Author Archives: Charles Kuffner

It’s winter surge time again

Posted on December 22, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, though I think you already suspected this. COVID-19 cases are rising across Texas two weeks after the Thanksgiving holiday, echoing last year’s surge of the omicron variant. There are more than 18,000 positive … Continue reading →

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No, really, are we emotionally prepared for this freeze?

Posted on December 22, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Ready or not, here it comes. State officials warned residents Wednesday to prepare their homes and vehicles for the coming freeze while trying to reassure on-edge Texans that the electric grid will stay online. Temperatures are expected to plummet Thursday … Continue reading →

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Texas blog roundup for the week of December 19

Posted on December 22, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

The Texas Progressive Alliance has some chestnuts and an open fire ready to go as it brings you this week’s roundup.

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Now is a great time to buy a Christmas tree

Posted on December 22, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Procrastinators rejoice. When it came to buying a Christmas tree in Houston it paid off to procrastinate. Prices, already high last year, jumped further this year as retailers sought to lock in supplies despite increases spurred by skyrocketing fertilizer and … Continue reading →

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Yep, still no voter fraud found

Posted on December 21, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

So says the official 2020 election audit. Despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, there was neither widespread voter fraud nor other serious issues in Texas’ 2020 elections, according to an audit of four of Texas’ largest counties released Monday … Continue reading →

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The medical response also failed at Uvalde

Posted on December 21, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

This is a very hard story to read, with graphic descriptions of injuries suffered by the shooting victims at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Click over very carefully, but whether you read or not know that the failures at the … Continue reading →

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New Land Commissioner, same screw job for Houston and Harris County

Posted on December 21, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I didn’t expect any different. I’m still mad about it. When akewayLakeway Republican Dawn Buckingham jumps from the Texas Senate to the helm of the state General Land Office next month, she will inherit control of the state’s Hurricane Harvey recovery, a slow-moving multibillion-dollar … Continue reading →

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Electoral Count Act included in must-pass budget bill

Posted on December 21, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

It’s not nearly enough to shore up voting rights, but it’s still vitally necessary and clearly the best we could do. After months of negotiations, it now appears to be official: The Electoral Count Reform Act has hitched a ride … Continue reading →

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Agreement reached on I-45 expansion plans

Posted on December 20, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I remain skeptical, but we’ll see. The bottleneck of design differences that has divided officials about remaking Interstate 45 north of downtown Houston is easing, officials said Monday, clearing the way for construction on the $10 billion project, perhaps in … Continue reading →

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Are we emotionally prepared for the oncoming freeze?

Posted on December 20, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

That’s the real question at this point. ERCOT on Friday notified power generators in Texas that they need to be online and ready to provide power during an expected wave of cold air that could drop overnight temperatures into the … Continue reading →

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

More battery power coming

Posted on December 20, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Now here is something that might actually help the grid. A surge of new battery projects is expected to come online on Texas and California’s power grids, as developers seek to store the excess electricity produced by those state’s sprawling wind and solar … Continue reading →

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Precinct analysis: Beto versus the spread

Posted on December 19, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

PREVIOUSLY Beto versus Abbott So last time we saw the numbers for the 2022 Governor’s race. But what numbers need in order to be meaningful is context, and that means other numbers to compare them to. We’re going to do … Continue reading →

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More on the limits of social media monitoring for school violence prevention

Posted on December 19, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Some good stuff from the DMN. When Social Sentinel representatives pitched their service to Florida’s Gulf Coast State College in 2018, they billed it as an innovative way to find threats of suicides and shootings posted online. But for the … Continue reading →

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True the Vote keeps on contempting

Posted on December 19, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s the latest filing from the plaintiffs in the defamation lawsuit against True the Vote and their lying grifter principles, Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips. You may recall that Engelbrecht and Phillips spent a few days in the pokey for … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Weekend link dump for December 18

Posted on December 18, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

“How Demographic Shifts Fueled by Covid Delivered Midterm Wins for Democrats”. Times sure are tough for cable channels right now. “The very last 747 jet has been made, ending a run of more than 50 years”. RIP, Paul Silas, three-time … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged | 1 Comment

November 2022 mail ballot rejection report

Posted on December 18, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Still getting better, still some room to improve. The statewide ballot rejection rate dramatically reduced to 2.7 percent in the general election this fall after it had skyrocketed to six times that in the primaries following the introduction of a … Continue reading →

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Here at last is that updated report on maternal mortality

Posted on December 18, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

We’re still really bad at preventing it, especially for Black women. At least 118 women dead and nearly 200 children left without a mother. This was just a portion of the death toll from pregnancy and childbirth in Texas in … Continue reading →

