A brief robotaxi update

Posted on April 16, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Cruise is back on the streets, but with human drivers for the time being.

A driverless Cruise car sits in traffic on Austin Street in downtown Houston on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. Photo: Jay R. Jordan/Axios

Cruise has announced that it’s resuming tests for its fleet of self-driving taxis in Phoenix, Arizona , though not with passengers just yet. The autonomous vehicle maker says it will start with humans behind the wheel, with no passengers and no autonomous driving mechanisms engaged.

In California, lawmakers banned the GM subsidiary from operating its vehicles in the state after one of them ran over a San Francisco pedestrian and dragged them over 20 feet in October, after another vehicle threw the victim into the robotaxi’s path. That was just weeks after another incident where one of Cruise’s vehicles collided with a fire truck after failing to properly yield to the truck’s emergency signals.

The company’s been dealing with the fallout ever since; Cruise first paused operations nationwide and issued a software update to 950 of its vehicles to change how the cars respond to crash events, amidst multiple investigations into the incidents. They’ve caused something of a mass exodus in the company, starting with then CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt and nine other leaders. Cruise also laid off 24 percent of its workforce shortly after.

Cruise says its intent with renewed testing is to help improve its systems by collecting more road data to continue feeding its machine learning model, and that it hopes to eventually resume human-supervised autonomous tests in Phoenix. It picked the city, it says, based on its “strong history” of supporting automotive innovation and because many of its employees reside there.

See here and here for some background on the pause, and here and here for more on the first days of Cruise in Houston. I expect it will be awhile before we see these cars on our streets again. I’ll keep an eye out for further updates.

Meanwhile, in the Things No One Asked For department:

Two California agencies that regulate robotaxis said they haven’t heard from Tesla about its plans for the cars, even though Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced last week that he’ll reveal a new robotaxi product in August.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles and the California Public Utilities Commission, or CPUC, said in separate statements to NBC News that Tesla hadn’t applied for the two permits it would need to operate a driverless car service in the country’s most populous state.

Two other states that regulate robotaxis, Arizona and Nevada, also said they had not heard from Tesla about its plans.

The lack of permits — or any attempt to acquire them — raises questions about how quickly Tesla would be able to get a robotaxi service up and running.

“Tesla’s a long way away from getting that approval,” said Brad Templeton, a consultant in the autonomous vehicle industry.

[…]

The CPUC handles permits to operate robotaxis as businesses, including for tech startup Waymo’s services in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Tesla has no CPUC permit and hasn’t applied, the commission said.

“If Tesla wanted to provide a robotaxi service they’d need to follow the same rules as other such companies (i.e., DMV approval for driverless testing/deployment before seeking a CPUC permit). The CPUC has not been contacted for such a permit,” the commission said in a statement in response to questions.

You can read the story about that announcement here. Elon Musk says this will happen even though the company does not appear to be anywhere close to ready for it. What could possibly go wrong?

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Interview with Melissa Noriega

Posted on April 15, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Melissa Noriega

I have two more interviews for you for the now-elected HCAD Board positions, for which I remind you that election day is May 4 and early voting begins a week from today on April 22 and runs through April 30. Today’s candidate is a familiar name, former At Large City Council member and State Rep. Melissa Noriega. She worked for 27 years in HISD in various positions and for three years at Baker Ripley after that. She served on Council for three terms under Mayor Parker, chairing the Public Safety committee. I’ve known her for almost 20 years now and consider her a good friend. She is running for Position #2 and was endorsed by the Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation in that race. Here’s what we talked about:

PREVIOUSLY:

Pelumi Adeleke, Position 3
Austin Pooley, Position 2

See here and here for what we know about these HCAD positions. I will have one more interviews on Wednesday this week. Early voting for this race and the SD15 special election runs from April 22-30.

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Trying again on judge shopping

Posted on April 15, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

If at first you don’t succeed…

U.S. Senate leaders introduced legislation to end “judge shopping” — a practice that’s made a federal courthouse in Amarillo with a Trump-appointed judge a destination for conservative litigants challenging Biden administration policies.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced the “End Judge Shopping Act” on Wednesday, which would require judges to be randomly assigned to civil cases that could have state- or nation-wide consequences. The bill codifies a similar rule issued by the Judicial Conference of the United States last month to combat judge shopping. The conference is a congressionally created body that oversees the administration of federal courts.

David Godbey, chief judge for the Northern District of Texas, wrote to Schumer earlier this month saying that the judges in his district would not adhere to the Judiciary Conference’s rule. Schumer, in response, issued a statement that “the Senate will consider legislative options that put an end to this misguided practice.”

Texas has several judicial divisions with just one federal judge, meaning that litigants who file suit in that division can usually predict who their case will be assigned to. Conservative plaintiffs suing the Biden administration have flocked to Amarillo, where U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk is the only sitting judge, and has handed down rulings in their favor.

Their cases have touched issues ranging from abortion medication and immigration to LGBTQ worker protections.

A handful of Republican senators protested the Judicial Conference rule, arguing that it’s Congress’ responsibility to determine how cases are assigned — a responsibility Congress delegated to the district courts.

“To state the obvious, Judicial Conference policy is not legislation,” Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina wrote last month in letters to several chief judges.

McConnell, however, also introduced legislation to tackle judge shopping Wednesday. His bill, the “Stop Helping Outcome Preferences (SHOP) Act,” would limit injunctions to the parties in the case or jurisdiction of the judge, rather than having state- or nationwide effect. It would also sanction attorneys whom a disciplinary body of judges determines has engaged in judge shopping.

Schumer introduced his bill with Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin of Illinois and 38 other Democratic senators. McConnell introduced his bill with Tillis and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas.

“Former President Trump and Leader McConnell stacked the courts with MAGA judges who are striking down laws, freedoms, and regulations left and right,” Schumer said in a statement. “We can’t let unelected judges thrash our democracy.”

See here and here for some background. Honestly, Sen. Schumer should include some provision to limit national injunctions as well – I know that tactic was used with great effect and for excellent reasons during the Trump administration, but it’s clearly gotten far, far out of hand now, enough to make even the likes of Neil Gorsuch grumpy. And while we’re doing that, let’s impose some ethics rules on SCOTUS and do something to rein in the lawless chaos monsters on the appeals courts; if we can’t expand SCOTUS, let’s expand the Fifth Circuit. The current state of affairs cannot stand.

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Bastard cabbage update

Posted on April 15, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Because I still like saying “bastard cabbage”.

Bastard cabbage

There’s a war raging in Texas this spring — between wildflowers and bastard cabbage.

Officials say bastard cabbage, also known by its proper name, rapistrum rugosum, poses a threat to the livelihood of wildflowers, which bloom from April to September in the Lone Star State.

“This invasive plant outcompetes our native wildflowers by blocking sun with its broad leaves, leaving some fields a complete monoculture of bastard cabbage,” said officials with the University of Texas at Austin Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. “It particularly loves disturbed areas, like new roadsides and lands cleared for development.”

According to the University of Texas at Austin Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, bastard cabbage has surfaced into “natural areas along streams” plus forests. Additionally, officials have recorded bastard cabbage in at least 17 states and multiple Canadian provinces.

The Texas Invasive Species Institute says the bastard cabbage can form a “vegetative cover of mostly one species”— more specifically a monoculture. History has shown the wild plant typically grows in areas such as agricultural fields, disturbed lands or roadside. Although its unclear how bastard cabbage became prominent in the United States, experts say its seeds spread through contaminated grass seed mixes and even mulching materials. As far as its appearance, the multi-leaf plant can grow between one to five feet or higher. While most of the plant remains greens, there’s portion of it that have a reddish color. It grows from early spring to the summer.

Of course I’ve written about bastard cabbage before, and of course it would still make a great band name. The Chron had two articles within a week about bastard cabbage, noting that the recent rains has helped it flourish this year; that was the case in 2012, also a spring following a dry year, when I last noted it. The thing about bastard cabbage is that it’s a nice flowering plant, which makes people want to keep it around, but it really is best to try to eradicate it. Know before you grow.

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Weekend link dump for April 14

Posted on April 14, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

“Just as Trump’s mixture of insecurity, anger and grievance bonded him with small-town, white, declining America, his hunger for power and the punishment of enemies bonded him with America’s rising authoritarian movement.”

An interview with 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Ilana Diamond Rovner that is worth your time to read.

“Opill, the over-the-counter birth control pill, is now available at H-E-B stores and other retailers across San Antonio and Texas.”

“Godzilla got domesticated because he became a star. Being an unknowable terror is fine for one film, and possibly for a sequel or two. But apparently the thinking is, if you want to keep people coming back film after film, eventually you have to make your monster someone the audience roots for, even if the monster is still nominally a bad guy.”

“Recently, the FEC approved final rules to make it easier for federal candidates to draw salaries from their privately raised campaign funds and pay themselves a livable wage. This will change the political landscape.”

“Let’s direct our energy toward the crisis of belonging. Maybe then we can understand the crisis of belief.”

“According to these sources, Trader Joe’s commonly solicits product samples and even asks for potential recipe adjustments—a revealing and time-consuming exercise for bootstrapped founders—before inexplicably abandoning the negotiations and releasing its own private-label versions of similar products at lower prices.”

RIP, Jerry Grote, longtime catcher for the New York Mets, member of their 1969 World Series champion team, also an alumnus of my alma mater, Trinity University.

“This is one of the most amazing stories to come down the pike in I don’t know how long, published over the weekend in The Washington Post. The short version is that Tim Sheehy, probable Republican nominee for Senate in Montana, is a comical liar and is trying to cover up that lie with a story so preposterous that it’s kind of a joy to run through because it’s so hilariously bad.”

Please make sure this ad also runs in Texas. Thanks.

It was fifty years ago now that Henry Aaron hit #715.

“This is unacceptable and blatant discrimination that not only harms trans, nonbinary and intersex individuals, but limits the potential of all athletes. It’s important to recognize that these discriminatory policies don’t enhance fairness in competition. Instead, they send a message of exclusion and reinforce dangerous stereotypes that harm all women.”

RIP, Peter Higgs Nobel Prize-winning physicist who came up with the idea of the Higgs boson particle.

“The new lunar time zone, Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC), is all about ensuring the success of future, multinational missions to the moon”.

Meet Harley Redin, another figure from women’s basketball history that you (like I) had probably never heard of before.

Happy retirement to Tara VanDerveer, the winningest coach in college basketball history.

It’s 1864 all over again in Arizona. And it could be 1873 all over again everywhere else if Trump wins in November.

RIP, Carlos Alvarez, businessman and philanthropist who brought Mexican beers Modelo and Corona to the U.S. and made Shiner beer a hit.

RIP, Tom Copeland, former executive director of the Texas Film Commission and a pivotal figure in the growth of the state’s film industry.

If it had been up to David Lynch, you would never have known who killed Laura Palmer.

“Twitter just doing a “redirect links in tweets that go to x.com to twitter.com instead but accidentally do so for all domains that end x.com like eg spacex.com going to spacetwitter.com” is not absolutely the funniest thing I could imagine but it’s high up there.”

