Off the Kuff | Knowledge Is Good

And this is how measles spreads

Posted on February 25, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Hopefully this won’t turn into something much bigger.

Health officials in Hays County have issued a public health alert after a possible measles exposure in the area.

Officials said a person who tested positive for the contagious virus visited San Marcos on Friday, Feb. 14.

According to the Hays County Health Department, the Gaines County resident who tested positive for measles was in San Marcos from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. that day.

Officials warn that anyone who was at Texas State University from approximately 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and at Twin Peaks Restaurant from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. — or up to two hours after those times — may have been exposed and could be at risk of developing measles.

The Hays County Health Department is requesting that individuals who may have been exposed notify their local health authority. The Hays County Health Department, the Texas Department of State Health Services and other local health agencies are working together to investigate potential contacts.

The individual from Gaines County also traveled to multiple areas in San Antonio on Saturday, Feb. 15. They include the University of Texas at San Antonio main campus between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m, the River Walk attractions — Wax Museum, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and Ripley’s Illusion Lab — between 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., and Mr. Crabby’s Seafood and Bar in Live Oak between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.

The person also visited a New Braunfels Buc-ees on Feb. 16 between 9 a.m. and noon.

[…]

People who were at Texas State University and at Twin Peaks Restaurant during the times of possible exposure are advised to do the following:

Review their immunization and medical records to determine if they are protected against measles infection. People who have not had measles infection or received measles immunization previously may not be protected from the measles virus and should talk with a health care provider about receiving measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) immunization.

Contact and notify their health care provider as soon as possible about a potential exposure if they are pregnant, have an infant, or have a weakened immune system regardless of vaccination history

Monitor themselves for illness with fever and/or an unexplained rash from four days to 21 days after their exposure (the time period when symptoms may develop)

If symptoms develop, stay at home and avoid school, work and any large gatherings. Call a health care provider immediately. Do not enter a health care facility before calling and making them aware of your measles exposure and symptoms. The health department can assist health care providers in appropriately diagnosing and managing your care.

See here for the previous update. This may have started in a small, insulated community in a remote and lightly populated West Texas county, but all it takes is one person to break containment, especially with a disease as contagious as measles. And while the large majority of those who have caught measles were unvaccinated, not all of them were and not all of the future victims will be. MMR vaccines are 97%+ effective if you get both shots – they’re about 94% effective with just one shot – but that still leaves room for some unlucky vaccine recipients to get it as well. This is going to go until it burns itself out – the very idea that we might take some kind of official steps to slow the spread is beyond unthinkable these days – so check your vaccination records and take action now while you still can if you need to. Because once you’re sick, it’s too late for the vaccine. Reform Austin, the San Antonion Report, and the Current have more.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged Bexar County, Centers for Disease Control, Comal County, Gaines County, Hays County, Lubbock, measles, New Braunfels, San Antonio, Texas, Texas Department of State Health Services, Texas State University, The Immunization Partnership, The Lege, vaccinations | Comments Off

January 2025 campaign finance reports: State officeholders

Posted on February 24, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

PREVIOUSLY:

Harris County offices
City of Houston
Senate and Congress

I wasn’t going to do a state office roundup – there are no Democratic state officeholders, the races of interest won’t have candidates for several months, etc – but I decided that to be consistent with my message about our elected officials needing to want to win at least as much as we do, I should check in on what the ones from this area have in the bank. So let’s take a look.

Carol Alvarado – SD06
Borris Miles – SD13
Molly Cook – SD15

Ron Reynolds – HD27
Suleman Lalani – HD76
Alma Allen – HD131
Ann Johnson – HD134
Jon Rosenthal – HD135
Gene Wu – HD137
Charlene Ward Johnson – HD139
Armando Walle – HD140
Senfronia Thompson – HD141
Harold Dutton – HD142
Ana Hernandez – HD143
Mary Ann Perez – HD144
Christina Morales – HD145
Lauren Ashley Simmons – HD146
Jolanda Jones – HD147
Penny Shaw – HD148
Hubert Vo – HD149


Dist  Name             Raised      Spent    Loans    On Hand
============================================================
SD06  Alvarado        198,580     61,686        0  1,564,381
SD13  Miles           100,383    105,774  492,756     22,107
SD15  Cook             94,178     48,221        0    155,853

HD27  Reynolds         29,390     24,459   40,910     34,574
HD76  Lalani           48,975    115,458        0    151,235
HD131 Allen            13,290     10,876        0     67,125
HD134 Johnson         220,340     32,237        0    527,021
HD135 Rosenthal        66,885     42,823        0     66,763
HD137 Wu              138,467    116,773   10,000    123,609
HD139 Johnson          50,760     22,687   15,000     26,059
HD140 Walle           146,872     93,909        0    267,898
HD141 Thompson        251,831     90,222        0  1,032,927
HD142 Dutton           48,800     16,959        0    148,761
HD143 Hernandez       157,510     33,586        0    448,309
HD144 Perez            77,679     33,040        0    211,703
HD145 Morales          45,639     41,259    5,000     61,067
HD146 Simmons          68,314     65,277        0     86,488
HD147 Jones            46,654     22,110        0    118,195
HD148 Shaw             17,974     13,787        0          0
HD149 Vo               22,600     23,935        0    100,998

New Senator Molly Cook had to win or place in five elections last year, so for her to come out of all that with $155K on hand is pretty good. I expect her to be a force, and I look forward to seeing what she can do in an election year with having the office of State Senator behind her. Sen. Borris Miles has been more of a self-funder than fundraiser, so while his cash on hand total is kind of shocking, it’s not really surprising. There are also persistent rumors about his possible retirement due to health concerns, which would also be consistent with his financial showing. I’ll get to Sen. Alvarado in a minute.

It’s not a surprise that a longtime icon like Rep. Senfronia Thompson would be a good fundraiser and have a decent amount in the bank. It’s also not out of order to wonder what that money is for. I can’t recall even a minor league challenge to her since I’ve been paying close attention to electoral politics. To be blunt, she doesn’t need that much money, and she really should be using some of it to help the greater Democratic cause. And at the risk of being even more indelicate, she just turned 86 years old. I hope she has a plan for what to do with this money in the near-to-medium term future.

The Over 80 caucus also includes Reps. Alma Allen and, as of this month, Harold Dutton. I have tremendous respect for the work that Reps. Allen and Thompson have done – let’s just say Rep. Dutton has some good things and some very not good things on his ledger and leave it at that – but Father Time comes for us all. Rep. Allen has had mostly token challengers in the past few cycles, while Rep. Dutton has had some more serious and less serious challengers. It would be nice to have one of the more serious challengers for him in 2026, but that means recruitment should be going on now, and that person needs to do a lot of ground work. Money will only get you so far in HD142.

We’ve talked plenty about the 2024 election numbers in HD144 and what that means for Rep. Mary Ann Perez, who was unopposed last November and was not a visible presence in the overall campaign. She has a few bucks in the bank, and she’s going to need a lot more because she’s going to be a top Republican target if they’re not complete idiots. I will note that her colleagues, Reps. Ana Hernandez and Armando Walle, are both also good fundraisers who had little to do and thus did little in last year’s election. They also saw some slippage in the Democratic performance of their districts, enough that if I were an opportunistic Republican strategist I’d be busily recruiting in their neighborhoods as well, not so much with the idea of winning those races but of raising the tide for their ticket overall as they try to win some countywide races. I would VERY VERY MUCH like to see those three, plus Sen. Alvarado, whose district overlaps them all, be a lot more active on the ground, on the air, on the Internet, and wherever else they think they can contribute next year. They’re good legislators, they vote right and represent their districts well. I like them all. I’m just asking to see more of them going forward. We need all the help we can get.

Rep. Penny Morales Shaw also needs to be looking ahead to 2026, though she starts out as someone who has been more visible on the trail. Her report had a blank for the “cash on hand” field, so I don’t know what she actually has. I have faith she will rise to the challenge.

Overall we have a pretty good Democratic legislative caucus in Harris and Fort Bend Counties. There’s a lot of talent and some exciting newcomers – keep an eye on Reps. Lauren Simmons and Sulemon Lalani – and we have the potential to add to their numbers, and maybe eventually expand to Brazoria County and who knows from there. Getting good recruits in HDs 26 and 138 at a bare minimum is vital. If you have a Democratic State Rep and/or State Senator, now is a good time to be calling their office and telling them what you want to see from them. Not just over the next couple of months, where the best we can hope for is to make some terrible bills slightly less bad, but going forward from there. Say it with me now, we need to win more elections. These folks need to be at the forefront of that.

Posted in Election 2024, Election 2026 | Tagged Alma Allen, Ana Hernandez, Ann Johnson, Armando Walle, Borris Miles, campaign finance reports, Carol Alvarado, Charlene Ward Johnson, Christina Morales, Democratic primary, Election 2024, Election 2026, fundraising, Gene Wu, Harold Dutton, HD131, HD134, HD135, HD137, HD138, HD139, HD140, HD141, HD142, HD143, HD144, HD145, HD146, HD147, HD148, HD149, HD26, HD27, HD76, Hubert Vo, Jolanda Jones, Jon Rosenthal, Lauren Ashley Simmons, Mary Ann Perez, Molly Cook, Penny Shaw, Ron Reynolds, SD06, SD13, SD15, Senate, Senfronia Thompson, Suleman Lalani, Texas, The Lege | Comments Off

Roberson files another appeal

Posted on February 24, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

I wish him luck.

Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson filed a new appeal with the state’s highest criminal court on Wednesday in his first attempt to overturn his death sentence since an unprecedented intervention by a state legislative committee delayed his execution in October.

Roberson was convicted of capital murder in 2003 for the death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki, who was diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome. He has maintained his innocence during his 22 years on death row, arguing that new scientific evidence discredits prosecutors’ shaken baby theory and shows that she died of natural and accidental causes.

The appeal, which was first reported by the Austin American-Statesman, includes new expert opinions finding that the shaken baby diagnosis was unsound and that Nikki’s autopsy that ruled her death a homicide was flawed. Those conclusions echo medical and forensic opinions presented in Roberson’s previous appeals.

“This Subsequent Application is supported by additional new evidence establishing that Roberson’s conviction was based on discredited and unreliable forensic science and that he is actually innocent,” Roberson’s attorneys wrote. “There was no homicide, only the tragic death of his very ill little girl.”

Wednesday’s filing also cited the court’s decision in October to overturn the conviction of another man in a shaken baby case out of Dallas County, which recognized that the scientific consensus around shaken baby diagnoses had changed over the last two decades. Roberson’s attorneys called that case “materially indistinguishable” from Roberson’s.

The appeal also argued that Texas lawmakers had made clear over the last several months that they did not believe the courts were properly applying the state’s junk science law, which Roberson has repeatedly tried to use to prove his innocence. That law provides for new trials when the science at the crux of a case has changed.

Roberson’s attorneys argued in the appeal that “no rational juror would find Roberson guilty of capital murder,” and that “unreliable and outdated scientific and medical evidence was material to his conviction.”

The arguments raised in Wednesday’s appeal align with the case Roberson’s attorneys have presented in his appeals since 2016.

See here for the last update. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, but it really does amaze me how little the biggest proponents of the death penalty care about the correctness of death penalty verdicts. The thought of an innocent person possibly being executed just doesn’t bother them, as long as they can say that they got a “fair trial” and that all of the (arbitrarily restricted) avenues of appeal have been exhausted. They’re consistent about that whether it’s a case where the actual bad guy has seemingly gotten away with it or it’s a case like this one or that of Cameron Willingham where the evidence shows that no actual crime occurred. The science has advanced greatly since 2016, which is why the Lege had previously intervened in this case. We’ll see if the courts can get it right this time around.

Posted in Crime and Punishment | Tagged Cameron Willingham, Court of Criminal Appeals, death penalty, Greg Abbott, innocence, Ken Paxton, Robert Roberson, Supreme Court, Texas, The Lege | Comments Off

How’s that response to bird flu going?

Posted on February 24, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Keep your expectations low, that’s my advice.

Image credit: RubberBall Productions via Getty Images

Newly confirmed U.S. Agriculture Sec. Brooke Rollins is facing an early test as she leads the effort to tamp down on the country’s bird flu outbreak, which has decimated dairy and poultry farmers across the country.

So far it has mostly spared Texas, but farmers in the state are on edge, keeping a close eye out for alerts of outbreaks at nearby farms and taking extraordinary steps to protect their animals, from locking down farms to requiring shoe and clothing changes for anyone going in. The crisis has also driven egg prices to record levels nationwide.

“Most of the time, these diseases will die out over time,” said J.C. Essler, executive vice president of the Texas Poultry Federation in Round Rock. “We haven’t been able to completely eradicate this one.”

At her confirmation hearing last month, Rollins, a native Texan and former president of the America First Policy Institute, said she was “hyper focused” on assembling a team to address the outbreak.

Less than a week after being confirmed, however, her plan to curtail the spread of avian flu remains unclear. The USDA was scrambling this week to rehire employees who had been working on the bird flu response and were fired under the Trump administration’s mass layoff of federal employees, according to media reports.

The agency also approved a conditional license for an bird flu vaccine for chickens, driving speculation that it could soon begin ordering farmers to start vaccinating their chickens. The USDA has not commented on its immediate plans, and it did not respond to a request for comment.

Farmers have so far resisted such a move. Vaccinated chickens would test positive test for bird flu, which could make it impossible to sell poultry products abroad as other countries try to control the spread of infections.

See here for more on the vaccine, which seems to me to be the best strategy though it will have obvious logistical challenges. As far as the export concerns go, it’s hard to say how much that market could be affected, but keep this in mind.

