Category Archives: National news

The new Presidential dollar coin, which is already circulating in Houston, goes nationwide this week as people from coast to coast wonder what the point is. An AP-Ipsos poll found that three-fourths of people surveyed oppose replacing the dollar bill, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Damn those illegal immigrants! Despite an uptick in crime in 2003 and 2004, the 10-year crime rate dropped 27 percent from 1995 to 2005, according to figures from the Texas Department of Public Safety. The average value of a Farmers … Continue reading → Continue reading →

They may be down in Farmer’s Branch, but they’re not out. The five-member City Council voted unanimously to rescind an earlier measure and replace it with a modified version that must be approved by voters in May before it goes … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Remember the new President-themed dollar coin? According to Houstonist, we’ll start seeing them in Houston this week. The eyes of third- and fourth-graders may grow as wide as silver dollars next week when a bewigged and costumed “living biographer” of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Good. Farmers Branch City Council on Monday is expected to repeal the city’s litigation-inducing ban on renting apartments to illegal immigrants and will consider a revised ordinance that will put the matter to a vote in May. The council in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The city of Houston’s expanded smoking ban from last year was part of an overall nationwide trend in such legislation. Thirty years after it began as just another quirky movement in Berkeley, Calif., the push to ban smoking in restaurants, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Not just no, but “Hell, no!” Texas border mayors carried a clear message Wednesday to federal policymakers: Walling off the United States from Mexico is a costly, foolish idea that will harm commerce, travel and foreign relations. The seven mayors, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Former President Gerald Ford passed away yesterday at the age of 93. Former President Gerald R. Ford, who declared “Our long national nightmare is over” as he replaced Richard Nixon but may have doomed his own chances of election by … Continue reading → Continue reading →

To no one’s surprise, the city of Farmers Branch has been sued for its recent anti-immigrant actions. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund is asking a federal court here to block the suburb … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Eye on Williamson has the latest development in the case of the city of Round Rock versus its high school students. Four parents of Round Rock students charged with misdemeanors during an immigration demonstration last spring sued the City of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

My best wishes to Rep. Nick Lampson as he recovers from his recent angioplasty. “He’s doing great – laughing and joking about getting out of Christmas shopping,” said Lampson family friend Dave Matthiesen, a Houston-based lawyer who visited with Lampson … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Now that he has safely been re-elected, Governor Perry can finally say what anybody with two brain cells to rub together already knows, which is that building a fence along the US-Mexico border is “preposterous”. Gov. Rick Perry, who built … Continue reading → Continue reading →

My fellow Stuyvesant graduate Ed Muir has a post on the NCLB blog about the state of school buildings in America today. What we found was sobering, but not surprising. Although many schools are properly maintained and in good condition, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Via The Muse, this week will be Shelley’s last in Congress. And to think, she never got to reform Medicare or cut anyone’s taxes. Hardly seems worth the effort to have elected her in the first place, does it? Continue reading →

They sure are keeping busy over at the Mint. Can George Washington and Thomas Jefferson succeed where Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea failed? The U.S. Mint is hoping U.S. presidents will win acceptance, finally, for the maligned dollar coin. The … Continue reading → Continue reading →

How much would you pay for a really big, really grand important symbolic gesture? The Bush administration’s proposal to secure the nation’s borders with a high-tech “virtual fence” is likely to cost far more than the $2 billion that industry … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I presume you’ve heard of the fun and games up in the Dallas suburb of Farmer’s Branch, where apartment managers have been forcibly deputized into an arm of la Migra. Not too surprisingly, they’re not happy about this development, which … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The two dollar bill is growing in popularity. In 2005, depository institutions ordered $122 million in $2 notes, according to Federal Reserve statistics. That is more than double the average amount ordered from 1991 to 2000. “We noticed the increase … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I had totally lost track of the Round Rock student protester prosecutions, mostly I think because their trials were supposed to have started in July – see here, here, and here for background. Via Eye on Williamson, I see that … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Jay Johnson-Castro’s walk along the border has come to an end. Johnson-Castro, the owner of a bed-and-breakfast in Del Rio, set out on his walk Oct. 10 from the main square in Laredo. He ended it in Brownsville with Mayor … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Meet Jay Johnson-Castro. And with little fanfare or planning, Johnson-Castro began a quixotic trek from Laredo to Brownsville. During the next 15 days or so, he’s hoping to rally border residents and topple Washington’s plans to erect a controversial security … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The WaPo has a nice story about a border fence we already have, in San Diego. In the mid-1990s, the city was awash in illegal immigrants. Hundreds would gather by a soccer field near Otay Mesa, east of San Diego, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Remember that 700-mile border fence that Congress just approved? Well, don’t hold your breath waiting for it to get built. Sen. John Cornyn, R-San Antonio and a key liaison to the White House on immigration, said Tuesday that 700 miles … Continue reading → Continue reading →

John Culberson had his debate yesterday with someone who, while very knowledgeable on the subject at hand (more so than Culberson, I daresay), is not on the ballot against him. “The immigration debate has to be defined in terms of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

One often hears of a choice between spending money on schools and spending money on prisons in budgets debates, and the effect that more spending on one can have on the other. In a related vein, Grits looks at the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The people of Laredo don’t want a fence through their community. Neither do the people of Maverick County. This isn’t as polarizing an issue as it is in other parts of the country because, I think, this district has been … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I don’t know who Tom Sullivan is, but based on what he said to our undistinguished junior Senator, I wish we had a hundred more like him. Go read. Link via Atrios. UPDATE: North Texas Liberal has more. Continue reading →

Today the Senate will debate a bill that would authorize building a 700-mile fence along the US-Mexican border. Will they take into account what the people of Laredo want, which is to not build it there? “I oppose the wall,” … Continue reading → Continue reading →

If you felt a disturbance in the Force yesterday, this story might explain the reason for it. The Texas Association of Business and the Texas House Mexican American Legislative Caucus contend that an orderly immigration system is needed that matches … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Let me tell you why the recent immigration issue has little to do with the immigration issue and why the anti-immigration rhetoric affects not only Hispanics, but everyone. To begin with, today’s immigrants are to this year’s election what gays … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Renewal of the Voting Rights Act In 1975, Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) was extended to Texas for repeated violations of the Act with regards to the rights of Mexican-American voters. Texas is required to provide election … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Did you hear about the effort by Senator Hutchison to broker a deal in the battle over the Wright Amendment that ran afoul of the Justice Department? The agency’s antitrust division told lawmakers restrictions in the local agreement to repeal … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Just wanted to note this Chron story from yesterday about the so-far-successful deployment of National Guard troops to the US/Mexico border, where they are supplementing Border Patrol personnel. Guard and patrol officials said the month-old deployment of troops to the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Good news. After a day of debate, the House voted 390-33 to renew the [Voting Rights Act of 1965], which is intended to ensure no voting jurisdiction illegally suppresses the votes of minorities or of citizens who might have difficulty … Continue reading → Continue reading →