Off the Kuff | Knowledge Is Good

More blocks on the SCOPE Act

Posted on February 9, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

A federal district court on Friday has issued more temporary blocks on provisions of a Texas law designed to restrict what kinds of materials and advertisements minors can see on social media and age verification requirements.

Judge Robert Pitman enjoined several provisions of the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act, also known as the SCOPE Act, calling the blocked sections “unconstitutionally vague.” While not blocking the law in its entirety, the injunction is not the first against the SCOPE Act and goes further than previous rulings to block what the law can restrict minors from seeing on social media.

The lawsuit was filed by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a first amendment activist group representing four plaintiffs, and Davis Wright Tremaine, a private media law firm. The groups have called the act overly broad and tailored to serve state interest, while state officials feel more oversight is needed to curtail the sometimes harmful effects of social media use on children.

The background: Passed in the 2023 Legislature as House Bill 18, supporters of the SCOPE Act hoped the law would give parents more control over what their children are exposed to online and how minors’ sensitive information is handled by social media companies. But a day before the law was set to go into effect, Pitman granted a temporary block of two sections of the law that regulated certain harmful content platforms could show to minors in a separate suit.

The new injunction goes further, blocking the same two sections as well as three additional provisions: two that would restrict certain ads from being displayed or directed specifically toward minors, and one requiring age verification. Both injunctions are temporary and only apply until final judgments are issued for each case.

“The Court enjoined every substantive provision of the SCOPE Act we challenged, granting even broader relief than its first preliminary injunction,” Davis Wright Tremaine partner Adam Sieff said in a statement.

Since the law’s passing, Texas also has attempted to curtail content it deems as inappropriate and in violation of the act, and in October, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued social media companies over alleged violations of the law. A section of the law cited in Paxton’s suit is one of the five temporarily blocked by the injunction Friday.

See here for some background. As noted, there was another lawsuit filed against the SCOPE Act before this one. It’s pretty common for multiple suits like these to get consolidated, but I can’t tell if that’s the case here. There’s other legal action out there involving Texas, the Internet, and various forms of censorship, including a different social media bill aimed at preventing those companies from moderating content that is currently blocked but increasingly meaningless, and of course the Pornhub situation, which could basically rewrite the First Amendment as we know it. Here’s FIRE’s press release if you want to know more about this one.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged Computer and Communications Industry Association, Facebook, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Instagram, Ken Paxton, lawsuit, NetChoice, Pornhub, SCOTUS, Shelby Slawson, Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, Texas, The Lege | Comments Off

2024 was a bad year for traffic deaths in Houston

Posted on February 9, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Not really a surprise, unfortunately.

Mayor John Whitmire

Asked amid a flurry of design changes and shifts in street policy whether he was abandoning Houston’s goal of eliminating vehicle deaths by 2030, Mayor John Whitmire in February 2024 said a goal for the future wasn’t what the city needed.

“My commitment to ending the loss of lives starts right now,” the mayor said at the time. “Not years from now.”

Less than a year later, 2024 ended as the deadliest year for drivers, passengers and pedestrians in the city’s history. At least 344 people were killed on Houston area streets last year, a record high after two years of declines.

A review of crash data maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation, using crash reports filed by police, shows:

Houston’s increase in road deaths comes as unincorporated Harris County, the metro region outside the city and the state as a whole reported declines in deaths for 2024, compared to 2023.

More than one-third of Houston road deaths, 118, were pedestrians, with more than half of those fatalities occurring on roads with a speed limit of 45 mph or higher. More pedestrians, 44, died on Houston interstates than drivers, 43.

Of the 344 fatalities, 191 – or 56% of all deaths, were Black or Hispanic men.

Cycling fatalities dropped, with Houston logging the fewest since 2017.

As deaths increased, however, the number of serious injuries declined. When the two are combined, the total number of deaths and serious injuries in the city declined slightly, compared to the past three years. The total number of crashes also dropped, by a larger percentage than serious and fatal crashes.

Advocates for safer streets and investment in sidewalks and other amenities called the jump in deaths mournful, but also predictable.

“These aren’t the results you might expect from a mayor who is supposedly focused on public safety,” said Joe Cutrufo, executive director of BikeHouston. “But when you consider how Mayor Whitmire spent his first year in office, killing projects designed to save lives and slamming the previous administration’s efforts toward eliminating traffic deaths, this isn’t surprising at all.”

After Whitmire’s office initially agreed to an interview, his spokesperson canceled, citing his busy schedule. The Houston Chronicle sent questions on Jan. 16 to his office, related to the increase in deaths and efforts to improve road safety. As of Jan. 31, his office had not responded.

[…]

Critics of Whitmire’s focus on enforcement – and his canceling or changing of many planned street redesigns – said it shows how the gap in street safety remains.

“While enforcement, such as targeting DWIs, plays an important role, it cannot stand alone,” said Peter Eccles, director of policy and planning for the advocacy group LINK Houston. “Infrastructure improvements – like 10- or 11-foot lanes proven to reduce speeding and crashes – are critical to protecting lives 24-7. Safe street design is a lasting safeguard that Houston urgently needs to embrace.”

Sometimes, Whitmire’s efforts also have been in places not plagued by crashes. Prior to the December enforcement initiative along Washington, crashes along the street were not significantly on the rise. Crashes were actually down compared to two years ago, though the severity of crashes had increased because of three in August that caused serious injuries – including one death. That fatality was the first on Washington since 2022 and the fourth over the past decade.

Dozens of other local streets have far higher numbers of fatal crashes. Bellaire Boulevard, for example, had three pedestrian deaths in 2024 alone. Westheimer – the city’s longest road – had five pedestrian, one motorcyclist and four automobile deaths last year.

Although police have said traffic enforcement has increased citywide, partly through partnerships with other departments such as the Texas Highway Patrol, the city has not held special initiatives along Bellaire or Westheimer where crashes are common. Officials did, however, focus enforcement in January along Interstate 69 in southwest Houston that included local streets.

There’s a certain amount of noise in this kind of data – as the story notes, while there were fewer traffic deaths in Houston in 2023, the last year of Mayor Turner’s administration, the number of serious injuries was higher – and as such we won’t have a decent picture of how things are until we’re a few years in. But at a high level, focusing on road design changes that discourages excessive speed and prioritizes pedestrians and bicyclists tends to have a positive effect, and we’re doing less of that now. Enforcement has its place, and Lord knows we all see lunatics on the roads endangering us all every day (not that we see them get pulled over…), but it’s one piece of the puzzle. And it’s not doing enough.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged accidents, bicycles, Bike Houston, Harris County, Houston, John Whitmire, LINK Houston, pedestrians, Sylvester Turner, Texas, Vision Zero | Comments Off

Still more measles

Posted on February 9, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Still nothing to freak out about! Right!?

At least 10 cases of measles — eight of which are among school-aged children — have been reported in Gaines County in West Texas over the past two weeks, driving worries of an escalating outbreak.

Of the cases so far, seven have been hospitalized, according to a Texas Health and Human Services alert. All were unvaccinated and residents of Gaines County, which has a population of about 22,000 and borders New Mexico.

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

The new cases come more than a week after Texas health officials reported two Measles cases out of Gaines County, both involving unvaccinated school-aged children. Both children were hospitalized in Lubbock and later discharged. Earlier this week, state health officials said the number of cases had grown to six. Since then, cases have increased further.

West Texas is not alone in new cases of measles. In January, new measles cases were also reported in Harris County, prompting a health alert from the state and marking the first time Texans were confirmed to have the disease since 2023. The two Harris County cases involved unvaccinated adult residents.

Measles is a highly contagious airborne disease. Symptoms could include a high fever, cough, runny nose and rash that starts on the face but then extends to the rest of the body. The health consequences of getting measles can be serious and sometimes result in death.

Last year, 40% of all the 245 nationwide who contracted measles were hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than half of those hospitalized with measles last year were under the age of five.

The disease’s prevalence has accelerated in recent years. According to the CDC, by March 2024 there were more reported measles cases that year than in all of 2023. The rise comes more than two decades after measles was considered eliminated by health agencies in 2000, meaning that there had been no continuous spreading of the disease for 12 months.

See here and here for the background. I had thought those two original cases were from Lubbock, but that’s just where the victims were hospitalized. By the way, here’s where Gaines County is, and here’s where Lubbock County is, so we’re probably talking about a two hour drive, give or take depending on where in Gaines you came from, to get to the hospital in Lubbock. As I said before, I hope everyone recovers quickly and I hope the spread is contained. But the more unvaccinated people (children, mostly) out there, the more that are likely to get sick.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged Gaines County, Harris County, Lubbock, measles, Texas, Texas Department of State Health Services, The Lege, vaccinations | Comments Off

Hollins’ warning about the budget

Posted on February 8, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This is where we are.

Chris Hollins

Houston could face a $330 million deficit in the next fiscal year – up by approximately $100 million after the Texas Supreme Court denied the city’s motion to appeal a years-long court battle over street and drainage infrastructure costs.

The looming shortfall could force the city this summer to enact significant budget cuts, raise fees, boost its property tax rate or a combination of all three.

Projections for the city’s finances are somewhat in limbo as a number of factors are undecided: a potential federal freeze on municipal grants and aid, a timeline for when the $100 million for infrastructure must be allocated, the results of a series of third-party audits of city spending and a long-considered residential garbage fee.

Unless Houston leaders are able to secure new revenue or cut spending, Controller Chris Hollins on Wednesday said he may not be able to certify the 2026 budget.

“Despite our repeated message about kicking the can down the road, here we are,” Hollins told City Council during its weekly meeting. “We’re down the road. The can is at our feet.”

The swelling deficit projection follows a decision by the mayor and city council last year to not raise property tax rates or institute new fees despite awareness of the expected shortfall in the upcoming fiscal year.

[…]

The city already was facing a $230 million deficit before the ruling that stemmed from the end of pandemic-era federal relief funds, storm damage and a $650 million settlement with the firefighters’ union. Mayor John Whitmire has yet to announce a plan to pay for the firefighter contract and settlement

Hollins on Wednesday proposed a joint task force between his office, the mayor and City Council budget committee chairs to find budget cuts. Neither council nor the mayor agreed to the idea.

Whitmire countered that none of the expenses have come as a surprise. Many city officials agree with the premise of the lawsuit because of the need for better city infrastructure, and he said he felt confident they would find solutions.

“It’s very easy to criticize or sound the alarm if you don’t have to offer up solutions,” he said.

The mayor repeatedly has leaned on the upcoming results of Ernst and Young financial audits of city departments and tax increment reinvestment zones to find excess dollars, as well as collaborations with Metro, Harris County and Texas Legislature.

Some of those collaborations have been realized, freeing up general funds for other projects: Metro has agreed to pay $50 million toward traffic enforcement and street lights, and the state agreed to fund some debris removal costs. Whitmire also has partnered with Harris County commissioners for park projects.

I’ve had plenty to say about this stuff, so I’m just going to do a little summing up.

– We are where we are today because of the stupid revenue cap. Any plan to move forward that doesn’t include repealing the stupid revenue cap is not serious.

– I’m sure those audits will identify some savings, but it won’t make a dent in the overall picture.

– More than half of the budget is cops and firefighters, but there’s no audit to review their spending and there’s no chance that we’ll spend any less on them. This is partly because Mayor Whitmire campaigned and won on a promise to spend more on the cops and the firefighters, and partly because the Lege made it illegal a couple of years ago to cut law enforcement budgets. Any cuts we do make will come from the rest of the budget, and that will mostly mean laying people off, as we did in 2010.

– I sincerely hope the Mayor is successful at getting some help from the state, and I hope he is able to work some collaboration deals with Harris County. Towards that end, I hope he’s been working on improving his relationship with Commissioners Court and the County Judge.

– When the Mayor puts forth his specific solutions to the city’s financial challenges, I promise to be more specific in my criticism. The Chron has more.

Posted in Local politics | Tagged budget, Chris Hollins, deficit, Harris County, HFD, Houston, Houston City Controller, HPD, John Whitmire, Mayor, Metro, revenue cap, Texas, The Lege | Comments Off

Menefee gets the go ahead to fight against Trump executive orders

Posted on February 8, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Go get ’em.

Christian Menefee

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee wants to go on the offense against President Donald Trump’s executive orders, which he argues would have lasting effects on Harris County.

Harris County Commissioners approved the county attorney’s request to pursue litigation for six months to challenge any of these orders or “associated rules and regulations” that could impact county operations.

Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey, the only Republican, was the sole dissenting vote. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo was absent when they took action on the item after discussing it during executive session.

Since the current administration took over, Menefee has been a vocal opponent of the president’s moves. Notably, Menefee and Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia signed onto an amicus brief last month to back 18 Democratic states, D.C. and San Francisco in their legal fight against Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship.

The suit argues that birthright citizenship has been enshrined under the 14th Amendment for over a century and that Trump does not have the constitutional authority to rewrite the law. A hearing in the case is set for Friday in a Massachusetts court.

“The Fourteenth Amendment is not up for debate, If you’re born on U.S. soil, you’re a U.S. citizen. Full stop,” Menefee said in a statement. “This Executive Order is a blatant attempt to write the Constitution by executive fiat, and it’s our responsibility to fight back.”