Leaders of the Congressional Chicken Caucus said in a letter to Rollins last week that while the egg industry has lost the most birds, the broiler industry could bear a disproportionate share of the costs of any policy change. According to USDA figures 77.5% of the nearly 159 million commercial birds lost to avian influenza since February 2022 have been layers, or over 123 million. That compares to 13.7 million broilers, or 8.6%, and 18.7 million turkeys, or 11.8%.

Yes, the Congressional Chicken Caucus. The jokes, they write themselves. I guess the question is whether the vaccine priority would be the egg-laying birds, as I’d expect there aren’t many egg exports, and not the food birds. That’s a problem for career pundit and political hack Brooke Rollins and that Crack Staff of Experts she’s sure to hire quickly, as long as Elon Musk hasn’t already fired them. Good luck with all that.

Posted in National news | Tagged Brooke Rollins, chicken farming, Donald Trump, eggs, Elon Musk, flu, USDA, vaccinations | Comments Off

Weekend link dump for February 23

Posted on February 23, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

“The vice president has been very publicly pontificating — condescendingly lecturing others about the proper understanding of Catholic doctrine. Vance has been aggressively telling anyone who would listen that they just don’t understand that church teaching the way that he does, and now he has been very publicly corrected by the actual Pope literally pontificating to him to STFU and spend some time reading the Bible because Vance has made it very clear he doesn’t have the slightest idea what it says.”

“Sneaking Kendrick Lamar’s lyrics into the weather”.

“Exurbia will eventually diversify, but for now, it offers the promise of escape—escape from racial minorities, escape from secular values, and escape from the mechanisms of democracy that allowed for the entrance of racial minorities and secular values into the cultural mainstream.”

“But new research from Duke University shows how we could do four Stargate Projects without building a single new power plant. The study, published Tuesday morning, found that scaling back power usage by just 0.5% per year could free up supply on the grid for nearly 100 gigawatts of additional power demand.”

“The company behind more than a dozen dating apps, Match Group, has known for years about the abusive users on its platforms, but chooses to leave millions of people in the dark.”

“In the New Jersey parking lot where high school students invented Ultimate Frisbee nearly 60 years ago, some of the original players are still throwing the disc every week.”

“The Trump administration‘s Department of Defense, currently run by former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, has taken a stand against freckles.”

“About 400 recently hired support staff employees at the Federal Aviation Administration were fired over the weekend as part of the Trump administration’s mass terminations of federal workers, according to the union representing the employees. The dismissals come less than three weeks after a midair collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter outside Washington killed 67 people and brought new scrutiny to air traffic controllers and their workloads.”

“As a writer speaking to a room full of writers, I have a proposal. It certainly won’t fix everything, but maybe it’s a start. I say we write more good guys. For decades, we’ve made the villains too sexy. I really think that when we create characters as indelible as Michael Corleone, Hannibal Lecter, Darth Vader or Tony Soprano, viewers everywhere, all over the world, they pay attention and say, ‘Those dudes are bad ass, I want to be that cool’. When that happens, that’s when bad guys stop being the cautionary tales that they were intended to be. They [instead] become aspirational. So maybe what the world needs now are some good old fashioned, greatest generation types who give more than they take.”

“Each one was made with AI and the crimes described did not happen. There was no language on the channel’s homepage or in video descriptions to tell a viewer otherwise.”

“Where Are the Lawsuits Over the Chainsawing of NIH and NCI?” It’s complicated, actually.

“Will Donald Trump Make Money Laundering Great Again?”

“Carding — the underground business of stealing, selling and swiping stolen payment card data — has long been the dominion of Russia-based hackers. Happily, the broad deployment of more secure chip-based payment cards in the United States has weakened the carding market. But a flurry of innovation from cybercrime groups in China is breathing new life into the carding industry, by turning phished card data into mobile wallets that can be used online and at main street stores.”

Former SNL cast member Gary Kroeger shares his experiences at the SNL50 extravaganza.

“Is This Why Musk Keeps Using the Same Dozen Tech Micro-Bros for Each Takeover?”

RIP, Paquite la del Barrio, iconic Mexican singer/songwriter.

“Trump’s executive order does nothing to expand access to IVF. But if he’s actually serious about delivering on his campaign promise, he can prove it by calling on Republicans to back my Right to IVF Act. Otherwise, it’s all just lip service from a known liar.”

“Compared to all the other reversals of action of the Trump administration—trying to rescind or freeze spending, for example—this particular action is surprisingly unjustified. Impoundment theory, at least there’s a theory. Birthright citizenship, there’s a book I can read about that. Here there’s no argument. It’s a complete fabrication devoid of any support in the statutes.”

RIP, Hurricane, former Secret Service dog who guarded the Obama White House and repelled an intruder, suffering injuries in the process.

“In news that will send shock waves through the industry, longtime James Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli are relinquishing control of the beloved spy franchise and handing the reins to Amazon MGM Studios.” Fair to say that Bond fans are not impressed with the transaction.

“This is not a smoking gun. Despite the nation’s roughly 20 million only-alive-on-paper elders, the Social Security Administration sends benefits to around 44,000 people who are over 100, which is in keeping with the number of super-oldsters who actually live in the nation, according to the census. In fact, a 2015 report found 6.5 million active Social Security numbers for people over the age of 112, but only 13 of them were being used to receive benefits—turns out there are much better ways of defrauding social security than collecting a dead ancestor’s monthly check for $22.54—the payment a 150-year-old would receive.”

“In a move that dramatically shakes up the sports TV landscape, ESPN and Major League Baseball have decided to part ways after the upcoming MLB season, ending a 35-year relationship between the sports TV giant and league, and bringing some prime sports rights to the market.”

“The second ex-Mrs. Trump is getting in on the anti-vaxx grift“.

“2025 might be the first time in human history where we have a genuine supervillain walking among us. Humanity has spawned numerous monsters of course: Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot. But I’m talking the supervillain on the Gotham/Metropolis model. The glad-handing fantastically rich, this-dial-goes-to-11 over the top weirdo with his raucous bevy of cheerleaders who is in fact evil and has a cartoonishly stupid but yet very real plan to take over the world.”

“A push by Republican attorneys general in 17 states to strike down part of a federal law that protects disabled people from discrimination has prompted an outcry from advocates, parents and some local officials.”

“How Elon Musk benefits from being Elon Musk”.

Wishing Gregg Popovich all the best.

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged linkdump | Comments Off

“No easy fixes” for HISD to pass a bond

Posted on February 23, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Good luck with that.

Houston ISD should allow more time for family and community engagement when it holds a school bond election, according to a recent report from a Houston public relations firm on the district’s failed $4.4 billion proposed bond.

HISD hired Outreach Strategists to support the development of the school bond, including “providing strategic direction, marketing support, and comprehensive implementation services” before the Nov. 5 election. It paid at least $730,000 to the firm for bond research and strategy, according to district records.

Despite the marketing efforts, the bond measure failed after a successful campaign by critics of the district’s leaders, who encouraged voters to reject the measure due to the state takeover and a lack of community trust in state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles and the Board of Managers.

In its closing written report, Outreach Strategists shared several key recommendations with the district and the school board largely addressing community engagement or infrastructure, as well as lessons learned after about 58% of voters rejected both bond propositions.

“The electoral margins for the two bond proposals indicate there are no easy fixes to passing a bond in the future,” the report said. “The community research did show a path to passage, but it would have required robust advocacy, which the district cannot legally perform.”

After sharing the report with the board and district leadership, HISD provided the 16-page report to the Chronicle in response to an open records request.

“HISD is not currently in the planning process for another bond proposal,” a district spokesperson said. “If the district does move forward with a bond in the future we will, of course, consider these recommendations and other input we have received.”

You can see a copy of the report here. I had thought at one time that the district might try again this year, maybe even in May, with a smaller bond, but as the story makes clear, that’s not on the table. I guess this at least gives them the time to try to address some of the points made in the report. I don’t think there’s much there that wasn’t apparent before the bond went down in flames, but maybe Mike Miles just needed to hear it from someone he doesn’t consider beneath him.

On that note, Outreach Strategists is owned by Mustafa Tameez, who I’ve known for a long time and consider a friend. I can tell you he was passionately in favor of the bond referendum, and is a firm believer that Miles has done great and necessary work in improving the performance of a lot of students that the district had failed for a long time. You can feel however you want to feel about that, I’m just illustrating that this report is a message to Mike Miles from the friendliest possible messenger. If he doesn’t take it to heart, that’s on him.

Posted in Election 2024, School days | Tagged bond referendum, bonds, Election 2024, HISD, Houston, Mike Miles, Mustafa Tameez, New Education System | 1 Comment

Lawsuit filed over elimination of ICE’s sensitive locations policy

Posted on February 23, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

I wish them luck.

Twenty-seven churches and organizations — some with ties to Texas’ Jewish and Christian faith communities — are suing the Trump administration over the elimination of ICE’s sensitive locations policy.

The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, Feb. 11, in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. against the Department of Homeland Security for President Donald Trump’s abrupt reversal of the policy on Jan. 20, which the plaintiffs argue has caused fear within their communities and violates their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The original protections against Border Patrol targeting places such as churches and schools has its roots in one of El Paso’s oldest high schools — Bowie High School. In the 1990s, Border Patrol agents in El Paso targeted teachers and students at the school. A federal court settlement required agents to have probable cause for stopping suspected immigrants.

In the latest legal actions, churches and organizations — include the Quakers, Mennonites, Christian and Jewish traditions — also point out the text of the Torah and the Bible that call on the faithful to be welcoming to strangers or immigrants, being the “central precept of their faith practices.”

“This felt like a direct attack on what it means to be a person of faith, what it means to be a faith community,” Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the New York-based Union for Reformed Judaism, said. “We were encouraged that there were a few dozen of other denominations and associations that also have the same feeling of being morally summoned to speak up and join this lawsuit.”

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich of the District of Columbia will oversee the case. There is currently no date set for the first hearing.

The sensitive locations policy protected spaces — houses of worship schools, hospitals and other places that provide social services — from immigration enforcement operations. It’s been upheld in every administration for the past 30 years.

“Although the legal action applies primarily to our churches, the truth is that we are concerned for the population in general,” Rev. Carlos Malavé, the founder of the Amarillo, Texas-based Latino Christian National Network, said. “Our churches are right there on the front line helping our community, sustaining our community, not only spiritually but in physical ways. Not upholding this policy is creating havoc in our community.”

I would say that’s one of the points of the policy. Using religious freedom and the RFRA is a good strategy, especially given the nature of the courts at this point, but it’s no guarantee. SCOTUS is very capable of fitting its reasoning to suit its preferred outcome. We’ll just have to see how this one goes.

Posted in La Migra, Legal matters | Tagged Donald Trump, El Paso, Homeland Security, ICE, immigration, Latino Christian National Network, lawsuit, Texas | Comments Off

TEA takes over South San Antonio ISD

Posted on February 23, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Of interest.

Following a state-mandated conservatorship and years of squabbling board members, the Texas Education Agency decided Wednesday to overhaul South San Antonio Independent School District’s entire board of trustees.

The state also appointed Saul Hinojosa, a retired superintendent for Somerset ISD, as South San’s new superintendent.

Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath appointed Hinojosa and a completely new seven-member board of managers, citing nearly two decades of elected trustee and administrative dysfunction, in which he said resulted in “diminished student academic outcomes, poor financial controls, public distrust and multiple TEA investigations.”

South San ISD’s board has been under TEA investigation four times, twice in 2021 and twice in 2023.

The decision to take over South San ISD comes after the TEA found the district was in violation of five different state education codes and demonstrated the district “failed to oversee the management of the district when it engaged in actions or inaction that could negatively impact district personnel and the students of SSAISD.”

Mentioned in the investigation’s final report was the board’s inability to keep a superintendent for a full term since 2011, repeated failures to meet quorum during board meetings and the district’s $12 million budget deficit.

According to the report, the TEA’s Special Investigations Unit will recommend to the Commissioner of Education that a sanction be issued up to and including the installation of a Board of Managers that replaces the existing board of trustees due to the current board’s demonstrated inability to ensure adherence to state law requirements relating to governance.

Abelrado “Abe” Saavedra was appointed as the district’s conservator in 2023 by the TEA. Saavedra was tasked with guiding the board and reporting back to the TEA.

Though the outgoing board of trustees seemed to be on an upward trajectory in September after Saavedra told the Report that “things had calmed down,” Saavedra had sent a letter to Morath last year urging him to install a board of managers.

In the letter, Saavedra said the solution would “facilitate a clean break from the governance failures that have persisted in South San Antonio ISD and facilitate an opportunity for the district to be governed by community members who can implement best practices and provide wise oversight and strong governance.”

According to Steve Lecholop, deputy commissioner of governance at the TEA, the state takeover of South San ISD is only the 10th district overhaul to occur since 2000.

SSAISD had 7,872 students in 18 schools as of the 2022-23 school year, so it’s much smaller than HISD. I can’t say I know much about it but I do know that I’ve seen headlines about its various issues over the years, so this doesn’t seem like a shock to me. I noted this in part because any TEA takeover is of interest for obvious reasons, the appearance of former HISD Superintendent Abe Saavedra, and that stat at the end about ten takeovers since 2000. I’d love to see a comprehensive report on how those other eight districts have done before and after the experience. Whatever happens from here, I wish everyone in SSAISD good luck and a good outcome.

Posted in School days | Tagged Abe Saavedra, Board of Managers, Mike Morath, San Antonio, SSAISD, Texas, Texas Education Agency | Comments Off

Paxton whistleblowers ask for $6.7 million in damages

Posted on February 22, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

I wish them luck.

Still a crook any way you look

Senior officials who were fired after reporting Attorney General Ken Paxton to law enforcement for alleged criminal conduct in 2020 asked a Travis County judge Thursday to award them $6.7 million in damages.

