Texas blog roundup for the week of August 28

Posted on August 31, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

The Texas Progressive Alliance is still staring (and laughing) at the Former Guy’s mugshot as it brings you this week’s roundup.

Continue reading →

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Interview with Judith Cruz

Posted on August 30, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Judith Cruz

Continuing our series of HISD Trustee interviews, today we have Judith Cruz, the elected Trustee in District VIII. Like Dani Hernandez, Cruz’ victory in 2019 knocked out an incumbent in the illegal meeting to discuss ousting interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan; indeed, that person had been the main instigator. Cruz is also a former HISD teacher and was part of the team that created Liberty High School in the Gulfton area. She has also served on multiple HISD committees, including the Superintendent’s Parent Advisory Committee, and was the co-founder and President of the PTA at her neighborhood school. My interview with her from 2019 is here. Cruz is not running for re-election, but fortunately there is a good candidate running for this sat; we’ll meet him tomorrow. Here’s the interview:

PREVIOUSLY:
Kathy Blueford-Daniels
Dani Hernandez

I will have more interviews with HISD trustees and candidates this week. The Erik Manning spreadsheet, which only has city candidates, is here. My previous posts about the 2023 HISD election are here and here.

Posted in Election 2023 | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Paxton roundup: The Christian right does not care at all about his alleged infidelity

Posted on August 30, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

I appreciate the thought that went into this story, but come on. Have we not been paying attention to the last seven years?

A crook any way you look

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton rose to power as a champion of religious liberty, building a passionate following through alliances with conservative Christian leaders and an emphasis on his fundamentalist faith.

But his support from Christian conservatives — long the most devoted part of his base — may be fraying in the lead-up to his impeachment trial next week. At the center of the case is a charge that the third-term Republican lined up work with a donor for a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair.

Though the relationship surfaced more than two years ago, the impeachment proceedings have thrust it into public view more than ever before.

“When I think of someone cheating on their wife, I think of the relationship I have with mine, how valuable God says that is, and I picture throwing all of it away for selfish self-gratification,” said Derrick Wilson, a Republican activist from the Fort Worth area who was recently elected chairman of the Texas Young Republican Federation. “That honestly does hit me where I live. It hits me in the heart.”

The alleged affair has remained in the spotlight since Paxton’s impeachment in May, fueled by intrigue over whether his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, would be allowed to join her colleagues in deciding her husband’s political fate. And earlier this month, prosecutors published records of an Uber account they say Paxton used under a fake name to visit the woman with whom he was having an affair.

Those standing behind the embattled attorney general say he has atoned by reportedly recommitting to his marriage and maintaining the trust of voters, who re-elected him after his scandals had already been made public. They say Paxton has been an effective crusader for conservative Christian values — and argued that’s the true reason he’s under attack from what they consider a rushed witch hunt driven by moderate Republicans.

“Thankfully, we have a God of forgiveness when there’s repentance. And in every indication right now, that all occurred with Ken and Angela,” said Dave Welch, founder and executive director of the Texas Pastor Council. “If there had not been, and if there was a breakdown of the marriage, if there was no correction or repentance of that, I think that would have affected the support” for Ken Paxton among his Christian conservative base.

You may recall the name Dave Welch from all his hatemongering during the 2015 anti-HERO campaign. His record as an icon of moral bankruptcy remains undiminished. You might also notice that this story never once mentions the name of The Former Guy. You know, the thrice-married, porn-star-fucking, grab-em-by-the-pussy rapist that people like Dave Welch worship. That alone should be enough to tell you how this crowd will handle whatever sordid information comes out about Ken Paxton. The rules are for other people, not for them. End of story.

Anyway. On other matters:

Everything was going according to plan.

In September 2020, subpoenas were served to executives at four Texas banks who Austin real estate investor Nate Paul — a friend of Attorney General Ken Paxton — believed had information about an illegal scheme to defraud him.

The subpoenas were signed by Brandon Cammack, who identified himself as a special prosecutor with the Texas Attorney General’s office. But they were written by Paul.

Earlier, Paul had sent a list of targets to Cammack, via his lawyer, who he wanted to see investigated and subpoenaed in what he called “Operation Deep Sea.” He alleged he was the target of two massive yet separate conspiracies perpetrated by business rivals, judges and several law enforcement agencies, including agents that participated in an FBI-led raid on his home and business a year earlier.

Cammack persuaded a judge to approve 25 additional subpoenas, which sought email or phone records of prosecutors investigating Paul, federal court staff, police officers, the head of a charity who sued him, a court-appointed lawyer in that lawsuit and the lawyer’s wife.

All of those targets were on Paul’s list. And the investigation would never have happened without the support of Paxton.

It’s a long story and you should read the rest. We have known the basic outlines of the Brandon Cammack story for awhile, this mostly fills in the details from the Nate Paul perspective. Reading through this, it’s easy to see why the eventual Paxton whistleblowers were so appalled and alarmed by what was happening. It’s almost cartoonishly corrupt, the sort of thing that if it had been a plot point in a TV legal procedural script, it would have been rejected for being too ridiculous. And yet here we are. I would like to know more about how those subpoenas that were basically written by Nate Paul and transcribed by Cammack got approved in the first place – was there some negligence on the part of the judge(s) who approved them, or was it more of a systemic issue – and I would like to be assured that screws are being applied to Brandon Cammack, who at the end of the day ought to have his legal career ended as well.

Finally, Dan Patrick found himself a new former judge to advise him on the impeachment trial. I hope she has no history of political giving to or against Ken Paxton.

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Harris County election duties return to County Clerk and Tax Assessor

Posted on August 30, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Welp.

Elections Administrator Cliff Tatum will not be involved in Harris County elections operations after Friday, as he will not be hired by the county clerk’s or tax assessor-collector’s offices as part of a massive reorganization.

Harris County’s elections operations will transfer Friday to Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth and Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Ann Harris Bennett. The county is undergoing a reorganization of elections administration duties ahead of the November election as a new state law that abolished the Elections Administrators office goes into effect on Sept. 1.

Hudspeth and Bennett will take over less than two months before early voting begins on Oct. 23.

“One thing we are not doing is impeding upon the processes that are already in place,” Hudspeth said Tuesday. “There’s an election plan that’s been working.”

Commissioners Court is expected Tuesday to approve a measure splitting up the elections office staff. They will transfer 131 positions to the county clerk’s office and another 39 positions to the tax assessor-collector’s office, according to the agenda.

“We’re absorbing every single last employee of the elections administrators office,” Hudspeth said.

However, Hudspeth confirmed Tatum would not be moving over to her office.

“I will not be hiring Mr. Tatum in the county clerk’s office,” Hudspeth said.

Wendy Caesar, chief deputy at the Tax Assessor-Collector’s Office, confirmed their office would not be hiring Tatum, either.

See here for the previous entry, which led to this inevitable conclusion. Harris County could still prevail in their lawsuit but that seems extremely unlikely to me at this point. If they did, I presume we’d have to look for yet another administrator, as I daresay Cliff Tatum will be employed elsewhere, and would surely have no desire to come back after the shamefully shabby treatment he got here by the Legislature. We’re in good hands with Teneshia Hudspeth and Ann Harris Bennett, but they will still have to deal with the risk and extra work of this nihilistic law. As I said, it sure would be nice to live in a state whose government didn’t actively wish us harm.

One small bit of good news:

Both offices will have more employees and larger budgets than they did before the 2021 transition, Hudspeth and Caesar said.

“In the next few weeks, we will continue the election plan in place to avoid disruption or delays in the ongoing work related to the conduct of the Nov. 7, 2023 election,” Hudspeth said.

The county clerk’s office had fewer than 100 employees dedicated to elections administration before the 2021 transition, Hudspeth said. The tax office also will gain several positions that did not exist in 2021, Caesar said.

The increase in the number of employees is welcome and was needed at the clerk’s office before the 2021 transition, Hudspeth said.

“We’re doing things in the opposite direction, but it’s different than it was three years ago because it’s now coming back to two elected officials who do many other operations,” Hudspeth said. “We’re looking at what that looks like for our teams and our organization as a whole, not impeding on the services we do each and every day, but also to make sure this division we’re inheriting is successful, as well.”

[…]

In response to the issues with paper ballots, Tatum recommended the county implement a system to track issues reported by poll workers and provide additional tech support and assistance for workers in the field.

Those recommendations already have been implemented by the administrator’s office and will be in place for November, Hudspeth said.

The clerk and the tax office also are considering additional staff ahead of presidential elections in 2024, as well as newer software to make sure things run smoothly, Hudspeth and Caesar said.

“We are working very closely to make sure nothing falls through the cracks,” Caesar said. “We want to make sure we have a successful election come November.”

A piece of Clifford Tatum will live on in the reforms he implemented. Good luck to all who are working on this.

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Interview with Dani Hernandez

Posted on August 29, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Dani Hernandez

Today’s interview is with Dani Hernandez, the elected HISD Trustee in District III. Her win in 2019 ousted one of the trustees that had been involved in the illegal meeting to discuss ousting interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan. Hernandez is a former bilingual teacher in HISD and was also an administrator in the district for six years; she now works as a realtor. She hold s master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of St. Thomas, and she is running for re-election against a “parental rights” advocate. Here’s the interview:

PREVIOUSLY:
Kathy Blueford-Daniels

I will have more interviews with HISD trustees and candidates this week. The Erik Manning spreadsheet, which only has city candidates, is here. My previous posts about the 2023 HISD election are here and here.

Posted in Election 2023 | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

A couple of thoughts as the HISD school year starts

Posted on August 29, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron editorial board has them, and so do I.

So, in the spirit of the first day, we are setting out three of our own classroom expectations and concerns. We’ll skip the niceties too.

Miles needs to control the chaos.
Miles has been unapologetic about his fast pace, and in some ways, we want a quick pace too. But Miles’ speed has at times led to chaos. After big cuts to the central office, newly hired NES teachers struggled to figure out what exactly their salaries were. (One teacher even had to come to a community meeting with Miles to get answers. Her calls to HISD’s central office failed. And some teachers are reportedly still struggling to get a straight answer.) There have been abrupt principal firings and reassignments, including at two campuses just days before school started. We’ve talked with teachers leaving the district and those just hired they all express uncertainty about where things are headed. Teacher turnover was a hallmark of Miles’ time at Dallas. Will this unevenness and chaos be a feature here as well? Over the summer, a certain amount of behind-the-scenes chaos was expected and even tolerable. But it won’t be if it affects students.

When it comes to teachers, Miles put money where his mouth is. Now, as he likes to point out, the outcomes matter.
Hiring and rewarding quality teachers is key to both the NES model and the pay-for-performance plan that Miles implemented in Dallas and will be importing here. He dramatically cut central office staff to pay for this investment. But he still needs to prove that the quality of HISD teaching will rise. First, at NES and NESA campuses, Miles must show that his required curriculum enables instead of limits great teaching and that there is still a place for creativity and exploration. And second, he must demonstrate that his fire-sale approach to hiring will ultimately help kids, not hurt them. Miles and the board approved plans to seek a number of waivers from the state, including one that would allow them to hire uncertified teachers for certain roles. And even though the Texas Education Agency told us as of Friday they hadn’t received that request, the district said it has hired dozens of uncertified teachers and principals. Last year, the district started school with hundreds of teacher vacancies. This year: zero, according to Miles. That’s impressive. Now we want him to show that the aggressive hiring pace hasn’t compromised teacher quality for quantity.