Menefee and Garcia’s participation in the amicus brief is the first tangible act by local officials against Trump’s recent immigration-related policies. Houston-area Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia also hosted a “Know Your Rights” town hall in late January to provide residents with information regarding immigration rights.

I’m not going to try to keep up with all the legal action that’s now happening – there’s too much, and there are plenty of better sources on the Internet if that’s what you seek. I do expect there to be other opportunities just on this one front, and I’ll follow them as best I can. I have faith that County Attorney Menefee is up to the task.

I'm joining the legal fight against President Trump.

@adriangarciahtx.bsky.social and I are challenging Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship.

The Constitution is clear: If you’re born in the U.S., you’re a citizen. Full stop.

www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston…

[image or embed]

— Christian D. Menefee (@cdmenefee.bsky.social) January 30, 2025 at 9:15 AM

Yes, he’s on BlueSky, though he doesn’t post there as often as he does on the cursed site. Maybe if he gets more engagement on BSky, that will change.

Posted in La Migra, Legal matters, Local politics | Tagged Adrian Garcia, Christian Menefee, Commissioners Court, Donald Trump, Harris County, Harris County Attorney, immigration, lawsuit, Texas | 6 Comments

The Houston animal ambulance service

Posted on February 8, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Fascinating. I had no idea.

When a cat was stranded on the roof of a west Houston apartment complex at the height of this week’s winter storm, a 24/7 ambulance for animals responded to the call.

The cat, which had been stranded on the third-story roof for hours, was found very cold, wet and hungry, according to Julie Kuenstle, spokesperson the Houston SPCA, which runs the Injured Animal Rescue Ambulance team.

“A good Samaritan got him down right before we arrived,” Kuenstle said.

The young cat was taken in by the SPCA and recuperated from exposure to the freezing temperatures. It was one of many strays left vulnerable to the elements during the three-day arctic blast.

The group’s Injured Animal Ambulance was on the road all week, but Gulf Coast residents may not know that the service has been tracking injured strays since the 1940s and is the only 24-hour animal rescue ambulance of its kind in the Gulf Coast region.

“People don’t know about it until they need it,” Kuenstle said.

This ambulance is different from most county or city shelter dispatch because it is manned by emergency veterinary medical technicians, licensed veterinary emergency care units available for on-site response.

“It’s meant for animals that are in distress – we (the ambulance) go in and rescue them in sewers, sinkholes, just about anywhere,” said Kuenstle.

It also makes community response a key factor in the SPCA’s rescue efforts, especially during off hours and in situations such as extreme weather-related events where other resources are limited or unavailable and there is no one to call.

[…]

The service is only dispatched for emergencies involving all unowned pets and offers care to all animals, including companion animals, native wildlife and exotics.

The ambulance service runs 24/7 and during all holidays and can be reached at 713-880-4357(HELP).

There’s more about the history of the SPCA and this service at the link, so go read the rest. One might want to call them in a situation where you wouldn’t feel safe trying to rescue the animal in distress yourself. The SPCA is funded by donations, so I assume this is not a line item in the city’s budget. Be that as it may, I’m glad to know it exists.

Posted in Elsewhere in Houston | Tagged ambulances, Houston, Houston Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Injured Animal Rescue Ambulance | Comments Off

Remaining former Hidalgo staffer gets pre-trial intervention plea

Posted on February 7, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This is basically a deferred dismissal of the charges.

The former chief of staff for County Judge Lina Hidalgo accepted a pre-trial intervention deal Thursday on one charge linked to a controversial COVID-19 contract, ending a years-long political saga that pitted Democratic leaders against each other.

The county worker, Alex Triantaphyllis, charged in 2022 with misuse of official information and tampering with records, was accused alongside two other county aides who handled the vaccine outreach contract given to Elevate Strategies, a bidder with Democratic political ties.

Triantaphyllis appeared in court alongside his wife as prosecutors with Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office dismissed the misuse of official information charge and downgraded the tampering offense to a misdemeanor as part of their agreement.

The former aide, now in the Office of County Administration as a planning and projects director, expressed gratitude to the prosecutors for taking a “more objective look” at his case.

“For more than half my time in public service, my colleagues and I have had to navigate a legal system that felt like it was a stranger to justice,” Triantaphyllis said in a statement. “Despite these challenges, I’ve gone to work every day and remained focused on continuing to make Harris County government work better for everyone.”

Unlike his former colleagues, whose cases were dismissed outright, Triantaphyllis is ordered to undergo 10 hours of community service as part of the intervention agreement. He, however, does not have to agree to wrongdoing as part of the deal, one of his lawyers, Dan Cogdell, said.

The remaining charge will be dismissed after six months if completed, his attorney said.

“There’s no acceptance of responsibilities; there’s no admission of guilt; there’s no restitution; there’s no fine,” Cogdell said.

See here for the previous update. Even to call this a slap on the wrist is to overstate it – it’s maybe a touch from a feather. After six months and less than a weekend of community service, the end result of this almost three-year case is that all charges against all three defendants will have been dismissed. You can still argue that there was no political motivation in bringing these charges if you really want to, but this is an L big enough to be visible from space. And it took three weeks to get from handing the prosecution off to the AG’s office to here. Good Lord.

By the way, if the name Dan Cogdell sounds familiar, it’s because he was Ken Paxton’s attorney in the state securities fraud case. And he said the same thing about his client even though he got more community service and had to pay restitution. He’s clearly the guy to call if you get caught up in this kind of case. Houston Public Media, which has a few choice quotes from Judge Hidalgo about former DA Kim Ogg, has more.

Posted in Crime and Punishment | Tagged Aaron Dunn, Alex Triantaphyllis, Attorney General, Dan Cogdell, Democratic primary, District Attorney, Election 2024, Harris County, Kim Ogg, Lina Hidalgo, Sean Teare, special prosecutor, Wallis Nader | Comments Off

The kind of people we’re going to need to win back

Posted on February 7, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

So be careful when you encounter them.

On a recent windy, cold afternoon in [El Paso], dozens of people gathered at a park for an immigrant rights demonstration to denounce the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Some held signs reading: “Immigrants Make America Great.”

Alan, a local police officer, and his wife came and held a Mexican flag. He said he joined the demonstration because he worries about his father, an undocumented immigrant who works at a farm in southern New Mexico.

Alan said he voted for Donald Trump because of worries about the economy and because he believes Trump is pro-police and would combat the public’s negative perception of law enforcement. He said he believed Trump’s promises to make everyday items affordable for middle-class families.

But after two weeks of Trump in the White House, Alan — who declined to give his last name because he fears retaliation against his father — said he now regrets his vote. Partly because he was angered when Trump granted clemency to people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

And, he added, “I just don’t agree with how he’s going about the mass deportations.”

The temptation to yell at a guy like this is strong, I get it. But hauling out the leopard memes isn’t going to get us anything but momentary satisfaction, mostly of the grim kind. We need for there to be a lot of people like this, and we need for there to be an open channel of communication with them, to help them understand what is happening and what they need to do about it. Feel however you want to feel about this guy, but we need him and his wife and as many of his relatives and friends as we can get for the next election and the ones after that. Eyes on the prize, y’all.

Posted in Election 2024, La Migra | Tagged Donald Trump, El Paso, Election 2024, immigration, Texas | 3 Comments

More construction chaos on the bike trails

Posted on February 7, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

What the hell, man?

Not one, but two popular trail bridges spanning White Oak Bayou were struck by loose construction materials from ongoing work along Interstate 10, closing both spans as well as a key stretch of trail, isolating portions of the running and cycling path.

“These closures demand an urgent response,” said Robin Holzer, deputy director of Bike Houston. “All of these agencies must work together immediately to plan and create a safe network of detours, as required by the City’s design manual. Thousands of Houstonians are depending on them.”

The MKT Trail Bridge near Studewood closed in late January, shortly after construction debris slammed into the former railroad bridge. On Tuesday, Houston Public Works closed the other span, also often called the MKT Trail Bridge near Hogan.

“It was not safe,” said Erin Jones, acting communications director for Houston Public Works.

On Wednesday morning, based on the Hogan bridge’s condition, crews also closed the segment of the White Oak Trail that curves below the bridge, further dividing the trail system and stranding many downtown bike commuters.

“We recommend anyone who uses the bridge to take Houston Avenue to Washington Avenue to get to downtown Houston or take Hogan Street to Main Street,” Jones said. “The city is taking immediate action to bring in contractors to repair the bridge.”

Though Jones said contractors are “getting on it fast,” she said the timeline and cost for the Hogan trail bridge have not been determined.

A city assessment said the bridge was struck by construction material, though officials could not say whether it was the same material that hit the Studewood bridge upstream or different debris.

Texas Department of Transportation officials said they are working with the contractor on the site to see if repairs or detours in the area can be created to bypass the bridges.

“We understand that the active transportation community is keenly interested in this is a very important project,” TxDOT spokeswoman Kristina Hadley said. “Safety is TxDOT’s highest priority, and we want to minimize the impact to the traveling public and the community.”

[…]

Though the bridges do not carry the weight of vehicles and appear unscathed across their tops, the supports and some of the trail surface are affected, officials said. At the Hogan bridge, the seams of the surface are divided by a large gap, typically covered by a metal plate. That gap has widened, Jones said.

“It would cause someone to fall,” she said.

Officials are now working on a plan to either repair or replace the Hogan bridge, Jones said. They first have to determine what is worth repairing, and then determine if a completely new bridge is needed or quick repairs can be made. The area is expected to be significantly affected by the looming rebuild of Interstate 45.

Emphasis mine, because whatever happens from here, these trails will be among the many existing infrastructure items that will also be endangered or at least made less accessible during the I-45 construction, which as we know will take many, many years to complete. Maybe we’ll have Star Trek-like transporters by then, or maybe looming AI will render the entire concept of “mobility” meaningless.

Anyway. See here and here for some background. There’s an embedded GIS map at that second post that shows where the two outages are, and there’s an illustration of it in this story. I sure do hope we’re able to get workarounds and repairs in place as soon as possible.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Bayou Greenway Initiative, bicycles, Bike Houston, bike trails, construction, Department of Public Works and Engineering, Heights, Houston, I-10, I-45, MKT Trail, TxDOT, White Oak Bayou | 1 Comment

City to use Metro funds to help pay for that additional drainage stuff

Posted on February 6, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Sure is convenient havigna transit agency you can raid.

Houston officials plan to offset a $100 million hit to the city’s budget in a recent legal ruling by using cash from the Metropolitan Transit Authority to spend more money on streets and drainage.

[…]

Finance director Melissa Dubowski told council members during May budget hearings last year that the city did not set aside cash for a potential liability in a dropped appeal. Dubowski said if it should happen, it would add $100 million to the budgetary gap.

During a council Budget and Fiscal Affairs meeting Monday, Dubowski the city’s projected budget shortfall for 2026 was $220 million. Add on the drainage money and the figure rises to $330 million.

But Dubowski said the city anticipated being able to offset some of the budget hit with $50 million from Metro’s $170 million General Mobility Fund.

The cash, which will help cover traffic enforcement and streetlight projects, will help free up money in the city’s general fund, Dubowski explained.

City leaders have yet to find any sources of revenue to help with the shortfall in the short term. Dubowski said the city would engage with stakeholders such as METRO and lawmakers in Austin.

See here for the background. I get that this was an unwanted complication, but I’m amused (*) that the stock answer to such situations appears to be “we’ll get some money from Metro for it”. Like using Metro cops to supplement HPD, which later turned into $50 million to help fund traffic enforcement. If that’s the case, then what we have here is not new money from Metro, which is the impression that the story’s headline gave me, but just a reiteration of the fact that the city had already planned to supplement its budget with that cash, and it can say “look, we’re already offsetting some of that extra cost”. Even if that is all this was intended to be, we’re still short $50 million. Sure hope those Austin connections come through for us. It’s not going to get any easier to do that from here.

One more thing:

City officials are also hopeful efficiencies will surface in a study of the city’s finances conducted by local accounting firm Ernst and Young. Whitmire’s administration has said the results have been on their way for months, but have yet to present them publicly.

Part of those recommendations are already coming to life. The finance director said they were looking into consolidating procurement efforts that were once housed in individual city departments into the finance department.

I’m sure there are a few bucks we can squeeze out of “efficiencies”. There always are – things change, and so what was once state of the art eventually becomes obsolete and needs to be upgraded or replaced. And sure, get what you can going in a timely fashion, so as to maximize its effect. But don’t fool yourself into thinking this will save us. The city’s single biggest problem, by far, is the revenue cap. Until we throw that yoke off we’re just tinkering around the edges.

(*) Mostly I just express it as “amused” to distract myself from how angry I am at the way this administration and its useless Metro Chair have treated the whole idea of transit as a joke.

Posted in Local politics, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged budget, drainage, flooding, Houston, Houston City Council, John Whitmire, lawsuit, Metro, property taxes, Renew Houston, revenue cap, Supreme Court | 6 Comments

From the “We got ghosted by Elmo’s airport tunnels” department

Posted on February 6, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Never ever trust anything that guy says.

It’s been three years since a Bexar County agency gave the nod for an underground tunnel between the airport and downtown San Antonio.

It now appears those plans have been tanked, but not by the controversy over cost and environmental impact that ensued.