Paxton’s office has until 5 p.m. Friday to submit concerns about the plaintiff’s proposed judgment.

District Court Judge Catherine Mauzy said she will enter her judgment early next week.

Four fired officials from the attorney general’s office — policy director James “Blake” Brickman, head of law enforcement David Maxwell, head of criminal justice Mark Penley and deputy attorney general for legal counsel Ryan Vassar — sued the agency in November 2020.

They alleged their terminations violated the Texas Whistleblower Act, which prohibits retaliation against public employees who report a violation of law in good faith. The employees were among eight top aides at the agency who reported Paxton’s conduct to the FBI and other law enforcement.

[…]

Brickman, Penley and Vassar testified Thursday in district court, detailing their allegations of Paxton’s alleged wrongdoing and the financial and emotional toll this drawn-out legal battle has taken on them and their families.

Brickman called it a four-year nightmare, Penley described the past four years as excruciating, and Vassar said it’s been frustrating.

Maxwell had surgery this week and was unable to attend, but his attorney, T.J. Turner, read aloud his client’s sworn written testimony.

“The emotional toil, reputational damage and pain and suffering that my family and I have endured because of the actions of [Attorney] General Paxton and the office of the attorney general is hard to talk about,” Turner read from Maxwell’s statement.

The former officials lamented that Paxton has been able to criticize them through press statements and public interviews with conservative media hosts without having to testify under oath.

[…]

Bill Helfand, a private lawyer representing the attorney general’s office, repeatedly questioned whether the attorneys were seeking more compensation than the law allows, suggesting some were billing for work outside the scope of this case.

The whistleblowers’ lawyers “did not testify to reasonableness and a necessity,” said Helfand, who appeared over Zoom. “Most of them testified to reasonableness of their fees but not necessity in the prosecution of this lawsuit.”

Helfand also sought two extra days to review the plaintiff’s proposed judgment and to reach an agreement with the whistleblowers’ attorneys, who are seeking double the $3.3 million Paxton’s office agreed to pay in a 2023 settlement the Legislature declined to fund.

The whistleblowers’ lawyers rejected the possibility of agreeing to terms with the agency.

“There’s not going to be — I feel confident in saying — an agreed-upon judgment,” attorney Tom Nesbitt said. “We didn’t come here seeking a settlement agreement with the OAG. We came here to have a trial because the OAG said it would not contest any issue of damages or liability.”

Mauzy gave Helfand one day to review the document and praised the testimony of the whistleblowers and their attorneys.

See here and here for a bit of background. This case has gone on for years – it was the catalyst for the impeachment of Paxton in 2023 and the FBI investigation of Paxton that is almost assuredly very, very dead. A judgement here is about the last order of business, to be followed by an appeal and likely another fight in the Lege over paying for the damages. That’s for another day. The one thing I’ll add here is that I hope these four men, like the now-former Republican legislators that Greg Abbott targeted with millions of dollars and lies because they opposed vouchers, do the right thing and actively oppose Ken Paxton for whatever office he seeks in 2026. The alternative is to just accept everything he’s done to them, now and in the future. Seems like a straightforward choice to me.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged Attorney General, Blake Brickman, bribery, David Maxwell, Election 2026, FBI, impeachment, Ken Paxton, lawsuit, Mark Penley, Nate Paul, Ryan Vassar, Supreme Court, Texas, Texas Whistleblower Act, The Lege, Travis County | Comments Off

Measles outbreak approaches 100 cases

Posted on February 22, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Up and up it goes.

Some private schools have shut down because of a rapidly escalating measles outbreak in West Texas. Local health departments are overstretched, pausing other important work as they race to limit the spread of this highly contagious virus.

Since the outbreak emerged three weeks ago, the Texas health department has confirmed 90 cases with at least 16 hospitalizations, as of Feb. 21. Most of those infected are under age 18. Officials suspect that nine additional measles cases reported in New Mexico, across the border from the epicenter of the Texas outbreak in Gaines, are linked to the Texas outbreak. Ongoing investigations seek to confirm that connection.

Health officials worry they’re missing cases. Undetected infections bode poorly for communities because doctors and health officials can’t contain transmission if they can’t identify who is infected.

“This is the tip of the iceberg,” said Rekha Lakshmanan, chief strategy officer for The Immunization Partnership in Houston, a nonprofit that advocates for vaccine access. “I think this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.”

An unknown number of parents may not be taking sick children to clinics where they could be tested, said Katherine Wells, the public health director in Lubbock, Texas. “If your kids are responding to fever reducers and you’re keeping hydrated, some people may keep them at home,” she said.

Most unvaccinated people will contract measles if they’re exposed to the airborne virus, which can linger for up to two hours indoors. Those infected can spread the disease before they have symptoms. Around 1 in 5 people with measles end up hospitalized, 1 in 10 children develop ear infections that can lead to permanent hearing loss, and about 1 in 1,000 children die from respiratory and neurological conditions.

Gaines has a large Mennonite population, which often shuns vaccinations. “We respect everyone’s right to vaccinate or not get vaccinated,” said Albert Pilkington, CEO of the Seminole Hospital District, in the heart of the county, in an interview with Texas Standard. “That’s just what it means to be an American, right?”

Local health officials have been trying to persuade the parents of unvaccinated children to protect their kids by bringing them to pop-up clinics offering measles vaccines.

“Some people who were on the fence, who thought measles wasn’t something their kids would see, are recalculating and coming forward for vaccination,” Wells said.

See here for the previous update. I recognize that under current law, people are able to opt out of getting their children vaccinated. I think such laws are generally harmful and misguided, I think this is a terrible thing to do to your kids, and I cannot say I respect any part of it.

The Associated Press adds some details.

The West Texas cases are concentrated in Gaines County, which has 57 infections, and Terry County, north of Gaines, where there are now 20 confirmed cases.

Dawson County, to the east of Gaines, was new to the count with six. Yoakum County has four and Lubbock, Lynn and Ector counties have a case each.

Texas state health department data shows the vast majority of cases are among people younger than 18: 26 in kids younger than 4 and 51 in kids 5-17 years old. Ten adults have measles and three cases are “pending” an age determination. The Ector County Health Department told the Odessa American its case was in a child too young to be vaccinated.

[…]

In New Mexico, all of the cases are in Lea County, which borders Gaines County in Texas. The state health department has said people may have been exposed at a grocery store, an elementary school, a church, Nor-Lea Hospital and a Walgreens in Hobbs, New Mexico.

That “child too young to be vaccinated”, which is to say a child under the age of about 15 months, is the reason why we need a vaccination rate of 95% or higher, and why I don’t respect anyone’s decision to opt out. That kid’s infection, whatever happens from here – and we all hope and pray all of these children will fully recover – is on all the adults who refused to vaccinate their kids. Your choice doesn’t just affect you. ABC News has more.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged Centers for Disease Control, Dawson County, Ector County, Gaines County, Lubbock, Lynn County, measles, New Mexico, Terry County, Texas, Texas Department of State Health Services, The Immunization Partnership, The Lege, vaccinations, Yoakum County | 1 Comment

This vaccine is for the birds

Posted on February 22, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Possibly good news for future egg prices, among other things.

Image credit: RubberBall Productions via Getty Images

A veterinary pharmaceutical company said they have received a conditional license for a bird flu vaccine to be used on chickens, potentially marking the first step toward mitigating a disease that has affected more than 150 million birds in the United States since 2022.

Zoetis, a New Jersey-based animal health company, announced Friday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Center for Veterinary Biologics has issued a conditional license for its Avian Influenza, otherwise known as bird flu, vaccine. The USDA issues conditional license for products that meet an “emergency situation.”

Though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the risk to the general public was low, the new strain of bird flu, H5N1, had spread to birds and livestock in all 50 states in recent months, including Texas, and infected nearly 70 people.

[…]

National regulatory agencies, along with the poultry industry, will now decide whether to vaccinate commercial flocks, according to Zoetis.

I could make a joke about how this will soon be put to a stop by Elmo or RFK Jr, but I will (just barely) restrain myself. Obviously, there’s a lot of potential for good here. I hope it’s a big success.

Posted in Technology, science, and math | Tagged chicken farming, eggs, flu, USDA, vaccinations, Zoetis | 5 Comments

Harris County joins amicus against NIH cuts

Posted on February 21, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox:

Christian Menefee

Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee announced today that Harris County has joined a national legal fight to protect critical medical research funding. The county is part of a coalition challenging the Trump administration’s recent decision to cut the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for health researchers across the country. These cuts threaten to disrupt life-saving research and medical innovation, and put tens of millions of dollars at risk in the Texas Medical Center.

“Harris County is home to the largest medical center in the world, and these cuts pose a direct threat to public health and our economy,” said County Attorney Menefee. “This funding supports the life-changing work happening at the Texas Medical Center. It’s not just about numbers on a budget sheet—it’s about jobs, patients, and families who rely on medical advancements.”

The coalition, which includes 45 local governments from across the country, has filed an amicus brief arguing that the NIH’s funding cuts are unjustified and would have devastating effects on research institutions and local economies. In Harris County, these cuts could lead to job losses, lab closures, and major setbacks for critical medical research.

“Once again, the Trump administration is playing politics with funding that our communities and economy rely on,” Menefee added. “This fight is about more than just dollar signs; it’s about the future of medical science and the ability of our local universities and hospitals to continue their life-saving research.”

The Texas Medical Center and its partner institutions—including Rice University, the University of Houston, and the Texas Heart Institute—employ over 120,000 people and contribute more than $24 billion each year to Harris County’s economy. Losing NIH funding wouldn’t just impact scientists and doctors; it would also hurt patients who depend on new treatments and medical discoveries being made here in Houston.

See here and here for the background. It’s important that Harris County get in there and defend itself, because as we know by their actions, the Republicans don’t care. I’m happy we got involved and I’m cheering for a good outcome in court.

That said, getting that good outcome isn’t enough.

From the beginning of this drama going on a month ago, the White House has been laser-focused on shutting down government-supported medical research in the United States. Of course, much of that is research into cancer cures or fundamental research building toward the same. The precise goal of all this shutting down is difficult to uncover — likely one half an effort to destroy or exercise control over academic/research institutions mixed with post-COVID hostility to medical research itself. On paper the effort was put on hold by a mix of the White House backing off and the original orders being blocked by judges. But in fact the White House has found very effective workarounds to evade the impact of those court orders. And that evasion, or those alternative paths to shutting down research grants, has accelerated, clamping down even harder this week.

I’m going to try to give a general outline of what’s happening. It’s difficult to describe all of it in detail: First, because a handful of different brakes are being applied at once and, second, because figuring it out is largely the work of people on the receiving end trying to interpret what they’re seeing. When they’re on the disbursing end it can also be difficult to get a full picture because there are different disbursal arms. And the White House/DOGE, etc., are taking various steps to reduce communication within NIH.

[…]

What I can say confidently is that the grant-approval system which the courts believe they have unfrozen remains at least mainly frozen. The White House is likely not technically violating the court order though certainly they are evading the spirit of that order.

I skipped the details because it’s pretty technical, but the bottom line is that there’s more than one way to block the grant money, and the White House is currently using those means. The reporting that Josh Marshall has been doing on this is heavily reliant on people who are directly affected by these actions, so if you are such a person or know such a person, read that post and follow the advice here to send in a tip via normal or encrypted channels. The more we know, the more we can do. The Chron has more.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged Baylor College of Medicine, budget, cancer, Christian Menefee, diversity, Donald Trump, economy, Harris County Attorney, HIV, Houston, MD Anderson, National Institutes of Health, Rice, Texas, UH | Comments Off

Multiple challengers line up for Fort Bend County Judge

Posted on February 21, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

We’ll see if they’re competing for an open seat or not.

Judge KP George

Another Democrat has entered the race for Fort Bend County Judge in 2026.

Eddie Sajjad, an entrepreneur and political consultant, announced his candidacy earlier this month.

Former Precinct 3 Constable Nabil Shike and Judge Christian Becerra, who presides over a district court, also are campaigning for the position as Democrats, the political party of incumbent County Judge KP George. George has faced backlash since he was criminally indicted in September on accusations that he worked with former staffer Taral Patel to create fake racist attacks against his own campaign on social media.

George has yet to formally announce his re-election campaign. A spokesperson for his office said earlier this month that George would announce his plans for the 2026 election “at the appropriate time.”

Sajjad has lived in Fort Bend County, a diverse and fast-growing area southwest of Houston, since 1997. In a news release announcing his campaign, Sajjad outlined 10 initiatives, including measures such as an artificial intelligence training program for residents, a voter education tool and an online platform where residents can track county spending.

I don’t know any of these contenders, I just happened to catch the story headline and thought it was worth noting. I’m a fan of Judge KP George, whose election in 2018 helped flip Fort Bend’s Commissioners Court just as Judge Lina Hidalgo’s election that year helped flip Harris County’s, but I strongly believe it’s time he step aside and let someone else give it a go. He’s absolutely entitled to his presumption of innocence, but politics are what they are, and this is not the profile of a winning candidate.

For what it’s worth, George has $377K in the bank, which is almost an order of magnitude more than what Judge Hidalgo has. That said, he didn’t raise any money over the last six months of 2024 while spending $115K. I’d say the financial signals about his possible candidacy are more mixed than hers are, but as with her if he doesn’t get into high gear on raising money quickly then that’s another reason to hang it up. We’ll see.

Posted in Election 2026 | Tagged campaign finance reports, Christian Becerra, County Judge, Democratic primary, Eddie Sajjad, Election 2018, Election 2026, Fort Bend County, Harris County, Harris County Judge, KP George, Lina Hidalgo, Nabil Shike, Texas | Comments Off

Dispatches from Dallas, February 21 edition

Posted on February 21, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This is a weekly feature produced by my friend Ginger. Let us know what you think.