Miles’ rigid structures shouldn’t hamper special education.
This is one of the areas the state says needs to be improved before it returns local control to HISD. But the early steps haven’t been encouraging. We’ve wondered how students with existing plans to accommodate their disabilities will fit into the rigid-seeming structures of NES, and we’ve worried when Miles told us he plans to review and rewrite some of those plans. Following staff cuts and rearrangements, we also worry about students who need to be evaluated or reassessed. How long will it take to get to those now?

All good points, and I don’t have any notes on them. I will add my own:

1. Miles is still terrible at communication (*), which in turn means that he has utterly failed to build trust with HISD parents, teachers, and students. I recognize that he came in with limited time before the start of the school year, and he very reasonably wanted to get started on the main task of improving student performance. But try to think of any large established community in which big changes have been suddenly implemented by an outsider who was imposed on the community in question and began making those changes without any prior discussion or opportunity to give feedback, and ask yourself if that’s a recipe for long-term success. Imagine it at your job, in your neighborhood, your fantasy football league or book club, your alumni organization or favorite charity. Even if everyone recognized there were problems that needed to be tackled and accepted that changes needed to be made and that what was being done made sense, how well would those changes be received under these circumstances? The problem isn’t that HISD is hidebound and full of special interests. It’s that human beings are resistant to big changes and need time to acclimate to them and a sense that they are part of the solution. Mike Miles is making this a lot harder than it needs to be, on himself as well as on the rest of us.

2. Because of that, I continue to believe that Miles’ changes, no matter how successful, may not be sustainable. He’s going to be a villain that future Trustees will run against, even if outcomes do improve. Being successful at raising student performance will help him and will quiet some critics, to be sure. Accomplishing that would be a major step forward, and he would deserve credit, but do remember that the Brits booted Winston Churchill after the war. It won’t take much for people to get tired of the “my way or the highway” act, and if scores start to improve that gives a lot of leverage for those who will want to at least tweak, if not dismantle, his harsher methods. On that note, something I hadn’t noticed when I first wrote about it is that the big improvements in Dallas ISD’s reading scores and much of the improvement in their math scores came after Miles departed DISD. His successor continued his policies, but either he was a less divisive figure or maybe there had just been enough time for people to acclimate. How much patience do you think people here are going to have if it takes two or three years to see real improvement?

3. And that again brings me back to the issue of trust. I’ve pointed out some issues with how Miles has done things without any clear explanation of why they might be beneficial, even in the face of evidence that suggests they might not be – I forgot to include the librarian sackings in that – and where he has seemingly played fast and loose with data. I also didn’t include the special education stuff in that accounting; the Chron touched on it, and right now it’s safe to say that Miles has no articulated plans for special ed even though it’s part of his mandate. This is all total own-goal stuff, and it is going to come back to bite him.

I will acknowledge at this point that I could be completely wrong on all of the major points. I do expect that we will see some improvements, quite possibly right out of the gate. Parents and students may be delighted with the results and with the methods used to obtain them. Teachers may find the new classroom experience to be a big improvement; the possibility that the high-performing teachers Miles is relying on might decide his baloney isn’t worth it even for the better pay because a good working environment counts for a lot is another risk I didn’t mention above. The results may be more than enough to sweep aside previous concerns about student life, the working environment, and everything else. I’ll be happy to admit my errors if it all goes well. I really do want this to succeed. I wouldn’t be harping on all of this stuff if I didn’t think everything I’ve noted here was at least a potential and needless impediment to that desired success. I see a path we could have taken that wouldn’t have involved so much tumult and unrest. But here we are. I hope that at this time next year we’ll all feel better about it. The Associated Press and Reform Austin have more.

(*) The latest example in my “Mike Miles is terrible at communications” file comes from Monday’s CityCast Houston episode, in which KHOU reporter Mia Gradney says she has been reaching out to area Superintendents to ask them questions about the concerns for the school year that parents have raised in their survey. The one Super who did not respond to her questions was, of course, Mike Miles. I got nothing to add to that.

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Ken Paxton will not go away voluntarily

Posted on August 29, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

We didn’t really think that would happen, did we?

A crook any way you look

Attorney General Ken Paxton dismissed rumors over the weekend that he will resign prior to his impeachment trial next week.

On Saturday, Scott Braddock, editor of the legislative website Quorum Report, a Texas political newsletter and website, posted on social media that he had heard “credible chatter” that Paxton might resign to avoid testifying, adding that he may have been warned by Lt. Gov Dan Patrick that the trial “won’t go well for him in the Texas Senate.”

“Wrong! I will never stop fighting for the people of Texas and defending our conservative values,” Paxton wrote back in a rare public comment on the impeachment on X, formerly known as Twitter.

I saw the tweet over the weekend, which was picked up by Reform Austin and other news outlets. Scott Braddock was clear that he was passing along what he was hearing and not confirmed news; conservative talk radio host Chad Hasty said he was hearing the same thing. There was also chatter last week that Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo was going to step down. That didn’t happen, either. It’s “people are saying” stuff, which can mean it’s really about to happen or that there’s nothing much happening so people are just talking to pass the time.

The reason this is at least plausible is that it’s easy to imagine a back-room deal in which Paxton resigns in return for the impeachment trial going away. As also noted by Scott Braddock, getting convicted in the Senate means losing his generous state pension. That’s a risk many people would consider mitigating, especially since they’d still be in good standing with most of the people they would want to be such standing afterwards. Maybe there were some preliminary talks along these lines, or at least some speculative talk from one side or the other, which eventually went nowhere but now needed to be denied. We’ll never know for sure. But it was fun while it lasted. And we’re now a week out from the beginning of the trial.

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Interview with Kathy Blueford-Daniels

Posted on August 28, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Kathy Blueford-Daniels

It is time once again for interview season. The City of Houston races are the marquee attraction for 2023 but we still have HISD Trustee elections and they matter even as their power has been temporarily removed. We begin today with Kathy Blueford-Daniels, the elected Trustee in District II. Blueford-Daniels is a longtime community advocate, retired postal worker, former community liaison for Sen. Borris Miles, and founder of Black, Latino, Asian, Caucasian Mourners of Murder (BLAC MoM), which she created to serve as a support group after the 2006 slaying of her 20-year-old son in a case of mistaken identity. Here’s a nice bio of her from a year ago for more about her and her life. Here’s what we talked about:

I will have more interviews with HISD trustees and candidates this week. The Erik Manning spreadsheet, which only has city candidates, is here. My previous posts about the 2023 HISD election are here and here.

Posted in Election 2023 | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Gulfton BRT route approved

Posted on August 28, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Moving forward.

Long-sought improvements to transit service in Gulfton – arguably among the Houston region’s most transit-starved areas – have an official line on the map, though rapid service remains years away.

Metropolitan Transit Authority officials on Thursday approved the preferred route for a planned bus rapid transit extension into Gulfton. The line would run from the Westpark/Lower Uptown Transit Center along Westpark near Loop 610, heading west on Westpark before turning south at Chimney Rock. Dedicated lanes for the buses would then run from Chimney Rock to Gulfton to Hillcroft, where the line would end at Bissonnet.

Service would not start until 2027, under preliminary plans submitted to the Federal Transit Administration. Extending the Silver Line into Gulfton is estimated to cost $220 million, based on the plans Metro submitted to federal officials seeking grant funding for the project.

Regardless of how much local and federal money pays for the project, officials and Gulfton residents said the line is an investment in a place that’s often been passed over.

“This is something that is, unfortunately, long overdue,” said State Rep. Gene Wu, the Houston Democrat who represents Gulfton in Austin.

The line, Wu said, “is going to change lives,” noting the importance of connecting workers and students to schools and jobs.

Adequate transit is especially needed in Gulfton, proponents of the line said, because of the high use of buses to get around the region. According to the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 12 percent of the Gulfton area does not have access to a car or truck, compared to 2 percent of nearby Bellaire.

Despite huge demand, bus routes now serving the area can be cumbersome even workers headed to the Uptown area, less than two miles away, but across Interstate 69.

“They have to take three buses to get to their jobs,” resident Noelia Fadic told Metro’s board. “It is not a direct route and it takes them a long time.”

See here for some background. This should make a big difference for a dense and transit-dependent part of town. The connection to the forthcoming Universities BRT line means a rapid transit connection to the entire Metro light rail/BRT system, as you can see from the MetroRapid map. You might need to make a second transfer, but it’s still going to be faster and more convenient than the existing service.

If the complaint about Metro and public transit in general for Houston is that you can’t really get anywhere, look at that map again, and remember that it doesn’t include the local bus service, which also includes some high-frequency lines. There’s a lot more coverage than you think, and while it will take longer than driving, you don’t have to worry about (or pay for, which is an expensive proposition in some parts of town) parking. You can take your bike with you, or hop onto a BCycle bike at some locations. You want to drive less, you have a lot more options than you might think, that’s all I’m saying. In a few years, you’ll have a lot more.

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The Fort Worth bitcoin mining experience

Posted on August 28, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Wild.

A year ago, Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker joked the city was now “cowtown and cryptocurrency” after plugging in donated bitcoin mining machines. That news generated millions of web impressions across the world, a nominal amount of money and attracted a blockchain summit to the city.

Since the peak of the industry’s hype in 2021 and the city’s adoption of the machine, the cryptocurrency market lost more than $2 trillion in 2022. Startups, job postings and venture capital fundraising around the crypto industry have also dropped.

Fort Worth city officials are leaving the machine donated by the Texas Blockchain Council running, despite the hype around the industry slowing down. The city will not disclose the amount of money it takes to keep the machine running.

Fort Worth first adopted two bitcoin machines in April 2022, becoming the first city to mine bitcoin. Quinn PR crafted a media campaign to promote Fort Worth’s tech-friendly leadership. The media attention generated more than 752 million web impressions in six months, according to the city. Headlines in national news outlets, such as USA Today, read: “Fort Worth, Texas becomes first in the US to mine bitcoin: ‘Where the future begins.’”

In interviews with major TV news outlets, Parker said the pilot project was about making the city at the forefront of tech and innovation.

“We want to be at the forefront of this industry, and understand that cryptocurrency is synonymous with innovation right now across the United States, really across the world,” Parker said in an interview on CNBC when the project was announced.

Critics of the crypto industry cite concerns about the machine’s energy consumption in a state with a fragile power grid. The Texas Blockchain Council, the industry association that donated the three machines, and city officials maintained the machines take up the same amount of energy as a vacuum cleaner.

Two months later, the city traded the machine for a more energy-efficient machine. Carlo Capua, chief of strategy and innovation at the City of Fort Worth, recommended keeping the machines going at a city council meeting last November. The miner running in the city’s server room has generated nearly $2,000 after electricity costs since being plugged in, Capua said.

“The goal wasn’t to make money, that wasn’t the primary objective,” Capua said. “It was for people to know about the city, know that Fort Worth is a dynamic, forward-thinking city and doing innovative things that no other cities have done. So in that sense, it’s been very successful.”

