities.

On Monday morning, in advance of two interim hearings this week dealing with data centers, grassroots organizers from across the state convened at the Capitol to voice their opposition to the massive computing centers that have proliferated rapidly over the last year.

The protest comes as data centers have emerged as an unexpected flashpoint ahead of November’s midterms. Roughly 40 people held signs reading “Governor Abbott is all hat and no cattle” and chanted “special session now.”

[…]

Troy Jones, a GOP precinct chair from Paris, said Abbott has not gone far enough.

“To go far enough would be to have a special session to get the House and the Senate to get on board and to get something done,” Jones said. “It just keeps getting kicked down the road. Nobody really wants to do anything. Counties’ hands are tied. They can’t do anything.”

Abbott is the only official with the power to bring lawmakers back for a special session.

Sid Miller, the outgoing Republican Agricultural Commissioner whom Abbott campaigned against in the primary, pointed to the governor’s office and urged the crowd to call on him to act.

“He can hear everything we’re saying, and I invite him to come down here and join us today,” Miller said. “The governor has authority to bring the legislature back tomorrow. He can have them in session tomorrow. So we’re calling on him to do just that.”

[…]

Clayton Tucker, a Democrat running to replace Miller, also spoke. Tucker has built his campaign against data centers and is one of a growing number of Democrats calling for a moratorium as they try to capitalize on the growing rural resentment.

[…]

On Monday, lawmakers began considering options to limit or repeal a decade-old sales tax exemption for data centers that is costing the state more than $1 billion annually.

The 2013 law, a sales tax exemption for qualifying data centers, means data center developers don’t pay taxes on things like electricity, cooling systems and servers for up to two decades.

“What we thought we were voting for back in 2013, it’s a much different animal these days,” said state Sen. Joan Huffman, a Houston Republican who chairs the Senate finance committee. “It’s time and it’s appropriate and necessary for the Legislature to reexamine whether this exemption still delivers a return that justifies its rapidly mounting foregone tax revenue.”

Lawmakers initially forecast that the exemption would cost the state only $14.6 million in forgone revenue in 2014 and 2015. But even early projections “significantly” underestimated the cost of the sales tax exemption, said Brad Reynolds, the chief revenue estimator at the Comptroller’s office. “Of course, we never anticipated the kind of rapid development in numbers and scale that we see today.”

The exemption is estimated to cost the state $3.3 billion in the 2028-2029 biennium.

In 2026 alone, the number of data centers that qualify for the exemption has nearly doubled, Reynolds said. Of the 138 data centers that qualify for exemption, 59 have been certified this year.

It’s kind of amazing how well this one issue stacks up against Abbott. There’s the flip-flops and weasel words, which even Republicans aren’t buying. There’s the billions in taxpayer dollars going towards trillion-dollar companies to get them to build more data centers here. There’s the utter lack of influence local governments have over these beasts, because Republicans that used to champion local control decided in the past few years that beating up cities was more important. There’s the price of electricity and the concern about water. There’s Abbott’s ruthless willingness to call special sessions when he feels they suit his needs, and the easy understanding that no real action will be taken in the spring, because by then it won’t be an immediate electoral issue. There’s even the reanimated corpse of a hell-hath-no-fury Republican that Abbott took out in the primary appearing at rallies with the Democratic candidate to replace him because he feels so strongly on this issue. Abbott has one move, and that’s to duck and cover and hope it isn’t as salient as Gina Hinojosa wants it to be. He isn’t good for much, but that there is right in his sweet spot.

Posted in Election 2026 | Tagged Clayton Tucker, Data Center Coalition, data centers, Election 2026, electricity, ERCOT, Gina Hinojosa, Governor, Greg Abbott, local control, Paul Bettencourt, Public Utility Commission, sales taxes, Sid Miller, special session, Texas, The Lege, water | Leave a comment

Fort Bend update

Posted on July 30, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Still waiting on the courts.

