Larry Harmon, who played Bozo the Clown for over 50 years, has died at the age of 83.
Although not the original Bozo, Harmon portrayed the popular clown in countless appearances and, as an entrepreneur, he licensed the character to others, particularly dozens of television stations around the country. The stations in turn hired actors to be their local Bozos."You might say, in a way, I was cloning BTC (Bozo the Clown) before anybody else out there got around to cloning DNA," Harmon told the AP in a 1996 interview.
"Bozo is a combination of the wonderful wisdom of the adult and the childlike ways in all of us," Harmon said.
Pinto Colvig, who also provided the voice for Walt Disney's Goofy, was the first Bozo the Clown, a character created by writer-producer Alan W. Livingston for a series of children's records in 1946. Livingston said he came up with the name Bozo after polling several people at Capitol Records.
[...]
The business -- combining animation, licensing of the character, and personal appearances -- made millions, as Harmon trained more than 200 Bozos over the years to represent him in local markets.
"I'm looking for that sparkle in the eyes, that emotion, feeling, directness, warmth. That is so important," he said of his criteria for becoming a Bozo.
The Chicago version of Bozo ran on WGN-TV in Chicago for 40 years and was seen in many other cities after cable television transformed WGN into a superstation.
Bozo -- portrayed in Chicago for many years by Bob Bell -- was so popular that the waiting list for tickets to a TV show eventually stretched to a decade, prompting the station to stop taking reservations for 10 years. On the day in 1990 when WGN started taking reservations again, it took just five hours to book the show for five more years. The phone company reported more than 27 million phone call attempts had been made.
By the time the show bowed out in Chicago, in 2001, it was the last locally produced version. Harmon said at the time that he hoped to develop a new cable or network show, as well as a Bozo feature film.
I guess that means that the version of Bozo that I recall watching from my childhood featured some other dude as Bozo. Not that it really matters, I suppose, since whoever it was had been trained by the master himself. Rest in peace, Larry Harmon.
I thought we were done with ballot access battles. Looks like I was wrong.
State Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, filed a lawsuit today against Tarrant County Democratic Party Chair Steve Maxwell, Texas Democratic Party Chair Boyd Richie and his Democratic opponent Wendy Davis.The suit requests the court to "disqualify Davis from the November 2008 general election."
The suit follows the same line of argument as three Fort Worth firefighters charged back in January, when they alleged in a suit that Davis couldn't run for the state senate because she didn't officially step down from her seat on the Fort Worth City Council before filing her candidacy.
"In effect, Davis sought to become a candidate for the Legislature at the same time she continued to hold a 'lucrative office', exercise her duties and enjoy the benefits of office as a member of the City Council," the suit alleges.
State election law prohibits officeholders from running for the Legislature, but state law also requires resigning officeholders to hold their seats until their successors are sworn in, according to city of Fort Worth officials.
A three-judge panel in that case ruled that the firefighters didn't have standing to challenge Davis' eligibility, only a political opponent did.
We asked Brimer back in February whether he would file his own suit. He wouldn't say.
A copy of the suit is here (PDF) if any lawyers want to give it a look-see and offer an opinion; a timeline of events is here. Clearly, based on the original ruling, Brimer has a chance to win that the firefighters didn't, since he has standing. I also think it's pretty clear that the ethically-challenged Brimer is worried about losing this race, and is hoping to take out some insurance. I also think if he loses the court challenge he'll suffer some blowback. But since a win means a guaranteed re-election, it's easy to understand why he's taking this gambit. Over to you, Tarrant County District Court. In the meantime, you can listen to my interview with Davis.
UPDATE: The Texas Blue suggests that the ruling in the Bill Dingus lawsuit bodes well for Davis.
I had wondered why the recent ICE raid at a rag plant didn't result in any charges being filed against the employers. Now I see that has happened.
This morning a U.S. magistrate in Houston is scheduled to preside over the initial court appearance of two owners and three managers of Action Rags USA. The eastside company, located in a sweltering factory near the Port of Houston, was the scene of one of Houston's largest immigration raids when 166 undocumented workers were detained June 25.Federal charges were unsealed late Wednesday after agents arrested company owner Mabarik Kahlon, 45, and his partner and uncle, Rasheed Ahmed, 58. Also arrested Wednesday were manager Cirila Barron, 38, resource manager Valerie Rodriguez, 34, and warehouse supervisor Mayra Herrera-Gutierrez, 32. Ahmed, who has health problems, was freed on his own recognizance until today's court appearance. The rest remain in federal custody.
Barron and Herrera-Gutierrez are illegal immigrants from Mexico, according to the U.S. Attorney's office in Houston.
The five are charged with conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants, inducing illegal immigrants to come into the country, as well as illegal hiring practices including knowingly accepting false work documents.
''Immigration is a political issue and until it is solved politically, any employer is at risk," said David Gerger, a prominent Houston attorney who is representing the owners. ''But as far as this case goes, we will defend it in court and not in the press." Gerger represented former Enron finance chief Andrew Fastow during his criminal case.
The arrests of the company leaders were applauded by those who favor tough enforcement of immigration laws.
''Employers who knowingly hire illegals need to face the consequences, and the consequences are prosecution," said U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble. ''Employers have been getting a pass way too long on hiring illegals and not being held accountable for it."
Well, if that's the approach you've chosen to take, it's better to arrest the employers as well as the employees, who after all wouldn't be there without those who hired them. But again, this is a stupid way of doing it. Make it easier for companies like Action Rags to legally import and hire foreign workers, and ensure those workers have a path to citizenship and the same rights and protections as native born workers, and a whole slew of problems go away. Why is this so hard?
A letter to the editor puts that same sentiment in a slightly different fashion:
Monday's Page One article, "ICE Raids often spare employers" quoted U.S. Reps. Ted Poe and John Culberson calling for the prosecution of employers hiring illegal aliens.I have supported both congressmen in the past and consider them great allies on many different causes, but their comments reveal an alarming hostility to the folks who provide jobs in our city, state and nation. Employers must navigate the minefield of laws that govern the workplace. On one side, Immigration and Customs Enforcement tells them, "Don't hire any illegal aliens, or you might go to jail your-self!" On the other side, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission tells them, "Don't look at that ID too closely or we will sue you for discrimination." People forget that five years before ICE raided the Swift meatpacking plants, Swift had paid out a $200,000 settlement to the Department of Justice for scrutinizing its employment documents too closely.
Employers are caught in a Catch-22 created by our government's failure to solve the immigration problem. Poe and Culberson should spend more time trying to pass sensible immigration reform and less time bashing the folks who put food on the table for millions of people in this city and great state!
NORMAN E. ADAMS, Houston
There's a huge amount of room to make improvements here, and no good reason not to. What's holding things back is a strong and persistent belief among some vocal opponents of immigration that meeting the real needs of the employment market by increasing the number of visas available for both skilled and unskilled labor would be harmful to American culture. They're wrong, and we need to get past that attitude or we'll never solve this problem.
Finally, I recommend Council Member James Rodriguez's words on the initial ICE raid, which are quoted at Marc Campos' site. Well said.
As we know, the Texas Medical Association recently rescinded its endorsement of Sen. John Cornyn after his vote against a Medicare-funding bill, HR6331. Now the American Medical Association is getting into the act.
Reflecting physicians' frustration with a group of senators that blocked action last week on legislation that would stop harsh Medicare physician payment cuts, the AMA began airing new TV and radio ads urging opponents of H.R. 6331 to put patients' access to care before insurance profits. The ads will run through this week's congressional recess, initially in Mississippi, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming. The ads can be viewed online."Congress had six months to effectively address harsh Medicare cuts that will harm seniors' access to care," said AMA President Nancy Nielsen, MD. "Despite broad bipartisan support in the House of Representatives for legislation to stop the Medicare cuts, action was stymied by 39 senators."
Because the Senate failed to act, this year's Medicare cut of 10.6 percent will begin today -- and a full 60 percent of physicians say this cut will force them to limit the number of new Medicare patients they can treat. Over 18 months the cuts will total more than 15 percent, while medical practice costs continue to increase. The AMA is asking the Senate to make good on bipartisan support for legislative action that would replace Medicare physician payment cuts with updates that better reflect increasing medical practice costs. Last week the House passed the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (H.R. 6331) by an overwhelming vote of 355 to 59.
The new radio and television ads open with a reference to Independence Day then say: "there's no celebrating for the millions of Medicare patients -- seniors, the disabled and military families -- who will lose their access to health care. A group of U.S. senators voted to protect the powerful insurance companies' huge profits at the expense of Medicare patients' access to doctors."
