Controller Hollins has some questions about the budget

This hit my inbox on Tuesday evening, so I didn’t see it in time to queue something up for yesterday.

Chris Hollins

Ahead of Wednesday’s City Council vote on the proposed Fiscal Year 2026 Budget, City Controller Chris Hollins has released a plainspoken one-page document entitled “Ten Hard Truths about Houston’s Proposed Budget.” The report cuts through political spin and lays out key facts that every Houstonian—and every member of City Council—deserves to consider before casting a vote.

“Every household knows what happens when you build a budget on shaky numbers,” said Hollins. “The city budget should be no different. This document outlines ten facts that must be considered and evaluated before the vote is made.”

While the Controller’s Office does not draft the city budget, it is responsible for reviewing, certifying, and flagging financial risks. Hollins’s goal is clear: to provide transparency and protect Houston’s financial future.

The Ten Hard Truths report highlights a range of concerns, including:
• Built-in assumptions about a property tax increase
• A 6% hike in water rates
• Unspecified “savings” with no clear plan
• Risky reliance on deficit spending to close a $107 million gap
• Unrealistic overtime projections, which contributed to a $70 million overspend last year
• Potential impacts to the city’s credit rating

The document is part of the Controller’s broader effort to ensure that Houstonians have access to real financial information—not just headlines—when it comes to how their tax dollars are spent.

“Houston deserves the truth, not spin. Our job is to break down the budget, explain what it means for you and your family, and keep this process honest and fact-based every step of the way.”

The full one-pager is available at https://www.houstontx.gov/controller/news.html

See here and here for some background. The one pager is easy to read and contains links to various sources to back up the Controller’s claims. Some of the “hard truths” are more concerning than others – the assumed property tax hike is something I think needs to happen anyway and should have happened already – but the common theme running through them is the a lack of transparency on the Mayor’s part. I haven’t read the budget myself – it’s not in my wheelhouse anyway – and Hollins has plenty of reasons to take shots at the Mayor, so we’ll see what the reaction to this is. But I think it’s fair to say that Council should ask plenty of their own questions about the budget and its claims.

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Film incentive bill passes

Probably won’t be that big a deal, but we’ll see.

The Texas House gave final approval to a bill increasing the amount of money the state spends to attract film and television productions.

Senate Bill 22, filed by Houston Republican Sen. Joan Huffman, would allow the comptroller to deposit $500 million into a new Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Fund every two years until 2035.

Eligible expenses that could be paid for by incentives would include Texas workers’ wages, meals purchased from local restaurants, and airfare on Texas-based airlines.

The actual cost of the bill was still unclear Sunday night, when the House preliminarily approved the bill. Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, who was presenting the bill in the lower chamber, suggested the cost might drop to $300 million based on discussions in committee hearings.

“It could go up to $500 million as they haven’t finalized the budget, but the $300 million is what they’re discussing,” Hunter told lawmakers.

Hunter said SB 22 does not guarantee the film incentive fund to provide $500 million, which acts as a ceiling.

“You already voted for the budget. This money was placed in the budget. That’s not this bill,” Hunter told lawmakers. “This bill provides safeguards on how Texas spends money on film.”

Chase Musslewhite, co-founder of Media for Texas, a non-profit organization dedicated to boosting the state’s film and media industry, said on Tuesday she had heard discussions about decreasing the $500 million amount. Still, as long as the bill provides more than $200 million, she said her organization is content.

[…]

Others have raised concerns about how the governor’s office will determine which productions to fund. The bill gives the governor’s office complete discretion over which projects receive grant funding. However, supporters pointed out that many of these provisions have already been in place, and the bill doesn’t stop films from being made; it just provides extra incentives.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Texas is one of 37 states to offer a film incentive program. However, due to the uncertainty surrounding their incentive program, Texas is far behind states like New York, Georgia, and New Mexico when it comes to Westerns and other film and TV productions.

“There are tons of Texans who live in California and New York, all over the globe, who are pursuing their careers, because those opportunities weren’t here in Texas,” said Grant Wood, co-founder of Media for Texas. “We have essentially been subsidizing the workforce of these other states. It’s all about bringing that workforce home and continuing to create a more robust and diverse economy.”

Since 2007, lawmakers have funded the film incentive program at varying levels, with $50 million during one legislative session followed by $45 million the next. A then-historic $200 million came during the most recent session in 2023.

The program has boosted economic activity in Texas, producing a 469% return on investment, according to the Texas Film Commission, though economists and some House lawmakers have criticized that metric and denounced film incentives as wasteful spending.

See here for some background. You can safely disregard the wild economic activity projection by the Texas Film Commission, which is right up there with projections about how much activity a sporting event will generate. It’ll do something, just not that much. But hey, we had Matthew McConaughey and some other Texas-born stars testify before legislative committees, so as far as that went we got our money’s worth. Lone Star Left and The Barbed Wire have more.

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Waymo “road trip” coming

Company’s coming.

Houstonians have the opportunity to see driverless vehicles in action. Google’s autonomous-driver sister company, Waymo, announced Tuesday that it’s initiating road trips this summer for testing and exploration in Houston, Orlando and San Antonio.

The road trip consists of about 10 vehicles driving around some Houston neighborhoods, including Midtown, Norhill and Greenway, and the Interstate 45, Interstate 10 and Interstate 69 highways. The vehicles will first be driven manually and then autonomously with a driver present behind the wheel, according to a Waymo representative.

Waymo says its goal is to test its technology in new cities and understand how Houstonians travel on the city’s roadways. Company representatives plan to meet with residents and learn their transportation needs.

In other cities, Waymo teams have worked directly with local officials and first responders. The company also meets with local organizations that focus on accessibility considerations.

The road trip will be completed by the end of summer.

This was announced on Instagram:

Waymo is now in Austin, so I suppose this could be telegraphing future expansion plans, or it could just be places there engineers wanted to visit. I assume “Norhill” means my neighborhood, so I’ll get to see more weird vehicles toodling about. I note that there are no dates specified, though this Current story says they’re arriving “this week” in San Antonio, so maybe they’re already here. I’ll keep my eyes open, and we’ll see how they do on our streets. Spectrum News has more.

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Texas blog roundup for the week of May 26

The weekly Texas Progressive Alliance roundup is always human generated.

Continue reading

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Bill targeting abortion pills appears to be dead

Three cheers for the end of session death-by-calendar watch.

A major Texas bill that was poised to offer a blueprint for abortion restrictions has likely died in the state legislature.

Senate Bill 2880, a top priority for the state’s abortion opponents, would have targeted people who manufacture, distribute, mail or otherwise provide abortion medication in Texas. It would have enabled private citizens to sue people who distributed or provided abortion pills in Texas for a minimum of $100,000. Backers said the bill was meant to hit organizations such as Aid Access, an abortion telehealth provider that helps people in states with abortion bans who want to terminate their pregnancies.

But despite clearing key legislative hurdles — the bill passed the state’s Republican-led Senate in April and received approval from a House committee Friday evening — SB 2880 was not scheduled for a floor vote in Texas’ House of Representatives. Tuesday is the deadline for Senate bills to receive a vote in the House; the bill’s omission means it will not make it to the governor’s desk before the legislative session ends this week.

“It’s very disappointing to see that it likely won’t pass this session,” said Ashley Leenerts, legislative director of Texas Right to Life, which helped craft the bill and lobbied heavily for its passage.

SB 2880 seemed poised to pass. The bill’s Senate sponsor, Republican Bryan Hughes, chairs his chamber’s influential state affairs committee, which oversees legislation affecting state policy and government. The bill had also been reviewed and approved by staff for Gov. Greg Abbott, Leenerts said.

“This has been Texas Right to Life’s top priority since the session began,” she said. “We’re going to keep working and do our best. But it did seem like there had been support from leadership in the House, Senate and governor.”

Components of the bill could move forward as amendments to other legislation or if Abbott, who opposes abortion, calls a special legislative session this summer. But multiple activists from Texas Right to Life said they are unaware of bills that could serve as an amendment vehicle for SB 2880’s abortion medication restrictions. Abbott has also not indicated that he will summon the legislature back for a special session.

See here for some background. Greg Abbott has been quick and relentless on the special session trigger in years past, so I’m not ready to rest easy just yet. And even if this is allowed to let slide for now, you can be sure it will be back with a vengeance in 2027, assuming a continued Republican trifecta and no changes at the federal level. It’s a win and it’s important to celebrate wins, just keep some perspective.

Along those lines, the Current identified another win.

Similarly, voter-suppression measure Senate Bill 16 ran out of time to be brought to the floor for a vote. That legislation, modeled after the nationally proposed SAVE act, would have required voters to show documents proving citizenship when registering to vote, which critics argue would disenfranchise legally eligible voters who don’t have a passport or birth certificate readily available.

It’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote, but SB 16 proponents argued the new proposal would verify citizenship. However, voting-rights advocates said the bill would create significant barriers for people otherwise entitled to cast ballots. One in 10 eligible voters nationally would find it difficult to prove citizenship, according to a national survey reported on by NPR. Further, married women who changed their name after marriage would also be disenfranchised, critics argue, because their birth certificate often doesn’t match their married name.

[…]

Progressive activists celebrated the wins over the weekend, saying Democratic lawmakers slowed down the process overall so the House was only able to pass five bills Saturday.

The 89th Texas Legislative Session ends June 2, leaving just a week left to fight over bills left in committee and the Senate chamber.

“These two bills, SB 2880 and SB 16, were our biggest priorities this week and we killed them both,” progressive Texas politics Instagram account @howdypolitics posted. “That’s no small thing and we should celebrate. Especially in a state like Texas where wins feel so rare.”

The SAVE Act, at both the federal and state levels, is deeply stupid and would likely be quite harmful to a swath of Republican voters, but neither of those has ever been an impediment. Celebrate the wins indeed.

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Fair for Houston makes good on its warning

They did warn us.

Lawyers for advocacy group Fair for Houston have filed an injunction against Mayor John Whitmire and the Houston City Council after urging the city to comply with a local law to give the city more representation on the region’s transportation board.

Houston City Council voted in October to renew its membership on the Houston-Galveston Area Council, a body that’s tasked with distributing federal funds for infrastructure, climate mitigation and workforce development.

That vote came with backlash from Fair for Houston, the group that championed the charter amendment greenlit by voters in 2023 that would give more representation on the board. If that greater representation didn’t happen, city charter dictates the city would have to leave the group.

H-GAC negotiations did not result in more representation for the city, and since then, advocates with Fair for Houston have argued the council’s move to renew Houston’s membership violated the voter’s wishes to have more representation.

[…]

Michael Mortiz, one of the group’s organizers, told the Houston Chronicle Tuesday that Fair for Houston and its lawyers had received only radio silence from the city since sending its letter. City leaders have also not responded to multiple correspondences from the group’s lawyers, Mortiz said.

“Now more than ever, citizens have a responsibility to hold all levels of government accountable to both the rule of law and the will of the voters,” Mortiz wrote in a Tuesday statement. “Although we tried everything in our power to enforce Proposition B through good faith negotiations, the inaction on the part of city officials has made it clear that we must resort to the courts to compel our elected officials to do their duty.”

See here and here for the background. I’ve said before and I’ll say again, I have no idea what happens next. This has all been one giant step into the unknown, and there are some definite downside possibilities out there. On the other hand, and I’ve said this before as well, we had an election with a clear result, and that needs to mean something. Kudos to Fair for Houston for standing up for that principle. Houston Public Media, which has a copy of the lawsuit, has more.

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The case against rooting for Tesla to fail

From Inside Climate News.

While some people may be pleased to see Tesla and Musk struggle, and most of the damage was self-inflicted, Tesla’s swoon is probably bad for the U.S. EV market.

It helps to have a sense of just how big Tesla is relative to other EV makers that sell in the United States. Last year, 48 percent of the EVs sold here were Teslas and no competitor cracked 10 percent, according to Cox Automotive.

Tesla also is a key player in building and maintaining EV charging stations. If any of the companies behind charging infrastructure run into financial problems, that could be a big concern, said Samantha Houston, a senior manager for the Clean Transportation program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“Having those publicly accessible networks be reliable, and expanding them, is an essential piece,” she said.

If Tesla or other charging companies scale back their efforts, it would be an impediment to increasing EV ownership for all brands. This is especially true now that most automakers have adopted Tesla’s North American Charging Standard, which means Tesla charging stations can be used by people driving other brands, Houston said.

In addition to practical issues such as charging, Tesla’s struggles could fuel a perception problem for EVs.

“I don’t think it’s good for the EV market to have Tesla seen in a negative light—imploding,” said William Roberts, senior research analyst for Rho Motion, the United Kingdom-based research firm that covers batteries and EVs.

He explained that Tesla is synonymous with EVs, especially for consumers in the United States. For Tesla to be viewed as an object of derision is not helpful for easing the concerns of potential buyers, especially those who are deciding between an EV and a gasoline vehicle.

At the same time, sales figures show that other automakers were able to increase their EV sales to offset Tesla’s decline, and then some. Tesla’s U.S. sales were down 5.6 percent last year compared to 2023, while overall EV sales in the nation—which includes Tesla—were up by 7.3 percent, according to Cox.

Through the first two months of 2025, Tesla sales were down, especially in Europe and China, but global EV sales were way up, according to Rho Motion. Global sales were up 30 percent, including an increase of 35 percent in China and 20 percent in Europe and the United States/Canada. (Rho Motion includes plug-in hybrids in its totals, while Cox doesn’t.)

I just don’t see the EV sales surge as a reason to think that the market is shaking off Tesla’s problems. The reason is simple: We don’t know what sales would have been with a strong Tesla.

In sports terms, a star player is limping. That’s almost never good for the game.

That’s the back half of the article; the first half recounts all the ways in which Tesla has been battered and some dire predictions for its future. The news keeps getting worse since then. You’d likely enjoy reading that, so click over and check it out. I say buy electric, just not a Tesla. If at some point the Tesla board dumps Emlo, we can re-evaluate. But for now, to me the choice is clear.