The Boring Company is a tunneling company owned by Elon Musk, the businessman behind Tesla and SpaceX who has emerged as a political figure with a role in the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.

In 2021, the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority, an agency tasked with improving transportation in Bexar County, released a request for information (RFI) inviting revenue-generating transit proposals. The Boring Company and four others responded; three proposals were advanced for consideration.

Boring’s proposal was a rideshare system using Tesla’s electric-powered cars in a tunnel 30 feet below ground and ferrying passengers the 9 miles between the airport and downtown.

The total estimated cost was between $247 million and $289 million, with estimated revenue to the RMA that was expected to come in at $25 million a year.

Boring said it would foot the entire $27 million to $45 million bill for the first phase of the project, while the other proposals relied heavily on federal subsidies.

[…]

In March 2022, the RMA board, led by then-Chairman Michael Lynd selected Boring’s bid over the others and created a development agreement to study the feasibility of the project.

“Then we never heard back from them,” said Reggie Fountain, operations engineer for the Alamo RMA.

Boring did not respond to the agreement, he said. That was two years ago.

Agency staff followed up with Boring in February 2023. “They were reviewing it internally and they were going to let us know,” Fountain said.

Further calls went unanswered, he said. “They just kind of ghosted us. So we essentially just assumed that it was dead and didn’t move further with it.”

See here, here, here, here, and here for the background, and note that the most recent update I had was from May of 2022. I know that this fucking guy is doing much worse things at the federal level now, but I would like to note for the record that he’s basically always been a grifter. I don’t know what one could possibly say at this point. I suppose we can at least thank the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority for being the cautionary tale that we needed. It’s 100% clear who this guy is. Stay the hell away.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged Alamo Regional Mobility Authority, Bexar Automated Transport, Elon Musk, Lone Star Rail District, San Antonio, Texas, The Boring Co, tunnel | 2 Comments

A look at that new ramp up from the White Oak Bayou trail

Posted on February 6, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

I managed to get a better view of the new ramp up from the White Oak Bayou trail to Studemont:

Even without the MKT Bridge being out of commission again, the trail network is completely disrupted by the I-10 elevation project. I hadn’t realized the extent of that disruption, as I don’t often bike in that direction, but basically if you want to get from one side of I-10 to the other, you have to find alternate routes.

Zoom in on the map above or click the map link to see the affected area and read the construction notes. If you’re coming east on the White Oak Bayou Greenway trail, you can either exit at Height Blvd and cross I-10 there, picking up the MKT Trail to continue east if you want, or you can take this ramp up to Studemont, walk your bike across Studemont and over to the sidewalk along the eastbound I-10 service road, and then hope back on the trail towards downtown on the other side of I-10. Basically, that will take you to a bit past where the MKT Bridge would have dropped you off.

There was probably some news coverage of this that included the effects on the trails, but I missed it and didn’t have much luck hunting around for it, so this is how I coped. There was some signage at the ramp and on the street to more or less point you in the right direction, but it’s a little confusing and definitely not very friendly-looking once you get to Studemont. But this is how it will be until that damn project is done.

On a side note, I saw this on Tuesday:

INBOX: @TxDOTHouston is “currently in the final phase on the design plan for the [MKT Bridge] repairs. Once completed and approved we will have an estimated timeline and begin the necessary repairs to the MKT Bridge columns.”

— Bike Houston (@BikeHouston) 2:38 PM – 04 February 2025

Hopefully that means something will be done soon.

UPDATE: There’s now a second area affected by construction and floating debris that you can see on the map above. I’ll have a post about that tomorrow. Sheesh.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged Bayou Greenway Initiative, bicycles, bike trails, construction, Heights, Houston, I-10, MKT Trail, TxDOT, White Oak Bayou | 2 Comments

Texas blog roundup for the week of February 3

Posted on February 6, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

The Texas Progressive Alliance mourns the victims of the plane crashes in DC and Philadelphia as it brings you this week’s roundup.

Continue reading →

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

Abbott says he’s for sports betting

Posted on February 5, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Doesn’t really change anything, though.

Photo by Joel Kramer via Flickr creative commons

Gov. Greg Abbott is ready to allow online sports betting in Texas.

In an exclusive interview for the Texas Take Podcast, Abbott said he has no objection to the Texas Legislature passing a law to join 39 other states that have legalized online sports betting. He said he considers sports betting part of the entertainment of watching professional football and other sports.

“I don’t have a problem with online sports betting,” Abbott said in an interview at the governor’s mansion. “The reality is that I’d be shocked if there were not some Texans that do it already.”

The comments are some of the governor’s strongest in support of an industry that has ramped up its lobbying and political giving in recent years.

A coalition of major sports franchises in the state, including the Dallas Cowboys, the Houston Astros and the San Antonio Spurs, have teamed up with sports gaming companies like BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel to push for legalized betting through the Texas Sports Betting Alliance. They’ve hired more than a dozen lobbyists and tapped big names in politics and sports, such as former Gov. Rick Perry and Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, to help make their pitch.

[…]

In order to allow sports betting or expand casinos in Texas, the Legislature would need to amend the state constitution by getting a two-thirds vote of both chambers and then get a vote of the people.

In 2023, the issue got as far as it ever has. A bill by State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, cleared the House by an 82-51 vote but was never picked up by the Senate, where the biggest hurdles remain.

State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, had proposed a similar bill in 2023, but it never gained much momentum. State Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, has reintroduced another bill this year that would allow an expansion of casinos in Texas, as well as allow sports betting.

But that bill has an uphill climb. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican who runs the Texas Senate, has repeatedly said he doesn’t have enough Republicans in the Senate who support the idea. He said he opposes bringing the issue to a vote unless a majority of Republicans in the Senate are prepared to back the bill. He has said that voters in Texas elected a majority of Republicans in the Senate, and he’s not going to allow a Democrat-led bill to pass over the opposition of most of the Republicans in the Senate.

The Republican Party of Texas has also long opposed expanded gambling in their official platform. Violating that platform could result in public censures and the party campaigning against members who vote for casinos.

Influential conservative groups like the Texas Public Policy Foundation in Austin have argued against expanding gambling in the state. While allowing casinos and sports betting can result in more tax revenue to fund the government, a policy brief released last month by TPPF warned it would lead to higher rates of gambling addiction.

Abbott has made similar comments before, prior to the 2023 session. To be fair, this time he’s more specific about sports betting, and he used to be flatly opposed to any expansion of gambling, so this is a change on his part. All of that gambling money is having an effect somewhere, it seems. He’s still being his usual mealy-mouthed self, and there’s no indication at all that he has any desire to cross swords with Dan Patrick or the anti-gambling factions within the Republican Party, so take this for the little showing of support that it is.

Two more points to note. One is that Dan Patrick remains a master of disguising his own responsibility in these stories. He always refers to there being insufficient Republican support in the Senate for gambling legislation to pass. That may well be true, but if it is it’s because Dan Patrick has never been interested in making it not true. This is Dan Patrick’s Senate – if he wanted gambling legislation to pass, it would pass, if not in this session then in the next one that convenes after he’s successfully removed the obstacles to it.

And two, for any future gambling expansion to happen, there are two pieces of legislation that must pass. One is the joint resolution, which is the vehicle for putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That is what requires the two-thirds majority. One such joint resolution passed (barely) out of the House in 2023, but did not get taken up in the Senate, as promised by Danno. The second is the enabling legislation, which is an ordinary bill that just needs a regular majority, and which takes the joint resolution/constitutional amendment and turns it into statutory code, with all of the rules and restrictions and whatnot. For that to pass, in either chamber, without the joint resolution, means nothing, because there’s no amendment to vote on. I find it annoying, and I’m sure plenty of people find it confusing, to read stories that talk about the two-thirds majorities needed to put gambling up for a vote but then also refer to the ordinary enabling legislation that passed with less-than-two-thirds majorities and act as though that was some kind of Big Deal. Please, let’s be nerdier about this stuff, because the details matter.

FYI, that Texas Take podcast episode will drop on Friday, if you care to listen to the interview with Abbott and hear his exact words on this subject for some reason.

Posted in Jackpot!, That's our Lege | Tagged BetMGM, Carol Alvarado, Constitution, Dan Patrick, DraftKings, FanDuel, gambling, Greg Abbott, Jeff Leach, Lois Kolkhorst, Miriam Adelson, Rick Perry, Sports Betting Alliance, Texas, Texas Sands PAC, The Lege, Tilman Fertitta | 2 Comments

Hotze gets a pause on his civil trial

Posted on February 5, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Oh for crying out loud.

The Texas Supreme Court stayed proceedings in a civil lawsuit filed against Republican activist Steven Hotze, amid his attempt to block claims over the alleged attack of a man targeted in a voter fraud conspiracy theory, until a criminal case against him can be resolved.

The Supreme Court granted an emergency motion Jan. 17 asked for by Hotze, and directed parties in the lawsuit to file responses in the court by Feb. 18. The Supreme Court order effectively blocked the start of a Harris County civil trial, which had been scheduled for Feb. 17, according to court records.

[…]

Last month, Hotze’s attorney, Jared Woodfill, asked both the Supreme Court and a federal judge to temporarily block the lawsuit from going forward. In motions to both courts, Woodfill claimed that Lopez’s attorneys were working in concert with Harris County prosecutors to go after Hotze. He questioned whether Hotze’s rights against self-incrimination were violated by the civil lawyers sharing depositions with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

Woodfill argued that any civil actions against Hotze should be stayed until the criminal case against him is resolved.

The Supreme Court’s court stay order didn’t address any of Woodfill’s claims, and instead directed Lopez’s attorneys to file a response to Woodfill. No rulings have been made in the appeal Hotze made to the federal court.

A motion hearing scheduled for Tuesday morning in Harris County’s civil district court was canceled. Hotze is scheduled to appear in criminal court on Feb. 14 for a status conference. No trial date has been set.

See here for the previous update. I hope, I really hope, that the Supreme Court is just feeling the need to get some ducks lined up in a case that will surely be back on their doorstep in the future, possibly multiple times before it’s finally resolved. Whatever they do rule, I would like to see the criminal case get moving, because that’s some justice that deserves to happen as well. This jerk needs to be held accountable, the sooner the better, please and thank you.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged David Lopez, Election 2020, Harris County, Houston, Jared Woodfill, lawsuit, Liberty Center for God and Country, Mark Aguirre, Steven Hotze, Supreme Court | 2 Comments

Beep Baseball in Houston

Posted on February 5, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Some cool local history I didn’t know about.

Houston’s blind athletes continue to impress our community with expanding participation in numerous sporting events. Long-time Oak Forest resident and native Houstonian Ronnie Bruns reflects on his time as one of the original members of the Bayou City Bombers, a Beep Baseball team that competes nationally with other blind athletes. The team first began playing in 1976 and Bruns joined the team two years later in 1978. The team has since changed its name to the Bayou City Heat and is still going strong today, competing on a national level with other teams as far away as Taiwan.

Beep Baseball is a form of baseball that is a competitive sport for the blind and visually impaired that utilizes a ball that beeps. The game was originally created as a non-competitive activity for blind children. In 1973 a Pacific Bell employee named Ralph Rock adapted the rules of baseball to avoid collisions, making the game a safe competitive sport. When the new “Ralph Rock” rules became officially established, the first game of competitive Beep Baseball was played in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

In 1976, as interest spread amongst the adult blind community nationwide, the National Beep Baseball Association (NBBA) was formed. Today, the NBBA organizes local, state and regional tournaments annually, culminating in a world series game every August. Every year a different hosting city is chosen, and Houston hosted its first world series game back in 2005.

As an original member of the Houston team that started back in 1978, Bruns is no longer a player but is still involved, serving on a committee working to gather information about former players and teams for the Beep Baseball Hall of Fame.

Remembering that year in 1978 Bruns said, “We won our first game but lost the next two. It was an eight-team double-elimination tournament so we did not place, but we were the first new team to win its first game in the world series.”

[…]

In 2002, the Bayou City Heat won the world series competing with teams from all over the world. Houston’s team has always had a successful run, finishing mostly in second or third place throughout the years, competing against some of the best of the 27 teams that make up the NBBA. Houston now has two teams with the addition of the Houston Hurricanes. There are no geographic restrictions limiting where a player can play, so it is not uncommon for teams in other cities to recruit a player from another city or even state.

Spring training starts at the end of March and tournaments run late April to early June. The teams practice at the field that was constructed at the West Gray Community Center, a hub for disability athletes of all kinds. Many of the people associated with Beep Baseball have been with the sport for many years. Some current coaches started out as sighted players in their youth and loved the camaraderie of the athletes, and supporting friends and families, that they felt it hard to not be involved.

Bruns reflected on the human factor of the sport, saying when he first started his dad was a pitcher for the team while his mom served the team in a supporting role as a spotter in the outfield. The athletes have a tremendous support system from family and friends with varying levels of involvement. There have even been Beep Baseball weddings for athletes who met each other while playing the sport.

Bruns said, “At one point in the early days we actually had three couples who had met playing on our team and got married.”

