I noted before that Galveston attorney and former Galveston County Democratic Chair Tony Buzbee is reportedly mulling entering the race for Lieutenant Governor on the Democratic side. I've since heard from folks inside the Texas Democratic Party that he's mulling more seriously now.
As you can see, he's got a pretty good biography, and from what I understand would be able to self-finance the campaign, which is pretty much a must in this climate and against the very wealthy David Dewhurst. I don't have much more on this right now, but when I do, I'll be sure to pass it along. Karl-T has some more.
On a tangential note, today is the last day of the third quarter, so if you've been doing some mulling of your own - in particular, about donating to various candidates - now is a good time to act, as the reporting period ends today as well. A few possible places for your spare change:
And of course all the State Rep, county, and local candidates of your choice.
Good news for the citizens of Spring (and I see that Anne is suitably happy): According to Robin Holzer, the Harris County Toll Road Authority has (at least for now) suspended its efforts to partner with TxDOT on the proposed expansion of the Grand Parkway.
In a letter to Commissioners Court dated Sept 21, 2005:
Art Storey, PE wrote:
"Dear Court Members:As I have reported before, TxDOT has suggested that Harris County join them in a general agreement for sharing toll road revenues when HCTRA constructs a toll road in TxDOT right-of-way or on an alignment within the TxDOT highway system. With the support of county staff and our toll road legal and investment consultants, I have been working on such an agreement for several months.
The negotiations have been difficult, and more time and effort is needed before we can expect to reach agreement. Accordingly, I have instructed HCTRA to stop work on so- called "future" projects until either such an agreement is in hand or the requirement for one is eliminated. Projects affected include the Grand Parkway and the U.S. 290 corridor (Hempstead Road). My letter to HCTRA is attached and is part of this report."
In the attached letter to Mike Strech, Director of HCTRA, dated Sept 19, 2005:
Art Storey, PE wrote:
"Mike,I have been thinking about last week's excellent briefing by the engineering section and our ongoing difficult negotiations with TxDOT concerning revenue sharing on future projects. While we sort out our TxDOT situation, I want us to reassess our priorities for engineering, both in-house and with our consultants.
1. Please instruct our staff and consultants to suspend immediately all work on the proposed Grand Parkway. That means surveying, right-of-way definition, schematic designs, conversations, everything. We will resume from this point (or from some other one) if and when we have successfully negotiated an agreement with TxDOT to do so. I will inform eommissioners Court accordingly at their next meeting on September 27th."
Art says he's continuing to negotiate with TxDOT's Gary Trietsch, so there's no telling how long the County's hiatus will last.
As Anne says, it's better than nothing. Perhaps this will be one of those projects that just gets quietly shelved and never taken up again. Or maybe it'll become a hot priority later on down the line. Will any of the otherwise-indistinguishable Republican candidates for SD07 publicly state a position on this issue? Will a Democratic candidate challenge them on it? Stay tuned.
Via TalkLeft, Tom DeLay's arraignment has been set for October 21. Here's Jeralyn's view as a defense attorney:
A poster at Daily Kos speculates he already has a plea bargain and will plead no contest. He bases this on the Indictment which mentions DeLay's waiver of the statute of limitations (which I referenced in the comments section here) and his having gone in for talks with prosecutors ( discussed here.)I doubt it. First of all, I don't think Dick DeGuerin was representing DeLay at the time he waived the statute of limitations or when he went in for talks, and that his prior (or newly subjugated) counsel arranged both. This article says DeGuerin only recently has become involved in the case.
DeLay may have believed he could talk himself out of an Indictment, and his white collar defense lawyers arranged for the opportunity. Has nobody learned anything from Martha Stewart? Jails are filled with people who thought if only they could explain themselves, the cops and prosectuors would see it their way.
I surmise that DeGuerin was brought in when it became clear to DeLay's other lawyers there was no way out of an Indictment and no acceptable bargain. (Or, they may have had DeGuerin in "standby mode" in case that occurred.) I think DeLay will fight this case until Earle either gives up like he did with Kay Bailey Hutchison or makes a misdemeanor offer with no jail that he can't afford to turn down.
As 'stina reminds us, Dick DeGuerin is the guy who got Robert Durst acquitted. However good a case Ronnie Earle may or may not have, he's in for a helluva fight.
Tom also analyzes the indictment, which he finds to be on the weak side. If the rumored canary turns up (Jesse nominates fellow indictee Warren RoBold), then we'll have a much better idea how it stacks up. Or maybe we could just listen to DeLay himself and see what he thinks.
Back to DeLay's court date, here's what he may have to expect.
DeLay's attorneys were working out the details of when the 11-term congressman would return to the Texas Capitol in hopes of saving him from further embarrassment, they said."What we're trying to avoid is Ronnie Earle having him taken down in handcuffs, and fingerprinted and photographed. That's uncalled for and I don't think that's going to happen," said Dick DeGuerin, DeLay's attorney.
Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle said it is up to the court to decide how DeLay would be arraigned.
DeLay should soon receive a summons ordering him to appear for arraignment, said his attorney Bill White. It was not immediately clear whether DeLay would have to go through booking after responding to the summons.
Travis County allows some defendants to do a "walk-through" booking process, in which he would be photographed and fingerprinted. But his bond amount would be preset so he could immediately pay it and avoid a stay in jail.
DeLay also could waive going before a magistrate to have his rights and charges read to him, said Roger Wade, Travis County Sheriff's Office spokesman.
It also will be up to Earle whether DeLay's mug shot is publicly released.
I rather doubt that Earle would release the mug shot - it's a pretty cheap thing to do, even to Tom DeLay, and would just feed the "partisan vindictiveness" meme. That said, I'll bet a copy of it leaks out and becomes a collector's item. The first person with a Cafepress T-shirt featuring that image will make a fortune.
Also via 'stina, I see that the "Jim Mattox is a Republican who was also unfairly tarred by Earle" defense, first popularized by Houston's own John Culberson, has made it out to the masses. Folks, if you can't tell me who Jim Mattox is, don't drag him into this discussion. Among other things, you'll look like a fool.
Jim Mattox, a former Democratic congressman and Texas attorney general, was charged by Earle with bribery in 1983. Mattox was found not guilty but said he's still "angry and disappointed" by the effect it had on his political career and family.Still, Mattox called Earle a tenacious person carrying out his responsibilities. "A lesser individual might have given up this fight," he said. "Most people that know Ronnie would not question his integrity."
Via the Chris Bell blog and Greg Wythe.
It's probably just as well that DeLay chose not to appear before the grand jury, given his unreliable memory.
The day after U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's grand jury indictment, his lawyer and the jury foreman on Thursday appeared to contradict the Texas politician's assertions that he was not given a chance to speak before the jury.The foreman, William M. Gibson Jr., a retired state insurance investigator, said the Travis County grand jury waited until Wednesday, the final day of its term, to indict him because it was hoping he would accept jurors' invitation to testify.
DeLay said in interviews that the grand jury never asked him to testify.
In a Wednesday night appearance on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, he said Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle never talked to him or asked him to testify.
"Never asking me to testify, never doing anything for two years," DeLay said in the interview. "And then, on the last day of his fourth or sixth grand jury, he indicts me. Why? Because his goal was to make me step down as majority leader."
On Thursday, DeLay said in another broadcast interview that he was under the impression that he wasn't going to be indicted because he hadn't been called to testify before the grand jury.
"I have not testified before the grand jury to present my side of the case, and they indicted me," said DeLay, according to the Associated Press.
Dick DeGuerin, the attorney representing DeLay, said Thursday that DeLay actually was invited to appear before the grand jury, where he would have been under oath. The Houston attorney was not yet on the legal team when DeLay was asked to appear, but he said other attorneys advised him not to testify — a decision DeGuerin supports.
DeGuerin said that DeLay may have been referring in the interviews to the fact that the grand jury did not subpoena him to testify.
I trust that the next time DeLay appears on camera to charge that he was never given the opportunity to speak before the grand jury, whoever he's talking to will remind him what his lawyer said. Right? Yeah, right.
Well, at least Tom still has his friends. This was sent to my inbox last night:
Dear Friends,
Tomorrow, we are gathering together at the Hess Club to show our
support for Congressman Tom DeLay. We hope you'll join us for this
very special get together (details below and click here for a map.)
Also, we've just added some new information to the Website -- "Ronnie
Earle has a history of using his office for attacks on his political
and personal enemies."
United for DeLay Rally
Friday, September 30
4:00 p.m.
at
The Hess Club
5430 Westheimer Road
Houston, Texas 77056
(Between Chimney Rock and Sage in the Galleria area)
** INVITE YOUR FRIENDS! **
Sadly, I can't make it. If any of you wants to show him how you feel about all this unpleasantness, however, consider yourself invited.
Last but not least, I think Jay Lee sums up the DeLay situation as well as one possibly could. Thanks to Ginger for the pointer.
I've been hoping to see someone step up to run against John Culberson in CD07, and I see via PDiddie that my wish has come true. The gentleman's name is David Murff, and he's answered a few questions at Perry's place, so go take a look. His website isn't up yet, but when it is I'll post an update. Welcome to the 2006 election, David Murff!
(Now if we can just get opponents for Ted Poe and Kevin Brady, we'll have the whole Houston area covered at the Congressional level...)
We've just barely started down the road of privatizing the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (THHSC), and already the savings we were promised for doing so are turning into an illusion.
The $45 million in savings Texas' Health and Human Services Commission hoped to realize by privatizing its payroll and human resources operations will be far less, according to a state auditor's office report to be released next week.The audit, a draft of which was obtained by the Express-News, said a substantial amount of the projected savings evaporated after "errors and complete data" were considered.
That version of the audit said the commission would save only $1.1 million over five years. The commission disputed that number.
The report also questioned the commission's process for awarding the contract to Convergys, an international outsourcing company that also runs Florida's payroll and personnel systems.
Off by a factor of 40. That's pretty impressive. You could have probably just fired a couple of managers and gotten the $220K per year savings that we're actually going to see.
Those who oppose the state's rush to privatize say that same faulty analysis is allowing the commission to claim $646 million in savings by laying off 2,500 state employees, closing dozens of offices around the state and farming out eligibility work to four privately-run call centers under a five-year $899 million contract with Accenture.
I discussed that $646 million fantasy back in July. Anyone still believe that number is operative?
Privatization was sold to taxpayers and legislators as a major savings, Sen. Elliot Shapleigh said Wednesday. Shapleigh was part of a Senate finance subcommittee that attempted to reform the way Texas awards private contracts. The effort failed."Instead, professional and proven state employees were cut and politically chosen vendors were awarded (contracts) with little or no savings to the taxpayers," he said.
Funny how that seems to happen, isn't it? Who would ever guess that connections and cronyism would count for more in the handout of megamillion-dollar contracts than merit? Shocking, just shocking.
I've titled this post for former State Rep. Arlene Wohlgemuth, author of HB2292, which was the genesis of all this nonsense. Let me just say again how lucky we all are that Rep. Chet Edwards sent her back into private citizenhood last November.
Carlos Guerra has more. Here's a statement (PDF) on the draft report from the Center for Public Policy Priorities. Thanks to The Jeffersonian and The Red State for the links.
I missed this story yesterday, but Albert Hollan was kind enough to forward me the link, so here it is.
An investment bank concluded that a private firm might pay up to $7 billion for the right to operate Harris County toll roads, prompting Commissioners Court Tuesday to authorize a study of the pluses and minuses of such a deal.If the plan worked right, the multibillion-dollar windfall could be invested, and interest earned on it would pay for future road projects. Pricey road bonds likely would be a thing of the past, Harris County Judge Robert Eckels said.
"This could avoid the need for bond elections and the need to go to taxpayers for tax increases," he said.
As part of the 50- to 75-year deal, the county would maintain ownership of the toll roads, decide whether the system should expand and possibly set limits on future toll increases.
The county isn't looking to turn the Harris County Toll Road Authority over to an operator that would be interested solely in the bottom line and wouldn't be flexible in helping meet the region's transportation needs, Eckels said.
"I believe it is a good idea to do something like this," he said.
[...]
The court appointed Dick Raycraft, director of county management services, to report back Oct. 25 on what exactly will be studied.
[...]
The group that does the study would give its report by April. A deal, if it is approved, could be in place by spring 2007.
[...]
First Southwest estimated the county could net between $2 billion and $5.1 billion by selling concession rights.
Goldman Sachs, another investment bank, reported that concession rights might be sold for $7 billion or more.
In its report, First Southwest says the authority is marketable because it is one of the more successful toll roads nationwide.
It took in $318 million in tolls last year and has $1.8 billion in outstanding bond debt.
I'm no financial guru, but it seems to me that if the system is earning enough to pay off all its debts in six years, it's making pretty good money, and I don't quite understand the rationale for selling. Fortunately, Robin Holzer has an MBA, and she doesn't think this is a good deal, either.
This deal is NOT about Harris County finding a private outfit to operate the toll road system more cheaply. It's about selling off the taxpayers' financial interest in the toll system to a private investor. "Monetizing" the toll road system means finding a way to trade the future cash revenue of our toll road system for cash today. The problem is, no private entity can afford to pay the County what it's really worth. Here's why:1. The Harris County Toll Road system generated ~$318 million in toll revenue during the last fiscal year. This cash cow currently belongs to Harris County taxpayers. As Harris County tax payers, we are essentially shareholders of HCTRA. We taxpayers already receive the financial benefits from public investments like the Sam Houston Toll Road, and we will for years to come. Some of that revenue is spent servicing HCTRA’s $1.8 billion in debt, and the rest is spent to improve and expand the toll road system.