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So about that Compassionate Use program…

Psyche!

A plan to expand Texas’ struggling medical marijuana program has been stripped down by a state Senate committee, just days after the House agreed to the upper chamber’s plan to ban all recreational THC.

New draft language for House Bill 46, which overhauls the Texas Compassionate Use Program, significantly reduces the bill’s expansion framework, limiting licenses and striking provisions that would create eligibility for chronic pain, traumatic brain injury and other conditions not currently covered by the program.

The move, which still needs approval by the full Senate, is likely to anger some House lawmakers, who agreed to pass the hemp THC ban with assurances from proponents that veterans and other people with serious medical needs would have better access under the medical cannabis program expansion.

Both the chronic pain and TBI conditions had been specifically championed by veterans’ groups who say they want greater access to the program to provide opioid alternatives. The rewrite also specifically removes provisions in the House version guaranteeing broad eligibility for veterans and the confidentiality of their prescriptions.

The exact draft language was not immediately made public, but was approved by members of the Senate State Affairs committee in an informal hearing Friday night. It will now face a floor vote in the GOP-led Senate.

State Rep. Tom Oliverson, a Cypress Republican, vowed to lobby for the medical marijuana expansion while pushing for the THC ban during floor debate this week. Both chambers will need to agree on a final version of the expansion before it can head to Gov. Greg Abbott to be signed into law.

“I know chronic pain is important. [We] fought for that in the TCUP as we passed that bill out of the House,” Oliverson said. “You better believe I’m going to fight for that on the other side, because I think it is of critical importance. I don’t ever want someone to be denied access to a medication that may be of benefit.”

The new draft language, however, strikes the chronic pain eligibility and also reduces the number of new business licenses for medical cannabis companies from nine to three.

See here and here for the background. The lessons here are clear: You can’t trust Dan Patrick, and if you ever want to make access easier to any kind of cannabis or marijuana products in Texas, you have to vote him out as a starting point. The question to me is whether the advocates for expanded cannabis and marijuana will continually ignore and deny these lessons as the advocate for expanded gambling have done, or if they will wise up and take appropriate action. The first opportunity to do that is next year. The Quorum Report has more.

UPDATE: After backlash from House Republicans, Patrick has backed off a little.

State lawmakers announced a deal on Sunday to make Texans with chronic pain eligible for medical marijuana prescriptions, reversing a previous decision that could have limited access to a large swath of veterans.

The agreement came after several Republican House members protested the Senate’s move to gut the planned expansion of the medicinal cannabis program, known as the Texas Compassionate Use Program. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who voiced objections to adding more qualifying conditions as recently as Saturday, announced the new agreement on social media.

[…]

Patrick has long resisted adding chronic pain to the list of eligible conditions since the program’s start in 2015. Veterans’ groups have championed the addition and estimate more than a quarter of all veterans could qualify.

According to a post from state Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, Patrick also agreed to reverse a decision to drop the number of business licenses allowed under the program from twelve to three. The deal does not appear to add back other conditions that a key Senate committee stripped out of the bill on Saturday, including traumatic brain injury, glaucoma, spinal neuropathy, Crohn’s disease and degenerative disc disease. It is also not clear if the agreement would reinstate a stripped provision designed to help veterans keep their information within the program confidential.

Patrick did not explain what led to the change of course.

Because he recognized that he went too far and for once felt the need to do something about it. Dan Patrick is about what Dan Patrick wants. He’ll be back to look for another way to tighten this up next session if we leave him in power.

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We need a better class of wingnut billionaire overlords

I read this story about the latest dude in politics with more money than sense and I just shake my head.

In mid-September, Alex Fairly accepted an invitation to spend the day with one of the state’s richest and most powerful political megadonors.

He jumped in his private plane and flew down to meet Tim Dunn, a West Texas oil billionaire, at his political headquarters located outside of Fort Worth.

For five hours, Dunn and his advisers walked Fairly through the network of consulting, fundraising and campaign operations they have long used to boost Texas’ most conservative candidates, target those who they deem too centrist and incrementally push the Legislature toward their hardline views.

The two men talked about political philosophy and strategy. They discussed the Bible at length. Fairly was impressed, he said, if not surprised by the sheer magnitude of Dunn’s “political machine.”

“I think most people underestimate how substantial and how many pieces there are that fit together and how coordinated they are,” Fairly said in an interview with The Texas Tribune.

Dunn ended the tour with an ask: Would Fairly be willing to partner with him?

It was a stunning sign of how suddenly Fairly had emerged as a new power broker in Texas politics. Three years ago, few outside Amarillo had heard the name Alex Fairly. Now, the Panhandle businessman was being offered the chance to team up with one of the most feared and influential conservative figures at the Capitol.

Over the past year, Fairly had also poured millions into attempts to unseat GOP lawmakers deemed not conservative enough and install new hardliners. He sought to influence the race for House speaker and rolled out a $20 million political action committee that pledged to “expand a true Republican majority” in the House.

He had chosen a side in the raging civil war between establishment Republicans and far-right conservatives — and it was the same side as Dunn. Seemingly out of nowhere, he had become the state’s 10th largest single contributor for all 2024 legislative races, even when stacked against giving from PACs, according to an analysis by the Tribune.

But after mulling it over, Fairly turned down Dunn’s offer. It wasn’t the right time, he said.

And a few months later, Fairly began to question whether it would ever be the right time. Ahead of the 2025 legislative session — where his daughter Caroline would be serving her first term — Fairly dove deeper into the dramatic House leadership election, aiding efforts to push out old guard Republican leadership whom he believed were making deals with Democrats at the expense of conservative progress.

But the more he dug, the more he didn’t like what he saw: dishonest political ads, bigoted character assassinations and pressure campaigns threatening lawmakers over their votes. Fairly eventually realized much of what he thought he knew about Texas Republican politics was wrong.

He said he’d been misled by people in Dunn’s orbit to believe House Speaker Dustin Burrows was a secret liberal. Those misconceptions informed his efforts to try to block the Lubbock Republican from winning the gavel.

“I thought it was all true,” he said. “I didn’t know Burrows one bit. I just was kind of following along that he was the next bad guy. And it wasn’t until, frankly, other things happened after that that I started just asking my own questions, getting my own answers.”

As Fairly’s perspective shifted, he said he felt a moral obligation to correct course — and to try to get others, like Dunn, to change their behavior, too.

His political awakening could have seismic implications for Texas politics. Just last year, he seemed positioned as a second Dunn-like figure who could add pressure and funding to the effort to push the Legislature further right. Even now, he still supports many of those same candidates and concepts in principle. But he has come to condemn many of the methods used to achieve those goals by Dunn and his allies. Dunn did not respond to a request for an interview or written questions.

“When we spend time attacking each other and undermining each other in public and berating people’s character — particularly if it has a slant that isn’t completely honest and truthful — I think we are just eating each other,” Fairly said. “At some point you began to do more harm than you’re doing good.”

It’s a long story, so read the rest. And keep any hope you might have that he’ll Find The Light somehow and become an actual force for good – he’s still a rich conservative guy whose daughter is a new Republican State Rep, he’s just one with something a bit more akin to a conscience than the true nihilists – to a minimum. At best, maybe he’ll support conservative candidates who want to get stuff done instead of burning it all down, which is a double-edged sword to say the least. I don’t have any good ideas about what could be done in the short to medium term about the increasing number of billionaire overlords. If we can win enough power, there are things we can do. It’s that first step that’s the hard part.

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What’s next for Aurora’s driverless trucks

Expansion coming soon.

Autonomous vehicle technology company Aurora Innovation plans to expand on the success of its first driverless commercial launch and add night driving to its operations.

Aurora said Thursday that in the second half of 2025, it will start sending its self-driving trucks out at night and during adverse weather conditions like rain or heavy wind. The company, which provided the update in its first-quarter shareholder letter, also plans to expand its driverless trucking route beyond Dallas to Houston, and into El Paso and Phoenix.

“We’d like to have a high return on asset for every truck that we have, and so we’ll try to drive efficiency to get as many miles on as many trucks as fast as possible,” Aurora CFO Dave Maday said Thursday during the company’s first-quarter earnings call. “We should be able to double our drive time as soon as we unlock night. And that’s our next key milestone.”

Aurora already runs freight with self-driving trucks in those conditions, but with a human safety operator behind the wheel. The company said it has completed more than 4,000 miles in a single self-driving truck without a driver running freight for its launch customers Hirschbach Motor Lines and Uber Freight.

In the week since Aurora’s commercial launch, the company has already expanded to two driverless trucks operating on a daily basis and says it expects to operate “tens of trucks” by the end of 2025.

See here and here for some background. I have to say, I guess I had assumed that this was an actual fleet, not just one and now two trucks doing all the work. The promise that there will be “tens of trucks” by the end of the year just struck me as having big Tobias Funke energy, which gave me the kind of laugh we all need these days.

Anyway. I don’t mean to mock, this is quite an accomplishment, even if it’s at a smaller scale than I had been envisioning. The mentions of El Paso and Phoenix no doubt mean that I-10, and probably I-20 if they’re going to and from Dallas, will be added to the route list. More opportunities to see them for yourself, if you happen to be on the right patch of road at the right time.

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THC retailers upset by THC ban

What are y’all going to do about it?

Sydney Torabi, co-founder of Austin-based Restart CBD, could only watch in disbelief late Wednesday night as the Texas House delivered a key vote to push through a ban on all products containing THC, essentially stripping her of a significant piece of her livelihood by this fall.

“My jaw dropped. I didn’t understand the outcome,” said Torabi, who started her business with her sister seven years ago.

Senate Bill 3 by Sen. Charles Perry, a Lubbock Republican who also carried the 2019 hemp legalization bill that created the THC proliferation, would penalize violators who knowingly possess hemp products with any amount of THC with a misdemeanor that can carry up to a year in jail. Those who manufacture or sell these products would face up to 10 years in prison. The measure is a few procedural steps away from going to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.

As of April 2024, Texas had over 7,000 registered hemp sellers. The state’s hemp industry is estimated to employ more than 50,000 people and generate $7 billion in tax revenue annually, according to a study done by Whitney Economics. However, with THC-containing hemp products, like gummies, drinks, lotions, clothing, coffee, and much more, slated to be criminalized by Sept. 1, retailers are telling The Texas Tribune they plan to close shop, ship their product out in mass, or stay open and be declared a drug dealer by the state while they fight the issue in the courts.

“It’s devastating,” Torabi said, adding that she was disheartened that other bills had been held hostage until Senate Bill 3 was passed. “That is the saddest part. [Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick] used people against people and surprised everyone.”

This session, Patrick, who oversees the Senate, has led the charge to ban THC, accusing retailers of preying on susceptible minors by setting up stores near schools and marketing products to children.

“We cannot in good conscience leave Austin without banning THC, which is harming our children, and destroying Texans’ lives and families,” Patrick said in a social media post before Senate Bill 3 passed.

The GOP-controlled Legislature authorized the sale of consumable hemp a year after it was legalized nationwide to boost Texas agriculture by allowing the commercialization of hemp containing trace amounts of delta-9 THC.

What ensued was a proliferation of hemp products sold at dispensaries and convenience stores across the state.

“We are deeply disappointed by the Texas House’s passage of SB 3, a bill that dismantles the legal hemp industry and ignores the voices of small businesses, farmers, veterans and consumers across the state who rely on hemp-derived products for their livelihoods and well-being,” according to a statement from the Texas Hemp Business Council on Thursday. “We urge Governor Abbott to reject SB 3 and protect the tens of thousands of hardworking Texans.”

Hemp manufacturers and retailers had championed to House lawmakers their willingness to adopt stricter oversight and licensing requirements. Lawmakers in the lower chamber initially seemed willing to adopt regulations despite an outright ban, which makes the sequence of events this week feel like a betrayal to many business owners.

“I know there are some people in the House who care. It’s just unfortunate,” Torabi said.

[…]

Some of the most vigorous opposition to the all-out ban on hemp products has come from those who use it for medical purposes. Veterans, parents of kids with mental health or physical disabilities, and the elderly spoke to lawmakers this year about the importance of having easy access to hemp products, not the medical marijuana program.

The Legislature is considering plans to expand the state’s medical marijuana program by April 2026. Even so, some users have said they would strongly prefer to continue buying products at smoke shops, because doing so is cheaper, more accessible, and does not require an expensive and sometimes far-away visit to a medical professional.

You know what I think. There’s no way Abbott vetoes SB3, and while maybe a district court judge might impose a temporary restraining order on the law, I cannot see it ultimately prevailing. Hell, I doubt it survives the 15th Court of Appeals, and it won’t surprise me at all if the Supreme Court lifts any TROs while the case gets litigated. The many people who will be affected by this, from the retailers and their employees to the many users of their products, have two choices: Cut and run, or stay and fight. You want to get access to THC restored in Texas, it starts by voting Dan Patrick out of office. If you don’t do that, it could be many, many years before another opportunity to move the needle comes along.

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Yes, the penny is done for

So long, old friend.

The Trump administration says making cents doesn’t make sense anymore.

The U.S. Mint has made its final order of penny blanks and plans to stop producing the coin when those run out, a Treasury Department official confirmed Thursday. This move comes as the cost of making pennies has increased markedly, by upward of 20% in 2024, according to the Treasury.

By stopping the penny’s production, the Treasury expects an immediate annual savings of $56 million in reduced material costs, according to the official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the news.

In February, President Donald Trump announced that he had ordered his administration to cease production of the 1-cent coin.

[…]

There are about 114 billion pennies currently in circulation in the United States — that’s $1.14 billion — but they are greatly underutilized, the Treasury says. The penny was one of the first coins made by the U.S. Mint after its establishment in 1792.

The nation’s treasury secretary has the authority to mint and issue coins “in amounts the secretary decides are necessary to meet the needs of the United States.”

Advocates for ditching the penny cite its high production cost — almost 4 cents per penny now, according to the U.S. Mint — and limited utility. Fans of the penny cite its usefulness in charity drives and relative bargain in production costs compared with the nickel, which costs almost 14 cents to mint.