The mining machine is profitable every month, Capua said, but he declined to provide the total energy cost since it was plugged in. The machine, a Bitmain S19 J Pro, takes 2,950 watts to operate. The city runs the machine 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“Our rate with our energy provider is confidential, so I’m afraid I can’t share the total electricity cost as it would be easy for someone to reverse engineer our rate,” Capua wrote in an email.

There’s more, so read the rest. The energy consumed by one bitcoin miner is not going to affect the grid, but the energy consumed by thousands of them will. At least Fort Worth didn’t invest any up front money in this thing. If I were a resident there I’d want to know the financial details behind this – really, there’s no good reason I can think of to keep it all secret – but it’s a small enough deal that there’s only so much of a fuss worth kicking up over it. Surely if this thing really is making money for the city, that money ought to be accounted for somewhere. And if it’s really not making money for the city, that should be documented too.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Weekend link dump for August 27

Posted on August 27, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

“The federal and state indictments of Trump and those who aided his alleged dictatorial bid to illegally and unconstitutionally hold power will work their way through the courts. That process — the thorough investigation by prosecutors’ offices and the deliberative, fair adjudication by the courts — stands as a sterling example of the vital role the executive and judicial branches of our governmental system play in protecting democracy. But when it comes to ensuring this never happens again, the nation’s legislators need to step up.”

“The 5th Circuit’s New Abortion Pill Ruling Targets Patients Directly“.

“Few analysts bothered to consider that once a right people have had (and yes, taken for granted) for almost 50 years is suddenly snatched away, that might upend the politics of the issue.”

More Disney versus DeSantis. Keep it coming.

From the Couldn’t Have Happened To A Bigger Group Of Fkn Scumbags department.

“Beyond the 4 criminal indictments, these 12 civil suits threaten Trump’s finances”.

“A reporter’s reflections on the 102nd anniversary of the Tulsa massacre”.

“If we’re to talk about a problematic portrayal of Jewishness by non-Jewish actors, then the most egregious offender in recent years has got to be “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” The Prime Video comedy ran for five seasons and garnered heaps of praise and fans, but it featured non-Jews playing some of the most stereotypically Jewish characters seen in years.”

“For supporters, it’s a sign that climate policies can also breathe life back into deindustrialized coal and steel communities with green jobs. The symbolism is compelling but how much those communities benefit will depend on a wide array of factors.”

Let them fight.

Lock them up.

“Victimhood is embedded in every part of Trump’s campaign, personality, communications, and strategy. The only thing that shifts is the topic and the object of blame.”

Hang that mug shot in the Smithsonian.

“A new KFF survey reveals the broad reach of health misinformation, with at least four in 10 people saying that they’ve heard each of 10 specific false claims about COVID-19, reproductive health, and gun violence.”

RIP, Claude Picasso, son of Pablo Picasso and longtime administrator of the Picasso estate.

“Ohio Republicans Use Last-Ditch Gambit To Infuse Ballot Proposal With Anti-Abortion Language”.

Let them dance!

RIP, Bob Barker, longtime former host of The Price Is Right.

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged | 3 Comments

Law banning gender-affirming care for minors temporarily blocked

Posted on August 27, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

And then unblocked, which is how these things go.

A Texas law banning transgender youth from accessing puberty blockers and hormone therapy will go into effect next week after the state attorney general’s office filed to block a judge’s temporary injunction against Senate Bill 14.

In her decision Friday, state district court Judge Maria Cantú Hexsel wrote that SB 14 “interferes with Texas families’ private decisions and strips Texas parents … of the right to seek, direct, and provide medical care for their children.”

In response, the attorney general’s office filed an appeal with the Texas Supreme Court, a move that automatically pauses Cantú Hexsel’s injunction and will allow the law to go into effect Sept. 1. The attorney general’s office said such medical treatments are “unproven” and “pushed by some activists in the medical and psychiatric professions” in a statement announcing the appeal Friday evening.

Texas lawmakers passed SB 14 during this year’s regular legislative session, in addition to several other pieces of legislation affecting the lives of LGBTQ+ people.

Texas families and doctors sued the state in July with the hope of blocking the law. They argued SB 14 violates the Texas Constitution because it strips parents’ rights to make decisions about their child’s health care and discriminates against transgender youth by prohibiting access to this population specifically.

Cantú Hexsel’s injunction would have blocked the state attorney general’s office, the Texas Medical Board and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission from enforcing the law. She wrote that transgender youth and their families would “suffer probable, imminent, and irreparable injury” if SB 14 went into effect while the legal battle ensues. A trial is set to begin May 6.

The judge indicated the lawsuit would likely succeed. Agreeing with the plaintiffs, she said that SB 14 was unconstitutional because it violated parents’ rights to make decisions about their children, infringed on doctor’s freedom to practice medicine and discriminated against transgender youth by withholding access to health care.

“This Act was passed because of, and not in spite of, its impact on transgender adolescents, depriving them of necessary, safe, and effective medical treatment,” the judge wrote.

See here and here for some background. Because the TRO was appealed, the ruling was automatically put on hold pending the appeal; I know this is the process for a certain class of litigation, I’m not fully clear on what the definition is but I know this falls under it. As was the case with the Harris County lawsuit over the law removing the county Elections Administrator, the plaintiffs will have to file an emergency motion with the Supreme Court to get the TRO reinstated pending the appeal, which may or may not work. We’ll see what they do.

This lawsuit was filed in state court, which I believe was done to get a restraining order in place before the law goes into effect. I am not aware of any federal lawsuits against the bill at this time, but one could still be filed. There has been success against these laws at the federal district court level in other states, though it must be noted that one of those rulings, over the Alabama law, was reversed by the 11th Court of Appeals, which puts this matter on a track for SCOTUS. It’s scary out there and I don’t know that it’s going to get better any time soon. Do what you can to support you family and friends who are affected by this, and keep working to elect better people so we can stop these laws from passing and repeal the ones that have passed. It’s the only way at this point. The 19th has more.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Law banning gender-affirming care for minors temporarily blocked

The HISD elections

Posted on August 27, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

They will be on your ballot as well.

Seven people have filed to run for four open Houston ISD trustee positions, roles that currently do not have any oversight of the district following the Texas Education Agency’s takeover.

The TEA appointed nine people in June to the new Board of Managers, who now serve as the district’s school board instead of the nine elected HISD trustees. However, local elections for the elected trustees in Districts II, III, IV and VIII will still be held as scheduled on Nov. 7.

The elected trustees currently serve in an advisory capacity, although a third of them could replace a third of the unelected members of the Board of Managers at least two years following the beginning of the takeover if the district meets certain exit criteria, including acceptable academic performance ratings.

All of the elected trustees would gradually resume full control after two more years once the transition begins, according to a timeline from the TEA.

Some candidates said they are running to be an HISD trustee despite the takeover because they want to help manage the district once the state eventually gives power back to the elected board. They also say they can still make a difference as district representatives by hearing constituent concerns and informing community members about policy decisions.

Three incumbent HISD trustees — Kathy Blueford-Daniels, Dani Hernandez and Patricia Allen — are all running for another four-year term, each against a single challenger.

Trustee Judith Cruz told the Houston Chronicle Tuesday that she is not running again for her seat in District 8. Former teacher Placido Gomez is running unopposed for her current position.

All of these people except one, the person who filed against Kathy Blueford-Daniels in District II, were mentioned in my post about the HISD July finance reports. I will remind you that the opponents to Dani Hernandez and Patricia Allen are self-proclaimed “parental rights” advocates, and the one running against Hernandez is (or was, not clear from the story) a GOP precinct chair. Forewarned and forearmed, y’all. I will be publishing interviews with Blueford-Daniels, Hernandez, Judith Cruz, and Placido Gomez next week, so look for those. And make sure you and your friends all vote in these elections.

Posted in Election 2023 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Why does Mike Miles want classroom doors open?

Posted on August 27, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

I don’t know. That seems to be a regular thing.

Only a fence with holes and rotting wood planks stands between the back side of Coop Elementary School and the outside world. Last year, a man tried to scale it during recess, sending the school into lockdown and eliciting a police response.

Dana Castro worries that the shoddy fence, plus a glass door at the entrance to the north Houston school, may not be enough to protect her 9-year-old daughter and other students from future intruders. She wants the children and teachers to have an extra line of defense: a classroom door that remains closed and locked.

But a new mandate from Superintendent Mike Miles requires most educators across the district to teach with their classroom doors open during instruction time when school starts next week, a measure that some parents and teachers say peels back an important layer of safety.

“Let’s stop pretending there’s no danger and let’s start following the practices that have worked, which is a shut and locked door,” said Castro, who works for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

Miles has said that the open-door policy creates a professional and collaborative environment that allows administrators to observe teachers and effectively coach them.

“Teachers shouldn’t have anything to hide,” he said. “People should be able to see what’s going on in the classroom all the time.”

Some exceptions will be allowed for classrooms with particularly noisy or unsafe locations or children prone to running away, according to the superintendent.

“We’ll be smart about this,” Miles said during a community meeting over the summer. “If there are doors that are open to the outside or right next to the gymnasium … we’ll make sure those doors remain closed.”

Jackie Anderson, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, said she does not understand how opening doors promotes professionalism. Administrators can access all rooms with a key for observations, she said, and locking a door for safety reasons “does not mean you’re hiding anything.”

The union is looking into possible legal remedies to push back on the new measure, Anderson said.

“It’s really ridiculous that he is demanding that doors remain open in the culture we have in Texas where any and everybody can buy a gun,” she said. “And with the history we have in Texas … to put our teachers and students in harms way — why is it necessary to keep a door open? Why?”

[…]

The district did not respond to questions, but said officials may provide a comprehensive safety update later in the week.

I’m pretty sure every classroom I was ever in as a kid, all the way through high school, had the door closed. I mean, school hallways can be busy, noisy places, even during class time. And not to be macabre, but closed classroom doors are a security measure against shooters. I was on the PTA board at Travis Elementary in 2012, after the Sandy Hook massacre. We talked about that at length, let me tell you.

Be all that as it may, state law allows school districts to set their own policies about classroom doors, so Miles is within his authority here. What annoys me is that he just hands down these edicts without any discussion or apparent reason behind them. For a supposedly data-driven guy, he sure seems to operate on whim a lot. The lack of any response from HISD when asked about this is increasingly par for the course, too. Why did Miles change recess policies (before changing them back)? Why did he abruptly replace two principals right before school started? What’s up with his unverified and seemingly way off statements about central office staffing? Who knows? It’s what he does. And it’s obnoxious as hell.

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

About those HISD central office cuts

Posted on August 26, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

More illusion than reality so far, it seems.

A cornerstone of Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles’ plans for overhauling the district — rapidly eliminating nearly 700 jobs in its “bloated” central office — appears to be exaggerated by the district’s new, polarizing leader.

A Houston Landing analysis of district payroll data shows HISD hasn’t come close to carrying out the number of job cuts touted by Miles in recent weeks, casting doubt on the accuracy of statements by the state-appointed superintendent at a time when trust in his administration remains tenuous.

The data, obtained through a public records request, show there were just 225 fewer people working in HISD’s nearly 8,000-member central office in early August compared to early March, just before the state announced sweeping sanctions against HISD. That’s roughly one-third of the cuts trumpeted by Miles.