I blogged about Beep Baseball in 2019 – that post and this Effectively Wild episode will tell you more about how the game is played – but I didn’t know about the local connection to the sport. I just happened to see the headline about it in that week’s edition of the Leader News, and here we are. The Bayou City Heat have a webpage that didn’t render for me in Edge and a Facebook group you might join if this is of interest to you. The National Beep Baseball Association webpage is here, and in addition to the Bayou City Heat and the aforementioned Houston Hurricanes, there are other Beep Baseball teams in Austin, College Station, Fort Worth, and Tyler.

Posted in Baseball | Tagged Baseball, Bayou City Heat, Beep Baseball, Houston, Houston Hurricanes, National Beep Baseball Association, Ronnie Bruns, Texas | Comments Off

January 2025 campaign finance reports – City of Houston

Posted on February 4, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

PREVIOUSLY:

Harris County offices

Continuing with our January campaign finance report review, let’s check in on the current City of Houston elected officials and other people of interest.


Candidate     Raised       Spent       Loan     On Hand
=======================================================
Whitmire      52,900      61,210          0   2,432,442

Hollins      101,493      56,387          0     259,834

Ramirez       39,029      16,384     30,000      86,651
Davis
Carter         6,000       1,979      4,000      23,275
Plummer
Alcorn

Peck           3,700      11,437          0      48,520
Jackson        1,000       9,007          0       5,972
Kamin         13,223      21,038          0     285,039
E-Shabazz      3,296       3,693          0       1,362
Flickinger     3,750       3,372    103,000       9,762
Thomas        66,150       6,708          0     229,329
Huffman        1,350      25,391          0      14,264
Castillo      35,430      16,514          0      62,645
Martinez       9,585      51,566          0      50,756
Pollard      113,137      53,614     40,000   1,078,759
C-Tatum       15,250      20,257          0     272,193

Turner             0      36,686          0     486,494
Edwards            0         643          0       3,053
Jackson Lee        0      18,557          0      10,257
Sanchez            0           0    189,213       1,500
Laster             0           0          0     144,383
Robinson           0         750          0     241,061

The January 2024 reports are here and the July 2024 reports are here. The three blanks, all At Large electeds, are ones that were not in the system when I checked them last week. As is my habit in non-election years for the city, I didn’t upload these reports to my Google drive, so you’ll either have to take my word for it on these totals or go look them up yourself.

Mayor Whitmire, who has certainly had his hands full over the past year, clearly took the period off from fundraising. Good choice, as he little to worry about at this point and even the Dems who love him might not have been too happy at the thought of him sucking up campaign funds during last year’s cycle. City Controller Chris Hollins, who seems likely to be his biggest future electoral threat, raised a few bucks but is still at about ten percent of his cash on hand. This will all heat up soon enough – given how empty the electoral calendar for 2025 is, I’d expect to see some bigger numbers for all in July and next January – but for last year it was fairly calm.

The big money person over the previous period was CM Ed Pollard, continuing a run in which he has built up his treasury to a point that is ludicrously beyond what would be needed for his Council district, and that’s if he weren’t term limited. He could certainly be looking at a Mayoral campaign himself in 2027, but there could be other destinations – just to wildly speculate a bit, CDs 09 and 18, SD13, and Harris County Judge are all plausible possibilities. CM Tiffany Thomas is also building up a bit of a treasury; CMs Abbie Kamin and Martha Castex-Tatum are already there. I believe they are all also term limited, which naturally leads to some pondering about possible future choices.

Former CMs David Robinson and Mike Laster, who was last elected in 2015, still have a pile of their own campaign funds. By law, sooner or later they’ll have to do something about it. Man about town Orlando Sanchez still owes someone or something a bunch of money; I have no idea if there are any statutory requirements for paying it off.

My original plan for this series was to start with Congressional reports, but as of Friday the FEC site still did not have a report for former Mayor and now Rep. Sylvester Turner. (They didn’t have one for Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, either.) He had $84K in his Congressional account as of October 15. I assume his city money will migrate over there, but maybe he’ll spend it down on other thigs, I don’t know. This is probably the last time that there’s a reason to look at reports for Amanda Edwards or the late Sheila Jackson Lee, at least until Edwards runs for something again, if she ever does. I’ll include them in the Congressional roundup, for either after the data is fully there or I give up on there being anything for Turner and Fletcher for the period.

Next up is HISD and HCC, the only November elections we’re sure to have, and then I’ll come back to the Congressional report. As always, let me know what you think.

Posted in Election 2027 | Tagged Abbie Kamin, Amanda Edwards, Amy Peck, campaign finance reports, Carolyn Evans-Shabazz, Chris Hollins, David Robinson, Edward Pollard, Election 2023, Election 2026, Election 2027, Fred Flickinger, Houston, Houston City Controller, Houston City Council, John Whitmire, Julian Ramirez, Letitia Plummer, Mario Castillo, Martha Castex-Tatum, Mary Nan Huffman, Mayor, Orlando Sanchez, runoff, Sallie Alcorn, Sheila Jackson Lee, Sylvester Turner, Tarsha Jackson, Tiffany Thomas, Twila Carter, Willie Davis | Comments Off

There are bills to require backup power for nursing homes and assisted living facilities

Posted on February 4, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Good, but it’s a long way from filing to passing.

Sen. Borris Miles

When a storm hits the Texas coast during the summer hurricane season, state Sen. Borris Miles knows among the first calls he’ll get is from a constituent letting him know power is down at an independent living complex, shutting off air conditioning for older Texans.

“‘Senator! You got these people here,’“ he said, recalling a plea from a caller when Hurricane Beryl knocked out power to an assisted living facility last summer. “‘What are we going to do?’’’

Miles, a Houston Democrat, is thankful for residents like these. But as the number of storms have increased, so has the frustration for southeast Texas lawmakers who want better solutions.

That’s why Miles and four other coastal lawmakers have filed at least six bills that would require nursing homes, assisted living facilities and even some apartments that market to the 55 and older set, to have emergency generators on site. In Texas, there are 1,193 nursing homes serving more than 86,000 patients and 2,004 assisted living facilities housing 49,574 residents.

Miles’ House Bill 732 would require certain low-income housing for seniors living independently to have backup power. In recent years, Miles has seen more of these facilities being built in Houston. Often living in multistory apartment buildings, residents of this type of housing do not receive care, so little information, including on their health conditions, are collected. But after a storm knocks out power, the vulnerable conditions of these residents surface, as some in wheelchairs and walkers become trapped in elevators that are inoperable, Miles said.

“We need to take care of people,” he said.

SB 481 from state Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston would require emergency plans at nursing homes and assisted living facilities to include generators. Nursing homes, which as the name suggests, offer more intense medical support to patients compared to assisted living facilities, which are senior apartments that provide meals and some assistance to its residents. HB 1199 by Rep. Christian Manuel, D-Beaumont, calls for emergency generators that have the capacity to run for a minimum of 72 hours in such facilities.

“Texans know firsthand the impact of being without power, particularly in elder care facilities where the stakes are incredibly high,” Manuel said in a statement.

Rep. Suleman Lalani, D-Sugar Land, has filed HB 1467 that would require nursing homes, assisted living and independent housing for seniors to have generators. Another one of his bills, HB 863, would create a shared database of where senior independent living communities are and include each complex’s emergency plan, which is required by the state for assisted living and nursing homes. The database would be accessible to emergency response officials.

“Things happen and then people make noise and then people go quiet,” he said, remarking on past failed attempts to get a generator bill passed. “I think I have a unique opportunity and responsibility being a physician…I cannot go back and say ‘Oh,’ I will let it go.”

In this century alone, Texans have seen damage and death from hurricanes Rita in 2005, Ike in 2008, Harvey in 2017 and last July’s Beryl, not to mention more freak storms like Uri’s freeze in 2021 and last year’s wildfires in the Panhandle and a windstorm in the Houston area. All have taken the power down for hours, days and in the case of Beryl, weeks.

Former state Rep. Ed Thompson of Pearland became a champion for senior facility residents following a simple spring storm in 2018 that caused a power outage in his district.

After arriving to check on a nearby senior facility, he was stunned to find an ill-prepared staff. Residents had been in a hot and dark facility for hours. When he asked a worker about the facility’s emergency plan, he was incensed that it relied mostly on calling families to pick up their relatives or for those who had no family, just sending them to the local emergency rooms.

“That lit a fire in me,” he told the Tribune last week.

Calls for generators to be required equipment, particularly at assisted living facilities, are nothing new, but bills in the last two legislative sessions have died, including Thompson’s in 2023. His legislation stalled in committee after facing opposition from the nursing care and assisted living industries, which raised concerns, mostly about generator’ costs, which is estimated to be at least $200,000 or more for a facility.

That’s why this session, Rep. Ana Hernandez, D-Houston, has filed HB 2224 which would require backup power for elevators for 48 hours after a power loss. “A significant reduction in cost,” she said. Past bills that have failed, she said, have focused on keeping the entire facility powered.

“It is inhumane to leave an elderly person abandoned without electricity in temperatures over 100 degrees for days, or even weeks,” Hernandez said. “Not having at least one elevator poses a high safety risk of elderly people being trapped on upper-level floors, prohibiting residents from escaping a fire or seeking medical care.”

It’s not clear whether the smaller price tag on such a requirement will get the buy-in of the influential long-term care industry.

The answer to that question is almost certainly “no”. All of these bills were filed by Democrats, so whatever their merits they start in a hole. Note that even if they had been filed by Republicans, like former Rep. Thompson, that would be no guarantee of anything. Sure, all of these things cost money and that’s always a challenge, but the state has been sitting on a huge surplus for the last few years. It would not be hard to offer assistance or low-interest loans or whatever to help make this happen. If the Republicans in charge cared, which they do not.

As the story notes, Harris County has taken action on its own to get backup power in facilities in the unincorporated parts of the county. Mayor Whitmire has made similar promises for Houston but so far has not followed up on them. I respect and praise what all these folks are trying to do, but I’d bet on a bill blocking cities and counties from enacting this kind of regulation before I’d bet on one of their bills. As with many other things, I will be delighted to be proven wrong.

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged Ana Hernandez, blackouts, Borris Miles, Carol Alvarado, Christian Manuel, derecho, Ed Thompson, Harris County, HHSC, Houston, Hurricane Beryl, John Whitmire, nursing homes, Senate, Suleman Lalani, Texas, Texas Assisted Living Association, The Lege | 1 Comment

More on Tesla’s push for robotaxi service in Austin

Posted on February 4, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Always consider the source.

Tesla Inc. fleshed out plans to launch a robotaxi business Elon Musk is counting on to help usher in next phase of growth, after the company posted quarterly earnings that missed estimates.

The electric-car maker expects to start offering a paid service in Austin this June using self-driving Teslas that won’t rely on humans supervising the steering wheel, Musk said Wednesday.

[…]

Musk said Tesla will start offering “unsupervised Full Self-Driving,” or FSD, in the Texas capital where the company is headquartered. He’s confident the service will roll out in California and “many regions” of the US by the end of this year.

Tesla previously said in October that it aimed to launch both unsupervised FSD and autonomous ride-hailing in California and Texas this year. Musk told analysts Wednesday that the only constraint he sees for the technology next year is regulation.

Tesla has long sold a suite of features it’s called FSD that require constant driver supervision and don’t make its vehicles autonomous. Musk has a track record of blowing past his predicted product timelines, particularly with respect to self-driving technology.

Autonomous vehicles face a number of regulatory hurdles. Tesla’s Cybercab, a car lacking pedals or a steering wheel that the company expects to produce next year, would require an exemption from existing US safety standards to be allowed on US roads. Under existing rules, that permission would apply to a limit of just 2,500 vehicles per year.

States also have their own patchwork of rules for autonomous vehicles, including California, where Tesla has a permit to test them with a driver. The state could be a more challenging environment than Texas, which has fewer hurdles.

Musk has called for policy changes including a national approval process for autonomous vehicles. He’s given little detail on how Tesla aims to roll out a robotaxi service. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation doesn’t currently list the company as a ride-share licensee. Musk did say that Tesla wants the service to be “way safer” than human drivers.

See here for the background. As the Chron notes, in the first year or so the rides would come from existing Tesla models, since the Cybercab doesn’t exist yet. As Engadget notes, the software for FSD mode hasn’t been released yet. As Axios notes, Tesla still faces an NHTSA investigation of its Autopilot system and the FSD software due to recent past failures. Oh, and Tesla’s last few earnings reports haven’t been good, with this one showing some real concerns. But otherwise, everything’s going great!

One more thing, from that Engadget piece:

And then next year, Tesla owners will be able to add their cars to the fleet whenever they want, kind of like how people can list and unlist their properties on Airbnb, Musk said. He explained that the automaker wants to iron out any kinks first, such as making sure billing works well and that the robotaxis will stop at the right spot when they’re ordered.