[…]

Jay Zagorsky, professor of markets, public policy, and law at Boston University, said that while he supports the move to end penny production, Congress must include language in any proposed legislation to require rounding up in pricing, which will eliminate the demand for pennies.

Zagorsky, who recently published a book called “The Power of Cash: Why Using Paper Money is Good for You and Society,” said otherwise simply ditching the penny will only increase demand for nickels, which are even more expensive, at 14 cents to produce.

“If we suddenly have to produce a lot of nickels — and we lose more money on producing every nickel — eliminating the penny doesn’t make any sense.”

See here for the background, and here for my entire obsession with these dumb coins. Somehow, in all that discussion, I had either not realized or forgotten how much more expensive nickels were to mint, which makes me wonder if there will be a push to eliminate them as well. One thing I do recall is that because of sales taxes, which will take your nice divisible-by-five price and make it something that requires pennies to transact, the fear was that all final sales prices would round up as needed and thus make everything a teeny bit more expensive, which naturally would be felt the most by the poorest folks. That still seems to be inevitable, it just seems less likely that there will be any public fretting about it. Post-COVID, I seldom transact in cash anymore, but I’ll be on the lookout now for those rare times that I do for any price changes to make the loss of the penny less evident. We’ll see how long that takes.

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Weekend link dump for May 25

“A chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence startup xAI appeared to be suffering from a glitch Wednesday when it repeatedly brought up white genocide in South Africa in response to user queries about unrelated topics on X.”

“How Pope Leo Will Approach Climate Change Is Unclear, but the Vibe Is Positive”.

“MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s pace of play rules have been a nearly unqualified success, the World Baseball Classic has become must-see theater under his watch and he’s making real progress toward eliminating television blackouts. But when it comes down to it, he has one job. Nothing else matters if fans don’t believe what they’re seeing on the field is real. And with Tuesday’s decision to reinstate Pete Rose, the hit king who was banned from the sport for betting on baseball as manager of the Cincinnati Reds, Manfred has ensured that his legacy as commissioner will be one of failure.”

Sesame Street has a new streaming home. Netflix has picked up the children’s series, which will make its debut on the streamer later this year with an all-new, reimagined 56th season — plus 90 hours of previous episodes — available to audiences worldwide.”

“I had an abortion in the third trimester; I don’t expect every American to have the same understanding that I do. However, I do believe that I am in line with most Americans when we agree that we do not want the state to punish people for having them.”

“International criminal groups are stealing as much as a trillion dollars a year from U.S. government programs but the Department of Government Efficiency has done little to address the problem”.

Absolutely ridiculous. An utter travesty.

“House Republicans pushed President Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax-and-spending bill past a key hurdle late Sunday night, but the last-minute grappling has them colliding with a stark reality: The plan won’t reduce federal budget deficits and would make America’s fiscal hole deeper.”

“NASA celebrated this employee’s story of resilience, then tried to scrub it from the internet. Then fired her.”

“If we have policy adjustments that disqualify people from the SNAP program, or if we have a recession and unemployment goes up, or if we have a series of natural disasters, there are any number of things that can work to increase demand, and the food banks just aren’t ready.”

“Of course a president openly filling his pockets with direct (albeit thinly veiled) payoffs from people with business before the government is an attack on the republic. Of course the president pardoning political allies for crimes is an attack on the republic. Of course disappearing people off the streets and sending them to foreign prison camps is an attack on the republic. Of course violating basic constitutional rules about spending government money; defying court orders; denying habeas rights; intimidating media outlets and universities and law firms; and on and on are all attacks on the republic.”

“Notice the clear tilt. Trump is acknowledging that Putin, not Zelensky, is the one resisting a ceasefire—yet if Russia stays on that course, the U.S. won’t step up its support for Ukraine; instead, Trump will simply pull out. Trump has said (and some analysts agree, though others do not) that without firm U.S. support, Russia will win the war. That seems fine with the American president.”

This is why appeasement doesn’t work. Don’t be a chump.

RIP, George Wendt, actor and comedian who was a six-time Emmy nominee as Norm on Cheers.

Letting caregivers get sick seems like a bad idea.

What if Jesus was Chaotic Good?”

“We’re Focused on the Wrong A.I. Problem in Journalism”.

“A group of Quakers are marching more than 300 miles from New York City to Washington, D.C., to demonstrate against the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants.”

“NFL films scrapped plans for a season of the documentary show “Hard Knocks” focused on former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick over escalating conflicts with Belichick’s girlfriend Jordon Hudson”.

RIP, Kathleen Hughes, 1950s starlet best known for her iconic scream in It Came From Outer Space.

RIP, Jim Irsay, longtime owner of the Indianapolis Colts.

“HGTV Is Quietly Ditching Renovation Shows — It’s Starting to Look a Lot Like MTV”.

“A civil RICO case against the racketeer in chief should be part of any effort to save this country from Trump’s dictatorial aspirations, which are coming closer to reality every day.”

“Once again, the Freedom Caucus blinked. They are too cowardly to live up to their ideals if it means standing up to Trump, who traveled to Capitol Hill to browbeat the Freedom Caucus holdouts and rally the entire Republican Conference.”

“The Largest Upward Transfer of Wealth in American History”.

Have these idiots ever even heard of Bruce Springsteen?

“In a sense the exception of the Federal Reserve is not only a small gift, a marginal limit on the destruction, but an additional gift of giving the lie to the whole enterprise. This remains a renegade and corrupt Supreme Court majority making up its own Constitution as it goes and most times, if not every time, enabling arbitrary and untrammeled presidential dictatorship.”

Wishing Billy Joel all the best.

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A start-of-hurricane-season roundup

Here’s your latest forecast.

The nation’s top weather agency, where federal job cuts and staffing shortages are stretching forecast resources thin, is predicting 13 to 19 named storms in its 2025 hurricane season outlook released Thursday.

This hurricane season, which begins in less than 10 days on June 1, has a 60% likelihood of being above normal, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Of the 13 to 19 named storms, six to 10 could become hurricanes, which have maximum sustained wind speeds of at least 74 mph. Forecasters also expect three to five major hurricanes, which are hurricanes with winds of at least 111 mph (Category 3 status or higher).

Unlike previous years, NOAA scientists will be monitoring an active hurricane season with a troubling number of vacancies in critical subagencies, such as the National Hurricane Center. Houston’s regional office of the National Weather Service, one of six agencies NOAA oversees, is among the hardest hit by staffing woes with 11 vacancies, including three leadership positions.

Among the reasons for an above-normal hurricane season are the unusually warm water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, and the expectation of a neutral sea-surface temperature pattern in the equatorial eastern Pacific. Higher ocean temperatures means tropical cyclones have more heat energy to draw from, which then allows storms to rapidly intensify.

The average sea-surface temperature in the Gulf of Mexico is running about two degrees above the climate-normal established from 1991-2020 data. This departure is so far comparable to the above-normal warmth in the Gulf leading up to the start of the active 2023 and 2024 Atlantic hurricane seasons.

This is in line with earlier predictions, so that’s nice. It’s important to remember that these are for a range of possible and likely outcomes, not an exact measure. And it only takes one hurricane in the wrong place to make it a bad season, as we all can attest from last year.

Our local leaders say they are ready for whatever comes.

FEMA funding and aid may be uncertain ahead of hurricane season, but Houston-area emergency management officials say they are prepared for the disasters and will seek assistance from the state for recovery efforts if necessary.

In January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order establishing the FEMA Review Council to determine whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency is equipped to address disasters across the United States.

Since then, Trump has made cuts to the agency. Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported that David Richardson, a former Marine Corps officer, was named acting administrator of FEMA just after Cameron Hamilton, who’d been leading the agency, was fired.

“There is obviously a lot to be figured out,” said Brad Burness, emergency management coordinator for Galveston County.

[…]

Jason Millsaps, executive director of the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said his county is ready. Millsaps said Montgomery County is one of the few counties in the state with an emergency supply warehouse.

“As we approach hurricane season, our OEM logistics team begins to stockpile supplies and prepare supplies for rapid deployment,” Millsaps said. “We are uniquely positioned to respond to any disaster.”

Millsaps said his office will work with the state for any recovery needs.

“We are confident in our planning and coordination with the state, that any needs will be addressed timely,” Millsaps said.

We are of course worried about what the federal response to a hurricane will be. Unfortunately, the only way to know for sure is to find out. It’s uncharitable to say, but I hope it’s someone else who has to do that.

CenterPoint says they’re ready.

CenterPoint Energy announced Thursday that its infrastructure is now more resilient ahead of the 2025 hurricane season, which starts June 1.

CenterPoint’s improvements, which make up the second phase of the company’s Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative, include more than 26,000 stronger poles, 6,000 miles of cleared vegetation from power lines and more than 5,000 automated reliability and grid switching devices.

The initiative started last summer following Hurricane Beryl, when CenterPoint faced major criticism from citizens and politicians for a poor response to the hurricane.

“The pain and frustration our customers felt was clear,” said CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells. “Their anger for our performance was clear, and it is a catalyst for us to change the way we build our system, we operate our system, we interact with our customers. We’ve done more work over the course of this last year than we’ve ever done in our company’s history, and we’re going to continue that pace.”

CenterPoint completed the first phase of the Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative in August. The deadline to complete the second phase, which started in September, was June 1.

[…]

CenterPoint expects the improvements will reduce annual outages by 125 million minutes.

Details about the next phase of the resiliency plan, which lasts through the end of the year, will be announced in June.

“We know that we have a long way to go to improve what our customers experienced last storm season,” said Tony Gardner, CenterPoint’s chief customer officer. “But we will not stop. We’ll continue to work around the clock to make sure that we improve things here in the Greater Houston area.”

I’m sure Whataburger. Look, CenterPoint has invested some real money in its disaster response planning, as they definitely needed and were told to do. If they don’t level up, the response this time around will make 2024 seem like a love letter.

And finally, just because you live farther inland, don’t get overconfident.

Inland flooding is the leading cause of hurricane-related fatalities, not just in Texas but throughout the United States. According to an analysis of National Hurricane Center data, 60% of tropical cyclone-related deaths in the United States over the past decade have been attributed to rainfall flooding.

Inland residents might let their guard down, believing hurricanes are a too-distant threat. Residents in coastal communities, on the other hand, are often well-prepared for a tropical cyclone, having either evacuated or made plans to protect their property from potential flooding.

However, as the effects of climate change, including rising global air and ocean temperatures, have become more evident in the past few decades, we’ve seen tropical cyclones become stronger and occur more often. Records have been broken in the number of named storms in a single season (30 in 2020), the strength of hurricanes early in a season (Beryl was a Category 5 hurricane on July 2, 2024) and the intensity of hurricanes (Wilma in 2005 was the Atlantic’s most intense hurricane).

Because hurricanes are not just a coastal issue, and damage from wind and water can happen hundreds of miles inland regardless of the storm’s landfall strength, the National Hurricane Center is continuing to refine its forecast cone map, which depicts the probable track of a hurricane. The latest version aims to better address all hazards within the probability cone.

While the previous version focused on the storm path and the risks along the coast, the updated version now highlights areas far from the coast that could face hurricane or tropical storm conditions. After the map was used on an experimental basis last year, the hurricane center plans to make this enhanced forecast cone map an official graphic this year.

Again, we won’t know until we find out. This season could range from total disaster to “that was bad but it could have been worse” to “we got lucky this year”. May the odds be ever in our favor.

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Fort Worth’s view of the HISD takeover

As recently noted, Fort Worth ISD has been notified by the Texas Education Agency that they are required to intervene in that district. While it’s not been determined yet what that means, a takeover is on the list of possibilities. As FWISD is a large urban district, the comparison to HISD and our experience with being taken over is inevitable. The Star-Telegram did some reporting, and I was interested in how they saw things. I’m skipping the beginning of their story, which recounts where FWISD is and how HISD got to where we are, and we’ll pick it up from there.

What has happened since Miles took over has been something of a mixed bag. A year into the takeover, Houston ISD’s state test scores improved, even as they declined across Texas, a fact that district leaders held up as a sign their strategy was working.

But the district has also seen widespread principal turnover, a sharp uptick in teachers leaving and big declines in enrollment, especially at schools under Miles’ school reform model. [Duncan Klussmann, a professor of school leadership in the University of Houston’s College of Education] said he knows families who have transferred their kids from Houston ISD to private schools because of the instability the district has seen since Miles took over. Last year, voters in the district roundly rejected a $4.4 billion bond proposal, which both supporters and detractors saw as a referendum on Miles’ leadership.

In a virtual town hall last week organized by the Houston Chronicle, Miles said the lesson he took from the bond issue’s failure is that a state-appointed intervention team can’t bring a bond proposal to a community. The community needs to come to district leaders with what they want to see in a bond package.

But more broadly, Miles defended his slate of reforms. The large amount of turnover among Houston ISD’s principals was driven primarily by the district making leadership changes because former principals weren’t getting results, he said. While he acknowledged that a change in principals can bring disruption, he said it was necessary to improve school performance.

Klussmann, the University of Houston professor, said it’s too early to tell how effective Miles’ reforms will be in the long term. Much of his strategy for the district is centered around getting short-term wins, like improvement on STAAR scores, he said. But other metrics like high school graduation rates, student success after graduation and college-going rates can be better indicators of how a district is actually doing, he said. Any change in strategy could take five to seven years to show up in those metrics.

In a paper released in 2023, researchers at the University of Virginia and Brown University looked at the academic impact of state takeovers of school districts across the country. What they found was that, on average, takeovers had little impact on how students performed on state tests. But that average doesn’t tell the whole story — researchers found that takeovers had a widely varying impact from one district to another, leading to big gains in some districts, big losses in others and little impact in still others. Across the country, those effects tend to even out, said Beth Schueler, a professor of education and public policy at the University of Virginia and the lead author of the paper.

Researchers don’t completely understand the factors driving the results of state takeovers. The racial and ethnic makeup of the districts seems to make a difference, Schueler said — predominantly Hispanic districts seem to see the biggest gains, while predominantly Black districts tend to see smaller gains or even losses.

