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January 22nd, 2020:

Interview with Rish Oberoi

Rish Oberoi

Continuing on with HD26. One of the ironies of incumbent Rep. Rick Miller’s racist comments about Asian voters in this district was, as State Rep. Gene Wu noted, HD26 was specifically drawn to make it easier for an Anglo candidate like Miller to win over Asian opponents. Turns out that even scuzzy gerrymanders have an expiration date, as did Rep. Miller. Rish Oberoi has worked on a variety of Democratic campaigns in Fort Bend County, from Nick Lampson to Mark Gibson to Mike Collier. He has also served as a policy aide to former Speaker Joe Straus, and worked with a non-profit that invests in school construction in India. Here’s the interview:

The Erik Manning spreadsheet is back! You can track information for candidates on the Harris County ballot here.

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Elisa Cardnell – CD02
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Vince Ryan – Harris County Attorney
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Jolanda Jones – Harris County Tax Assessor

Ann Johnson – HD134
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Akilah Bacy – HD138
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Sarah DeMerchant – HD26
Lawrence Allen – HD26

Judicial Q&A: Jimmie L.J. Brown, Jr.

(Note: As I have done in past elections, I am running a series of Q&As for judicial candidates in contested Democratic primaries. This is intended to help introduce the candidates and their experiences to those who plan to vote in March. I am running these responses in the order that I receive them from the candidates.)

Jimmie L.J. Brown, Jr

1. Who are you and what are you running for?

My name is Jimmie L. J. Brown, Jr.

I am an African-American Male. I am an attorney, licensed since Nov. 2, 1984.
I graduated from Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Texas Southern University June 1984.
I was born October 14, 1957.
My parents were Jimmie L. Brown, Sr., father/deceased and Mary L. Richard, mother/deceased.
I am and elder and the Assistant Pastor, Harvest Time Church of God In Christ, I am running for the position of Judge, 165th Judicial District Court, Harris County.

2. What kind of cases does this court hear?

The Texas district courts are the trial courts of general jurisdiction.

The district court has exclusive jurisdiction over felony cases, cases involving title to land, and election contest cases. It shares jurisdiction with the county courts, and in some case justice of the peace courts, for civil cases (its lowest limit for hearing a case is a mere $200 in controversy, while JP courts can hear cases up to $10,000). Family law jurisdiction varies depending on the existence of a county court-at-law; in some counties, the district courts share jurisdiction over divorces, child custody and support matters, adoptions and child welfare cases with county courts at law. Probate jurisdiction varies, depending on the existence of a statutory probate court in the county. In some larger counties, such as Harris County, the district courts are specialized, with designated sets of courts hearing criminal cases, juvenile cases, family matters, and non-family civil cases. In the smaller counties, a single district court handles all types of cases. In rural areas, as many as five counties share a single district court; urban counties.

Government Code, Chapter 24. District Courts
Sec. 24.112. 11TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (HARRIS COUNTY).
(a) The 11th Judicial District is composed of Harris County.
(b) Except as provided by Subsection (g), the provisions of this section apply to the 11th, 55th, 61st, 80th, 113th, 125th, 127th, 129th, 133rd, 151st, 152nd, 157th, 164th, and 165th judicial districts.
(c) Repealed by Acts 2017, 85th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1082 (H.B. 3481), Sec. 3, eff. September 1, 2017.
(d) In all suits, actions, or proceedings in the district courts, it is sufficient for the address or designation to be “District Court of Harris County.”
(e) The judge of each district court shall sign the minutes of each court term not later than the 30th day after the end of the term and shall also sign the minutes at the end of each volume of the minutes. Each judge sitting in the court shall sign the minutes of the proceedings that were held before him. (f) The judge of each district court may take the same vacation as the other district court judges of Harris County at any time during the year. During the judge’s vacation, the court term remains open, and the judge of any other district court may hold court during the judge’s vacation. The judges of the district courts shall, by agreement among themselves, take their vacations alternately so that there are at all times at least six district court judges in the county.
(g) Subsection (h) applies to the 11th, 55th, 61st, 80th, 113th, 125th, 127th, 129th, 133rd, 151st, 152nd, 157th, 164th, 165th, 189th, 190th, 215th, 234th, 269th, 270th, 280th, 281st, 295th, 333rd, and 334th judicial districts.
(h) The judges of the district courts listed in Subsection (g) by agreement shall designate one of the listed district courts as the domestic violence district court for Harris County. In designating the domestic violence district court, the judges shall give preference to a district court:
(1) that has a judicial vacancy at the time of the agreement; or
(2) for which the sitting judge of the district court has not at the time of the agreement announced a candidacy or become a candidate in the upcoming election for that judicial office.
(i) Subject to any jurisdictional limitations, the district court designated under Subsection (h) as the domestic violence district court shall give preference to domestic violence cases, including cases involving:
(1) dating violence, as defined by Section 71.0021, Family Code; and
(2) family violence, as defined by Section 71.004, Family Code.
(j) For the purposes of determining the preference the designated domestic violence district court is required to give cases under Subsection (i):
(1) a domestic violence case means:
(A) an original application for a protective order under Title 4, Family Code;
(B) an original application for a protective order under Title 4, Family Code, that involves both parties and is filed concurrently with an original petition under the Family Code; and
(C) any matter involving custody of a minor child if one parent is alleged to have caused the death of another parent and there is a history of domestic violence in the parents’ relationship; and
(2) subject to judicial discretion and resources, the designated domestic violence district court may also hear divorce and custody cases in which:
(A) a court has made an affirmative finding of family violence involving both parties; or
(B) a protective order has been issued under Title 4, Family Code, involving both parties.
(k) The designated domestic violence district court shall:
(1) provide timely and efficient access to emergency protective orders and other court remedies for persons the court determines are victims of domestic violence;
(2) integrate victims’ services for persons the court determines are victims of domestic violence who have a case before the court; and
(3) promote an informed and consistent court response to domestic violence cases to lessen the number of misdemeanors, felonies, and fatalities related to domestic violence in Harris County.
(l) The Harris County district clerk shall create a form and establish procedures to transfer a domestic violence case that qualifies for preference under this section to the domestic violence district court.