RIP, Trina Robbins, longtime cartoonist and artist who was one of the most instrumental female voices in underground comix, first woman to draw Wonder Woman for DC. Mark Evanier adds his tribute.

OJ Simpson has died. I don’t have anything to say about that, but Josh Marshall has a few thoughts if you’re interested.

“There certainly are more stresses in the modern game that likely contribute to injury, but the truth is that while this spring is bad for elbow injuries, it’s always been this way in recent years. It’s always bad.”

Love is dead.

“Roku says it discovered a data breach impacting 567,000 accounts, which the streaming platform found while investigating a security breach last month that compromised 15,000 users.”

“Real-life ‘Rosie the Riveters’ reunite in D.C. to win the nation’s top civilian honor”.

RIP, Fritz Peterson, former MLB pitcher mostly for the Yankees who rather famously traded wives with his then-teammate Mike Kekich. Go google those two names if this is a story you’ve never heard before. The trade worked out much better for Peterson than it did for Kekich.

RIP, Faith Ringgold, artist known for her story quilts depicting African-American experiences.

RIP, Lori and George Schappell, the world’s oldest conjoined twins.

Happy retirement to The Dogfather.

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged | 2 Comments

Astroworld lawsuit update

Posted on April 14, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Drake got himself removed as a defendant.

A Harris County district court judge on Wednesday dismissed Drake from the sprawling civil lawsuit over the deadly Astroworld concert.

The Canadian rapper was a guest performer at the November 2021 concert, appearing on stage as people were being injured and killed in a crowd crush during festival headliner Travis Scott’s set.

Drake, whose real name is Aubrey Drake Graham, in March asked to be dismissed from the lawsuit, arguing he had nothing to do with the festival’s planning or management.

Others were not so lucky.

A Harris County District court judge whittled down the number of defendants named in a civil lawsuit seeking damages over the deaths and injuries caused by the 2021 Astroworld disaster.

Judge Kristen Hawkins’s April 8 orders didn’t let every company and person out of the massive civil case, however. Apple Inc., the technology giant, and companies affiliated with Astroworld headliner Travis Scott, were denied in their bids to be dismissed, according to court records.

[…]

Hawkins’ first round of orders Monday didn’t go into specifics about why some companies were dismissed and others remained.

She signed orders dismissing Eighteentwentysix, a company that produces concert tours; Re: Source Event Group, which designs concert stages; Epic Records, a record label and one of the producers for the concert; and Paradocs, a medical service provider.

Darryl Platt, Live Nation’s director of operations, was also dismissed from the lawsuit, according to court records.

Another order denied Apple Inc.’s motion for summary judgment. Also kept in the case, for now, were Front Gate Ticketing Solutions, a promoter and the concert’s official ticket provider; and four concert security companies: Contemporary Services Corporation, Apex Security Group, AJ Melio and Associates, and Valle Services.

Travis Scott-connected businesses LaFlame Enterprises and Catcus Jack Enterprises also had their requests for summary judgement denied, according to court records.

See here and here for some background. Travis Scott’s attorneys will make their argument on Monday. My gut says they’ll fail, but I’m just guessing. The trial itself is set for May. Nothing else to add, just nothing this for the record.

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Chron overview of the HD139 runoff

Posted on April 14, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

While I hope that the Chron runs overviews of all of the primary runoffs, I really hope they run at least one freaking story about the HCAD special election.

Charlene Ward Johnson

Angie Thibodeaux is an affordable housing consultant who wants to make homebuying more accessible. Charlene Ward Johnson hopes to use her time on the Houston Community College Board to improve public education funding.

The two Houston women will face off in a May runoff election in one of the few open Democratic House seats in Harris County. Rep. Jarvis Johnson is vacating the House District 139 seat for a bid to fill the state Senate seat formerly held by Houston Mayor John Whitmire.

Thibodeaux and Ward Johnson emerged from a group of five candidates in this year’s Democratic primary, receiving 33% and 24% of the vote, respectively. With similar platforms, both Thibodeaux and Ward Johnson cited their experience as what makes them the best candidates to represent the district, which stretches northwest of the city.

Ward Johnson is currently the District 2 trustee for the community college board. In that position, she said she’s worked to reduce the cost of attendance by advocating for more overall school funding.

“I decided to run because I do understand the issues of the community,” Ward Johnson said. “I understand what’s been going on in Austin and I have the experience to go there and get resources and bring solutions back to the people.”

Thibodeaux works as a consultant for the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, a nonprofit organization that helps historically disadvantaged people become homeowners. She’s also a former vice president of Bank of America’s Home Retention Division and a former president of the Acres Homes Super Neighborhood Council.

“For the last 25 years, I’ve been on every end of the spectrum, from the corporate environment to nonprofit to advocacy, outreach and organizing,” Thibodeaux said. “I wanted to run because I know that I can impact and affect policy, particularly when it comes to school, public safety and our seniors.”

[…]

Angie Thibodeaux

As for public education, Thibodeaux and Ward Johnson both want to increase teachers’ salaries and see an end to the state takeover of Houston Independent School District.

Ward Johnson is against private school vouchers and says she wants to introduce legislation that creates a variety of funding formulas for public schools, rather than just one.

“I will create a different funding formula because our community may have different needs from another community,” Ward Johnson said. “Having just a blanket amount you give for every student does not work.”

Thibodeaux did not take a stance on school vouchers and said she wants to examine school curriculum to get a better understanding of why the GOP is pushing to promote private education in the first place.

“I think we need to dive into the details, dig deep and see what the root of the problem is,” Thibodeaux said. “Why are we having this discussion in the first place? What brought the bill about?”

You can get more information on both candidates from the Erik Manning spreadsheet. I interviewed Charlene Ward Johnson for the primary, and you can listen to that here. I reached out to Thibodeaux for an interview but never got a response. I may try again for the runoff, we’ll see. I will say, if I do talk with her, I hope she has a better answer about vouchers than what she gave here. I doubt she’d ever support an Abbott voucher bill, but how can you be a candidate for the House and not already know what their push to give a bunch of public money to private schools is about? This is nothing new, all that has changed is the ratcheting up of the pressure on Republicans to fall in line even if they see no benefit to their district and constituents, and the willingness to viciously attack otherwise staunch allies for this difference of opinion. All due respect, but where have you been?

Anyway, I’m sure we’ll get more of these stories, as there are several runoffs of great interest. What we need before then is some coverage of the SD15 special election and especially the HCAD races, since all of Harris County will have the opportunity to vote for those three positions, if only they know that the need to. My expectation for turnout for this right now is abysmal, because we do not have any history of voting in May other than in primary runoffs. And this ain’t that. C’mon Chron, get on the story already.

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Fertitta still interested in an NHL team

Posted on April 14, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Also possibly a WNBA team.

For the second time in more than a month, Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta has stated his interest in bringing an NHL team to Houston.

Fertitta, in an interview Wednesday on CNBC’s “Power Lunch,” was asked about his pursuit of a hockey team as well as a WNBA franchise for Toyota Center.

“We would like to work to get an NHL team in Houston — I’m working on it,” Fertitta said.

Fertitta was asked about the WNBA, which has not had a team in Houston since the Comets’ run from 1997 to 2008, in relation to the surge of interest in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, whose championship game on ABC for the first time drew a bigger TV audience than the men’s final that aired on TBS.

“I would consider, definitely, I think it’s a great topic with women’s sports to talk about a WNBA team in Houston also,” Fertitta said.

As noted in the article, Fertitta was talking about an NHL team in February. It’s the first time I’m aware of that he’s mentioned the WNBA, but that seems to be a matter of timing. If his goal is to make the Toyota Center more active, that would be in line with the vision. Of course, until either the NHL or the WNBA announce a plan to expand (or in the WNBA’s case, a plan that includes Houston as a candidate), this is all just talk. Relocation of an NHL franchise is less likely now, as the main target for such the Arizona Coyotes have now been acquired by a guy who will move them to Salt Lake City. As such, in the absolute best case scenario, we’re at least a few years away. I’ll be waiting to see what happens.

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Ted Cruz is still trying to make people believe he has “bipartisan accomplishments”

Posted on April 13, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

We return to the Department of Obvious Reactions to Dumb Things.

I hear Cancun is nice

Heading into the heat of his reelection race against Dallas Congressman Colin Allred, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is testing the waters with a rebrand.

Cruz, who has made a name for himself as an uncompromising conservative stalwart, is casting himself as a bipartisan lawmaker with a penchant for reaching across the aisle.

“I actually have very good relationships with many of my colleagues across the aisle,” Cruz told The Texas Tribune, citing his work with Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar. “I’ve worked with all three of them and all three are friends.”

The interview was part of Cruz’s recent media blitz highlighting his work with Democrats, off the heels of his “Democrats for Cruz” announcement which aims to attract left-leaning voters this November. He debuted that messaging during a Laredo meeting with the U.S. Hispanic Business Council, where he stressed the value of bipartisanship legislating and enumerated several bills he’s written with Democratic senators. Meanwhile, Cruz is blasting Allred as not as bipartisan as he claims, citing the Democrat’s voting record with his party’s leadership.

“It is easy and probably more fun to cover the battles that I have waged against the Obama administration or the Biden administration, or [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer,” Cruz said. “Those may make for easy headlines, but often overlooked are now 99 different pieces of legislation that I’ve authored and passed into law in my time in the Senate.”

The rhetorical shift comes as polls show another tight race for Cruz. A February poll by the University of Texas at Tyler showed the two candidates equally polling at 41%. Another poll conducted in March by Marist College found Cruz ahead by six percentage points.

His critics say he’s trying to rewrite history, noting that Cruz has built a persona that demonizes Democrats. In his podcast, countless radio and television appearances, and his books, Cruz routinely blasts the other party as actively working to destroy the country.

Cruz consistently votes against some of the biggest bipartisan bills in Congress and is routinely ranked as one of the most conservative members in the Senate. He was ranked 91 out of 98 senators in 2021 in the Lugar Center’s bipartisan index by Georgetown University (Two senators weren’t included in the ranking because they hadn’t served for at least six months). Texas’ senior Sen. John Cornyn was ranked 8th.

“I don’t think Ted Cruz is fooling anybody,” Allred said. “He spent 12 years being the most divisive — and proudly so — partisan warrior in the United States. And I think it’s kind of laughable actually that at this point, when he’s in a close race, that he wants to now stress, ‘Oh, actually I have been working in a bipartisan way.’”

Please see here for my previous entry in this series. I will not be taking questions at this time. Also, if you happen to be close to someone in the “Democrats for Cruz” group, please ensure they stay indoors during rainstorms, to minimize the risk that they might drown like a turkey. Thank you.

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So what is HISD going to do with this bond proposal?

Posted on April 13, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I have no idea. I’m not sure they have any idea, either.

Houston ISD officials are considering asking taxpayers to approve a multibillion-dollar bond in November, but Superintendent Mike Miles’ administration has yet to go through a widely used process to involve the community — and may be running short on time to do so.

With seven months to go before a potential record bond election, HISD leaders haven’t convened a community committee to offer feedback and make recommendations about what should be included in a package.