"The AMA is activating a full-court press -- both advertising and grassroots -- in the states during the Independence Day recess," said Dr. Nielsen. "Over the month of June, more than 41,000 calls by patients and physicians have been made to Congress urging action through the AMA's grassroots hotline alone. Physicians and patients will be holding their senators' feet to the fire."
The ad, or at least the online version of the ad, doesn't mention any Senator by name, though one presumes it would be easy enough to alter the voice-over to tailor it for each particular state; they could also show a graphic with the appropriate Senator's name and phone number if they wanted to. More like this and the campaign funding gap between Cornyn and Rick Noriega will shrink a bit. If this winds up mobilizing doctors against Cornyn - by no means a sure thing, as they have not endorsed Noriega yet - that could cause him some problems. Link via BOR.
Help may be on the way for Houston-area residents driven to wits' end by the relentless attack of crazy Rasberry ants, which have caused damage estimated at $30 million in Harris and six other Southeast Texas counties.Acting on a request by the Texas Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday approved a crisis exemption for use of fipronil (Termidor SC) on crazy ant infestations. The crisis exemption is in effect until the EPA rules on the state's request for a specific exemption so the pesticide could be used for three years.
Crazy Rasberry ants, called "crazy" because of their zigzag march and named after Tom Rasberry, the Pasadena exterminator who discovered them in 2002, now infest Harris, Brazoria, Galveston, Jefferson, Liberty, Montgomery and Wharton counties.
[...]
Jason Meyers, a Texas A&M University doctoral candidate who is considered an expert on the ants, said the poison likely will be an effective management tool of the pests but "not an end-all."
"It should be useful for individual homeowners," he said, "but it's not going to eradicate the ants from any area. Not by any means."
Just as well, given that these critters eat fire ants, who are the greater evil in just about any entomological equation.
The Texas Observer has a nice bio of Supreme Court candidate Linda Yanez, who if elected this November would be the first Latina on the Texas Supreme Court. She's got an interesting life story that's worth your time to read, but I think the bit that most caught my eye was this:
A majority of the court has swung so far to the right that even some of its own judges have recoiled at recent rulings. On May 16, the court ruled 6-3 in favor of McAllen Medical Center in a long-running malpractice lawsuit. The hospital was asking the court for a writ of mandamus--a seldom-used judicial maneuver that allows the defendant to do an end run around the appeals process. Rather than wait for a decision in the lower courts before appealing, McAllen Medical Center asked the higher court to dismiss the case.The 13th Court of Appeals, where Yañez sits, had already denied the hospital's request for mandamus. The Supreme Court approved it, saying the problems associated with medical malpractice lawsuits were too costly to be delayed with a trial.
The ruling is an extraordinary departure from precedent. So big, in fact, that it warranted a reply based on a cartoon fantasy. State Supreme Court Justice Dale Wainwright opened his dissenting opinion with lyrics from the theme song to the 1992 Disney animated film Aladdin.
A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us no
Or where to go
Or say we're only dreaming ...
It's crystal clear
That now I'm in a whole new world with you.The dissent continued: "A whole new world in mandamus practice, hinted by opinions in the last few years, is here. The Court's heavy reliance on costs and delay to support its conclusion that the hospital has no adequate remedy by appeal marks a clear departure from the historical bounds of our mandamus jurisprudence."
Signaling that the decision could make it harder for plaintiffs to make lawsuits stick, the dissent continued: "Such cases should be the exception; they may now have become the rule."
Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson and Justice Harriet O'Neill joined Wainwright in the dissent. Justice [Phil] Johnson signed on with the majority, in favor of the hospital.
Justices Jefferson and Wainwright are on the ballot this fall, along with Justice Johnson, who is Yanez's opponent. It'll be interesting to see if this ruling, and in particular Wainwright's sarcastic dissent, is a part of any campaign coverage we get of the Supreme Court races, or if any newspaper bases endorsement decisions in part on it. It's awfully hard for judicial races to break through into the news, even those at the top and even when there are known issues, but that kind of disagreement among ballotmates is an easy hook for a story line. Anyway, check it out.
I know that every cloud has a silver lining and all that, but somehow that thought isn't enough to cheer me up as I read this.
As fliers like Perez spend more time waiting in airports -- in part because of modern security requirements, and possibly in the future by planned flight cutbacks -- high-end stores are becoming more prevalent, said Steve Johnson of HMSHost, which runs Destinations.The store in Terminal C includes a boutique called Occhaili da Sole that sells $685 Dior sunglasses for those who want ultra-stylish UV protection.
"(Travelers) are spending more time in airports, having more time to shop and more time to eat," Johnson said. "Pre-9/11, people kind of flew through airports."
So to speak.
Idle passengers have created opportunities for businesses like HMSHost, the biggest airport concessions operator in the country and one of nine at Intercontinental.
Retail consultant Jeff Green said that even though carriers are planning to run fewer flights to minimize record fuel costs, the reduced service also should cause more delays.
"People expect to spend longer in airports," Green said. "It is just an opportunity for retailers to catch that customer who has to wait."
[...]
Experts familiar with airport concessions, like Bruce Katz of Retail Focus, said the upscale trend is the future of airport concessions.
"High-end customers going through airports is definitely being reflected in retail," Katz said. "You have more fashion orientation than ever before."
How nice to know that as I am forced to kill time in the airport, at least I can spend more money on higher-end junk. Somehow, I just don't find that particularly comforting.
I know the media loves a horse race and all, but this is pushing it.
With the dust having finally settled after the prolonged Democratic presidential primary, a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama locked in a statistical dead heat in the race for the White House.With just over four months remaining until voters weigh in at the polls, the new survey out Tuesday indicates Obama holds a narrow 5-point advantage among registered voters nationwide over the Arizona senator, 50 percent to 45 percent. That represents little change from a similar poll one month ago, when the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee held a 46-43 percent edge over McCain.
CNN Polling Director Keating Holland notes Tuesday's survey confirms what a string of national polls released this month have shown: Obama holds a slight advantage over McCain, though not a big enough one to constitute a statistical lead.
"Every standard telephone poll taken in June has shown Obama ahead of McCain, with nearly all of them showing Obama's margin somewhere between three and six points," Holland said. "In most of them, that margin is not enough to give him a lead in a statistical sense, but it appears that June has been a good month for Obama."
[...]
The poll, conducted June 26-29, surveyed 906 registered voters and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
Nate Silver points out one obvious problem. From the National Council on Public Polling's "20 Questions A Journalist Should Ask About Poll Results":
12. Who's on first?
Sampling error raises one of the thorniest problems in the presentation of poll results: For a horse-race poll, when is one candidate really ahead of the other?
Certainly, if the gap between the two candidates is less than the sampling error margin, you should not say that one candidate is ahead of the other. You can say the race is "close," the race is "roughly even," or there is "little difference between the candidates." But it should not be called a "dead heat" unless the candidates are tied with the same percentages. And it certainly is not a "statistical tie" unless both candidates have the same exact percentages.
And just as certainly, when the gap between the two candidates is equal to or more than twice the error margin - 6 percentage points in our example - and if there are only two candidates and no undecided voters, you can say with confidence that the poll says Candidate A is clearly leading Candidate B.
When the gap between the two candidates is more than the error margin but less than twice the error margin, you should say that Candidate A "is ahead," "has an advantage" or "holds an edge." The story should mention that there is a small possibility that Candidate B is ahead of Candidate A.
Emphasis added. Certainly makes for a different story that way, does it not? We see this all the time, and in all kinds of races, but given that Obama has held a consistent lead over McCain for several months now - as in, not a single recent national poll has shown McCain with a lead - it's particularly egregious to call this race a "dead heat"
One more point: Way back in 2004, Kevin Drum asked a couple of statisticians a question that really should be asked more frequently in all matters related to polling:
In fact, what we're really interested in is the probability that the difference is greater than zero -- in other words, that one candidate is genuinely ahead of the other. But this probability isn't a cutoff, it's a continuum: the bigger the lead, the more likely that someone is ahead and that the result isn't just a polling fluke. So instead of lazily reporting any result within the MOE as a "tie," which is statistically wrong anyway, it would be more informative to just go ahead and tell us how probable it is that a candidate is really ahead.
He goes on to provide an Excel spreadsheet that allows you to make that exact calculation. And guess what? Based on the CNN poll, the probability that Obama is actually ahead is almost 94%. Like I said, it sure looks different when reported that way, doesn't it?
(I also discussed this at Kuff's World.)
Governor Perry makes like a vending machine: Money goes in, policy comes out.