I’ve mentioned before that the assumption of ridesharing services going all in on autonomous vehicles when they are more generally available would necessarily mean a significant change in their business model, since right now they don’t own or store or maintain and of their fleet. I suppose tapping into the existing network of people who already own suitable cars would address some of that, but 1) how many people will want to lease their cars out in this fashion, and 2) wouldn’t this in some ways undermine the case for buying the car in the first place? I don’t know how much one can make on the AirBnB plan, but surely it’s less expensive and less of a hassle to just be the customer than the car owner. I get the idea here, and I’m sure some people will take advantage of it. But it won’t be for everyone, and maybe the pool of potential automotive AirBnB owners is smaller than they think. I’m just saying.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged AirBnB, Austin, California, Cybercab, Donald Trump, driverless cars, Elon Musk, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, taxis, Tesla, Texas, Waymo | Comments Off

Agave Democratic Infrastructure Fund analysis of the 2024 election

Posted on February 3, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox:

The Agave Democratic Infrastructure Fund—a political action committee that is building and improving infrastructure to create conditions under which Democrats can win in Texas—released its preliminary breakdown of the 2024 election results. The data analysis, conducted in partnership with Bluebonnet Data, revealed key insights about the November election. Texas experienced a shift towards Republicans, driven in part by both a rightward move among Hispanic voters and what appears (in the data we currently have) to be low Democratic turnout. However, Democratic Senate candidate Colin Allred outperformed Kamala Harris, and Texas performed largely in line with its demographics when compared to national trends affecting Democratic vote share.

Top Takeaways:

Hispanic voters were the demographic group that saw the largest shift to the right

It’s likely that registered Democrats voted at lower rates than registered Republicans

Regionally, West Texas and the Rio Grande Valley shifted right the most, but Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth (along with the Rio Grande Valley ) lost the most raw Democratic votes

Ex-Rep. Colin Allred overperformed Vice President Kamala Harris significantly in the Rio Grande Valley and slightly in urban and suburban areas

Despite large losses, Texas performed in line with national trends relative to its demographics

It’s a long and detailed analysis, so go read the rest. I’ve written about the Agave Fund before, but I hadn’t thought about them since then until their press release hit my inbox. I came to similar conclusions about Harris County, they looked at all of the state. It’s still the case that we need to be talking to the people who voted for us in 2020 and then didn’t show up last year as a first priority.

Posted in Election 2024 | Tagged Agave Democratic Infrastructure Fund, Donald Trump, Election 2020, Election 2024, Harris County, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, precinct analysis, President, Texas, turnout | 3 Comments

Of course minors are seeking out of state abortions, too

Posted on February 3, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

What did you expect?

At least 100 Texas children aged 17 and younger got abortions in other states during the first year after Texas banned the procedure, including six aged 11 and under, according to the latest state data available.

The total is a nearly ninefold jump in the number of children getting out-of-state abortions from five years earlier and comes as virtually all abortions have ground to a halt in Texas under a ban that makes no exception for fetal abnormality, rape, or incest. Texas’ age of consent, when a person may legally consent to engage in sexual activity, is 17.

The figures underscore the effect of blocking the procedure for one of the state’s most vulnerable populations. Children typically see more complications during pregnancy than adult women, doctors said, including high risks of premature delivery or preeclampsia, a serious condition that causes high blood pressure.

“These are not just statistics,” said state Rep. Mihaela Plesa, a North Texas Democrat, in an interview Wednesday, the 50th anniversary of the now-overturned Roe v. Wade case that had previously established a federal constitutional right to abortion.

“These are real stories about people who are having these traumatic experiences. It’s happened right here in my district in Plano. This isn’t happening just in low socioeconomic areas or certain districts. This is happening all over our state.”

The rise in out-of-state abortions comes as the overall number of Texas minors accessing the procedure has plummeted.

In the years before the abortion ban took effect in August 2022, between 1,000 and 1,400 Texas minors received abortions in the state annually. There were none in 2023, data from Texas’ Health and Human Services department shows. At least 105 Texas children got an abortion out of state in 2023, the majority of them between the ages of 16 and 17.

The annual data, which was released this fall, is likely an undercount. Texas receives information about out-of-state abortions from a national data exchange called the State and Territorial Exchange of Vital Events, or STEVE, but an HHS spokesperson said not every state provides data on abortions.

The out-of-state data also only covers the first half of 2023. HHS officials did not respond to questions from Hearst Newspapers about why the rest of the data is missing or when it may be published. Data on out-of-state abortions from 2024 have not yet been released.

[…]

Teenage pregnancies typically see more complications than those of women, said Dr. Tracey Wilkinson, an associate professor of pediatrics and affiliate professor of obstetric and gynecology at Indiana University.

Their future fertility could also be affected by complications, she added, noting that in a situation where a patient is hemorrhaging, the doctor sometimes has to remove their reproductive organs to save their life.

“While their body has the capacity to be pregnant, their ability to carry that pregnancy to term without having bodily harm happen to them during the pregnancy or the delivery is much lower,” Wilkinson said. “Just because puberty has occurred doesn’t mean their body is capable of carrying a pregnancy to term.”

“Think about the trauma of delivering a child when you are a child,” she said. “Their brains are still developing. Their bodies are still developing. This is a huge deal.”

There’s more, including some truly awful statements by one of the main forced-birth ghouls, so read the rest. I don’t really have a point to make here. The facts speak for themselves. The main purpose of our state’s abortion ban is to make life worse for a lot of people. It’s working splendidly.

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged abortion, HHSC, Mihaela Plesa, SCOTUS, State and Territorial Exchange of Vital Events, Texas, The Lege | 1 Comment

MKT Bridge closed again for repairs

Posted on February 3, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Dammit.

The 100-plus-year-old MKT Bridge in Houston, a popular pathway for pedestrians and cyclists, is closed for an indefinite amount of time as the Texas Department of Transportation evaluates significant damage to the bridge after equipment from a nearby construction project collided with it.

According to TxDOT, several crane mats from a nearby construction site along Interstate 10 were swept away by rainwater last weekend, causing them to make contact with the the bridge columns. The crane mats were being used to allow cranes to maneuver over the muddy construction site.

“Unfortunately, due to the rain event over the weekend, the waters rose and picked up the mats which caused them to float toward the columns,” a TxDOT spokesperson told Houston Public Media on Friday. “When contact was made it caused significant damage … enough for us to close it as a safety precaution until the necessary repairs are made.”

A TxDOT spokesperson said it’s unclear how long the bridge will be closed, adding that a repair plan should be ready within the coming weeks.

Another reason for me to hate the I-10 elevation project. I noticed this for myself on Sunday, just two days after this story and a week after the incident. There’s a new ramp up from the existing White Oak trail to Studemont, just south of I-10 on the west side, with the street level access point at the new strip center that used to be the Party Boy. I’m not sure what spurred this development – I haven’t seen any news about it and some cursory googling came up empty. I presume it was a previously approved and funded item from before, as there’s no way anything like this would have happened under the current regime. It’s not likely to be a highly used ramp, as it dumps you onto a bike-unfriendly stretch of sidewalk that goes a short distance south and ends where Studemont goes under the train tracks. I suspect it will mostly be used by people coming from points west on the trail to the Kroger or the emergency clinic, and also from the residents of the new apartments as this will be their most convenient access to the trail. As I write that I recall some discussion from a few years ago about a project like that. I guess this is it.

Anyway. I say all that because I was going to traverse the bridge in hopes of getting close enough to take some pictures of the new ramp, which was completed fairly quickly, but I was thwarted. I’ll come at it from another angle soon and post the views I can get. If you know more about this, please leave a comment, I’m very interested.

Getting back to the bridge for a second, you may recall that it was closed after the wooden structure under it caught fire in August 2020. It finally reopened in late May of 2022, nearly two years later, after multiple delays in the repair schedule, and just a couple of months before the opening of the White Oak bike trail extension. I sure hope it will take a lot less time to fix now.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged Bayou Greenway Initiative, bicycles, bike trails, construction, Heights, Houston, I-10, MKT Trail, TxDOT, White Oak Bayou | 2 Comments

Weekend link dump for February 2

Posted on February 2, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

“The Jan 6 Pardons Are A Huge Liability for Trump”.

An oral history of Twin Peaks.

“Thousands of transgender service members serve in the military, though the exact number is unclear. Estimates from two research centers, the Williams Institute at UCLA and the now-defunct Palm Center have put the figure around 15,000, but the Pentagon does not publicly track the number. Data from UCLA also shows that transgender Americans sign up to serve their country at a rate twice that of cisgender people. Most transgender servicemembers have more than 12 years of service”.

“But there’s an even more pernicious aspect to the new anti-DEI EO. It will be used–and appears to have been carefully designed to be used–to intimidate and harass private institutions that are outspoken in their support for a robust vision of equity. And it will be used to encourage those institutions to silence their employees who speak out in favor of such a vision (and, on university campuses, to silence those who speak out on other matters).”

“As California AI Data Centers Grow, So Does Dirty Energy“.

“Who would be interested in giving [Jared] Kushner billions of dollars?”

“The Hive Bakery located at 360 Parker Square Rd Flower Mound, Texas 75028, has baked a batch of cookies showcasing the face of Bishop Mariann Budde. These cookies quickly sold out, reflecting public resonance with her message.”

RIP, Pableaux Johnson, New Orleans-based photographer and food writer, known for hosting red bean and rice dinners. He was a classmate of mine in college – he still went by Paul then – and he played the guitar and was just a genuinely funny and smart guy. Between high school and college, we’ve seen a number of classmates pass on in the last five years or so, and it’s a whole lot of no fun. The Ma href=”https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/28/dining/pableaux-johnson-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.s04.oR5R.R3SlzCKgUePR&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&fbclid=IwY2xjawIIM1RleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHSY_o91stDBkhWmMl5x7tJhcadoc-wqcbl1Gkb-dsp811P7qT5ua5AYTAA_aem__wrvYdojHkNpg-HGJ05r1A”>NY Times had a lovely obituary for him as well, and there’s a bunch of photos and other memories of him here. We should all be so lovingly remembered when we go. Rest in peace, Paul.

“The trends are clear: For Reddit, X/Twitter had been dying for a long time, and Elon Musk’s latest move is merely hastening its demise. As other institutions increasingly back away from X, they may find that the platform has long been withering away all on its own.”

“All of that said, the trailers represent how much closer to genuine movie slop the fake AI slop is becoming. They’re still noticeably unreal, but they’re closer to real than before.”

“What kind of husband goes grocery shopping with his wife?”

“On his first full day back in the White House, Trump dismissed all 15 advisory committee members of the Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB), a nonpartisan government entity established in February 2022 with a mandate to investigate the causes of major cybersecurity events. The CSRB has so far produced three detailed reports, including an analysis of the Log4Shell vulnerability crisis, attacks from the cybercrime group LAPSUS$, and the 2023 Microsoft Exchange Online breach.”

Pardoned insurrectionists keep on criming. Who would have ever guessed?

RIP, Joe Bernal, former State Representative from San Antonio and longtime civil rights leader who fought for bilingual education and the creation of UTSA, among other things.

“The real witch hunt is here. And it’s a warning to all other federal employees to mind their loyalty if they want to keep their jobs. That’s the point. Trump knows he can’t lawfully fire these people in this manner. He wants to make the point that he’s willing to do it, in hopes others will stay in line.”

“Trans people have always served in the military. We have troops that are serving across the globe who are transgender. This is going to have an immediate and direct impact on commands around the globe. It’s going to make our military less ready to fight.”

Seriously, Google? I expected better.

“You know your story better than I do. If I want to understand you better, I should listen to your story. I know my story better than you do. If you want to understand me better, you should listen to my story. This is not a strange new epistemological claim. It’s Basic Humanity 101.”

“But Kennedy’s false claims about vaccines and his own stance on the issue are merely just one slice of his craziness that has not been fully conveyed to the public. For years, he has pushed a host of conspiracy theories and false propositions in such an aggressive and unhinged manner as to raise profound questions about his judgment and analytical abilities. Placing a fellow this cracked, disingenuous, and paranoid in charge of the American public health system—which Donald Trump has proposed to do by nominating him to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services—threatens national and global security. This could be the most dangerous act of Trump’s presidency. Yet Republican senators and much of the public are ho-humming this perilous appointment.”

“Who Goes MAGA?”

“Twitter is not a model for government reform”.

From Ask A Manager: Questions from federal workers who are currently under attack.

“President Donald Trump scrapped an aviation safety committee that had been in place for more than three decades, just a few days before a deadly airplane crash at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night.”

RIP, Horace Grigsny, longtime and influential Houston jazz vocalist.

RIP, Marianne Faithfull, singer, songwriter, actor, inspiration for several Rolling Stones songs including “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”.

“While many people had no criminal record prior to committing crimes on Jan. 6, NPR has identified dozens of defendants with prior convictions or pending charges for crimes including rape, sexual abuse of a minor, domestic violence, manslaughter, production of child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking.”

RIP, Dick Button, two-time Olympic figure skating gold medalist, five-time world champion, Emmy-winning broadcaster for skating, all-around legend. With the death of so many skaters in that plane crash, this was a rough week for skating fans.

“This year’s Super Bowl will be laden with AI commercials!”

“Former North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson dropped his libel lawsuit against CNN on Friday and said he is leaving public life, marking the final chapter for the disgraced Republican politician who was caught posting racist and sexually explicit musings on a porn website.”

“WIRED has identified six young men—all apparently between the ages of 19 and 24, according to public databases, their online presences, and other records—who have little to no government experience and are now playing critical roles in Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project, tasked by executive order with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” The engineers all hold nebulous job titles within DOGE, and at least one appears to be working as a volunteer.”