In recent years, all of the Houston area’s largest districts have assembled a similar committee, which helps get community buy-in for spending billions of dollars on school construction projects and other expensive upgrades. HISD could face a particularly tall task in garnering support for a bond this year, given widespread community opposition to the state-appointed superintendent and school board running the district.

An HISD spokesperson told the Houston Landing that district leaders are “considering” creating a group of community members to assist in the planning process. If HISD does form a committee, it likely will be later in the process relative to other districts, which generally set up the groups roughly six to nine months before the election date.

Miles has not confirmed that the district will go out for a bond in November, but has repeatedly said his administration is looking into the possibility.

“HISD students deserve better than the buildings they have inherited after more than a decade of neglect,” an HISD spokesperson wrote in an email to the Landing. “If and when the district moves forward with a bond election, the bond plan will address the most urgent student needs and will not raise taxes.”

[…]

Most Texas districts pass a bond roughly every five years. But HISD’s most recent bond passed in 2012, a $1.9 billion package backed by roughly two-thirds of voters. The district aimed to hold a bond election in the late 2010s, but many voters lost faith in the district due to infighting among board members and the prospect of an imminent state takeover.

As a result, many of HISD’s buildings are breaking down, with repeated heating and cooling issues.

While HISD families and leaders generally agree that the district needs to pass a bond, a potential November election still could prove contentious.

Voting on a bond represents one of the only remaining ways that Houston taxpayers can directly influence the district’s operations following Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath’s appointment of Miles and an unelected school board last June.

Some HISD families and community advocates have criticized Miles’ dramatic overhaul of the district, arguing that he has ignored community voices in his decision-making process. Miles has said he’s made a few recent changes in response to community feedback — most notably, delaying the rollout of a new principal evaluation system — though he’s generally pushed forward with his preferred methods for changing district operations.

At a March school board meeting, several parents said they would shoot down any upcoming bond as a protest vote against Miles.

“We, the electorate, have the responsibility to not throw good money after bad. So, we might have to touch a sacred cow, meaning the bond,” HISD parent Stacy Anderson said at the meeting. “In my 22 years of living and being a voter in the city of Houston, I have never, ever voted against a bond. But I can tell you now, with the way that it is going, I will have to.”

HISD has not said how large any upcoming bond proposal might be, but a credit opinion issued by Moody’s investor service in late March said that the district expects a bond package between $3.5 billion and $5 billion. HISD said the estimate was based on facilities planning work from 2022 and will be updated.

See here for a bit of background. This is the dilemma in a nutshell. HISD desperately needs a bond, to refurbish and update facilities and equipment that fall short of what the students require and deserve. HISD, and in particular Mike Miles, also needs the support of a community that it has treated with disdain and indifference in order to get that bond. All of us in the community, many of whom have utter distrust of Miles and his agenda, are thus left with a lousy choice. I am exactly where Stacy Anderson is, and I hate it. Thanks a hell of a lot, Mike.

As to how HISD proceeds if it does put forward a bond, I don’t know and I almost don’t care. I don’t see how they can get the trust they’ll need no matter what they do at this point. I need to go mutter some obscenities under my breath. We’ll talk more later.

UPDATE: So on brand.

Without any public discussion, Houston ISD’s appointed Board of Managers voted Thursday to formally authorize the administration to explore a 2024 bond election.

“Too many HISD students are learning in facilities that, quite simply, are not acceptable,” appointed Superintendent Mike Miles said in a prepared statement after the board meeting. “Our kids need and deserve better, and we look forward to talking to the broader HISD community about the investments we can make to provide all our students with safe, healthy, and effective learning environments.”

Miles can now explore putting together a multi-billion dollar bond package after the vote to allow the district to use proceeds from a future bond election to reimburse the district’s general fund for money they use to put the bond together. Bond proceeds would otherwise be spent to pay for upgrades to school facilities and infrastructure.

“Without any public discussion”, because of course. Yes, I know, this doesn’t mean there will be a bond, just that HISD has decided to move forward on maybe having one, and there can be discussion of it then. I’m sure any discussion at this time would have been an opportunity for many more “fire Mike Miles” comments. But still, this is so on brand it’s almost a self-parody.

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Lawsuit filed to stop the Boca Chica land swap

Posted on April 12, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Okay.

A coalition of Rio Grande Valley organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, seeking to block the state agency from pursuing a land swap with Elon Musk’s SpaceX spacecraft company.

Last month, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission voted unanimously to pursue an exchange that would give 43 acres of Boca Chica State Park to SpaceX in exchange for 477 acres adjacent to Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. Rio Grande Valley residents opposed the exchange, arguing that Boca Chica is sacred to the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas and that the public park has long been a favorite recreational outpost for the majority Hispanic community in the Rio Grande Valley.

In the lawsuit filed last week in the district court of Travis County, environmental groups argue that the exchange is unlawful because the state failed to consider alternatives to giving away public land and failed to ensure the minimization of harm to public land. The groups also argue that the state did not consider the best interests of the local community. The suit states that SpaceX does not own the land the state would receive in the swap. The Texas Standard reported in January that Musk was still negotiating the purchase of the private land.

“This is just the latest example of our state officials failing to fulfill their obligations to Texans, whenever SpaceX is involved,” Marisa Perales, an attorney representing the three Rio Grande Valley organizations who filed the lawsuit, said in a statement. “Protecting public park land and the public’s interest means saying ‘no’ to the demands of SpaceX, whose space flight activities have caused harm to public lands and wildlife habitats.”

[…]

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department declined to comment on the lawsuit but said the agency has, for many years, been interested in the 477 acres they will acquire through the land swap.

“The 477 acres offered to TPWD near Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge encompass one of the most biologically diverse regions in North America, sheltering endangered species, winter fowl and other migratory birds,” said Cory Chandler, an agency spokesperson. “The land has been of interest to us and the conservation community for many years and an exchange would create a tenfold return while allowing TPWD to work with partners in the region to plan for a new state park for public enjoyment with access for fishing, kayaking, wildlife viewing, hiking, biking and family gatherings in a rapidly developing region of Texas.”

See here for the previous update. I had missed that story about SpaceX not actually owning the land in question but trying to buy it presumably so that it could be swapped. All of my previous statements about this deal seeming to be reasonable on its face are hereby suspended until further notice.

Posted in Legal matters, The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Lawsuit filed to stop the Boca Chica land swap

Parking meter extension proposal sent to Prop A committee

Posted on April 12, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

We sure do live in a different world now.

City Council voted on Wednesday to send a proposal extending parking meter enforcement times to committee following a clash between council members who introduced the agenda item and those who expressed concerns about the potential consequences in their districts.

Council Members Edward Pollard and Tiffany Thomas, who brought the item forward under Proposition A – which allows any three council members to put an item on the agenda – were among the four who voted against sending it to committee in a 13-4 vote. Council Member Fred Flickinger, the third member who sponsored the agenda item, voted to send it to committee.

The current city ordinance requires people to pay for city parking meters between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, with free parking on Sunday. The proposed change would extend the payment enforcement period from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., Monday through Saturday.

The agenda item was tagged by Pollard last week after his other proposal about adding speeding bumps was sent to committee. Council Members Joaquin Martinez and Mario Castillo, who represent parts of the city with the highest concentration of parking meters, championed the motion Wednesday to send the proposal to the Proposition A Committee, which Mayor John Whitmire created to help members vet and refine their proposals.

The freshmen council members explained that they were given little notice of the original proposal before it was added to the agenda last week, and they needed time to contact key stakeholders in their districts to better understand the potential impacts of the proposal.

“You’re impacting the whole business district, and you’re not even talking to them about what you want to do,” Martinez said Friday.

[…]

Pollard told council Wednesday that sending the proposal to committee would violate the process approved by voters under Proposition A, which does not mandate council proposals go through committee before being added to council agendas.

“Now (if) the items that are brought forward are not supported by council, then you can vote it down,” Pollard said. “You can delay it. You can tag it. That’s your prerogative, like every other agenda item that may come to us. But to send them to a committee … I think is going against the will of the voters.”

Castillo argued that all proposals – even if brought under the new charter amendment – may be tagged, delayed or referred to committees.

“There’s no automatic requirement that everything brought to council via Prop A will go to a committee, and I’m sure there will be examples in circumstances where we bring items to council and they get passed or they get voted down directly,” Castillo said. “But this clearly needs more work.”

See here for more on the parking meter proposal, and Prop A committee. On the latter, I don’t remember the wording of Prop A from last year’s ballot. Looking back on the coverage in the leadup to the election, it was presented as “three Council members can put an item on the agenda for Council to vote on” – however the actual proposition was worded, I’m pretty sure it didn’t say anything about going through a committee first. But if a majority of City Council votes to send it to a committee for further consideration, I don’t see how that violates the letter or the spirit of the ordinance. It was never promised that any of these items would get passed, just that they’d be considered.

For sure, this opens up the possibility of shenanigans – delays, roadblocks, major changes, and so on. But that’s a normal part of the process, and again there was never a guarantee that these items would succeed. They still need a majority to vote for them, and if such a majority exists I doubt they’ll be truly blocked. And since my initial concern about Prop A was its potential for rogue Council members to put divisive time-wasting items on the agenda, I’m fine with there being an outlet to corral that. So far Prop A has been used for substantial items – they may or may not get adopted, but they have been worth discussing. If we get to a point where something that would pass if it could ever get out of committee fails to come for a vote, then we’ve got a problem. Until then, we’re figuring this out and we’ll see how it goes.

As for the parking meter extension itself, my initial reaction was to the idea that we were extending hours from 10 PM to 2 AM, based on my experience with the meters in the City Hall parking lot, which we use for shows at the Hobby Center. I’m still fine with this proposal, but I understand the concerns expressed in the story about how it might affect downtown and the office maintenance workers who are there after business hours. I’m sure there are ways to mitigate some of that and guess what? That’s the sort of thing that can be brainstormed and sussed out in a committee hearing. A win all around, maybe. Like I said, we’ll see when and if this comes up for a final vote, and in what form.

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RNC scales down Hispanic outreach efforts

Posted on April 12, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Fine by me.

A Hispanic outreach center that the National Republican Committee opened on San Antonio’s Southeast Side in 2021 is among numerous minority outreach offices across the country that have been shuttered for the 2024 election cycle.

Democrats say the closures are a signal the GOP no longer cares about courting Hispanic voters, while Republicans say the investments in traditionally blue territory didn’t make sense in this year’s challenging national political landscape.

The now-shuttered Hispanic outreach center in the Highlands neighborhood, which served as a gathering point for congressional candidate Cassy Garcia in 2022, offers some evidence for both perspectives.

Its closure — part of an overall scaled-back presence in South Texas this election cycle — is in stark contrast to the optimistic message national Republicans were sending here just two years ago.

[…]

The RNC plans to maintain one South Texas Hispanic outreach center this year to support U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz in Texas’ 15th Congressional District — the only one of the 2022 targets Republicans successfully flipped last cycle.