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We don’t love trash

Posted on December 18, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Especially not in the bayous. On a recent Saturday morning, around 20 volunteers gathered to clean up trash along the Houston Ship Channel. Armed with pickers and trash bags, they started tackling a small “trash beach” across the channel from … Continue reading →

Posted in Elsewhere in Houston | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Saturday video break: A brief manifesto about Christmas music

Posted on December 17, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Been awhile since I’ve done one of these. Maybe I’ll work a few in next year, we’ll see how it goes. I was inspired by the Slacktivist re-running his own Christmas music manifesto from a few years ago. I broadly … Continue reading →

Posted in Music | Tagged , | 4 Comments

We said they’d come for birth control next

Posted on December 17, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

And here they are. Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee to a federal court in Texas, spent much of his career trying to interfere with other people’s sexuality. A former lawyer at a religious conservative litigation shop, Kacsmaryk denounced, in a 2015 article, … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hays County DA questions San Marcos marijuana ordinance passed by voters

Posted on December 17, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Add this to the pile. San Marcos voters passed a marijuana ordinance this November that would halt San Marcos police from arresting people for low-level marijuana offenses. Now, the Hays County district attorney is looking to Texas leaders for their … Continue reading →

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

More information about HISD redistricting, please

Posted on December 17, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

A reasonable ask. Several local nonprofit and advocacy groups penned a letter asking Houston ISD to postpone its decision on how to redraw trustee district boundaries. Initially, the board was set to vote on the plan Thursday, according to a … Continue reading →

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Abbott is now attacking immigration-focused non-profits

Posted on December 16, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Always be finding a new enemy, that’s the motto. Gov. Greg Abbott called Wednesday for the state to investigate whether nonprofit organizations have helped people enter the country illegally, adding another talking point to his border hawk arsenal and another … Continue reading →

Posted in La Migra | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

NWSL releases its report on abuse by coaches

Posted on December 16, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

The followup report names some names that hadn’t been named before. Widespread misconduct, including sexual abuse, manipulation and mocking athletes’ bodies, has plagued the National Women’s Soccer League for a decade, according to an investigation commissioned by the league and … Continue reading →

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Please don’t threaten to kill your political opponents

Posted on December 16, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

We really shouldn’t have to say these things, except that nowadays we really do. A former candidate for U.S. representative has been accused of threatening to kill his political opponent, U.S. Rep. Randy Weber, TX-14, according to federal court filings. … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime and Punishment, Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ken Paxton’s hatred of LGBTQ+ people continues unabated

Posted on December 15, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Item #1: Texas attorney general’s office sought state data on transgender Texans. Employees at the Texas Department of Public Safety in June received a sweeping request from Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office: to compile a list of individuals who … Continue reading →

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Some Harris County courts get Zoom bombed

Posted on December 15, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Not a story I expected to read this week. Pornographic videos were shown in several Harris County courtrooms Tuesday in what county officials are calling a “Zoom bombing” incident. “Several Harris County Courts at Law experienced zoom bombing — or … Continue reading →

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Kirk Watson again elected Mayor of Austin

Posted on December 15, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Party like it’s 1997, y’all. In a tight race, Austin voters picked a familiar face Tuesday night to guide the capital city over the next two years as the region deals with skyrocketing housing costs and explosive growth. In a … Continue reading →

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Texas blog roundup for the week of December 12

Posted on December 15, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

The Texas Progressive Alliance welcomes Britney Griner back home as it brings you this week’s roundup.

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Precinct analysis: Beto versus Abbott

Posted on December 14, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

All right, I have the full landscape data for Harris County and the November 2022 election, and I’ll be doing my usual thing with it. There’s a lot of data and a lot of ways to explore it, some of … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Judge assigned to hear election loser contest

Posted on December 14, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox, a press release from Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee: Judge David Peeples will preside over the election contest filed by Republican candidate Erin Lunceford to void the results of her race for the 189th District Court in … Continue reading →

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Vertical farming

Posted on December 14, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Very interesting. Scaling scissor lifts are a daily duty for a vertical farmer overseeing the growth of about 10 million heads of lettuce annually from Kalera’s 4.5-acre indoor farm located in the Parc-59 industrial park in North Houston. Kalera, an Orlando-based vertical … Continue reading →

Posted in Food, glorious food | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Gender affirming care is happening in Dallas

Posted on December 13, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Some good news that I had not been fully aware of. The Dallas doctor who ran the state’s most prominent medical program for transgender youth says she has seen dozens of new patients since crucial court wins this summer and … Continue reading →

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Recruitment of next summer’s lifeguards is already underway.

Posted on December 13, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Better luck this time, we hope. The city has begun recruiting lifeguards for next summer following a significant staffing shortage that led to the closure of two-thirds of Houston’s public pools this past season. The Parks and Recreation Department, which operates Houston’s 37 aquatic centers, usually … Continue reading →

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