3. Why are you running for this particular bench?

The Incumbent Judge is not doing the job. I believe I can do the job and certainly do the job better than the present incumbent. I have been a Summary Court Martials Judge – three times, a military conscientious objector hearings officer for not less than 25 hearings and an administrative law judge – Texas Railroad Commission, Transportation Section (prior to deregulation).

I have practiced law for 35 years. I have tried cases, both criminal and civil, conducted discovery, filed and argued motions, familiar with the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure/Civil Practice and Remedies Code/Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and filed appeals – State and Federal. I have argued appeals before the 1st and 14th Court of Appeals (State), and the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals (Federal).

4. What are your qualifications for this job?

See Paragraph 3 above.

5. Why is this race important?

I am not certain what is meant by important. I believe it is a factor and is a positive or negative. For me a positive. It lends a perspective and insight of the judicial system – access, bias, impartiality and partiality, that will shape me as a judge. I believe it allows me to have a perspective on the impact of the role of the law, trial, the process and as a judge as seen from a person and a people who have come to value the need of the courts and the law.

Quoting Cesar Chavez: “History will judge societies and governments and their institutions, not by how big they are or how well they serve the rich and the powerful, but by how effectively they respond to the needs of the poor and the helpless.”

Quoting Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.”

Quoting Benjamin Franklin: “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.”

6. Why should people vote for you in the primary?

One of the many reasons people should vote for me is that I’m the BEST candidate for the job of Judge for the 165th Judicial District Court. Not that I am perfect, nor that I have been perfect. Not that I have not made mistake. Not that I will not, but that I am human and strive to do what is right and to follow the law as best as I can and to – when the situation requires – deviate from the law to see justice/equity done.

“There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.” ― Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws

Uptown BRT pushed back to July

Sigh.

Opening day for Houston’s first bus rapid transit line has been pushed back to mid-summer as construction enters the final steps along most of the route before reaching a three-month testing period.

Service is expected to start no earlier than July, said Tom Lambert, CEO of Metropolitan Transit Authority. That is four months later than the March opening officials predicted in mid-2019, the result of some construction delays and the desire to test more of the system at once.

“Until you get the whole corridor lined up, you really can’t deliver the service the way it is intended,” Lambert said.

[…]

Though riders will experience the bus service as a single rapid transit route from Metro’s Northwest Transit Center north of Interstate 10 to a new transit center along Westpark Drive — primarily along bus-only lanes along Loop 610 and in the center of Post Oak — the path involves five different projects, built by different public entities.

That includes the new transit center taking shape along Westpark, now expected to finish in March, that Uptown and transit officials view as a major hub for buses.

Work on the Post Oak lanes mostly is complete, according to John Breeding, executive director of the Uptown Houston Management District, which rebuilt the road and led efforts to add transit to the area.

Construction continues, however, on the elevated busway that will carry the BRT service from Post Oak north along Loop 610 before reconnecting the buses with North Post Oak. Work on the $58 million busway, developed by the Texas Department of Transportation, is expected to finish by the end of March, TxDOT spokeswoman Emily Black said.