Fort Bend County’s Democratic commissioners remain in a stalemate with their Republican counterparts over Daniel Wong’s authority to serve as county judge – a key question as the suburban Houston-area county approaches tax rate discussions and the elected position is set to be on the November ballot.

The county resident who filed a lawsuit last fall against former county judge KP George – which led to Wong’s interim appointment in April – is asking a district court judge to help provide an answer.

Wong, a Republican who is facing Commissioner Dexter McCoy in November’s county judge election, was appointed to serve in the role by Judge Jeth Jones. The visiting Republican judge from Galveston County did so while suspending George – in response to a civil lawsuit filed by a resident who claimed George violated her free-speech rights and was incompetent to hold office. Jones’ decision followed George’s criminal conviction in March on felony money laundering charges.

Now an attorney representing the resident who filed the civil suit, Sarah Roberts, is asking Jones to vacate his temporary appointment of Wong as of June 17, the date the lawsuit was initially dismissed at Roberts’ request.

Jones presided over a court hearing last Thursday that included Roberts’ attorney as well as legal counsel for Wong, who is challenging Roberts’ request. Jones called the case “complex” and indicated he would make a ruling “soon,” also discussing the possibility of another hearing in the case.

In addition to arguing that Wong’s appointment became invalidated when the lawsuit against George was dismissed, Roberts’ attorney, Dylan B. Russell, also argued that his client lacked standing to sue in the first place because a county attorney or county district attorney was not involved in litigating the matter.

“We’re asking the court simply to clarify what we believe is the law already, just to put it in writing,” Russell said during Thursday’s court hearing.

In the meantime, Wong is locked in a separate lawsuit filed by Fort Bend County Attorney Bridgette Smith-Lawson, a Democrat who also is seeking to have Wong’s appointment invalidated because of the dismissal of the civil lawsuit. Wong’s legal team argues his appointment was subsequently confirmed by the commissioners court and that Texas’ holdover provision allows him to stay in office pending the results of the upcoming election.

See here for the most recent update. It did not occur to me that the person who filed the original lawsuit that led to Daniel Wong being appointed as Fort Bend County Judge would later argue that they didn’t have standing to sue. I feel like that is a situation that is not often covered in law school. Be that as it may, if Judge Jones is good to his word that he will rule on this “soon”, then perhaps we will be able to move forward one way or the other.

Meanwhile, in the other lawsuits:

The district judge responsible for deciding whether Daniel Wong’s interim appointment remains valid — despite a lawsuit claiming it’s not — is a known supporter of Wong, critics allege, calling into question a possible conflict of interest.

[…]

Wong sued the county attorney’s office on July 6, challenging Smith-Lawson’s legal opinion that his interim appointment expired. Smith-Lawson countersued, and Wong dropped his legal challenge, saying at the time that he saw no need to litigate the same issues in two separate court cases. Wong’s case had landed in the 248th District Court, where a Democratic judge presides.

The matter now lies in the hands of Republican District Judge Edward Krenek because that’s where Smith-Lawson’s “quo warranto” filing was assigned. Krenek and Wong are both prominent figures in the Fort Bend County Republican Party, and some critics have said that the two are close friends, suggesting that Krenek and his wife Tricia, a justice of the peace, were photographed “campaigning” for Wong as recently as July 3.

Photos of Krenek and Wong allegedly appeared on the Daniel Wong for Fort Bend County Judge social media page and were later removed, said two members of the Fort Bend Democratic Party who asked to remain anonymous. Krenek did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday on either the status of the case or whether he has campaigned for Wong.

Wong’s critics say they expect Krenek to “slow roll” the case filed by Smith-Lawson and let the clock run out so Wong remains the interim judge until the November 3 election and gets the advantage of being the incumbent, even though he’s never been elected to that post.