Gov. Rick Perry's request for a waiver of federal corn-based ethanol production mandates was prompted by a March meeting he had with East Texas poultry producer Lonnie "Bo" Pilgrim, who six days later gave $100,000 to the Republican Governors Association chaired by Perry.In the three weeks following that donation, Perry's staff began preparing to submit the renewable fuel standards waiver request to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, according to 596 pages of records obtained from the governor's office by the Houston Chronicle under the Texas Public Information Act.
The donation, given March 31, also made it possible for Pilgrim to address nine Republican governors during a closed-door energy conference in Grapevine to explain his belief that ethanol production is driving up feed costs for poultry and livestock producers.
Perry aide Allison Castle said political donors get nothing but "good government" from Perry. She said he asked for the waiver because of ethanol's potential negative impact on livestock and poultry producers. Castle said Perry is scheduled to meet with EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson this month.
You have to admire the initiative, I'll say that much. If he were half as innovative in solving Texas' problems, people might actually be excited at the prospect of four mofo years. He'll make a great lobbyist some day, that's all I know.
Dan Wallach, who is an expert on electronic voting machines and their security, sums it up succinctly:
Texas' [direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting machines] are simply vulnerable to and undefended against attacks.
That's the last sentence of a long post about his recent testimony (PDF) to the House Elections Committee and the response from the electronic voting machine trade organization, which as you may imagine did not agree with him. Read it for yourself and see what you think.
It's probably not a good idea to do stuff that makes your boss have to answer questions like these on camera.
I agree with Boadicea that Elise Hu asks a good question:
Is this kind of masquerade ethical when it comes to politics, if a paid staffer is anonymously writing about the very campaign for which he's paid?
And I agree with the answer: No. That's what this is about, the misrepresentation by David Beckwith of himself. How many times must people be outed as sock puppets before the message sinks in that this is both lame and stupid?
By the way, I love that the quote of Beckwith/Buck Smith shilling for a raise for himself has gotten prominent play in these stories. Politics aside, that captures the reason why this is a Bad Thing about as well as one can.
The last ballot access battle for 2008 that I am aware of has been resolved.
Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, will have a Democratic opponent this fall.State District Judge Margaret Cooper ruled [Monday] afternoon that Bill Dingus, a former Midland City Council member, can appear on the ballot.
Questions had been raised whether Dingus had resigned from the council in time to be on the ballot.
See here for some background. Evan Smith would like you to know that he had nothing whatsoever to do with this.
Now this is what I call an unexpected bonanza.
Thanks to WALL-E, the endearing little robot that could, the political name game may have gotten a little bit easier for Armando Walle, the state representative candidate in District 140.For much of his life, Walle has patiently offered the correct spelling of his family name -- pronounced Wally -- and explained the backstory on how he got his nontraditional, yet still very Hispanic surname.
"When I would get nametags, they would always misspell my name," said the 30-year-old North Houston Democrat, whose name was passed down from his Mexican-born father.
Before Disney came out with its computer-generated mass of metal, Walle used to hold up Mexican president Vincente Fox as an example.
"I'd tell people, 'He doesn't have a traditional Mexican name.' "
"Now," he added, "all I have to say is, 'It's like the movie.' "
[...]
After the March 3 primary, in which Walle defeated incumbent state Rep. Kevin Bailey, a huge billboard boasting WALL-E the movie went up on U.S. 59 north, near the real-life Walle's home.
Now, he said, people recognize the name all the time.
"Lately," he said, "it's been kinda crazy."
But in the good way, obviously. It's a nice thing to happen to a nice guy who will make a fine representative.
Cathy Campbell did a double-take and tapped the brakes when she spotted what appeared to be a pointy-edged box lying in the road just ahead.She got fooled.
It was a fake speed bump, a flat piece of blue, white and orange plastic that is designed to look like a 3-D pyramid from afar when applied to the pavement.
The optical illusion is one of the latest innovations being tested around the country to discourage speeding.
"It cautions you to slow down because you don't know what you are facing," Campbell said.
A smaller experiment two years ago in the Phoenix area found the faux speed bumps slowed traffic, at least temporarily. Now, in a much bigger test that began earlier this month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants to find out if the markers can also reduce pedestrian accidents.
The fake bumps are being tested on a section of road in a business and residential area in Philadelphia's northeastern corner. But soon they will also be popping up -- or looking that way -- on 60 to 90 more streets where speeding is a problem.
The 3-D markings are appealing because, at $60 to $80 each, they cost a fraction of real speed bumps (which can run $1,000 to $1,500) and require little maintenance, said Richard Simon, deputy regional administrator for the highway safety administration.
On one of three streets tested in the Phoenix trial, the percentage of drivers who obeyed the 25 mph speed limit nearly doubled. But the effect wore off after a few months.
"Initially they were great," said the Phoenix Police traffic coordinator, Officer Terry Sills. "Until people found out what they were."
Well, we know that red light cameras can alter drivers' behavior for the better. The difference, of course, is that you know there's really a camera there. Once you realize the speed bump is just an illusion, why would seeing them make a difference in how you drive?
Learning from the experience in Arizona, authorities are adding a publicity campaign in Philadelphia to let drivers know that the phony speed bumps will be followed by very real police officers, said Richard Blomberg, a contractor in charge of the study.Even after motorists adjust, the fake bumps will act like flashing lights in a school zone, reminding drivers they are in an area where they should not be speeding, he said.
"After awhile the novelty wears off, but not the conspicuous effect," Blomberg said.
You could probably get the same effect from just having the cops there, even only once in awhile. But whatever. If it's cheap enough and it works, I guess I don't see a problem.
Once you've been shown to be a sock puppet, it shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that you've always been a sock puppet.
Yesterday, Burnt Orange Report unmasked prolific commenter "Buck Smith" as actually being Dave Beckwith, a Cornyn staffer who evidently splits his time between working in Cornyn's federal Senate office and on the Cornyn campaign. The Cornyn campaign has defended Beckwith, saying he is simply doing the same thing everyone else on blogs is doing, although having a legitimate reason for using a pseudonym is a bit different than using one because you are a paid political operative.Beckwith, however, didn't just comment at one or two blogs (Burnt Orange Report and DailyKOS being two most people are aware of). In fact, he trolled sites belonging to mainstream media outlets, and sockpuppeted across nearly a dozen Texas-based and national blogs.
According to Vince's research, Beckwith/Buck Smith has been visiting blogs since 2005. Old habits die hard, apparently. One of the things he said in that latter thread certainly rings true:
Many political mistakes are blamed on staff error. But sometimes the fault lies with -- staff error.
That's certainly a concept with which he's familiar. I wonder, would shilling for a raise while using one's alter ego count as an error? Gotta admit, that does show initiative, so maybe not. More to come soon, I'm sure.
In 2007, the Texas Legislature passed a law requiring high school athletes be randomly tested for steroids. Turns out this isn't much of a problem.
Only two athletes tested positive for steroid use among some 10,000 Texas high school students tested this spring, raising doubts about whether state lawmakers will renew the $3 million-a-year project at current levels.The testing company's preliminary results are based on an estimated 10,407 students who were tested since February, when state officials launched the random steroid-testing program mandated by state lawmakers. National Center for Drug Free Sport is expected to release a formal report later this summer.
Both supporters and critics of the testing program -- the largest among high schools in the country -- said the results validate their positions.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said Monday he was pleased with the cursory results.
"I pushed this important legislation through the Legislature because I knew it would deter our young people from wrecking their bodies and putting their lives at risk by using illegal steroids," Dewhurst said. "And these test results clearly show the deterrent is working because young people know they can't use illegal steroids without getting caught."
But Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, one of seven state lawmakers to vote against the steroid-testing program, wants it abolished. There are 181 members in the Texas Legislature.
"This is one of those issues that sounds good but has no real impact except wasting taxpayer dollars," Patrick said. "I don't want to diminish the seriousness of steroids, but you can't take a sledgehammer to kill a gnat. Spending $1.5 million per kid is ludicrous."
I agree with Sen. Patrick. There's no possible way that this is a responsible use of public resources. I didn't pay attention to this issue last session, as there were so many other higher-priority matters, but I'll be watching it this time. Anyone who wants to argue in favor of renewing this program in 2009 is going to have to explain how it could be worth the cost.
As for Lt. Gov. Dewhurst's blithe assertion that the random tests must have served as a deterrent, how do we know anyone was using before this year? Maybe this was never a problem all along. And you have to admire Dewhurst's logic, which no doubt would have applied regardless of the outcome. If we have no steroid problem, the testing program works because it's a deterrent. If we did have a steroid problem, the testing program works because clearly we needed to know what kind of a problem we have. Nifty, isn't it?
Almost as nifty as this:
[Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Van, House sponsor for the steroid legislation,] did not flinch at the $1.5 million cost per positive test result, noting the price tag would be immaterial "if that's your kid."