This week, in news from Dallas-Fort Worth, we have a lot of recent stuff but also some catchup from the last month while I was suffering with COVID. Don’t get sick, y’all. It’s not fun. But from the depths of the sofa and the scrolling of news sites and social media I bring you: news from the Lege; Dallas is about to start hiring some of those cops required by Prop U; some ballot news for the May elections in North Texas; short-term rental lawsuits in Dallas and Fort Worth; another inmate has died at the Tarrant County jail; news from the suburbs and exurbs, news about local museums, and environmental news; personnel changes across the metroplex in important offices, including one with a big golden parachute; some awful immigration news; and Dan Patrick does not want to electronically verify your genitals this time. And more!

This week’s post was brought to you by the music of Anonymous 4, the foursome who sang all that awesome medieval music in the 90s and 00s. I was lucky enough to see them live and they were fantastic.

Let’s jump in, starting with some North Texas news from the Lege and moving on from there:

State Sen. Bob Hall (R-Rockwall) is the Senate half of a duo pushing to end countywide voting along with Rep. Steve Toth (R-The Woodlands) in the House.
WFAA has an interview with State Senator Royce West (D-Dallas) from the beginning of February.
KERA has coverage of the fight between DART and certain Dallas suburbs that want to cut back their contributions to the transit agency. You may remember that Plano is against DART and that their representative to DART is an Uber lobbyist.
After all that fuss about bringing people in to interview for the Dallas City Manager post, unsurprisingly interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert got the job at the end of January. She has a 100 day plan, which she should be not quite a third of the way through, and I really wish her luck because she’s going to need it. More from KERA, which also talks about her golden parachute.
Speaking of managing the city and its troubles, we’ve finally started to talk about adding all those police mandated by Prop U in the November election. City Council seems to have settled on 325 police for this year, per the DMN and the Dallas Observer, but Dallas PD seems to think 300 is the maximum they can add without cutting existing services. The total required by Prop U would be about 900 new officers.
And speaking of Prop U, Dallas HERO, which sponsored it, has a new Executive Director, per Steven Monacelli on BlueSky. The new guy, Damien LeVeck, is replacing Pete Marocco, who’s now destroying USAID for the current presidential administration.
I know we’re all still reeling from the last election in November, but local elections are happening again in May. CultureMap has the rundown on who’s running. The Dallas Observer has four takeaways for Dallas. My city council district has an incumbent I’m meh about but her opponent is a repeat offender whom CultureMap refers to as “eccentric litigious” (with reason) so I’m probably going to hold my nose and vote for the incumbent.
This month an appeals court kept the Dallas short-term rental ordinance on hold on its way to get walloped at the Texas Supreme Court. D Magazine and the Dallas Observer have the story.
You may have head that the New York Stock Exchange is coming to Dallas, closing its Chicago branch and rebranding as NYSE Texas. This is apparently a move to quash the competition coming in the form of the new Texas Stock Exchange. The Financial Times also has this story.
Texas Monthly has some ideas about what’s wrong with downtown Dallas that are pretty spot on. Specifically, while the convention center update may improve some things, it won’t make life better for residents of the city center.
Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, also after a lot of fuss, Jay Chapa was sworn in as the new Fort Worth City Manager. No word on any action about the supposed behind-the-scenes shenanigans around Chapa’s selection.
And the Fort Worth Report has the lowdown on the candidates for City Council in Fort Worth.
Fort Worth also has its own separate short-term rental lawsuit, which has been assigned to a new judge this week.
You probably remember that UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth had a major scandal over the last couple of years surrounding their use of bodies. Now the head of the Science Center has resigned as of the end of January, and she’s receiving a $560,000 payout. She made $700,000 last year. The DMN and the Star-Telegram also have the story.
Fort Worth City Council has unanimously approved a resolution cementing the new plans for the Juneteenth Museum, which will now be located at Southside Community Center property. They’ll contribute up to $15 million for the museum. The Fort Worth Report also has the story.
A museum story I’ve been following is the seizure of photographs from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The photographs were from an exhibit that closed at the beginning of February by photographer Sally Mann, and featured her then-young children in the nude. Fort Worth PD seized the photos from the museum after allegations that the images amounted to child pornography, partly riled up by the Dallas Express. Now three civil liberties groups (FIRE, the ACLU, and the National Coalition Against Censorship) have asked Fort Worth PD to return the photos. More on this story from the Fort Worth Report, the DMN, and the Star-Telegram.
I regret to report that the Tarrant County jail has had its first death in 2025. A 36-year-old man died two days after attempting suicide earlier this month. The Star-Telegram and the DMN both have the story; you should read both, but I suspect you’ll find the DMN story significantly more useful.
Meanwhile, in proceedings around one of last year’s deaths in the jail, lawyers for the family of former inmate Anthony Johnson Jr. asked the court to reverse a decision to drop Tarrant County as a defendant from the suit. The federal judge presiding over the suit ruled that hat Johnson’s death was not the result of “unsafe conditions of confinement.” earlier this month, even though there is known to be unreleased footage of Johnson’s death. As mentioned in the DMN article above about this year’s first death, Tarrant County spent more than $2 million in 2024 on compensation for in-custody deaths.
Meanwhile Tarrant County Sherriff Bill Waybourn, who is ultimately responsible for the jail, honored a deputy injured by gunfire in August 2024 but left the building before a briefing about a fatal shooting by a deputy serving a mental health warrant last month. In the Star-Telegram article about this story, we find out that County Judge Tim O’Hare removed family members of Anthony Johnson Jr. from a Commissioners’ Court meeting this week for being frustrated about how this matter was handled.
Some short news from the suburbs:
- The Aryan Nation distributed hate flyers in Prosper over the weekend.
- Feral hogs have been loose in Irving since December. Kudos to the writer of this article for describing the hog invasion as “Hogmageddon” and the electric fence residents are using to fry the hogs as “the Baconator”.
- The fourth rabid bat in six months has been found in Plano. Be careful out there, friends.
- Changes by the Tarrant County Appraisal District means that Arlington faces a $21.5 million budget gap by 2026.
- The city of Grapevine is going after a resident for having an unmowed native grass lawn.
The latest on the Robert Roberson case: Roberson’s attorneys filed an application for relief asking for the appeals court to overturn his verdict, or if not, to grant him a new trial, or if neither, to send his case back to district court based on new evidence. He does not have a new execution date following the attempt to subpoena him in October. The Texas Tribune also has this story.
In some good news, Floral Farms, the neighborhood around what used to be Shingle Mountain has been finally been rezoned after the roofing materials were removed in 2021. The rezoning limits heavy industrial uses and will allow area residents to sell or improve their homes more easily. Some noncomforming businesses will be grandfathered in. The DMN also has this story, and be sure to read the comments by Far North Dallas council member Cara Mendelsohn, who was the lone vote against the rezoning (Mayor Johnson was absent). The subtext is pretty bad.
Johnson County, south of Fort Worth, has declared a state of disaster because of PFAS “forever chemicals” leaching into agricultural land. The chemicals are believed to come from biosolids fertilizer made from Fort Worth sewage sludge. Fish and cattle are dying and testing has confirmed soil, groundwater, surface water, and animal tissue are contaminated. The local declaration allows the county to seek federal assistance; they’re also asking Governor Abbott to declare an emergency to seek reimbursement for affected agricultural producers. This is pretty scary from an environmental point of view, and it’s also scary that the locals don’t want to talk about the environmental effects except as they damage business prospects for farmers and ranchers.
Fort Worth ISD has named its interim head, Karen Molinar, as permanent superintendent.
Unsurprisingly, Keller ISD is a big mess for all the reasons we talked about last week. The board has finalized the exit of the superintendent, public interest law group the Brewer Storefront is suing the district for violating the Voting Rights Act (good luck), Hillwood Development, which owns the successful Alliance development in the area, sent a cease and desist to the Keller board to get them to stop calling the proposed new district Alliance ISD, the Tarrant County DA is asking Ken Paxton to weigh in, and the city of Fort Worth is about to rezone Keller ISD properties in city limits so they can’t be sold off for profit.
A tragedy in Gainsville, north of Fort Worth: an eleven-year-old girl has died by suicide after she was bullied repeatedly over her family’s immigration status. Her classmates had threatened to call ICE on her parents and said she’d be alone when they were deported. Welcome to MAGA America, folks.
Not directly related, but not unrelated either: The Texas Observer reports that an ICE prosecutor here in Dallas is also running a white supremacist Xitter account. It’s not supposed to happen like this, as the article indicates, but nobody’s going to do anything about it.
On President’s Day we had protests here in Dallas, led by the 50501 movement (DMN explainer here) and also by local Indivisibles, who were pushing on Facebook to get folks out. D Magazine and the DMN have the story. While I can’t verify any numbers since I wasn’t there (see: COVID recovery), Indivisibles on Facebook suggested that the numbers for the protests in the media were low.
Also on the subject of not-my-president, the DMN is dropping Doonesbury on Sunday because unsurprisingly Garry Trudeau is down on Trump and DOGE. The opinion people don’t want it because they think it isn’t funny, which is unsurprising. This whole kerfuffle reminded me that I haven’t read it in a while so I added it to my RSS feeds.
Two items from the mess that is the Mavericks’ decision to trade Luka Donçic: first, the Mavs are not moving to Vegas per Patrick Dumont, Miriam Adelson’s son-in-law. Second, to nobody’s surprise, Mark Cuban was against the trade. I find the Cuban story unsurprising and the news from team Adelson exactly what they’d say whether or not they were moving the team to Vegas. I don’t think that’s their first choice but I do think it could happen.
Moving on to the lighter side of things: Did you know that the frozen margarita comes from a Dallas Mexican restaurant? I did, because it’s not that far from where I live.
Neiman Marcus, which sold itself to Saks Fifth Avenue, is closing its downtown flagship March 31. They’re also closing their local headquarters. The NorthPark Center store will remain open.
Also closing: one of my favorite Design District restaurants, The Meddlesome Moth, is being driven out by rent increases. After it closes in May, the stained glass windows of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Chuck Berry, which were saved from the Dallas Hard Rock Cafe when it was demolished, will be sold privately.
One of our fancy Asian restaurants, Musume, is partnering with Booker T. Washington art students for a special omokase experience with a menu illustrated by the kids. I may have to check that out.
Per the Wall Street Journal, Chili’s is popular again. More for somebody else.
Last, but not least, a story that made me laugh: somebody put up stickers in the stalls at DFW about so-called electronic genital verification by our only Lt. Governor, Dan Patrick, notorious worrier about trans folks. Reddit has a photo. The phone number to call on the sticker is Dan Patrick’s office. This is not a nice prank, but Dan Patrick’s war on trans kids isn’t nice either.

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged Dallas, guest post, linkdump, Texas | Comments Off

SCOTx hears appeal of lawsuits over Winter Storm Uri deaths

Posted on February 20, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

The question at issue is whether anyone can be sued, since at this point there are no defendants left.

The Texas Supreme Court revisited the deadly mass outages of the 2021 freeze on its fourth anniversary during a Wednesday hearing, which was well-timed as yet another cold front sweeps through Texas and strains the state’s at-times fragile power grid.

[…]

Lawsuits against most other sectors in the electricity supply chain — the gas producers, the electricity retailers and ERCOT itself — have been dismissed. That means the main path forward for thousands of Texans seeking billions of dollars in damages is suing the transmission and distribution utilities, which own the power lines and poles that deliver electricity.

Named in the combined lawsuits are CenterPoint Energy, the primary Houston-area utility; Oncor Electric Delivery, which serves the Dallas-Fort Worth areas and parts of West Texas; and AEP Texas, covering parts of South and West Texas.

A Houston court of appeals barred freeze victims from suing these utilities for negligence claims last April. But crucially, gross negligence and intentional misconduct claims, which allege a more severe degree of wrongdoing, were allowed to move forward. The utilities then appealed the Houston court of appeals’ decision to the Texas Supreme Court.

During Wednesday’s oral arguments in front of the Texas Supreme Court, Michael Heidler, representing the utilities, argued the companies shouldn’t be subject to liability under common law, which are laws that come from court decisions rather than legislation.

That’s because transmission and distribution utilities are already heavily regulated by ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas, and customers can complain about utilities to the PUC, Heidler said. He cited a 2003 case in which the Texas Supreme Court found that government regulations provided sufficient protections, so imposing common law wasn’t appropriate.

“This is a heavily regulated activity, and if there’s something that needs to happen differently, the PUC and ERCOT are well-equipped to tell us what to do, to change the regulations, to fix it,” Heidler said.

Ann Saucer, the lawyer representing Texans harmed by the 2021 freeze, said government regulation shouldn’t shield the utilities from the lawsuits. She argued that the three utilities failed to adequately “rotate” outages, which means outages should’ve cycled from neighborhood to neighborhood, as ERCOT had intended.

“(The utilities) could have rolled the blackouts so that one person has power for 45 minutes and then another person loses power for 45 minutes, and it rolls… (but) they left the switches off for people for days,” Saucer said. “They did that because they were consciously indifferent to people freezing to death.”

Prior to the 2021 freeze, ERCOT had told utilities to prepare to cut approximately 13 gigawatts of power in a “worst-case scenario,” Heidler said. But during the freeze, a maximum of 50 gigawatts of power capacity had to be cut, he said.

Heidler rebutted that it would’ve been “difficult, if not impossible” to cut that much power and rotate outages without damaging the grid. That’s because ERCOT requires that utilities maintain electricity to nuclear plants and prioritize other customers such as the military, law enforcement and public health communications facilities, he said.