Redistricting in 2021 turned that seat from slightly favoring Democrats to slightly favoring Republicans, but De La Cruz faces a potentially contentious rematch with Democrat Michelle Vallejo. National Democrats are targeting that race and putting big money into Latino voter outreach nationwide.

I suspect this is partly about prioritizing incumbent protection over seeking targets to flip, especially after neither CDs 28 nor 34 proved to be particularly reachable for them in the favorable-in-Texas environment of 2022, and one part the reality that the RNC now exists to funnel money to Donald Trump and his lawyers. Not a whole lot of money left for anything else after that. There may be some downstream effects in their efforts to hold onto State House districts like HD37 and HD118, and their effort to flip SD27, which again is all fine by me. This also doesn’t mean there won’t be money from other sources in these areas and doing this work, it just won’t be RNC money. I hope we look back on this as a bad decision by the GOP. The Current and Reform Austin have more.

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County leaders defend Uplift Harris

Posted on April 11, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I appreciate the passion and intensity in this response, but overall it does not leave me feeling optimistic about the outcome.

Harris County leaders are defending their new guaranteed income program after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office sued to stop the initiative from going into effect, accusing the attorney general of targeting the Houston area while overlooking similar programs in San Antonio, Austin and El Paso.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo called the timing of the lawsuit “cruel” and “unscrupulous,” alleging Paxton’s office waited until recipients had been notified they had been selected for the program before filing the lawsuit.

Harris County approved its pilot program last June, which aims to send $500 monthly payments for 18 months to around 1,900 low-income households. Now, with recipients notified and the first payments scheduled for later this month, Paxton’s office has asked a Harris County district court judge to stop the checks from going out and rule that the program is unconstitutional under state law.

Commissioner Rodney Ellis said it was clear the state had become “too comfortable with using people as props,” and some of the county’s poorest residents could pay the price.

Though the $20.5 million Uplift Harris program is funded using a portion of the county’s federal pandemic recovery dollars, Paxton’s office is arguing the program violates a state law that prohibits the gift of public funds to any individual.

[…]

Paxton’s lawsuit is part of a broader movement to oppose the guaranteed income pilot programs that have emerged around the country in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. State lawmakers in Arizona, Iowa and Wisconsin have introduced legislation to prohibit programs that were implemented in Phoenix, Des Moines and Madison. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, vetoed the bill last year on the grounds that he objected to the Legislature’s “continued efforts to arbitrarily restrict and preempt local government partners across our state.”

Paxton’s office also questioned the legality of the Uplift Harris selection process, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday.

In the first stage of the process, some 6,000 eligible applicants were randomly selected from the over 82,000 applications received. Finally, around 1,900 participants were randomly selected from that group. To be eligible, applicants had to live below 200% of the federal poverty line and live in one of 10 high-poverty zip codes or participate in the ACCESS Harris County public health program.

The Attorney General’s office argued Uplift Harris violated state law because it used a “random lottery” to select participants, a method employed in numerous programs including the Houston Housing Authority’s public housing waitlist and the City of Austin’s rental assistance fund.

Though Menefee, Ellis and Hidalgo vowed to defend the program all the way to the Texas Supreme Court, they said Wednesday they doubted that the state’s top justices – all of whom are elected Republicans – would deliver a ruling that rises above partisan politics.

Menefee admitted he is “less than confident” that the county will receive fair treatment, particularly from Texas Supreme Court Justice John Devine, who made headlines last week for remarks he made at a conservative event that included criticism of Harris County.

See here for the background. Devine is a genuine problem, but if the fix is indeed in then it almost doesn’t matter. Again, I don’t know enough about the law here to make an educated guess about anything, but we know Ken Paxton rarely has a strong legal argument when he files these lawsuits. He’s banking on the refs being on his side. Sometimes that doesn’t work for him. Maybe this is one of those times. At this point, I don’t know what else to say.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Some of those dropped HPD cases were connected to other cases

Posted on April 11, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Shocking, I know.

Of the suspended sex crime incident reports submitted by the Houston Police Department to the Houston Forensic Science Center, nearly 100 came back with links to other cases, Chief Troy Finner said Monday evening.

[…]

In HPD’s initial review, 4,017 of those suspended incident reports had been identified as adult sex crimes, Finner wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Finner wrote that the department had met with the forensic science center and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office to get a second level of review and address the way the agencies communicated regarding DNA related to both sex crime cases and other offenses.

A list of adult sex crime incident reports was provided by HPD to the forensic science center following a March 27 meeting, and of the 4,017 incident reports, 1,147 had sexual assault kits tested for DNA. Of that number, 76 of those matched with perpetrators in other offenses. Finner directed all cases regardless of offense title be sent to the forensic science center, and that resulted in another 20 matches to other cases, he wrote.

Finner said that investigators are reviewing those incident reports to follow up on investigations.

See here and here for some background. The review of the dropped cases is ongoing, so that number is likely to go up. This is hardly a surprise, any large number of randomly selected cases would include some number that are connected. In theory, these shouldn’t be “random” cases but ones that were deemed low probability to be solved and thus not worth the HPD resources needed to investigate them. If nothing else, this casts the decision to discard them like this in a more harsh light. We’ll see what that committee that the Mayor put together comes up with.

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FEC complaint filed over Cruz’s podcasting gig

Posted on April 11, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Go for it.

I hear Cancun is nice

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is facing a formal campaign finance complaint over money sent from the company that syndicates his podcast to a political action committee supporting his reelection bid.

The complaint, filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission, alleges Cruz may have improperly directed radio distribution and marketing firm iHeartMedia to send over $630,000 to the Truth and Courage PAC, a group dedicated to Cruz’ reelection effort. The amount would exceed the $5,000 limit an officeholder is permitted to solicit for a super PAC.

End Citizens United and the Campaign Legal Center filed the complaint and are seeking a formal FEC investigation into the payments.

The terms of iHeartMedia’s payments are unclear. The company’s agreement with Cruz for distributing his podcast is not public. But the complaint asserts that Cruz could have violated campaign finance laws if he directed iHeartMedia to give to the super PAC by exceeding the solicitation limit.

The complaint also asserts the payments were improperly reported as “other receipts” rather than campaign contributions. “Other receipts” is generally reserved for interest or income on assets already owned by a PAC.

“By soliciting or directing $630,850.08 of iHeartMedia’s corporate funds to or on behalf of TCP in connection with his 2024 election, Cruz appears to have brazenly violated these federal campaign finance laws,” the complaint reads.

See here for the background. No one should get excited over the filing of an FEC complaint; the gridlocked-by-design nature of the FEC generally ensures that it can’t do much of anything, and even if it could the most likely outcome would be a modest fine. Still, this does accomplish the objective of extending the news cycle and giving the Allred campaign the chance to refer to the alleged violations in its advertising. There’s also an easy off ramp for Cruz if he wants to take it: Either tell iHeartMedia and his PAC to knock off the payments, or resign from the Senate and podcast full time, since that’s clearly something he actually cares about, unlike Senatoring. All problems should be this easy to solve. The Current has more.

Posted in Election 2024, Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Texas blog roundup for the week of April 8

Posted on April 11, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

This Texas Progressive Alliance weekly roundup is best viewed through eclipse glasses.

Continue reading →

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Interview with Austin Pooley

Posted on April 10, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Austin Pooley

We continue with our interviews for the three now-elected At Large positions on the Harris Central Appraisal District (HCAD) Board. The first person I heard from after I had posted about the HCAD announcement of the race and how to apply to be a candidate is today’s interview subject, Austin Pooley. Pooley, who is a 2012 graduate of Texas A&M with a degree in finance, worked for two years at HCAD after graduation, so naturally he was interested in this election. He worked as a Residential Appraiser during his time at HCAD, learning how to appraise property and navigating residents through the protest process. He currently works in the energy industry as an Energy Efficiency Program Manager, helping to weatherize homes for low-income customers. He is running for Position 2. Here’s what we talked about:

PREVIOUSLY:

Pelumi Adeleke

See here and here for what we know about these HCAD positions. I will have two more interviews next week. Early voting for this race and the SD15 special election runs from April 22-30.

Posted in Election 2024 | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Paxton sues over Uplift Harris

Posted on April 10, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Whatever.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Harris County over Uplift Harris, its new guaranteed income pilot program, calling the effort to administer $500 monthly payments to low-income residents the “Harris Handout.”

Though participants have been selected and notified already, Paxton is aiming to stop what he argues is an “illegally implemented” program. He is asking the court to grant a temporary restraining order to prevent the program from being implemented and to declare that Uplift Harris is unconstitutional under state law.

Around 1,900 participants selected to receive the payments were notified last month, with the first checks expected to be sent out as early as April 24. The Uplift Harris program, which is federally funded using the county’s American Rescue Plan Act dollars, is designed to distribute the payments for 18 months.

But now, 10 months after the program was announced, Paxton’s office is challenging the initiative following an inquiry from Republican state Sen. Paul Bettencourt.

[…]

In January, Bettencourt asked Paxton’s office to weigh in on whether counties have the authority to carry out a guaranteed income program and if such an initiative would violate a state law that prohibits the gift of public funds to any individual.

[Harris County Attorney Christian] Menefee previously has argued that the program does not violate the clause because it accomplishes a legitimate public purpose and has sufficient controls in place to prove its purpose and measure its effectiveness.

However, Paxton’s office has reached a different conclusion, making the case that the program does not accomplish a public purpose and Harris County does not retain public control over the funds since recipients are given the money with “no strings attached.”

Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis on Tuesday called Uplift Harris a “transformational hand-up” rather than the “handout” Paxton described.

“This lawsuit from Ken Paxton reads more like a MAGA manifesto than a legal document,” Ellis said in a statement.

I have not written about Uplift Harris before now, so follow the links in the excerpt to learn more. I don’t have an informed opinion about the legal merits of this case, but suffice it to say that there’s never a reason to take Ken Paxton’s word for anything. All that really matters is whether there’s a court he can get to that’s wired to give him what he wants. This paragraph from the Trib story makes me think that at the least this isn’t a clear winner for him:

Harris County is the latest Texas locality to experiment with guaranteed income programs, following efforts in Austin, San Antonio and El Paso County. Local officials across the country turned to such efforts in recent years to help needy families weather high housing and food costs and bounce back from the pandemic’s economic fallout. Beneficiaries of a guaranteed income pilot program in Austin, which ended last year, received $1,000 a month and mostly used that money to help them stay housed as the city faced exorbitant increases in home prices and rents, an Urban Institute survey found.

While there are obviously differences in what cities can do versus what counties can do, the fact that none of these other programs – including as noted one in El Paso County, which would be equivalent to Harris’ – had drawn this level of scrutiny is worth pondering. Maybe Bettencourt didn’t care until it happened here, I don’t know, and yet it still took him the better part of a year to question it. It’s hard not to smell the political motives in this, is what I’m saying. Houston Landing has more.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

The STAAR test will be graded by AI this year

Posted on April 10, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Surely something like this was inevitable.

Students sitting for their STAAR exams this week will be part of a new method of evaluating Texas schools: Their written answers on the state’s standardized tests will be graded automatically by computers.