The vast majority of those reductions are concentrated in lower-paying departments. At the same time, Miles has invested more in the highest echelons of HISD’s central administration, with nearly 100 more employees raking in salaries exceeding $150,000.

If Miles doesn’t cut deeper into the district, the findings raise questions about the long-term viability of his expensive plans for overhauling parts of HISD, which he has estimated will cost over $100 million this year alone. Miles is instituting drastic changes at dozens of campuses, including raising teacher pay, offering stipends to employees and adding more staff members to some classrooms.

HISD’s latest financial estimates show a projected deficit of nearly $250 million in a $2.1 billion general fund budget this fiscal year.

[…]

Throughout his nearly three months leading HISD, Miles has railed against the district’s central office, vowing to find cost savings in the vast network of people who do not work on campuses.

In recent weeks, Miles and his administration have said that HISD’s central office has swollen 61 percent in the past six years. (They’ve alternately used the stat in reference to central office available positions and district spending.)

To that end, Miles said in mid-July that his team had “moved pretty quickly to reorder.” He declared that “672 people lost their position during this reorganization” and he planned to close 1,675 vacant positions, showing a chart depicting the changes.

Miles’ statements, however, appear inflated.

The Landing could find no records validating the 61 percent figure after reviewing multiple HISD budgets, district-reported employee counts and state records of district finances. The various data sources suggested a more modest bump in central office employment and spending, ranging from roughly 10 percent to 30 percent.

HISD officials did not respond to a request for evidence supporting their 61 percent calculation.

To evaluate Miles’ job cut claims, the Landing obtained payroll records that detail salary information about every employee in HISD.

The Landing’s March-to-August comparison showed about 225 net job cuts, equal to roughly 3 percent of all central office positions. Virtually all of those losses are in departments like transportation, food services, facilities and maintenance.

Meanwhile, the number of administrators in higher-paying central office departments, such as academics, finance and information technology, is essentially unchanged since March.

HISD officials have not responded to multiple requests in recent weeks for a more detailed breakdown of the purported 672 eliminated positions.

Multiple people are quoted in the story saying some variation of “these things take time”. Which, fine. I believe that. Doesn’t seem to be the case for the things Mike Miles really cares about, but whatever. I’m just going to make three observations. One is to repeat my previously stated concerns about the financial sustainability of Miles’ plan. Making massive cuts at the HISD central office was supposed to be a cornerstone of that. You could argue that Miles still has a lot of room to make those cuts and pay for what he’s doing. I’m concerned that he’s just making HISD’s financial situation more precarious in the meantime.

Second, the disconnect between what Miles says he’s doing and what he’s actually doing ought to be a concern. In re: my first point, we’re assuming Miles will actually make the cuts he’s been talking about, not just talk about them. I stipulate that these things can take time. Why isn’t it Mike Miles saying that himself? Why isn’t his team providing details about these cuts he’s been touting when asked? Neither of these things should be that difficult. Hell, Miles could use the challenge of actually making his promised cuts as part of his hero narrative. Instead, we’re getting puffery and dodging the questions. The longer those unverified claims sit out there without any response or explanation from HISD, the more they look like plain old dishonesty. If that’s what we get for the relatively small stuff, what can we expect for the bigger things?

And third, you know what might help here? An independent Board that had actual oversight power. If nothing else, they might be able to get Mike Miles to answer some of these questions. I’m just saying.

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

Houston “wins” 2028 RNC

Posted on August 26, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Yippie.

Houston will host the 2028 Republican National Convention, landing the high-profile event for the first time in more than 30 years.

GOP officials announced the selection Friday during their summer meeting, giving Houston the nod over finalists Nashville and Miami. City officials have estimated the event could bring as many as 50,000 visitors to the city, with millions of dollars in economic activity.

Toyota Center is slated to host the the convention’s general session, and other events will be held at Minute Maid Park and the George R. Brown Convention Center. Houston last hosted a national convention in 1992, when then-President George H.W. Bush was nominated for re-election at the Astrodome.

“As the nation’s most diverse and inclusive city, we believe Houston represents the future of the United States, and our aspirations for the country,” said Michael Heckman, the president and CEO of Houston First Corp., the city’s convention arm. “We’re excited to show off these attributes and our hospitality. We do it every day, and we look forward to doing it again in 2028.”

See here for the previous update. At least, as Houston Landing notes, the city “will not be expected to make a financial investment to host the convention”, and will be eligible to recoup costs for things like emergency services and security through a federal grant. As for me, I’ll be making my vacation plans as soon as possible for that time. Y’all feel free to do the same. The Trib has more.

Posted in Elsewhere in Houston, The making of the President | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

UTMB gets grant for a gun study

Posted on August 26, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

I’ll be very interested to see what they learn.

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston will be at the forefront of an emerging field of study after receiving a $2 million grant to study ways to reduce firearm violence, according to officials behind the project.

Nationally, the field of firearm statistics has languished since a 1996 provision into a government spending bill that prohibited the U.S. Centers for Disease Control from funding firearm research, according to Andrew Morral, a senior behavioral scientist at the RAND Corp. and the director of the national collaborative on gun violence research.

“It is a case where this is a rapidly-growing field of study,” he said. “There’s started to be some money to do the work, and there’s a lot of interest in solving problems.”

As part of the study, researchers in Galveston will expand prior research that has been ongoing for around 15 years, according to Jeff Temple, founding director of the center for violence prevention at the medical branch. That study surveyed 1,000 people on a wide swath of questions, from mental health and violence to parenting and other issues.

With the additional funding, surveyors will now ask the known firearm owners in the group questions about their choice to own a gun, Temple explained.

“We’ll be able to interview them and ask basic information about how they came to own a firearm,” he said.

The grant lasts for three years and the survey will continue for several years, Temple said.

The study is part of a growing new field, made possible by the federal government’s decision in 2019 to expand funding for firearm research, Morral said. In 1996, the so-called Dickey Amendment meant there was little money available for the endeavor.

The lack of money virtually eliminated costly data collection, Morral explained. Simultaneously, the federal government stopped tracking national gun ownership rates as part of its national survey on risk factors starting around 2004.

The combination of lack of research and available statistics means most researchers are starting from scratch, Morral said.

“Even to this day, research papers are using that 2004 estimate because it’s the best we have,” Morral said.

Crazy, I know. There was some money set aside by Congress in 2019 for firearm violence studies, of which this is part. I don’t expect much action to come of this, as we don’t have the right state government for that, but at least we can learn something. That’s better than what we had before.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Yet another Paxton roundup

Posted on August 25, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

The Senate trial starts in 11 days, and there continues to be so much Paxton news.

A crook any way you look

Political pressure is intensifying around Republican state senators who will serve as the jurors in the impeachment trial of suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Paxton’s allies are singling out a half dozen senators for lobbying. A mysterious entity is airing TV ads targeting certain senators. And an influential establishment group, as well as former Gov. Rick Perry, are urging senators to oppose efforts to effectively stop the trial before it starts.

“Anyone that votes against Ken Paxton in this impeachment is risking their entire political career and we will make sure that is the case,” Jonathan Stickland, who runs the pro-Paxton Defend Texas Liberty PAC, said Thursday in a media appearance.

[…]

Paxton’s allies have gotten more aggressive in recent days. On Tuesday, Dallas County GOP activist Lauren Davis went on the show of Steve Bannon, the former Donald Trump strategist, and urged viewers to apply pressure to six GOP senators: Kelly Hancock of North Richland Hills, Bryan Hughes of Mineola, Charles Schwertner of Georgetown, Charles Perry of Lubbock, Drew Springer of Muenster and Mayes Middleton of Galveston. She said Middleton was especially important to lobby given that he was a top donor to Paxton’s primary challengers in 2022.

“We’re gonna make all these six famous in the days ahead,” Bannon said.

Earlier in the week, Davis used her group, Moms Love Freedom, to launch a petition asking the Senate to dismiss the articles of impeachment “with prejudice.”

Davis was the 2022 Republican nominee for Dallas County judge and is currently running for Dallas County GOP chair, challenging an incumbent. She shares a political consultant, Axiom Strategies, with Paxton.

[…]

Then on Thursday, the deep-pocketed GOP group Texans for Lawsuit Reform issued a rare public statement on the impeachment process. The group, which heavily funded one of Paxton’s primary challengers in 2022, reiterated it “had nothing to do with” his impeachment, a day after the Dallas Morning News reported that Paxton’s lawyers planned to call TLR founder Richard Weekley as a witness.

But what came next was more notable. The group, which was sitting on a $33 million warchest as of June 30, made clear it expected senators to oppose the pretrial motions to dismiss — or anything else that could derail a full-blown trial.

“There is an ongoing effort underway to intimidate the Senators into abandoning their constitutional obligations and acquitting Paxton before the trial even begins and the evidence has been presented,” the statement said. “These efforts are disrespectful of the constitutional impeachment process and insulting to the integrity of the Texas Senate.”

“TLR expects the Senate will conduct a fair, open and thorough trial and that each Senator will make her or his decision solely on the evidence presented,” the statement added, putting an emphasis on “solely.”

The statement was only attributed to Texans for Lawsuit Reform and not any specific representative of the group.

By the end of Thursday, Perry was also weighing in with a similar message to that of TLR. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Perry condemned fellow Republicans who he said were trying to “delegitimize” the process and called for a “full and fair trial” in the Senate.

“We’ve come this far in the process, and it’s critical that the Senate sees it through to the end,” wrote Perry, who is close with Patrick. “That means a fair trial that allows both sides to lay out all the facts and gives senators the opportunity to vote based on the evidence.”

Such interventions are likely to further inflame tension with Paxton and his allies, who have long theorized the Republican establishment, especially TLR, is willing to do whatever it takes to get him out of office.

Definitely some big “wretched hive of scum and villainy” energy in there. You’ve got to be truly terrible to make me side with Texans for Lawsuit Reform. This right here is the division I was hoping for from this trial. Keep it coming.

Elsewhere, the reams of data dumped by the prosecution last week continues to generate more stories.

Ken Paxton once dragged his feet for a month before paying $12.50 for specialty license plates. But when a legal association put him up in a hotel for a convention, the attorney general readily picked out a $600 sport coat in the gift shop and charged it to the sponsors.

With his own money, the state’s top lawyer is known to be “very stingy” and to constantly vent about how little he makes, according to former close advisors. Paxton is less constrained, they say, when it comes to accepting cash and favors from others.

“He understands the power of the ask because people have a hard time saying no,” Drew Wicker, Paxton’s former executive aide, told investigators for the Texas House. “And that can be for small things, like lunch or providing a furniture move from Dallas to Austin, and it can be for some larger things, apparently.”

As evidence pours in ahead of Paxton’s impeachment trial next month, key witnesses for House prosecutors have painted the now-suspended attorney general as someone who obsesses over money and is susceptible to outsiders who want to influence how he runs his office.

The prosecutors claim Paxton took bribes from a campaign donor in exchange for political favors. It’s the latest in a line of financially related scandals that span years and encompass everything from securities fraud charges to pocketing another lawyer’s $1,000 pen.