[Wong spokesman Buddy] Eberle said Fort Bend County Republicans frequently see each other at events and occasionally photos are taken. “That doesn’t reflect any sort of special relationship,” he said. “I think that is just low-hanging fruit for the Democrats to complain about. Judge Wong handles his office very seriously and I know Judge Krenek does too. They’re both professionals and they’ll continue to do their jobs.”

Eberle said he didn’t have any insight into when a ruling would be made, only that Krenek’s court accepted the quo warranto motion filed by Smith-Lawson. “Our legal team is fully prepared to respond but we don’t know the exact timeline right now,” Eberle said.

Gotta say, dropping the lawsuit that was assigned to a court with a Democratic judge is a good piece of legal strategy. County Attorney Smith-Lawson could file a motion for Judge Krenek to recuse himself, but that’s always a risky move. And to be fair, he should be expected to do his job and follow the law. I personally would need a little more than this to buy into the conflict of interest allegations. I don’t think they’re meritless, but they’re not sufficient. Perhaps Smith-Lawson sees it the same way. And perhaps Judge Jones will render this all moot.

Posted in Election 2026, Legal matters | Tagged Bridgette Smith-Lawson, Commissioners Court, County Judge, Daniel Wong, Dexter McCoy, Election 2026, Fort Bend County, KP George, lawsuit, Texas | Leave a comment

More robotaxi safety issues

Posted on July 30, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Austin has had quite the experience.

Federal safety regulators are demanding answers from Waymo, Tesla, Zoox and other autonomous-vehicle developers after documenting a pattern of driverless vehicles interfering with first responders.

Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ordered the companies to explain by the end of July how they will keep their vehicles from entering emergency scenes, blocking responders or failing to recognize flashing lights and other hazards. The incidents have renewed questions about whether robotaxis are safe enough to operate on public streets and prompted calls from some experts to slow their expansion.

Austin has seen such incidents firsthand. In one high-profile case, first responders heading to a March 1 mass shooting downtown faced an unexpected obstacle: self-driving robotaxis.

The shooting left three people dead and the gunman was fatally shot by police. Fifteen others were injured.

As first responders converged on the area, as many as five autonomous vehicles froze near the scene. One sat perpendicular across the roadway for nearly a minute before a police officer was able to climb into the front seat and move it.

Austin-Travis County EMS officials have said the mishap did not affect patient outcomes.

But robotaxis either blocked traffic or ignored the direction of Austin police in 25% of reported incidents from July 2023 to June 2026, according to the city of Austin’s autonomous vehicle database. Data collected by the city since 2023 shows interference with law enforcement and other traffic is among the top safety concerns surrounding autonomous vehicles in the city.

Experts say the incidents have helped highlight the limited power Texas cities have to regulate the technology on their own streets.

“If Waymo or another company’s autonomous driving system can’t handle flashing lights and sirens in a crisis, it isn’t ready for public roads,” said Cooper Lohr, a senior policy analyst for transportation and safety at Consumer Reports. “It should be removed from service until the company proves it will handle the situation appropriately.”

[…]

Federal regulators are scrutinizing several self-driving car companies operating in Austin over a number of other issues.

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology is under investigation over collisions in low-visibility conditions, including a crash in which a pedestrian was fatally struck. The investigation covers incidents involving consumer vehicles, but Tesla notably uses Full Self-Driving technology in its robotaxi service.

Tesla’s technology relies mainly on cameras, instead of additional technology such as lidar and radar sensors that other companies, including Waymo, Zoox and Avride, rely on. But even with overlapping sensors, other companies are facing investigations over safety concerns.

The National Transportation Safety Board and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are investigating Waymo after vehicles failed to stop for school buses with extended stop arms on more than 25 occasions since August. In at least one instance, a remote human operator told the car to pass the bus.

The company later issued a nationwide recall after one of its vehicles was swept away in San Antonio floodwaters.

Avride is being probed after 16 crashes in Dallas and Austin in which it failed to detect other vehicles or objects. The Austin-based company is testing its autonomous vehicles in the city but has launched public services in Dallas on the Uber app.