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged linkdump | Comments Off

Louisiana indicts NY doctor for providing mifepristone

Posted on February 2, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

And the stakes get raised again.

A New York doctor was criminally indicted Friday for allegedly prescribing abortion pills to a girl in Louisiana in what appears to be the first time an abortion provider has been prosecuted since Roe v. Wade was overturned nearly three years ago. The case sets up one of the first major legal challenges to the “shield laws” enacted by some Democratic-led states to protect doctors providing abortion access in the wake of the Supreme Court ending the constitutional right to an abortion.

Grand jurors in West Baton Rouge parish indicted Margaret Carpenter, 55, with effecting a criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs, court records show. They also indicted Carpenter’s company, Nightingale Medical. She faces one to five years in prison and a $5,000 to $50,000 fine if convicted of violating a 2022 Louisiana law that bans abortion.

Tony Clayton, the district attorney who represents West Baton Rouge parish, said Carpenter prescribed abortion medication to a girl under the age of 18 in April. The girl’s mother, whom The Washington Post is not naming to protect her daughter’s identity, was also charged with carrying out a criminal abortion. Clayton declined to give the girl’s age.

Carpenter did not immediately respond Friday to requests for comment from The Post. But the organization that she co-founded, the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, called the indictment “the latest in a series of threats that jeopardizes women’s access to reproductive healthcare throughout this country.”

“Make no mistake, since Roe v Wade was overturned, we’ve witnessed a disturbing pattern of interference with women’s rights,” the coalition said in a statement. “It’s no secret the United States has a history of violence and harassment against abortion providers, and this state-sponsored effort to prosecute a doctor providing safe and effective care should alarm everyone.”

Abortion pills are banned in 18 states, restricted in 10 and legal in 22 states and D.C., according to a database from The Post.

Two abortion medication experts said Carpenter’s case was the first of a doctor being criminally charged with prescribing pills to an out-of-state patient who then went through with their abortion. Greer Donley, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s law school who studies abortion medication and interjurisdictional abortion conflicts, said she wasn’t surprised but “disheartened” by Carpenter’s prosecution.

A second expert went a step further, saying it was the only time since Roe fell that any doctor has been criminally charged.

“This is the first,” said David Cohen, professor at Drexel University’s law school who studies abortion and the legal landscape after the Supreme Court overturned Roe with its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Cohen said he had “informally advised” Carpenter in the past but has had no involvement in any of her legal cases.

[…]

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) said she would protect New York doctors who provide abortion pills across state lines. James called the case against Carpenter a “cowardly attempt out of Louisiana to weaponize the law against out-of-state providers” that was “unjust and un-American.”

“The criminalization of abortion care is a direct and brazen attack on Americans’ bodily autonomy and their right to reproductive freedom,” James said in a statement, adding: “We will not allow bad actors to undermine our providers’ ability to deliver critical care. Medication abortion is safe, effective, and necessary, and New York will ensure that it remains available to all Americans who need it.”

In 2023, New York lawmakers passed a shield law to protect doctors who prescribe abortion pills to patients in other states, especially those with passed laws restricting or banning abortions.

On Friday afternoon, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said Carpenter’s prosecution is exactly the scenario she and other lawmakers feared when passing the law, and that she planned to use it to refuse any requests to extradite Carpenter.

“I will never under any circumstances turn this doctor over to the state of Louisiana,” she said in an Instagram video.

[…]

Cohen said he doesn’t know if Clayton’s decision to go after Carpenter will encourage prosecutors to follow suit given how localized and fractured criminal prosecution is in the United States. Donley said the case probably won’t trigger a wave of others, since patients in antiabortion states who seek out-of-state doctors to help them have little incentive to report what they’ve done to law enforcement.

But, Donley added, indicting Carpenter isn’t just about prosecuting her but also sending a message to other doctors who are doing the same. It’s part of a larger effort to smear abortion, to make legitimate medical care seem wrong and criminal, she said.

It’s also about intimidating doctors, Donley added.

“This is absolutely intended to cause fear, cause confusion, chill care,” she said.

If the name Margaret Carpenter sounds familiar, it’s because she’s the doctor who was sued by Ken Paxton in December for providing mifepristone to a woman in Texas. That woman hadn’t told her partner she was pregnant – she had some bleeding after taking the pills, which led to his discovery. He was the one who then tipped off Ken Paxton, and I’m willing to bet there’s some other aggrieved person behind this complaint. I’ll hand it over to Jessica Valenti:

Louisiana district attorney Tony Clayton didn’t just bring charges against Carpenter—he also arrested and indicted the patient’s mother, who obtained the pills. Clayton claims the woman coerced her daughter into having an abortion, but as the Louisiana Illuminator points out, “coerced abortion” was not cited in the indictment.

While we don’t know the circumstances around the teen’s abortion, we do know that conservative prosecutors have a history of lying about these cases or misleading press and the public. When Paxton sued Carpenter last month, for example, he claimed that a woman had “serious complications” after taking abortion medication—but his suit showed nothing of the sort.

[…]

There’s also a broader context here: The charges in Louisiana come at the same time that conservative state lawmakers are pushing and passing policies to prosecute anyone who helps a woman or girl get an abortion. This week, the Trump administration also gave anti-abortion extremists the green light to attack abortion providers without fear of consequence, and Republican lawmakers introduced legislation to repeal the FACE Act—the federal law prohibiting violence against clinics.

In other words, Republicans are launching a full-scale assault on doctors, patients, and the community members who support them both. More than that, they clearly want what’s happening in Louisiana to be a big, showy, public case. I mean, Clayton went on a talk show today to publicize the case!

Louisiana’s Attorney General Liz Murrill also highlighted the charges, tweeting earlier today:

“It is illegal to send abortion pills into this State and it’s illegal to coerce another into having an abortion. I have said it before and I will say it again: We will hold individuals accountable for breaking the law.”

Why make a big deal out of a criminal case that’s likely to be very, very unpopular? Because anti-abortion activists and big-money donors want to get this issue in front of the Supreme Court.

For example, the billionaire-backed Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), has been leading the charge against mifepristone since Roe was overturned. As researcher Ansev Demirhan pointed out last year, RAGA AGs were behind attacks on the FDA’s mifepristone regulations, they’ve threatened pharmacies against distributing the pills, and they filed an amicus brief to urge a Texas court to block the FDA’s approval of mailing mifepristone.

Now, with abortion medication allowing those in states with bans to get care, these extremist AGs, activists and donors want to make an example of a doctor—with SCOTUS’ help. It’s likely that Republican attorneys generals have been searching for the perfect case, and Louisiana AG Murrill was first to the finish line. And boy is she pleased to have a talking point:

This case really does have precisely what conservatives have been looking for—and everything I’ve warned about since Roe was overturned. I started raising the alarm over anti-abortion messaging around ‘coercion,’ for example, in 2023. That’s when the Charlotte Lozier Institute started to suggest Republicans use ‘coercion’ in their policies and cases because “no one is openly in favor of coerced abortions.” The tactic has only grown since.

Similarly, Republicans have been especially eager to restrict teenagers’ access to abortion: Both Tennessee and Idaho passed laws recently that made it a crime to help a teen obtain an abortion in any way. And when three Republican AGs brought their most recent case against the FDA over mifepristone, they focused in on revoking access for teens, out of supposed fear for their “developing reproductive systems.”

Finally, Republican AGs have been on the lookout for a case with an unsympathetic defendant. A mother who coerced her daughter into an abortion is a perfect victim for conservatives’ anti-abortion agenda. (Whether she actually coerced the teen or not.) We also saw this tactic in Idaho, when the state brought its first ‘abortion trafficking’ charges against a mother and son who had coerced the son’s girlfriend into an out-of-state abortion.

In short: The Louisiana AG clearly thinks she has found a winner of a case that she can bring to the Supreme Court to target out-of-state abortion providers. And I think if we do a little bit of digging, we’ll find that it isn’t just Murrill behind this move—but a national anti-abortion strategy backed by extremist billionaire dollars.

One other point to add is that however this turns out, there will be serious repercussions on Carpenter, possibly even after a favorable resolution for her in court. For as long as this indictment is in effect, she can’t travel anywhere that abortion is illegal and she probably can’t take commercial aircraft or drive across the Canadian border, because the risk that some law enforcement officer from outside New York or from a federal agency might detain her for the purpose of handing her over to Louisiana. Even if SCOTUS eventually rules that Louisiana can’t compel New York to take any action against her, unless the drop the charges the same legal jeopardy exists for her. The fear in itself isn’t the point – I agree with Jessica Valenti that the goals are much bigger – but it will have an effect. Reuters, CBS News, The 19th, and Mother Jones, which incorrectly calls Dr. Carpenter “Margaret Cambell”, have more.

Posted in Crime and Punishment | Tagged abortion, Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, Aid Access, Kathy Hochul, Ken Paxton, lawsuit, Letitia James, Liz Merrill, Louisiana, Margaret Carpenter, mifepristone, New York, SCOTUS, telemedicine, Texas, Tony Clayton | Comments Off

Bird flu and the zoo

Posted on February 2, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a big threat, which zoos are taking very seriously.

Across the United States, bird flu is no longer a concern only for dairy and poultry farms — it’s now knocking on the gates of zoos and wildlife sanctuaries, putting some of the nation’s rarest animals at risk.

Last month, cases of avian influenza, specifically the H5N1 strain of the virus, were reported at the Wildlife Zoo and Aquarium outside Phoenix, Ariz., claiming the lives of a cheetah, mountain lion, swamphen, kookaburra and an Indian goose. Twenty big cats also died at a wildlife sanctuary in Washington.

This month at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo, a Chilean flamingo and a harbor seal both died from highly pathogenic avian influenza (known as HPAI). In Virginia, the Richmond Metro Zoo reported the deaths of a Stanley crane and African crowned crane due to bird flu, according to The Washington Post.

While the exact exposure is unknown for some of these cases, it’s believed contact with infected waterfowl, which are natural carriers of the virus, is the culprit.

No cases of bird flu have been reported at zoos and wildlife sanctuaries in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, although infected waterfowl and other wild birds like the red-tailed hawk, have been reported in Texas. Zoo officials are on high alert for even the slightest whiff of bird flu, especially since billions of birds travel through Texas during their seasonal migrations every year, said Dr. Anne Burgdorf-Moisuk, associate vice president of animal health and welfare at the Dallas Zoo.

“Although what’s happening now is a bit different — the virus has mutated a bit — HPAI is something that zoo veterinarians have had to watch out for for a really long time,” Burgdorf-Moisuk said. “We have protocols in place for disease outbreaks like HPAI, foot and mouth disease and lots of issues that could be problems for a zoo.”

Burgdorf-Moisuk and Dr. Kimberly Rainwater, veterinary services director at the Fort Worth Zoo, explained that the emergency response protocols in case of a bird flu outbreak take into account many factors. These include any alerts to bird flu in Texas, how far the reported cases are in proximity to the zoo, identifying which animals are the most vulnerable and potential points of exposure.

“The plan we’re using right now, we put together in early 2022 when this current outbreak started and when we started seeing more cases,” said Rainwater. “We use that plan continuously, looking at what level of the plan we’re at because it is a tiered plan with different responses at different levels.”

The first level of this response plan involves tracking where positive cases are being reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. If the virus is being reported in states bordering Texas, Burgdorf-Moisuk said, zoo staff will start planning precautionary measures and housing birds and other animals indoors to prevent exposure to waterfowl and other infected wild birds that may fly in and out of enclosures.

[…]

If an animal catches bird flu despite the safety measures in place, Burgdorf-Moisuk and Rainwater said, no antiviral treatments are available; the only course of action is supportive care. The animal is also immediately separated from others to keep it from spreading the virus.

While there are vaccines for highly pathogenic avian influenza, none are approved for use among zoo animals, at least in the United States. In May 2023, however, USDA did grant emergency use of a shot for critically endangered California condors as part of a pilot program across three zoos in California and Oregon.

The chance of an animal surviving bird flu is challenging to predict, Rainwater said. “Survival for a lot of the birds that we see that get sick is pretty low,” she added.

See here and here for some background. I didn’t see any news related to the Houston Zoo and its response to HPAI – I did find this release from 2022 when HPAI first emerged – but I’m sure they’re taking similar precautions. With all the chaos and destruction happening in the federal government right now, I hope they’re all still able to get these reports from the Ag Department. There are far worse things to be worried about, but this is one of those situations that could break through. I’d rather that everything work as intended, but here we are.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged Dallas, Dallas Zoo, flu, Fort Worth, Fort Worth Zoo, Houston Zoo, Texas, USDA, zoos | Comments Off

Colossal Biosciences update

Posted on February 2, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Money is not their problem.

“Finding a dodo bird…”

Colossal Biosciences, the company that’s famously on a mission to bring back the woolly mammoth and two other extinct species, has raised a $200 million Series C at a $10.2 billion valuation from TWG Global, the investment company of Guggenheim Partners co-founder Mark Walter and the billionaire Thomas Tull. The funding comes two years after the company closed its previous round at a reported valuation of $1.5 billion.

Why did investors pour so much capital at an eye-popping valuation for a company that has yet to generate any revenue and whose flagship projects, resurrecting an extinct mammoth and Tasmanian tiger, are not expected to be completed until 2028?