Schueler said it also isn’t clear what’s driving the difference in outcomes based on demographics. But she pointed to other research suggesting that takeovers seem to have different political implications for school districts, depending on who those districts serve. In majority-Black communities, state takeovers have tended to result in less Black representation on school boards, while in majority-Hispanic communities, takeovers seem to open the door for greater Hispanic representation. That trend can affect student performance, since separate research suggests students of color tend to do better in districts where elected officials reflect the communities they represent.

Another factor that seems to make a difference is how districts were doing academically before the takeover, Schueler said. Almost all the districts researchers looked at were struggling — that’s usually what prompted state education officials to step in — but within that group, there were some that had very low test scores and some that were closer to the middle of the pack, she said.

In general, districts that were struggling the most before state intervention tended to see better results, while those that were performing somewhat better beforehand were more likely to see their test scores decline. Schueler said state officials need to take a hard look at that factor when they’re considering taking over a school district.

It’s good to get an outside perspective once in awhile. Even better when that brings along some data you hadn’t known about before. I’m not sure where HISD would fit on the “how districts were doing academically before the takeover” scale – we’re a huge district, there were and are plenty of schools that perform well but also others that have struggled. Part of my beef with Mike Miles is that I believe he’s spent too much time and energy meddling in the affairs of the schools that didn’t need any intervention and should have been mostly left alone. Maybe sticking closer to the job he was brought here to do would have been the best course of action.

As for the representation item, I do think the appointed Board of Managers reasonably resembles both the elected Board and the district as a whole. I have my complaints about the Board but that’s not one of them. It is something for FWISD to be aware of if they go down this road. Which I hope they don’t.

One last item, about the endurance of the reforms and their long-term effect, I don’t think there’s any way that the NES model sticks around after Miles leaves. Even putting aside one’s feelings about the man, NES strikes me as a turnaround system, not a standard operating model. It’s also a financial burden at a time when the Lege is not giving districts the funding they need, and based on STAAR testing that’s on its way out. And HISD has had issues for some time with graduation rates and post-graduation accomplishments; if all we get out this takeover is some short-term gains on a to-be-obsolete testing regime, then what really was it all for? This is one of those times when I hope I am underestimating Mike Miles. Ask again in five to seven years.

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More on Austin’s MLB ambitions

Veteran Longhorn sports-knower Kirk Bohls, formerly of the Statesman and now of the Chron, has a long look at the team working to bring an MLB franchise to Austin.

Matt Mackowiak has a plan.

The long-time Austin political strategist and public relations guru seeks to bring a major-league baseball team to the biggest, untapped professional sports market in the country as he has launched a highly skilled, collaborative team looking to galvanize the community and make a bold bid for an expansion franchise.

That’s right.

He’d like to have butts in the seats of a plush, 40,000-seat, brand new stadium with a retractable roof somewhere in eastern Travis County watching Major League Baseball in the 2030s.

Just imagine it.

In the season opener in 2031, Austinites could go buy a hot dog and brewski, settle into their front-row seat behind home plate and watch the New York Yankees play the Austin Bats.

Talk about your real-life field of dreams.

But these are the dreams of chief executive officer Mackowiak and his co-founding partners, chief operating officer Derrik Fox and president Dustin Byington, just less fantasy and more factual.

Fox, who grew up near Albany, N.Y., has been to Cooperstown 40 minutes away from his grandparents’ home in upstate New York to check out the baseball Hall of Fame more times than he can count. He brings a wealth of experience in sales and marketing.

Byington is a 40-year-old who grew up in a family of San Diego Padres season ticket holders and saw about 50 home games a year since he was a sixth-grader. The one-time left tackle for Columbia’s football team moved to Austin with his wife in 2013. He is a serial entrepreneur who offers incredible finance and private equity know-how and charged with raising capital.

They can envision major league baseball in Austin maybe as soon as 2030, but more likely the following year.

There’s just a few little nagging details that need to be ironed out first between now and then:

  • Like a major investor worth billions who loves baseball.
  • Like a prime location for a brand new stadium easily accessible to many.
  • Like an announcement from major-league baseball to formalize the expansion process and timeline.
  • Like tremendous community outreach that fully impresses 30 MLB owners that Austin deserves a team.
  • Like millions of dollars to set up infrastructure, hire experts, trigger a groundswell of support and finance their pitch to MLB.

Yeah, that’s pretty much it.

Check all those boxes, and Austin is on its way to becoming the 31st or 32nd major-league baseball team. And, yes, that prospect is long overdue.

“It’s going to be a long journey,” Byington said. “I’m not saying we’re running downhill now, but we’ve sure got a heck of a lot of momentum and we’re picking up speed.”

See here for some background. This is a long story, which ran in the Sunday print edition of the Chron, and it’s worth your time to read. I think Austin is more likely to get a team when MLB goes to its next round of expansion, from 32 to 34 or (better) 36 teams, but it can’t hurt to make a strong effort now. Getting a prospective owner in place would surely help. And on the infrastructure front, anything these guys can do to magic up a commuter rail line along I-35 (because surely the future stadium will be close to I-35), both to combat the evil that is the traffic on that highway and also to make the future Bats games more easily accessible to fans from San Antonio to Georgetown, would be of great benefit to all. As I said, I don’t think they’re going to succeed. But I do think they’re going to put forth a fine effort, and it will serve them well in the possibly not-too-distant future. Good luck, y’all.

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Measles update: El Paso the exception

Weird.

As soon as measles started spreading in West Texas, El Paso health officials began preparing schools and day care facilities for the day the virus would inevitably arrive.

But now that it’s here, it’s not kids who are making up the brunt of the cases — it’s adults. Two-thirds of El Paso’s cases so far are among people over the age of 18, and only 7% are among school-age children.

Anyone unvaccinated can contract measles, but it tends to hit children first and hardest. Most children are not fully vaccinated until they are five years old and they spend more time than adults in congregate settings where the virus can spread quickly. More families of young children are opting out of vaccines, leaving them exposed.

Gaines County, the epicenter of the outbreak, followed this traditional path, starting with school-age children before spreading to adults. Almost six months into what is now the country’s largest measles outbreak since 2000, Texas’ 722 cases are about evenly spread between the three age groups the state divides them into: under four, 5-17 and adults.

El Paso stands out for its high rate of adult infections. The county only has 56 cases so far, the third-highest among Texas counties but still too small of a sample size to conclude much, public health experts say. But if this trend holds, it may be a credit to El Paso’s high vaccination rates among kids — 96% of kindergartners and 98% of seventh graders are fully vaccinated for measles, higher than the percent required to maintain herd immunity. The state does not track adult vaccination rates.

“That is one of the protective factors that we feel is helping us,” said El Paso public health authority Hector Ocaranza. “But still we’re going to continue to see cases of measles that are going to be clustering in some of the schools or day cares that have low immunization rates.”

These surprising initial statistics have required public health officials to change their outbreak response on the fly. They’re aiming more of their vaccination events specifically at adults, especially as many health care providers who serve adults do not have the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine on hand the way pediatricians do.

“Most of the adults, they don’t remember whether they’ve had the MMR vaccine,” Ocaranza said. “They were kids, and nobody has a shot record.”

[…]

Healthy adults are generally able to fight off the worst of a measles infection, but anyone who gets infected runs the risk of it morphing into pneumonia or worse, said Ben Neuman, a virologist at Texas A&M University. Three of the five hospitalizations in El Paso so far are in adults.

And anyone with measles will spread it in the community, potentially to children too young to be vaccinated who are especially vulnerable to the worst outcomes, like encephalitis, deafness, blindness and permanent brain damage.

“Especially kids two years and under, their immune systems are just bad at everything,” Neuman said. “We’re all sort of helping them out with our herd immunity.”

Neuman said it’s possible that El Paso’s high rate of adult cases is “the first sign of something weird,” but he anticipates the data will start to look more normal as more people get tested.

As a reminder, if you’re not sure what your vax status is for the MMR, you can go get yourself a booster. It will only help, and if you’re the least bit anxious about it or at higher risk, there’s no good reason not to.

Good on El Paso for having an above-average child vaccination rate, which has likely helped slow the spread of the outbreak. I’ve been concerned about that since cases started popping up in the big urban centers, but so far so good. Lubbock is a slightly different story.

When Kelly Johnson Pirtle was counting down the days to her due date last year, she pictured her future as a new mom. She thought of family visits, friends becoming her village, and a healthy child.

She never considered that she might have to shield her newborn son John from a once-eradicated disease.

“You want your kids to grow up in a world that’s healthy and moving forward,” Johnson said. “That’s not true during the first few months of his life. It makes me sad.”

Pirtle is one of many new parents in Lubbock who are growing more anxious as the measles outbreak, and vaccine skepticism, spreads. And Lubbock parents aren’t the only ones terrified of their young children contracting the contagious virus. From January to April 30, 7,107 babies have received a dose of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine early, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. It’s the state’s highest number in the last six years. It could be even higher since the data only includes children whose parents opted into submitting their information to the state.

The outbreak has ballooned to 722 cases in Texas since it began in January. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the measles outbreak is now the largest single outbreak since the U.S. declared the disease eliminated 25 years ago. Nine new cases were reported Friday, the lowest number since February. However, health officials can’t consider an outbreak over until there’s been a 42-day period without a new case.

As the outbreak spreads beyond West Texas, skepticism about the vaccine has intensified, including at a national level. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known vaccine skeptic, has spread misinformation about the vaccine. Earlier this month, Kennedy ordered federal health agencies to research new treatments for measles. Public health officials have said two doses of the MMR vaccine is the most effective way to prevent measles.

However, a lot of time stands between those two doses and a sense of security for new parents. Doctors recommend that children get their first dose of the MMR vaccine when they are 12 months old. The timeline is shorter — just six months — for children in areas with an outbreak.

That is the case in Lubbock, about 87 miles northeast of Gaines County where the outbreak started and more than 400 cases have been confirmed. There have been 53 confirmed cases in Lubbock County. Lubbock, with a population of 267,000, is the largest city in the South Plains and serves as a medical hub for the region. Due to a dearth of rural hospitals and physicians, people from all over the region flock to Lubbock for health care.

It has left the city and its residents to figure out how to protect themselves when so much of the outbreak is out of their control. Some new parents in Lubbock have reverted to COVID-era precautions — limited contact with people outside the home and avoiding crowded places. On social media groups, women ask other moms how young babies infected with measles fared, and share details on vaccine clinics. Others share locations where cases have been reported for other parents to avoid.

And at this point, they aren’t just battling the outbreak. They are also battling the consequences of a growing distrust about the vaccine, including school and child care centers closing as cases pop up.

A 2024 KFF study found that exemption rates have gone up nationwide. The amount of kindergartners in the U.S. who were exempted from at least one required vaccine increased to 3.3%. Since 2018, the requests to the Texas Department of State Health Services for an exemption form have doubled from 45,900 to more than 93,000 in 2024.

In Lubbock County, 92% of kindergarteners reported being vaccinated against measles in the 2023-2024 school year, about 2 percentage points lower than the state average, according to latest state data.

I wish all the people who are taking this seriously well. It’s a real shame that especially in a place like Lubbock where the sick people need to go to get care that new parents have to act like we’re back in the COVID days. Hopefully that won’t be for too much longer, but we know it’s not truly going to go away.

One small bright side of this outbreak is that there has been an increase in children getting vaccinated.

More Texas parents are opting to vaccinate their babies early against measles, nearly a 4.5-fold increase so far this year compared to 2019, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

From January through April, 7,107 children between the ages of 6 months and 11 months were vaccinated for measles, which is typically reserved for infants about to travel internationally or living in a measles outbreak area. Otherwise, doctors usually administer the first dose of the vaccine when they turn 1 year old.

For the same period in 2019, only 1,591 children between 6 months old and 11 months old were vaccinated for measles.

[…]

“It does show that parents really are scared, and that parents don’t want to wait,” said Nina Masters, a senior applied research scientist at Truveta, a Washington-based company that is studying Texas’ vaccination data. “They don’t want to wait 12 months to get their child vaccinated. They want to wait six months and one day, and they want to do it as soon as they can.”

And, since state data only reflects vaccine information parents voluntarily give to them, the number of babies receiving the vaccine early is probably higher. Masters’ company estimates an 11-fold increase in the number of early measles vaccine shots in Texas between 2019 and 2025, according to a study released this week.

The Truveta study found that in March and April of this year, 20% of all first measles vaccine doses given to 2-year-olds and younger were in babies who were 6 months old to 11 months old.

“This is a really big jump,” Masters said.

Increased vaccine uptake is among the reasons local health officials have seen the number of new measles cases drop in recent days. Last week, only nine new cases were reported, the lowest number over a 7-day period since February. Other factors contributing to the slowdown include natural immunity, quick identification of cases by providers and public health workers, and more infected people staying home because of better measles awareness, officials say.

[…]

Because children younger than one have less developed immune systems, the “zero” or earlier dose is weaker than a regular vaccine and offers just enough protection to cover the child, but not enough to offer lifelong protection, said Katherine Wells, Lubbock’s health director.

Wells said if she had a 6-month-old child, she would have them vaccinated with an earlier dose.

For the past few months, Texas health officials have asked parents to consider this earlier dose if they plan to travel or live in the outbreak area or plan to travel internationally.

West Texas public health officials have posted flyers throughout the region and held press conferences and vaccination clinics to encourage more people to vaccinate against measles, which is the most effective way to prevent infection. Pediatricians in West Texas have been emailing and texting patients to let them know they can vaccinate children earlier than 12 months old.

Lubbock, where 53 measles cases have been reported, is 75 miles from Gaines County, where the measles outbreak began in late January. Wells said Wednesday her department has distributed 500 more measles doses than they normally do this year, mostly to children. She said pediatricians in the area are responsible for about another 2,500 more than normal and private physicians have administered most of the early doses to babies.