[…]

Blake Brickman, a former deputy attorney general and one of the whistleblowers, told House investigators that Paxton regularly griped about finances at the office.

“He would always complain, literally complain about the fact that his staff would make more money than he did,” Brickman said, according to a transcript. Before being suspended due to impeachment, Paxton earned $154,000 a year, whereas many top agency lawyers make over $200,000. “Money was always at the top of the mind for him.”

David Maxwell, the agency’s former director of law enforcement and another whistleblower, offered the examples of the $600 sports coat and the license plates. He said one of the first things Paxton asked him to do was to get him a specialty plate that “says who I am.” Once Maxwell received them, Paxton told him he would bring him a check.

“I did not give him those plates until he handed over $12.50,” Maxwell said. “I kept it for over a month because I knew exactly what he was going to do.”

“When people would travel with him, he would always make them pay,” Maxwell went on. “I’m talking about employees who don’t make any money, you know. He’s always trying to get his hand in somebody’s pocket and make them pay.”

See here and here for previous entries, including an introduction to Drew Wicker. Most of this stuff comes from people who have good reasons to be mad at Ken Paxton, so while all of this should be factual, it’s also told from a particular perspective. It’s also likely to reinforce your opinion of Paxton, if you like me and other decent people think he’s a terrible person, or to confirm your suspicion that people are out to get him if for some reason you don’t.

Also, too:

Another wrinkle was added this week in the impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Ken Paxton. A former Texas Ranger accused two top Paxton aides of hounding female staffers out of the executive tier.

The accuser is David Maxwell, who formerly served as Paxton’s director of law enforcement. He was interviewed by impeachment managers last week. During the interview, he revealed that two top aides, First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster and Aaron Reitz, who has since become Chief of Staff to Senator Ted Cruz.

According to interview documents, Webster and Reitz were so toxic and sexist to female staffers that they resigned.

“I would tell you that those two individuals, there have been many complaints of sexual harassment by the female employees up on the eighth floor,” said Maxwell. “Most all of them have left. And their complaints were varied. You know, it’s they’re so misogynistic it’s incredible how blatant they are about it and how openly sexual they are in talking around their female employees.”

Nor is sexism the only bigotry Maxwell said was present in the office. Reitze was apparently suspended for two weeks after a homophobic tweet. Reitz was also suspended after calling gymnast Simone Biles a “childish, national embarrassment.”

Maxwell characterizes the attorney general’s office as a boy’s club where loyalty to Paxton was the most important thing.

“I would tell you that that group has basically devastated the agency as far as talent,” he said in the interview. “They have hired only people who will, as I said before, be loyal to Paxton, regardless of the legality of what they were doing. You probably know that Webster had represented himself as an attorney of record for Nate Paul in the Mitte Foundation lawsuit.”

The Roy F. and Joann Cole Mitte Foundation is a charitable group that provides grants and programs in the Austin and Central Texas area related to community improvement in areas like education and disability access. They sued Nate Paul, Paxton’s longtime friend, donor, and important figure in the impeachment charges, over misappropriation of funds after an investment. Days after the case was settled, the FBI raided Paul’s office.

Maxwell does not accuse Paxton himself of sexual harassment in the interview. However, his testimony further paints the attorney general’s office as a place where rules and propriety were not respected. Despite their contact, Reitz and Webster only rose higher in the organization.

I feel like I’ve seen some of this stuff before, but I didn’t find a relevant post in my archives on a cursory search. The chintziness allegations are kind of petty, but this is serious and honestly deserves its own investigation. It’s also completely believable.

We have another week and a half of this to go, and then we get to the actual trial. Have you stocked up on popcorn yet?

Posted in Scandalized!, That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Drought Contingency Plan Stage Two

Posted on August 25, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox:

The City of Houston will enter Stage Two of the City’s Drought Contingency Plan, effective August 27, 2023. The Drought Contingency Plan calls for Stage Two mandatory water conservation measures when the significant drop in annual rainfall and higher-than-normal daily temperatures lead to continued stress on the water system. Houston Public Works has recommended the implementation of a Stage Two designation of the Drought Contingency Plan for the entire City, including systems that are supplied by groundwater only.

During Stage Two, outdoor water use will be restricted except for the following time periods:

  • Between the hours of 7PM and 5AM with the following schedule:
    • Sundays and Thursdays for single-family residential customers with even-numbered street addresses
    • Saturdays and Wednesdays for single-family residential customers with odd-numbered street addresses
    • Tuesdays and Fridays for all other customers

Any water customer who violates these watering times will be issued a written warning for a first-time violation. Any subsequent violations are subject to a fine up to $2,000 for each occurrence of the offense (Section 54.001 of the Texas Local Government Code).

“Houston Public Works asks the public to please do your part in helping us reduce citywide water use,” said Houston Public Works Director, Carol Haddock. “Our goal is to reduce water usage from all customers by 10%. Our crews are working diligently in conjunction with area contractors to repair water leaks across the city.”

Water customers are also reminded to continue everyday efforts to prevent the loss of water:

  • Check and repair water leaks, including dripping faucets and running toilets
  • Check sprinkler heads to make sure water is not spraying into the street or directly into a storm drain and/or gutters. Typically, more than 5 minutes of sprinkler use creates runoff into the street.
  • Run dishwashers and washing machines only when full
  • Take shorter showers
  • Additional water conservation tips

Find more details about the drought contingency plan here: City of Houston’s Drought Contingency Plan

We will get rained on again, I promise. In the meantime, this isn’t that much to ask to keep things from getting worse. The Chron, the Press, and Houston Landing have more.

Posted in Elsewhere in Houston | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Dispatches from Dallas, August 25 edition

Posted on August 25, 2023 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 story from Granbury, southwest of Fort Worth, that ties up a lot of book-banning business locally, in the Metroplex, and statewide. We also have Dallas’ city budget, appraisal district shenanigans, the latest from Joppa, election fraud in Dallas County, cops behaving badly, HS football vs the killer heat, water mains vs the killer heat, USCIS raising visa fees that will kill portions of the touring music business, and the eternal question of tacos in Dallas: good, bad, or indifferent?

This week’s post was brought to you by the music of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, who have just released a new album, and the music of Japan, who have sadly not released anything lately.

First up, a book-banner scandal in Granbury, southwest of Fort Worth: trustee Karen Lowery, who was elected last year on a book-banning platform, was censured by a vote of 5-2 (the two being herself and her ally Melanie Graft) for sneaking into the Granbury HS library while it was closed during an after-hours event to distribute school supplies. Lowery and another woman were caught in the darkened library using their phones as flashlights by an assistant principal. There was an investigation that led to the banning at a raucous school board meeting this week.

The more I read up on this story, the more interesting it got. Current local coverage is in the Star-Telegram; the DMN; local Fox affiliate; and last week from Hood County News. The Daily Beast is on the story nationally. But there was also some fascinating additional background when I did a little research on Trustee Lowery: this Texas Tribune article from back in December 2022 about a federal investigation into Granbury ISD’s book-banning ways.

Even more interesting is this investigative piece on Medium dating from April 2022 where Chris Tackett lays out a lot of well-documented history from his public records requests about what has been going on in Granbury ISD in the previous few years. He has a follow-up from January of this year about the books that have actually been removed from Granbury ISD’s library. He ties the removals directly to Matt Krause’s 850-book list from back in 2021. Granbury got its marching orders from Krause and have been slogging forward ever since. All Trustee Lowery got wrong was not following the process.

Where Granbury is right now is where the book-banners want to take the rest of us. As our host is wont to say, you know what to do: vote in every election and take your friends and run these people out of office. Nothing will change until we do.

In other news:

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Dispatches from Dallas, August 25 edition

Who might testify at the Paxton impeachment trial?

Posted on August 24, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Maybe these people.

A crook any way you look

The names of witnesses for Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial must be submitted to the Texas Senate by Tuesday, but the public won’t know who they are until they’re called to testify.

Such witness lists are not public, according to trial rules drawn up by the senators. However, former agency staffers, a woman alleged to have had an affair with Paxton and a recently indicted campaign donor are among several likely candidates as all were named in recent legal filings submitted by Paxton’s defense team and the lawyers who will present the case against the attorney general.

The Dallas Morning News has identified 13 people who may testify in Paxton’s upcoming trial that begins Sept. 5. These individuals are named in the articles of impeachment, evidence filed by House impeachment lawyers and other documents as potential key witnesses.

[…]

Travis County prosecutor turned AG staffer Mindy Montford

Mindy Montford is a senior counsel at the state attorney general’s office in the cold case unit.

In 2020, she worked at the Travis County district attorney’s office where she was contacted by Paxton to review complaints from Paul about the raid on his business and home.

Montford attended a meeting between Paul, Paxton and other attorneys in which they spoke about Paul’s allegations that law enforcement violated his rights during the 2019 raid.

In an affidavit she submitted after she left the DA’s office, but before being hired by the Office of the Attorney General, Montford confirmed Paxton’s account that Travis County sought his office’s assistance in investigating Paul’s allegations against the FBI and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

However, Montford also appears to have cooperated with those who are prosecuting Paxton in the Senate trial. A House ethics committee subpoenaed her shortly after Paxton’s impeachment and a recent motion states that she sat for an interview with House managers on June 5.

The other names include the eight people associated with the whistleblower case, four plaintiffs and four others who did not join the lawsuit; Nate Paul’ Brandon Cammack, the inexperienced lawyer Paxton hired as a “special prosecutor” to run interference in the Nate Paul case; the alleged mistress, whose testimony I am absolutely dying to hear; our boy Drew Wicker; and Montford (a onetime Dem candidate for Travis County DA) as indicated. There was a paywalled Statesman article about her involvement the other day, which made me curious. So far, I know the least about what her role was. Regardless, I hope every single person on this list is called to testify. There’s not enough popcorn in the world.

(Also, too, the alleged mistress used to work in Sen. Donna Campbell’s office. But sure, she gets to be a juror.)

Someone who may or may not testify at the trial is Paxton himself.

Suspended Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is fighting to stay off of the witness stand during his September impeachment trial, but prosecutors oppose the move, hoping to have the option of forcing Paxton to testify under oath.

Paxton’s legal team has asked Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who will preside over the trial in the Texas Senate, to forbid the House impeachment team from issuing a subpoena that would compel Paxton’s testimony.

Paxton’s lawyers argue that impeachment is a criminal proceeding, so Paxton is entitled to the same legal protections — namely, not being forced to testify — as any criminal defendant.

“Given that an impeachment trial is legally considered to be a criminal proceeding, there can only be one conclusion: the Attorney General may, but cannot be forced to, testify,” Paxton’s lawyers wrote in a July 7 filing to the court of impeachment.

Heading toward Paxton’s trial, set to begin Sept. 5, House impeachment managers argue that senators drafted and approved trial rules that give them the power to compel Paxton to appear as a witness.

No rule “limits the individuals who may be summoned to testify before the Senate. Specifically, [no rule] excludes Paxton from those persons who must appear and testify if subpoenaed,” they argued in a response filed with the court of impeachment.

While Paxton has a Fifth Amendment right to decline to provide incriminating testimony, he must assert that right specifically from the witness stand, impeachment managers argued.