2. In order for the County to receive up front today as cash the benefit of 30-75 years of future toll revenue -- the "multi-billion dollar windfall" referred to by Judge Robert Eckels -- taxpayers will have to pay a significant premium, either in the form of increased borrowing costs, increased tolls or both.
3. Harris County is already in the business of borrowing against future toll revenue (i.e. floating toll-backed revenue bonds) to get cash today to pay for road projects. As long as the county's bond rating remains investment grade, the county enjoys a lower cost of capital than that of any U.S. for-profit entity (e.g., bank, hedge fund, toll consortium, etc.).
4. An investor (i.e. Cintra/Zachery) will be interested in this deal based on the profits they expect to be able to extract from the toll roads, which must more than cover the price they pay to Harris County and whomever is providing the capital to purchase the tollroads.
5. Harris County, as a public entity, can borrow at a lower rate of return than a private borrower can achieve. Given that a private investor will have a higher cost of capital than Harris County does, then basic finance says that the present value of the cash flows from our toll road system will be worth less to them than they are to Harris County. Since the cash flows are worth less to a private investor than the County, that means no private investor can afford to pay the County what the flows are worth to taxpayers.
6. Further, this “deal” is a once-only proposition. If we sell our interest in Harris County's toll revenue to a private investor, we can never again borrow against it. We will have to borrow against other, less-desirable assets, which will affect the County's bond rating. So, this "deal" may have the effect on Harris County taxpayers of raising our cost of borrowing to 3-5 times the current rate. It would suddenly be as if we had built the toll road system and then decided to pay for it with high-rate credit cards instead of the low-risk bonds for which the taxpayers voted.
In my opinion, it is NOT in the interest of Harris County taxpayers to allow the County to do such a deal. Frankly, I'd prefer the County did not spend any more money studying the concept either.
By the way, Robin notes that "this concept was NOT included in the posted agenda for the meeting, and was NOT mentioned at all at the County's agenda briefing Monday morning". That's our county government for you.
Basically, I have two questions at this point: What in the world does the Commissioner's Court want to do with all the up-front cash they'd get out of this, and would this proposal be put up for a public vote before any agreements are signed? And if it isn't (okay, three questions), why the heck not? Robin's right - the toll road system belongs to all of us. Its disposition should be subject to our say so.
I feel like there's more to this than what we know so far. Anyone want to speculate?
UPDATE: Tory also thinks this is a bad idea.
The Rita Blog has some info on how the rebuilding is going in East Texas. It also has information about Red Cross and Salvation Army relief efforts. I haven't seen a whole lot about benefits for Rita victims; if you're aware of anything, please let me know.
Shane Sklar, Democratic candidate for the US House in CD14, is spending some time in Chambers County (which is a part of that district) doing volunteer relief work.
I'm doing this for two primary reasons:First, and foremost, it would be ridiculous for me to ask these folks to vote for me next November if I had not first helped them out in their time of need.
Second, I want to see firsthand a hurricane's aftermath so I will be better informed about how we can improve hurricane preparedness and enhance homeland security.
I am going to periodically post my experiences here, so you can learn as I learn and reach your own conclusions. So keep an eye out for more "Shane's Rita Relief Reports."
Remember, give whatever you can and as much as you can to help the victims of this storm. Though many are saying we dodged a bullet in Texas, there are a lot of folks over here who are hurting and need our help.
He's got a report of his first day there, so check it out. Lots more on the ground information can be found at KOGT radio out of Orange (link via Rafe Colburn, whose family was evacuated from there).
I had expressed surprise that I hadn't heard of too many automotive fatalities during the Rita evacuation. Sadly, I'm not surprised any more.
A Chronicle survey of Houston-area counties and those along major evacuation routes to the north and west indicates that at least 107 people were killed by last week's hurricane or died in accidents or from health problems associated with the evacuation of 2.5 million people from their homes.One day before the expected announcement of a state-county-city task force to examine the problems that plagued the exodus, which doubled or tripled the travel time between Houston and other Texas cities, Mayor Bill White conceded, "I don't think the evacuation should be a disaster in itself."
State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, whose wife spent more than 12 hours in a U.S. 290 traffic jam, called for a careful review of the evacuation. "People are downplaying the fact that people died in the evacuation and that is not right," he said. "Is the chance of dying greater in the movement than in the storm? That's the question we need to consider."
Yes, it is. Tom has plowed this ground before, and while there's commendable talk about ways to reduce congestion in the future, the obvious answer is to figure out how to convince people who are at less risk in their homes to stay. I don't think you can alter how risk averse someone is, but maybe you can at least provide a better picture of what the odds are.
One thing that might help is to get some more clarity on what the true flood zones are. I recall that one of the effects of TS Allison was to expose the fact that out flood-plain maps were out of date. Where does that stand now? We know that Allison demonstrated that under the right conditions, flooding can occur where you don't expect it, so if that storm was a driving factor in people's stay-or-run decisions, better information about who really is in danger is called for. It surely can't hurt, though again, with a sufficiently large storm, all bets are going to be off.
Here's a great story called "Six lessons from online coverage of Hurricane Rita", which takes a critical look at the role blogging played and gives it a high grade. Dwight Silverman gets some well-deserved kudos for his work in setting up various storm-related blogs on the Chron site, as does Laurence Simon, who pays the reporter back with a wonderfully characteristic quote. I will say this, though - the failure to cite Eric Berger's stellar efforts is a grave omission. Link via Metroblogging Houston.
Finally, on a related subject, the George R. Brown is once again a convention center. Congrats to everyone who worked there for a job well done.
Boy, yesterday sure was fun, wasn't it? Breathe it in deeply, because it all gets hairier from here.
The first question, of course, is how does Travis County DA Ronnie Earle go from indictment to conviction? What kind of evidence does he have against The Hammer? The conventional wisdom suggests a canary.
"I can't imagine indicting a majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives without having a smoking gun, and that means someone who flipped on DeLay," said Buck Wood, an Austin lawyer who filed a related civil lawsuit on behalf of Democratic congressional candidates. "He's got to have corroborating evidence, too, bills and things proving where DeLay was at key times."[...]
DeLay was indicted, along with two political associates, by an Austin state grand jury Wednesday. The three were charged with conspiracy to violate a Texas election law that bars giving corporate money to candidates.
The brief indictment accuses DeLay's two co-defendants with specific acts such as collecting corporate contributions through a Texas political action committee. It says they sent a $190,000 check to a branch of the Republican National Committee with a list of Texas congressional candidates who were to get funding.
But all the indictment says DeLay did was "enter into an agreement" with one or both men to knowingly violate the election code. Earle must prove to a jury that DeLay agreed to a felony when he denies it.
Houston lawyer David Berg said the case against DeLay could possibly be proved with a lot of circumstantial evidence such as cryptic e-mail, hotel and travel bills placing him at meetings, and his "fingerprints" somehow on the transactions.
"But what a prosecutor wants is someone in the meetings. I think someone has to have rolled over on DeLay," Berg said.
He said prosecutor Earle has too much at stake to move forward without strong evidence. Earle has to be careful because he has taken heat over his public anti-DeLay comments and is marked by his failure to convict U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, some years ago, Berg said.
Attorneys familiar with the case said that key anti-DeLay cooperators, if they exist, could be co-defendants, insider Republicans or even witnesses from the contributing corporations.
My best guess is that it's the latter. Earle has already made some deals with indicted corporations, and I figure they're the most risk averse here. I have a hard time believing that someone who is not under indictment, say a Beverly Woolley, would roll on DeLay, since there'd be no pressure on them to compel their testimony. I'm not sure how to evaluate the likelihood of a codefendant (Jim Ellis or John Colyandro in this case, as they were also indicted on the conspiracy charges) cutting a deal. It feels too early in the process for that, but what do I know?
The Texas law invoked against DeLay is loosely worded and casts a wide net. It merely requires that a conspirator must intentionally agree with at least one person that they or someone else in the conspiracy will commit an act to further a felony.University of Houston professor David Crump said the government is nevertheless going to have to show the jury, no matter how many Travis County Democrats are sitting on it, that DeLay did something to promote a campaign-fund transfer that was against the law.
"Yes, it's possible to have a conspiracy in which one conspirator didn't do anything but merely agreed. But I've never seen it happen in reality. The agreement can't be that passive or tacit," Crump said.
Crump said a "granddaddy of conspiracy cases" comes from moonshine charges. "Courts said delivering sugar, knowing it would be used for moonshine, just wasn't enough," Crump said. "They required an agreement with the intent to promote (moonshine production)."
So DeLay could argue that while he knew TRMPAC (which he helped to set up) might be used to do questionable things, he never agreed to participate or facilitate any of those things. I doubt he'd have much of a political career after mounting such a defense, but it does show that he has some rope to play out, since just being in the know won't be enough to convict him.
He'll do plenty of maneuvering before setting foot in a courtroom, of course. David Corn had a chat with crisis management expert Eric Dezenhall, and he provides a blueprint for the pre-trial defense.
"The first thing he must do," Dezenhall said, "is to realize that his objective is to get acquitted, not to look good. He must understand that damage control does not equal damage disappearance. He has to save what is save-able. He might not be able to save everything: his freedom; his political career, and his financial prospects. His life has changed; he has to focus on acquittal." At the same time, he added, DeLay has "to stick with his brand and fight back savagely." And will he depict himself as a martyr being crucified because of his devotion to the conservative cause? I asked. "What does he have to lose at this stage?" Dezenhall answered. "He has to dig in, stay in character and depict the indictment as unholy and agenda-driven. Show contrition? Nah, that's total horseshit."Dezenhall also noted that from this day on, DeLay's target audience is the to-be-named-later jury that will hear the criminal case against him: "He and his advisers have to concentrate on what will work with a Texas jury. A media roadshow involving someone in a legal case never pays dividends. And DeLay is sufficiently divisive and that does not lend himself well to a careful TV interview. What does pay off is whipping up the preexisting prejudices of the the jury pool." While Dezenhall said that DeLay ought to "speak up within the confines of his brand," he noted that DeLay "is always vulnerable to coming off looking mean, and mean does not go well with juries." (Before DeLay became majority leader, Representative Curt Weldon, a GOP hawk, once observed, "We need someone who can go on national TV and present a good, positive image of the Republican Party and not a mean-spirited image.")
DeLay's team, Dezenhall continued, may also consider playing the leak game. With DeLay indicted on a conspiracy charge, it could be that Travis County DA Ronnie Earle flipped one of the coconspirators. There are several ways of establishing a conspiracy charge--say, obtaining memos or emails that lay out the conspiracy--but one clear way is by obtaining the testimony of one of the schemers. If Earle does have an insider spilling all, DeLay will need to undermine that witness--perhaps before any trial. This could lead to a "media game," Dezenhall said. "Things are leaked to get the person or people who were flipped. This will be done through leaks to the media. The point from DeLay's perspective is, don't love me, but hate him." Above all, Dezenhall added, DeLay has to proceed with the understanding that he "cannot get people to change their fundamental perception of him."
Link via Political Wire. If there is a flipper, I doubt it'll be long before his identity is known. That's just too hot to stay secret. For what it's worth, a correspondent to Kevin Drum claims it'll be Sears, one of the indicted corporations. We shall see.
Other news: Read how DeLay's attempt to name his own successor failed. These are fun days for the GOP House caucus, I'll bet. And I'm sure you will be shocked to learn that the man who did take DeLay's place as Majority Leader is also up to his sternum in sleaziness.
Almost, I'm sure, as shocked as you were to learn that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is also in deep doodoo for some mighty convenient stock sales. It's almost like there's a culture of corruption surrounding these guys or something.
Well, when you've recovered from all that shock, go pay a visit to Juanita and enjoy a little more schadenfreude. You've earned it.
You know, if shamelessness were a virtue, Smokey Joe Barton would have been assumed directly into Heaven by now. First, he is one of only eleven Congressmen to vote against the emergency relief package for Katrina victims. Next, he signs a letter urging support for the Gulf Coast Wage Cut. And now, he's going for the trifecta by pushing to repeal environmental protections as his answer for dealing with hurricanes.
Riding a wave of concern over high energy prices triggered by Hurricane Katrina, congressional Republicans began a rush Wednesday to ease environmental rules on refineries and looked for ways to open new coastal waters to oil and gas development."More refineries will result in more domestic production of gasoline," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, as his committee began work on the energy legislation. "We cannot stop hurricanes but we can mitigate some of the adverse impacts."
[...]
The Barton measure included easing air pollution control rules on refineries, setting shorter deadlines for issuing refinery permits and a government-funded "risk insurance" program to shield companies against lengthy regulatory delays in refinery construction. And it would give the federal government greater say in siting refineries and pipelines.
A companion measure, being put together by the House Resources Committee, called for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil development and would clear the way for states to allow oil or gas drilling in their coastal waters, including areas under a federal drilling ban. States would get half of the revenue from new lease sales.
Environmentalists and state and local officials on Tuesday accused sponsors of the legislation of exploiting the hurricane devastation and public fears about rising energy costs to push through pro-industry measures that, in the end, will be environmentally harmful.