As with the measles cases, the count of new vaccinations is likely too low, as the data is incomplete and not everyone reports getting the shots. And I’m glad to hear that there’s a nice increase in Lubbock as well. I really hope this is a multi-year trend now and not just a fear-induced bump. That would still be better than nothing, I would just like to think that there will be some lasting effect.

Also, after reading this NBC News story on the same topic, I wonder how much of this is people pushing up the schedule for their kids’ shots – in other words, people who would have gotten their kids vaxxed anyway but just got on it sooner because of the outbreak – and how much of it is people who for whatever the reason might have delayed or failed to get their kids vaxxed doing so. Clearly some, probably most, of it is the former, but surely some is the latter as well. That’s where the real difference will be made.

Because look, we can use all the help we can get.

A government report released on Thursday covering wide swaths of American health and wellness reflects some of the most contentious views on vaccines, the nation’s food supply, pesticides and prescription drugs held by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The much-anticipated “Make America Healthy Again” report calls for increased scrutiny of the childhood vaccine schedule, a review of the pesticides sprayed on American crops and a description of the nation’s children as overmedicated and undernourished.

[…]

Increased scrutiny of childhood vaccines — credited with saving millions of people from deadly diseases — figures prominently in the report. It poses questions over the necessity of school mandates that require children to get vaccinated for admittance and suggestions that vaccines should undergo more clinical trials, including with placebos.

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine critic, has raised doubts about the safety of shots even as a measles outbreak has sickened more than 1,000 Americans. This week, Kennedy’s health department moved to limit U.S. access to COVID-19 shots.

The report does not provide any evidence that the childhood vaccine schedule, which includes shots for measles, polio and the chickenpox, is to blame for rising obesity, diabetes or autism rates, said Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician at Johns Hopkins University.

“It’s not as if they’re positing any kind of causal link,” Adalja said, adding that Kennedy is “is trying to devalue vaccines in the minds of Americans.”

We are awash in bullshit, and people like RFK Jr are out there spraying it around. I don’t know what things are going to look like on the other side of this, but it’s not great right now.

Ahead of the Friday case count update but after the stories above came out, we learn that measles has arrived in Central Texas.

The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) confirmed a case of measles in Atascosa County, just south of San Antonio, on April 21, that was determined to be linked to the West Texas outbreak. The exposure was centered west of Poteet.

On Tuesday, another case in Kyle was confirmed.

With a population of about 63,000, Kyle is located in Hays County on the Interstate 35 corridor between San Marcos and Austin.

These cases are the closest San Antonio has come to a brush with the highly infectious disease since health authorities warned in late February that a West Texas resident diagnosed with measles spent a weekend visit in San Antonio.

Dr. Jason Bowling, an infectious disease specialist and chief epidemiologist at University Health, said that while he is glad there has not been a case in Bexar County, it wouldn’t take much given the outbreaks nationwide and how contagious the pathogen really is — many times more than the COVID-19 virus, for example.

[…]

The recent deadly measles outbreak in Texas appears to have driven an increase in the number of people who are vaccinated against measles, according to data from DSHS.

Though the data is incomplete because most people have not opted in to the Texas immunization registry, more than 320,000 people statewide have received the MMR vaccine since the start of the year versus over 277,000 in the first six months of 2024.

In West Texas where the outbreak is concentrated, that number doubled, from just over 7,500 to over 13,600.

Vaccination rates in Atascosa County are among the highest in the state with 98.5% of kindergartners and 99% of seventh graders having received the MMR vaccine.

The rates are slightly lower in Hays County, with 95% of kindergartners and 96% of seventh graders. Adult vaccination rates are not available.

Good for Atascosa and Hays Counties, hopefully their high vax rates will keep this from spreading too much. I will continue to monitor it, however often I post about it.

And that brings me to the latest update.

The total number of confirmed cases linked to the measles outbreak is now up to 728 in Texas, according to the latest update from the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). That’s a total of six new cases since Tuesday’s update.

Ninety-four people have been hospitalized with measles since it first broke out in Gaines County in January.

The DSHS underscores that this is the total number of people hospitalized over the course of the outbreak. It is not, however, the current number of people in the hospital.

Based on the most recent data, DSHS has identified designated outbreak counties with ongoing measles transmission: Cochran, Dawson, Gaines, Lamar, Lubbock, Terry and Yoakum.

On Thursday, state and local officials confirmed a measles case in Brewster County. This is the first reported case to appear in the Big Bend region since a measles outbreak began earlier this year in West Texas near the New Mexico border.

The DSHS said that the case was directly linked to the ongoing Texas outbreak that began in Gaines County in January.

There were four new cases in that Tuesday update, so ten for the week. This story has a nice graph showing the total case numbers, and the curve definitely flattened as of the May 6 update. We’ll see if we maintain this new roughly-ten-cases-a-week pace going forward. Stay safe out there.

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Trojan “abortion exceptions” bill passes

For better or worse.

A bill clarifying when doctors can perform abortions under Texas’ near-total ban will now go to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk after the House approved the bill with wide bipartisan support. Despite some concerns raised by conservative Republicans, the narrow bill does not expand abortion access, but rather aims to ensure pregnant patients can get life-saving medical care.

Bill sponsor Rep. Charlie Geren, a Republican from Fort Worth, stressed that this was not a “choice bill,” but rather an attempt to ensure the existing limits of the law are “clear, consistent, fair and understandable.”

“We do not want women to die from medical emergencies during their pregnancy,” Geren said before a preliminary vote Wednesday. “We don’t want women’s lives to be destroyed because their bodies have been seriously impaired.”

Texas banned all abortions three years ago, with a narrow exception that allows doctors to terminate a pregnancy only to save a pregnant patient’s life. Immediately, doctors and legal experts warned that this exception was too narrow and vaguely written, and the penalties too severe, to ensure that women could get life-saving care.

That has proven true in many cases. Dozens of women have come forward with stories of medically necessary abortions delayed or denied, and at least three women have died as a result of these laws. Faced with these stories, Republican lawmakers have conceded that the language of the law might need some clearing up.

Senate Bill 31, also called the Life of the Mother Act, aligns language among the state’s abortion laws, codifies court rulings and requires education for doctors and lawyers on the nuances of the law. It passed the House 134-4 on Thursday.

The bill was tightly negotiated among lobbyists for doctors and hospitals, anti-abortion groups and Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Bryan Hughes of Mineola, who authored the bill, and Geren.

“These groups don’t always see eye to eye,” Geren said. “But in this case, they worked together to ensure pregnant women with pregnancy complications get appropriate and timely care.”

In the Senate, Republicans threw their support behind the bill, while Democrats pushed back on its narrowness, noting that Texas law still does not allow abortions in cases of rape, incest or lethal fetal anomalies.

“The folks who are working on this fix are, from my perspective, the folks who have created the problem,” said Houston Sen. Molly Cook. “Over the past four years, we’ve watched women suffer and die, and this bill is the confirmation that we all agree that something is broken in Texas.”

In the House, however, the bill faced headwinds from the right, as conservative Republicans rallied to the idea that this bill would allow doctors to resume elective abortions. Rep. Brent Money, a Greenville Republican, said he believed the laws were clear as written but there had been “malicious interpretations” by pro-abortion doctors.

[…]

Some doctors groups, including the Texas chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have criticized the bill for not going far enough to protect doctors and the patients they treat. Others say these changes will be sufficient to free doctors to perform medically necessary abortions without fear of lengthy prison sentences and massive fines.

Texas Hospital Association president John Hawkins said in a statement that the bill’s passage is “a great step forward for Texas women and health care.”

“We’re grateful we were able to move past the politics to find common ground,” Hawkins said. “Lawmakers followed through on input from patients, hospitals and physicians to strengthen and clarify laws to better protect moms. Once finalized, this will have an immediate and positive impact, helping us provide life-saving care to pregnant women in distress.”

See here for some background. Sen. Cook is correct, but this is what we got, and it comes with a lot of caveats. I’ll let Jessica Valenti explain where we ended up.

Abortion, Every Day first reported on SB 31 back in March, warning that it was a Trojan Horse—a bill designed to bring back a 1925 abortion ban that could be used to prosecute abortion funds, helpers, and even patients. AED’s reporting created a domino effect of coverage that put pressure on lawmakers to amend the bill and walk that plan back.

Their original plans foiled, Republicans have since shifted their attention to another bill—SB 2880—where they’re still trying to revive that century-old ban. And SB 31? Still a big problem!

The bill allows Texas Republicans to pretend that they’ve ‘softened’ their stance and offered legal clarity to doctors, even though it doesn’t actually expand exceptions. What’s more, the bill requires doctors to take a continuing education course about the state’s abortion ban—designed and taught by an organization hand-picked by Texas Republicans.

Translation: anti-abortion activists will be teaching doctors when and how they’re allowed to save a woman’s life.

How do I know? Because we’ve seen this before! When South Dakota Republicans passed a similar requirement, the state teamed up with the extremist American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) to create their ‘educational’ materials for doctors.

This is an organization that insists abortion is never medically necessary—and recommends c-sections for women with life-threatening pregnancies rather than safer, faster, less painful abortions. So maybe not the best folks to be giving medical advice!

Per usual, Texas is a testing ground for what anti-abortion groups want nationally. These so-called ‘Med Ed’ bills—which are becoming a trend—let lawmakers pretend they’re working with doctors to clarify care, when what they’re really doing is establishing a terrifying new norm: that the government gets to dictate when and how doctors treat their patients in medical emergencies.

So there you have it. And by the way, that other bill SB2880 got voted out of the House committee, meaning it is likely to get passed if it comes to a floor vote before Tuesday, when another deadline kicks in. What does this bill do?

If the bill becomes law, anyone who manufactures, distributes, mails, prescribes or provides abortion-inducing drugs can be sued for up to $100,000, even if the pills aren’t proven to be the cause of death for the fetus. It expands the wrongful death statute to encourage men whose partners willingly terminate their pregnancies to sue whoever provided the pills for up to six years after the event. It also empowers the Attorney General to bring lawsuits on behalf of “unborn children of residents of this state.”

The bill also contains a controversial provision that says it cannot be challenged in state court before it is enforced, and a state judge who holds the law to be unconstitutional can be personally sued for $100,000.

Isn’t that lovely? Look, SB31 passed with broad bipartisan support, as Democrats believed, with justification, that it was the best they were going to get this session. But that one bill allows for a lot of cover for the others, and there’s no way to look at this session and conclude that abortion access and women’s health are any better off now than they were going in. The narrative that Republicans did something to make things a little better is powerful and enticing, and even if that were objectively true it doesn’t change the fact that on net we’re 99% worse than we were in 2021. We can’t lose sight of that and we can’t let any counterfactual take hold.

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Tesla robotaxis to arrive in Austin in June

Don’t use them, I say. Make Elon cry.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the company will have robotaxis on the streets of Austin, Texas, by the end of June.

In an interview with CNBC’s David Faber on Tuesday at the company’s headquarters in Austin, Musk said Tesla aims to bring its robotaxis to Los Angeles and San Francisco following the planned Austin debut.

Musk said a Tesla robotaxi service will start with about 10 vehicles in Austin, and rapidly expand to thousands of vehicles should the launch go well with no incidents.

Since 2016, Musk has been promising Tesla investors, customers and fans that the company is about a year away from delivering a self-driving car that’s capable of transporting passengers safely without human interventions, or a human at the steering wheel. However, Tesla does not yet offer a vehicle safe to use without human supervision.

“It’s prudent for us to start with a small number, confirm that things are going well and then scale it up,” Musk said.

To start, Tesla has said its robotaxis will be Model Y vehicles equipped with a forthcoming version of FSD, or full self-driving, known as FSD Unsupervised.

Alphabet’s Waymo is currently operating commercial, driverless ride-hailing services in various U.S. markets. On a recent earnings call, Alphabet said Waymo already conducts 250,000 paid trips per week.

Musk said Tesla “will geofence” its robotaxis in Austin to start, meaning the company will limit where those Model Y vehicles can drive. But there won’t be a human safety driver in the cars, Musk promised.

Tesla employees will be remotely monitoring the fleet, he said.

“We’ll be watching what the cars are doing very carefully and as confidence grows, less of that will be needed,” Musk said.

Musk has previously claimed Tesla’s “generalized” approach to robotaxis is more ambitious than Waymo’s. Tesla relies on camera-based systems and computer vision primarily instead of using sophisticated sensors including lidar and radar in its vehicles.

Musk has said those sensors were expensive and could impede high-volume robotaxi production and scaling of a global fleet.

“What will actually work best for the road system is artificial intelligence, digital neural nets and cameras,” Musk said Tuesday.

See here, here, and here for some background. As noted, Waymo is already an option and use can use the Uber app to ride them, if you must do rideshare without interacting with a human. While I can see good reasons to use the autonomous taxis, I cannot think of a single valid reason to put any money in Elon Musk’s pocket in doing so. This is a choice – again, there’s already a good option available to you in Austin and soon to be wherever else – so make the right choice. If you choose to use Musk’s rancid service, that’s entirely on you. Don’t be that person.

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Lege goes for full THC ban

Welp.

The Texas House late Wednesday gave initial approval to a bill that would ban all products containing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, likely spelling the end for the state’s short-lived hemp industry.

Under the legislation, which is nearing the governor’s desk for approval, adults would face up to a year in jail for possessing hemp products with any amount of THC — a stricter penalty than what is on the books for possessing up to 2 ounces of marijuana.

The bill’s expected passage portends a minor earthquake for the state’s economy, effectively shuttering a field that, by one estimate, accounts for roughly 50,000 jobs and generates $8 billion in tax revenue annually.

THC products, now a ubiquitous presence at gas stations, convenience stores and thousands of other retailers across Texas, are now poised to be taken off the shelves. The about-face comes six years after the Legislature inadvertently touched off a massive boom in hemp-based products when lawmakers, intending to boost Texas agriculture, authorized the sale of consumable hemp.

Though that 2019 law does not allow products to contain more than trace amounts of delta-9 THC, it did not establish that same threshold for other hemp derivatives. Critics say the hemp industry has exploited that loophole to the tune of more than 8,000 retailers now selling THC-laced edibles, drinks, vapes and flower buds.