In all, Avride has reported 24 crashes in Austin since June 2025. Tesla’s count stands at 20, and Zoox has had two crashes. Waymo, with it’s much larger fleet, has seen 113 crashes in the same period.

Amazon-owned Zoox, which recently began testing its purpose-built robotaxis in Austin, said it has engaged with first responders and city officials for training, especially because its vehicles do not have a steering wheel or foot pedals. The company plans to begin offering rides to a limited group by the end of the year.

The pitch for self-driving vehicles is to make roads safer, Center for Auto Safety executive director Michael Brooks told the Statesman. But the technology has not yet progressed that point, he said.

“These companies want growth to happen quickly, and they want to scale their operations very, very quickly in order to appeal to shareholders and investors,” Brooks said. “But frankly, it’s dangerous. They want to scale as rapidly as possible. But we need a slower and more safety-focused approach.”

Amid a push for rapid expansion, Austin officials say the companies have been reluctant to engage publicly with local leaders — and under Texas law, they are not required to.

It’s a long story and a gift link, so read the rest. This is in some ways a higher-stakes version of the sleeper problem, which is annoying and wasteful but not dangerous. I’ve blogged about a number of the things discussed in this story, but it’s something else to see it all put together in one place.

It’s not clear what cities can do about a lot of this. As noted, cities have basically no regulatory control over rideshare companies or autonomous vehicles. It’s all on the state, and we know how much they care about stuff like this, not to mention how much funding they have for enforcement. The companies have responded as you’d expect in the absence of any incentive, giving lip service to things like training for law enforcement on how to interact with their robotaxis, and then not following up on it. One Austin City Council member suggested in the story that they could jack up the fines for violations involving robotaxis, to something like $50K per ticket, on the theory that it might at least get their attention. I like the idea, but suspect it wouldn’t survive first contact with judicial review. Still seems worth a shot. Maybe Houston can benefit from Austin’s experience, because all of this is going to ramp up here as well. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged Arizona, Austin, Avride, Dallas, driverless cars, Florida, Houston, local control, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Transportation Safety Board, Phoenix, school buses, taxis, Tesla, Texas, The Lege, Waymo, Zoox | Leave a comment

Texas blog roundup for the week of July 27

Posted on July 30, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

The Texas Progressive Alliance has not made any nuclear deals in the past week but it did put together this roundup.

Off the Kuff goes back to the future with the latest school finance lawsuit, filed by Midland ISD.

Neil at Houston Democracy Project Blog said Hitchcock City Council in Galveston County voted to reject formal cooperation with ICE. They said it would tank local trust in law enforcement & placed concern for people of Hitchcock over Abbott & Trump.

===========================

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Texas Monthly celebrates Butthole Surfer Summer.

CultureMap introduces us to the 2026 State Fair of Texas’ music lineup.

Gwen Howerton is being driven insane by crappy AI-generated flyers around Houston.

D Magazine is done with the Alamo Drafthouse.

Deceleration reports on anti-ICE activity in San Antonio.

Law Dork recounts the many screwups of the Trump Justice Department in their effort to subpoena reporters from the New York Times.

Franklin Strong finds a whole bunch of classic books that have been removed from school libraries, and says that was an intended effect of the school library censorship law.

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

TPOR poll: Talarico 45, Paxton 40

Posted on July 29, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

First poll in a month, it’s a solid one for James Talarico.

Rep. James Talarico

The latest survey of the U.S. Senate race from Texas Public Opinion Research shows Democrat James Talarico leading Republican Ken Paxton, 45% to 40%, marking the Austin state representative’s largest lead in any public poll taken during the general election period.