The Texas Education Agency is rolling out an “automated scoring engine” for open-ended questions on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness for reading, writing, science and social studies. The technology, which uses natural language processing technology like artificial intelligence chatbots such as GPT-4, will save the state agency about $15-20 million per year that it would otherwise have spent on hiring human scorers through a third-party contractor.

The change comes after the STAAR test, which measures students’ understanding of state-mandated core curriculum, was redesigned in 2023. The test now includes fewer multiple choice questions and more open-ended questions — known as constructed response items. After the redesign, there are six to seven times more constructed response items.

“We wanted to keep as many constructed open ended responses as we can, but they take an incredible amount of time to score,” said Jose Rios, director of student assessment at the Texas Education Agency.

In 2023, Rios said TEA hired about 6,000 temporary scorers, but this year, it will need under 2,000.

To develop the scoring system, the TEA gathered 3,000 responses that went through two rounds of human scoring. From this field sample, the automated scoring engine learns the characteristics of responses, and it is programmed to assign the same scores a human would have given.

This spring, as students complete their tests, the computer will first grade all the constructed responses. Then, a quarter of the responses will be rescored by humans.

When the computer has “low confidence” in the score it assigned, those responses will be automatically reassigned to a human. The same thing will happen when the computer encounters a type of response that its programming does not recognize, such as one using lots of slang or words in a language other than English.

“We have always had very robust quality control processes with humans,” said Chris Rozunick, division director for assessment development at the Texas Education Agency. With a computer system, the quality control looks similar.

Every day, Rozunick and other testing administrators will review a summary of results to check that they match what is expected. In addition to “low confidence” scores and responses that do not fit in the computer’s programming, a random sample of responses will also be automatically handed off to humans to check the computer’s work.

TEA officials have been resistant to the suggestion that the scoring engine is artificial intelligence. It may use similar technology to chatbots such as GPT-4 or Google’s Gemini, but the agency has stressed that the process will have systematic oversight from humans. It won’t “learn” from one response to the next, but always defer to its original programming set up by the state.

“We are way far away from anything that’s autonomous or can think on its own,” Rozunick said.

But the plan has still generated worry among educators and parents in a world still weary of the influence of machine learning, automation and AI.

You can read on for a listing of those concerns, which are about what you’d expect: This is too new and untested, it’s not fair to the kids or to the schools given the high stakes of the STAAR, it’s being sprung on us with no notice, AI isn’t good enough yet to tackle a task like this, and so on. There is a way to challenge the score you get, whether from automated grading or a human reviewer; it costs $50 to request a re-grade and the fee is later waived if the score goes up as a result, but I didn’t see anything to suggest that those who can’t afford the fee up front can get the same consideration. It’s nice that this will save a few bucks, but at a time when the state is sitting on $30 billion in surplus and no new funds were allocated to public schools because Greg Abbott kept that all hostage to his voucher dreams, any talk of savings has a bitter tinge.

As I said, I think we could all see this sort of thing coming. Humans aren’t infallible as graders either, and surely this will take less time to perform. Maybe it will get to a point where the process is seen as more objective and thus fairer, or at least less likely to be affected by random factors. Whenever this was to be done for the first time, the same complaints were likely to be raised. I fully expect there to be problems, some of which will seem unbelievable and ridiculous, but I also expect that over time, probably less time than we think, it will improve to the point where few people will think the old way was better. I still wouldn’t want my kid to be one of the beta testers for this, and I fully sympathize with the fears expressed by teachers, administrators, and everyone else. I hope it’s done reasonably well and I hope the TEA responds quickly and compassionately to the problems that will arise. And we still need to elect a better government because everything that’s been happening with public education lately – among many other things – is just screwed up and we deserve so much better.

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

So what’s Mayor Whitmire’s deal with Vision Zero?

Posted on April 10, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron editorial board thinks he won’t be some destroyer of non-automotive transit. I’ll remain politely skeptical for now.

Mayor John Whitmire

John Whitmire insists he supports Vision Zero, the city’s action plan to make Houston streets safer. The ultimate goal is zero people losing their lives in car crashes by 2030. Zero pedestrians killed just crossing a street. Zero new ghost bikes haunting curbs across town where cyclists died nearby.

Some are questioning Whitmire’s commitment to street safety after a few recent moves, including the removal of concrete medians recently installed along Houston Avenue and his ordering a review of bike lanes and other features of the new 11th Street redesign in the Heights.

[…]

For his part, Whitmire sees the 11th Street project as something that started with a simple request for a safe crossing at the busy Nicholson Street intersection and morphed into an elaborate design. The result, he says, is a rush-hour bottleneck so severe that fire officials have told him they’ll have to avoid 11th Street entirely. Whitmire said similar concerns on Houston Avenue prompted him to remove the controversial medians: a Metro bus had previously gotten stuck there and a nearby fire station complained the medians made it more difficult for their trucks to turn.

“All I’m saying is use some common sense,” Whitmire told us. “As long as there’s 2.3 million people in the city, you’re gonna have traffic. Houston Avenue is an artery to get up on the freeway.”

He noted that Houston is unlike major American cities organized around transit such as New York. Our city is bisected by several major freeways, which ferry Houstonians to neighborhoods that sprawl endlessly in all directions.

He’s right. Houston is also the nation’s second-fastest growing metropolitan region, with more than 7 million people, according to census data. We could add another 3 million residents by 2040. If everybody brings their cars, streets and freeways will be even more clogged. We need alternatives.

Complacency is not an option. Neither is haste. Scrapping the careful planning of the Turner administration would be a mistake. While advocates were, at times, frustrated by the slow pace of redesign projects under Turner, he deserves credit for encouraging a data-driven approach that included mapping out every high-injury corridor all over the city. That map should be his starting point. It shows that 9% of Houston streets account for nearly 60% of traffic deaths and serious injuries.

We came away from our interview with the mayor persuaded that he intends to keep some version of Turner’s Vision Zero Action Plan. We believe he wants to stop the deaths and injuries and we admire his vision of doing it equitably, making sure, for instance, that more neglected neighborhoods get 3-foot sidewalks before others get 10-foot sidewalks.

Whitmire understandably wants to put his stamp on transportation policy, but we urge him to put Houstonians’ safety before any political considerations or disagreements with strident advocates. A mayor as committed to public safety as Whitmire should take an all-of-the-above approach to street safety that includes traffic enforcement and street redesigns that slow drivers down. In 2023 alone, there were 323 traffic fatalities in Houston. Most were motorists, followed by pedestrians and cyclists. That figure is actually a marginal improvement, eight fewer fatalities than in 2022.

Whitmire told us he would release a comprehensive plan within a few months. The theme will be “options.” That includes modernizing Metro to include ride share programs and more efficient bus routes; installing and raising crosswalks all over the city; improving mobility for motorists; and beefing up traffic enforcement.

Part of the reason why I remain skeptical is because I do drive along West 11th and it’s just not that bad. It’s also a lot easier to cross or make a left onto 11th from one of the side roads now that there are two lanes of moderate speed traffic instead of four lanes of cars going 40 or more coming at you. I’m also squinting at what he’s saying about Metro – what exactly does he see ride share services offering and at what price? We just did a massive redesign of the bus network a few years ago, it’s a hell of a lot more sensible now and the high-frequency routes carry lots of riders, what does he think is missing? Basically, as with some other things we could mention here, the problem is a lack of information about what the plans are.

Texas Monthly has a post up now about how Whitmire is a “20th century Mayor for a 21st century Houston”, and that’s going to live in my brain for a long time. I hope it turns out to be an overbid and not a prophecy. But if it turns out to be the latter, that’s a pretty compelling starting point to a campaign for whoever might challenge the Mayor in 2027.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Several Dem legislators want to investigate HISD

Posted on April 9, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

We’ll see if this goes anywhere.

Several Houston-area Democratic legislators are calling for a formal hearing to address “potential violations of state law” in Houston ISD in the aftermath of the Texas Education Agency stripping elected leaders from the school district.

The lawmakers asked in a letter sent Friday that the House Committee on Public Education host a hearing to address reports of “unqualified, non-degree holding teachers” working in classrooms and a lack of accommodations for students with disabilities. They also requested independent research proving the benefits of state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles’ New Education System.

The request comes after the state takeover of HISD in March 2023 and the Texas Education Agency’s appointment of the Superintendent and nine members of the Board of Managers. Due to the takeover, the nine lawmakers who signed the letter said it is “imperative that the state assume full responsibility for HISD students and hold the board of managers accountable”

“As their duly elected State Representatives, we must hold a hearing to learn more about these concerning reports and efforts to subvert state laws and requirements,” the letter states.

Reps. Christina Morales, Ann Johnson, Jarvis Johnson, Penny Morales Shaw, Mary Ann Perez, Jon Rosentahl, Shawn Thierry, Hubert Vo and Gene Wu all signed the letter, which was addressed to Speaker of the Texas House Dade Phelan and the House education committee. Phelan and TEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

“Teacher reports and parent concerns are uncovering troubling developments at our schools,” Morales wrote in a statement. “The community can no longer vote on who represents us on the school board, so we as the state representatives must hold the appointed board accountable.”

In a response to the letter, HISD said it was going to stay focused on “the critical work of serving students and families,” and it had already seen positive impacts for kids after implementing reforms.

“HISD has invited dozens of elected and community leaders into our schools to see the work happening first-hand,” the district wrote. “We are pleased to share our progress with any other leaders who want to better understand what’s happening in the schools.”

[…]

According to the letter, the district has circumvented the law requiring teachers to obtain a bachelor’s degree, a certification and other requirements to work in a classroom by assigning certified teachers as the teacher of record for more than one classroom.

“These efforts are not only detrimental to the continued learning and development of our students, but also a violation of state law,” lawmakers said.

The Democratic lawmakers also said the district has shared plans with teachers and administrators to address a teacher shortage by hiring community college students as teacher apprentices and learning coaches.

I appreciate what they’re doing here. I note that all they can do is ask for something to happen; they don’t have the power right now to do anything directly themselves. They can’t even use the time-honored tactic of applying pressure on the HISD Board members because oops, none of them are elected and the only accountability they have is to the TEA itself. Maybe there’s a lawsuit that could be filed over some of those allegations, I have no idea. But this is what happens when the people lose their voice. And what happens next, which likely will be nothing because what incentive does Dade Phelan or whoever would bring in some independent researchers have to do anything, is what we get.

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The Find Out PAC

Posted on April 9, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I thought I had written about this before but I hadn’t, so here it is.

Texas’ Supreme Court has taken center stage in interpreting the state’s abortion laws in cases that have garnered national attention. And a new Democratic political effort targets three justices who they say “fucked around” — and will “find out.”

Gina Ortiz Jones, a two-time Democratic congressional candidate and former under-secretary in the U.S. Air Force, launched the Find Out PAC to target Republican Justices Jimmy Blacklock, John Devine and Jane Bland, who are up for reelection in November.