Testing in earnest can only happen along the line with the Post Oak and busway portions complete, Lambert said.

The previous update, which did note that there were these other parts that weren’t done yet, still had March for the grand opening. So much for that. If this means it will all open at once and not in a piecemeal fashion, I suppose that makes more sense. But as with all construction projects, you just want it to be over with.

Jeter, Walker elected to Hall of Fame

Congratulations.

Derek Jeter received the second-highest plurality in the history of Baseball Writers’ Association of America voting for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in being elected Tuesday along with Larry Walker in the 2020 balloting verified by Ernst & Young.

Of the 397 ballots cast by select 10-year members of the BBWAA, Jeter was named on 396 (99.7 percent), second only to former New York Yankees teammate Mariano Rivera’s 100 percent in 2019, and ahead of third-place Ken Griffey Jr., who received 99.3 percent of the vote in 2016.

Whereas Jeter was elected in his first year of eligibility, Walker made the grade in his 10th-and-final year on the BBWAA ballot. They will be honored as part of the Hall’s Induction Weekend July 24-27 in Cooperstown, N.Y., along with catcher Ted Simmons and the late Major League Players Association executive director Marvin Miller, who were elected in December by the Modern Baseball Era Committee.

[…]

Walker, whose 22-percent jump in support from 2019 was the highest for a player in his last year of eligibility in 65 years, also becomes the first player who ever wore a Colorado Rockies uniform to be elected to the Hall of Fame.

Falling 20 votes short of the total needed for induction was pitcher Curt Schilling with 70 percent of the vote in his eighth year on the ballot. The only other players who were named on more than half the ballots were pitcher Roger Clemens (61.0), outfielder Barry Bonds (60.7) and shortstop Omar Vizquel (52.6). Players may remain on the ballot provided they receive mention on five percent of ballots cast. Other than Jeter, the only one of the 18 first-ballot candidates to achieve that level was outfielder Bobby Abreu (5.5).

Jeter, 45, spent all 20 of his major-league seasons with the Yankees from 1995-2014, was a member of five World Series championship teams, captained the Yankees from 2003 through the end of his career and finished with 3,465 hits, the sixth highest total in history. His other career rankings include seventh in at-bats (11,195), 11th in runs (1,923), 23rd in total bases (4,921), 29th in games (2,747) and 35th in doubles (544). Jeter never played a position other than shortstop in his 2,674 games in the field, which ranks second all-time at the position only to Vizquel. Jeter was the American League Rookie of the Year in 1996, was the runner-up for the AL Most Valuable Player Award in 2006 and finished third in AL MVP voting twice, in 1998 and 2009.

The 14-time All-Star was the MVP of the 2000 game at Atlanta, and later that year was also the World Series MVP in the Yankees’ five-game triumph over the New York Mets. Jeter had eight 200-hit seasons, batted .300 12 times, scored 100 or more runs 13 times and won five Gold Glove Awards for fielding.

He participated in 33 series and 158 games in postseason play, both records, and also holds postseason marks for at-bats (650), runs (111), hits (200), total bases (302), doubles (32) and triples (5). In essentially the equivalent of a full regular season, Jeter in postseason play batted .308 with 20 home runs, 61 runs batted in and 66 walks. He won the Hank Aaron Award for hitting in 2006 and ’09, the Roberto Clemente Award for community service in 2009 and the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award for philanthropy in 2011.

Walker, 53, batted .313 with 383 home runs over 17 seasons with Montreal, Colorado and St. Louis. He was the National League MVP in 1997 when he hit .366 with league-leading totals in home runs (49), total bases (409, the 18th -highest single-season total in history), on-base percentage (.452) and slugging percentage (.720) for the Rockies. The three-time batting champion won seven Gold Glove Awards for fielding and three Silver Slugger Awards as an outfielder. Walker was a five-time All-Star who ranks 12th in career slugging percentage (.565) and 15th in career on-base percentage plus slugging (.965). He batted .357 with a 1.366 OPS in his only World Series appearance, in 2004, a four-game sweep of the Cardinals by the Boston Red Sox.

Jeter’s election was a foregone conclusion – the only suspense was whether he’d be unanimous or not. (He wasn’t – one voter, whose ballot was not made public, left him off.) Walker was a longer shot and was the sabermetric darling of the bunch. Baseball Twitter was delighted by his election, and I’m there with them. Jeter and Walker join Marvin Miller and Ted Simmons, elected earlier by the Modern Era Committee, making this a strong, well-rounded class. Congratulations to all the new inductees. CBS Sports has more.