Tag Archives: Austin

Take a Tesla to Austin

Posted on January 30, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Because sure, why not? Want to ride in a Tesla? For $250, you can be chauffeured on a one-way trip between Houston and Austin. Dallas is just $400 away. Austin-based ElecTrip is billed as an energy-efficient alternative to private flights … Continue reading →

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We’re already on the next generation of scooters

Posted on January 25, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

And of course, they’re coming to Austin. Already home to thousands of electric scooters, many of them crowding downtown sidewalks, the Central Texas city will be the first to experience a new generation of shareable electric scooters from an Oxnard, … Continue reading →

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Hitch-ing a ride

Posted on January 22, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

I’m kind of fascinated by this story about another ridesharing app/service. High-tech hitchhiking has arrived in Texas. Austin startup Hitch offers a ride-sharing service connecting people driving between Houston and Austin with people needing rides. “Over 10,000 cars make trips … Continue reading →

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MLS comes to Austin

Posted on January 19, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Welcome to the big leagues. After a long and often rocky courtship, Austin and Major League Soccer became a match. The league formally welcomed Austin as its 27th franchise with a raucous downtown party Tuesday full of chanting and flag-waving, … Continue reading →

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It’s bill-filing season

Posted on November 14, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Here are some highlights from Day One: House Bill 49, by Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, would get rid of daylight saving time in Texas. Some lawmakers have tried to do this in past sessions. House Bill 63, by Rep. … Continue reading →

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World’s worst pastors file suit against Austin’s equal rights ordinance

Posted on October 15, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Exactly what you’d expect from these jerks. A Houston-based religious nonprofit behind the so-called bathroom bill is suing the City of Austin over its anti-discrimination hiring ordinance. The U.S. Pastor Council filed suit in a federal district court late last … Continue reading →

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The firefighter pay parity referendum won’t be decided by the voters

Posted on August 20, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

it will be decided by the courts. Here’s a story out of Austin to illustrate. Former Travis County judge Bill Aleshire has sued the city of Austin in the Texas Supreme Court, challenging the ballot language of a proposition up … Continue reading →

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Austin drops its bag ban

Posted on July 9, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

What choice did they have? The City of Austin says it will no longer enforce a ban on single-use plastic bags at most retail outlets, following a state Supreme Court ruling last month that struck down Laredo’s bag ban. The … Continue reading →

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More on flood tunnels

Posted on July 9, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

They’re a thing, I swear. While it’s far from clear whether it will ever happen, the concept almost immediately generated widespread response when it was announced earlier this spring. Local officials told the Houston Chronicle it’s outside-the-box thinking with benefits that could outweigh … Continue reading →

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I got those “too many traffic lights between Houston and Austin” blues

Posted on July 8, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

But maybe not for long. Depending on which route you drive. [T]he Texas Department of Transportation is in the final stages of a decadeslong effort to at least make that 170-mile trip from Austin to Houston free of traffic lights. … Continue reading →

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“Families Belong Together”

Posted on July 1, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Make some noise, then make sure everyone you know gets out and votes. As the temperature inched to the triple digits and sweating crowds swarmed the south lawn of the Texas State Capitol, speakers declared with grief, hope, indignation and … Continue reading →

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Where the anti-vaxxers are

Posted on June 30, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

A lot of them are right here. Four Texas cities, including Houston, rank among the 15 metropolitan “hotspots” of vaccine exemptions, more than any other state, according to a new study. The study found Austin, Fort Worth and Plano also … Continue reading →

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Scooters come to San Antonio

Posted on June 26, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Beware, y’all. Electric scooters started popping up on the streets of San Antonio early Friday morning as part of an initiative by Los Angeles-based scooter-sharing company Bird to provide an alternative mode of transportation, mostly for those downtown. The scooters, … Continue reading →

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Too many people don’t get sick leave

Posted on June 13, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

From the CPPP: All Texans should be able to care for themselves or a loved one if they get sick, regardless of what kind of job they do or how much they earn. Approximately 4.3 million Texas workers – or … Continue reading →

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The status of Confederate monument removal

Posted on June 7, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

We still have a long way to go. Texas has removed the most Confederate symbols and statues in the country since 2015, according to a new Southern Poverty Law Center study. But the trend does not extend to the state … Continue reading →

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Waymo moves forward on a self-driving car service

Posted on June 6, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Get ready, because they’re coming. Waymo, the driverless-technology company spun out of Google, has agreed to purchase as many as 62,000 minivans from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles for use in a ride-hailing service set to begin commercial operations later this year. … Continue reading →

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A flock of electronic scooters descending on Austin

Posted on May 6, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Not actually one of the signs of the apocalypse, though I’m sure it was annoying. Seemingly overnight, Austin was buzzing with electric scooters last month. Scooter riders weaved through crowded sidewalks and traffic downtown and zoomed out of drivers’ blind … Continue reading →

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Of course Ken Paxton opposes the sick leave ordinance

Posted on May 4, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

He wouldn’t be Ken Paxton if he didn’t. Less than a week after a conservative think tank sued Austin over the city’s paid sick leave ordinance, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has thrown the state’s support behind the suit, calling … Continue reading →

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Why do business groups want to force sick people to go to work?