Jones launched the PAC after the Texas Supreme Court’s high-profile ruling in December in the case of Kate Cox, the first adult in decades to petition a court to obtain an abortion. The Supreme Court blocked Cox, a Dallas-area mother of two, from getting an abortion in the state after her fetus was diagnosed with full trisomy 18, a chromosomal abnormality that is almost always fatal before birth or soon after. The pregnancy also posed severe risks to Cox’s health.

“The Kate Cox factor could change everything,” Jones said.

[…]

The Find Out PAC’s goal, Jones said, is to direct voter anger over the state’s abortion bans to the state Supreme Court, whose nine justices are all Republicans.

“These justices, who we’re calling Jimmy, John and Jane, are deeply embedded in this far-right movement to strip rights from Texans and Americans,” said Democratic State Rep. James Talarico, a supporter of the effort. “They’re starting with reproductive rights, but they’re not going to stop there.”

The Find Out PAC and its supporters, which include multiple state and federal office holders, aim to elevate the public’s consciousness about the court, whose justices are elected to six-year terms and run under the banners of political parties.

“​​So much of this is opaque. So much of this is deliberately confusing to try to prevent folks from participating in the political process,” Talarico said. “And so our goal here is to educate and empower voters across our state to take back their freedoms.”

Jones doesn’t shy away from provocative and profane language in promoting her message.

“We’re going to talk about this issue in a way some people are not comfortable with,” Jones said. “It’s a big opportunity for us.”

You can see their launch video here. I’ve seen my share of PACs and other organizations come and go, with varying levels of success. I have hope for this one – Gina Ortiz Jones raised a bunch of money when she ran for Congress, and there’s just so much to run on in this environment – but in the end it’s the result that matters. I’ll be looking for their finance report in July as a starting point.

I certainly hope to see a coherent attack on the Republicans’ extreme positions on abortion and IVF, for which they currently have no good answer, but that’s not something I’m used to seeing. It’s usually every candidate for themselves. A PAC like this can at least provide some consistency to a message as well as a platform for launching attacks, if they can raise the money for it. The Supreme Court put themselves in this position thanks to the Cox case, and the best response is to make them all fear for their electoral future, starting with the three Justices on this year’s ballot. We know what the recent history of statewide Democratic campaigns is. There’s still no other way forward.

And while this PAC targets all three of the Justices on the ballot, it’s clear that one of them is worse than the others.

Texas Supreme Court Justice John Devine is facing new questions about his impartiality after a clip went viral this week in which he implied that Democrats plan to cheat against presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in the 2024 election.

“Do you really think the Democrats are going to roll over and let Trump be president again?” Devine asked in a keynote speech at the Texas Tea Party Republican Women’s 2023 Christmas event. “You think they’re just going to go away, all of a sudden find Jesus and [there will] be an honest election? I don’t think so.”

Devine is a former anti-abortion activist who claims that church-state separation is a myth and, as a state district judge in Harris County in the 1990s, fought to have a copy of the Ten Commandments posted in his courtroom. In his successful 2012 campaign for the Texas Supreme Court, he claimed to have been arrested 37 times at anti-abortion protests in the 1980s, and has since been a reliable ally of conservative, Christian voters in the state. Devine narrowly survived a GOP primary challenge last month that centered around his ethics, and now faces state district court Judge Christine Vinh Weems, a Democrat, in the November general election.

Devine’s comments on the 2024 election were heavily criticized by users on X, formerly Twitter, after a Texas Tribune reporter shared an excerpt of his speech on Thursday. Many users took issue with Devine’s comments, which they said raised doubts about whether he could neutrally rule on an issue that might appear before the Texas Supreme Court in the coming months or years.

Devine is an ethical quagmire in addition to being a complete nutjob. It’s a matter of making sure enough people know about him and recognize the need to boot him from the bench. Raising some money to inform them would help.

Posted in Election 2024 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Once again seeking Comets 2.0

Posted on April 9, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I would of course love to see this happen, but if it ever does it likely won’t be in the near future.

Travis Scott was struck by basketball motivation in the middle of the night — crack of the morning? — and let the world know what was on his mind.

“It’s 3:30 a.m. and I feel like Houston can bring back the Houston Comets. I’m gonna go for it!!!!,” the rapper who grew up in Missouri City posted to Twitter on Friday.

Scott, who was sitting courtside to watch Iowa’s Caitlin Clark break Pete Maravich’s NCAA scoring record last month, is far from the first Houston sports fan to have such an idea. Tampa Bay Bucs receiver Mike Evans, who was a child in Galveston when the Comets won the WNBA’s first four championships from 1997-2000, made a similar social media post in 2022, writing, “Bring the Houston Comets back. I love the WNBA.”

If only it were all so simple.

A WNBA expansion team hasn’t begun play since the Atlanta Dream joined the league in 2008, just six months before the Comets were disbanded in December 2008.

However, a surge in popularity has led the WNBA to expand again, officially awarding the Golden State Warriors a team that will begin play in San Francisco’s Chase Center in 2025. The expectation is that the league will add another franchise to give it an even 14 teams. However, Houston has never been mentioned as a candidate by league executives.

See here for the last time this came up. Multiple other cities have been cited as the next expansion possibility; I have no idea why Houston is overlooked. For that matter, I have no idea why the WNBA is being so conservative about expansion, at this moment when women’s basketball is as popular as it’s ever been. Sure seems like now is the time to capitalize on that and make a real investment in the league. And when you do, remember that the history of the WNBA can’t be told without the city of Houston.

Posted in Other sports | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Interview with Pelumi Adeleke

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Pelumi Adeleke

I hope by now you are aware of the May 4 election for three At Large positions on the Harris Central Appraisal District (HCAD) Board. These positions have existed before as appointments but thanks to the constitutional amendment about property taxes that was approved last year, three of those positions will be elected going forward, with the initial elections this May. I will have interviews with four of the candidates vying for these offices in Harris County, including at least one for each of the three slots. We begin today with Pelumi Adeleke, who is running for Position 3. She has been a business owner with an MBA and a masters in accounting who now works in business development for Amazon Web Services. She has received the endorsement of the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation in the race. Here’s the interview:

See here and here for what we know about these HCAD positions. I will have another interview on Wednesday and then two more next week. Early voting for this race and the SD15 special election runs from April 22-30, so it starts two weeks from today.

Posted in Election 2024 | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

“Reverse redlining”

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Very interesting.

A novel legal argument is at the heart of a federal lawsuit against the sprawling Colony Ridge housing development in Liberty County that could prove a test case for similar claims around the country, experts say.

The lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in December is one of two initiated against Colony Ridge that claim the developers misled property buyers.

The federal government’s case may pose a more serious threat to Colony Ridge than the action brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in March because of its argument that the developers use language barriers as a tool to deceive customers and aim that deception at a protected class of people.

“In this case, it was very clear that they were targeting and identifying immigrants that come from specific countries and speak specific languages, so it shows an intent to target a particular group,” said Nicole Cabañez, a Skadden Fellow at the National Consumer Law Center who studies market access for those with limited English proficiency.

The federal government is attempting to interpret federal laws for housing and credit access to prove a theory of “reverse redlining” that argues Colony Ridge is harming a protected group by offering credit under unfavorable terms.

The two, separate lawsuits represent the best opportunity for restitution for the former Colony Ridge residents who say they were duped into buying property at sky-high interest rates that have caused thousands to default on their loans, experts say.

On their face, the lawsuits are similar. Both were filed in federal court. Both accuse the developers of lying to consumers about the land they were buying. Both spell out a business model built around flipping foreclosed lots of land at a profit for Colony Ridge, and both seek restitution for victims.

Lying to consumers about a product is illegal, no matter who is being lied to. But there are additional penalties written into the law against targeting people based on their race or national origin, Cabañez said.

Details about Colony Ridge’s business model and marketing scheme included in both lawsuits have convinced Cabañez the federal government’s additional argument is a “slam dunk.”

Colony Ridge marketing material frequently featured flags from Latin American nations, encouraging potential customers to “achieve the American dream here” in Spanish-language advertisements.

“You can’t get clearer on national origin than flags,” Cabañez said.

By accusing the developers of violating the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Fair Housing Act, which the state lawsuit does not do, the federal government hopes to prove discrimination against Spanish speakers is baked into Colony Ridge’s business model.

See here, here, and here for some background. As noted, this is a new argument, so it remains to be seen how it will play out in court. Which will likely take years, as that’s usually the speed at which federal lawsuits move. If this one proves successful, we’ll likely see the feds use it in other places. Read the rest to find out more.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Wife of Harris County Justice of the Peace arrested on murder charge

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Wow.

A woman who is accused of fatally shooting her nephew following a fight in northwest Harris County made her first court appearance early Saturday morning, according to documents.

Mei Wolfe, 48, is facing a murder charge after a deputies said an ongoing feud with her nephew led to her shooting him inside her home on Thursday night.

ABC13 learned the woman is the wife of Harris County Justice of the Peace Bob Wolfe.

The situation unfolded in the 24300 block of Tesino River Circle before 9:30 p.m.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office says Wolfe’s recent college graduate nephew was staying with her after a few months of traveling.

Officials said the two got into an altercation after Mei felt that the victim overstayed his welcome. That is when Mei grabbed a pistol and fired a shot at one point, according to deputies.

Investigator said Wolfe’s husband, Bob, called 911 before unsuccessfully trying to stop the altercation and removing the weapon from his wife’s hand.

Wolfe’s nephew was pronounced dead at the scene. He was identified as 40-year-old James Wolfe II.

A judge granted Wolfe’s bond at $100,000. She was ordered not to have firearms and will have to surrender her passport if she bonds out.

The embedded video and the earlier report about her arrest have more details. This is first and foremost a personal and family tragedy for everyone involved so I will refrain from further comment at this time. As this could also have political implications down the line, I’m noting it for the record.

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Weekend link dump for April 7

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

“Twitter, now X, was once a useful site for breaking news. The Baltimore bridge collapse shows those days are long gone.”

“In Simpsons terms, the important thing about “Hi-diddly-ho, neighbor!” is not the “Hi-diddly-ho,” but the “neighbor.” That’s the difference between MAGA evangelicals and Ned Flanders. Ned views and greets everyone he encounters as his neighbor. MAGA evangelicals very much do not.”

“[Last] Tuesday, the Chinese government lodged a formal complaint against the United States government with the World Trade Organization, claiming the Inflation Reduction Act—signed by President Joe Biden in 2022—inappropriately excludes electric cars with Chinese components from the law’s tax credit program. Biden should be thrilled.”

“[Redacted], a professional demagogue, calling for responsibility in discourse is, as they say, a little bit rich.”

“But what some may see as a heartwarming tale of bridging political divides or a gallant effort to humanize election workers at the micro level, the Panera lunch is also reflective of a broader, grim reality for election workers: that they must continue trying to gain public trust and make themselves appear human to those who are still, four years later, wholly convinced that they are stealing elections from Donald Trump.”

“The argument in the mifepristone case was a potent reminder of why conservatives have gravitated to conscience claims—and demonstrated the hidden harms that these claims can inflict on other Americans.”