"They're using this disaster to roll back public health protection," said Paul Billings of the American Lung Association. He argued that some of Barton's proposals would jeopardize government efforts to require cleaner burning diesel and allow more air pollution from refineries and other industrial plants.
Organizations representing city and county governments and state officials in charge of implementing clean air requirements were mobilizing to try to block the GOP energy proposals.
"Though hailed as a post-Katrina package," the proposals would "dismantle environmental laws that are not barriers to rebuilding the affected Gulf states," said Donald Borut, executive director of the National League of Cities.
William Becker, executive director of two organizations that represent state and county air pollution control officials, said Barton's legislation would allow refineries to expand operations without installing new pollution controls. Similar changes have been proposed by the Bush administration, but are hung up in court because of lawsuits from several states.
Because every bad thing that happens is just another opportunity to push your already-existing agenda as the panacea. It's the Smokey Joe Way. Via PinkDome.
I've been remiss in not congratulating John Courage for winning the online poll to earn the first Democracy for America endorsement of the 2006 election season. Consider that omission corrected.
It's a great accomplishment for John, and he deserves kudos for beating out some excellent competitors, but by itself it means little. The bottom line for this is whether or not that endorsement translates into campaign contributions. If Courage's next FEC filing report shows enough money raised and cash on hand to make non-obsessive observers take notice, then his campaign can get on the public's radar. He can start to get some coverage in the papers, especially in stories about Lamar Smith. People need to know who he is before they can support him, and for better or worse it all starts with the money.
You know what that means, right? Sure you do. Doesn't this quarter end tomorrow? Consider that an additional enticement.
Who knew that one little indictment could make so many people so very very happy?
How about this? Someone actually thought to ask one of the grand jurors about the indictment.
The majority leader derided Earle as an "unabashed partisan zealot" and a "rogue district attorney."However, the grand jury's foreman, William Gibson, told The Associated Press that Earle didn't pressure members to indict DeLay. "Ronnie Earle didn't indict him. The grand jury indicted him," Gibson said in an interview at his home.
Gibson, 76, a retired sheriff's deputy, said of DeLay: "He's probably doing a good job. I don't have anything against him. Just something happened."
Via the Daily DeLay, which as you might imagine has quite a bit more on this. Start at the top and scroll down.
Here's Chris Bell's statement. And here's a couple of reminders from Public Citizen that despite DeLay's protestations, he's been in plenty of well-earned trouble before.
As Michael says, in times such as these, it's important to ask yourself the tough questions. Like, What would Bruce Campbell do?
Greg notes a slightly baffling defense of DeLay from his good buddy John Culberson.
Finally, as The Red State notes, now would be a good time to lend a hand to Nick Lampson.
This Slate article on cable versus satellite is interesting, and in the wake of the passing of the telecom bill here in Texas it may help contribute to that long-promised specter of competition and lower rates. I know, I know, but stranger things have happened. Give it a read, and be sure to also read critiques of it by Matt Yglesias and Mark Evanier.
One thing that the Slate piece talks about as a weapon cable has against satellite is video on demand. I'm curious about something. I've never been particularly interested in VoD. That's partly due to TiVo, where there's almost always something I like available to me to watch, and it's partly due to the fact that I'm not a big movie buff. (Of course, looking at the Now Playing list, it's also partly due to the lack of desirable content.) Show of hands here - how many of you have watched a movie via "on demand" programming? What would get you to order a movie this way if you haven't?
For what it's worth, I think Evanier nails it:
I dunno...if you're going to pay to see a new movie, wouldn't you rather have the DVD? Even if it means waiting until your next trip to Costco... when it'll probably be cheaper? Once you have physical possession of the DVD, you really "own" that movie. It's not going to get deleted off the hard drive of your Personal Video Recorder or lost if there's a crash. You can watch it whenever you want it on any TV in your house that has a DVD player. You can take it to a friend's house and watch it there. You can look at a little shelf of DVDs in your library and say, "I own those" and feel like you really got something for your money. This could get into a long discourse but basically, I think the new age of cable and the Internet is disabusing people of the idea that you pay for content. A lot of people feel that they're not stealing if they download a bootleg of a new movie. They'd never think of stealing a DVD or a VHS tape of that film but just moving a copy to their harddisk is different. That same, dubious distinction is what I think will discourage people from paying to have a new movie delivered to their PVRs when they could be getting a tangible DVD for their bucks.What I think VOD is going to have to do is to offer people programming they can't go and buy at Sam's Club. I'll pay to add new channels to my DirecTV subscription because that increases my viewing choices. But I've never bought a pay-per-view offering because I've never seen an ad for one it would bother me to miss. If I cared about sports, that would probably be different.
The business model for VOD may not be in TV. It may be established by Howard Stern's pending move to Sirius Radio: How many people will buy the units and subscribe to hear Howard, for the first time, unexpurgated? (My guess: Not nearly as many as Sirius is projecting. I think a lot of people will never accept the idea of paying for radio. And as Stern's show gets dirtier, it's going to be more frustrating to listen to it and not be able to see. Betcha that within three years, he moves the whole thing to HBO or Showtime...or to VOD, where it would indeed be something you couldn't get elsewhere or buy at Sam's Club.)
Video on Demand as programming that can't be had by other means is something I'd consider. Otherwise, it feels to me like a service for people who think Netflix is too much work. What do you think?
That loud thudding sound you just heard? It was a size 15EEEE hiking boot dropping.
A Travis County grand jury today indicted U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on one count of criminal conspiracy, jeopardizing the Sugar Land Republican's leadership role as the second most powerful Texan in Washington, D.C.The charge, a state jail felony punishable by up to two years incarceration, stems from his role with his political committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, a now-defunct organization that already had been indicted on charges of illegally using corporate money during the 2002 legislative elections.
[...]
An indictment does not force DeLay to resign as a member of Congress, but the GOP's rules demand that he resign his post as majority leader as he fights the charges. Congressional Republicans earlier tried to drop that requirement, citing Earle's investigation as a political vendetta, but they ultimately maintained the rule after withering criticism.
Over the past year, Travis County grand jurors have indicted three DeLay associates — John Colyandro, Jim Ellis and Warren Robold — as well as eight corporate donors, the Texas Association of Business and DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority. Colyandro and Ellis were re-indicted this morning as part of the conspiracy indictment.
DeLay had appeared to escape criminal scrutiny as early as last year when Travis County prosecutors concluded they did not have the jurisdiction to pursue election code violations against him. Under the law, only DeLay's local district attorney, a Republican, had jurisdiction, and he expressed no interest in the case.
But a conspiracy charge falls under the criminal code, not the election statute that bans corporate money from being spent on a campaign. And Earle has the jurisdiction to prosecute DeLay for conspiring with others to circumvent state law.
In recent days, the broad-based investigation has focused on one particular transaction during the 2002 campaign.
In late September 2002, Colyandro, the executive director of Texans for a Republican Majority, sent a blank check to Ellis, who is DeLay's primary fundraiser in Washington.
According to the money-laundering indictment returned against those two last year, Ellis was accused of having the Republican National Committee launder $190,000 of corporate donations into noncorporate money that was sent to to seven Texas House candidates, including Austinites Jack Stick and Todd Baxter.
As late as Tuesday, Travis County prosecutors were interviewing Republican National Committee staffers about their roles in the transaction.
You know what the best part about this is going to be? For the foreseeable future, every story written about Tom DeLay or anyone associated with him - every story about Jack Abramoff and Bob Ney and the Ellis/RoBold/Colyandro triplets and the TAB and TRMPAC civil suits, and on and on and on - will no longer include the sentence "DeLay himself has not been charged with any wrongdoing in these matters". From here on out, it'll be "DeLay is currently under felony indictment in Travis County for criminal conspiracy". How sweet that is.
All that said, this is a bit of a surprise:
The grand jury, however, took no action against Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, Texas Association of Business President Bill Hammond or state Reps. Dianne Delisi and Beverly Woolley, both of whom sit on the political committee's board, for their roles in the election.
I have to say, it always looked to me like Craddick was the more likely of the two Toms to have left fingerprints somewhere. Maybe I underestimated the guy.
I'm sure there'll be plenty of blogospheric reaction and analysis shortly. In the meantime, here's Ronnie Earle's statement on the indictment, and the indictment itself; both are Word docs, and both come via the Quorum Report. Here also is a press release from CREW lauding the indictment, and a reminder from them that House corruption goes well beyond DeLay.
Continuing with the theme of risk aversion and how it impacted people's stay-or-flee decisions as Rita loomed in the Gulf, here's another data point to consider.
Water service to more than half a million Houston-area residents and several key industrial facilities was in jeopardy during the weekend when Hurricane Rita knocked out power to a crucial pumping station, officials said today.CenterPoint Energy, Entergy and local governments joined to restore power to the station before the Lynchburg Reservoir, which is supplied by water pumped from the Trinity River, ran dry.
"Many Houstonians breathed a sigh of relief when we didn't confront 100 mile per hour winds, flooding and the kind of damage that was inflicted on our fellow Americans in Lake Charles, Port Arthur and Beaumont," Houston Mayor Bill White said. "But when you have a hurricane this big ... there are some untold stories on the effects to our region."
Flooding may not have been much of a risk for many Houstonians (though Tropical Storm Allison taught us that under the right conditions - and there was a real chance that those conditions could have occurred with Rita - places you don't expect can flood), but this again shows that there are factors to consider beyond flooding. Any sufficiently big storm is going to be scary enough, and have enough unknown dangers, to tip the scales in favor of bugging out for many people. We need to account for this in the future.
On the other hand, evacuating has its risks, too.
At least 31 people died in Harris County as a result of circumstances surrounding Hurricane Rita, several of them from heat-related illnesses during the mass evacuation before the storm hit, the medical examiner's office announced Tuesday.
More than half of those deaths — 17 of the 31 recorded so far — were of people evacuating to safer ground when they suffered some sort of medical distress, said Beverly Begay, chief investigator of the medical examiner's office. None of the deaths occurred during the storm itself, she said.The office completed its grim inventory Tuesday and announced the results after identifying all of the dead and notifying their families. The fatalities linked to Rita do not include the 23 Bellaire nursing-home residents who died when their bus caught fire Friday in Dallas County
[...]
The dead ranged in age from 14 months to 92 years. Though the deaths occurred over six days, about a third of the victims died Thursday when the evacuation crush was at its peak, clogging major Houston-area highways.
Nineteen of the 31 victims died or became ill while they were inside vehicles, and seven of the deaths were thought to be potentially heat-related, Begay said. Some had body temperatures ranging from 105 to 112 degrees, the report shows.
Now that I think about it, I'm surprised I haven't seen more reports of highway fatalities during either the evacuation or the return. Driving 200+ miles, especially on crowded highways, is not exactly the safest thing you can do. More things to think about for next time.
The good news is that the latest tropical disturbance which could threaten the Gulf of Mexico appears to be disspating. The bad news is that there's still two months' worth of hurricane season to go, and we're not out of the woods just yet.
Previously, I asked what might happen to cars which were abandoned on evacuation routes by drivers who ran out of gas; in particular, would they be stuck for sizable towing fees, as the friend of a correspondant said he was. I have since received an email from Melissa Noriega, who did some digging in response to that post. She tells me that at this time, only the City of Houston has addressed the concerns of towing fees for cars left abandoned by Rita evacuees who ran out of gas. The State of Texas has not asked any other municipalities to follow Houston's lead, so if you're unlucky enough to have been towed by someone other than a Houston SafeClear wrecker, you're on your own. My best suggestion for getting a reimbursement or reduction in the towing and storage fee, based on what Melissa says, is to contact your State Rep's office and ask for their help. You might also inquire with them as to whether this issue will be raised at the state level.
If you were towed in Houston, the number to call is 713-308-8580. Obviously, the sooner you take care of that, the better. My sincere thanks to Melissa for the followup. If anyone else knows of an evacuation-related towing, please let me know what happened.
UPDATE: Phone number for Houston towing issues corrected. Thanks to M in the comments for pointing it out.
Last week, just as I was getting ready to bug out of Rita's way, reader Charles M sent me this Wonkette link, which makes what sounded to me like a bizarre claim:
Wonkette readers are no Googling monkeys, but they do know their way around a high school yearbook. Two theories dominated the guessing game about the meaning of this headscratcher:
* A SMART SUGARLAND MOVE BY BEGALA, per the Washington Post: "Adults With Wisdom Teeth Often Develop Gum Disease." (That one is an inside joke intelligible to precisely seven Note readers.) LINK
First: Paul Begala is from Sugar Land, he had his wisdom teeth removed while there, and thus is one smart guy, able to pat himself on the back this morning after a general round of back patting generated by the the rest of the morning's news. This is not much of a joke, but it does make some kind of sense.Second, Paul Begala is going to run for Congress against Tom Delay, who is also from Sugar Land. This is completely insane and has nothing to do with gum disease, but we like it that way.
Thank you for playing and good night.
I'm not a regular Wonkette reader, so I can't honestly say if this is a joke or not, but I can say that I placed an inquiry with the Nick Lampson campaign, and they said to me that they hadn't heard anything about Paul Begala and CD22 outside of my question. So, just in case anyone had heard of this and took it seriously, far as I can tell you can forget about it.
Earlier reports that Tom DeLay is off the hook for all the grand jury probes going on in Travis County may be premature.