Posted on April 27, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

This is bad for society. The city’s new ordinance mandating that most private businesses in Austin provide paid sick leave to employees — heralded by supporters as the most progressive labor policy in Texas when it won approval two months ago — is … Continue reading →

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Scenes from the March For Our Lives

Posted on March 25, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

From Houston: Nearly 15,000 descended Saturday morning on downtown Houston for the city’s March For Our Lives, advocating for greater gun control in light of last month’s Florida school shooting. A mix of children and adults gathered in Houston’s Tranquility … Continue reading →

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Local control and local races

Posted on February 25, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

From Texas Monthly: At the end of last week, the Austin City Council voted to pass a new ordinance requiring local businesses to give their employees paid sick leave. It was the end result of a long and intense fight, … Continue reading →

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No Amazon HQ2 for Houston

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Never really expected that we’d be a top contender, to be honest. Amazon ruled out Houston as a candidate for its $5 billion second headquarters on Thursday, delivering a blow to local leaders who had hoped to lure the Seattle … Continue reading →

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Hyperloop versus high-speed rail

Posted on September 27, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

I’ve been pondering whether our state is big enough for two high speed land-based forms of transportation, and I think the answer is “yes, at least for now”. The Hyperloop is nearly twice as fast as Texas Central’s High-Speed Rail … Continue reading →

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Texas remains in hyperloop competition

Posted on September 20, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

We’re still a long way from anything happening, but if it does it could happen here. There’s still a chance Texans could be some of the first people in the world to whisk along in tubes at 700 mph. Hyperloop … Continue reading →

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Enforcement of SB4 halted

Posted on August 31, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Excellent! U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia granted a preliminary injunction of Senate Bill 4, one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s key legislative priorities that seeks to outlaw “sanctuary” entities, the common term for governments that don’t enforce federal immigration laws. The … Continue reading →

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Confederate monuments in the Capitol

Posted on August 21, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Get rid of them, too. A state lawmaker wants all Confederate symbols removed from the Texas Capitol grounds, including a plaque that is 40 steps away from his office that rejects the idea that the South seceded from the Union … Continue reading →

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Paxton’s preemptive “sanctuary cities” lawsuit dismissed

Posted on August 11, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Good. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks on Wednesday dismissed the state of Texas’ lawsuit against Travis County and other defendants over the state’s new immigration enforcement law. Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a pre-emptive lawsuit shortly after the bill was … Continue reading →

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Abbott versus the cities

Posted on July 27, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

The continuing story. If Gov. Greg Abbott has disdain for how local Texas officials govern their cities, it didn’t show in a Wednesday sit-down with three mayors who were among 18 who jointly requested a meeting to discuss legislation that … Continue reading →

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Mayors to Abbott: Don’t mess with our cities

Posted on July 21, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Good luck getting through. Less than 24 hours after Gov. Greg Abbott blasted local government restrictions like tree ordinances as a threat to the “Texas brand,” city government leaders statewide are seeking a meeting with the Republican leader. “We would … Continue reading →

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Hearing for that other SB4 lawsuit

Posted on June 30, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

The SB4 lawsuit that Ken Paxton filed, to get the law pre-emptively declared to be constitutional, had its hearing in Austin on Thursday. A federal judge on Thursday criticized the politics surrounding Texas’ new immigration-enforcement law and hinted that he’d … Continue reading →

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City of El Paso joins in on SB4

Posted on June 30, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Add one more to the list. The city of El Paso voted on Tuesday to join the growing list of local governments that have filed a legal challenge in hopes of stopping Texas’ new immigration enforcement law from going into … Continue reading →

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Ellis seeks Harris County entry into SB4 litigation

Posted on June 28, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox, an email from Commissioner Ellis: Despite strong opposition from law enforcement officials, faith leaders, local governments, civil rights organizations, constituents, and advocacy groups, Senate Bill 4 (SB4), the “show-me-your-papers” legislation, has been signed into law. The new … Continue reading →

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RideAustin tries to hang on

Posted on June 28, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

I wish them luck. The return of Uber and Lyft to Austin has put the city’s only ride-hailing nonprofit in a fight for survival. RideAustin, one of several small companies that started operations in Austin after the ride-hailing giants left … Continue reading →

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SB4’s day in court

Posted on June 27, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Sparks were flying. Opponents of Texas’ state-based immigration law told a federal judge Monday that allowing the controversial measure to stand would pave the way for a nationwide police state where local officers could subvert the established immigration-enforcement powers of … Continue reading →

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