Saucer has countered that utilities are partly responsible for that much power being lost, since they cut power to facilities needed to generate electricity.

See here and here for some background. The justices had skeptical questions for both sides, so it’s hard to say if either one had an advantage. Seems crazy to me that in the end after all that suffering and hundreds of deaths that literally no one might be held legally responsible, but that could happen. It’ll probably be a few months before we get a ruling.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged AEP Texas, blackouts, CenterPoint, electricity, ERCOT, Freeze 2021, Harris County, Houston, Just Energy, lawsuit, Oncor, Public Utility Commission, Supreme Court, Texas | 4 Comments

If the Texans want a new stadium, they can build it themselves

Posted on February 20, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Yeah, no.

When Texans owner Cal McNair named a new team president last month, the first thing he touted about Mike Tomon’s resume was his “extensive history in stadium development.”

Tomon was previously an executive at Legends, a stadium operations firm co-founded by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, where he worked on arrangements for new NFL stadiums in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and, most recently, Buffalo, which is set to open in 2026.

The Texans, meanwhile, have started negotiating a new lease agreement at NRG Stadium, their publicly-financed home since 2002. A recent facility assessment found the stadium was in average or below average condition compared to its peers, with a laundry list of needs from deferred maintenance over the years. But McNair’s quote and Tomon’s history suggest stronger ambitions: The team may want a new stadium entirely.

Two sources familiar with the Texans’ thinking told the Chronicle the Texans have explored the possibility of a new stadium, though the team has not committed to that path. The team has not proposed a new stadium in the lease negotiations, and the ultimate decision will depend on what makes the most financial sense for the Texans, the Rodeo and Harris County, which owns the campus and leases it to the two organizations, the two sources said.

“Our priority has always been to support a renovation of NRG Stadium and that’s where our focus remains,” Texans spokesperson Omar Majzoub said in a statement to the Chronicle. “As we’ve said before, we are committed to exploring all potential solutions to ensure long-term success and we look forward to working with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Harris County and HSCCC (the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp.) in identifying the best path forward.”

A decision could likely hinge on the price tag of a renovation. If the combined costs of maintenance – $1.4 billion is needed over 30 years at the stadium, according to a recent assessment – and premium features the Texans may want to add begin to approach the cost of a rebuild, the team could decide a new stadium is the better option.

[…]

A new stadium could prove to be a tough sell with taxpayers. Houston and Harris County’s elected leaders are paying off the debt they incurred to build NRG Stadium 25 years ago, using taxes on hotel rooms and car rentals.

The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, the joint venture that financed Houston’s stadium-building spree in the late 1990s and early 2000s, still owes $1 billion in principal debt on the bonds that paid to build NRG, Daikin Park and Toyota Center. It is not scheduled to pay them off until 2056, according to financial statements.

The Texans also have benefited from a team-friendly deal at NRG Stadium for the last two decades. The team put up revenue from permanent seat licenses toward the construction of the stadium, but it does not have to contribute toward most maintenance costs, unlike the Rockets and the Astros. The county is on the hook for those costs at NRG Park.

And the Texans often get more money in tax rebates than they have to pay in rent, according to financial audits – meaning the government essentially pays the team to play at NRG.

The sports authority’s debt load suggests it does not have room to take on additional loans to finance a new football stadium, and there does not appear to be enough money in the county’s general coffers to take on a rebuild.

The Texans could finance the stadium themselves, but NFL teams almost always ask for subsidies. Of the NFL’s 30 current stadiums, only five were financed without them.

And now it can be six. Look, I’ve supported these propositions in the past. On balance, I think they were worthwhile, even if the claimed financial benefits were way overblown. Downtown is a better place for having Daikin Park and the Toyota Center in it. But as noted, the Texans have really really done well with their deal. They can well afford this, if indeed this is what they want or say they have to have. I’m open to offering general infrastructure improvements in the area around the stadium as an incentive for them to build it themselves. Beyond that, whether we’re talking renovation or new construction, this needs to be on them. Campos has more.

Posted in Elsewhere in Houston | Tagged Cal McNair, construction, Daikin Park, Harris County, Harris County Sports & Convention Corp, Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, Houston, Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Houston Texans, Reliant Stadium, Toyota Center | 6 Comments

No Eid on the HISD calendar

Posted on February 20, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Some folks would like it back.

The Houston chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations — a local Muslim advocacy group — is calling on Houston ISD to add a school holiday back for Eid al-Fitr during the 2025-2026 school year.

HISD’s Board of Managers approved an academic calendar Thursday that does not provide a day off to students or staff for Eid al-Fitr, a Muslim holiday that the district began recognizing with a day off in 2023. The Muslim holiday celebrates the end of Ramadan, a holy month of fasting and reflection.

The district began observing a spring holiday in 2023 during Eid al-Fitr in response to requests from the Muslim community in Houston, making it one of only three religious holidays at the time recognized by the state’s largest school district.

The exact date of Eid every year is unclear because it is dependent on the sighting of the crescent moon, but it is expected to begin in 2026 on the evening of Thursday, March 19 and end Friday, March 20. HISD does not have a school holiday scheduled for either date in the approved calendar.

[…]

“The removal of Eid as a school holiday is deeply disappointing for the thousands of Muslim families in HISD,” CAIR-Houston director William White said. “HISD has an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to diversity and equity by ensuring that all students, regardless of their religious background, feel seen and valued.”

The organization said it was urging the school district to listen to the Muslim community and reinstate Eid as a district-wide holiday. The group said it wanted to encourage parents, students and community members to “contact HISD leadership and advocate for this essential accommodation.”

I remember seeing the original story last fall but didn’t comment on it at the time. As the story notes, the Christian celebration of Good Friday and the Jewish celebration of Yom Kippur remain on the HISD calendar. The reason why a religious day of observance might be a day off from school is that a significant number of students will feel it necessary to put their religious obligations ahead of their school obligations. It’s neither fair nor a good look to make then choose, so the day off makes the most sense. It’s not mandatory for HISD to do this – the story doesn’t say, but I suspect very few other school districts offer this holiday – but I do think at the least the HISD community was owed more of a discussion before this change was made. I don’t know if anything can be done for this year at this late date, but I hope the matter is brought up for a longer conversation soon.

Posted in School days | Tagged Board of Managers, CAIR, Eid, HISD, Houston, Islam, schools | 1 Comment

Texas blog roundup for the week of February 17

Posted on February 20, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

There are no tariffs or surcharges applied to this week’s Texas Progressive Alliance roundup, but check with us next week because you just can’t be sure anymore.

Off the Kuff has the January campaign finance reports for US Senate and Congress.

SocraticGadfly takes a look at Russia-Ukraine issues of the last several days.

As Musk/Trump attacks FEMA and climate science, the Houston Democracy Project asked why Republican At-Large Councilmember Twila Carter who attended Mattress Mack GOTV rally last October, is Chair of Council Committee that deals with these issues.

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

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

Space City Weather sings the praises of a fully operational and un-privatized National Weather Service.

The Barbed Wire bemoans the coming price hikes on beer.

Deceleration criticizes how Texas universities responded to the 2023 anti-DEI law.

The Dallas Observer has what you need to know about Dan Patrick and dick pics.

Your Local Epidemiologist explains what “indirect costs” are in NIH grants.

Lone Star Left reviews House committee assignments.

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged blog roundup, TPA | Comments Off

Muskian rampage could close hundreds of federal buildings in Texas

Posted on February 19, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Look around, here today and maybe gone tomorrow.

Mickey Leland federal building

Billionaire Elon Musk’s chainsaw diet for the U.S. government could shutter near 450 federal offices across Texas that do anything from assisting ailing veterans to answering questions about retirement and disability benefits, records show.

The closures, which also could include as many as 25 San Antonio properties, would gut the government’s ability to deliver vital services Texans access daily, critics charge. Sites on the chopping block include offices of the Social Security Administration, the Farm Service Agency and the Small Business Administration along with Veterans Administration facilities, according to a federal website listing holdings by the General Services Administration, the government’s real estate arm.

“Elon Musk is on an authoritarian rampage through the federal government,” said Rob Weissman, co-president of watchdog group Public Citizen, which at press time has filed at least three lawsuits to rein in the billionaire Trump donor’s DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency.

“While Musk tried to say that this is all about improving efficiency, it’s not efficient to get rid of government offices that directly serve the public and play an important function,” Weissman added. “It’s completely arbitrary, dangerous and puts the cost back on all of us.”

As evidence of the closures’ unintended consequences, critics point to the Musk’s downsizing efforts at the Department of Energy, which were paused over fears they could affect the nation’s nuclear defense programs.

Citing communications from Trump administration officials, the Washington Post reports that DOGE’s plans to slash government spending include eliminating half of all federal nonmilitary real estate nationwide. Those cuts are planned on top of personnel reductions that have already taken place, including a mass firing of thousands of probationary employees on the job for fewer than two years.

[…]

Should Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency carry through with its plans, Texas would be hit especially hard. The Lone Star State is home to 894 federal offices, at least 50 of them in San Antonio, according to the GSA’s online inventory. That means up to 447 statewide could be on Musk’s chopping block.

Four people with knowledge of internal GSA talks told the Post that the property selloff is part of DOGE’s effort to force federal field workers to quit by decimating morale.

“We’ve heard from them that they want to make the buildings so crappy that people will leave,” one senior GSA official told the paper. “I think that’s the larger goal here, which is bring everybody back, the buildings are going to suck, their commutes are going to suck.”

Trinity University economist David Macpherson said a widespread closure of government offices would result in a glut of vacant space across San Antonio and other affected cities. However, he said the larger impact would come from the hemorrhaging of government employees, whose salaries and buying dollars play a significant role in local economies.

“It will increase unemployment, decrease spending and harm the city,” he said. “Economically, it can’t possibly do any good.”

The story says there’s at least 50 federal buildings in San Antonio, housing some 70 agencies. I don’t know what the comparable figure is for Houston – that GSA website allows you to search by state or Congressional district, but not by city or county – but it’s got to be larger than that. It sure would be nice to know what kind of effect we might be looking at. We know that Republicans won’t care, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged DOGE, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Houston, San Antonio, Texas | 6 Comments

Rebooting Texas’ film incentive program

Posted on February 19, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Everything old is new again.

A promise to make Texas the film capital of the world has left local creatives raring to cash in — and preparing for a legislative battle.

The Texas Senate has proposed injecting $498 million to revamp the state’s film incentive program, a historic sum that rivals most other states and more than doubles the $200 million lawmakers plugged into the program during the last budget cycle.

Film industry insiders, who have for years been fighting for a larger and more consistent funding stream, could hardly believe it when they heard the $498 million figure, a line item in the draft budget the Senate filed last month. According to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the funding would include $48 million in grants for small films and television commercials and up to $450 million in new tax credits, contingent on a bill passing.

“It’s like we are in a ‘stars aligned’ period,” said Brian Gannon, director of the Austin Film Commission. “There’s alignment across industry, across government. Everyone is excited.”

That excitement is palpable across Texas. From the 4,100-person town of Smithville to booming urban centers like Fort Worth, local officials, film commissions and business owners say movie production is a boon to their economy because it creates new jobs, attracts tourists and keeps businesses afloat.

In Smithville, a small town about 40 miles east of Austin, restaurant owners say they continue to reap benefits from the filming of the 1998 romantic drama “Hope Floats” because fans stop by to see the house where much of the Sandra Bullock movie was filmed and then wander into their outpost for a bite to eat.

Film stars have also thrown their weight behind film incentives. In a star-studded advertisement called True to Texas, Matthew McConaughey, Dennis Quaid, Woody Harrelson, Renee Zellweger and Billy Bob Thornton urge lawmakers to help “turn this state into a new Hollywood.” The actors say they want to tell Texas stories in their home state and need state support to do so.

Even so, economists remain skeptical about the return on investment of film incentives, and some state lawmakers say subsidizing movies is not the best use of taxpayer money.

“Half a billion dollars doesn’t need to be routed towards the entertainment industry,” said first-term state Rep. Daniel Alders, R-Tyler. “There are already Texas-sized incentives out here. Don’t act like you have to have a handout in order to do business in the state of Texas.”

Texas is one of 37 states to offer a film incentive program, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Those programs can take the form of cash grants, as in Texas, or tax credits, which are what some of Texas’ competitors, including Georgia and New Mexico, offer.

Under the 18-year-old program, the state provides rebates to reimburse production companies between 5% and 20% of what they spend in the state, including wages to Texas residents and costs to rent film space or book hotels. At least 60% of the production must be filmed in Texas, per state law. Productions can receive an additional 2.5% rebate if they film in underutilized or economically distressed areas.

Creative professionals say the program has been successful — it has created 182,000 Texas jobs and yielded $2.52 billion in-state spending, according to the Texas Film Commission which is housed under the governor’s office. And for every $1 paid out for a grant, $4.69 is spent in state, Adriana Cruz, executive director of the Texas Economic Development and Tourism division of the governor’s office testified last October.

Patrick, the second most powerful Texas official, has made transforming Texas into a film haven a priority this session, reserving Senate Bill 22 for that purpose. The bill has not been filed as of Thursday afternoon. Patrick’s office did not respond to The Texas Tribune’s questions, and several House members declined to weigh in until a bill was filed.

Industry leaders have proposed a transferable franchise tax credit — smaller film productions making less than $2.47 million in revenue are exempt from the tax — since Texas does not have a state income tax.

They’re also pushing for a more consistent funding stream instead of an amount that is determined at the whims of lawmakers every two years.

[…]

Economists who have studied tax incentive programs across the country have long been skeptical of their value. Research on film incentive programs in New York, Georgia, Michigan and California have found that tax credits have a negligible impact on economic activity, when measuring job growth and tax revenue.