And if we'd passed a $3 million bill to help kids pass the TAKS test but only 2 of the 10,000 kids it applied to did actually pass it, would it still be worth the $1.5 million cost per positive test result "if that's your kid"? I'm thinking the answer Rep. Flynn would give in that case would be "no".
State Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, agreed that schools should ramp up educational warnings about steroid use. But she voted against the testing program last year and hopes it fizzles out in the next legislative session."I thought the whole concept was absolutely silly," she said. "We should focus on education ... The money needs to be better utilized in preparing our kids for Texas' global economy."
Somebody slap me, I'm agreeing with Dan Patrick and Debbie Riddle in the same blog post. I realize she's being completely insincere about the need to "focus on education", but I'm going to clip and save this quote for next year anyway, because I'm sure it'll come in handy at some point. Grits has more.
Vince has the writeup on TexBlog PAC's endorsement of Sherrie Matula at last Thursday's fundraiser.
Matula's race represents one of those races that a lot of folks in the "bricks and mortar political establishment" may have underestimated in the early part of this year. However, this district is ripe for a flip. Matula laid the groundwork for this year's campaign with a respectable general election showing in 2006 and her "Apple Corps" team of volunteers and on-the-ground activists has worked very hard this year to register new voters, identify Democratic voters in the district, and conducting GOTV.This race, however, is one where the Netroots have consistently seen the potential for defeating incumbent John Davis (a legislator who Texas Monthly appropriately deemed "furniture") and the value in Matula's traditional and online campaign operations.
Click over to read the rest. I've said before that Matula ran a great campaign in 2006 on a shoestring; this year, with much better funding, more experience, and a stronger Democratic trend overall, she is in a good position to win in a district that nobody would have pegged as competitive as recently as 2004, when Rep. Davis ran unopposed. You can help Sherrie and help us help her make that happen.
This is one of many reasons why the current crackdown on undocumented immigrants is such a sham.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are staging dramatic raids across the country that routinely seize hundreds of undocumented workers at their jobs -- and leave their employers free to work another day.The appearance of separate justice that arose during federal authorities' surprise morning raid at Action Rags USA on Houston's east side fits a nationwide pattern.
Many of the 166 workers taken into custody on suspected immigration charges in Houston last week were paraded toward vans to be transported into detention. But immigration authorities spared company officials both immediate arrest and the embarrassing "perp walk" that exposed those arrested to news photographers.
"Once again the federal government has it backwards," said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, a former state judge and prosecutor. "It is a waste of time if we don't go after the business owners who are knowingly hiring illegals.
"If we eliminate the illegal job opportunities, we can start to eliminate the problem."
No dount unwittingly, Rep. Poe has correctly identified the problem. Unfortunately, his preferred solution, which is to crack down even harder on places like Action Rags USA while hermetically sealing the southern border, is simultaneously cruel, unworkable, and hideously expensive. That's because this approach completely defies the laws of supply and demand. This is rather ironic, given the fealty that folks like Rep. Poe swear to free-market economic principles in just about every other context. I guess the immigration debate has its own logic, and the power to trump such things as needed. Which is too bad, because in principle, I agree with him: The problem is too many illegal job opportunities. It's just a shame he's incapable of taking the next step towards a solution that might actually work.
Rice University chemistry professor and Nobel Laureate Robert Curl is retiring from the classroom today.
Robert Curl never sought the limelight that accompanied the Nobel Prize in Chemistry he won a dozen years ago.In his quiet way, Curl simply went on teaching, thinking, experimenting and riding his bicycle to Rice University.
Now, after 50 years at Rice, Curl plans to retire Tuesday. With a hint of a smile, Curl, 74, says he doesn't want to turn into "one of these people who hangs on so long that they have become a blithering idiot."
Curl shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Rice's Rick Smalley and a British scientist, Harold Kroto. They discovered a unique form of carbon in which 60 atoms are clustered neatly into a tiny, soccer-shaped ball. They christened their finding a buckyball -- or fullerene -- after Buckminster Fuller, whose geodesic designs the molecules resemble.
The discovery heralded the dawn of nanotechnology, the science of building very small materials with unique properties.
[...]
Like many leading scientists of his age, Curl's passion for research dates to a childhood Christmas, when his parents bought him a chemistry set. Soon, the 9-year-old was mixing chemicals, making gunpowder and blowing things up.
In one memorable event, some nitric acid boiled over onto his mother's porcelain stove, eating away the fine finish. His mother never forgave him, he said, but Curl was hooked on chemistry.
"It was not scientific at all," he said, "but it was sure fun."
In case you every wondered what the appeal of shows like "Mythbusters" is, that would be it in a nutshell.
Rice's current president, David Leebron, echoes the sentiment: "On top of all the achievement, Bob is one of the kindest and most generous people I know."Those qualities made Curl a good mentor. He gave brilliant and not-as-brilliant graduate students the same attention and respect, colleagues said.
[...]
Curl and Smalley believed they could approximate the conditions of dying stars, which are rich in carbon, by using lasers to blast a chunk of graphite. At the time, graphite and diamonds were the two known forms of carbon. The scientists hoped to create the long carbon chains seen in interstellar space.
Instead, when they pored over the collected data, they found a blip that turned out to be a spectacular, third form of carbon.
"Our buckyball discovery was a complete piece of serendipity and totally unexpected," Curl said.
"It's kind of embarrassing. Reporters asked us, 'Tell us how you made this great discovery.' Well, it was a stroke of luck. The only credit you can claim is not ignoring your stroke of luck."
I never had Curl as a professor, since I was only a grad student at Rice, in the math department, but I know him through the tournament bridge scene, where he's been a fixture for longer than I have. I figure this means he'll have more time to play the game, which will be good for everyone. Best of luck in retirement, Professor!
It's Fourth of July week, and that means it's time for fireworks, barbecue, and some good blogging from the Texas Progressive Alliance. Click on to get a heaping plateful of the week's highlights.
MORE...
Reacting to the latest controversy about his office in recent months, Sheriff Tommy Thomas today apologized in person to a local Muslim group for religiously insensitive e-mails sent by members of his staff.Monday's appearance before the Islamic Society of Greater Houston was Thomas' second apology in recent days over staff e-mail, including one message from a top commander that mocks some of the Islamic faith's core tenets.
"If anyone was offended, I sincerely apologize," Thomas said. "I hope it's not systemic of the department."
Thomas said he planned to discipline the commander, Chief Deputy Mike Smith, who heads the office's detention command. Thomas said he did not know when that suspension would begin or how many others may also receive similar punishment.
[...]
Smith said today that he regretted forwarding an e-mail he received with religiously insensitive cartoons. He said the sheriff docked a week's pay.
"It was stupid for me to forward that. It was just cartoons, regarding Muslim terrorists," he said. "I certainly have a great deal of respect for the Muslim community. They are a very law-abiding community. I regret that that's being viewed as anti-Muslim because it's anti-terrorist.
You can see the emails in question here and here. It's not at all clear to me that Deputy Smith understands why his actions were offensive. Perhaps a little diversity training would be in order here, lest the lesson that gets learned is "only forward nasty stuff from the personal email address".
The e-mails were revealed after KTRK-TV (Channel 13) sued to stop their deletion. The station reported last week on several e-mails that could be considered racist, insensitive or off-color.
The Sheriff spoke to KTRK as well, and though he whined about being "treated unfairly" by them, I give him credit for doing so. He's got way more to answer for than this, and finally agreeing to talk to a reporter doesn't come close to doing it. But it's a step forward, and we're the better off for it.
Remember David Beckwith, the campaign consultant for "Big John" Cornyn? Apparently, he's been a busy boy at the Burnt Orange Report.
When a staffer for Lt. Col. Noriega made a dumb mistake and falsely represented himself as a blogger to the Cornyn campaign, he was rightfully excoriated. When a Democratic consultant created an anonymous website, he was rightfully questioned. In 2007, user Buck Smith began posting on this and other sites, mainly on threads involving Lt. Col. Rick Noriega or Sen. John Cornyn. He attacked diarists and commenters and provided pro-Cornyn spin on many items. In the interest of full disclosure, and in order to keep everything fair, and since Buck Smith has not disclosed who he is, we thought we would clue you in that he is David Beckwith, John Cornyn's senior staffer.We found out his identity because Mr. Beckwith's email on file with the site is the same email listed on the webpage for his high school reunion class. (We also have a screenshot in case the site is removed soon.)