Since Paxton locked up the GOP nomination in late May, polling of the contest has found a neck-and-neck race with neither candidate able to break 50%. But TPOR’s poll found Talarico leading among voters who do not have a college degree — a group that has consistently favored Republicans in Texas and across the country — and dominating among independents, less than a quarter of whom said they planned to vote for Paxton. The attorney general also had weaker Republican support than in other recent surveys, with nearly one in five GOP voters saying they were undecided or would vote for Talarico.

TPOR labels itself as a nonpartisan public opinion research group. It is directed by Democratic strategist Luke Warford.

The group surveyed 1,048 likely voters between July 15 and July 17, and has a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percentage points. Of those poll respondents, 53% voted for Donald Trump and 42% voted for Kamala Harris in 2024, making the sample only slightly bluer than the 2024 electorate, which favored Trump by a 14-point margin in Texas. Trump carried Texas by 5.6 percentage points in 2020, two years after the last midterm held during his presidency.

TPOR’s previous poll, fielded just after the May 26 runoff in which Paxton defeated Sen. John Cornyn, found Talarico leading 47% to 44%.

[…]

Paxton’s 40% vote share is the lowest he has received in a public poll post-runoff. Other surveys have found Republicans were consolidating behind him. But the TPOR poll had Talarico winning 7% of self-described Republicans, and an additional 12% remained undecided. Meanwhile, only 1% of self-identified Democrats indicated they would vote for Paxton, and 6% were undecided.

For comparison, a New York Times/Siena poll of the Texas contest fielded in June, which found the overall result tied at 47%, found Talarico winning 5% of Republicans and only 4% unsure.

Perhaps the biggest outlier was Talarico’s lead among non-college-educated voters, who favored the Democrat by nine percentage points — 45% to 36%. He led by 1 percentage point among those with at least a bachelor’s degree.

[…]

Other results hewed closer to recent polling of the race. The TPOR poll found Talarico leading heavily among Black and Latino voters, while Paxton maintained a strong lead with white voters. Black voters broke 71% for Talarico and 8% for Paxton, while Latinos preferred Talarico by a 66% to 20% margin.

Paxton led among white voters, 53% to 33%.

Talarico’s polling lead owes to his strength with independents and non-college educated voters. The poll found Talarico garnering 43% of independents to Paxton’s 23%; 29% remain undecided. Among self-described moderates, Talarico’s lead is even more pronounced, with the Democrat ahead 54% to 20%.

The poll found that 14% of voters of all political stripes remain unsure about their pick. Among undecided voters, there is evidence Paxton has more room to grow: 19% of that bloc said they leaned toward the Republican, compared to 10% who leaned toward Talarico. Two-thirds reported being truly on the fence.

Elsewhere on the ballot, the TPOR poll finds Republicans leading in the contests for governor and attorney general — though both are also close.

In the governor’s race, incumbent Republican Greg Abbott was leading Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa of Austin by a 3-point margin, 45% to 42%. And in the open race to succeed Paxton as attorney general, Republican state Sen. Mayes Middleton of Galveston was up 39% to 38% over Democratic state Sen. Nathan Johnson of Dallas, well within the margin of error.

This is the third TPOR poll of the Senate race since March. Both showed Talarico leading, with him up 47-44 over Paxton post-GOP runoff as noted above, and up 46-41 in April. TPOR seems to be the most favorable pollster to Talarico, which may indicate a house effect or may just be a more consistent sample. The lead Talarico has among Latino voters – that 66-20 spread is dominant, probably the best showing he’s had so far – plus the lead he has among independents, are the strongest indicators that he’s in a position to win. You always have to be extra careful when dealing with subsamples, but TPOR does have bigger overall samples to begin with than many pollsters (1048 in this poll), so the subgroups aren’t as small. If these are indicative numbers, you have to like Talarico’s chances, and you have to hope he has some coattails.

As always, though, this is one result and a snapshot in time. The next poll could be different in any number of ways. TPOR’s writeup is here, they have a link to their toplines but you have to ask for their crosstabs.

