Monthly Archives: April 2012

Weekend link dump for April 22

There’s an alternate universe in which we now already know who most of our parties’ nominees are. Polarization is the norm in American politics, not the exception. Beware the gay icebergs and their radical gay iceberg agendas. Texts from my … Continue reading

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Urban farming

The Lege wants to be more supportive of it. For the first time that anyone could recall, the Texas House Agriculture and Livestock committee had a joint hearing with the House Urban Affairs committee to discuss ways to help expand … Continue reading

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Before Beren

Meet Arlington Burton Adventist Academy, the school that had to deal with TAPPS’ reluctance to reschedule playoff games before Beren. Before the Beren Academy boys basketball team captured national attention a few months ago, another school about 300 miles away … Continue reading

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New frontiers in spam

Text message spam. Frankly, I’m surprised it’s taken this long to be seen as a major problem. Once the scourge of e-mail providers and the Postal Service, spammers have infiltrated the last refuge of spam-free communication: cellphones. In the United … Continue reading

Posted in Technology, science, and math | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Saturday video break: Hallelujah

Song #72 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Hallelujah”, originally by Leonard Cohen and covered by everyone on the planet many artists, in this case Rufus Wainwright. Here’s the original: That’s probably not the version you’re most familiar with; Jeff … Continue reading

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No calculators for you!

I’m OK with this. Texas schoolchildren should not use calculators until they learn to work through math problems the old-fashioned way — on paper, State Board of Education members said Thursday. The board on Thursday tentatively approved new math curriculum … Continue reading

Posted in School days | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

See you later, alligator

In some parts of town, it’s more like See you sooner or later, alligator. This time of year, the proprietor of Janik Alligators in El Campo spends much of his time trying to keep that scenario from happening. In the … Continue reading

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The case for keeping the penny

The Canadian penny is about to become a collector’s item. They clutter your dresser and cost too much to make. They’re a nuisance and have outlived their purpose. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was talking about the Canadian penny and why … Continue reading

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Friday random ten: Name that tune

Gonna try something a little different that week. Here are ten lyric snippets from my song library. Your job is to name the song and the artist – original or cover of your choice, I don’t care. Obviously, using the … Continue reading

Posted in Music | Tagged , | 10 Comments

There’s no point trying to guess what Rick Perry is going to do

Rick Perry does not play by your puny rules. He is not constrained by logic, the greater good, or a sense of shame. If you’re an ambitious Republican politician hoping to move up the food chain, you have two choices: … Continue reading

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No uniform start times for HISD next fall

This surprised me. Houston ISD Superintendent Terry Grier on Thursday withdrew his proposal to change bus schedules and school hours next year after concerns about disruption to families and questions about the cost savings. This is the second consecutive year … Continue reading

Posted in School days | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

School finance lawsuit to start October 22

Mark your calendars. The school finance lawsuit will go to trial beginning Oct. 22, state district Judge John Dietz decided, and lawyers in the case agreed to a schedule for exchanging briefs. That agreement resulted in a status hearing being … Continue reading

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The Adickes museum

Cool. It’s been 70 years since David Adickes danced the jitterbug in the old Huntsville High School gym. Now, at age 85, he pauses at a flight of schoolhouse stairs, uncertain if his knees can stand the climb. Still, there’s … Continue reading

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March fundraising reports for Congressional candidates

Here’s a roundup of campaign finance reports for Congressional races and candidates of interest. I’ve been collecting links to the reports for contested Democratic races on my 2012 primary pages. Area races Nick Lampson had a typically strong fundraising report, … Continue reading

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Council is skeptical of Hobby International

Not so clear skies for expanding Hobby Airport into an international terminal. A consultant’s study that forecasts an economic boon for Houston if Hobby is made into an international airport came under fire from city council members Monday as “biased” … Continue reading

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Rick Perry’s vision for women’s health in Texas

More talk than action, and the numbers don’t add up. Are we surprised? Texas health officials have delivered a proposal to the federal government that outlines their plans for transitioning the Women’s Health Program from a program primarily supported by … Continue reading

Posted in Budget ballyhoo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Texas blog roundup for the week of April 16

The Texas Progressive Alliance is happy to contribute its fair share towards the maintenance of our great nation as it brings you this week’s roundup.