“The emotional harm alleged here is that unless these doctors approve of the specific circumstances of the ER visit, they violate not only their own medical preference but also their religious convictions. But they will never truly know enough about the sins of their patients to be able to shield themselves against being a link in a chain of subjective lifelong sin.”

A behind-the-scenes look at being a clerk for federal Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed jurist currently making a hash of the confidential documents case.

“The truth is that Donald Trump undermined faith in our elections in his false bid to retain the presidency. He sparked an insurrection intended to overthrow our government and keep himself in power. No president in our history has done worse.”

“The Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank organizing the plan for a conservative overhaul of the federal government known as Project 2025, recently published another blog critical of in vitro fertilization procedures, this one with a list of specific policy recommendations for limiting access to the reproductive method.”

“Four years ago today, I walked into the apocalypse.”

How to find an asshole. See here for more.

“Companies that rent portable toilets in Central Texas said they have experienced historic demand for their products as folks plan eclipse parties on ranches, in parks and even in backyards.”

RIP, Vontae Davis, former NFL cornerback.

So much grift, so many suckers.

RIP, Chance Perdomo, actor known for Gen V and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

RIP, Joe Flaherty, writer and performer on the groundbreaking sketch comedy show SCTV and actor best known for Freaks and Geeks.

RIP, pat Molak, co-founder of San Antonio mainstay restaurant Josephine Street and legendary music venue Gruene Hall.

“As it turns out, taking a photo of the 2024 solar eclipse could damage your iPhone’s camera hardware.”

“The Biden administration put the finishing touches Thursday on a plan to restrict presidents from unilaterally nixing civil service protections from large swaths of the federal workforce, as former President Donald Trump renews his vow to uproot a perceived “deep state” if he is returned to the White House.”

“On Wednesday, the IEEE Computer Society announced to members that, after April 1, it would no longer accept papers that include a frequently used image of a 1972 Playboy model named Lena Forsén. The so-called “Lenna image,” (Forsén added an extra “n” to her name in her Playboy appearance to aid pronunciation) has been used in image processing research since 1973 and has attracted criticism for making some women feel unwelcome in the field.”

“No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down.”

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged | Comments Off on Weekend link dump for April 7

The Paxton prosecutors’ personal dispute

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I’m just going to leave this here.

A crook any way you look

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton never would have been sent to prison if his fraud case had gone to trial, the prosecutors now say.

In the week since Paxton, a Republican, cut a deal to have his charges dropped and upcoming trial canceled, the two special prosecutors have traded barbs over how each handled the case. They’ve questioned each other’s choices, motives and even whether they’ve always been truthful with each other.

From indictment to deal, the case lasted nine years. The prosecutors entered the case as partners, longtime colleagues, even friends, and leave it as adversaries.

The one thing they do agree on: Neither thinks Paxton was going to end up behind bars.

During a Friday interview on WFAA, lead prosecutor Brian Wice was asked if prison was ever a likelihood if the case had gone to trial.

“The answer to your question is two words: absolutely never,” Wice said.

“I never envisioned any scenario, any universe in which, by which, through which, that a judge or jury put Ken Paxton in prison based on either the third-degree felony failing to register as an investment adviser rep, or, for that matter, the first-degree felony securities fraud cases,” he added.

In an interview with The Texas Newsroom, Wice’s former co-counsel agreed.

“That’s probably the one true thing that Brian [Wice] said,” said Kent Schaffer, who resigned from the prosecution in February after he and Wice split over how to handle the case.

[…]

Wice said he’d received a slew of hate messages from people who wanted to see Paxton answer to a jury. They questioned why a deal would be cut the month before Paxton was scheduled to go to trial — especially since the case had dragged on for as long as it did.

Schaffer, who was not part of the final negotiations, said it was “kind of stupid” that Paxton will do his community service in Collin County, where the attorney general has a home and practiced law for years. He believes Paxton will get more favorable treatment there.

“Anybody with an IQ over 60 understands Paxton’s never going to do one hour of community service,” Schaffer told The Texas Newsroom.

Cogdell said Paxton will “absolutely” comply with the terms of the deal.

Schaffer tried to cut a different deal with Paxton’s defense team before he stepped off the case. But Wice scuttled it, he said.

Then, on Feb. 16, the day Schaffer resigned from the case, Wice publicly criticized Schaffer’s deal as tantamount to giving Paxton “a cocktail, a hot meal and a breath mint” because he said it did not include restitution for the accusers.

Schaffer said his deal would have included restitution if Wice hadn’t cut off talks. Clapping back at his former partner, he told The Texas Newsroom that Wice’s deal is like giving Paxton “a cocktail and a hot meal and a backrub.”

He said Wice is unfairly criticizing his work on the case now to throw off scrutiny: “At this point, he’s just looking for somebody to get all the negative attention off him.”

In three pages of comments provided to The Texas Newsroom, Wice said Schaffer was the one unfairly criticizing him.

See here and here for some background. I don’t have much interest in litigating this – I have no idea who’s “right” and “wrong” in this Wice/Schaffer dispute – so I will just say two things. One is that Ken Paxton and his buddies did an awful lot to sabotage this case from the beginning, with the way that Collin County Commissioners Court refused to pay the special prosecutors being at the top of that list. In retrospect, it probably would have been for the best if this case could have been given to another county’s District Attorney for handling, as that would have largely settled the cost matter and left it up to people whose only job is to do prosecutions and didn’t have to worry about being properly compensated for it. And two, Ken Paxton is one lucky goddamn son of a bitch. A whole constellation of factors had to line up just right for him to end up without even having to plead guilty to something to get off like that, and they did. There’s a very small list of people who deserved that less than he did. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go light about a hundred candles for that grand jury in San Antonio.

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Still waiting on details for paying the firefighters

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

A lot of the same stuff we’ve heard before here, but a little bit more details.

Mayor John Whitmire

Houston Mayor John Whitmire detailed his last three months as the fourth-largest city’s top boss and outlined some of his ongoing projects in a one-on-one conversation with former Harris County Judge Ed Emmett Wednesday night.

Some of those plans include seeking voter approval to raise the property tax revenue cap and using his political experience to “mend” government relationships among local and state officials, which he addressed at an event with the Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Here are some important takeaways from the discussion:

The city is considering multiple ways to halt its anticipated economic shortfalls and pay for massive deals with some of its first responders. Whitmire believes all options are up for discussion. “We’re going to put everything on the table,” Whitmire said when asked how Houston plans to pay for the projected $1.3 billion firefighter deal. “We are the only major city in the state that doesn’t have a garbage fee,” he added.

In addition to a possible garbage fee, Whitmire plans to ask voters to increase their property taxes, a potential hike the city hasn’t seen in nearly two decades. “I will ask the public to make an exception for public safety on the revenue cap,” he said. “It would be $15 a month to have the response time for fire and police that I think a safe city needs. We’re a great city but we’ve got to protect our investment and go forward.”

[…]

While the city faces a potential $200 million budget hole, Whitmire suggested combining city and county department services to save some money, which could result in layoffs. It’s still unclear how the project would be implemented, but he said he’s open to the idea.

“We got two library systems and two parks, and I could go on and on,” Whitmire said. “We got 85 law enforcement agencies in Harris County. They don’t even talk to each other. They can’t talk to each other and help each other on the radio.”

There’s more in this earlier Chron story. The Houston Landing went into some detail about the pushback Mayor Whitmire has been getting from Council. The main new information here is the number specified for a property tax rate hike, though how much that might raise and how that would work with both the city and state revenue caps is unclear to me. Consolidating services with Harris County is an ongoing project – certainly the library is a ripe target for that given the recent goings on. It does take two to tango, and as much as the Mayor likes to talk about improving relations with the state government, he shouldn’t lose sight of the relationship we have with our county government. Some of the commissioners are fond of bicycles. I’m just saying.

Anyway. It’s my understanding that members of Council still haven’t seen the deal details, which one assumes they will need to do in order to vote on it. We still don’t know what a bond issue to fund the back pay looks like. I at least don’t know what happens if we do have a vote and it ends in failure. There’s still a lot to do, and there’s still a budget to write and pass. On we go.

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 28 Comments

More Census changes coming

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

This seems like a good idea.

On the next U.S. census and future federal government forms, the list of checkboxes for a person’s race and ethnicity is officially getting longer.

The Biden administration has approved proposals for a new response option for “Middle Eastern or North African” and a “Hispanic or Latino” box that appears under a reformatted question that asks: “What is your race and/or ethnicity?”

Going forward, participants in federal surveys will be presented with at least seven “race and/or ethnicity” categories, along with instructions that say: “Select all that apply.”

After years of research and discussion by federal officials for a complicated review process that goes back to 2014, the decision was announced Thursday in a Federal Register notice, which was made available for public inspection before its official publication.

Officials at the White House’s Office of Management and Budget revived these Obama-era proposals after they were shelved by the Trump administration. Supporters of these changes say they could help the racial and ethnic data used to redraw maps of voting districts, enforce civil rights protections and guide policymaking and research better reflect people’s identities today.

[…]

OMB’s decision to change its statistical standards on race and ethnicity for the first time in more than a quarter-century also marks a major shift in the U.S. government’s definition of “White,” which no longer includes people who identify with Middle Eastern or North African groups such as Egyptian, Iranian, Iraqi, Israeli, Jordanian, Kurdish, Lebanese, Moroccan, Palestinian, Syrian and Yemeni.

That move sets up “Middle Eastern or North African” as the first completely new racial or ethnic category to be required on federal government forms since officials first issued in 1977 standards on racial and ethnic data that the Census Bureau and other federal agencies must follow.

For more than three decades, advocates for Arab Americans and other MENA groups have campaigned for their own checkbox on the U.S. census and other government forms, and recent research suggests that many people of MENA descent do not see themselves as white, a category that the federal government previously considered to include people with “origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.”

Studies by the bureau show that the government’s previous standards have also been out of step with many Latinos. Those standards required asking about a person’s Hispanic or Latino identity — which the federal government considers to be an ethnicity that can be any race — before asking about their racial identity.

Combining a question about Hispanic origins with a question about race into one question, while allowing people to check as many boxes as they want, is likely to lower the share of Latinos who mark the “Some other race” category on census forms, the bureau’s research from 2015 suggests.

Recent research, however, suggests it’s not clear how someone who identifies as Afro Latino is likely to respond to a combined race-ethnicity question. According to the Federal Register notice, about half of participants in a recent study for OMB selected only the “Hispanic or Latino” box when presented with a combined question after previously selecting both the Latino and Black categories.

This new question format, along with the addition of a “Middle Eastern or North African” box, could also decrease the number of people who mark the “White” box.

The point here is to get better Census data that more accurately reflects our current reality. There are nuances and there will still be some confusion and unclarity about how to answer the new questions, but I believe it’s worth the effort. It’s already the case that private enterprises like Amazon have their own data that’s at least as good as what the Census collects. Whether the Census can get its hands on that is likely to be another bitterly fought partisan issue, with Republicans doing everything they can to block it. If we have another Republican president in place for the next Census, who knows what kind of shenanigans we’ll see. That’s a worry for a later date. For now, this is where the Census would like to go.