The term of the Travis County grand jury ends Wednesday. Although the investigation into felony charges of illegal corporate spending during the 2002 election theoretically could continue through October, a last-minute burst of activity by prosecutors had defense lawyers speculating — in some cases fearing — the prospect of more indictments by Wednesday.U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, and Texas Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, answered prosecutors' questions last month, but Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle recently called Texas Association of Business President Bill Hammond for a second visit.
Prosecutors also interviewed state Reps. Beverly Woolley, R-Houston, and Dianne Delisi, R-Temple, who served with DeLay on the board of the Texans for a Republican Majority.
Also, former Dallas lawmaker Bill Ceverha, the treasurer of that GOP committee, met for the first time with prosecutors.
In some instances, the people met with prosecutors because of the threat of being subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury.
"Now, for the first time, there is a general apprehension for everyone," said Austin lawyer Terry Scarborough, who represents Ceverha and Texans for a Republican Majority in civil litigation surrounding the case.
DeLay's Washington lawyer, Ed Bethune, was dispatched to Austin last week to size up the situation.
DeLay, Craddick and their allies all added lawyers who once worked for Earle to their defense teams, but even those closest to the district attorney could not predict what will happen this week.
"I wouldn't bet 50 cents on any outcome," said one defense lawyer, who asked for anonymity so as to not draw attention to his client. "You get paranoid at the end."
[...]
In recent days, defense lawyers trying to decipher Earle's actions have speculated privately that there is a difference of opinion among prosecutors on who else should be indicted.
There has even been speculation that the grand jury might be pushing prosecutors to do more, not less.
We'll know soon enough. In the meantime, Harvey Kronberg adds some details from the rumor mill.
adding conspiracy charges to the indictments of Jim Ellis and John Colyandro has inspired relentless speculation.After all, conspiracy charges suggest a bigger network than just the two operatives. Plus, it is no secret that the Speaker statute strictly limiting activities related to a Texas Speaker's race may have substantial free speech problems that could tie prosecutions up for years. On the other hand, criminal conspiracy may well take prosecutors to the same place but with fewer constitutional issues.
It may well be no more than the Austin-DC echo chamber, but major national news organizations are on alert and have contacted QR since first thing this morning, in case of an indictment of Majority Leader Tom Delay.
In addition, the mill seems convinced that there are as many as six additional indictments and that the recent parade of witnesses before the Grand Jury may be to lay groundwork for future perjury charges.
Get the popcorn ready, this is gonna be fun.
Don Adams, best known for his role as Agent Maxwell Smart on TV's Get Smart, has died at the age of 82. Of all the silly 60s and 70s era sitcoms that I watched as a kid, I'd say Get Smart was both my favorite and the least embarrassing one to admit to liking today. It's also one that I'd be willing to watch with Olivia some day, assuming that the TVLands and Nicks at Nite are still wallowing in the nostalgia of that era.
As always with celebrity obituaries, Mark Evanier is your best source for more information. See here and here for all you could want to know.
I just want to add, by the way, that any list of Sexiest Female TV Stars Of All-Time that does not include Barbara "Agent 99" Feldon is just plain wrong. That is all.
So why did people run from Hurricane Rita?
Having seen the handiwork of Rita's vicious cousin, Katrina, all of Houston's coastal suburbs and a good percentage of everybody else in the area decided that discretion was the better part of valor. There was no talk of hurricane parties.As the week wore on and Rita's ranking escalated as fast as the price of crude — all the way to Category 5 in what seemed like the blink of an eye — so did the anxiety of people not easily moved.
Residents don't flee The Woodlands, 100 miles from the coast. This time was different.
"Events make an impression to the extent they are recent, frequent or very intense," said Michael Lindell, a professor at the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center at Texas A&M University. "We know that storms the magnitude of Rita are not frequent. But there was one that was recent and very intense."
As I said before, it all comes down to how risk-averse you are. You can give a rational and lucid explanation of the likely effects that a Cat-4 hurricane barreling up I-45 would have, but fear is a funny thing and so is relative risk. There's a reason why there's a well-documented fear of flying in an airplane but not of bacon double cheeseburgers, even though the latter is much more likely to contribute to your ultimate demise. Let this be a lesson to us all: Whatever after-action reviews of the evacuations take place, they'd all better account for the fact that more people than strictly necessary will get the hell out of town when the next Big One looms.
Speaking of which, there's an editorial and a news piece on that subject today. I'm still thinking about how I think things could be done better - it's easy enough to point to problems, but coming up with workable fixes, not so much.
In other hurricane news:
I haven't worked my way through these stories yet, but the South Florida Sun-Sentinel has an investigative report on FEMA's recent history of disaster mismanagement. Lots of grist there for your mills, so check it out. Thanks to Sergio for the tip.
Everybody's probably already seen this debunking of the lurid tales of rapes and murders at the Superdome in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but if not, do read it. Bottom line: It was about 99% baloney.
After five days managing near-riots, medical horrors and unspeakable living conditions inside the Superdome, Louisiana National Guard Col. Thomas Beron prepared to hand over the dead to representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.Following days of internationally reported killings, rapes and gang violence inside the Dome, the doctor from FEMA - Beron doesn't remember his name - came prepared for a grisly scene: He brought a refrigerated 18-wheeler and three doctors to process bodies.
"I've got a report of 200 bodies in the Dome," Beron recalls the doctor saying.
The real total was six, Beron said.
Of those, four died of natural causes, one overdosed and another jumped to his death in an apparent suicide, said Beron, who personally oversaw the turning over of bodies from a Dome freezer, where they lay atop melting bags of ice. State health department officials in charge of body recovery put the official death count at the Dome at 10, but Beron said the other four bodies were found in the street near the Dome, not inside it. Both sources said no one had been killed inside.
File that one away, because sooner or later you're going to have to correct someone who hasn't heard the real story. And may I add, similar allegations were made in Houston as well. Time for a little followup there, too, since it's likely to be about as true. Thanks to Julia for the NOLA link.
I've spent a lot of time talking about Proposition 2, the Double Secret Illegal Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment, and the reasons why you should vote NO on it. There are eight other amendments on the ballot this year as well, and so far I've not seen a whole lot of discussion about any of them.
The main exceptions are Props 1 and 9. Here's the ballot language and brief explanation from the Secretary of State:
Prop. 1 HJR 54 McClendon - StaplesBallot Language
"The constitutional amendment creating the Texas rail relocation and improvement fund and authorizing grants of money and issuance of obligations for financing the relocation, rehabilitation, and expansion of rail facilities."Brief Explanation
HJR 54 would create a Texas rail relocation and improvement fund in the state treasury and would authorize grants of state revenue and issuance of public debt to relocate, rehabilitate, and expand privately and publicly owned passenger and freight rail facilities and to construct railroad underpasses and overpasses.Prop. 9 HJR 79 Krusee - Staples
Ballot Language
"The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for a six-year term for a board member of a regional mobility authority."Brief Explanation
HJR 79 would authorize the Legislature to provide staggered six year terms of office for board members serving on regional mobility authorities, with no more than one-third of the board positions being appointed every two years.
Not a whole lot to go on, is there? Sal Costello strongly opposes each. He's also weighed in on discussion threads for each proposal at the CTC Forums. I'd really like to see an argument in favor of these proposals before I make up my mind on them. If anyone would like to oblige, or to add to Sal's comments, please do so.
Most of the rest are so vague that without doing a load of research I can't tell what kind of an effect they might have. For example, Proposition 5:
Prop. 5 SJR 21 Averitt - FlynnBallot Language
"The constitutional amendment allowing the legislature to define rates of interest for commercial loans."Brief Explanation
SJR 21 would authorize the Legislature to exempt commercial loans from state usury laws that set maximum interest rates. "Commercial loans" are loans made primarily for business, commercial, investment, agricultural, or similar purposes and not primarily for personal, family, or household purposes.
I confess, I don't know why the Lege doesn't already have this power. I also don't know why they would want to do this, and who might be affected by it. Yes, I know that I can dig up all the information that I need, but let's be honest. How many people, when faced with this proposition in November, are going to have any clue about it? What, exactly, is the point of putting it to a popular vote, especially given the tiny statewide turnout that we'll have in this off-year election?
Prop 7 ("The constitutional amendment authorizing line-of-credit advances under a reverse mortgage.") had Scott Hochberg as its House sponsor, so I feel pretty good about supporting it. Beyond that, who knows? And of course, it wouldn't be an AmendmentFest if we weren't contemplating the addition of something like Prop 8 to our overbloated State Constitution:
Prop. 8 SJR 40 Eltife - HughesBallot Language
"The constitutional amendment providing for the clearing of land titles by relinquishing and releasing any state claim to sovereign ownership or title to interest in certain land in Upshur County and in Smith County."Brief Explanation
SJR 40 would clear individual land titles by relinquishing and releasing all claims of state ownership interests, including mineral interests, in two local areas, namely, a roughly 4,600 acre area located roughly 14 miles southeast of Gilmer, Texas, and a separate 900 acre area located north of Tyler, Texas.
If anyone can think of a good reason why this sort of thing rises to the level of constitutional amendment-ness, please do enlighten me.
Shorter Houston Chronicle front-page story: FEMA Screws Up Again.
Frustration and anger mounted in Southeast Texas on Monday over the response to Hurricane Rita by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.With homes smashed, trees and power lines downed and a looming shortage of food and water, one official even threatened to take federal relief supplies by force, if necessary.
"If you have enough policemen to take it from them, take it," Jefferson County Judge Carl Griffith said Monday during a meeting of city and county officials.
[...]
Southeast Texas officials charged that the federal agency's response to Rita was inadequate.
"We are very short on food and water, and the FEMA trucks that were supposed to be here just aren't here," Griffith said.
[...]
Griffith was angry over an incident in which a FEMA truck was supposed to deliver fuel to a police facility but took the gasoline to a fire station. When the crew learned its error, it left, the county judge said, without providing the fuel to anyone.
If police had been available, Griffith said, they should have just taken the fuel.
Griffith also was outraged over FEMA portable generators that, he said, were sitting in a park and not being distributed.
"We can't help it if politicians come here and just want to be seen by the media," Griffith said.
"We hit the ground running with our own commodities and our own facilities, but we have no support."
Beaumont officials also cited a shortage of water pumps and generators. They complained that federal relief teams had failed to show up and that fuel deliveries had not been made as promised.
And there's more, from Port Arthur and Nederland. I see via TalkLeft that Michael "Brownie" Brown has been rehired by [FEMA] as a consultant to evaluate its response following Hurricane Katrina. Well, here's one more thing for him to testify about today.
We're home. It was highway speed all the way, making for a much more pleasant journey. Thanks very much once again for all the kind words and good thoughts. I plan to return to more normal blogging in the morning. If you haven't made the trek home yet, may you have a safe trip. See y'all in the morning.
If you haven't read this Chron editorial arguing against Proposition 2, a/k/a the Double Secret Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment, please do so now. One point to highlight:
Contrary to the giddy pictures in the press, same-sex marriage is not primarily about a ritual. Marriage — and to a lesser extent civil union — confers precious protections for two adults and the children they raise as a family. With one marriage vow, a heterosexual American gains more than 1,000 federal protections. The list makes numbing reading, but each item clarifies couples' rights and responsibilities.Marriage legally requires a spouse to arrange a partner's funeral. It requires a surviving spouse to raise the couple's children. Same-sex couples who have been together for decades and are raising children are denied both the legal duties and protections that married couples take for granted. Same-sex couples can pay for contracts ensuring rights such as child custody, hospital visitation and power of attorney, but blood relatives can and do successfully contest such agreements.
[...]
Impeding protections for relationships that are even "identical or similar to marriage" is a crude assault on an existing truth. Throughout the state, same-sex couples are thriving, raising children, volunteering in the community and supporting each other financially. Withholding protections for these family units cruelly jeopardizes their ability to take care of themselves and their children.
As someone said to me recently, while gay couples can and do hire lawyers to write all these contracts for them to protect rights that married couples get automatically, it costs them a boatload of money to do so. Those that can't afford that expense have to take the chance that should one of these issues ever arise, they won't be shut out by their partners' families. That's a battle for another day, but as I wrote before, that debate will never happen if this law gets passed. If Prop 2 becomes a part of our state's Constitution, even the unfairly expensive option for protecting one's rights will be mooted.
This amendment is bad on many levels. It deserves to die. Vote No on Proposition 2 in November.
(Thanks to Greg for the link.)
The following came to me in email. I have not heard of anything similar to this, and I haven't had a chance to do any news searching to see if there are other reports. I'm printing this to see if anyone reading this has any information.
Someone who came into my office said he missed his friday visit because he had to pick up his stranded brother who ran out of gas south of Dallas. Well now, his brother's car was towed, and he can't afford to get it. $550. How many others who were forced out and had to leave vehicles are going to be screwed by this? Is this gouging or at least taking advantage of people. State approved?
As I say, this is the first I've heard of anything like this. Certainly, under normal circunstances, cars which are abandoned on interstate highways will eventually be towed, and the cost to get them back will be several hundred dollars. I'm sure there were and still are quite a few cars along I-10 and I-45 which were left behind after running out of gas during the evacuation. How should they be treated? What would be a reasonable fee for the agencies that did the towing? Those cars do represent a highway hazard, after all. What do you think?