In cases where a film incentive does spur job creation, it isn’t enough to justify the cost of the incentive, said Michael Thom, a tax expert at the University of Southern California.

“The incentives boost the industry’s profit margins, which is why they want them so badly,” Thom said, adding that the Texas Film Commission’s claim that the incentive program delivers a 469% return on investment is “preposterous.”

Some producers would choose to film in Texas even if they did not receive grant dollars, Thom said. And the figure doesn’t account for what the state could be losing by not spending that money on something else, whether public schools or safety.

Alders, the East Texas lawmaker, agrees.

“That calculation is a little disingenuous,” he said. Instead of using general revenue to refill the incentive program’s coffers, Alders suggested the funding come straight from the sales tax revenue the film industry generated.

“If we are getting money back, then that bucket should have been filled one time and should never have to be refilled with taxpayer dollars,” he said.

We’ve heard these arguments before, more than a decade ago, including from the video game industry, which was curiously unrepresented in this story. There are a lot of dimensions to this fight, including some localities that are not thrilled about big studio lots being built in their back yards, and of course a culture war angle involving the content of films seeking incentives. That led to a lawsuit that was eventually resolved in the state’s favor and is now being expressed as concerns over porn being filmed here. Because for sure that’s never happened before.

Anyway, this should be an interesting fight to watch. I don’t know that this is an issue on which Dan Patrick will go to the mats, but if he does it might provide a bit of leverage for Democrats, since it looks to me like this would not be able to pass on Republican votes alone. Gotta be aware of opportunities where they present themselves.

Posted in That's our Lege, TV and movies | Tagged Dan Patrick, Daniel Alders, National Conference of State Legislatures, Rick Perry, Senate, Texas, Texas Film Commission, Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, Texas Moving Image Industry Program, The Lege, True to Texas | Comments Off

WNBA appears set on Cleveland

Posted on February 19, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

But Houston could be next in line, and soon.

The WNBA is preparing to award Cleveland its 16th franchise, multiple sources have told SBJ, with an approximate bid worth a league record $250M.

The sources put Cleveland’s expansion chances as high as 90% — with an announcement expected no later than March — and said the WNBA has re-thought its original plan of adding just one team and could award one or two more franchises to bring its league total to 18 clubs. The presumed leaders for the second and third teams are Philadelphia, Houston, Nashville, Detroit and Miami, with the league reiterating tonight that nothing is finalized.

“The WNBA has received formal bids from many interested ownership groups in various markets and we are currently in the process of evaluating these proposals,” a WNBA spokesperson said in a statement.

Cleveland is expected to join the league for the 2028 season playing at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. They will be reprised as the Cleveland Rockers, an original WNBA franchise that folded after the 2003 season when former owner Gordon Gund could not sell the team due to tumbling revenue and erratic attendance. But in the two decades since, the league’s exponential growth and popularity has led to rising expansion fees. The Golden State Valkyries, the league’s 13th franchise launching in May, paid $50M to join the WNBA, while Toronto and Portland — the 14th and 15th franchises — paid $115M and $125M, respectively. Now that has doubled.

As recent as two weeks ago, the WNBA applied to trademark the name Rockers, as well as the names of three other former franchises: the Houston Comets, the Detroit Shock, the Miami Sol and the Charlotte Sting — all clues to who could be in the running for the 17th and 18th teams, but not a complete giveaway.

Sources said Houston “is probably the most positioned” for the 17th team largely because the Rockets recently built a 75,000 square-foot practice facility, owner Tilman Fertitta is reportedly worth more than $10B and they have an NBA infrastructure that is appealing to the league.

“The Comets are also an amazing brand, and it’s stunning they even left the league,” said a source, referencing the four-time champion Comets folding in 2008 due to $4M annual losses.

Philadelphia is likely another clear frontrunner, sources said, and indications are that when 76ers owner Josh Harris partnered with Comcast on a new arena in South Philadelphia, the priority was to house a WNBA team along with the Sixers and Flyers.

[…]

As to why the WNBA is willing to take on potentially three teams instead of one right now — with the last two likely arriving in 2029 or 2030 — the sense is that there have been multiple bids approaching $250M.

“How do you walk away from three quarters of a billion dollars?’’ one source said.

See here, here, and here for some background. Tough break for Austin, which put together a pretty good bid, but I don’t think the WNBA is going to stop at 18. They may pause for a bit, but as long as the demand is there, they will keep going. The talent pool is more than adequate.

As for why the Comets folded in 2008, other than that being a bad year for the economy, the team had been mediocre for several years, the sale of the team from the Rockets to second-tier furniture guy Hilton Koch was a disaster, and the league was going through some growing pains, as evidenced by the folding or relocation of several other original franchises. It’s a different time and both the league and the sport are in a better place. Yahoo, Sports Illustrated, KVUE, and the Chron have more.

Posted in Other sports | Tagged Austin, basketball, Charlotte, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Houston Comets, Miami, Nashville, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, Texas, Tilman Fertitta, Toronto, WNBA | Comments Off

Some background on the measles outbreak

Posted on February 18, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

NBC News did some reporting on the growing measles outbreak in West Texas.

On Friday, the number of confirmed cases rose to 49, up from 24 earlier in the week, the state health department said. The majority of those cases are in Gaines County, which borders New Mexico.

Most cases are in school-age kids, and 13 have been hospitalized. All are unvaccinated against measles, which is one of the most contagious viruses in the world.

The latest measles case count likely represents a fraction of the true number of infections. Health officials — who are scrambling to get a handle on the vaccine-preventable outbreak — suspect 200 to 300 people in West Texas are infected but untested, and therefore not part of the state’s official tally so far.

[…]

The city of Seminole is the seat of Gaines County, Texas, and the epicenter of the current measles outbreak. It’s located in a vast, flat region filled with ranchers and peanut and cotton farmers.

There’s also a large Mennonite population, a religious sect that believes in “total separation from the outside world,” according to the Texas State Historical Association. These Mennonites chose to settle in Gaines County, in part, for its lack of regulation on private schools. This includes vaccine mandates.

As of the 2023-24 school year, Gaines County had one of the state’s highest vaccine exemption rates, at nearly 18%, according to health department data.

“We have a high, high number of unvaccinated,” said Tonya Guffey, the chief nursing officer at Seminole District Hospital. “It’s not that they’re not educated. It’s just what their belief is.”

Guffey noted that many of the unvaccinated people in the area were Mennonite. “We educate, we encourage, we do what we can for the community, but it’s their choice,” she said.

[…]

Measles cases were limited to rural areas surrounding Lubbock, Texas, the largest city in the region, until Friday afternoon, when Lubbock Public Health confirmed its first case.

The “hub” city, as it’s nicknamed, is where all of the big grocery and big box stores are.

People who live in Gaines County regularly head into Lubbock to shop and do other business. That includes a large number of unvaccinated people who may have been exposed to measles.

“Communities who don’t vaccinate are not necessarily isolated to their area. They commute to Lubbock,” said Dr. Ana Montanez, a pediatrician at Texas Tech Physicians in Lubbock. “By doing that, they’re taking the disease with them.”

Several of Montanez’s young patients were exposed recently, she said, one just by sitting in the same clinic waiting room with another child who was later confirmed to have measles. That child had traveled from another county for care.

As of our last update, the number was 48, but in reality it’s a lot higher as this story notes. Not everyone is showing symptoms or gotten formally diagnosed yet. Per the Statesman, the breakdown of where the known cases are now is as follows:

Gaines – 42 cases
Lubbock – 1 case
Lynn – 1 case
Terry – 3 cases
Yoakum – 2 cases

Plus the two from Houston, which again has thankfully remained at two. Per the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, 42 of the 49 cases so far are in children. But these numbers are just for Texas. As of the weekend, measles are now in New Mexico.

On Friday, New Mexico officials declared an outbreak in Lea County, just across state lines from Texas’ Gaines County. Two adults tested positive for measles, with three total cases this week. The first case, an unvaccinated teenager in Lea County, had no recent travel history and no known exposure to the Texas cases, raising alarms about measles spreading undetected.

While officials believe there’s a connection to the Texas outbreak, it’s still unconfirmed.

“We are investigating every suspected case, and we encourage sick individuals with symptoms consistent with measles to seek medical care,” Dr. Chad Smelser, deputy state epidemiologist for New Mexico’s health department, said in a statement.

New Mexico officials are notifying people possibly exposed to measles. Areas where people could have been exposed include an elementary school, two grocery stores, a church, a pharmacy and a hospital.

And again, measles is extremely contagious. It lingers in the air and survives for hours on surfaces. Get vaccinated or get sick, those are the choices. The Associated Press has more.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged Centers for Disease Control, Gaines County, Harris County, Lubbock, Lynn County, measles, New Mexico, Terry County, Texas, Texas Department of State Health Services, The Immunization Partnership, The Lege, vaccinations, Yoakum County | 5 Comments

Solar For All grants caught in a trap

Posted on February 18, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

They can’t get out, at least not at this time.

More than $400 million in federal funding for Texas-based organizations to implement clean energy programs remains frozen, jeopardizing efforts to expand access to rooftop solar panels and battery storage systems in disadvantaged communities across the state.

The frozen grants are part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s $7 billion Solar for All program, which was created by the Biden administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

President Donald Trump first paused funds from this law and another climate-related law via his “Unleashing American Energy” executive order in late January. After a federal judge reiterated a court order that the Trump administration must release frozen grants this week, the EPA is now saying some grants from the two laws remain inaccessible because the agency is concerned about potential waste, fraud and abuse, without sharing information about any specific Solar for All issues.

Harris County led a statewide coalition — including the cities of Houston, San Antonio, Austin and Waco, as well as Dallas County — in securing nearly $250 million from the Solar for All program last April. The coalition wants to use the money to help more Texas residents afford solar panels and to provide backup power to local community centers, among other goals.

Clean Energy Fund of Texas, a Houston-based “green” bank, was awarded $156 million from the Solar for All program. The nonprofit plans to partner with Texas Southern University to deploy solar and battery technologies at historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic serving institutions and tribal colleges and universities across the southeastern United States.

[…]

Michelle Roos, director of the Environmental Protection Network, a national nonprofit focused on EPA activities, called the agency’s claims of potential waste, fraud and abuse a “lie.”

“This is just another attempt to try to shut down and deny people the opportunity to make the country healthier,” Roos said.

The Solar for All funding isn’t disbursed all at once; rather, groups submit reimbursement requests for their program expenses. Harris County is the sole entity receiving the coalition’s $250 million in funds from the federal government, which it passes through to the other groups. $54 million of that is allocated for the county itself.

So far, the county has only received approximately $30,000 of its share of funding, which has been used to hire an employee to oversee Solar for All activities, Menefee said. His office is “leaning heavily” on filing its own lawsuit fighting the Solar for All funding freeze, he said.

“One thing there is not in (the other two lawsuits) is representation from the South,” Menefee said.

See here for some background. I agree with Ms. Roos’ evaluation, but I would have included profanity in mine. This would benefit a lot of people, in the normal course of events by providing lower energy bills, and in times of power outages – you know, those extremely rare times around here when the grid fails us – by providing battery backup power. While there has already been successful litigation against this chaos and destruction, it would seem that County Attorney Menefee will need to do his thing to get what is rightfully ours. Let’s hope we can get it soon.

I need my palate cleansed, so in honor of how I started this post, here’s a little number you might be familiar with:

Hope that helped.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged Austin, Christian Menefee, Clean Energy Fund of Texas, Commissioners Court, Dallas, Dallas County, DOGE, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Environmental Protection Agency, Harris County, Harris County Attorney, Houston, lawsuit, San Antonio, solar energy, Tarrant County, Travis County, videos | Comments Off

HISD joins lawsuit against social media companies

Posted on February 18, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Interesting.

Houston ISD is set to join a nationwide lawsuit that argues several major social media companies fueled an “unprecedented mental health crisis” among young people — and should pay school districts for the fallout.

HISD’s state-appointed board unanimously voted Thursday to enter into a legal agreement with three Texas firms that will represent the district in a two-year-old case that already involves hundreds of districts across the country. Under the deal, HISD will only have to pay legal fees if it wins or settles the lawsuit.

The districts already involved in the case argue the companies that own Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube created “addictive and dangerous” platforms that have spawned numerous problems for children and schools. Districts say they have had to hire additional staff to attend to students’ mounting social-emotional challenges, repair property that children damaged while participating in viral trends, spend time responding to repeated safety threats made over social media and more.

In response to school districts’ allegations, the four social media giants have largely made the case that they should not be on the hook for how children choose to engage online. Legal observers have said the school districts might face a steep challenge in winning the case.

HISD board member Angela Flowers said she has seen a wave of emotional turmoil wash over the younger generation as the mother of two recent graduates from the district’s Lamar High School. When her kids were in high school, they knew about a dozen classmates, friends and acquaintances who took their own lives, Flowers said.

“The data is that the suicides are up. That is the scary data,” Flowers said. “That’s why (social media) is like tobacco, it’s like alcohol. You cannot feed it to children.”

[…]

Win, lose or settle, Flowers wants to see HISD expand limits on students’ phone and social media use at school. She suggested several strategies that the district could look toward, including having teachers collect phones at the beginning of class or requiring students lock their phones in pocket-sized pouches for the duration of the school day.

“We can’t keep knowing that it’s bad and not doing anything about it,” she said.

I don’t have a strong opinion about this. I’m certainly not going to defend any of the companies being sued but it’s not clear to me how one apportions blame for some of the harms being cited. Feels like a bit of a longshot to see any benefit, but as long as there’s no cost for getting involved I don’t see any reason not to do so. If this eventually translates into some kind of settlement, great.