The vote ended months of suspense over how the House would handle competing calls to ban or regulate THC, the psychoactive element in marijuana.

This session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who oversees the Senate, has led the charge to eradicate the industry, which he accuses of preying on susceptible minors by setting up stores near schools and marketing products to children. The Senate passed legislation in March to ban all THC products, and the Republican leader threatened to force an overtime session of the Legislature if the House did not get on board.

“I’ve been here for 17 years at the Texas Capitol — 10 years as your lieutenant governor. I’ve never been more passionate about anything,” Patrick said in a video posted on social media Monday evening. “I’m not gonna leave Austin until we get this done.”

Hemp industry leaders and advocates say criticism of THC products and retailers is overblown. Shortly after Wednesday’s House vote, Lukas Gilkey, chief executive of Hometown Hero, a manufacturer of hemp-derived products, said industry leaders would immediately begin preparing a lawsuit to challenge the expected ban.

Gilkey said the legal fight would be waged by the Texas Hemp Business Council, a trade group that released a statement late Wednesday blasting the House for ignoring “the voices of small businesses, farmers, veterans and consumers across the state who rely on hemp-derived products for their livelihoods and well-being.”

In lieu of an outright ban, hemp manufacturers and retailers had urged House lawmakers to adopt stricter oversight and licensing requirements, including those found in the previous House draft of the legislation, which would have preserved some types of THC products.

A majority of House lawmakers did away with that approach on Wednesday, voting 86-53 to back a floor amendment from Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, that overhauled the bill by essentially restoring the version approved by the Senate two months ago. It was a major blow for the hemp industry, which had leaned on the House as the bulwark against the Senate’s unwavering bid to outlaw THC. Several Democrats joined with the House’s Republican majority in support of the ban.

[…]

Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston and chair of the House Democratic Caucus, framed the vote as a move “backwards in time” that defied a trend seen in other states to expand access to recreational marijuana or THC.

“We’re still rehashing parts of ‘Reefer Madness’ from the ‘50s and ‘60s,” Wu said. “We thought that we’ve gotten past this, that we’ve grown, that we’ve gotten smarter. … But here we are, back again.”

He added that the “overwhelming majority” of veterans’ groups are “aggressively supporting legalization” and want regulations rather than a ban — an attitude, Wu argued, that reflects the broader view of Texas residents.

“Texans as a whole do not want something that they’ve had access to for the last five years, something that they’ve enjoyed recreationally, that has helped them medically, that has made their lives better — they don’t want this ban either,” he said.

See here for the background. Good luck with the lawsuit – I’m not sure offhand on what grounds they would sue, but I’ll find out when they do. I will say this again, more slowly this time: The Texas Hemp Business Council and everyone else who liked and used these products and who would someday like to see Texas decriminalize marijuana need to go all in on un-electing Dan Patrick. I mean, what do you have to fear from him at this point? The Sisypheans who keep pushing for expanded gambling every other year can continue to delude themselves that if they throw enough money and lobbyists around they might somehow overcome Danno’s resistance. The hemp folks cannot possibly be laboring under that illusion now. I know that electing a Democratic Lite Guv seems impossible, but 1) you literally have nothing to lose; 2) this is an issue with broad support; and 3) what is the alternative? Take your best shot at throwing him out of office. It’s your only hope. The Chron, Reform Austin, Lone Star Left, and The Barbed Wire have more.

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Winning Humble ISD candidate declared ineligible

This is rough.

A candidate who won her bid for the Humble ISD school board on May 3 has now been declared ineligible after her opponent challenged her candidacy, a district spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.

Brittnai Brown, a former educator, was sued by opponent Tracy Shannon after the election, and the lawsuit cited voter records that showed that Brown did was not registered to vote in the district for the required six months before the filing deadline to run for the board.

Brown and Shannon both cast bids to unseat the incumbent trustee Ken Kirchhofer for position four on the board. Vote totals from May 3 show that Brown took the lead, with 4,066 votes, Shannon came in second with 3,237 votes and Kirchhofer came in last place with 3,197 votes.

In the lawsuit, Shannon had asked for an injunction to canvassing the votes and for herself to be named victor instead, because she had the second highest number of votes. She also accused officials in the district of being unable to read at the last board meeting due to the discrepancy.

“The district has taken the right step in declaring Ms. Brown ineligible. The pleadings in the lawsuit speak for themselves,” Shannon said. “I ran against Ken Kirchhofer because I believe the district deserves better. There was a clear call for accountability in the district and I believe the election results reflect that appetite for accountability.”

But the district still canvassed the votes at a board meeting on May 13 because the district’s legal counsel, Jeremy Binkley said that the district was legally obligated to canvass the votes on the 11th day after the election. Binkley also said if the trustee-elect was declared ineligible, it would create a vacant seat on the board that would be filled either with a special election or by board appointment.

After reviewing voter records, the district found that Brown’s registration on Feb. 14 listed a Houston ISD address. Brown changed her address to a Humble ISD address where she now lives likely around the time of the filing deadline, but it did not become effective until March 16, because it takes 30 days for changes on voter registration to become effective, according to Texas Secretary of State guidelines.

Until a decision is made by the board about whether to call a special election or to fill the seat by appointment, Kirchhofer will continue to serve on the board, according to Humble ISD’s Chief Communications Officer Jamie Mount. She confirmed that the school board has not met to determine how to move forward, but that the rest of the candidates who won their seats will be confirmed at a board meeting on June 10.

Mount said that the district “has not experienced a problem with candidate voter registration in prior elections.”

Typically, when the district receives candidate filings, the school district checks that the address on the application for a place on the ballot is within Humble ISD, that the candidate is a registered voter, and candidates sign that they are eligible to hold office under the laws of the state, Mount said.

See here and here for some background. On the surface this seems straightforward enough. I would like to understand why Humble ISD didn’t catch this up front, but that’s for them to figure out. I don’t know if Brittnai Brown was confused or got bad advice or what, but given that her win was a victory for the forces of good sense – and it’s the loser Tracy Shannon who needed to be kept off the Board – her subsequent disqualification is a setback. If Humble ISD doesn’t appoint a replacement – and if they do, please find someone other than Tracy Shannon – I sure hope a good and eligible candidate can be found quickly. This is all very unfortunate.

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That Waymo is watching you

Huh.

The Los Angeles Police Department obtained video footage from a Waymo driverless car as part of its investigation into a hit-and-run in which a separate, human-driven car hit a pedestrian.

The LAPD published the footage, which has a note on it that reads “Waymo Confidential Commercial Information,” on its YouTube page to ask the public for help identifying the driver of the vehicle. The short clip shows what video footage that law enforcement requests from Waymo looks like.

The situation shows that police in Los Angeles are now looking at Waymo robotaxis as potential sources of surveillance footage to investigate crimes that the vehicles’ cameras and sensors may have witnessed. In 2023, Bloomberg reported that police in both San Francisco and Maricopa County, Arizona, had issued search warrants for Waymo footage. Police have also requested footage from Teslas, extremely pervasive Ring cameras, and Cruise autonomous vehicles.

[…]

A Waymo spokesperson told 404 Media that it does not proactively give footage to police.

“Waymo does not provide information or data to law enforcement without a valid legal request, usually in the form of a warrant, subpoena, or court order. These requests are often the result of eyewitnesses or other video footage that identifies a Waymo vehicle at the scene,” the spokesperson said. “We carefully review each request to make sure it satisfies applicable laws and is legally valid. We also analyze the requested data or information, to ensure it is tailored to the specific subject of the warrant. We will narrow the data provided if a request is overbroad, and in some cases, object to producing any information at all.”

Waymo’s website explains that it conducts training sessions for law enforcement and emergency responders, which is designed to teach them about Waymo and explains what they should do in case they are responding to a car crash or other emergency involving a Waymo. The page says it had “conducted in-person training for 18,000+ first responders at 75+ agencies.”

You can see the video of the crash at the story link. This shouldn’t be a surprise, but I admit I hadn’t thought of it before reading the story. There’s clearly value in that kind of footage being available. There’s also a clear potential threat to public safety when there are authoritarians and wannabes who can get access to it as well. The obvious remedy is laws that require transparency and put strict limits on the use of such footage. We’re going to have to do the best we can until such a law could plausibly be passed.

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Hollins wants a final ruling on the drainage deal before he’ll certify the budget

Okay.

Chris Hollins

Controller Chris Hollins said he won’t certify Mayor John Whitmire’s 2026 budget until the court makes a decision on the city’s payment agreement with the plaintiffs in a years-long streets and drainage lawsuit, Hollins told the Houston Chronicle following a budget trends report Tuesday.

Whitmire earlier this month presented a $7 billion budget with no added fees for residents and no tax increases. The city’s budget deficit of around $106 million will be eradicated by dipping into the city’s savings account.

The budget includes a payment plan for a denied appeal in a lawsuit that requires Houston to stick to city law and put more money toward street and drainage projects.

The agreement would charge a percentage of the 11.8 cents per $100 of evaluation required by the city law incrementally over the next two years. The city would then start charging the full 11.8 cents starting in 2028 to fully supply the drainage fund.

As a result, the city would see $490 million in its drainage fund in 2026, $525 million in 2027, $540 million in 2028 and $585 million in 2029, Whitmire’s team explained.

But even though the court ruled the city had to comply with the ordinance, the city has not yet received word from a judge on whether Houston’s agreement with the plaintiffs is acceptable.

“We’ve shared with [the Whitmire administration] that they’ll need to go to the court to get that blessing before we can move forward,” Hollins said.

City Attorney Arturo Michel wrote in a statement that the agreement is currently before the court and that all parties involved considered it routine to have it presented without a hearing. Michel said the plaintiffs in the case would contact the court to say the agreement is the preferred payment mechanism.

Michel disagreed with the controller’s position that a court order would be necessary to approve the budget.

“The parties have a binding agreement that has received all city and plaintiff approvals,” Michel wrote.

Whitmire’s Deputy Chief of Staff Steven David added that even if the case were to be reassigned to a different judge in the case, city leadership – including the controller and city council – would still be bound by the agreement it collectively approved.

See here, here, and here for some background. I had a conversation a couple of weeks ago with a fellow Dem precinct chair about this post-ruling deal that allowed the city to defer some of the drainage payments. How is it that a defendant that has already lost the lawsuit can engage in what is essentially a settlement deal? My thinking was that if this arrangement is acceptable to the plaintiffs then it satisfies the judgment, and since the enforcement of a judgment is basically the plaintiff going back to the judge to complain about it, then as long as they’re happy it all works. But as we know, I Am Not A Lawyer, and it seems normal and reasonable to check with the judge first to make sure this arrangement is in fact kosher. It probably will be (again, IANAL) but it can’t hurt to wait until the judge officially says so. And so here we are.

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More on the visa issues for the 2026 FIFA World Cup

It’s a problem for Houston, too.

Experts are now raising questions about America’s ability to receive such an influx of people, however, as some tourists wait months to obtain a visa, and the Trump administration strains relations with international allies and adversaries alike.

New immigration policies and downsizing in the federal government could make it harder to obtain visas and travel safely between the United States, Canada and Mexico, which are co-hosting the tournament.

Houston’s top World Cup planners say they are doing what they can at a local level to ensure a safe and smooth experience for all who visit next summer, and are confident the tournament will carry on as planned.

“I’m only focused on what I can control here, and I remain optimistic that when this World Cup comes next year, with 104 matches played across three countries, that it’s going to be epic,” said Chris Canetti, president of Houston’s 2026 World Cup Committee.

“I have a lot of faith in soccer as a unifier, and these events unite people and pull people together through geopolitical issues and other things that otherwise might dominate the headlines,” Canetti said.

The quadrennial men’s World Cup routinely draws millions of international tourists to its host country over the course of the monthlong tournament. Next year’s World Cup, with an expanded field of 48 teams, will be the biggest in the sport’s history. A recent report from the U.S. Travel Association said that six million people could travel from outside the country to attend.

But unlike in the two most recent host countries, Qatar and Russia, where tickets to a match essentially doubled as visas to enter the country, the U.S. is still requiring some visitors to obtain approval to enter the country.

Fans from countries that are included in America’s Visa Waiver Program — almost all of which are European and Asian — should be largely unaffected. Travelers from most South American and African countries, however, will have to apply for tourist visas separately from their tickets.

That’s a problem for fans of countries that won’t know if their team has even made it to the World Cup or where they will be playing until the matchups are drawn in December. State Department data shows that wait times for visa interviews at consulates in many countries can stretch for months.

In Colombia, a soccer powerhouse that can be reasonably expected to qualify for the World Cup, the current wait time to obtain a visa is 18 months. The tournament would long be over by the time a Colombian who applied now would be able to receive their travel permit.

As the Trump Administration moves to cut down on federal staff and strengthen the vetting process of people who are allowed into the country, industry leaders worry that hits to the State Department could exacerbate difficulties in processing visas.

“The wait times will absolutely see the impact of staff reductions. … Wait times are only going to go up, not down,” said Travis Murphy, the founder of Jetr Global Sports + Entertainment and a former American diplomat, to the Athletic.

The U.S. Travel Association released a report in February that detailed how unprepared America is to host the millions of people expected to travel to the country over the next several years, not just for the World Cup but for the 2025 Ryder Cup, 2028 Olympics and more.

[…]

David Goldblatt, a British journalist, academic and soccer historian, said that while he ultimately expects stadiums to be full, he wouldn’t be surprised if some fans feel trepidation about traveling for the tournament.

“Who around the world isn’t thinking that the American border is quite a tricky place right now?” Goldblatt said. “It’s a whole new territory, no one has had to think about this in living memory about going to the United States, so yeah, I think it’s an issue.”

Goldblatt, however, also said that the Trump administration seems genuine in its intentions to host a great World Cup, and might make strides to rectify any widespread travel difficulties that arise.

“My impression is that the White House really loves the World Cup. They don’t understand the game but they know that it’s great television, and that’s really important in this White House,” Goldblatt said. “If systematic difficulties were to start emerging, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some action.”