You know who we are and who we work for. You know who the Democratic consultants and staffers that comment on the site are, and who they work for. Now you know who is the Republican operative, and who he works for. Keep that in mind every time he leaves comments attacking you for supporting Lt. Col. Rick Noriega. Keep that in mind every time he takes to the site to spin for Senator John Cornyn. Keep that in mind when you realize that all of the staffers for Lt. Col. Rick Noriega have disclosed their day jobs, while Senator Cornyn's staffer lurk in the shadows, using age old dirty whisper campaigns in an online forum.
In fact, Cornyn's own staffers commented directly on this issue:
"If you're going to misrepresent yourself, be aware of caller i.d." Walsh said. "I don't think misrepresenting yourself is in line with Texas values. I just find it somewhat ham-handed."
Interestingly, it was Buck Smith who kicked the story off online on an unrelated BOR post. Beckwith linked to no outside material but did get the ball rolling using his deceptive user name with this comment.
After the Cornyn campaign gave an amazingly juvenile response to BOR's request for a comment about this, Beckwith admitted thr truth to the Chron's Peggy Fikac. As noted in the comments on the BOR post, Beckwith/Buck Smith even commented on the earlier post about his rumored firing. That would be the definition of sock puppetry right there. Way to go, dude.
On a much nicer note, Rick Noriega is the latest addition to MyDD's Road to 60 group. Since I posted yesterday, Noriega has gone well past 10,000 contributors and $900,000 on ActBlue - by my rough calculation, he's raised over $40K on ActBlue since yesterday. Not too bad. And you can move him farther along for the quarter if you hit the link before midnight tonight. Go ahead, do it for Buck Smith.
The chairman of the Upper Kirby TIRZ writes a letter in defense of the Kirby storm drain/street widening project that was recently criticized by Trees for Houston.
On the Kirby Drive Storm Drainage and Mobility Improvements Project, however, Trees for Houston is making a mistake using the issue about the trees along Kirby to obscure two more critical issues: street flooding and mobility and safety along one of our busiest and most vibrant residential and commercial streets.Just last week, a 30-minute summer rain storm caused street flooding in the neighborhoods along Kirby Drive. If we had a sustained storm, let alone a catastrophic storm, like Tropical Storm Alison, most people would quickly trade the present trees along Kirby for the cars they would have to abandon or the homes they would have to pump out. We didn't create this drainage problem, but we are here to improve it.
The number of cars traveling on Kirby in both directions has increased beyond anyone's expectations, and the new developments currently under construction will only add more cars to the road. It is unsafe for both cars and pedestrians. The new design for Kirby will increase the mobility and safety of this important street. Period.
We are undertaking this project so that we can create a model thoroughfare for the next 50 years. Indeed, the existing trees will be replaced in greater number. We are un-dertaking this project because when we balance all of the goals that this project must address, we realize that we need to replace trees in order to accomplish all objectives. The remaining right of way will be much more pedestrian-friendly, the power lines will be buried underground and there will be more trees along and in this important boulevard. Approximately nine out of 10 landowners along Kirby Drive agree.
We applaud Trees for Houston and the worthy contributions it has made to our city over the years. We hope that we can continue to work with it in Houston's best interest. In the meantime, we are moving forward with a plan that takes a larger view and is the right thing to do.
BUDDY BAILEY
chairman, Upper Kirby TIRZ (Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone) No. 19
I don't know that I agree with all his assertions, and I'd love to see a citation for that "nine out of ten landowners along Kirby Drive agree" statistic he pulled out, but as he and his group appear to have won the fight, I'm not sure that it matters much. I will say, however, that while is statement about the number of cars travelling on Kirby increasing beyond expectations (and, I'd argue, sustainability) is true, it really points out the need for alternatives to driving in that area. Traffic flow may be improved by the Upper Kirby project, but no capacity is being added. I've harped on this subject before and I'll say it again: Traffic conditions on streets like Kirby can only get worse, and the only real option we have to mitigate against this is transit. That's not on any blueprint or long-range plan right now (at least, none that I know of), but I say it needs to be, before Kirby becomes undrivable.
On a related note, the subsequent letter raises an interesting point:
Think outside the curbs and shift some of the traffic load from Kirby to South Shepherd. If South Shepherd Drive from Richmond north to where it comes together with Kirby at Allen Parkway were slightly widened and improved, improvements to Kirby can be done without losing trees. It is a rare instance where two parallel streets come together, so the through traffic is indifferent to the actual street taken. At the southern end, both streets connect directly to the freeway access roads, giving motorists essentially identical outcomes.If it is done my way, the storm sewers get built, the trees stay put, Shepherd moves up in quality and the redundancy means that a problem on one route does not totally shut down the north-south flow.
BRUCE ANDERSON
Houston
As someone who regularly drives on Shepherd, I can tell you that the biggest problem is the lack of any kind of turn lane. Every left turn on Shepherd causes a backup and lots of lane-changing. Given that a big part of the reason for the imminent demise of Kirby's trees is the conversion of its Darwinian turn lane into a wider median-with-pocket-turn-lanes, I don't see how you can accomplish what this guy suggests on Shepherd without needing to widen it a lot, and I don't see how you can do that. It was bad form, obviously, to have built Shepherd in such a narrow way, but we're stuck with it now. Nice try, but not gonna happen.
If you've been itching to make a public comment about the new commuter rail study, your opportunity is here.
The first public meeting on a new Regional Commuter Rail Connectivity Study will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Houston-Galveston Area Council offices, 3555 Timmons.Recommendations in the study, by H-GAC staff and consultants Kimley-Horn and Associates, differ from those in Metro's 2003 transit referendum in several ways.
- The referendum called for commuter rail out U.S. 90A (S. Main) and U.S. 290, but only the latter is in the study. To keep costs down, the study recommends sharing existing low-traffic tracks with freight railroads, but Union Pacific says those on U.S. 90A are too busy to be shared.
- The referendum map also showed potential routes along the Katy Freeway, Westpark, Hardy Toll Road, Texas 3 and Texas 249 (Tomball Parkway), but only the last two are in the study. The other three are shown as possible extensions of Metro's light rail service.
- The study recommends starting with a "baseline" system of five routes: U.S. 290, Texas 3, Texas 249, Texas 35 to Pearland, and -- as an alternative to U.S. 90A -- a route running south along Almeda (FM 521) and turning west through the middle of Fort Bend County.
- Although the study shows four lines continuing to downtown, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said they ought not duplicate Metro's light rail service. There also is resistance on City Council, and from neighborhoods such as the Heights, to more inner-city trains.
- Both the study and Metro's plans include an Intermodal Terminal on the north side of downtown, but the study recommends putting the main commuter rail terminal outside the West Loop, between Northwest Mall near U.S. 290 and Metro's Northwest Transit Center on the Katy Freeway. The Eureka rail yard just across the Loop to the east would be used for maintenance and to store trains between rush hours.
I'm not sure how much it matters that the study differs from the 2003 referendum. Some of what the referendum called for, like a line going west on the Katy Freeway, is no longer an option; some of what the study calls for are things that we probably would have gotten around to anyway regardless of the referendum. I suppose there's always the potential for someone to sue.
We can dance around issues like that all we want, but the bottom line is going to be this:
Kimley-Horn consultant Sam Lott estimated the cost of the five lines and the hub terminal at $2.9 billion.
That's a lot of money, though perhaps if we just think of it as being the equivalent of the Katy Freeway expansion, it doesn't seem that bad - I mean, for the price of one freeway expansion, you get five new commuter rail lines. Not a bad swap, really. And with Park and Ride buses full to capacity, increasingly needed. The point is that this isn't going to happen without federal funds, and that isn't going to happen without broad consensus, especially since as that Rad Sallee column notes, it's going to take more than Metro to make this happen. So if you have questions about this plan, like Christof does, now would be a good time to start asking them.
Now here is a more tangible manifestation of the Obama strategy for Texas: Raising a bunch of money for State House races.
Alexa Wesner caught Obamania before it became fashionable.The West Lake Hills woman, who's known Barack Obama since he ran for the U.S. Senate four years ago, has slogged through the snows of Iowa, exceeded her goal of raising $250,000 for his presidential campaign (she's got a similar target for the fall election), hosted a couple of local Obama fundraisers and dined with the candidate's wife last fall on a trip to London.
Now Wesner, 36, has turned her sights on what Texas Democrats hope will become the next big thing: winning back the Texas House of Representatives.
[Saturday] Wesner is hosting a high-dollar fundraiser in Wimberley for her new political action committee, Blue Texas, dedicated to spending money on state legislative campaigns. (Tickets are $5,000 a couple to $50,000 for a host committee for an event headlined by Jerry Jeff Walker and Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison.)