Posted in Legal matters, School days | Tagged Angela Flowers, Board of Managers, HISD, Houston, Instagram, lawsuit, Snapchat, Texas, TikTok, YouTube | Comments Off

Interview with Anthony Rios and Ringo Bosley of the Houston Progressive Caucus

Posted on February 17, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

I reported on the creation of the Houston Progressive Caucus a couple of weeks ago, and as is my habit I had some questions about their mission and strategy beyond what was contained in their press release and on their website. So I reached out to Karthik Soora, the SD15 candidate from last year who was listed as the contact for the Caucus, and asked him if we could have a chat about it. He set me up with Anthony Rios and Ringo Bosley of the Caucus for an interview, and so here we are. I had some questions about where this came from, what kind of issues they will champion, what we should expect to see from them in the short to medium term, and more. Here’s what we talked about:

cakuffner · Houston Progressive Caucus interview 021325

If you have any questions about them, you should click on their website or connect with them on BlueSky or elsewhere and engage directly.

Posted in Local politics | Tagged Election 2025, Election 2026, Houston, Houston Progressive Caucus, interviews, Karthik Soora, Texas | 4 Comments

Starbase City gets its vote

Posted on February 17, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Company town incoming.

Cameron County’s top elected official on Wednesday signed an order clearing the way for an election that would allow employees of SpaceX’s South Texas launch site to make it the county’s newest city.

The order, signed by County Judge Eddie Treviño, approves a petition filed in December by several SpaceX employees requesting an election to determine whether their Starbase headquarters could become a town under the same name.

The would-be town is roughly 25 miles east of Brownsville along the Gulf of Mexico.

If approved by voters in the town’s proposed area, the base would become a Type C municipality, defined as less than two square miles with 200 to 5,000 residents. Type C municipalities use a commission form of government with a mayor and two commissioners; the petition notes that SpaceX’s security manager, Gunnar Milburn, is the sole candidate for mayor.

The petition required at least 10% of potential residents to sign, and a simple majority is required in the election to create the new city. The petition had just over 70 signatures and an affidavit attached to the judge’s order showed just under 500 people living in the area, including almost 120 children.

Almost all of the signatures on the petitions were by people with addresses the affidavit marked as residences of SpaceX employees.

The affidavit also states that SpaceX owns almost all of the homes; just four homes listed in the affidavit are not owned by SpaceX, which also owns all of the land within the prospective city’s footprint, “with only a few exceptions.”

See here for the background. I’m uncomfortable with anything that gives Ellie any kind of power, but I don’t live there and if this is what the locals want and they think it will make it easier for them to manage their roads and drainage and whatnot, then I don’t see that I have grounds to object. Seems likely this will pass, but I’ll keep an eye on it.

Posted in Election 2025 | Tagged Cameron County, Elon Musk, Gunnar Milburn, SpaceX, Starbase, Texas | Comments Off

Buzbee’s client drops lawsuit against Jay-Z

Posted on February 17, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Well, well.

An Alabama woman who said she was raped by rappers Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs when she was 13 withdrew her civil lawsuit against both men on Friday, according to court filings.

The unidentified woman in December added Jay-Z, whose legal name is Shawn Carter, to a lawsuit she had filed against Combs in Manhattan federal court, alleging that she was attacked by the singers in 2000 after Combs’ limo driver offered her a ride to an MTV Video Music Awards after-party.

The court document submitted by the woman’s attorneys announcing the voluntary dismissal did not include any reasons or explanation for the withdrawal.

Jay-Z, who vehemently denied the claims and tried to get extracted from the lawsuit, called the woman’s decision to withdraw her claim “a victory” and said the “fictional tale” she and her lawyers created was “laughable.”

“The frivolous, fictious and appalling allegations have been dismissed,” he said in a statement posted on social media. “This civil suit was without merit and never going anywhere.”

Combs remains jailed in New York awaiting a criminal trial on federal sex trafficking charges. He also faces a wave of sexual assault lawsuits, many of which were filed by the plaintiff’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee, a Texas attorney who says his firm represents over 150 people, both men and women, who allege sexual abuse and exploitation by Combs.

Lawyers for Combs said dismissal of the lawsuit without a settlement confirmed that other lawsuits he is facing are built on falsehoods.

“For months, we have seen case after case filed by individuals hiding behind anonymity, pushed forward by an attorney more focused on media headlines than legal merit. Just like this claim, the others will fall apart because there is no truth to them,” they said in a statement, adding that Combs “has never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone — man or woman, adult or minor.”

When asked for a response, Buzbee responded “no comment” in an email Friday night.

Buzbee’s firm, which has set up a 1-800 number for accusers, has filed a wave of lawsuits against the hip-hop mogul. Buzbee’s lawsuits allege that many of the people he represents were abused at parties in New York, California and Florida where individuals were given drinks that were laced with drugs.

Statements from both rappers derisively referred to Buzbee and his firm as the “1-800-lawyer.” Jay-Z accused him of “hiding behind Jane Doe” for financial gain.

“When they quickly realize that the money grab is going fail, they get to walk away with no repercussions,” he wrote. “The system has failed.”

See here, here, here, here, and here for some background. There are still multiple other suits that are as far as I know still active, including all of the ones that Buzbee has filed against Combs, the one he filed against Jay-Z’s company Roc Nation, and the one that Jay-Z filed against Buzbee that alleged extortion. All I’m going to say at this point is that all of this is a big mess and it will take some time to fully untangle. The Chron has more.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged California, Jay-Z, lawsuit, rape, Sean Combs, sexual harassment, Texas, Tony Buzbee | Comments Off

Weekend link dump for February 16

Posted on February 16, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

“Daisy is, of course, not a real grandmother but an AI bot created by computer scientists to combat fraud. Her task is simply to waste the time of the people who are trying to scam her.”

“Stories of Resistance: Lessons from Across the Globe”.

“The scramble to save critical climate data from Trump’s war on DEI”.

“But the most shocking casting rule concerns location. While Bachelor welcomes applicants from both the U.S. and Canada, there’s one Canadian province that’s excluded – Quebec. Any applications from legal residents of Quebec are immediately rejected, even if the applicant is a Canadian citizen. When you consider the marginalization of French Canadians, and The Bachelor’s infamy for lack of diversity, it makes this casting rule even more problematic.”

“Because the Americans are a captive consumer for Canadian crude, one option for Canada in a trade war would be to put export taxes on oil and gas to ratchet the price for U.S. refineries to the point where it’s no longer profitable. In that scenario, the U.S. would be staring down the barrel of fuel shortages or companies forced to operate at a loss, creating enormous economic pressure on President Trump.”

RIP, Dick Jauron, former NFL coach of the Chicago Bears and Buffalo Bills.

RIP, Tom Robbins, iconic novelist best known for “Still Life With Woodpecker” and “Even Cowgirls Get The Blues”.

“There is reporting at other federal agencies indicating that DOGE members have performed unauthorized changes and locked civil servants out of the sensitive systems they gained access to. We further recommend that DOGE members be placed under insider threat monitoring and alerting after their access to payment systems is revoked. Continued access to any payment systems by DOGE members, even ‘read only,’ likely poses the single greatest insider threat risk the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever faced.”

“DOGE’s placement at the DOE even raises a truly bizarre-sounding possibility: that a pseudo-department named after a shiba inu could get actual access to nuclear weapons. Fortunately, despite Musk’s ever-expanding power over government systems, it would take far more than barging into the right office to do this. But at a moment where all kinds of governmental norms are in flux, it’s worth looking at what exactly separates someone like Musk from perhaps the greatest destructive force on the planet — and what other kinds of risks his access could pose.”

RIP, Cheyenne, the oldest orangutan at the Houston Zoo.

“A rare ring of light surrounding a galaxy nearly 590 million light-years away from Earth has been discovered by a space telescope that scientists hope will uncover more cosmic phenomena throughout the universe, the European Space Agency announced on Monday.”

Crooks protecting crooks.

“What does this mean for people outraged by Musk’s recent behavior? Take it out on Tesla by boycotting the company. Any further dip in Tesla sales would amplify growing calls for Musk’s ouster as CEO. Whatever time Musk spends doing damage control is time not spent dismantling federal agencies or elevating Europe’s far right. If you were considering buying a Tesla, don’t. If you’re renting a car, choose another brand. And if you own a Tesla, sell it. Yes, that would help: A deluge of used Teslas would lower their resale value, further depressing the new-car sales that the company depends upon.”

“Thomson Reuters has won the first major AI copyright case in the United States.”

“A letter signed by mayors and local leaders across 39 states is calling on Congress to protect all clean energy tax credits made available to state and local governments, which had been responsible for creating thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in investments before President Donald Trump froze the funds.”

“So think what this means. Adams isn’t off the hook. He’s essentially been given 10 months to perform for his freedom. Perform for Donald Trump. Indeed, Bove said explicitly that one of the reasons Adams shouldn’t have been charged is that being on trial takes Adams’ focus away from helping Donald Trump with mass deportations out of New York City. (Again, they’re refreshingly candid about why this is happening.)”

“Hackers have defaced select pages on the DOGE website. Reports indicate the database the page draws from can be easily accessed by outsiders.”

RIP, L. Clifford Davis, longtime Fort Worth attorney and civil rights activist who opened one of the first Black law firms in Tarrant County and was one of the county’s first Black judges.

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged linkdump | 1 Comment

Republicans don’t care at all about the NIH cuts

Posted on February 16, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Or on their constituents or even themselves.

Rep. Lizzie Fletcher

For years Republicans and Democrats alike have touted the medical breakthroughs at Texas medical research institutions like MD Anderson and Baylor College of Medicine.

But after President Donald Trump announced a policy change at the National Institutes of Health last week that would slash federal funding for those Houston institutions by tens of millions of dollars, Texas Democrats find themselves alone in trying to stave off the cuts, at least publicly.

U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, said she asked all members in the Texas congressional delegation to sign a letter to the Trump administration warning the cuts would “devastate medical research in our state.” The four-term congresswoman said while every Democratic member signed, not a single Republican House member agreed to do so.

“I am disappointed,” Fletcher said in a statement. “These cuts hurt our constituents. And these cuts undermine the very system of scientific research and groundbreaking advancements that we are so proud happen here in Houston.”

Texas Republicans have largely stayed quiet on the cuts, despite protest from medical institutions across Texas, which collectively received $1.9 billion in NIH funding last year.

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, who was treated for Hodgkin lymphoma at MD Anderson, questioned the amount of funding U.S. medical research institutions were getting, while acknowledging the medical breakthroughs it had enabled.

“People travel from all across the world to our innovative cancer centers to receive top not treatment. MD Anderson is one of them, and they saved my life,” he said in a statement. “However, we are $36 trillion in debt and barreling toward a debt crisis. There is no reason the federal government should be paying 70% of a university’s administrative costs for research.”

Other Republican members did not respond to requests for comment Friday. This week many cheered on the administration’s wider spending cuts, carried out by Texas billionaire Elon Musk and staffers at his Department of Government Efficiency

“Elon is blowing the lid off DC’s deep corruption, and the left is LOSING IT!,” Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, wrote on X this week. “The real constitutional crisis? Decades of fraud, waste, and abuse—YOUR money stolen to keep the swamp alive.”

[…]

Roy speaks frequently of the life saying treatment he received there. And U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston, wrote an op-ed in 2020 in which he praised MD Anderson for the care they gave his mother, who died from breast cancer at age 35, including enrolling her in an early clinical trial for the chemotherapy drug Taxotere.

“My mom knew that this clinical trial would mean a small extension on her life at best,” Crenshaw wrote. “She knew that Taxotere would not ultimately save her life, but that her trial would provide doctors like Peter Ravdin — who led the clinical trial — the scientific research they needed to improve the drug and save the lives of others.”

See here for the background. If you or someone you know is being affected, even as the initial order was halted in court, you should know who is on your side and who would be happy to throw you in the trash. Elections have consequences indeed. Josh Marshall has more.

Posted in National news | Tagged Baylor College of Medicine, beer, budget, cancer, Chip Roy, Congress, Dan Crenshaw, diversity, Donald Trump, economy, Houston, Lizzie FLetcher, MD Anderson, National Institutes of Health, Texas, Wesley Hunt | 3 Comments

On paying for school security

Posted on February 16, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

The Lege passed a big unfunded mandate in 2023 for schools to hire more security guards. They’re under some pressure to pay up for it this session, though there’s plenty of reason to think they’ll still cheap out.

Since Texas passed a law in 2023 requiring public school districts to have an armed officer at each campus, districts have repeatedly asked the state for more money to fulfill the requirement.

In this year’s legislative session, lawmakers have pledged to increase school safety funding. The 2023 law, House Bill 3, increased that annual safety allotment to $10 per student and $15,000 per school in a district.

The question legislators face this session: will they come close to increasing that allotment to the $100 per student that districts say is necessary to finally fill the funding gap?

HB 3 passed in response to the 2022 shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde that left 19 children and two teachers dead. But since its passage, more than half of Texas school districts do not meet the one armed officer per school requirement, according to a January Senate Education Committee report.

Many school district officials call HB 3 an unfunded mandate, saying the increases to the existing school safety allotment it created pay only a small part of the cost of adding full-time personnel to all schools.

A possible increase is part of the conversation this session. In his State of the State address this month, Gov. Greg Abbott asked the Legislature to invest an additional $500 million for school safety. Both the House and Senate’s proposed budgets for 2026 and 2027 would increase school safety funding by $400 million over the next two years.

Still, school leaders say the amount proposed may not be enough. On top of that, a law enforcement shortage nationwide and in Texas makes it more difficult to staff armed officers at all schools.