Posted in Election 2026 | Tagged Attorney General, Donald Trump, Election 2026, Gina Hinojosa, Governor, Greg Abbott, James Talarico, John Cornyn, Ken Paxton, Mayes Middleton, Nathan Johnson, polls, primaries, runoff, Senate, Texas | 4 Comments

One witness to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s killing to be released from detention

Posted on July 29, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

A good start.

A federal judge on Monday ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to release from their custody one of the witnesses to a federal immigration agent’s fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.

Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego must be released from detention within 48 hours of the order, which was issued Monday evening. Authorities must release Rojas Pliego in a public space and give his attorneys notice at least three hours beforehand, according to the order.

[…]

U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison’s order for Rojas Pliego’s release comes less than a week after he issued a separate order blocking Rojas Pliego’s deportation, and he noted in Monday’s order that Rojas Pliego’s request is “one of hundreds of similar petitions” amid the Trump administration’s application of immigration detention protocol.

Ellison’s order states that the government is not permitted to detain noncitizens without “individualized justification” only because they did not enter the country lawfully. It also stipulates that DHS must seek a pre-detention hearing before it seeks to re-detain Rojas Pliego.

See here and here for some background. Rojas Pliego, along with Daniel Tirado Pantoja and Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo, ae the only known witnesses to Salgado Araujo’s killing, and thus the only counter to ICE’s lies. Keeping them all in the country so they can testify – and really, be allowed to return to their quiet, productive lives – is clearly for the best. Hopefully we’ll get quick rulings in favor of the other two as well.

Posted in La Migra | Tagged Daniel Tirado Pantoja, Donald Trump, Houston, ICE, immigration, Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, lawsuit, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Mexico, Texas, Victor Salgado | 2 Comments

Corpus gets another reprieve

Posted on July 29, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Hope they make good use of it.

Corpus Christi got “tremendous” news Monday when the city’s projected water emergency was delayed until fall 2028 — a year later than previously anticipated — as floodwater from recent intense storms continues flowing into some of the region’s reservoirs.

Water heading downstream from hard-hit areas of Texas is expected to continue arriving in area reservoirs, potentially easing water-use restrictions for city residents and giving Corpus Christi added time and breathing room to strengthen its water system.

“This is really, really good news for the community, and it gives us time to bring on our water supply projects without the stress of heading into a Level 1 water emergency,” City Manager Peter Zanoni said at a morning water briefing.

Corpus Christi, Texas’ eighth-largest city, has been racing to avoid a water emergency in which demand outpaces available water supplies. For months the city has been under pressure to find new sources of water for 500,000 people served across seven counties, along with one of the nation’s largest petrochemical corridors and the Port of Corpus Christi, the country’s top port for crude oil exports. Officials have asked residents and businesses to cut their water use.

Earlier this year, city projections showed that “day zero” — the point when water demand is projected to be six months from exceeding supply — could arrive as early as May, triggering a Level 1 emergency declaration.

Spring rains pushed that estimate back to September 2027, but not before drawing statewide and national attention as the city appeared to be the first major U.S. city on track to run short of water.

The new Level 1 water emergency date is forecasted to be September 2028.

[…]

Five years of drought had depleted the city’s two main reservoirs: Choke Canyon, fed by the Frio River, and Lake Corpus Christi, fed by the Nueces River. The capacity of Choke Canyon is three times that of Lake Corpus Christi.

As of Monday, the biggest gain from floodwater has been at Choke Canyon Reservoir, the city’s largest water resource. The lake climbed in the past week from 7.9% of capacity to 24%. The reservoir was last consistently full in the early 2000s and has been below 50% full since 2013.

The combined level of Choke Canyon and Lake Corpus Christi is 26.2%, Zanoni said. The city is currently in Stage 3 drought restrictions, which bars outdoor irrigation. City modelers show the lakes could get to 30% combined capacity by this weekend, which would allow the city to move to Stage 2 restrictions, allowing residents to water the lawns and irrigate once every other week.