As of Friday, Wesner said, she had raised $1 million in tickets for the event. To put that in perspective, Texas Republicans, with Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. John Cornyn headlining an event in Weatherford this weekend, expect to raise $600,000 for statewide get-out-the-vote efforts this fall, according to Roger Williams, who leads the GOP's Texas Victory '08 effort.
Texas Democrats spent $21.5 million, from all sources, on Texas House races in 2006, when Republicans outspent them with $38 million.
State Rep. Jim Dunnam, a Waco Democrat who heads the House Democratic Campaign Committee, says he has no illusions that Democrats will outspend Republicans in Texas this year. But he welcomes Wesner's help: "We never had a million-dollar event before."
Wow. That's mighty impressive. And if you're wondering why you've never heard of Ms. Wesner before, consider this:
Ask Wesner why she's set her sights on the Texas House as well as the White House, and her answer shows how new to politics she is."It was amazing to me how close we are. We just need five seats," Wesner said of the Democrats' chances of winning a legislative majority in the Texas House, where Republicans hold a 79-71 majority. "I'm talking to a lot of people who don't realize how close it is."
Wesner's enthusiasm and a younger network of high-dollar donors has the Texas Democratic establishment excited.
"She's so refreshing," said Jack Martin, founder of Public Strategies, an international business consulting firm. "Not only does she not know who's been mad at one another (in the Democratic Party), she doesn't care."
Martin said Wesner called him last fall to attend an Obama fundraiser.
"She didn't know big shots like me are supposed to be wooed to attend," Martin quipped. At the event, Wesner was "taking Obama around the crowd like he's running for the school board," Martin said.
Martin, a political wunderkind when he worked for U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen a quarter-century ago, said he didn't recognize anyone at the fundraiser except biker and cancer-fighter Lance Armstrong.
"Everyone was 20 years younger," said Martin, who is 54.
That's a lot of new blood getting involved in a meaningful way for Democratic politics in Texas. I keep saying this year is like no other election year. I'd count this as one more reason why.
The Blue Texas website is here - you have to sign up to see most of the content. Turns out one of the founders was my freshman week orientation mentor in college - he sent me that Statesman story, as well as a copy of Alexa Wesner's remarks at the Saturday event. I look forward to hearing more from these folks in the near future.
The Chron's Nancy Sarnoff writes about the Heights highrise, and makes it sound pretty reasonable.
[C]alling it another Ashby high-rise may be a stretch.For one, the proposal is for an office building.
And the rendering is old. A newer plan is being considered with only nine stories -- six levels for office and three for parking, according to Tim Cisneros, the building's architect.
The developer hasn't even gone to the city for a construction permit.
"We're just looking at who's interested in doing the deal with us," said Ed Rizk, a real estate broker and developer who's pre-leasing the building.
Those involved in the project said there's a need for office space in the Heights, where area businesses operate out of rundown strip centers, outdated office structures and historic homes.
"The options for Class A office space in the Heights are virtually nil," said Cisneros, who sees the market as small law firms, accountants, architects and other small businesses whose owners live in the Heights.
Residential units were, however, considered for the site.
But condos would generate a lot more traffic than an office building operating just during business hours.
And a shopping center would require loads of parking.
"We're trying to envision if it's an appropriate building type," Cisneros said.
It's still not clear to me that there's that much demand for office space in the Heights, but whatever. I still think nine stories is a bit on the tall side for the area, but as I said before, beyond that there's not much to object to.
The proposed office building would be built on a 25,000-square-foot parcel at 3110 White Oak, just west of the popular Onion Creek restaurant and bar.It would replace a house and small shopping center and could contain 50,000 square feet of office space and just enough ground-level retail space to support a bank or restaurant.
Land owner and developer Geoffrey Vaughan couldn't be reached, but his architect thinks the project could serve as an example for acceptable urban development.
"Is it ambitious? Yes. Potentially controversial? Yes," Cisneros said.
"But I think maybe it could sensitively set the model for some development patterns in Houston."
I took a couple of photos of the lot where the highrise would be. Here they are:
You can see the entire space from this view. Onion Creek is just on the other side of that telephone pole on the far right.
A view from Oxford, the crossroad immediately to the west of the lot. It's not very deep, which is why a lot of people were puzzled by this at first. Between this new development and the presence of Onion Creek, I can foresee a traffic light at this intersection sometime in the future. Note the lack of sidewalks on Oxford, which will be an impediment to anyone who wants to walk to this new building.
The misnamed Montrose Skate Shop, on the other side of Oxford, will be the highrise's other neighbor on White Oak.
Barring any new information, I don't think there's much more to say about this until such time as permits start getting pulled, and the neighborhood reacts. In the end, I think it won't be too contentious, but let's see what the specifics are before we get too confident.
This is one of those "why didn't we think of this sooner" kind of things.
City Hall has gotten a little hotter, and not because of a sudden gust of political rhetoric.Officials adjusted the air conditioning in 100 municipal buildings, hoping that a 2-degree increase in air temperature -- to 74 -- will help save money. And relieve a most peculiar Houston phenomenon: having to wear a sweater indoors in summer.
"Now that I think about it, I can get away without that thick sweater I used to wear," said Linda Layton, agenda director for Councilwoman Jolanda Jones. "It's tolerable now, comfortable."
Jon Newport, another council staffer, said he feels warmer than he'd like but he can live with the change.
"Whatever we have to do to save the taxpayers money, that's what we'll do," he said. "It's noticeable, but I wouldn't say it's uncomfortable. I haven't been forced to go out and buy a fan."
The city budgeted $159 million for its electrical bill in the coming year. Since 2004, it has reduced its energy consumption, in kilowatt-hours, by 5.8 percent, said Issa Dadoush, the director of General Services.
The city doesn't know how much it'll save by raising the temperature, but it hasn't ruffled any feathers, he said.
"We have not received any complaints, and we've had some really hot days over the past three weeks," Dadoush said.
Talk about a simple thing you can do to save the planet. I've worked for the past two years in a cubicle that has a west-facing window. When I first got there, all the windows on that floor had these old, ratty, and completely ineffective coverings that did nothing to block the afternoon sunlight. It got mighty warm around there, and I say that as someone with robot-like heat tolerance. As a result, there were many complaints to facilities folks to crank the A/C, something that would not be appreciated very much these days. They eventually replaced all that with miniblinds, which do a much better job of keeping things temperate, presumably including the utility bills. It's a win-win all around.
So what's the temperature at your office? Based on this MeMo video, I suspect that article got mailed around quite about at the Chronicle.
Well, this is a relief.
The most powerful atom-smasher ever built could make some bizarre discoveries, such as invisible matter or extra dimensions in space, after it is switched on in August.But some critics fear the Large Hadron Collider could exceed physicists' wildest conjectures: Will it spawn a black hole that could swallow Earth? Or spit out particles that could turn the planet into a hot dead clump?
Ridiculous, say scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by its French initials CERN -- some of whom have been working for a generation on the $5.8 billion collider, or LHC.
"Obviously, the world will not end when the LHC switches on," said project leader Lyn Evans.
David Francis, a physicist on the collider's huge ATLAS particle detector, smiled when asked whether he worried about black holes and hypothetical killer particles known as strangelets.
"If I thought that this was going to happen, I would be well away from here," he said.
Of course, that's exactly what they'd want you to think, isn't it? It's all fun and games until someone activates the doomsday machine.
Critics of the LHC filed a lawsuit in a Hawaiian court in March seeking to block its startup, alleging that there was "a significant risk that ... operation of the Collider may have unintended consequences which could ultimately result in the destruction of our planet."One of the plaintiffs, Walter L. Wagner, a physicist and lawyer, said Wednesday CERN's safety report, released June 20, "has several major flaws," and his views on the risks of using the particle accelerator had not changed.
On Tuesday, U.S. Justice Department lawyers representing the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation filed a motion to dismiss the case.
The two agencies have contributed $531 million to building the collider, and the NSF has agreed to pay $87 million of its annual operating costs. Hundreds of American scientists will participate in the research.
The lawyers called the plaintiffs' allegations "extraordinarily speculative," and said "there is no basis for any conceivable threat" from black holes or other objects the LHC might produce. A hearing on the motion is expected in late July or August.
In rebutting doomsday scenarios, CERN scientists point out that cosmic rays have been bombarding the earth, and triggering collisions similar to those planned for the collider, since the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago.
And so far, Earth has survived.
"The LHC is only going to reproduce what nature does every second, what it has been doing for billions of years," said John Ellis, a British theoretical physicist at CERN.
The guys who filed that suit strike me as being nuts, but I'd still kind of like to see the matter go forward, if only to see how a non-scientist judge deals with it. There's a lot of entertainment potential in that.