UPDATE: As noted in the comments, this Chron story has an answer:
Evacuees forced to leave cars along freeways because they broke down or ran out of gas may face another nightmare — paying expensive tow and storage fees to get them back.It all depends on location. If the car was left on a highway within Houston, the city will pay the bill.
Anywhere else, you're on your own.
Frank Michel, the city's communication director, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse the city $124 for each car towed under its Safe Clear mandatory tow program.
"The tow operators have agreed to do away with the rest of the fees," Michel said.
[...]
More than 600 vehicles were towed from freeways. Most were taken to private storage lots. Those towed since Saturday morning were taken to Metro's Park & Ride, 7821 N. Shepherd, where no fee will be assessed.
More than 150 vehicles were at the Park & Ride on Sunday afternoon. To find out where your car is, call 713-884-3131.
"If jurisdictions are allowing us to bring vehicles back, we are," Houston police Capt. Lori Bender said, adding that the city has retrieved residents' cars from Montgomery County and Jersey City.
If people have paid to get their car out of storage, they can ask for a refund, Bender said. The city will then reimburse the storage lots with FEMA money.
The city has not gotten complaints about price gouging, Bender said.
"We aren't aware of any," she said. "It's too soon to know. A lot of people haven't picked up their cars yet — they are still worried about getting their lights back on."
So there you go. Check Melissa's comment below for some suggestions if your experience differs from this.
Our goal is to head back to Houston today, most likely leaving Dallas in the evening, a bit after the normal rush hour. Scanning the Road Home Blog, it seems like I-45 wasn't too awful yesterday, but we ought to be prepared to scoot over to US75 for part of the trip. I don't think gas will be a problem, but I expect we'll have the reserve can filled up just in case anyway.
This article about evacuation planning and the need for contraflow lanes is very well done and needs a response from state and local officials. I'm still willing to go easy on this, but we'd better make sure we learn well from this experience. Tom and Tory are giving the matter some thought, and I will return to it after I come back home.
Did you know that Dallas has a system of levees that help keep it dry, and that those levees could overflow and cause major flooding in the event of a big storm? Like, say, Hurricane Rita, had it not gone as far east as it did?
Downtown Dallas relies on a much-compromised 30-mile levee system to keep it dry from the Trinity River. Because of extensive development in the counties north and west of the city, the levees, completed in 1958, can no longer handle the severe storm runoff they were designed to contain.Dallas is therefore now vulnerable to a far less serious storm breaching the levees and flooding business and residential areas that equal about 20 percent of the city's taxable property value.
With only a day or so of warning, city officials would need to coordinate the swift evacuation of an estimated 100,000 people who live or work in flood-prone areas on either side of the Trinity.
The flooding would also complicate the city's standard emergency plan, since key shelters such as Reunion Arena and the Convention Center, as well as the city's emergency command post beneath City Hall, would all be flooded.
Scary stuff. Read the whole thing.
There will be many questions asked over the next few weeks in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita. One that's being asked now is whether the inbound highway lanes could have been opened in a more timely manner that they were on Thursday.
The so-called contra-flow lane change, part of the state emergency plans, was implemented only Thursday morning, drawing criticism from frustrated motorists who ended up spending more than 24 hours on a drive that normally takes less than five hours.Gov. Rick Perry said decisions were complicated by Rita's changing course over the past several days.
Early projections, which had it hitting between Houston and Corpus Christi, moved gradually north.
At one point, forecasters fingered the Houston area and its 4 million residents.
"Once Houston in particular was in the bull's-eye, if you will, then a decision had to be made, which Mayor [Bill] White and [Harris County] Judge [Robert] Eckels did appropriately and timely," Mr. Perry said.
"Being able to switch over that southbound lane of I-45 and I-10, it doesn't happen at the drop of a hat," he said.
Transportation Department officials have said they did not strongly consider converting highways to one-way traffic before this week.
That step had long been considered a last resort.
But the size of the evacuation led officials to reconsider. By midweek, highways leading north and west from Houston recorded traffic increases up to 339 percent.
"It became absolutely apparent that more had to be done," said Randall Dillard, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation.
Closing highways to inbound traffic poses massive logistical challenges.
The transportation department estimates that about 130 entrance and exit ramps were barricaded along Interstates 45 and 10 and U.S. Highways 69 and 96.
The closures then had to be staffed with police or other officials to prevent motorists from driving around barricades and causing head-on collisions.
Brian Wolshon, a professor of civil engineering at Louisiana State University, said Texas officials "will probably see there were things they could have done better."
But he added: "It's not economically or environmentally feasible to build enough roads to evacuate a city the size of Houston in a short time and with no congestion.
"It's just not going to happen."
Personally, I'm inclined to cut the decisionmakers some slack on this. I think the sheer number of people who evacuated was more than they expected, and I think once they realized this they acted as quickly as they reasonably could. This was a huge job. TxDOT and local police forces blocked off neaerly 200 miles of I-45 in a matter of hours. I'm just not willing to say they should have done it sooner than they did.
I mean, most people went to work in Houston on Wednesday. Schools were open. I-45 South and I-10 East were being used as they normally are. There was a risk of cutting people off from their homes before they had a chance to get out. You could have tried doing all this at night, I guess, but at what risk to the people who were doing the actual work clearing the roads and blocking the entrance ramps? I don't buy it.
There's one more thing to keep in mind here, and that's even with the contraflow lanes, the traffic demand overwhelmed everything. I-45 didn't start to move for us until we were north of Conroe, and that was only because people started to pull off the road. North of FM1488 (the original starting point for the I-45 contraflow) there's only two lanes on each side. It's that narrowing from six to four, and earlier from eight or nine to six, which will always cause bottlenecks. (And that doesn't take into account other choke points, such as the junction at US59, which is also two lanes on each side.) Unless you're willing to start evacuating several days sooner, and to enforce a south-to-north priority pattern (think of a church exiting one pew at a time, from front to back), you're always going to have more cars than the roads can handle.
That doesn't mean that we have to accept what happened as inevitable or the best we can do. I agree with Rick Casey that a full after-action review is called for, and I agree with Stace that we could have done a lot better ensuring there was enough gasoline for the evacuees. On this point, though, I'm okay with the decisions that were made.
Now that Rita has proven to be a non-menace to Houston, evacuees from the area are starting to return home despite pleas to stay put a little longer.
Houston-bound traffic was at a standstill by noon on I-10 just outside of Columbus as cars from San Antonio met up with people driving in from Austin. The snarl prompted many to pull off the highway, examine maps and consider alternate routes.Billy Yarborough, who evacuated his Matagorda County home before the storm, opted to drive along a smaller highway to avoid sitting on I-10.
"We did this on the way out, and I am not going to do it again,'' Yarborough said. "I don't mind going a few more miles, if I can keep moving.''
Texas and Houston officials are scrambling to avoid a repeat of the grueling evacuation earlier this week, and they say leaving now is a bad idea. Texas Gov. Rick Perry called today for evacuees to stay put while authorities come up with a plan to stagger their return.
Because of the need to bring rescue crews and supplies into the region, outbound lanes of the highways will not be opened to returning traffic. State officials have not decided whether the government would be willing to refuel incoming cars as they did for those stranded on their way out of town, saying that scenario is too hypothetical. Fuel suppliers are scrambling to find ways to get much-needed gasoline into the area.
"Stay patient. Stay put," Perry said this morning. "I can't say in strong enough terms to those who evacuated the coastal region they should not begin to return for the time being. We are not through assessing the damage. We cannot assure you at this time that your community is safe to return to.''
[...]
Houston Mayor Bill White and Harris County Judge Robert Eckels encouraged people to keep their ears open for the all-clear signal but acknowledged the government's efforts will be largely advisory.
"Coordinating the acts of citizens — let's be serious," he said. "There aren't going to be mandated days on when to come back."
"If they are in a safe place and have power, they shouldn't be making plans right now,'' White said.
Nonetheless, a steady stream of traffic was returning on I-45 South this morning, as evacuees headed back to the Clear Lake area, League City, Dickinson and other communities in north Galveston County that were under a mandatory evacuation.
All area schools are closed until Wednesday, so for most people there's no real rush. Our current plans are to return on Monday night, but we'll be keeping a close eye on traffic conditions before we leave. One 17-hour drive with a baby and a dog is enough for my lifetime.
Along those lines, the Chron now has a Road Home Blog, which looks to have some useful info about current road conditions. I'll want to break out the maps and check out US75, as this post suggests it might be a better alternative.
Here in the Dallas area, it's windy, much cooler than yesterday, and overcast. No rain as yet, though. I refilled the car at a nearby Exxon station and chatted with a fellow who'd run with his family from Clear Lake. They left just after midnight on Thursday and needed 26 hours to get here. I sure hope their trip back is better than that.
UPDATE: Here's the state's plan for evacuees' returns.
Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw today released the following state plan for evacuees returning to the greater Houston area:· SUNDAY: Those living west of Interstate 45 and north of Interstate 10, including Tomball, The Woodlands, Waller, Hockley, Katy and Brookshire.
· MONDAY: West of State Highway 35 and south of I-10, including Richmond, Stafford, Rosenberg, Sugar Land, Pearland and those living inside Loop 610.
· TUESDAY: East of I-45 and north of I-10, including Liberty and Chambers counties.
Although there are no enforcement powers, McCraw urged evacuees to follow these guidelines to minimize traffic congestion.
"Returning is not only an inconvenience, it's also becoming a public safety crisis. because even if they do get home, there may not be electricity, food in the stores and medical services."
Looks like we picked the right day to return. We'll see how it goes and decide from there.
Since we'll be soon talking about rebuilding efforts again, I thought I'd post an update on the attempt by President Bush to allow federally-funded contractors to pay wages beneath the prevailing rate. The number of Democrats who have not signed on as sponsors of HR3763, the anti-Gulf Coast Wage Cut Act (as Josh Marshall calls it), is down to thirteen. Only one of the holdouts is a Texan. Care to guess who? If you said Henry Cuellar, you're right. Richard Raymond, Ciro Rodriguez, this is your cue. Get those mailers ready for the primary. Thanks to The Jeffersonian for the link.
So far, all reports are that Houston has evaded major damage. I've spoken to my in-laws, my next-door neighbor, and my friend Andrea, who lives about a mile away from us. All are fine, all have power, and our neighbor reports that while there are some downed branches, our house has no broken windows. I'm very much relieved.
Every Houston-area blogger I've checked in on seems to be fine as well. The one I was most worried about was Jack, and he reports that there's no major problems in his part of Seabrook. All of the Chron's Stormwatchers look okay, too.
Good news for Houston is still not so good news for Beaumont, Port Arthur, and much of Louisiana. Rita may very well stall out somewhere over Texas and/or Louisiana and dump a hufge quantity of rain there. There will still need to be a big relief effort. And as Greg reminds us, the Red Cross still very much needs our help with that.
As things stand now, we'll probably return Monday night, though we'll have to see what road conditions are like, since we'll surely be far from alone. For now, all is well. I hope and pray that it stays that way for everyone who is still threatened by Rita.
There's a debate going on at SciGuy over whether or not the dangers of Hurricane Rita were overhyped (by the media and/or local politicians), and if that contributed to the extreme freeway gridlock yesterday. At least one local official is complaining that people who shouldn't have evacuated were preventing those who should from doing so:
Brazoria County Judge John Willy complained that Houston and Harris County jumped the gun, encouraging evacuation before people on the coast could get past the big city."Everybody did a fabulous job down here until Houston-Harris County forgot that there was a plan, and they clogged up the freeways and byways where there's still traffic sitting and waiting," Mr. Willy said.
But both [Houston Mayor Bill] White and Harris County Judge Robert Eckels said late Thursday that they never called for a complete evacuation of Houston or Harris County.
"We're asking folks to use common sense," Mr. Eckels said. "If you're not in a storm surge area, watch events. There's no point if you're not in a flood zone to jump up and get out in traffic."
Our house is not in a flood zone. We came through Allison high and dry. You could say we shouldn't have left. But - and forgive me if I sound a little defensive - we had our reasons.
First, hype or no, Rita's statistics spoke for themselves. It was the third most intense storm ever at one point. It's 500 miles in diameter, with hurricane-force winds reaching for 100 miles, so even a non-direct hit to Houston will bring lots of wind and fury. It still might stall over Houston and dump huge amounts of rain over a 3- to 5-day period, which is essentially what Allison did. And still nobody's sure where it will go and what it will do. This is one badass storm no matter how you look at it.
Second, floods aren't the only thing to worry about. Wind damage is likely to be heavy. There are four big trees within falling distance of my house, two of which are in questionable health. Even if they all stay standing, large branches may tear off and do who knows what. We did not have the wherewithal to cover up our windows, so breakage is possible. Were it just us, Tiffany and I may well have chosen to stick it out. With Olivia in the mix, we were not willing to risk it.
And then there's the power outages that accompany big storms. CenterPoint was talking about outages lasting ten days. Alicia knocked out power for two weeks in 1983. Olivia has an ear infection right now, and it's being treated by an antibiotic that needs refrigeration. It's a small thing, but it's there.
Bottom line, we were too risk-averse to ride this thing out along with Olivia. By ourselves, we might've done it. Maybe next time we will. I can't see how anyone could look at this sucker and not contemplate getting the hell out of its way. To those who chose to stand their ground, including my in-laws, our next-door neighbor, and various friends, I salute you and I sincerely hope you'll be able to laugh at our wussiness when we return. I'll be happy to take it.