“The investor base has been very impressed with the speed at which we’ve created new technologies,” Ben Lamm, Colossal Biosciences’ co-founder and CEO, told TechCrunch.

The company claims it has made significant breakthroughs on all three of its main projects, which, in addition to the mammoth and the Tasmanian tiger (also known as the thylacine), includes the dodo bird, and is on schedule or even ahead of it to resurrect these animals.

Colossal’s approach to bringing back extinct animals involves mapping the entire genome of the species and then comparing it to their closest living relative, which in the case of the mammoth is the Asian elephant. Lamm said this phase has been completed for the mammoth and the thylacine, and now the company’s scientists are using the gene-editing tool CRISPR to edit the Asian elephant’s cells. In the final step, those cells will be put into an egg cell, and the embryo will be implanted into an elephant, which will give birth to a baby mammoth, Lamm explained.

To achieve its mission, Colossal has been building various technologies, including artificial wombs, which is how the company hopes future generations of “de-extinct” animals will be born.

“Some of those technologies alone are world-changing for human healthcare, for agtech, for all these different categories,” he said.

While Colossal Biosciences’ ultimate goal is to restore extinct species and enhance biodiversity, the company’s primary value for investors likely lies in the potential of its technologies.

See here, here, here, and here for some background. I follow this because it’s cool and intriguing, and also because this is a Texas-based company – here’s the DMN story – so I’m interested in that angle as well. They’re clearly making progress and investors believe in them, but the proof will ultimately be in the de-extincted mammoth or dodo or sabertooth tiger. Stay tuned. Axios has more.

Posted in Technology, science, and math | Tagged Ben Lamm, Beth Shapiro, Colossal Biosciences, DNA, dodos, elephants, extinction, mammoths, Mauritius, pink pigeon, Texas, tigers | Comments Off

SCOTx rejects appeal of that zombie ReBuild lawsuit

Posted on February 1, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

End of the line.

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday denied Houston’s motion to appeal a long-standing lawsuit requiring the city to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on street and drainage projects.

Friday’s ruling could add yet another financial challenge to a strained city budget. Officials are already dealing with a ballooning $230 million budget shortfall, and officials have yet to put forth a plan for how to pay for its firefighters settlement, which resulted in $650 million worth of back pay.

Mayor John Whitmire wrote in a statement Friday afternoon that he didn’t disagree with the ruling’s premise and said the city would comply with the court’s decision.

“Public safety and infrastructure have always been my priorities and the reason I ran for mayor,” Whitmire wrote. “I was aware of the pending lawsuit from 2019 that I would inherit, and I knew it would impact our budget. This will allow us to collaborate with other levels of government and require a continued examination of all city operations to find cost savings, which is part of my commitment to eliminate waste, duplication, and corruption. Let’s go to work.”

Controller Chris Hollins warned officials in July about the “big potential expense” that could fall on the city should it lose the lawsuit. He estimated at the time that the city would have to immediately pay anywhere from $110 million to $120 million.

Whitmire’s first budget put around $135 million toward streets and drainage, a figure plaintiffs say should be around $100 million more based on the charter.

“We have to be clear about in the instance that if we were to lose that lawsuit — which we’ve now lost twice in a row on it — how we cover that for the current fiscal year,” Hollins said at the time.

[…]

The lawsuit was kicked off by a pair of engineers who helped pass a charter amendment requiring the city allocate about a fifth of its property taxes, or 11.8 cents per $100 of taxable value, toward street and drainage projects every year. It also added a $5 charge to Houstonians’ water bills to help supplement projects.

The rules in the charter amendment, though, were not necessarily followed as written.

As the city hit its revenue cap in 2016, leaders had to start collecting less in property taxes, and the plaintiffs alleged that officials shortchanged the drainage fund. The city would have put $420 million more toward street and drainage over the last 10 years had officials stuck to the formula in the charter.

Emphasis mine. See here, here, and here for the background. At some point, Mayor Whitmire will put forward a plan to pay for all of this, maybe possibly hopefully please please with sugar on top getting some help from the Legislature, and then we’ll see how doomed we are. I highlighted that bit from the last paragraph as a reminder that the original sin at the root of this is the stupid revenue cap, which has done nothing but greatly exacerbate the city’s financial woes. We’ll know if the Mayor is serious about trying to fix this mess, which he has helped magnify, by whether he makes a real effort to do something about that.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged Allen Watson, Annise Parker, Arturo Michel, Bob Jones, budget, drainage, Election 2010, flooding, Houston, John Whitmire, lawsuit, property taxes, Renew Houston, revenue cap, Supreme Court, Sylvester Turner | 1 Comment

More measles

Posted on February 1, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Nothing to see here!

At least four cases of measles, including two involving school-aged children, have been reported in Texas in less than two weeks, putting state health agencies on alert.

For some communities, this is the first case of measles in more than 20 years.

Laura Anton, spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said the agency sent out an alert to health providers statewide once measles were confirmed to be found in two adult residents in Harris County last week.

The alert stated that both individuals reside in the same household and were unvaccinated against measles. These were the first confirmed cases of measles reported in Texas since 2023, when two were reported.

[…]

On Wednesday, the Lubbock Health Department also confirmed two measles case in the South Plains, involving school-aged children who were not vaccinated. Anton said the children were hospitalized and have since been discharged.

Katherine Wells, the Lubbock Health Department’s health director, said the one of the children was traveling with two other individuals who are not Lubbock County residents but live in nearby communities. Since Lubbock is the medical hub for the South Plains, they traveled to Lubbock for testing.

“We’re working with the South Plains Public Health District and our medical partners to work and identify where there could have been some community exposures,” Wells said. The state health agency is helping with the disease investigation in Lubbock and the South Plains region.

Wells said the community should be aware of the cases, as well as health care professionals who see rashes or high fevers from their patients.

“We want people to know there were some cases here,” Wells said. “So if they have concerns and are unvaccinated, call your health provider or the health department for more information.”

Wells said that the last measles case in Lubbock County was in 2004.

Austin Public Health has also sent an alert about the potential measles outbreak, urging residents to take proactive measures to protect themselves and their families. The last confirmed measles case in the city of Austin was in December 2019.

[…]

Other diseases considered long-forgotten are also now making a comeback.

Whooping cough is returning to pre-pandemic levels. Polio, another disease thought to be eradicated, was detected in New York State wastewater in 2022.

Vaccine proponents fear statewide disease trends will worsen as Texas lawmakers this legislative session try to weaken vaccine mandates and more families opt out of immunizations.

Since 2018, the requests to the Texas Department of State Health Services for an exemption form have doubled from 45,900 to more than 93,000 in 2024.

Lawmakers have filed more than 20 vaccination-related bills, including a House joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Texas Constitution to preserve Texans’ right to refuse vaccination.

See here for more on the Harris County cases. The two infected and unvaccinated children from Lubbock were hospitalized but have thankfully since been released. The more children that are or will be like them, the more likely they won’t be so lucky. I’ve reached out to my doctor to inquire about some boosters. Take whatever action you deem necessary for yourself.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged Harris County, Lubbock, measles, Texas, Texas Department of State Health Services, The Lege, vaccinations | Comments Off

World Cup preparations update

Posted on February 1, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

There’s a lot happening.

Houston is officially 500 days from hosting its first FIFA World Cup in the 95 years of the globe’s biggest tournament.

Representatives of the FIFA World Cup 26 Houston Host Committee held a joint press conference Monday to celebrate that milestone, and provided key updates on developments necessary for the events to run smoothly.

One of the most important endeavors for the actual competition is the fields the soccer teams will be playing on. Houston will hold seven of the 104 games of the tournament, starting with a group stage match June 14 and concluding with a Round of 16 match July 4. All seven will take place at NRG Stadium. For that to happen, the venue’s artificial turf that it typically uses for Houston Texans games will have to be replaced with natural grass up to FIFA standards.

Host committee president Chris Canetti said the preparation for that replacement is going “extremely well” and that the plan for how it will take place will be finalized in the coming months. Canetti said that the turf will be replaced in May 2026, soon after the conclusion of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which will take place on its normal dates.

“First and foremost, you have to play on grass,” Canetti said. “We have to put together a plan to be able to grow grass on the highest quality standard you can imagine to exist in this facility for over 40 days. So there’s lots of complications that go along with that, lots of leading experts in the field. I’ve been working on that over the course of the last several years, and we’re at the finish line of concluding our plans and awarding bids for this process to take place.”

Another necessary renovation must be done to NRG for the matches, though not on the playing surface. The stadium will need to undergo “bowl modifications” this summer to expand the field area to meet FIFA standards. That expansion will come by removing seats in the corners of the stadium. Canetti said that process will take place this summer.

“FIFA has very, very strict requirements in terms of the space on the field level and the pitch area,” Canetti said. “The way our corners kind of curve in here at the stadium, we don’t have the space necessary. So, we need to carve out corners, if you will, and create the width and the space on the pitch area to meet those standards.”

[…]

While the city is looking forward to the competition commencing in 500 days, the host committee is also using past tragedies to inform their safety and security procedures. Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia said the attacks in New Orleans near the Sugar Bowl earlier this month and in Germany at a Christmas market in December have confirmed security as “top of mind” for the committee’s planning.

Garcia thanked Canetti for placing a former Houston Police Department and SWAT commander in charge of security for the competition and said that together, they are going to do everything possible to ensure safety for guests and residents as they experience the World Cup.

“I give it full confidence that our FIFA committee has put in the resources to fully assess threats and to coordinate with local agencies, whether it’s a state, county or federal levels to make sure we are taking all necessary steps to prevent any incidents and to be able to react quickly to any that may occur,” Garcia said.

See here for some background. Still no definitive word about the flying taxis, sadly. I’m very curious to see what the stadium changes will look like – whatever they are, they will be undone afterwards. I’m excited to have the games here, and unfortunately more than a little apprehensive about the security risks we’ll face while they are. This is the world we live in. Chron.com and Houston Public Media have more.

Posted in Other sports | Tagged Adrian Garcia, air taxis, Chris Canetti, Dallas, Dynamo, Dynamo Stadium, FIFA, Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, Houston, Houston Dash, John Whitmire, Reliant Stadium, soccer, World Cup | 1 Comment

Houston Progressive Caucus

Posted on January 31, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox:

On January 30th, the birthday of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and in the wake of the attempt to suspend funding of Medicaid and thousands of other federal government programs, Houston progressives are launching the Houston Progressive Caucus—a movement to shift back politics to working Houstonians. Just as FDR took on the elites, taxed the powerful, and created programs like Social Security and the minimum wage, we are organizing to fight back against today’s billionaire-controlled broken system.

With Republicans in Congress gutting food stamps, Medicaid, student loans, and veterans’ benefits, and too few Democrats fighting full force, we’re done waiting. Local organizers, precinct chairs, and working-class advocates are building a force that puts economic justice and working-class power at the center of Houston politics.

FDR built an economy that worked for the people, not just the rich. Now, politicians—mostly Republicans but also some Democrats —are selling us out. We’re organizing from the ground up to take on corruption, fight for working-class Houstonians, and make sure our party stands for the people who make this city run.

Building a Movement Rooted in Working-Class Power

The Houston Progressive Caucus (unafffiliated with the Texas Progressive Caucus) is launching with a bold plan to refocus Houston politics on the issues that actually matter—affordable housing, childcare, food, power, healthcare, good-paying jobs, and getting corporate money out of our democracy.

Precinct Chair Bloc – Organizing and mobilizing precinct chairs to push the Democratic Party to take action on kitchen-table issues.
Apartment Captain Program – Engaging renters—who make up nearly half of Houston—by organizing in apartment complexes, connecting renters to resources, and turning out working-class voters.
Fighting Corruption & Corporate Influence – Calling out politicians who take money from special interests while ignoring struggling families.
Driving Turnout, showing up for the working class, & Winning Elections – Mobilizing voters by focusing on what actually matters: affordable living, economic fairness, and holding the powerful accountable.

Why Now?

Houston is growing—but for who? Rents are skyrocketing, food prices are climbing, and wages are stagnant. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are gutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid while cutting taxes for billionaires. And Houston’s Democratic establishment came within a hair’s breadth of losing multiple close elections in 2024.

With over 50% of Harris County precincts lacking Democratic chairs and working-class voter turnout at crisis levels, the Democratic Party is leaving votes on the table and losing winnable elections. The Houston Progressive Caucus is stepping up to change that.

The best way to beat Republicans is by standing up for working class voters. FDR showed that when Democrats fight for the working class, we win. We need to stop playing defense and start taking on corporate greed, making housing affordable, protecting wages, and lowering costs for working Houstonians. That’s how we take back Texas and our nation.

A Movement for All Houstonians – Launch Video in English & Spanish

The Houston Progressive Caucus is launching with a bilingual video highlighting the struggles of working-class Houstonians and the urgent need for change.

📽 Watch the video & join the movement: www.houstonprogressives.com

https://youtu.be/sS9rchRBCvw?si=PssO_p-LETxhisS8

How We’re Kicking Off the Movement

Social Media Blitz – Posting the launch video across Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky.
Mass Texting to Progressive & Working-Class Voters

Press & Media Outreach – Engaging local and national progressive media.
Grassroots Organizing & Member Recruitment – Signing up precinct chairs, apartment captains, and volunteers to start building real power in Houston.