Monday is the quarterly reporting deadline for campaign finances, and if you haven't been buried under an avalanche of emails soliciting donations, you probably don't follow politics that closely. If you are at all inclined to donate to a campaign, sometime before midnight tomorrow would be best. If you've got a few bucks burning a hole in your pocket and need someplace to send them, here are a few recommendations. This is nowhere close to a comprehensive list, just a couple of suggestions.
- Rick Noriega - ActBlue page. He's approaching 10,000 online donors, and $900,000 raised via ActBlue, both mighty impressive numbers for a first-time statewide candidate in Texas. You can help move him past those milestones.
- Congressional candidates Michael Skelly (CD07), Larry Joe Doherty (CD10), or Eric Roberson (CD32).
- State Senate, a usually quiet arena for competitive campaigns, has a bounty this year with Wendy Davis in SD10, Joe Jaworski in SD11, and Rain Minns in SD16 (ActBlue page here). And that's before we consider the possibility of the SD17 special election.
- There's way too many good candidates to list in the State House. You can give to the TexBlog PAC (ActBlue page here) as a proxy, or browse ActBlue for a candidate near you, physically or issues-wise. If you believe in rewarding moxie, consider helping out the guy who's running against Tom Craddick, Bill Dingus, whose brand new ActBlue page is here. I can't say that's on any list of truly competitive races, but you've got to admire the courage.
- And of course, your candidates for county offices, all of whom you can find here for Harris County.
Every little bit helps. Thanks very much.
I'm really rather amazed at how long this has been in the news.
Is U.S. Sen. John Cornyn's Big Bad John campaign video a big black eye for him?His staff says absolutely not, painting the attention-getting video as a "winner." But Democrats are reacting with glee to the video, which includes Cornyn in a cowboy hat and fringed jacket, plus a rewrite of the song to include lines: "He rose to the top in just one term, kept Texas in power, made lesser states squirm. Big John. Big John. Big John. Yeah, Big Bad John."
Rep. Rick Noriega, the Houston Democrat challenging Cornyn, posted his own version of the video on his campaign Web site as a fundraising tool.
[...]
Political scientists don't think it's a turning point.
"My guess is this is all going to turn out to be much ado about nothing," said political scientist Bruce Buchanan of the University of Texas at Austin.
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, said it's likely "a blip" and thinks Cornyn is heavily favored to win but added, "I don't think it was especially good for his reputation, either. ... It will stay with him."
While I agree that the original Cornyn video, as ridiculous as it is in a Dukakis-in-a-tank kind of way, is unlikely to sway many voters, it has had the effect of raising the profile of this race nationally, and I daresay has helped Noriega's fundraising, which is a critical matter for him. The bad news about this being such a great year to run for office as a Democrat is that there's a lot more competition for buzz and funding. On that score, given how widely these videos have been linked, often by bloggers who'd had no previous interest in the race, it's definitely been a boon for Noriega.
Texas Republicans reacted with outrage after Matthew Miller of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee distributed a link to The Daily Show segment and said that Cornyn, in donning the fancy jacket, "appears to have raided the wardrobe closet for the Kilgore Rangerettes."State GOP spokesman Hans Klingler described the moves as "ethnic and racial assaults," and Texas Republican Hispanic Association President Reggie Gonzalez called the remarks insensitive because, the party explained, Cornyn was wearing a "Tamaulipeca jacket ... designed in the Hispanic tradition" at a Charro Days celebration in Brownsville.
Miller said he'd let The Daily Show defend its own humor and added, "No one is making fun of the clothes. They're laughing at how silly Rhinestone Cowboy John Cornyn looks in them."
(Stewart did question how Cornyn found the jacket in an adult size.)
Of Beckwith's suggestion that those who don't like the video are anti-Texan, Miller said, "I grew up in Amarillo and went to school in Austin. I don't know a whole lot of Texans who would look at that ... and think that it helps John Cornyn."
I've no idea if the claim about a "Tamaulipeca jacket" is true or not. What I do know is that this is exactly the sort of imagery most of my high school classmates in New York City had in mind when they heard I was going to college in Texas. As a lifelong urbanite, as well as a naturalized Texan, the whole cowboy-mystique thing has never moved me. Texas is an increasingly urban state, populated more and more by people who weren't born here or who were born to people who weren't born here, so I have to think there's a lot of folks here for whom the same is true. Maybe I'm wrong about that - Lord knows, the automotive industry still drowns us in rural/cowboy motifs as it tries to sell pickup trucks and Suburbans - but I'd bet this is more true now than ever before. All I know is that the "Big John" video strikes me as an anachronism, like it was made by people from one coast or the other based on their limited perception of the state of Texas and its people. Oh, and that the fringey attire looks silly and completely out of place on Cornyn, authentic or not.
Anyway, here are the videos, in case you haven't seen them. Here's the original:
And the Noriega response:
Rumor now has it that David Beckwith, the consultant who made the "Big John" video, has been fired by the campaign. That would not be the first time he's gotten himself in trouble with Big John. Some people never learn, I guess. Anyway, seeing as how the quarterly reporting deadline for campaign fundraising is tomorrow, now would be a good time to contribute to Rick Noriega. There's more than one way to measure the impact of a campaign event, after all.
Just some interesting links from other folks to check out...
Deadspin has a new executive editor. To no one's surprise, it's not a woman.
The Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell says that James Dobson does not speak for him.
The Top Ten Ways to get yourself discriminated against at the Department of Justice.
Will first-term City Council Member Jolanda Jones draw a serious challenger in 2009? Maybe, but you'd have to do a lot better than that to impress me.
It's taken him a long time to work through the first of the "Left Behind" books, but Slacktivist's take on them is still some of the best writing on the Internet.
If you insist on "teaching the controversy", then by God, teach the controversy!
Hey, did you know that Norbizness was blogging again? Well, now you do.
The East End (Harrisburg) rail line had its official kickoff on Thursday.
As streamers and fireworks shot into the sweltering air and opponents picketed outside, elected officials and East End community leaders today celebrated the impending start of construction of a light rail line in their historic neighborhood."It may have been said in the past, but it can't be said now that the city of Houston is overlooking the East End," Mayor Bill White said to applause from about 200 supporters.
[...]
State Sen. Mario Gallegos said his grandfather had ridden a trolley on Harrisburg and he looks forward to having rail there again.
Councilmen Adrian Garcia and James Rodriguez thanked Metro and fellow council members who grilled the agency about its plans before voting June 18 to allow it to build on city streets.
"Thanks for making sure we pay attention to detail," Garcia said. "Let's make sure we keep construction moving fast and effectively."
You can insert your favorite cliche here about there still being a long way to go, but it's still nice to acknowledge how far we've come. May we have many more reasons to celebrate soon.
Michael brings me some good news.
[I]t was with great surprise and pleasure that I heard from [Tom Beard, lead singer for Houston's strangest blues bar band, Feo Y Loco]. Feo is in the studio working on re-recording old classics and new songs. Politically Incorrect is on iTMS (and amusingly not marked Explicit Lyrics), it's on CDbaby, and the web site makes current and impressive promises:
We are re-mastering the original Feo cassette album, released in 1992. Along with the original songs on the cassette will be 3 new "surprise" tunes Feoheads everywhere will enjoy. This will also be available as a CD on cdbaby.com, or at gigs. This should happen in June, and probably sometime in July, this CD will be available for download on iTunes and the other music download services.We will also be releasing a live CD, as well as at least 2 more CD's of material never before recorded, before the end of 2008. There will also be videos available as well. And you thought Feo Y Loco was lazy! Shame on you. Check back often for updates.
I actually already own a digitized version of the original cassette, thanks to Michael and Ginger, but I'll be downloading the new one, because whatever that new music is, I need to have it. I
Those Texas Lyceum folks have been busy lately, first with their Senate poll, and now with an early peek at the 2010 Governor's race.
Robert Black, spokesman for [Governor Rick Perry], dismissed the Texas Lyceum Poll results, saying, "Any poll that tries to forecast any kind of results two years from an election isn't worth a whole lot."[...]
Perry has said he wants to continue his streak by winning another term in 2010, but the poll for the non-profit Texas Lyceum group gave a strong advantage to Hutchison, who's expected to run for governor.
Among all respondents, 35 percent said they were likely to support Hutchison in a GOP contest, and 22 percent backed Perry, with other possible candidates dividing the rest. Among a subgroup of GOP voters, Hutchison drew 50 percent to 23 percent for Perry.
The poll shows "how difficult it is to be a governor," said Daron Shaw, poll director and associate professor in the government department at the University of Texas at Austin. "Perry has to take lots of positions and get out in front on public policy issues. Senators can be a little more selective."