One last thing: It's clear that Thursday was the worst possible day to leave. I've seen reports from people who left on Wednesday and today that make it clear those days were better options, though they still took a long time. That's a lesson learned for the future: be prepared to bug out as soon as possible after you decide it's necessary. We could've left on Wednesday night if we'd pushed it. In retrospect, we should have. However long it took us to get here and whatever eventually happens in Houston, though, I've no regrets that we did.
And now, the full story...
Yesterday, I learned of a new way to measure gasoline consumption. We left the house at 10:30 AM with a full tank. Six hours of mostly idling while the AC ran later, we were in Spring, 20 miles away. The gas gauge was pointing to the 3/4 mark. Things did not look good for making it to Dallas.
Thankfully, we had a gas can with 5 extra gallons in it, courtesy of Tiffany's dad. While we paused for awhile in Spring at the home of Tiffany's aunt and uncle - we figured we'd wait until dark, so we could mostly go with windows down - we emptied that reserve can into the tank. That just topped it up, meaning we'd used nearly a gallon an hour. At highway speed, that'd make for great mileage. Not in this case.
We got lucky once more when we saw on the news that the contraflow lanes had reached as far south in Spring. A little reconnaissance showed that the southbound entrance at Cypresswood, where we were, was just opening to northbound traffic. We hastily packed up and headed back out, just before 6 PM.
For the first 12 miles or so, we flew along at normal speed. We knew it wouldn't last, though, and by the time we were in The Woodlands, both sides of the freeway were crawling along. It was a teeny bit faster than before, but that's like saying that molasses pours out faster than ketchup. At 9:30 PM, when a cranky and overheated Olivia finally fell asleep (we had stuck to our plan of limiting AC usage, and could see the difference in the tank indicator), we'd made it to the north side of Conroe, about 30 miles away from Spring.
And then...it was all clear. We actually hit 40 MPH and more. Some people had exited in Conroe, which was a shelter location. Others were pulling off to the shoulders and median. How many had run out of gas, and how many were taking a break, I couldn't say. We saw many more people do this all the way to Dallas. As midnight came and went, I saw more people sleeping, in pickup truck beds and on the grass. One such grouping of cars with sleepers was just south of I-20; by this time, it was close to 3 AM.
We drove at highway speed to Hunstville, where both sides of the freeway bottled up again; this continued until we were north of the state pen. That was the pattern in almost every town with an exit - some cars got off, others pulled over. Same thing at rest stops.
Beyond that, we were delayed by construction zones south of Corsicana (which I swear was in the same state the last time I drove to Dallas in 2001) and around Ennis, where the southbound lanes returned to their normal state; this is about 200 miles north of where they began. Say what you want about TxDOT (and I surely do), I think this was a hell of a feat to accomplish in one day. We also paused to stretch our legs and walk the dog in Corsicana, at an exit that was surprisingly uncrowded despite the marquee announcement two exits earlier that there was gas available there. Tiffany took over driving at that point - I'd been doing that since we began, some 15 hours before.
Murphy, where we're staying, is to the north and east of Dallas. We passed through Dallas proper on US75, then into Richardson before getting to our destination. We arrived a little after 3:30. Olivia woke up and was full of energy while we unpacked. I sat up with her for awhile to let her wind down (this also gave me the chance to post and email about our journey's end), then we all fell asleep by 5.
So here we are, for what I hope is a relatively short stay. I'm glad to see that Rita is weakening and that current projections are a bit more favorable for Houston. I'd like nothing more than for all this to have been unnecessary. I'll be more than happy to have been proven a fraidycat. (More on that subject in the next post.)
I want to express my heartfelt thanks to everyone for the kind words and offers of hospitality. I'm truly humbled by the outpouring of generosity so many of you have shown. Thank you all very, very much.
I am cautiously becoming a bit more optimistic about how this storm will turn out, based on stuff like this. Nothing will make me happier right now than for Rita to be far less than originally advertised. To everyone who is in Houston or elsewhere in its path, please stay safe.
(I was almost done with a long writeup of our eighteen-hour oddysey from yesterday when a nap-resisting Olivia struck a well-aimed blow at the Escape key and wiped it all out. Sigh. Maybe later.)
We have arrived in Murphy. Our earlier estimate of 1 AM was optimistic by about three hours. Olivia's awake, Harry's a little freaked, and we're all a bit frazzled, but we're here and we're safe. Thank you all very very much for the well-wishes and good thoughts. Please keep thinking them for everyone who's still in Rita's path. I'll be back with the full story of The Drive That Wouldn't End when I'm coherent.
Guest blogger Matt here - I just got off the phone with Tiffany, and all four Kuffners (including Harry) are on I-45 near Centerville (about 115 miles north of Houston), the traffic is clear, and they have enough gas to make it to their desination: Murphy (outside of Dallas).
They left home about 10:30am, but it took them 6 hours to go 20 miles. They then caught the contraflow lanes and the traffic started to move consistently, then it cleared up even more around Huntsville. Traffic is currently fair but moving well. They estimate getting in around 1am.
We hope to be on the road within the next hour. Traffic on I-45 North in the area is moving at between 5 and 10 MPH right now, which is to say slower than Rita is. At least we've got a head start. TxDOT has announced they will open the southbound lanes for northbound traffic all the way to Buffalo (almost halfway to Dallas) at 10 AM. That's something they've never done before.
Some of our neighbors are staying. Our next-door neighbor has a key and permission to take any of the convenience food we've left. She and her husband will try to keep an eye on things for us. Just this morning I started seeing people boarding windows. Where they got the plywood, I couldn't say.
The storm's track is projecting eastward, which may eventually be good news if it hits east of Galveston. It's still a crapshoot, and wherever it does hit is going to get devastated. If you're the praying type, this is your cue.
I'll post something when we reach Dallas, which I'm hoping will be before midnight. After that, who knows? Rita may well still be a Cat 1 hurricane by the time it makes it 300 miles inland. Maybe we should keep driving till we reach Chicago.
Stay safe, everyone. See you later.
Having taken Jay's excellent advice to photograph everything in the house, I first had to download the existing pix off the digicam. This one was from last weekend at the in-laws. Bedtime comes early at that age, you know? I figured we could all use a smile right about now.
I'm not paying much attention to politics right now, but BOR broke the story that John Sharp is being named to a panel appointed by Governor Perry to "study taxes to pay for public schools". As this Statesman article notes, that almost surely means he ain't running for Governor next year.
As also noted by BOR, this blue-ribbon panel idea is one that Chris Bell has been promoting.
Last but not least, here's a statement on the announcement from longtime Sharp consultant Kelly Fero. I wish John Sharp much success in his new role, and I salute Governor Perry for coming to recognize the need for such a thing.
UPDATE: Here's Bell's statement on this.
Just finished moving all of our outside stuff into the garage. There really ought to be a law against 95 degree weather in the days preceding a hurricane.
I'm a "non-essential personnel" person at work, so I'm officially off till at least Monday. Good thing, 'cause I wasn't going to be there anyway.
I've had two offers from readers of this blog - one of whom I've met once, the other never - to house me and my family during the hurricane. I can't tell you how touched I am by their generosity.
Now for the bad news: Rita is a category five storm.
DATA FROM RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT RITA HAS REACHED
CATEGORY FIVE INTENSITY WITH ESTIMATED MAXIMUM SUSTAINED SURFACE
WINDS OF 165 MPH. THIS WILL BE REFLECTED IN THE 4 PM CDT ADVISORY.
If y'all will pardon my French, I believe the appropriate thing to say here is "Holy shit!" You can see some very scary pictures here.
Here's the good news:
- - - - WIND SPEED PROBABILITIES FOR SELECTED LOCATIONS - - - -
FROM FROM FROM FROM FROM FROM FROM
TIME 06Z WED 18Z WED 06Z THU 18Z THU 06Z FRI 06Z SAT 06Z SUN
PERIODS TO TO TO TO TO TO TO
18Z WED 06Z THU 18Z THU 06Z FRI 06Z SAT 06Z SUN 06Z MON
FORECAST HOUR (12) (24) (36) (48) (72) (96) (120)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
LOCATION KTHOUSTON TX 34 X X( X) 1( 1) 9(10) 33(43) 16(59) 2(61)
HOUSTON TX 50 X X( X) X( X) 2( 2) 17(19) 9(28) 2(30)
HOUSTON TX 64 X X( X) X( X) X( X) 9( 9) 5(14) 1(15)
In other words, the cumulative probability of hurricane-force winds in Houston (greater than 64 knots, or 74 MPH) is 15% through Monday. All things considered, I'll take it.
Houston has given the mandatory evacuation order for people in storm surge zones.
Mayor Bill White and County Judge Robert Eckels said at a morning briefing that some mandatory evacuations would begin at 6 p.m. today. They encouraged residents to leave voluntarily if possible before the evacuations become mandatory.After some initial confusion over what areas would be affected by the order, officials provided this schedule, based on storm surge zones, for mandatory evacuations as of noon today. :
* 6 p.m. today: Storm surge zone A, which includes low-lying areas along the coast and the southern part of Galveston Bay.
* 2 a.m. Thursday: Storm surge zone B, which includes the Clear Lake area of Houston and other parts of southeast Harris and south Brazoria counties.
* 6 a.m. Thursday: Storm surge zone C, which includes the Ship Channel area of Houston as far west as the East Loop.The evacuation so far is voluntary for those living in a 100-year flood plain or in areas that have flooded in past.
Up to one million people may hit the road.
Hospital and nursing home patients were evacuated and as many as 1 million other people were ordered to clear out along the Gulf Coast today as Hurricane Rita intensified into a Category 4 storm with 140 mph winds that could batter Texas and bring more misery to New Orleans by week's end.Galveston, vulnerable sections of Houston and a mostly emptied-out New Orleans were under mandatory evacuation orders, one day after Rita sideswiped the Florida Keys as a Category 2 storm and caused minor damage.
Having seen what 145-mph Hurricane Katrina did three weeks ago, many people were taking no chances.
"After this killer in New Orleans, Katrina, I just cannot fathom staying," 59-year-old Ldyyan Jean Jocque said before sunrise as she waited for an evacuation bus outside the Galveston Community Center. She had packed her Bible, some music and clothes into plastic bags and loaded her dog into a pet carrier.
Christina Ybarrashe, 61, boarded up the family home in Galveston with plywood and planned to drive inland. "We just want to go way out there, to be sure we are far enough away," she said.
For those who stay, there will be no postal service or garbage collection through at least Monday. Note to self: put garbage can in garage before leaving.
Who's staying and who's not? If you're staying, the Chron wants to hear from you.
Do you have a blog, live in the Houston-Galveston area and plan to ride the storm out?If so, we'd like your help with an experiment in citizen journalism.
We're launching a blog this afternoon called Stormwatchers. We'd like volunteers in key parts of the area with experience blogging to tell us what they're seeing as the Hurricane Rita comes closer, makes landfall and moves on.
We're particularly interested in bloggers who live in the I-45 South corridor; in the Freeport/Angleton area; and the southwest area, including Katy.
If you're interested, e-mail me at dwight.silverman@chron.com with the subject line "Stormwatchers." Include a link to your blog, detailed information about your location and a landline or cell phone number where you can be reached. If you go by a pseudonym in your blog, we'll need your real name.
Also include a 3-4 paragraph blog entry detailing what you're doing to prepare.
We'll pick our stormwatchers based on geographic location, quality of your blog and writing ability.
Checking around, I know Lair is staying. So are Gary, Stace, Matt H, Rob, Greg, and most likely Steve. On the other hand, 'stina, Christine, Robert, Liberty, and Katie are leaving.
Other links of interest are here.
Eileen is in Austin, but bringing a little Ghostbusters into the discussion made me smile, and I needed that.
Listen to Tom, everybody:
As all grizzled veterans of Hurricane Alicia in 1983 know (related Chronicle story is here), this is a serious situation for the Texas Gulf coast and it is time to prepare to batten down the hatches. If you are a relative newcomer to this area and have never been through an intense hurricane before, do not fall into the trap of thinking that the media and others are crying "wolf." This is a deadly serious storm that has the potential to be every bit as devastating to the Texas Gulf coast as Katrina was to the Louisiana-Mississippi-Alabama Gulf coast. As destructive as Alicia was in 1983 (it's eye came in on Galveston's West Beach and tore through the middle of Houston on a track that essentially followed I-45), it was a minimal category 3 storm. In comparison, Rita is shaping up to be a much more powerful storm that is comparable to Hurricane Carla, which was a category 4 (winds of 133-155 mph) storm that caused incredible damage to Houston and the upper Texas Gulf coast on September 11, 1961. Carla had the same minimum barometric pressure as the great 1900 storm that killed over 6,000 people in Galveston.I hope I have gotten your attention.
Consider it yours.
Jay Lee has some practical advice for you whether you stay or leave.
I took the digital camera and shot pictures of the house (both inside and out) for insurance purposes. I burned these images to a few CD's. One CD to keep with me and another is going into my safety deposit box.I also copied off my important digital documents and images to a portable hard drive that I will be keeping with me.
I will be taking my desktops and laptops and wrapping them in plastic trash bags and putting them up on a shelf in the hopes of protecting them from water damage. I have removed the hard drives and wrapped them separately.