[…]

Signed into law in June 2023, HB 3 increased how much districts receive for school safety each year to $10.00 per student from $9.72 per student, with an additional $15,000 for each campus in a school district. HB 3 also provided the Texas Education Agency a one-time figure of $1.1 billion to distribute to school districts for safety upgrades.

Under HB 3, an average-sized Texas elementary school — which has about 600 students — would receive about $21,000 per year from the school safety allotment. That figure comes well short of the at least $60,000 to $70,000 school officials say is necessary to pay an armed guard each year.

New funding for the armed guard requirement was in addition to several other new measures, like one mandating that certain school personnel must undergo a “mental health first-aid training program.” The law also gave the state more power to require active-shooter plans.

Though it received bipartisan support, HB 3 was not universally praised. Before and after the bill was signed into law, school district officials said the state wasn’t providing enough money for the new mandates.

During debate in early 2023, some lawmakers said that requiring an armed guard at each school could endanger students instead of making them more safe. A 2021 study by researchers at The Violence Project suggested that adding armed guards in schools doesn’t reduce gun-related injuries.

Efforts that session to tighten Texas’ gun laws were also a non-starter, with Uvalde parents left disappointed after a bill died that would have raised the minimum age for Texans purchasing semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21.

With no school safety funding increases since HB 3 passed, many school districts have taken “good cause exceptions” from the armed guard requirement. Districts can take an exception if, for example, they have school marshals that act as security guards or safety-trained employees who carry handguns on school grounds.

See here for the background. The safe bet is always to take the under. The Lege and Greg Abbott always have higher priorities than public schools – remember how Abbott vetoed the bill to increase school funding because his precious voucher bill didn’t pass? – and even a nominal increase may well come with extra strings attached. I do think some funding increase will pass – Republicans don’t like spending money on schools, but they do like spending money on cops – and there are bipartisan bills to make it happen. It’s more a question of how much and what the catch is than will it or won’t it. But if the latest version of Abbott’s wet kiss to religious schools and the wealthy parents who send their kids to them somehow stumbles, then all bets are off.

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged Greg Abbott, gun control, guns, HISD, Joan Huffman, Jose Menendez, police, Texas, The Lege, Uvalde, vouchers | Comments Off

Ismaeli Center update

Posted on February 16, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

An almost-20-year saga is drawing to a close. I’m excited to see what the end result is.

What once was there

Work has resumed on the massive Ismaili Center near Buffalo Bayou after the death of the Aga Khan IV, the leader of the world’s millions of Shia Ismaili Muslims known for his civic service in Houston.

Considered one of the globe’s wealthiest religious leaders, the Aga Khan IV—born Prince Karim Al-Hussaini—died last week at his home in Lisbon. He was 88. The next day, his son, Prince Rahim Al-Hussaini, was named to succeed him as the Aga Khan V, the 50th hereditary Imam of a lineage that claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammed.

While mourning the death of their imam and celebrating their new leader, Houston representatives from the Ismaili Council for the U.S.A said that they expect to stick to schedule; they still plan to finish the Ismaili Center this year, and new construction will include prayer spaces and host art exhibitions, concerts and interfaith lectures.

Several years ago, the Aga Khan IV led the metro’s Ismaili Muslim community to begin construction on the five-story marbled center towering 72 feet over its 11 acres of land near Buffalo Bayou. Now, the Aga Khan V is expected to follow through with the plans to construct the first Ismaili Center in the U.S. The center would be the seventh of its kind in the world.

“We don’t anticipate any delay in the opening of the center due to the passing of His Highness Prince Karim and the accession of Prince Rahim,” said Omar Samji, a spokesperson for the Ismaili Council, during an interview last week. “This is the project that is nearly completed, and it’s on schedule to be complete by the end of 2025.”

[…]

The Ismaili Center is a “gift” to Houston, the home of “tens of thousands” of Ismaili Muslims, said Farah Lalani, another Ismaili Council spokesperson. The Houston Chronicle has estimated that the metro has about 40,000 Ismaili Muslims who live in a region boasting one of the largest Muslim populations in Texas and in the U.S. (The Houston metro has roughly 500,000 Muslims, according to the Council on American Islamic Relations.)

The concept for the Ismaili Center dates back to 2006 when the Aga Khan Foundation paid a non-disclosed amount to buy land along Allen Parkway, replacing the historic Robinson Warehouse. The foundation is part of the Aga Khan Development Network.

Former Houston Mayor Bill White recognized the foundation for partnering on the “Tolerance” project in 2011. Donors (including members of the Ismaili community) funded seven stainless-steel, 10-foot-tall human statues to the art installation as a symbol of harmony along Allen Parkway, just across the road from the future Ismaili Center. The center, White said at the time, “will be an architectural statement and a place of peace, harmony, and welcome.”

In 2021, Ismaili Council President Al-Karim Alidina revealed plans for the center as construction began. U.K.-based firm Farshid Moussavi Architecture designed the structure, and Thomas Woltz of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, known for his work on Memorial Park in Houston, crafted its gardens. In 2023, former Mayor Sylvester Turner joined Prince Amyn Aga Khan, the younger brother of the late Aga Khan IV, at an on-site ceremony to recognize the progress of the construction. The mayor expressed support for the center and offered the key to the city to the Aga Khan IV through his brother as a symbol of support.

See here for my previous update, and click the article for a picture of what it looks like now. While the architect for this project was hired in early 2019, construction didn’t start until almost three years later. Indeed, as this story notes, the Aga Khan Foundation has owned the site since 2006, where the old Robinson Warehouse once stood. I took pictures of its demise over the next couple of months, and then it stood empty for so long that people complained about it, having forgotten that there was a purpose planned for it. It just took forever for it to happen. And now they’re saying it will be done by the end of this year. I’m a little dizzy at the thought, but I cannot wait to see it in its newfound glory.

Posted in Elsewhere in Houston | Tagged Aga Khan Foundation, Bill White, construction, demolition, Houston, Ismaili Center, Montrose, Robinson warehouse, Sylvester Turner | Comments Off

Dr. Carpenter ordered to stop sending abortion pills to Texas

Posted on February 15, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

And we’re off.

A Collin County judge has ordered a New York doctor to stop prescribing abortion-inducing medication to Texas residents and ordered her to pay a $100,000 fine.

Thursday’s ruling is the opening salvo in what’s expected to be a lengthy legal battle likely to end up at the U.S. Supreme Court, as Texas’ near-total abortion ban runs up against New York’s law protecting abortion providers from out-of-state legal action.

Dr. Margaret Carpenter is an abortion provider and co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, a group that helps doctors navigate legal and regulatory barriers to provide abortion medication through the mail. These so-called “shield providers,” located in states where abortion is still legal, are working under a set of yet-untested laws designed to stymie abortion bans in states like Texas.

In December, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Carpenter, accusing her of prescribing abortion medication to a Collin County woman in violation of Texas’ abortion laws. Neither Carpenter nor her lawyers responded to the suit. As expected, Carpenter did not attend the Wednesday hearing before Collin County District Judge Bryan Gantt, according to The New York Times.

On Thursday, Gantt ruled that Carpenter had violated Texas law by practicing without a license and facilitating an abortion, and “that an unborn child died as a result of these violations.” Gantt issued a permanent injunction against Carpenter prescribing abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents. Violating an injunction can come with additional penalties, including jail time.

Carpenter was ordered to pay a $100,000 fine and about $13,000 in attorneys’ fees. Paxton’s office is expected to ask New York state to enforce the judgement, which is typically standard practice between states. But New York is expected to try to block any of Texas’ efforts to hold Carpenter to its legal standards, a clash that will likely require the federal courts to intervene.

See here and here for the background. Of course Dr. Carpenter was not going to come to Texas to defend herself – among other things, she’d have been dragooned to Louisiana. We’re following a script right now, and it’s New York’s line. Once they tell Ken Paxton to pound sand, we’ll be off to the federal courts, and from there it gets less predictable. The Current and The 19th have more.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged abortion, Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, Aid Access, Collin County, Hey Jane, Ken Paxton, lawsuit, Louisiana, Margaret Carpenter, mifepristone, New York, SCOTUS, telemedicine, Texas | Comments Off

Yeah, still more measles

Posted on February 15, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

The number keeps going up.

As a West Texas measles outbreak continues to worsen, experts are concerned an increase in nonmedical vaccine exemptions among schoolchildren could make such outbreaks more common.

Twenty-four cases of the highly contagious respiratory illness have been confirmed in Gaines County, all of them in individuals who have not received the vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella. Twenty-two cases are children under age 18, and six are children under age 5, Texas Department of State Health Services said Tuesday.

The recent outbreak represents the highest number of measles cases in Texas since 2019, when the state reported 23 cases across a dozen counties. But experts worry outbreaks could become more common in Texas due to a rise in “conscientious exemptions,” or parents and guardians who refuse to get their children vaccinated for religious, moral or philosophical reasons. Nonmedical vaccine exemptions have soared over the past decade, and Gaines County has one of the highest opt-out rates in Texas.

“Medical experts have been telling me for a year that it was going to happen,” said Terri Burke, the executive director of the Houston-based nonprofit The Immunization Partnership. “It was just a matter of time.”

The first two measles cases in West Texas came about two weeks after the virus was found in a pair of Houston residents. Officials said the West Texas outbreak does not appear to be connected to the Houston cases, and no other cases had been reported in Houston as of Wednesday.

Declining vaccination rates are concerning because measles can cause severe illness, said Dr. Catherine Troisi, an epidemiologist at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. One in five unvaccinated Americans will need to be hospitalized, and one in 1,000 will develop brain swelling that could cause deafness or an intellectual disability, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Gaines County, nine children have needed to be hospitalized for treatment, the DSHS said.

“This can be very serious,” Troisi said. “It is not a benign disease.”

[…]

Public health officials have set up measles screening sites in the area, [Katherine Wells, the director of Lubbock Public Health] said. Officials are also providing guidance to public schools, private schools and day cares.

“I hope this increases awareness around vaccines and shows why it’s so important,” she said.

The South Plains Public Health District, which serves Gaines County, set up a clinic to offer the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine amid the outbreak. More than 70 people have visited the clinic since last Thursday, SPPHD executive director Zach Holbrooks said in an email.

See here, here, and here for the background. And oh, wait, did I say 24 cases? That was as of, like, Tuesday. We’re now up to 48 cases as of Friday.

An outbreak of measles has spread to 48 cases across four counties in the South Plains region of northwestern Texas, doubling in scope from earlier this week, health officials said.

Most of the cases are in school-aged children, including 13 cases in children younger than 5 years old and another 29 in children between 5 and 17, the Texas Department of State Health Services said Friday. Thirteen people have been hospitalized to be treated for the highly contagious respiratory illness.

All 48 cases involve individuals who have either not received the vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella, or whose vaccination status is unknown, the DSHS said.

Gaines County remains the epicenter of the outbreak, with 42 cases of measles reported there Friday. But there are now three cases in Terry County and two in Yoakum County, which border Gaines County to the north, and one case in nearby Lynn County, the DSHS said.

Houston also reported two measles cases last month, but officials have said they do not appear to be linked to the South Plains outbreak.

Officials working to contain the South Plains outbreak said earlier this week that cases may continue to rise before they subside. The DSHS offered a similar assessment on Friday.

“Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in Gaines County and the surrounding communities,” the public health agency said in a statement.

At least there haven’t been any more cases in Houston. I have no idea how high this number is going to go, but those first two cases were reported on January 29, so we went from two to 48 in just over two weeks. That sure seems like a lot. I don’t know how many of those 70 people at the South Plains Public Health District got themselves the MMR vaccine, but every little bit helps. This is going to burn until it runs out of fuel, and making yourself not be fuel is the best defense you have. Daily Kos has more.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged Catherine Troisi, Centers for Disease Control, Gaines County, Harris County, Lubbock, Lynn County, measles, Terry County, Texas, Texas Department of State Health Services, The Immunization Partnership, The Lege, vaccinations, Yoakum County | 3 Comments

Texas A&M’s nukes

Posted on February 15, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Interesting.

The Texas A&M University System has selected four companies to explore developing advanced nuclear reactors on its Rellis research campus in Bryan, university officials announced Tuesday morning.

Each of the four companies — Kairos Power, Natura Resources, Aalo Atomics and Terrestrial Energy — could potentially build at least one commercial reactor on the Rellis Campus, company executives said.

The announcement comes after Texas A&M sought an early site permit from federal regulators in November to offer land to nuclear companies. If approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Texas A&M would be the only higher education institution in the country with a commercial nuclear reactor site license.

Ultimately, the goal is to create an “energy proving ground” at the Rellis Campus that can serve as a test bed for cutting-edge energy technologies, Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp said in an interview. A&M would offer companies its nuclear engineering expertise, as well as a site to demonstrate commercial viability of their technology to kickstart further development, he said.

Texas A&M’s leaders want to host what are known as small modular reactors, which are supposed to be smaller, easier to build and safer than traditional nuclear plants. Thus far, only three SMRs are operational in the world, none in the United States. One U.S. attempt sputtered to an end in 2023 after cost estimates tripled to $9.3 billion.

“We hope that at the end of it, we can show the rest of the country that SMRs are a viable, safe, reliable option to make sure we don’t run out of power in this country,” Sharp said.

He cited projections of surging demand for electricity nationwide largely to accommodate power-hungry data centers, particularly those hosting artificial intelligence computing systems.

The demand is there, we know that much. I’ll take this over bringing coal plants back online, for sure. Maybe this doesn’t work out the way they’d like, but it’s worth the effort. If legislative Republicans could find a way to be a little less stupid about wind and solar energy right now, we’d be much better positioned going forward.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged Aalo Atomics, John Sharp, Kairos Power, Natura Resources, nuclear energy, Terrestrial Energy, Texas, Texas A&M | 3 Comments

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