Join the Movement

Houstonians are ready to take on the elites and billionaires, refocus politics on working-class issues, and build a movement that wins can sign up at www.houstonprogressives.com and follow us on social media for updates.

And as promised, here’s that announcement. They are indeed on BlueSky if you understandably prefer that outlet. (*) I got this from former SD15 candidate Karthik Soora and I’ll be keeping an eye on what they do. I have some thoughts for the organizing and messaging and campaigning side of things, as you know. I’ve inquired about doing an interview to learn more.

(*) I’m not a big user of it – I got out of the Twitter habit awhile ago, and it has carried over – but I am on BlueSky, if you feel the need to follow me.

Posted in Local politics | Tagged Houston, Houston Progressive Caucus, Karthik Soora, Texas | Comments Off

CenterPoint proposes small rate decrease

Posted on January 31, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

A win is a win.

No longer seen at I-10 and Sawyer

More than six months after CenterPoint Energy came under fire for its response to Hurricane Beryl — and its proposal to raise its rates — Houston’s main electricity company announced Wednesday that it reached a settlement that will lower customers’ bills.

Instead of the proposed rate increase that the company had requested shortly before Beryl made landfall, most CenterPoint Energy customers will have their average bill reduced by about $1 per month moving forward — pending approval from the Public Utility Commission of Texas.

Centerpoint withdrew its rate increase proposal on Aug. 1 amid the Beryl backlash.

“Following customer feedback and constructive discussions with intervening parties over the last several months, this plan keeps our customers at the forefront and supports CenterPoint’s ultimate goal of building the most resilient coastal grid in the country,” Jason Ryan, CenterPoint’s executive vice president of regulatory services and government affairs, said in a Wednesday statement.

[…]

In Wednesday’s statement, CenterPoint said it “would make no revenue or profit off of the temporary emergency generator proposal,” suggesting that customers would no longer be on the hook to help pay for the generators. The change comes after lawmakers, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, called on the PUC to block CenterPoint from passing that cost onto its customers.

See here for some background. I’m a little confused by the timeline and the lack of specificity about which complaint it is that was settled – was it the rate case review lawsuit (see the second item), which seemed to be moot as of November, was it the lawsuit over paying for its useless generators, or was it something earlier than that? I might have to go back to my interview with Sandie Haverleh and see if that helps me figure it out. Point is, there’s been a lot of CenterPoint news over the past few months.

You probably won’t notice the one-dollar-a-month decrease in your bill as a result of this, but then you probably wouldn’t have noticed the three-dollar-a-month increase that had been on the table before. It’s more about the principle here, and for once the right principle won out. Take the win, and celebrate responsibly.

Posted in Hurricane Katrina | Tagged blackouts, CenterPoint, derecho, Houston, Hurricane Beryl, lawsuit, Public Utility Commission, Texas, Texas Consumer Association | Comments Off

Driver who caused the Energy Transfer pipeline fire ruled to have died by suicide

Posted on January 31, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

The report has not been published yet, so there are still questions to be answered.

The driver who caused a massive pipeline explosion and fire in Deer Park last fall died by suicide, according to the Harris County medical examiner’s office.

Jonathan McEvoy Sr., who was driving the white Lexus SUV that veered out of a Walmart parking lot before crashing through a chain-link fence and into the above-ground pipeline on Sept. 16, died from “blunt traumatic and thermal injuries” and the manner of death was “suicide,” according to an online summary of the death case on the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences website.

The Sept. 16 crash caused the natural gas liquids pipeline to explode and shoot flames skyward for nearly four days. Hundreds of homes and businesses in Deer Park and LaPorte were evacuated and the intense heat burned and melted overhead power lines as well as some nearby homes and cars.

It’s unclear what evidence led medical examiners to rule McEvoy’s death a suicide. Officials with the institute were not immediately available for comment. The case summary was updated late Tuesday to say the medical examiner’s report has been completed.

The Deer Park Police Department, which has had an ongoing criminal investigation into the crash, declined to comment. “We are still waiting on the ME’s final report before commenting further,” Lt. Chris Brown, the department’s spokesman, said Tuesday.

Members of McEvoy’s family, who were not immediately available for comment, previously said the man had suffered in recent years from occasional seizures and that they believed he likely suffered a seizure before the crash.

See here and here for the background. I assume we’ll learn more soon enough, so let’s not speculate ahead of the evidence. I’ll just say again that we need to take a closer look at where these pipelines are and do a more thorough assessment of the risk of vehicle crashes and fires that may result from them. It would be very nice to minimize the chances of a repeat of this one. The Chron and Houston Public Media have more.

Posted in Elsewhere in Houston | Tagged Deer Park, Energy Transfer Partners, fire, Harris County, Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, La Porte, Texas | Comments Off

Charges dismissed against two of Hidalgo’s former aides

Posted on January 30, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Well, well, well.

Criminal cases against at least two of County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s former employees have been dismissed by the Office of the Attorney General, nearly two weeks since District Attorney Sean Teare recused himself of the prosecutions.

Prosecutors under Attorney General Ken Paxton, who joined the case last April, filed motions Wednesday to dismiss Aaron Dunn and Wallis Nader’s respective charges of misuse of official information, tampering with records, their lawyers confirmed. The 2022 charges stemmed from accusations that Dunn and Nader, while working for Hidalgo as advisers, handed a $11 million COVID-19 contract to Elevate Strategies, a bidder with Democratic ties and little public health experience, after giving them insider information.

The dismissals, which a judge later signed, cite “interest of justice” in their decision to end the prosecution.

“We are pleased that the criminal charges against Aaron Dunn have been dismissed,” Dunn’s attorney, Derek Hollingsworth, said in a statement. “This brings an end to a politically motivated prosecution that never should have been brought to court.”

The same charges against Alex Triantaphyllis remain pending, records show. He is slated to return to court in February.

[…]

Former district attorney Kim Ogg held up the so-called Elevate Strategies investigation as a symbol that her former office was holding public officials to task. Her targets, however, considered the prosecutions more akin to a smear campaign.

Hidalgo, herself, has declared the prosecution the result of Ogg’s “dirty politics.”

On Thursday, the county judge briefly addressed the dismissals as proof of Nader and Dunn’s integrity.

“I’m glad everyone else can see that now too,” Hidalgo said.

Ogg refused to discuss the dismissals and other matters when reached at the Harris County Administration Building, where she now works. She then called a Chronicle reporter “biased” as she walked outside.

Ogg has defended her prosecution of Hidalgo’s former staffers even as Democratic precinct chairs listed prosecutions like it among their grievances used to censure the then-district attorney before her 2024 primary loss. Weeks later, she partially handed the prosecution to Paxton’s prosecutors, arguing Teare could not be trusted with the cases if elected to replace her.

Her decision allowed Teare to keep some control come January by not recusing her office outright.

Teare moved to recuse his office after assuming Ogg’s old job, citing “intense political and media scrutiny” over the contract investigation and indictments against the former aides.

Paxton’s office did not respond to an email requesting comment on the dismissals. His prosecutors cited “interest of justice” in ending the prosecution without further explanation. Other reasons on the form, that were not checked, included insufficient evidence or the granting of immunity.

Amanda Peters, a professor at South Texas College of Law, said prosecutors are allowed some discretion in whether a case continues, especially if it’s unlikely to lead to a conviction. And as for the vague reasons surrounding the dismissals, Peters said prosecutors are often taught to leave dismissal reasons vague to prevent further legal actions, such as civil rights complaints for malicious prosecution.

See here, here, and here for some background. The dismissal of charges against Dunn and Nader certainly lends credence to the allegations that this case was political in nature, the result of the feud between Judge Hidalgo and now-former DA Kim Ogg. There are still charges pending against Alex Traintaphyllis, though, so let’s hold off on making any broader statements just yet. Maybe that’s still under review, maybe there’s a plea deal in the works, maybe the new prosecutors will show up at the next court date in February and announce they’re ready to move forward. In the meantime, I’m sure Dunn and Nader, who can now file to get their lawyers’ fees reimbursed from the county, are happy with this outcome. Houston Public Media has more.

Posted in Crime and Punishment | Tagged Aaron Dunn, Alex Triantaphyllis, Attorney General, Democratic primary, District Attorney, Election 2024, Harris County, Kim Ogg, Lina Hidalgo, Sean Teare, special prosecutor, Wallis Nader | Comments Off

HISD graduates’ earning potential

Posted on January 30, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Very concerning, but I have a lot of questions.

Less than 20% of Houston ISD’s high school graduates earn enough to make a living wage in Harris County six years after obtaining their diplomas, according to an analysis of by Good Reason Houston.

A single adult needs to earn $42,158 a year to cover their basic needs in Harris County, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator. About 17% of HISD students who graduated in 2017 earned enough to meet or exceed this threshold by 2023, according to the local education nonprofit. Neighboring school districts only do slightly better.

The estimated living wage accounts for annual expenses for a single, childless adult in Harris County including $12,337 for housing, $9,823 for transportation, $3,785 for food, and $3,168 for medical costs.

Cary Wright, CEO of Good Reason Houston, said the number of students earning a living wage in HISD — and the rest of Houston’s area school districts — is “woefully insufficient” if they are aiming to provide students with the education they deserve and the ability to obtain high-wage, high-skill and high-demand jobs after graduation.

This data “should call upon Houstonians to really ask the question of, ‘Can we say with confidence that, because of the quality of our public education system that’s available to every child in every neighborhood, they are getting the world class preparation and support they need to be competitive with their peers in an ever changing, dynamic economy?’” Wright said.

This nonprofit’s analysis is based on data from 9,056 HISD students who graduated high school in 2017, including information from the Texas Education Agency, Texas High Education Coordinating Board and Texas Workforce Commission. HISD did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

The nonprofit found that, in total, 20% of students who graduated from high schools in the Houston region in 2017 earned enough to make a living wage six years after graduation, The districts in the Houston region include Aldine ISD, Alief ISD, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, HISD, Klein ISD, Pasadena ISD, Spring ISD and Spring Branch ISD.

“Somewhere close to 8,000 Houstonians are earning a living wage (every year) who graduated from an area high school, and the fact that our systems can only produce that amount of young people per year who are earning a living wage is, I think, a wake up call to every Houstonian,” Wright said.

HISD high school graduates reported a lower average annual wage after six years compared to the average Houston-area school district. HISD graduates with a bachelor’s degree earned $3,477 less, while HISD graduates with no postsecondary credentials earned $738 less than the average wage for all Houston-area graduates, according to the nonprofit’s data analysis.

Good Reason Houston’s study found that students were more likely to earn a living wage if they had met State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness reading standards or taken algebra in eighth grade. They also would increase their chances if they took at least five advanced courses in high school, such as Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes.

Good Reason Houston’s website is here and the report in question is here. It requires an email address to download, which I have not yet done. I looked around their website to find the report before I found it in the Chron story. They’ve got a lot of data and reports, and though they mentioned the Chron story about their report on Twitter, I didn’t see any announcement of or obvious link to the report from their website. Maybe be a little more user friendly like that? Just a suggestion.

As for the report itself, I agree that this is alarming, and that we need HISD to do a better job of preparing its students for future employment, both for the students themselves and for the economic vitality of our region. With the caveat that I have not read this report, this story raised a whole bunch of questions for me, including:

– The students who graduated high school in 2017 and went to a four-year university would have graduated from there in 2021 or so, right at the start of the pandemic. Those who attended a two-year college or who went straight into the workforce would have been there before the pandemic, but not by much. How much of an effect might that have had on their earning capacity? Thanks to a ton of stimulus spending, the US economy recovered pretty quickly, but there was still a lot of disruption. It would be very helpful to try to quantify that.

– You can see the map of the school districts in GRH’s purview, which includes a couple of higher-income regions but mostly places with lower-income students in the public schools. How do the graduates of, say Katy and Cy-Fair and Fort Bend and places like that compare? (Note: the story lists Cy-Fair as one of the districts in the Houston region, which seems to imply it was studied as well, but it’s not included in that map, while the others are. Not sure what to make of that.)

– What is the trend here? Has it always been this way with HISD and the other districts they did study, or has something changed in the last ten or twenty years? Basically, I’m asking for more context to this data.

– How much do the income and education levels of the families of these graduates affect their earnings? I have to think there’s some stratification between, say, the kids whose parents graduated from college and the kids who are the first in their families to go to college? Again, more context, please.

– Where do charter schools fit in on this? We know that overall, charters are roughly on par with public school districts – there are some good schools, some bad ones, and plenty in between. How do they do on this metric?

– What are the recommendations for improvement? The story mentions that “graduates [who] earned a postsecondary credential, including professional certifications” had the best outcomes (no surprise) and that expanded professional certificates being offered by community colleges ought to provide a boost. What specific steps should HISD be taking? What should the Legislature do to help?

I hope we learn more about this. I appreciate the research, but there needs to be followup. Campos has more.

Posted in School days | Tagged Aldine ISD, Alief ISD, coronavirus, Cypress-Fairbanks, Good Reason Houston, HISD, Houston, Klein ISD, Pasadena ISD, schools, Spring Branch, Spring ISD, STAAR, Texas Education Agency, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Texas Workforce Commission | 2 Comments

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