I’m not interested in relitigating what kind of proceeding this is. Paxton can make whatever decision he thinks is best for him strategically. Given the evidence against him, I doubt it matters. But if he chooses not to testify, assuming he isn’t forced to, then please spare me any blathering about how he was silenced by the House during the process. Just, stop.

One more thing:

The impeachment trial will be held on the floor of the Texas Senate and will be open to the public, aside from final closed-door deliberations among senators when they attempt to reach a verdict.

The Senate has yet to release the full calendar and schedule for the trial.

If you want to attend the trial in person, here’s what you need to know, including how to get a ticket:

A ticket is required in order to receive admission to the Senate Gallery, According to the Senate guidelines, tickets will be distributed on the third floor outside of the Senate Gallery for the morning and afternoon sessions of the impeachment trial and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Ticket distribution will begin at 7:30 a.m. for the morning session, and the doors to the Senate Gallery will open at 8 a.m. each day of the trial.

For the afternoon sessions, ticket distribution is to begin 45 minutes before the Senate Gallery is slated to reopen.

There’s a Ticketmaster joke in there somewhere, but I’m not quite up to it today.

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The school security boondoggle

Posted on August 24, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

This is such a mess.

Multiple Houston-area school districts say they can’t staff all of their campuses with armed district police officers as the upcoming school year begins, forcing them to seek alternatives to comply with a new state law addressing school safety.

Texas lawmakers passed House Bill 3, which goes into effect Sept. 1, during the most recent regular legislative session. It mandates that districts must have a district peace officer, school resource officer or commissioned peace officer at every school during school hours and establishes other safety protocols and requirements.

Several local school districts, including Houston Independent School District, already have a police officer stationed at every middle school and high school, and they have additional officers who rotate among several elementary schools. Soon, every district in the state must have one armed officer stationed at every campus, leading to a significant expansion of the police force in some districts.

With about three months’ notice, districts throughout Texas have been desperately competing with each other — along with local city police departments and other law enforcement agencies — to try to hire enough officers to station at every campus amid a nationwide police staffing shortage.

To comply with the law, some school districts are increasing incentives for applicants to join their ranks, including by raising officer base pay and implementing shorter contracts. At least one district says it is recruiting cadets to join the district straight out of the police academy.

HISD state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles said the district plans to expand its police force by 166 officers, but it’s going to be “very difficult to achieve.” To recruit more officers, the district announced in July that it was increasing the salaries and sign-on bonuses for police officers this year, raising the pay for a 12-month contract from $59,091 to $63,800.

Some district and police officials are simply admitting that no matter what they do, it’s not possible for them to hire enough police officers within the time period. Dan Turner, Alief ISD’s chief of police, said he previously was having problems filling a few vacant police officer positions before HB 3 passed, and now he is trying to hire at least 32 new officers.

“There’s all these school districts in the state of Texas and charter schools and whoever else trying to hire police officers or armed guards at once,” Turner said. “I just don’t see where we’re going to be able to meet that mandate come Sept. 1 because those officers just aren’t out there to hire.”

[…]

State lawmakers passed the legislation partly in response to the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde last year, where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers.

In addition to mandating armed officers, HB 3 requires annual intruder detection audits, evidence-based mental health training for certain employees and active-shooter training for their officers at least once every four years.

It also provides $15,000 per campus and an additional $10 per student to fund all the security upgrades. Some school districts say that funding is not enough for all the required expenses and leaves them on their own to resolve funding gaps that are exceeding well over $1 million.

Ginger touched on this in the August 19 Dispatches. So to review, there’s not enough time to hire enough officers, school districts are bidding up the salaries for these officers because they’re competing with one another (and with charter schools) to hire them, the mandate was largely unfunded despite the billions of extra revenue the state has, some districts are desperate enough to hire cadets fresh out of academies, and all of this was the Lege’s response to Uvalde. How is hiring rookie cops going to make kids safer? We all know that Texas law enforcement agencies routinely hire cops that have been fired or made to resign multiple times for being terrible and corrupt, and this is going to be a job fair for those losers. I guarantee you, we will be reading about tragedies and scandals resulting from this for years to come. All because Republicans absolutely refuse to do anything about guns.

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Recess is good

Posted on August 24, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

I’m glad to see this.

Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles announced on Tuesday that he is changing the recess schedule at schools under the New Education System to allow for more unstructured play time for kids in response to a push from parents.

All students in pre-K through fifth grade classrooms in the 85 NES and NES-aligned schools will now have a single 30-minute recess period each day, according to the district, an increase compared to a former schedule that included two shorter breaks for the lower grades and no recess in fifth grade.

“Teachers shared that they believe these modifications will limit lost learning time and maximize high-quality instruction, and we’ve heard from many families that they value unstructured free play time for their students,” Miles said in a statement. “We were able to make these changes without sacrificing high-quality instruction time and we believe this will enhance the environment in our schools and support student achievement.”

The change marks a big win for an HISD parent advocacy group called Free Play Houston, whose members have written letters, met with administrators and orchestrated an email campaign in recent weeks in an effort to push for more recess time for NES students, pointing out that shortening recess time may stand in violation of state law and HISD board policies.

“We are overjoyed that a child’s right to play will be respected and valued this school year,” the organization said in a statement on Tuesday, thanking those who emailed HISD leadership about the issue. “Houstonians have long known that all children need an unstructured play time during their school day. Decades of research shows that recess not only promotes social and emotional skills that become fundamental learning tools, but that recess also benefits students by improving their memory, attention, and concentration.”

Before these changes, the latest version of the NES master schedule allowed for one 15-minute recess in the morning and one 15-minute break in the afternoon for kindergarden through fourth grade students, with no additional time built in for getting students to and from the playground, according to Brooke Longoria, co-founder of Free Play Houston and an HISD parent.

Additionally, the former schedule included no recess for fifth grade students, with district administrators saying their physical movement needs would be met through Dyad programming like martial arts, dance and spin bikes, along with PE class.

The modification appears to be the first time the new state-appointed superintendent has responded to community pushback by changing course.

First, kudos to Free Play Houston for being the first group of HISD stakeholders to actually get Mike Miles to listen to them and change his mind about something. How it took this long for that to happen is a separate matter, but for now good for them.

I’m just back from a long road trip as I sit down to write this. I was going to write some gripes about how we got to be in this position in the first place and so on, and then I decided to just take the W and leave it at that. I suspect there will continue to be no shortage of Mike Miles things to complain about, I may as well save my energy for them. Whatever Free Play Houston did to get this win, please share it with everyone else.

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

Texas blog roundup for the week of August 21

Posted on August 24, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

The Texas Progressive Alliance marvels at the ability of the Fifth Circuit to turn grievance into legal theory as it brings you this week’s roundup. The TPA also encourages you to donate to Maui relief if you can.

Continue reading →

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SCOTx denies stay request in elections administrator lawsuit

Posted on August 23, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Welp.

The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday denied Harris County’s request for an emergency order that would have allowed the Harris County Elections Administrator’s Office to run the upcoming November election by temporarily delaying the implementation of a new state law that abolishes the office. The decision puts to rest months of uncertainty over who will oversee an election that’s now just weeks away.

A ruling last week from a Travis County district judge prevented Senate Bill 1750, a measure the Texas Legislature passed in May, from going into effect on Sept. 1. However, an appeal filed by the state hours later stayed that ruling, triggering the county’s request for an emergency order from the Texas Supreme Court to keep the judge’s injunction in place while the appeal is pending.

The Supreme Court has denied that request from the county, clearing the way for SB 1750 to go into effect on Sept. 1 and putting Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth and the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Ann Harris Bennett in charge of the upcoming election.

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said in a statement that the Supreme Court had failed Harris County residents.

“I am disappointed that the Texas Supreme Court is quietly allowing the legislature to illegally target Harris County, instead of considering the arguments and timely deciding whether Senate Bill 1750 violates the constitution. We first learned of today’s decision from media, instead of from the court itself,” Menefee said. “From the start, Republican legislators pushed this law abolishing the Harris County Elections Administrator’s Office to undermine local elections and score political points on the backs of the good people who run them. By setting the law to go into effect Sept. 1, and not passing a single law to assist in the transition or provide additional funding, Republican legislators are making the job of running this November’s election much more difficult.”

The Supreme Court set oral argument in the state’s appeal for Nov. 28, three weeks after the election takes place.

The upcoming Commissioners Court meeting Aug. 29 will include a public discussion on how to proceed after the decision, Menefee added.

Legislation abolishing the elections office is just one piece of a “coordinated attack from state leaders,” Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis said in a statement.

“Democracy in Harris County and the State of Texas took another blow today with the Texas Supreme Court ruling that allows the Legislature to target Harris County and exercise unprecedented control over our elections,” Ellis said.

See here for the background. Gotta say, this does not bode well for the appeal of the original ruling. It’s my understanding that the county has been preparing for this possibility, and County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth used to be the elections person before the Administrator’s office was created, so this should transition as smoothly as one could reasonably expect. It’s just that there was no need to force this to happen right before an election. Why take even a small risk of chaos when you don’t have to? It sure would be nice to live in a state that didn’t actively undermine a significant portion of its residents. Houston Landing, the Trib, and the Press have more.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Menefee running for re-election

Posted on August 23, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Not a surprise, but still good to see confirmed.

Christian Menefee

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said Thursday he will be running for reelection in 2024, citing increased attention to politics with the upcoming municipal elections and the primary election filing period beginning Nov. 11 as the reason for his commitment now.

“I want to make sure once they’re tuned in, they know I plan to keep serving,” Menefee said.

A Harris County GOP spokesperson said at this time they are not aware of any Republicans announcing an intention to file for the County Attorney race and that there is time before filing begins.

Menefee said some of his second-term goals would be “to continue to protect the county against these attacks from state officials” and to focus on consumer protection. He highlighted his office’s role in litigation such as the $20 million settlement from e-cigarette manufacturer JUUL Labs after arguing the company deceptively marketed its products to children, as well as the county receiving $18 million from Volkswagen after the company used software that circumvented emissions monitoring.

Honestly, just keep on keeping on. Menefee has been a real bright spot, fighting the fights that have needed to be fought, and doing so with a good record so far (there are still a lot of appeals pending, and you never know how those will go). I thought Vince Ryan was a fine County Attorney, and Menefee has more than met that standard. If he wants to run for Attorney General some day, I’ll be all over that.

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Fair For Houston approved for the ballot

Posted on August 23, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

And the questions about what it can accomplish if it passes have begun.

Houston voters will decide whether the city should be part of a regional government board that does not give it proportional voting power, after City Council placed the question on the November ballot.

The referendum, now one of two before voters this fall, targets the Houston-Galveston Area Council, a 37-member body that distributes federal and state funding. Houston has just two votes on the council, despite making up over 30 percent of its population base.

The charter amendment, if passed, would require the city to pull out of groups that do not apportion votes according to population. Mayor Sylvester Turner, though, suggested Monday that pulling out of H-GAC would require other steps.

“Let’s say if the item’s on the ballot and it passes, you can’t just step away from H-GAC,” Turner said. “It does require the governor’s support and a majority of the board in order to do that, so there’s some other things that have to take place, but it does express the sentiment, or a vote for it expresses the sentiment of how they feel about the governance.”