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Hey look, it’s a story about the HCAD elections

Posted on April 6, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

About damn time.

A question you are unlikely to hear at any bar, diner or dinner table over the next month: Who are you voting for the county appraisal district board?

Few area residents are aware of the election, even though many of them voted to approve it only a few months ago.

In Harris County, the first-time election, scheduled May 4, has drawn 13 candidates seeking three seats on the nine-member Harris County Appraisal District board.

Voters will be asked to select governing members of the agency that determines annual property values used by local taxing entities to set their property tax rates and budgets. Appraisal district boards have the ability to hire and fire the county’s chief appraiser, the person in charge of carrying out property appraisals.

Last November’s state Proposition 4 set a temporary maximum on appraised property values and increased the homestead exemption, a tax break homeowners can place on their primary residence, from $40,000 to $100,000. The measure was overwhelmingly approved by 83 percent of voters.

Along with changes to the tax code, the final line of the proposition created four-year terms for three appraisal board positions in the 50 Texas counties with a population larger than 75,000. Previously, all nine members were appointed by local taxing entities represented by the district.

The changes to appraisal boards in the Houston region also apply to Liberty, Montgomery, Galveston, Brazoria and Fort Bend counties.

[…]

Terms for the elected board members will begin July 1 and last until July 31, 2026.

Election day will be held on a Saturday, coinciding only with the Texas Senate District 15 special election to fill the final eight months of Mayor John Whitmire’s vacated term.

The elections are being held quickly after November’s constitutional amendment so board members are in place before property tax season begins in the fall, [Sen. Paul] Bettencourt said. The May election day also serves to ensure the positions are nonpartisan and do not require a primary, further removing the process from political back-and-forth, the senator said.

Going forward, appraisal district board elections will be held in November.

[…]

The races are being held at significant cost to the appraisal district.

The May election is being administered by the Harris County Clerk’s office, but state law requires the appraisal district to cover the $4.1 million cost estimated by county officials. No estimate was available for a potential July runoff, according to the clerk’s office.

Election costs on crowded November ballots generally are spread among the political entities holding races, according to the clerk’s office.

State Rep. Mano DeAyala, R-Houston, argued the springtime election offers voters the opportunity to better familiarize themselves with the positions and candidates without other races competing for their attention.

“It’s a subject matter every voter should want to be informed about because it affects a vast majority … directly,” DeAyala said. “I think the voters are going to get engaged. I think the voters are going to get informed.”

The novelty and low attention on the elections has some suspicious of further meddling in Harris County’s affairs by the Texas Legislature.

“Everybody is kind of scratching their heads at this,” said Jay Malone, political director for the Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation. “Ultimately, the way we have to think about this is in the broader context of the attacks by the legislature on local control.”

Low voter turnout is likely, but the timing is necessary to allow new board members to get to work, state Rep. Shawn Thierry, D-Houston, wrote in a statement.

“It enhances the democratic nature of the appraisal process,” Thierry wrote. “By expanding the representation on the board, we ensure a diversity of perspectives and interests are considered, leading to more fair and equitable outcomes.”

The labor federation has endorsed Blueford-Daniels, Noriega and Adeleke in their respective elections.

Malone said the federation is supporting the trio because of their experience working for or with taxing entities. He said it was crucial to avoid electing someone who could support the board naming an ant-tax chief appraiser.

“Millions of dollars are being spent for an outcome that is really unclear,” Malone said. “We can speculate on the motivations, but in the context of the last two sessions where we saw all this legislation pass to defund schools and school services … we know there could be a risk to our really important revenue streams.”

That’s the first real story I’ve seen since January when we first learned about this new election. If you look at the list of candidates who filed for the races and compare it to those listed on that sample ballot the story links to, you’ll notice that two people have withdrawn, Era Ford and Melody Ellis. With at least three candidates in each race, we’re very likely to get at least one runoff, which will be in July.

I have done interviews with three of these candidates and I have a fourth one in the works; I’ll run them over the next two weeks. These are weird races because there’s not that much that appraisal district boards and their members actually do, at least in terms of things they can make promises about on a campaign trail. I think Jay Malone has the right idea here, so be sure to listen to the interviews I’ve done and make sure you get out and vote in this election, for which early voting begins on April 22 and runs through April 30. As noted in the story, the SD15 special election, now featuring just Molly Cook and Jarvis Johnson, is also on May 4, with the same early voting schedule. Turnout will be very light. Make your voice heard.

Posted in Election 2024 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

“Extremely active” hurricane season coming

Posted on April 6, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Be prepared.

The emergence of a La Niña weather pattern and warmer tropical waters could lead to an “extremely active” 2024 hurricane season, according to researchers at Colorado State University who issued their first hurricane season outlook of the year on Thursday. Colorado State’s outlook marks the first widely recognized hurricane forecast of the season and comes out more than a month before the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issues their seasonal outlook.

Colorado State University’s annual hurricane outlook, which is considered an authority in hurricane forecasts, has been published every April since 1995. This year’s hurricane outlook has the highest number of hurricanes ever projected in April, said Philip Klotzbach, a meteorologist and Atlantic basin seasonal forecast specialist at Colorado State.

“The team cites record warm tropical and eastern subtropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures as a primary factor for their prediction of 11 hurricanes this year,” researchers said in a statement.

Here’s how the numbers look and why this season is expected to be so active.

The number of named systems, which includes tropical storms, is forecast to be 23. Of that number, 11 are expected to become hurricanes and 5 of those could become major hurricanes, which are Category 3 or stronger. Major hurricanes bring wind speeds of at least 111 mph and often lead to the most costly damage.

This forecast is quite a bit higher than what the 30-year average from 1991 to 2020 shows. The projected number of named storms is nearly 9 more than average, with the number of expected hurricanes being roughly four more than average.

We’ve already had a couple of other forecasts saying similar things. The folks at Colorado State had a good track record, so their outlook is always anticipated. The main takeaway from this is not that you need to panic but that you should be prepared, in all the ways you should normally be prepared. We’ll deal with what comes as best we can. The Eyewall has more.

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HISD discouraging STAAR test prep

Posted on April 6, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Why must Mike Miles fold, spindle, and mutilate my brain like this?

As Houston ISD students prepare to take the STAAR in less than two weeks, appointed Superintendent Mike Miles is instructing schools to avoid direct test preparation, instead telling principals to have their teachers focus on daily lessons as usual.

The directive is a departure from the norm at many HISD schools, according to multiple district teachers and administrators, who say the weeks leading up to the exam usually included reviews of key concepts, mock tests and sometimes even “STAAR Olympics,” which included educational games to make test prep more engaging.

Miles laid out his instructions last Wednesday in his weekly email to principals, the information in which applies to all schools in HISD “unless specifically called out.”

“Neither the STAAR exams nor the NWEA and EOY assessments should be overemphasized for teachers and students,” Miles wrote in the email, which was obtained by the Houston Chronicle. “Teachers should focus on the curriculum and the quality of instruction. Students should focus on the (Demonstrations of Learning) and learning the objective for the day every day.”

“Direct instruction and a reasonable amount of (differentiated instruction) spent reviewing key concepts is OK. However, there should be little test prep — whereby students take a series of assessments to prepare for STAAR or NWEA,” he wrote.

Erin Baumgartner, the director of the Houston Education Research Consortium at Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, said that the legacy of No Child Left Behind, the federal legislation signed in 2002 that required states to implement standardized tests, has made test prep standard practice at schools nationwide.

While mock exams and other strategies can help familiarize students with the format and presentation of a standardized test, she said, there is no evidence that explicit test prep necessarily leads to greater outcomes on the assessment itself.

“If test prep isn’t something that necessarily is shown to work, then it shouldn’t matter too much whether schools are doing a lot of it or not, but it’s become the norm,” Baumgartner said.

[…]

Some teachers and administrators expressed frustration with the directive and fear it could unfairly impact their evaluations, arguing it limits their ability to prepare students for a unique assessment they only take once a year. Even staunch opponents of standardized testing, such as Community Voices for Public Education co-founder Ruth Kravetz, said the lack of direct preparation could harm students and schools, given the high stakes associated with the results.

Kravetz, a former HISD teacher and administrator, said that the online-only format of the recently redesigned STAAR makes it necessary to familiarize students with the assessment before its administered, pointing to a Houston Public Media report that revealed 46% of fourth graders scored a zero out of 10 on the writing portion of the STAAR in 2023, the first year the new test was implemented.

“I can’t believe I have to argue for letting students review so they don’t go in cold. The fix is in at the front end and the back end, and that’s not the way we’re supposed to treat schoolchildren,” Kravetz said.

I’m no fan of the STAAR either, certainly not on the emphasis placed on it. But the fact remains that HISD was put into this cursed takeover status because of insufficient STAAR scores, and HISD will remain in this cursed takeover status until its STAAR scores improve to a particular level, and as such it sure seems weird to take such a seemingly indifferent attitude towards them, at least for this year. The STAAR also provides the first apples-to-apples comparison for the before-Miles and after-Miles era, so one way to interpret this is that HISD is just trying to lower expectations ahead of that. When you don’t trust the source, it’s easy to find nefarious motives in their actions.

Margaret Downing at the Press sums it all up nicely.

There is considerable irony in all this.

For years HISD parents and teachers justifiably complained that there was too much emphasis on the STAAR both in execution and test prep. Critics said students should be learning what they need to learn in classes designed to cover the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills criteria. This extra time spent preparing for one test is nothing more than gaming the systems with “strategies” and taking kids away from what they should be learning, they charged.

Well now they got — in part — what many of them asked for with a Superintendent who echoes those views. And a lot of them don’t like it. Their anxiety levels are rising and conspiracy theories have reached new levels: Is this being done so scores will tank and then the next year HISD Superintendent Mike Miles can show a dramatic improvement or call for more resources? Is this a way to get rid of more unwanted teachers? Is this a way to close down schools because no parent wants their child at a school with low test scores and with a drop in population those campuses will have to close, won’t they?

“No one likes teaching to the test but it’s those test scores that got our district in the situation it is and the scores are what will get us out. Is this intentional tanking?” one teacher asked.

Previously, passing the STAAR was a grade promotion requirement for students in grades 5 and 8 but the Texas Education Agency, saying it wanted to relieve pressure, dropped that part in 2023.

The pressure is still on for teachers, though. A big part of their annual assessment is based on how their students do on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness which began in the 2011-12 school year. Poor assessments can lead to not getting the school assignments they want or in worst cases, not having their contracts renewed.

The anxieties and rumors are probably part and parcel of not only a lack of trust of Miles and his academic and administrative policies in some quarters, but of an increasing wariness on the part of many teachers to share their true feelings with their administrators.

That we did too much STAAR prep before and that we are doing too little now can both be true. An administration that cared about its stakeholders and worked to build trust in the community could reasonably explain its change in strategy and what we should expect from it. That is not what we have here. As with everything Mike Miles has done, I feel I am forced to hope that he knows what he’s doing despite my strong misgivings. We’ll know in a few months how it turned out.

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