The photo idea is on our to-do list for the evening. The computer is in an interior hallway on the second floor, and is in the least likely place in the house to get wet. I'll still power it down and unplug it, of course.
Last, but not least: At some point this evening, and I don't care when it is, I will watch the season premier of Lost. I mean, I don't know when my next chance to do it will be, so tonight's the night.
In declaring Texas a disaster area as part of the preparation for Hurricane Rita, Rick Perry's spokeswoman Kathy Walt said:
"FEMA has already been part of this. They have offered whatever support we need," Walt said. "Texas is not Louisiana. You won't see that breakdown occurring here."
You can parse that any number of ways. I don't care to get into that right now, but I'm wondering just how much Texas is not Louisiana. In particular, I'm wondering if President Bush will attempt to suspend the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 for Texas as he did in Louisiana. That's the federal law which requires that a federal contractor pay "prevailing wages" in that region for construction work. If he does, I'm wondering what Governor Perry will think about that. After all, with Rita now a Category 4 storm, and with various models still allowing for landfall to be at Galveston, there's going to be a lot of federally-funded reconstruction work going on here.
As it happens, there's a Democratic proposal to overturn this decision and enforce Davis-Bacon. It has 171 sponsors, all of whom are Democrats. As Josh Marshall notes, that leaves a few Dems out, including three from Texas. I've come to expect this sort of thing from Henry Cuellar, but I expect more from Chet Edwards and Charlie Gonzalez. Not being a sponsor of HR3763 is not the same as not supporting it, but let's cut to the chase here. If you've got a minute, especially if you're in Edwards' or Gonzalez' districts, please contact their offices and ask them whether or not they support HR3763, and if so if they plan on joining in as cosponsors. This seems like a no-brainer to me.
Not too surprisingly, of course, this particular action by the President is being cheered by many Republican Congressfolk. As The Stakeholder notes, five Texas GOPers, including Houston's John Culberson, have signed a request by Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake that urges President Bush to suspend Davis-Bacon. Dishonorable mention goes to Smokey Joe Barton, one of the anti-reconstruction 11, for joining in on this.
If today began with a glimmer of hope for Houston, it has ended rather poorly.The evening's last update for Hurricane Rita shows a powerful category-4 hurricane, with 145 mph winds, coming ashore between Matagorda and Freeport. If anything, the official track has nudged closer to the Houston metro area tonight.
As I wrote several months ago, this is very nearly a worst-case scenario for Houston.
If there is a reason to hope for those of us living in the greater Houston area, it's the fact that Rita still lies more than three full days away from land. Wide uncertainty remains in the forecast, and, if anything, some of the models are yet diverging.
Considerable uncertainty also remains in the intensity forecast, as Rita could still come ashore as a weaker storm.
However, it should now be abundantly clear to everyone along the middle and upper coasts of Texas that a very powerful hurricane is headed our way. The time for drinking a margarita to Rita has ended. It's time to be serious.
Storm Track:
While I am not ready to forecast a Category 5 storm yet, I definitely expect to see a Category 4. Considering that Rita is a Category 3 already, 5 seems to be very possible.[...]
New Orleans to Brownsville remains threatened here, but I am starting to look more towards the northern part of that area. Consider yourselves warned, especially in the Galveston area and to the north into Louisiana.
I don't know about you, but I'm pretty damn nervous right about now.
Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse...
Starting in October, Houstonians will be paying more to watch their favorite shows on cable television.Time Warner said Monday it will raise its cable TV rates for existing customers beginning Oct. 1 by $1.90 to $3 a month depending on the level of service. The rate hike will appear in bills sent out in November to cover the previous month's service.
[...]
Time Warner said the increase is needed to defray higher costs of electricity to power its facilities and for gasoline needed for its fleet of 1,100 vehicles that cover an area from The Woodlands to Galveston.
"The reality is most businesses are feeling the pressure of increased costs of power and fuel," said Michael Bybee, a Time Warner spokesman in Houston. "Along with that, we continue to face significant increases in programming costs. We're being forced to adjust the rates to offset these increases."
[...]
Its main pay television competitors in the Houston area, Dish Network and DirecTV, both increased rates earlier this year.
Each blamed escalating programming costs and appeared to keep their rates steady at least for now.
Hey, SBC? Remember how you told us that passing that telecom bill so you could compete in the cable TV market would mean lower rates for everybody? I believe the ball is now officially in your court.
On a related note, Dwight blogs about TWC's new tiered service for high-speed Internet access. At least that part of the Time Warner empire (and their digital phone service) will not have price hikes at this time.
Up to a million people might need to evacuate from the city of Houston, says Mayor White. For point of reference, that's about half the population of Houston.
"I'd like to ask all Houstonians to begin thinking about their own evacuation plans if there was a request — or order — to evacuate," White said at a City Hall news conference. "If the storm continues on its current trajectory, based on the statistical models, there will be some instructions made to evacuate."White, who has been in touch with a hurricane expert at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the city would watch the storm closely and perhaps make decisions by Wednesday afternoon.
"We're going to follow the policy of better safe than sorry," he later told the City Council, noting that the earlier the decision, the easier it would be for people to drive on the major roadways designated as evacuation routes.
[...]
Depending on the storm's behavior in the next 24 hours, White said, he might ask local employers to release all non-essential workers from their jobs Thursday and Friday.
"We hope that this storm will pass us by, but we need to be making these plans for each workplace right now," he said.
The mayor presented a map showing the areas that could be threatened by storm surge if the storm grows to Category 3 strength or higher, including parts of the Clear Lake area and some eastern neighborhoods.
He said areas throughout the city that flood regularly during heavy rains also might need to be evacuated.
As I live in the Heights, I don't expect flooding to be a problem in my neighborhood, though some areas on the southern end, closest to the White Oak Bayou, did flood during TS Allison. We're making plans for staying and for leaving; we'll decide tomorrow what we need to do.
SciGuy has some preliminary damage estimates, in case you weren't sufficiently wacked out over this whole thing. Polimom is watching and worrying from Katy. 'stina is making her evacuation plans. Banjo reports that Brazoria County has called a mandatory evacuation.
Brazoria County officials have called for a mandatory evacuation beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday as Hurricane Rita nears.A voluntary evacuation went into effect at 2 p.m. Tuesday.
A mandatory evacuation for health-care facilities, including nursing homes, hospices and hospitals, goes into effect at 6 a.m. Wednesday.
Brazoria County Judge John Willy called the evacuation and reminded residents that there are no hurricane shelters in the county.
Once the mandatory evacuation goes into effect, residents east of the Brazos River will travel Highway 288 to Beltway 8, then west to Highway 290 and on to College Station, where shelters will be opened. Evacuees are asked to follow posted signs to shelter locations.
Pets are welcome at the College Station shelters, said Brian Hilton, emergency management coordinator for College Station.
The mandatory evacuation will go in stages, beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday with those living in low-lying coastal areas such as Surfside Beach, Quintana and San Luis Pass leaving first, Willy said.
Residents in Zone B, south of FM 2004, should begin evacuating at 2 a.m. Thursday.
Residents in Zone C, which is between FM 2004 and Highway 35, should begin evacuating at noon Thursday.
If Hurricane Rita develops in a Category 4 or 5 storm, residents in all other areas of the county need to be prepared to evacuate, officials said.
The Houston-Galveston Emergency Blogger Network has some current info and a bunch of links. Laurence is stocking up. And finally, if we all live through this, we can celebrate at the Octoberfest Party at Saint Arnold's on October 7 and 8.
The voluntary evacuation of Galveston, which was announced yesterday, is in full swing.
Galveston may no longer be the most likely target for Hurricane Rita, but the island remains well within the danger zone and the city has begun a voluntary evacuation, with a mandatory evacuation likely on Wednesday. Brazoria County is doing the same.Galveston officials said today they anticipate calling the city's first mandatory evacuation ever at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Evacuation buses are to begin rolling out of town Wednesday morning with hundreds or even thousands of people on board as shelters open to Galveston evacuees in Huntsville.
"You may and should begin to leave the island now," Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said shortly after 11 a.m.
Brazoria County, just south of Galveston County, called for a voluntary evacuation at 2 p.m. today and will consider the latest forecasts before deciding on a mandatory evacuation for some areas on Wednesday.
To give families time to evacuate before the storm hits Texas Friday night, the Galveston Independent School District has called off classes for the rest of the week, as have the Clear Creek, Pasadena, Deer Park, Hitchcock, Anahuac, Alvin, Brazosport, Brazoria, Angleton, Columbia-Brazoria and Sweeny districts.
Authorities said those living near the coast or in low-lying areas are better off evacuating now than later. Those who leave right away can take any route they choose, but once mandatory evacuation begins, some routes will be restricted.
Rita is already a Category 2 hurricane. It's also moving pretty rapidly westward, which may work in Houston's favor, as long as the high-pressure system we currently have holds together.
SciGuy keeps posting good stuff. Read this, this, and this. The Chron also now has a Hurricane Rita blog.
Banjo reports from his neighborhood. Tom notes that the oil and gas markets are going crazy again. No surprise there.
Governor Perry has declared Texas a disaster area and has requested federal aid for the counties that will be affected.
I just got an email from our day care provider saying that if Rita maintains its path and speed, they'll likely be closed on Friday. All I can say is that if that's the case, we wouldn't be needing them on Friday anyway because we'd be on our way out of here. I guess we'll know more tomorrow.
UPDATE: Here's an update from StormTrack. According to KHOU, tropical storm force winds could reach the island by 10 a.m. Friday. Norbizness remembers living through Hurricane Alicia in 1983.
Another day, another scandal.
David Safavian, who was chief of procurement policy in the Bush administration's Office of Management and Budget until late last week, was arrested Monday on charges of making false statements and obstructing a federal investigation.Safavian is charged with making false statements to a General Services Administration ethics officer and the GSA inspector general's office. Safavian served as chief of staff at GSA before moving to OMB.
Safavian resigned as head of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy effective Friday, an OMB spokesman said. Robert Burton, associate administrator of OFPP, will head the office on an interim basis, the spokesman said.
The Justice Department announced that Safavian "allegedly aided a Washington, D.C., lobbyist in the lobbyist's attempts to acquire GSA-controlled property in and around Washington, D.C.," and that Safavian joined the lobbyist on a Scotland golf trip.
That "lobbyist" would be Tom DeLay's good buddy Jack Abramoff, in case you couldn't tell.
While the complaint did not identify the lobbyist, a Bush administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was Abramoff. Andrew Blum, a spokesman for Abramoff, declined to comment.[...]
Safavian accompanied Representative Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican, and Abramoff on the 2002 trip, which included a stay at St. Andrew's, Scotland, the Washington Post reported last year.
This has led to speculation that Safavian is being pressured to flip on Abramoff. If that happens, who knows? Maybe it'll get Abramoff to start singing. Then the real fun will begin.
As Atrios notes, it's one big happy family over there.
As he was on the job through last week he must've had a hand in setting the Katrina procurement procedures, including allowing people to go ahead and charge up to $250,000 at a time on their credit cards. He's also, well, another hack with no experience in his field.Mr. Safavian's wife? Oh, that's Jennifer Safavian. Her job? Chief counsel on oversight and investigations on the House Government Reform Committee.
Their latest job? Heading up the sham Katrina investigation.
These guys are a tidy bunch, aren't they? Raw Story has more, as does Josh Marshall. The original link came from The Stakeholder.
UPDATE: Julia piles on.
The forecast for where soon-to-be-Hurricane Rita will hit the Gulf Coast has - for now - shifted westward.
Keep packing that suitcase and hold off on a sigh of relief, but the National Hurricane Center's latest official forecast names the stretch of coast just north of Matagorda Island as Rita's most likely target instead of Galveston.With landfall on the Gulf Coast not expected until Friday night or Saturday morning, the forecast remains unreliable --different computer models call for different landfalls -- and the overnight course shift is small, so preparations continue in the danger zone from Brownsville to Lake Charles, La.
At 7 a.m. CDT, Rita was centered about 100 miles east-southeast of Florida's Key West. The storm had top sustained winds of 70 mph early today, and it was expected to strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane today, with winds of at least 74 mph, as it approached the Keys. It's expected to be a Category 3 storm by the time it hits the Gulf Coast.
State and local emergency operations centers remain on on high alert today as Tropical Storm Rita heads into the Gulf of Mexico and Gov. Rick Perry recalls the Texas National Guard and other emergency workers from Louisiana.
We're mostly prepared to either bug out or sit tight, depending on how this plays out. With the baby at home, we don't plan on taking any chances. I just really really hope it doesn't come to that.
All the forecasts are still big guesses at this time.
George Harvey, a senior meteorologist at Houston-based ImpactWeather, likens forecasting Rita's landfall to holding a garden hose a few feet from its faucet. As water gushes out, the end of the hose dances around unpredictably."It's the tail end of the storm that's still wiggling that we don't have a lot of confidence in right now," Harvey said.
Five-day forecasts for hurricanes are unreliable — the average error exceeds 250 miles. If Houston remains in Rita's cross hairs by Wednesday, forecasters say, it's far more likely the city will get hit. Until then several factors bear watching.
The big issue is when a dominant ridge of high pressure along the upper Gulf Coast, including Texas, slides eastward, away from the area. This dome of high pressure is responsible for Houston's clear skies and near-record temperatures this week.
For now, it's also blocking Rita from turning northward as it enters the Gulf.