The poll of 1,000 Texans has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
You can see the poll memo here (PDF); they also did a poll on transportation issues, which you can see here (PDF). For once I have to agree with Robert Black (and also with Greg, though that's not unusual). It's just not possible that this poll can tell us anything very specific at this early date. Now a straight-up "Do you want to see Governor Perry run for re-election in 2010" question, that would have been something. This, not so much. All I'll say about the Bill White numbers is that much closer to the 2003 election than we are now to 2010, lots of people - myself included - were comparing him to George Greanias. Never underestimate someone who can raise funds and hire good people.
In my earlier post about that Texas Lyceum poll, I wondered about the partisan ratio that the pollster used. I see now that Harvey Kronberg is on the case.
In response to our query, Lyceum pollster Daron R. Shaw sent us the following explanation:
"We use a likely voter screen consisting of the following:
1. self-reported registration
2. interest in the election (somewhat or extremely)
3. voting behavior over past two years (almost all or every election).
"This gets the 1,000 person sample down to 478. The party breakdown for the LV population is 42%R-42%D. Democrats are more prominent in this estimated electorate than they have been in recent years due to their relatively high levels of interest and self-reported recent voting. We could have weighted this to a 6-8 point Republican advantage, but judged it best to simply report the numbers and be clear about the underlying party breakdown. Do we believe Democrats will maintain their "enthusiasm" edge over the Republicans and make these elections close in the fall? History is against them. But given recent trends nationally and the engagement attitudes expressed in the poll, it seems imprudent to weight the data back to expected party turnout.
"Let me be clear; the internals show little to no cross-over voting. Obama (and Noriega) are not getting Republicans. They have locked down almost all Democrats, though. This is a snap-shot whose predictive value is highly contingent. Democratic candidates need to have a huge Democratic turnout, along with lukewarm Republican turnout, to get the numbers we show here on Election Day."
Very interesting, once again showing the potential for the Obama strategy in Texas. We know he's capable of turning out non-traditional voters; if that pattern is maintained for the general election, we will wake up in a very different world on November 5. It also makes me wonder what the raw numbers are that Baselice is getting. Is he weighing things to get the partisan gap he expects, or is he still seeing that gap without any tinkering? Maybe he'll address that in a future poll.
The Lone Star Project highlights another bit of funny bookkeeping from State Sen. Kim Brimer:
Campaign finance records show that Republican State Senator Kim Brimer (SD10 - Fort Worth) has again used campaign contributor funds for personal gain. A complete review of Kim Brimer's campaign finance forms from 1987 to the present shows that Brimer skimmed at least $37,953 from his campaign account for his personal use. The Lone Star Project discovery of Brimer's improper, and possibly illegal, repayments resulted from an earlier investigation (PDF) into the Republican Senator's improper use of campaign cash to purchase a luxury condominium in Austin.Facts: Phony Loan Scam
Documents filed with the Texas Ethics Commission show that during Brimer's campaign for the Texas State House in 1987 and 1988, he bilked his campaign for more than $37,000.
- Brimer loaned his campaign $46,000 during 1987 and 1988
- Brimer family members loaned the Kim Brimer Campaign an additional $10,000
- Brimer made a series of payments to himself totaling at least $83,953, reported as "loan repayments," from 1988 to 1992
- As a result, Kim Brimer received at least $37,953 more than the amount he loaned himself.
(Source: Texas Ethics Commission) See Documents Here
Brimer Scandal File GrowingThis Brimer campaign loan scam comes on the heels of a Lone Star Project report and Fort Worth Star-Telegram article detailing how Kim Brimer used donations to his campaign to make bogus "rent" payments to his wife. The "rent" payments and the profits from the sale of the luxury condo netted Brimer more than $357,000.
You almost have to admire the entrepreneurship needed to come up with a scheme like this. If only such creative thinking were used to solve the school finance problem. Or rising insurance rates, which have gotten Brimer's attention somewhat belatedly. See the extended entry for a press release from the Wendy Davis campaign for more on that.
Meanwhile, the Texas Conservative Review has a long article on the "real reasons behind State Sen. Kyle Janek's resignation" in SD17. This is not an unbiased source, as TCR publisher Gary Polland lost to Janek in a GOP primary for the SD17 seat in 2002, but it's an interesting read, and offers a further clue that the seat is ripe for a Democratic pickup this year with the right candidate in the race. Check it out.
MORE...The Chron's Lisa Gray makes a pitch for saving at least some of the doomed trees along Kirby Drive.
The street is a major thoroughfare, a big deal in and of itself. And even more important, it presents the kind of challenge that Houston has to learn to deal with. It's obvious, driving past Kirby's current spate of high-rise construction, that we're becoming a different kind of city: tighter packed, more urban than suburban, a city with light rail and pedestrians.A different kind of city needs a different kind of street -- a street that we're not used to designing.
She wrote this column after Trees for Houston made a public appeal last Friday to change the plan for Kirby Drive.
Founder of Trees for Houston William Coats told the media Friday morning his organization probably made a mistake in endorsing a compromise to make Kirby Drive 73 feet wide before seeing engineering plans.As a result, he said, only speedy action on the part of the city of Houston can save about 135 trees standing between Westheimer Road and Richmond Avenue from being removed when construction on the Kirby Storm Drainage project begins, probably in July.
"Good people correct mistakes," Coats said, gesturing from the patio of Beck's Prime in the 2900 block to several trees the group had marked with red X's to symbolize each would be removed.
Coats comments came almost three weeks after he told a group attending the Upper Kirby District TIRZ 28 that Trees of Houston wanted the width of the proposed street surface reduced by a foot on either side.
[...]
Coats said Friday half the trees along the disputed stretch of street could have been saved in a 73-foot configuration, if the engineering plans had been drawn "in any way that is sympathetic" to the trees.
"Most of the time, we don't say a word," he said of trees lost during city projects. "In this case, the citizens will pay for taking the trees down unnecessarily."
Coats said trees the size of the larger ones in the area would cost at least $25,000 to replace but that would be impossible, because there would be no room for the root balls to be planted.
"We want to have shade as we are enjoying here today," he said.
It may be too late, but if you feel strongly about this, it's never a bad idea to contact your City Council member and let him or her know that you'd like to see more of an effort made to save these trees. Contact info is here.
The political action committee of the Texas Medical Association, furious about a Thursday night vote on a Medicare-funding bill, is going to rescind its endorsement of Sen. John Cornyn's reelection bid, association spokesman Brent Annear said.Cornyn and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison voted to stall a bill that would have prevented a 10 percent cut in Medicare funding for physicians, prompting an unusually harsh reaction from the medical association, which has 43,000 members and is one of the most powerful trade groups in Texas politics.
The two Republican senators say they wanted a 30-day extension that would have prevented the cuts, which are scheduled to take effect July 1.
Background here. The TMA's unendorsement of Cornyn does not equate to an endorsement of Rick Noriega, though of course you can't have the latter without first getting the former. BOR has more.
UPDATE: Meant to include Noriega's statement on Cornyn's vote - it's beneath the fold.
MORE...This is a pretty remarkable letter to the editor in today's Chron.
The type of sheriff we needRegarding Tuesday's Page One article "Sheriff aims to polish his star / Thomas takes the heat for mistakes but blames 'politics' for some criticism": In response to Sgt. Richard Newby's comment, he is either quite misinformed or totally out of touch with his membership. While it is true that the Harris County Deputies Organization has mailed letters to the membership requesting their choice in the upcoming sheriff's election, Newby incorrectly stated that our deputies are siding slightly with Adrian Garcia. The truth is, the members of the union are picking Garcia 3 to 1 over Thomas.
There are many reasons the deputies want a change at the top. However, the main one is they have lost faith in Tommy Thomas to lead the third-largest sheriff's department in the nation. They, along with a large number of the public, realize that Thomas cannot lead from the rear. We need a sheriff who will stand up for not only us but the public and lead from the front!
ED CHRISTENSEN
former president, Harris County Deputies Organization, Houston
Emphasis added. I confess, when I started reading this letter and got to the preceeding sentences, I thought it was going to say that the deputies were standing behind their Sheriff. Needless to say, this was a very pleasant surprise.
Meanwhile, Wayne Dolcefino has been poking through the Sheriff's department's emails, and finds a bunch of racist crap. And he makes a point that I am sure will come up again:
They are harmless jokes to some and racism to others. The sheriff's department prohibits inappropriate emails. Something that even top commanders seem to ignore. Of course we wouldn't have known that if the sheriff's office had gotten away with destroying them.[...]
And the sheriff remains silent.
"It is very much a concern in the community that he is silent on this," said Houston councilmember MJ Khan.
Friday, top commanders, racist and anti-Muslim slurs may be just the