See here for the background. There is a task force set up to deal with the problems, as was recommended by the U.S. Travel Association, and I appreciate David Goldblatt’s optimism about things. I do think, all things being equal, that the Trump administration would like for this to be a big success and bask in the reflected glory of it. I also think that they’ve fired most if not all of the competent people who would be best positioned to achieve that success, that they’ve made this task vastly harder for themselves because of their insane and inhumane immigration policies, and that Trump himself and the slavering troglodytes that enable him are the wildest wild cards in existence, able to deal a huge blow to the efforts at any minute. If we had a normal administration, this would be an entirely manageable issue. But we don’t, and until I see reporting to suggest that the biggest problems have been fully solved, I’m not betting on any grand successes. Avoiding disaster might be the best case scenario.

Posted in La Migra, Other sports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

RIP, George Coulam

Wow.

Texas Renaissance Festival founder George Coulam was found dead Wednesday morning in his home in Todd Mission, according to law enforcement officials. He was 87.

The Todd Mission Police Department was dispatched to Coulam’s home just outside the Renaissance Festival’s site at 9:05 a.m., with the Grimes County Sheriff’s Office and Texas Rangers assisting in the response. Coulam was pronounced dead at the scene upon arrival.

The cause of Coulam’s death is under investigation by all three agencies and was unknown as of mid-afternoon.

There was no suspected danger to the public, according to the Todd Mission Police Department.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of George Coulam, founder of the Texas Renaissance Festival. For more than 50 years, he built a community that has become a cherished tradition for generations of performers, staff, and guests.” officials with the Texas Renaissance Festival said in a Facebook post. “At this time, we ask for respect and privacy for Mr. Coulam’s family and the extended Texas Renaissance Festival family as they grieve.”

Festival officials called the death a “deeply personal matter” and did not release any other details.

The news of Coulam’s death comes on the heels of an order for Coulam to sell the festival.

[…]

Houston attorney Anthony Laporte, who represents Rivard said he was “reeling” from the news.

“Obviously, my client is saddened by the loss of George,” Laporte said. “(Meril Rivard) liked George, he got to know George.”

Laporte said Rivard and Coulam had a friendly meeting last week.

“Everything was good, so this is a sad loss,” Laporte said.

In a statement to the Chronicle, Rivard said he and his family were “shocked.”

“Our thoughts go out to his loved ones,” Rivard said. “Like everyone else who loves the Texas Renaissance Festival, we remain committed to ensuring that the festival lives on, and we are working steadfastly to make that happen.”

While the deal was not finalized, Laporte said the process was moving forward. Chaney ordered Laporte to draw up a contract to be approved by the court and a final order issued.

“We like to believe the transactions can be completed and moved forward,” Laporte said. “We have a firm belief and commitment in Ren Fest 2025.”

See here, here, and here for the background. It’s hardly a shock that an 87-year-old might pass away suddenly, it just feels a little dramatic because of the recent news. Given everything we know about George Coulam, that seems fitting. He was a legend – a very complicated legend – and he will be long remembered. Rest in peace, George. CultureMap, Texas Monthly, and the Current have more.

Posted in Society and cultcha, The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Texas blog roundup for the week of May 19

The Texas Progressive Alliance will not be accepting any Qatari jets in return for this week’s roundup.

Continue reading

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Long-awaited Texas redistricting trial begins

Been waiting a long time for this one.

Questions over whether Latinos had their voting power diminished in the Dallas area will be a focus of a federal trial in El Paso that begins Wednesday.

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, is scheduled to testify Friday before the three-judge panel in the case that will determine whether Texas must draw new maps for state and congressional districts.

In a filing last week, Crockett and U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, alleged that the Legislature intentionally used racial discrimination to draw a pair of congressional districts in Houston and another in Dallas.

Among the allegations is that state officials failed to create districts with a majority of voting-age Latino citizens in Dallas and Tarrant counties.

“The Dallas-Ft. Worth area could have gained (but did not) an additional Latino majority congressional district and State Senate district,” the lawsuit alleges.

Marina Jenkins, executive director of the National Redistricting Foundation, said the current map “packs Latino voters” in North Texas and the Harris County area, depriving them of equal representation.

In Texas, “voters of color tend to vote for one party, while white voters tend to vote for the other,” she told reporters Monday. “And the white voters do this in a way that blocks minority voters from being able to elect their preferred candidates.”

For the congressional maps, Crockett and Green allege that their districts — and a vacant boundary represented by the late U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston — dilute “minority voting strength” and prioritize racial considerations over traditional mapmaking principles.

“The evidence will demonstrate that [the congressional map] was enacted with discriminatory intent, that the legislators knew of and intended the discriminatory effect on Black and Latino voters, and that it constitutes an unconstitutional racial gerrymander,” attorneys for the federal lawmakers wrote.

See here and here for the most recent updates, in which both the corrupt Trump Justice Department and some plaintiffs dropped out of the case. Since the filing, the SCTOUS decision in the Alabama redistricting lawsuit in 2023 upheld the ban on racial gerrymandering, which is a cornerstone of the Texas case. Whether any of that still applies post-Trump is a question I can’t answer but which we will presumably find out. Michael Li has a nice thread on the various pretrial briefs that have been filed, and a look at the witnesses that the plaintiffs plan to call. Democracy Docket has a broad overview of the case and all of the related filings. The case is expected to take two weeks, and then we’ll wait for a ruling, which of course will be appealed. We’re not getting a resolution any time soon. The Dallas Observer has more.

UPDATE: Here’s the Trib story, published this morning.

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

Rep. Vikki Goodwin to run for Lite Guv

Dems have their first official statewide candidate.

Rep. Vikki Goodwin

State Rep. Vikki Goodwin, D-Austin, has filed paperwork to run for lieutenant governor in next year’s midterm election, giving up a safe seat in the Texas House to seek one of the state’s most powerful offices.

Goodwin has long been expected to run for the seat, currently held by Republican Dan Patrick, who has said he will seek reelection next year. The four-term Austin Democrat told the Tribune in 2023 she was mulling a run, and since then she has openly signaled her plans to allies.

She appointed a campaign treasurer for her lieutenant governor bid on Monday, the first formal step for a candidate to start raising money.

Unseating Patrick will be a daunting task for any Democrat. The lieutenant governor is sitting on a war chest of more than $33 million, and he has many deep-pocketed conservative allies ready to ride to the rescue if he finds himself endangered.

[…]

Goodwin will have to make up significant ground financially, with just over $150,000 in her campaign account as of Dec. 31, the last date covered by public campaign finance reports.

Goodwin, a 58-year-old real estate agent, has served in the Texas House since 2019, representing a district that covers parts of west and north Austin and the western side of Travis County, including parts of Bee Cave and Lakeway. She is seen as one of the more liberal members of the state House and currently serves on the chamber’s Appropriations and Insurance committees.

Honestly, I think it’s a good sign to have someone announce their entry this early. It can only help from a fundraising perspective, and I’ll be looking at her July report with some interest. My hope is that Rep. Goodwin will soon be followed by others – there are plenty of people circling around the Senate race, and it wouldn’t surprise me if one or more of them move over to, say, Governor or AG. Again, getting organized, getting some news coverage, and getting the fundraising machine going are all better done sooner rather than later. I look forward to seeing Rep. Goodwin when she visits Houston.

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Harris County DA drops criminal charges against Hotze

Bummer.

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office dropped four felony charges filed against Republican activist Steven Hotze, bringing an abrupt end to the case accusing him of plotting a election conspiracy-fueled assault on an AC repairman in 2020.

The DA’s office also announced it would drop three of five charges against Mark Aguirre, a private investigator working for Hotze who is accused of attacking the repairman and threatening him with a gun, in a Tuesday news release.

District Attorney Sean Teare, a Democrat, said while the DA’s office believed the attack was related to “a baseless voter fraud conspiracy scheme,” prosecutors could not stand by indictments implicating Hotze, who had been charged with aggravated assault and robbery.

“This deeply troubling case shows how toxic conspiracy theories can fuel real-world violence that endangers people in our community,” Teare said. “We look forward to vigorously prosecuting the remaining charges in this case that stand up to legal scrutiny. However, unlike the previous administration, we believe ethical prosecutors have a responsibility to do so based on facts — not political theater, media spectacle, or the reckless pursuit of headlines.”

Kim Ogg, the former district attorney, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The DA’s office said it conducted an “exhaustive review” of the evidence related to the charges against the men, and determined that the state cannot prove any of the remaining charged offenses beyond a reasonable doubt and that those charges should not have been filed.

[…]

The DA’s office is still pursuing one of the aggravated assault charges against Aguirre as well as the unlawful restraint charge. Terry Yates, Aguirre’s lawyer, said he will continue with a motion to dismiss the remaining charges, citing allegations of prosecutorial misconduct during Ogg’s tenure.

Hotze was first charged with aggravated assault and unlawful restraint in April 2022, and then charged with aggravated robbery and engaging in organized criminal activity in August 2024. All of those charges have now been dropped.

[…]

The DA’s office also said it planned to withdraw a request to seek a hate crime enhancement against Aguirre and Hotze. The request, made by a special prosecutor hired during former DA Kim Ogg’s administration, was “found to be meritless,” the news release said. The prosecutor, Warren Diepraam, is no longer working for the DA’s office.

Teare used the announcement to again criticize cases brought by Ogg, whom he defeated during last year’s Democratic primaries and officially replaced in January.

“As we review more cases filed under the previous administration, a pattern has become quite clear: The former district attorney abused the authority of this office to overcharge and investigate those she disagreed with and outsourced high-profile criminal investigations to friends who shared her political views,” said Teare. “That’s not justice and so long as I’m DA, that’s not how we will do business in Harris County.”

See here for some background. I am of course in favor of going as hard as possible against the walking stain that is Steven Hotze, but if Sean Teare says that the evidence isn’t there to support those charges, I will reluctantly believe him. The one good thing about this is that it should clear the way for the civil trial against Hotze to get underway, and that one should be an easier case to prove. If I can’t see Hotze in handcuffs, I can hope to see him get hit with a huge judgment. Let’s get that going now.

UPDATE: More from the Press.

Posted in Crime and Punishment | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bail disreform advances

Bad.

The Texas House on Monday advanced a sweeping package to crack down on bail laws, setting a longtime priority of Gov. Greg Abbott’s — to keep more dangerous people accused of violent crimes behind bars — on its clearest path to passage in years.

Lawmakers adopted the package’s centerpiece proposal asking voters to amend the state Constitution to create a list of violent offenses for which, in certain cases, judges must deny bail. Once the Senate concurs on the House’s version, as expected, the measure will be placed before voters on November’s ballot.

But a constitutional amendment to automatically deny bail to any unauthorized migrant accused of certain felonies failed to win the 100 votes required for passage. Because it received support from a majority, 88 to 50, it will have one more shot at adoption this week.

And the House gave initial approval to Senate Bill 9, which would restrict who is eligible for release on cashless personal bonds and allow the state to appeal bail decisions, leaving a defendant jailed for up to 20 days as the appeal is litigated. House lawmakers also advanced Senate Bill 40, which would bar municipalities from using public funds to bail defendants out of jail. Both bills must pass the House once more before going to the Senate, which has already passed its versions of the legislation.

Under the state Constitution, almost everyone who is arrested has the right to be released on bail. The limited exceptions are people charged with capital murder and those accused of certain repeat felonies or bail violations. According to the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court, bail cannot be excessive, and pretrial detention largely should not be considered the default, as criminal defendants are still legally presumed innocent.

Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo and chair of the House Criminal Jurisprudence committee, argued that stricter bail laws were necessary to protect the public from crime committed by dangerous defendants out on bail.

“I’ve never voted on any legislation more important than what we’re getting ready to consider, because it holds the very key to life or death of some very wonderful people, some very innocent people,” he said, telling lawmakers about the families of violent crime victims he had spoken to. “This is what crime has done to some of our families. And what all of these cases and so many more have in common is, they are a result of what Governor Abbott has described as a broken bail system.”

“It may not be perfect, but it’s the best we could do to fix a system that’s been broken for a long time,” Smithee added. “We’ve been working on this for 10 years now, and it’s finally time to get this done.”

The House’s approval of the bail package marks a significant victory for Abbott, who has made tightening the state’s bail laws an emergency item for three consecutive sessions. While lawmakers have previously approved more modest measures limiting the use of cashless bonds, more expansive proposals to overhaul the state’s bail laws have repeatedly died in the lower chamber.

[…]

“We wouldn’t be here if there weren’t real life examples of people being released who plainly should not have been,” said Rep. Joe Moody of El Paso, the lead Democratic negotiator, adding that he was committed to addressing low-level offenders locked behind bars simply because they could not afford their bail.

“That’s how the bail reform conversation started a decade ago,” he said. “For every improperly released defendant who commits a serious crime, there’s 100 low-level offenders held when they shouldn’t be, whose lives are upended. We need to do both.”

Top Republicans and Democrats spent weeks negotiating a package that could gain traction across parties, and they ultimately produced legislation more stringent than initially proposed even while narrowing the types of defendants who would be subject to the harsher rules.

Republicans cast the issue as one of life-or-death, arguing that stricter bail laws are necessary to keep dangerous defendants locked up and to hold judges accountable. They pointed to numerous examples of violent crime committed by people let out on bond, and highlighted the stories of victims and their loved ones.

Civil rights groups and some Democrats, meanwhile, argued that the measures tied the hands of judges and infringed on the civil rights of anyone accused of certain crimes.

Senate Joint Resolution 5, which would require judges to deny bail in certain cases, was approved overwhelmingly, 133 to eight — winning approval by a larger margin than a less stringent proposal in 2021. That legislation, House Joint Resolution 4, was approved 104 to 35, but failed as a casualty of a Democratic walkout over a voting bill.

As approved by the House, SJR 5 goes further than the Senate’s original proposal by requiring judges to deny bail in certain cases, rather than simply giving them the discretion to do so.