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Interview with Ciro Rodriguez

Also running to reclaim CD23 for the Democrats is the man who last held it for the Dems, Ciro Rodriguez. Rodriguez served five terms in the State House before being elected to CD28 in 1996, where he served until being … Continue reading

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How much would it really cost to tear down the Astrodome?

Perhaps not as much as Harris Country officials have been saying. The expected price tag to demolish the Reliant Astrodome that Harris County officials have cited in recent years far exceeds the cost of razing other stadiums across the country, … Continue reading

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The SBOE can even make math controversial

The State Board of Education is gearing up to revise math standards, and as is always the case someone is pushing back. The Texas Association of Business is urging the state board of education to go back to the drawing … Continue reading

Posted in School days | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Texas continues its fight against clean air

The state of Texas was back in court last week, arguing for its right to pollute other states’ air. The latest round in the state’s fight with the Environmental Protection Agency will be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals … Continue reading

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Interview with Pete Gallego

There are two Congressional districts in Texas that are on the national radar as November battlefields. One is CD14 thanks mostly to the candidacy of Nick Lampson, and the other is CD23, which flipped to the Democrats in 2006 after … Continue reading

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Perry’s budget suicide pact

I have four things to say about this. Borrowing a tactic from national anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, Gov. Rick Perry used a tax day appearance in Houston to propose a no-new-taxes pledge for Texas lawmakers, a pledge that would, in … Continue reading

Posted in Budget ballyhoo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

More on the size of the SBOE and its districts

The House Redistricting Committee is holding its hearing today on whether the 15-member State Board of Education and its ginormous districts are appropriately sized. A House Redistricting committee will study the merits of expanding the board to creating smaller districts, … Continue reading

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Re-Plant Houston

Memorial Park is about to get some needed attention. As last year’s drought killed thousands of trees in Memorial Park, caretakers realized it was time to speed the pace of a long-planned reforestation. On Friday, Mayor Annise Parker announced that … Continue reading

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Interview with Rep. Silvestre Reyes

As discussed last week, we now enter a period in which I will be publishing some number of interviews with Congressional candidates in contested Democratic primaries around Texas. There’s a lot of interesting and high-profile races and I’d love to … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2012 | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The truth is out there on the Ministers for Keryl email

In response to my previous post about the homophobic “Ministers for Keryl” email, a couple of commenters said that we didn’t have enough evidence to determine whether or not the email was genuine or spoofed. So, based on that feedback … Continue reading

Posted in Election 2012 | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

We need a much fuller public conversation about the homeless feeding ordinance

As Neil noted, some of us had the opportunity on Friday to ask Mayor Parker questions over lunch on Friday. Not surprisingly, the homeless feeding ordinance came up, and we spent quite a bit of time discussing it. The Mayor … Continue reading

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Well, at least they’ll be able to burn off the calories

News item number one. Papa John’s pizza, Blue Bell ice cream, and fluorescent-colored Slushies. For some kids, those may be the ingredients of a perfect school lunch. But for at least one Houston school district trustee, they may be the … Continue reading

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Weekend link dump for April 15

Mitt Romney has an elevator for his tax returns. Don’t worry, but don’t be too happy, either. I Was A Teenage Exorcist, coming up next on Fox. Some Angry Birds physics for you. More dinosaurs may have had feathers than … Continue reading

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State of the City 2012

It’s getting better. Saying Houston has “rounded the corner” on the recession, Mayor Annise Parker on Thursday credited City Hall with providing incentives that businesses used to create or retain 13,000 jobs and invest $1 billion locally during the tough … Continue reading

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The teen birth rate in Texas

The good news is that it’s declining. The bad news is that as with so many other things, Texas ranks among the lowest in the country. Despite a slight improvement from 2009, Texas still had one of the nation’s highest … Continue reading

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Electric car update

From the Texas Green Report. NRG Energy has committed $10 million to launch America’s first privately-financed electric vehicle charging network and plans to fully wire Houston to support electric cars without straining the grid in the next couple of years.  … Continue reading

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Some useful stuff from the LWV

Here, from the League of Women Voters Houston are a couple of useful documents for you: the Handy Dandy 2012 Primary Guide and the 2012 Directory of Elected Officials. It’s true that you could find this stuff for yourself online, … Continue reading

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