Alexandra Smither, communications director of Fair For Houston, the group that collected signatures for the proposal, said afterward the governor’s support is not necessary to withdraw. Smither said the amendment, if passed, would trigger 60 days of negotiation to meet the proportionality requirement.

“The most likely outcome of the charter amendment is robust and fruitful negotiations, resulting in representation that is proportional to population size for Houston residents and other H-GAC members,” the group said in a news release.

It cited H-GAC’s bylaws, which say membership is voluntary.

“A member of the Houston-Galveston Area Council may withdraw from membership by action of its governing body,” it reads.

See here and here for the previous entries. The question is not whether Houston can withdraw from H-GAC – I think it’s clear that it can. The question is what happens with federal funds and grants and whatnot that Houston would be eligible for if Houston is not a member of an entity like H-GAC. Can it be its own metropolitan planning organization? What bureaucratic and/or legislative hoops would it have to jump through? After all this time, I still don’t feel like I know the answer to that. If Houston can just be its own MPO, then full steam ahead. If not, or if this would require approval from the Lege or Greg Abbott or Congress, then I just don’t see how we get there. And if we can’t get there, we don’t really have any leverage. I plan to ask these questions when I interview someone with Fair For Houston. I will not be at all upset if a professional reporter tries to answer them on their own before I get to it.

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Who will advise Dan Patrick on impeachment?

Posted on August 22, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

He’s looking for help after the guy he picked initially backed out.

A former state appeals court judge on Saturday turned down an appointment to serve as an adviser to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick during the upcoming impeachment trial of indicted Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Just a day earlier, Patrick had named Marc Brown, a former Republican justice on the 14th Court of Appeals from Harris County, to be his counsel during the trial scheduled to begin Sept. 5.

Brown’s announcement that he would not participate came suddenly after The Texas Tribune reached out about a campaign donation he made in 2021 to a Paxton political opponent.

In a letter Saturday to Patrick declining the appointment, Brown cited the $250 contribution that he and his wife made in 2021 to the campaign of Eva Guzman, a former state Supreme Court justice who tried to unseat Paxton in the Republican primary. Brown said he had not actively campaigned for any candidate since becoming a district judge in 2010.

“I did not recall that during our meetings with your staff,” Brown wrote about the contribution. “I have full confidence in my ability to fairly offer legal advice in this matter. However, the proceedings commencing on Sept. 5, 2023 are far too important to the State of Texas for there to be any distractions involving allegations of favoritism or personal bias on my part.”

Patrick said Friday he had picked Brown “after several months of searching.”

Trial rules grant Patrick — who as the leader of the Senate serves as the impeachment trial’s presiding officer — the option of selecting his own legal counsel.

“I was looking for a candidate with real-life courtroom experience as a lawyer and a judge who would serve as counsel and work side-by-side with me through this process,” Patrick said in a statement. “Justice Brown meets these criteria with his years of front-line experience as a courtroom lawyer and trial court judge and also brings a well-rounded perspective from his experience as a former appellate justice.”

Turns out Justice Brown, who lost his seat on the 14th Court of Appeals in the 2018 Democratic sweep, has a commendable amount of personal ethics, too. You know, the whole “appearance of impropriety” thing. That’s an example that maybe Patrick himself ought to consider following. But if that’s not possible, I do have a suggestion for how he could find an advisor who has no history of giving to either Ken Paxton or one of his opponents: Pick a Democratic judge. I’ll give you a break on my own hourly rate for that advice, Danno. Do with it what you will.

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Buzbee to run for District G

Posted on August 22, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

When will he have the time for this?

Tony Buzbee, the high-profile lead lawyer defending impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton, filed to run for Houston City Council on Monday.

With hours until the filing deadline, Buzbee livestreamed himself filing to run for District G, currently held by Mary Nan Huffman. The office is nonpartisan, though the district is conservative and covers the affluent neighborhoods of West Houston.

“I’m not sure who all the opponents are, but we’re gonna work very hard to do the very best we can,” Buzbee said on the stream.

Huffman has already filed to run for reelection. She responded to Buzbee’s filing in a statement that called it “just another cheap publicity stunt by Tony Buzbee.”

“He doesn’t care about representing the taxpayers of District G for the next four years,” Huffman said. “He doesn’t even care about representing Ken Paxton in his impeachment trial in September. He only cares about himself and his press clippings.”

[…]

Buzbee told The Texas Tribune he spoke with Paxton before filing for the office and said he does not see his new campaign “having any impact on the trial.” He suggested he is well-acquainted with juggling big responsibilities.

“In my life, no matter what’s happening, there’s always another big case,” Buzbee said.

Did you also check with the 125 clients you’re representing in litigation over the AstroWorld debacle? I’m guessing not. Whatever. Attention hounds gotta get attention.

Other than that, there don’t appear to have been any other filing deadline surprises. I’ll need to check again in a day or so to see if I missed anything. The Chron has a full list of candidates who filed, including twenty – twenty! – people who think they’re running for Mayor. (There could have been 21.) No, I will not be interviewing them all.

Posted in Election 2023 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Time for another Cruise update

Posted on August 22, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Driverless taxi service Cruise got the full go-ahead in San Francisco.

In a win for the autonomous vehicle industry, California regulators have given the green light to Cruise and Waymo to offer commercial robotaxi services across San Francisco 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The commission voted 3-1 in support of the expansions; Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma cast the sole “no” vote.

The California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) votes in favor of the AV companies come in spite of mounting opposition from residents and city agencies that have urged caution and a more incremental approach to expansion. Since AVs hit the streets of San Francisco, there have been numerous instances of vehicles malfunctioning and stopping in the middle of the street — referred to as “bricking” — blocking the flow of traffic, public transit and emergency responders.

Cruise and Waymo both offer limited paid services in San Francisco — Cruise charges for driverless rides at night, and Waymo charges for its robotaxi service throughout the city at any time of day, but with a human safety operator present. The permit extension allows the companies to expand their services significantly and with no limit on the number of robotaxis they can put on the roads.

While Cruise and Waymo have both said they would expand incrementally, and not all at once, scale is vital for the companies’ success. Developing, testing and deploying AV tech has cost Cruise and Waymo millions of dollars. Waymo has had to pull back on operations this year after Alphabet issued a slew of layoffs in the first quarter. In July, the company shut down its self-driving trucks program to shift all its available resources to ride-hailing. If either Waymo of Cruise are to get a return on their investments, they need to grow exponentially in San Francisco and beyond.

The CPUC ended up voting to grant the permit expansions because it did not anticipate the robotaxi services to result in significant safety risks. The agency’s primary role is to promote the public interest by ensuring safe, reliable and affordable utility services. As long as Cruise and Waymo’s services meet those requirements, the CPUC doesn’t have the authority to limit them.

Hold that thought on expansion for a minute. This isn’t quite the end of the line for Cruise and Waymo, as San Francisco’s City Attorney has filed motions with the CPUC to pause the firms’ plans to charge for robotaxi rides in the city at all hours, which is to say to limit their hours of operation for now. A day later, the robotaxi companies were ordered to scale back their fleets by half following a crash with a fire truck. I don’t know how long that will last, I’m sure this will be moving ever forward, but there are still some bumps in the road.

For a more comprehensive look at what’s happening, Vox interviewed a local reporter who’s been on this beat and is a regular rider of these vehicles as part of it. She had some observations about other issues:

Well, have there been any problems yet with these robocars?

That’s an understatement, honestly. It’s pretty crazy. These cars will just get caught. Let’s say there are 10 fire trucks coming down to stop a blaze in San Francisco. The Cruise cars don’t know what to do. They’ll just brick up on the street and not move. The issue with that is that they’ll be blocking traffic. They’ll be blocking the emergency vehicles.

So they crumble under pressure.

They definitely crumble under pressure. And they were put to the test this Friday. San Francisco has this pretty famous music festival called Outside Lands. Tens of thousands of people attend. It’s a really big event for the city. And Cruise and Waymo were still operating around the park where the festival was held.

This was day one of the new world that we were living in in San Francisco.

Day one of the new world. And they had a meltdown. As many as a dozen stalled Cruise cars blocked the streets in a neighborhood in the north part of the city. The company said that it was because all of the people at Outside Lands disrupted the cellphone signal or the signal that the Cruise cars use to operate.

The robots blamed the people.

Yeah, the robots blamed the people. A lot of people said that the robotaxis just couldn’t handle the floods of people walking on the street. They’ll just stop. And it’s kind of funny to see because the cars kind of look clueless. And there’s no driver in them either. So you really can’t yell at them to move or honk at them either. I think something that people don’t talk enough about too, with Cruise, is that they’re such cute little cars, that it really, truly is comical when they mess up.

This reporter is the same one who wrote about people having sex in Cruise robotaxis, because why not? There’s no one else in the vehicle to stop them. I will note that way back in 2018 I blogged about the issue of who is responsible for cleaning self-driving vehicles. It’s still not clear that there’s an answer to that question. Ride with caution, and maybe some Lysol, if you must.

Why do I keep writing about this stuff? Well, it fascinates me, and it’s coming our way. Cruise is operating in Austin, and Waymo is right behind it. Dallas is also in their sights. I have other questions about what all this means – like, for example, where are all the robotaxis kept at night when they’re not in use? – and I’m sure I’ll have more.

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Who votes in Houston elections?

Posted on August 21, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

The short answer is old people.

When Houston residents head to the ballot box this November to elect a new mayor and city government, fewer people may actually show up than in Seattle, a city with a third of our population.

About 1 in 5 registered voters in Houston typically participate in municipal elections, and even that figure omits residents who are eligible to vote but are not registered. Seattle, a city of 750,000 people, saw 265,000 people turn out in its November 2021 mayoral election; Houston’s 2019 contest garnered 241,000. In some council districts — where members represent 210,000 constituents — as few as 6,000 people voted.

As a result, the voting base collectively looks far different from Houston’s broader population, skewing dramatically older, whiter and more conservative. Two demographic disparities stand out: The median municipal voter in Houston is over 60 years old, meaning half the electorate was born before Congress passed the Voting Rights Act in 1965. And in a city where 47 percent of residents are Latino, only roughly 18 percent of the city’s voting base will share that background.

The share of city voters 65 and older (38%) is nearly triple the group’s share of Houston’s voting age population (14%), per census figures.

“From my perspective, (municipal turnout) is really a national scandal,” said Phil Keisling, a former Oregon secretary of state who studied municipal voting in United States’ 30 largest cities in 2016. “The fact that nobody was tracking this when we did the study was telling. The fact that nobody tracks it now on any systematic basis, I think, is remarkably sad.”

Keisling’s study found Houston ranked 18th out of the top 30 cities in municipal turnout at the time, though it fared better than Austin, San Antonio and Dallas. Houston fared worse in its age gap — its average voter was 19.6 years older than the average voting-age citizen, fourth worst among those 30 cities.

I’m a bit pressed for time, so I’m going to bullet-point this.

– I did a similar study after the 2013 election, a whole series of posts about who votes in the city elections, and I did include a look at the age ranges of city voters. I’m having some technical issues with the site right now that are hampering my ability to search so I don’t have those links at hand, but the short answer is that I found the same basic result. City elections are dominated by older voters, with youth share a much smaller percentage than it would be even in a non-Presidential even-year race. I have no doubt that is still the case.