As long as some people are allowed to post bail, there will be those who commit crimes while out. The only way to ensure that doesn’t happen is to keep literally everyone locked up until their cases are resolved, and that’s plainly unconstitutional as well as being morally indefensible. What this will do, in addition to being great for the bail bond business, is lock up a lot more people who pose little to no threat to anyone for no good reason. Some of them will die in jail, others will lose jobs and their families will suffer. None of them will get to tell their stories to Greg Abbott, who wouldn’t care about them anyway. And this will cost Harris County a bunch of money and make it that much harder to keep the jail population under control. I’ll be voting against these propositions when they’re on the ballot in November, and you should too. Reform Austin has more.

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Lege set to do more social media bans

I have three things to say about this.

The Texas Legislature is poised to impose sweeping restrictions on how minors use social media, from banning them from signing up for accounts and requiring parental consent to download applications, to placing warning labels about their dangers.

House Bill 186, filed by Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, has already passed with bipartisan support in the House, and a Senate panel has indicated its support as well. The proposal, the most far-reaching of the bills lawmakers have filed to address online dangers this session, would prohibit minors from creating accounts on social media sites, such as Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and more, and require users to verify their ages. Companies would have to comply with the ban by April 2026.

“Like so many parents across our state, I’ve watched my children grow up in a world that feels less and less safe, not because of where they go physically, but because of where they go online, in spaces that my wife and I can not possibly monitor at all times,” said Sen. Adam Hinojosa, R-Corpus Christi, co-sponsor of the bill, during a State Affairs Committee hearing last week.

The bill would also allow parents to request the deletion of their child’s social media account, and a company must comply within 10 days.

Under this bill, any website that allows users to curate and create content is considered a social media website and cut off from minors. News and sports websites will be safe.

As of June 2024, 10 states, including Texas, have passed laws restricting children’s access to social media, according to the Age Verification Providers Association.

However, a ban on social media for Texans under 18 would be the strictest regulation of the social media industry. Currently, Florida is the only other state with a ban on social media, but it’s only for minors under 14, and they are working to extend the ban to those under 16.

Last week, lawmakers sent Senate Bill 2420, by Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk, establishing age verification requirements and mandating parental consent before a minor is allowed to download or make purchases within software applications. Lawmakers are also considering House Bill 499, by Rep. Mary González, D-Clint, which would require social media platforms to have a warning label about the association between a minor’s social media usage and significant mental health issues.

“We have the ability and the power to act today. With House Bill 186, we confront the evil before us and boldly say, ‘You cannot have our children,’” Hinojosa said in an emotional address to lawmakers.

[…]

This isn’t the first time Texas has attempted to rein in social media, but each attempt has ended in a court debate.

“House Bill 186 conflicts with Texas contract law and undermines teens’ right to access information, express themselves, and participate in the digital economy,” said Megan Stokes, state policy director of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, in a news release. “A 14-year-old can legally work in retail or food service in Texas, but this bill would prevent them from even having a social media account.”

Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 18 into law in 2023, known as the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act. The SCOPE Act requires certain social media platforms to provide minors with certain data protections, prevent minors from accessing harmful content, and give parents tools to manage their child’s use of the service.

It also required school districts to obtain parental consent for most software and social media applications used in the classroom and look for internet alternatives for instruction.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has already sued TikTok twice under this law, accusing the company of violating deceptive trade law by downplaying its addictiveness and exposing children to explicit material.

The suit argues that TikTok, a short-form video app, violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by listing itself on app stores as appropriate for children and not effectively enforcing its community guidelines. The Apple App Store lists TikTok as rated for those 12 and older, while the Microsoft and Google Play Stores list the app as appropriate for users 13 and older.

TikTok has denied these allegations, and the issue has been playing out in court since last year, with various student groups and internet providers suing Paxton for violating First Amendment rights.

Opponents of this new batch of social media bills told lawmakers the same thing would happen again.

“The way this bill is currently written, it would end up restricting the First Amendment rights of minors,” Stokes told lawmakers Thursday. “Many Texas teens rely on these online platforms to connect with their peers, to share their interests, to find support for personal or academic growth, and this will be taken from them.”

1. I take no position on the wisdom or effect of these bills, though the latter one by Rep. González seems to be the least intrusive and disruptive of the three. No question that social media is generally bad for kids and needs a whole lot more oversight. You’ll forgive me if I have my doubts that bills put forth by Texas Republican legislators are likely to be the best way forward on those matters. Also, and this is my favorite part, my kids are now both over eighteen, so this is officially Not My Problem anymore.

2. There are legitimate First Amendment issues here, as was the case with the stillblocked SCOPE Act, still being fought out in the courts. This too will be fought tooth and nail, and it will be good business for many lawyers. By the way, does Donald Trump know that Ken Paxton is being mean to TikTok?

3. If instead of a state law being passed, the city of Austin had passed an ordinance mandating any of these things for social media companies, the state of Texas would be on them like a ton of bricks, all in the name of allowing for a consistent set of rules for businesses to follow. But the state passing a law that will be a big outlier on the national scene in this way, well, that’s just fine. I just wanted to note that for the record.

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Still more about those CenterPoint generators

I’m sure CenterPoint will be happy when there are no more stories about the cursed things.

No longer seen at I-10 and Sawyer

CenterPoint Energy “did not adequately follow its own practices” in leasing power generators that went mostly unused after Hurricane Beryl, despite their nearly $1 billion price tag, according to a third-party audit of the deal.

The Houston-area utility couldn’t show evidence that it completed formal risk assessments for the vendor it chose in 2021, or that it considered potential conflicts of interests, the audit found.

Both of those findings affirm key flashpoints in a contentious 2022 legal battle over whether CenterPoint could pass on its costs leasing the massive generators to customers. Texas utility regulators, at the urging of state lawmakers, ultimately went against the recommendations of state administrative law judges to approve the first such rate hike in 2023.

The audit, conducted by consulting firm Moss Adams, came at the behest of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. He was one of many to criticize CenterPoint’s nearly $1 billion generator lease after a Houston Chronicle investigation in Hurricane Beryl’s aftermath revealed none of the large units had been used to restore power.

Since then, CenterPoint has said its set of 15 large generators are meant for rare blackouts that occur when power plants in the state can’t generate enough electricity to meet demand, such as what happened during the February 2021 freeze.

[…]

The finding aligns with the complaints of state regulators and lawmakers who have said that CenterPoint misled them to believe the large generators could be used to restore power after hurricanes. The company’s CEO has previously apologized to lawmakers for not communicating more clearly.

In a Friday email statement, Keith Stephens, CenterPoint’s chief communications officer, said the company “greatly appreciates the valuable insights provided by Moss Adams” in the audit and the community’s feedback over the last year.

CenterPoint has already completed or is making progress toward completing each of Moss Adams’ key recommendations, Stephens wrote. The utility is also more than 90% complete with a “historic” set of improvements to prepare for the upcoming hurricane season, he said.

See here for the previous entry. Not much to add here, I think we can feel confident that CenterPoint learned something from this debacle. It’ll be summer soon, so let’s all hope they learned enough.

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The South Texas situation

The new TDP Chair would like to improve the party’s performance in South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley.

Democrats are ready to fight for South Texas.

That is the message Kendall Scudder, the new chair of the Texas Democratic Party, shared last weekend as he visited the Rio Grande Valley for the first time since being elected in March.

Scudder held two town hall events in the region — once considered a Democratic stronghold — on Saturday as part of a series of town halls he plans to host across the state to declare a new day for Texas Democrats.

Speaking to a crowd in the McAllen public library’s auditorium, Scudder, 35, said the party will throw punches, not just take them.

“If we keep moving backward here, we don’t just lose votes, we start losing sitting electeds that are good people that are fighting for their communities down here,” Scudder said during an interview before the event.

“This is a place that we have to be showing up in and fighting back, and we got into this mess because we weren’t,” they said.

Scudder replaced former Democratic Chair Gilberto Hinojosa, a Rio Grande Valley native, who stepped down in November after 12 years that included last year’s devastating election cycle.

All four Valley counties voted for President Donald Trump, including Starr County which hadn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate in more than 100 years.

To begin making inroads, the party must fill vacancies in their ranks, including precinct chair and county chair positions which are 50% and 20% vacant, respectively, Scudder said.

The goal is to have more people on the ground who know what is happening in their communities and who can help the party reach more voters.

He knows Valley voters have felt that the Democratic Party has taken them for granted, but he hopes to rectify that by focusing on economic issues such as increasing the minimum wage and improving working conditions.

“I think this area has felt kind of abandoned by our party for a while and I want to make sure that it is crystal clear to folks that the Valley matters to us,” Scudder said. “The working people down here deserve advocates who will fight to make sure they get fair wages for working conditions.”

I believe the new TDP Chair will have to solve some fundraising issues to fully realize this goal, but it’s a good goal to have. And I hope we put in commensurate amounts of effort and resources into other parts of the state as well.

One specific thing to focus on as part of this new effort is that new perennial target, CD15.

National Democrats are planning to target U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz in next year’s midterms, putting the Edinburg Republican in their crosshairs for the second straight election cycle as the party looks to rebound from a disastrous showing in South Texas.

De La Cruz’s 15th Congressional District was the only Texas seat included on the initial list of 2026 targets unveiled Tuesday morning by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of U.S. House Democrats. The announcement signals that national Democrats are poised to put money and other resources into flipping the district, a longtime Democratic stronghold before De La Cruz brought it under GOP control in 2022.

De La Cruz was also the DCCC’s lone target in Texas last year, reflecting the lack of competition that has endured since Republican state lawmakers redrew the state’s political maps to protect endangered incumbents. In 2024, De La Cruz won reelection with 57% of the vote — the only one of the state’s 25 GOP-controlled congressional seats where the Republican nominee failed to net 60%.

[…]

In a statement, DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene, a Washington Democrat, made clear the party would target De La Cruz over the economy.

“Monica De La Cruz is running scared, and she should be,” DelBene said. “From tanking the economy, gutting Medicaid, abandoning our veterans, to making everything more expensive, she’s broken her promises to Texans, and it’s going to cost her her seat.”

The DCCC “is already working to recruit authentic and battle-ready candidates in Texas who reflect this community and will work to better Texans’ lives,” DelBene added.

Yes, we noted one of those recruiting efforts already. We’ll see how that goes. There are also some legislative targets, and plenty of things for them all to talk about. I really hope the DCCC is also looking at CD24, which isn’t as close on paper as CD15 is but which is in a part of the state that (pre-2024, at least) had been rapidly trending blue.

And we can’t talk about South Texas without talking about Henry Cuellar, unfortunately.

Former Rep. Mayra Flores, a Republican who is the first Mexican-born woman to serve in Congress, announced on Tuesday that she has switched districts to challenge Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, in 2026 as Cuellar awaits the start of his criminal trial.

Less than three hours after her campaign launched on social media, Flores’ team announced that the former congresswoman has been hospitalized.

“We pray that Mayra will return stronger than ever, ready to continue her unwavering commitment to serving our country,” the team wrote on X.

Flores has been discharged from the hospital, according to a sister who responded to questions from The Texas Tribune.

A statement Tuesday evening from the campaign said that Flores is “now fully recovering and feeling stronger than ever” and will be back on the campaign trail soon. These statements did not provide additional details.

Flores, 39, represented Texas’s 34th district for about six months after she won a special election in June 2022.

She lost her reelection in November 2022 to Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen. The pair ran against each other again in 2024 — when Flores lost by less than three percentage points.

I’m of the opinion now that Cuellar is some kind of ancient eldritch being that cannot be killed. Honestly, it’s the only sensible explanation I can think of. He’ll be fine. And that’s all the time I have to think about Henry Cuellar.

Posted in Election 2026 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Of course cuts to Medicaid would hurt Texas

They will hurt millions of people around the country, and hospitals and more as well.

Texas hospitals are facing a freeze in billions of dollars in federal Medicaid funding under a budget proposal introduced by House Republican leaders Sunday night.

Republicans are moving to limit access to a tax loophole that Texas and other states have used to tap extra Medicaid dollars for hospitals and medical providers. Texas hospitals would still be able to use so-called provider taxes to access higher federal reimbursements, but they couldn’t be expanded, even as healthcare expenses continue to rise.

“Ultimately it’s a cut to hospitals and other health care providers,” said Darbin Wofford, deputy director of health care at the non-profit Third Way. “As hospitals costs grow and states want to increase base payments or supplemental payments, now you’re tying the hands of the states.”

The cuts come as House Republicans move to cut federal spending in line with President Donald Trump’s plan to extend and expand tax cuts passed during his first term, which are set to expire later this year.

[…]

Texas and other states that opted not to expand Medicaid to low-income workers under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act have become particularly reliant on local provider taxes to keep solvent hospitals that are required to provide medical care regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. Hospitals and other medical providers in Texas have essentially levied the taxes on themselves in order to qualify for federal matching funds, which are often double what they send up.

Texas has the largest uninsured population in the country, according to non-profit KFF.

A spokesperson for the Texas Hospital Association said the group was still reviewing the budget language Monday morning. But earlier this year the group and other healthcare leaders said cuts to provider taxes would likely result in the shuttering of clinics and a reduction in hospital services.

As a non-expansion state, Texas would likely be less impacted by the work requirement than other states, Wofford said. Almost three quarters of Texas’s 4.1 million Medicaid recipients are under 19, with the remainder either disabled, pregnant, new mothers or elderly, all of which are exempted.

But the new protocols on proving eligibility were likely to push many Texans off the roles, Wofford added.

“Folks might still fall through the cracks due to the administrative burden and implementation issues with eligibility checks,” he said.

Of course they will. This is exactly what happened after the 2003 legislative session when Texas made it harder to enroll in the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and also shortened the enrollment period from a year to six months. People fell off the rolls – which is a polite way of saying “children lost access to health care” – because of needless means testing and extra paperwork. Everyone knew it would happen, and it did. There’s no way that wouldn’t happen here. And many of those clinics that close and those hospitals that have to cut back will be in rural areas, where I’m sure they’ll be thinking they didn’t vote for that. They can do something about that in the next election.

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