See here for some background. This is a reminder that “better” does not need to mean “good”. In this case, it just means “not as immediately catastrophic”. I would politely suggest that regardless of what level those lakes get to, Corpus keep those Stage 3 restrictions in place. That, and putting some real restrictions on the industrial water users might enable them to stay away from “catastrophic” long enough to see if any of those desalinization plans might work. Or something else, I don’t know. Just don’t piss this opportunity away, that’s all I’m saying.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged artificial intelligence, Choke Canyon, Corpus Christi, data centers, desalinization, drought, fracking, Greg Abbott, H2O4Texas, Texas, Texas Water Development Board, water | Leave a comment

On Whitmire and ICE

Posted on July 28, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Here we go again.

Mayor John Whitmire

For the second time in four months, Mayor John Whitmire is facing intense criticism over his handling of federal immigration enforcement, an issue he has spent much of his first term trying to keep out of city politics.

The latest test came this month after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a traffic stop in Magnolia Park. Whitmire’s initial response to the killing – and a bruising city council fight over Houston’s cooperation with ICE in April – have led political observers to question whether Whitmire’s handling of both cases will let him maintain the alliance of moderate Democrats, independents and Republicans that has fueled his political success.

In April, Whitmire led the effort to roll back a new city ordinance limiting police cooperation with ICE after Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to withhold state grants. This month, he initially said the city could not independently investigate Salgado’s death because federal authorities had jurisdiction before reversing course to call for an independent investigation and a 90-day pause in ICE operations.

Together, the episodes have become one of the clearest tests yet of Whitmire’s governing style.

A moderate Democrat with five decades in elected office, Whitmire has spent his career working across the aisle, repeatedly touting that his “reasonable” approach has shielded Houston from the worst of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Progressive critics say that instinct has left immigrant communities at risk. But Whitmire allies, including Latino elected officials and community leaders, say critics overlook both his decades-long record with Houston’s Latino community and the legal constraints state law places on the city.

In his first extended interview with the Houston Chronicle since August 2025, Whitmire said politics hasn’t influenced his approach to ICE issues, arguing there’s no time for politics when dealing with a tragedy.

“I have to do what I think maintains the unity of our city, and that is a real challenge. Immigration is a very divisive issue,” Whitmire said. “Most of my critics are just looking for something to harm me. They don’t harm me. I’m in good shape. They harm the city by creating divisiveness.”

Whitmire told the Chronicle his pivot after the Salgado shooting was not driven by public pressure.

“Pressure? I don’t even know what that is… What changed the intensity of my comments was the report [Garcia] gave me after meeting with the witnesses,” he said, referring to a discussion he had with U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston.

There’s a lot more, and I’ve run out of gift subscriptions for the month, so you’ll have to find your own way to read the rest. I’m going to state a few things and then move on.

– I will absolutely stipulate that it sucks having to deal with ICE and the never-ending depredations of the Trump and Abbott administrations. There are few options to respond, and most of them are not good. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.

– That said, no one forced John Whitmire to run for Mayor in 2023, and no one is forcing him to run for re-election. He chose this and is choosing it again.

– I don’t know about you, but when I hear Whitmire talk about “critics” and “divisiveness”, it’s clear to me that he has more resentment for and spends more time and energy responding to the people who show up at City Hall and make noise than he does about, you know, ICE and Trump and Abbott. I question the wisdom of that choice.

– The main debate in Democratic politics right now is less about “left” and “center” and much more about whether one has a willingness to use every lever of power available to you as an elected official to push back against the fascism and depravity of the Trump goons, or a belief that compromise and sticking to basics and picking their battles is the better way to go. All of us knows where Whitmire lands on this spectrum.

Posted in Local politics | Tagged Donald Trump, Election 2023, Election 2027, Greg Abbott, Houston, ICE, immigration, John Whitmire, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Mayor, Texas | 4 Comments

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