– Greg Wythe said a long time ago that the way to change who votes in Houston elections, which would also change who gets elected to City Council, is to move these elections to even-numbered years. We could do them exclusively in Presidential years now if we wanted. This is discussed later in the story. While that would easily push turnout to well over 50%, probably over 60%, it is fair to say that the city races would get drowned out in that context. I’m not saying that’s a reason not to do it, just that it would be an effect of doing it, and we should be clear on that.

– Dallas and San Antonio do their city elections in May of odd-numbered years, which is why their turnout is even worse than ours. Austin used to do it that way, but their elections are now done in Novembers of even years. They have a lot more turnout now, not surprisingly.

– The comparison to Seattle may be shocking, but the conditions in Seattle are quite different, which makes this comparison specious at best.

Washington votes by mail every election.

If you are registered to vote in Washington, there is no need to request a ballot. Your ballot will be automatically mailed to the address where you’re registered to vote.

I guarantee it would increase turnout in Houston if we could do this. That is not up to us. This was also discussed later in the story.

– I have spoken to many (mostly younger) candidates over the years that have said they intend to increase youth turnout. Most if not all of those candidates didn’t have a lot of money available to them to make good on those plans. Changing the turnout equation is hard. As noted above, the biggest levers we could wield are not in the control of the candidates; the city could choose to move its elections to even years, but I have yet to see a candidate advocate that as part of their platform.

– As I have said before, we have a lot more registered voters now than we did in 2015, when we switched from elections every two years to elections every four years. In between then and now, we have had the highest turnout even-year elections in Harris County history. I believe that at least some of this will spill over into this year’s race. I expect we will get a boost in absolute numbers just from the larger voter pool, and maybe we’ll get a bit more from the recent spate of higher-turnout voting. I’m more confident about the first part of that.

I promise to try to return to this topic, maybe do another study if I can find the time, after this election. In the meantime, let me know what you think.

Posted in Election 2023 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Lawsuit filed over anti-porn law

Posted on August 21, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s another one I missed. My God what a wretched session this was.

A consortium of adult entertainment advocacy groups, including the online giant Pornhub, is suing the state of Texas ahead of its pending enforcement of a new law requiring adult sites to verify the ages of users and display a health warning to those accessing their content.

In legal papers filed in the Western District of Texas federal court on August 4, Pornhub, Free Speech Coalition and others argue that Texas’ HB 1181 violates their users’ constitutional rights by imposing flimsy, overly broad and easily circumvented security requirements on sites in the name of “allegedly protecting minors.” Signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott this past June, HB 1181 goes into effect on September 1 and requires users to verify their age using “government-issued identification” or “a commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private transactional data to verify the age of an individual.”

The law also requires sites to display a lengthy health warning that describes pornography as “potentially biologically addictive” and “proven to harm human brain development”—both of which are claims the lawsuit calls “controversial” and “factually false.”

“[HB 1181] joins a long tradition of unconstitutional—and ultimately failed—governmental attempts to regulate and censor free speech on the internet,” the complaint states.

The plaintiffs describe Texas’ age verification requirement as “the least effective and yet also the most restrictive means of accomplishing Texas’ stated purpose of allegedly protecting minors.” Court documents also note that individuals under 18 can use virtual private networks (VPNs) and proxy servers such as the “Tor” browser as easy workarounds to digital age verification. The complaint goes on to call Texas’ law “incurably vague,” and says such measures are likely to have a chilling effect on adult users afraid of having their personal information stolen or made public. It ends by asking the court to declare the contents of the law unconstitutional and prohibit Texas’ attorney general from enforcing it.

KXAN adds some details.

The law does not apply to social media websites or search engines.

The websites will be required to ask their users to transmit one of the following:

  • digital identification;
  • government-issued identification; or,
  • public or private transactional data (mortgage, pay stub, etc.).

“Despite impinging on the rights of adults to access protected speech, [the law] fails strict scrutiny by employing the least effective and yet also the most restrictive means of accomplishing Texas’s stated purpose of allegedly protecting minors,” the lawsuit states.

The FSC’s attorneys also list out several means by which a minor could bypass the requirement. They also claim that content filtering on devices by parents and guardians of minors is more effective solution.

“But such far more effective and far less restrictive means don’t really matter to Texas, whose true aim is not to protect minors but to squelch constitutionally protected free speech that the State disfavors,” the lawsuit states.

The law also requires adult websites to display three warning notices to users that FSC claims to be “lengthy, controversial, and factually false.”

All of the notices start with “TEXAS HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES WARNING.” However, the lawsuit claims that the Texas Department of Health and Human Services never approved such notices.

Those warnings claim the following:

  • “Pornography is potentially biologically addictive, is proven to harm human brain development, desensitizes brain reward circuits, increases conditioned responses, and weakens brain function.”
  • “Exposure to this content is associated with low self-esteem and body image, eating disorders, impaired brain development, and other emotional and mental illnesses.”
  • Pornography increases the demand for prostitution, child exploitation, and child pornography.

“The Act’s “health warning” requirement is a classic example of the State mandating an orthodox viewpoint on a controversial issue,” the lawsuit states. “Texas could easily spread its ideological, anti-pornography message through public service announcements and the like without foisting its viewpoint upon others through mandated statements that are a mix of falsehoods, discredited pseudo-science, and baseless accusations.”

In addition to the notices, the law also requires adult websites to display the phone number for the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

So, two things. I fully agree with the plaintiffs that the messages that adult websites would be forced to display are at best misleading and more likely just moral panic propaganda. On free speech grounds, that should be blocked by the courts. The problem is that states have passed laws requiring doctors and clinics to provide at best misleading and often outright false medical information about abortion to patients who are seeking abortions, and the courts have generally allowed this. As such, I can’t say I’m optimistic for a good outcome here. Being right isn’t always the right answer.

The other thing is that this sounds like a data privacy debacle in the making. What do you think is going to happen when a bunch of websites are suddenly in the business of processing and maintaining passport and drivers license images and data? It’s true that these websites already handle credit card transactions, but that’s much more mature technology, and there’s plenty of banking and financial regulations in place to assist people who get that information stolen. Plus, you know, you can replace a credit card a lot more easily than a drivers license or passport, and a credit card isn’t intrinsic to your identity. This is a bad idea on multiple levels, and yet I fear it will be allowed to go forward. Time to invest in a VPN, y’all. Vice, TPR, and the Current have more.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

What if Houston gets too hot?

Posted on August 21, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Some cheery thoughts from the Wall Street Journal.

Houstonians pride themselves on how they tolerate heat. This summer, the heat has become intolerable.

Businesses and residents in America’s fourth-largest city have moved much of life indoors, changing work and spending habits. Some residents say they are reminded of quarantining during the pandemic’s early days: ordering in groceries, avoiding social commitments and looking for ways to stay entertained from the couch.

The result is a dent to the local economy that could become an annual pattern if summers stay hotter for longer.

“This year is different, people are staying home,” said Barbara Stewart, a professor of human development and consumer sciences at the University of Houston.

[…]

Employees at small- and medium-size businesses in the tourism, arts and entertainment and sports and recreation industries in Texas averaged 19.6 hours on the job a week between mid-June and mid-July, a 20% decline from the average during comparable weeks from 2019 to 2022, according to an analysis from Luke Pardue, an economist at payroll platform Gusto.

If the weather pattern so far this summer continues through August, Texas’ gross state product this year will be reduced by roughly $9.5 billion, making a small dent in the state’s growth rate, according to Ray Perryman, an economist and president at the economic research and analysis firm the Perryman Group. That estimate assumes average temperatures in the state this summer will be roughly 2.6 degrees above the long-term average since 1900, Perryman said.

Samuel Westry, a real-estate agent in the greater Houston area, said some of his clients have been reluctant to attend property showings in person. Technology, such as virtual visits, have helped business continue, but it is harder to get people to buy without a face-to-face visit, he said.

The weather has also made it tough to look presentable.

“God forbid the air conditioner is out at a house that I’m showing or the electricity is off,” he joked, adding that he has been keeping an emergency towel and deodorant in the car.

That there are economic effects of climate change is not a surprise, but for Houston there are psychological effects as well. Matt Lanza sums it up:

Houston’s biggest advantages, what have helped it grow as much as it has in the past 50 years, have been better weather than the frozen North and cheaper housing. Neither of those are necessarily true any more – certainly, there’s much more room for debate – and now we’re in a forced-birth anti-LGBT book-banning state whose ruling party actively hates big cities and is working to destroy us. I know what the best answer for some of this is, but there’s no guarantee we’ll get there any time soon. You can see what the problem is.

Posted in Elsewhere in Houston | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Weekend link dump for August 20

Posted on August 20, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Find someone who loves you as much as a bunch of right-wing billionaires “love” Clarence Thomas. Love giving him lavish gifts, anyway.

““Overconfidence,” the committee concluded, had “dulled faculties usually so alert.””

“Twitter Is Auctioning Off Old Items with Former Logos — and Even Selling Desk Chairs — Amid X Rebrand”.

Ten things to do before you resign your job.

If you still don’t understand what the WGA strike is about, read this and then we can talk.

“I’m going to say something that might make me a bit unpopular. From where I sit, Attorney General Merrick Garland has taken a logical and reasonable legal path all along.”

Jodie Sweetin is a mensch.

“So, with all that in mind, let’s consider Turn-On, one of the great examples of a noble failure in television’s long history. Even if you don’t like it, you have to appreciate what it represents.”

Disbar him.

“A powerful lobbyist convinced a federal agency that doctors can be forced to pay fees on money that health insurers owe them. Big companies rake in profits while doctors are saddled with yet another cost in a burdensome health care system.”

“I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on.”

“Retired NFL star Michael Oher, whose supposed adoption out of grinding poverty by a wealthy, white family was immortalized in the 2009 movie “The Blind Side,” petitioned a Tennessee court Monday with allegations that a central element of the story was a lie concocted by the family to enrich itself at his expense.”

“A healthy climate is included in your constitutional rights, at least if you live in Montana. On Monday, District Court Judge Kathy Seeley sided with the 16 young plaintiffs who sued Montana three years ago, arguing that its pro–fossil fuels legislation violated their right to a safe environment.”

Lock them up. Lock them all up.

“After hottest summer on record, heat-related illnesses are now being tracked nationwide”.

Lock him up, too.

“More than any other lawyer in America, Giuliani should have known that getting mixed up with Donald Trump—especially in Trump’s plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election—would likely land him in his present state: an indicted felon who, at age 79, may spend the rest of his days in a federal courthouse, then prison.”

“Despite smashing box office records and becoming a cultural phenomenon, “Barbie” is banned in a growing number of countries around the world.” (The story lists four, so maybe that sentence is overstating things a bit. I suspect that list may yet grow, however.)

RIP, Jerry Moss, Grammy winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who co-founded A&M Records with Herb Alpert.

“After the devastating fires that destroyed the town of Lahaina and killed over 100 people, wealthy tourists staying in undamaged areas of Maui are continuing to demand activities while recovery efforts are underway.”

RIP, Lolita, oldest orca still held in captivity.

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged | 1 Comment