SciGuy has a little bit of good news, and a fuller explanation of why Rita may be headed west of here. Check them out.
Right now, my main concern is wind damage. We've had a fairly dry month, so I'm not too worried about flooding. For the most part, Houston can handle big rains. TS Allison was a problem because it stalled here for several days, and got to the point where there was no place for any of the rain to go. That was truly a freak of nature, and is highly unlikely to repeat with Rita. There will be street flooding, probably some houses in low-lying areas, but my layman's gut feeling says it won't be that bad. I'm more worried about falling trees and downed power lines. At this minute, anyway. Ask me again later and I'll probably be fretting about something else.
Had a little conference call with John Courage last night. He is, as you know, in the running for the first DFA endorsement, which if the Richard Morrison experience is any guide could mean upwards of $50,000 in campaign contributions from the national grassroots. He's a teacher and a veteran, and I think he's learned quite a bit from his 2002 campaign, which was in a much different district. I definitely got the sense that he feels a passion for this race, and that he's going to do what it takes to make it a battle.
The next round of voting for the DFA endorsement will begind shortly. Courage, along with the other finalists, will have a personal statement up on the DFA blog to convince you to vote for him. I'll point to that when it's up - we got a preview of it tonight, but we all made some suggestions (led by Boadicea), so I'll wait for the revised version.
In the meantime, I encourage you to learn a little more about John Courage:
Here's a report from his campaign kickoff.
Express-News columnist Bruce Davidson does a mini-profile.
PDiddie is first out of the gate with a report from the con call. Damon and David are close behind.
You may also want to know a little something about Courage's opponent, Rep. Lamar Smith. Here's a copy of a fax Smith (a longtime immigration foe) sent to Karl Rove (it got mistakenly sent to the wrong number - oops!), in which he says "Immigration needs to be considered in the context of: (1). Media Bias, (2). Animosity toward the president and (3) the feelings of the Republican base". Isn't that charming? I'll let your imagination fill in the blanks as to the direction that might go.
So. John Courage. DFA endorsement. Get ready to vote. I think that about covers it.
This is what I call not taking any chances.
Activating its emergency management plan this afternoon, Galveston asked residents to voluntarily leave in preparation of Rita, which is a tropical storm now but is expected to strengthen into a hurricane this afternoon. By the time it hits the Gulf Coast on Saturday morning, it is likely to be a Category 3 hurricane."It could hit anywhere in the window of Brownsville and New Orleans," said Lance Wood, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "The Houston area is in the center of that window."
"It would be wise for everyone on the Texas and Louisiana coast to pay attention and watch this storm," he said.
Galveston's evacuation is to begin at 2 p.m. Tuesday if the weather forecast holds, but five-day forecasts are often off by hundreds of miles. Galveston officials are likely to decide whether a mandatory evacuation is warranted by Wednesday.
[...]
Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas urged residents to fill up their gas tanks and gather essentials such as a three-month supply of medicine in addition to identification, deeds, insurance policies and other important papers. She said those who need transporation should call 409-797-3710.
Galveston is lining up over 80 buses to take out evacuees starting at 10 a.m. Wednesday and running through 2 p.m. Friday. They will leave from the island's community center at 4700 Broadway, using buses from the city, school district and Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority. Volunteers will drive the buses and will be allowed to bring their families.
Taking a lesson from Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans who refused to abandon their pets, Galveston officials have decided to let residents bring their pets on the buses as long as they're in cages. Pet owners can call 409-763-8477 to make arrangments.
Bed-ridden Galveston residents will be evacuated by Emergency Medical Services. To make arrangements, call 409-938-2424.
Galveston UTMB plans to decide by Tuesday whether to begin some sort of evacuation and will post information on its website.
There's another lesson from Katrina that we need to keep in mind. This is from a poll taken of evacuees who were living in one of the Houston shelters:
A third of those who stayed said they never heard the mandatory order to evacuate issued by the mayor the day before the storm hit. Somewhat fewer -- 28 percent -- said they heard the order but did not understand what they were to do. Thirty-six percent acknowledged they heard the order, understood it but did not leave. In hindsight, 56 percent said they could have evacuated, while 42 percent said it was impossible.
I don't envy the folks in Galveston for the task ahead of them. I just hope it's nowhere near as bad.
I wasn't able to make it to the Envision Houston Region workshop this past weekend, but Tory was, and he's got an initial report, with some followups planned. Rad Sallee also reports, with an invocation of the dreaded Z-word by one of the usual suspects. Check 'em out.
Great. This is just what we need.
Rita, which strengthened Sunday into a tropical storm, had sustained wind of 65 mph by late morning, up from 60 mph earlier in the day, and could be a Category 1 hurricane by the time it passes the Keys, the National Hurricane Center said.By the weekend, computer models project that it could be in the northwest Gulf of Mexico near Mexico or Texas, but people in areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana were warned it also could veer in their direction. Katrina crossed South Florida into the Gulf last month, killing 11 people, before it turned northward to Louisiana and Mississippi.
"This is something everyone should be paying attention to," said Daniel Brown, a hurricane center meteorologist.
If you really want to worry yourself sick, read SciGuy. For now, hope like heck this storm doesn't build up like Katrina did.
UPDATE: This is pretty scary, too.
I heard about this several days ago and was sworn to secrecy at the time, but now that Carl Whitmarsh has sent word over his email list, I figure I'm okay to publish that there's talk of a new Democratic contender in HD133: Kristi Sliva-Thibault. Here's Whitmarsh's email:
Longtime presumptive Democratic candidate Robert Pham has definitely bowed out of the State House race and a familiar face and name is looking into jumping in the race. Former Harris County Democratic Party Executive Director, Kristi Sliva-Thibault, is looking closely at the race. Kristi served under former Chair David Mincberg during the 1998 primary season and managed the campaigns in 1998 and 2000 of Democrat Loy Sneary in his races against Congressman Ron Paul. Most recently, Kristi has taken on different projects for State Chair Charles Soechting and the Texas Democratic Party and also for the local party as well as being connected to several candidates.
I've met Kristi at several events and look forward to talking to her about this. I've not done a full analysis of HD133, but I did do a preliminary workup awhile back which showed that George Bush got 54.6% of the vote there and Moldy Joe Nixon, running against an unknown independent candidate, was named on 53.8% of the ballots cast (there were a ton of undervotes in his race). This is definitely a winnable district, and is a top target whether or not it's an open seat as it currently stands to be.
McGonegel's Mucky Duck will be having a benefit concert for Katrina relief on Sunday, October 2:
Join us at the Mucky Duck on Sunday, October 2nd for an evening of great music, great art, great food and drink -- all for a great cause.There will be live performances by some of Texas' best musicians, a silent auction, a ton of fellowship and good will. Let's help our friends from the Gulf Coast put new roofs over their heads.
All ticket proceeds will go directly to Habitat for Humanity and their rebuilding efforts on the Gulf Coast.
On Sunday, October 2, McGonigel's Mucky Duck and the musicians that you love so well will be raising the roof to help our neighbors. Please join us in this effort.
10/2 @ 2
Sunday, October 2, doors open at 2, music at 4pmAdmission -- Choose your level of support.
$15 - Box of Nails
$25 - Roof Shingles
$50 - Low Flow Toilet
$75 - Kitchen Sink
$100 - Front Door
$150 - Siding
$1,000 - Wallboard
$2,000 - FlooringMusicians performing:
Sisters Morales
Hayes Carll
Shake Russell
Jack Saunders
Jesse Dayton
Carolyn Wonderland
Trish Murphy
Monte Warden
Yvonne Washington
Denice Franke
Ezra Charles
Kim Kyle
John Evans
Hardwood Brothers
That's a pretty awesome lineup, at any level of support. Drop by the Duck or give them a call at 713-528-5999 to get your tickets.
The unemployment rate among professional sports team mascots just got a little lower.
After almost a year on vacation, Youppi!, the furry, orange mascot of the Montreal Expos, has gone back to work.He has been picked up by the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens after intense negotiations with 10 groups and companies, including the Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes. Terms of the deal between the Expos and the Canadiens were not disclosed, but one report said negotiations involved six figures.
Youppi!'s last official event was on Sept. 29, 2004, when the team played its final home game at Olympic Stadium. The baseball club then moved to Washington to become the Nationals.
"With the Expos no longer in existence and him needing a home, I think the Montreal Canadiens and Youppi! will fit nicely together," Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey said at a news conference.
Ray Lalonde, the Canadiens' marketing manager, pointed out that Youppi! is the first mascot in professional sports to move from one league to another.
Congratulations to Youppi! for landing on his feet.
I don't much care for Kinky Friedman as a candidate for Governor, but you really have to tip your cap to his ability to get favorable and prominent coverage in the newspapers. If only the Chron would give the Houston-based candidate that kind of ink.
Be that as it may, I've got a question. Suppose for a second that Kinky Friedman does indeed become our next Governor. How does he go about enacting his agenda? I have a hard time imagining that he'll find people in the House and Senate to carry bills for him. Nobody in either chamber will feel that they owe him anything - indeed, members of each party will surely feel that it's their guy who should be in the state house instead. The office doesn't have a whole lot of power to control what the Lege does, and as things currently stand he'll have a Lieutenant Governor who may very well want to replace him in 2010, and a House Speaker who quite clearly does his own thing. I don't see the 80th and 81st Leges being a whole lot of fun for a Governor Friedman.
Actually, the question of what would happen in the House is an interesting one. Tom Craddick exerts a lot of control, but we've seen that the rank and file is not too happy with him right now. A fair amount of that control comes from Rick Perry and the threats of primary challenges he's known to give to wayward Republicans. Especially if the Dems pick up a few seats here, knocking off a Craddick minion or two along the way, he may not be able to rule the roost like he has done so far. That would certainly ratchet up the entertainment factor, but again it's hard to see how that would help Friedman do what he wants to do.
Yes, to some extent this would be a problem for a Governor Bell or a Governor Sharp. The main difference is that either one would have legislators who'll introduce bills for them. If they get very lucky and wind up with a Democratic House, or at least a more accomodational Speaker, they'll be able to get some things done. But Kinky? You tell me, 'cause I don't see it.
There were many shocking photographs taken during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Chron had three that generated a large response from its readership. The readers wanted to know what happened to the people in those pictures. Here's what they found. I'm glad to say it's good news.
Have you seen any seven-foot-tall apelike beings wandering around your neighborhood lately? Well if so, take heart. As this story in the October Texas Monthly notes, you have company.
THESE DAYS, THANKS TO THE INTERNET, Daryl Colyer hasn’t had any trouble finding others who’ve met Bigfoot. Craig Woolheater, for example. The 45-year-old office manager from Dallas came across a seven-foot-tall gray-haired creature on the side of the road in Louisiana when he was driving home from a trip in 1994. The vision so inspired him that in 1999 he founded the Texas Bigfoot Research Center (TBRC), a volunteer-run, self-funded organization dedicated to finding the Lone Star State’s Sasquatch. This closer-to-home version of the BFRO soon caught Colyer’s attention, and after taking on a field expedition for Woolheater in January 2004, he decided he’d work for the TBRC in addition to his regular Bigfoot-hunting gig. A brotherhood was formed, and the two men talk on the phone almost daily, discussing new scientific findings and the anecdotes posted on the group’s Web site, texasbigfoot.com.Their work is far from boring. Due in part to the TBRC’s efforts, interest in Bigfoot has taken hold in the state, particularly in East Texas, which has the dense woods and plentiful waterways said to be the habitat of choice for this mysterious species. According to Woolheater, there have been about 150 credible sightings each year since he started fielding reports in 2000; investigators believe that there are in fact many Bigfoots populating the area. Nearly every day the center’s thirtysome members communicate via e-mail or phone on some Bigfoot-related subject (what was that strange sound heard recently in the Piney Woods? A whoop? Or more of a chatter? How tall was the creature in that last sighting? What color hair? Any good new devices to use in the woods?). And every fall, Woolheater spearheads a pivotal event for Sasquatch fans everywhere: the TBRC’s Bigfoot conference, held in the East Texas town of Jefferson.
I'm curious about something: If these guys ever do find a Bigfoot, will that be taken as evidence for Intelligent Design, or against it?
Actually, I'm curious about something else, and I'm glad to see that reporter Katy Vine brought it up:
Which is not to say that everyone warmly embraces the idea of Jefferson as a home for Bigfoot lovers. Many of the natives would rather have the focus on their town’s history, not on ghosts or monsters, and Bigfoot is not a subheading under “zoology.” “Well, why has no one found a body?” they’ll ask.Woolheater and Colyer are receptive to skeptics’ criticisms. “There is no fossil record of higher-order primates in North America,” Colyer acknowledged.
“And we’re trying to find something that is not common or identifiable,” said Woolheater.
To put it mildly, that's not much of an answer. In fact, it's pretty much 100% BS. I would have liked to have gotten the perspective of a scientist here to explain just how much BS that explanation is (and believe me, it's a lot of BS), but at least the point was raised.
Anyway. It's an interesting story, and as with all Texas Monthly previews it'll be around for a few days, so check it out while you can.
There's a fine line between self-promotion and shamelessness. I've read this story several times now and I still can't decide which side of the line Bob McNair falls on.
Texans owner Bob McNair hopes Houston's response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster will cause NFL owners to look favorably on the city as a possible site for the 2010 Super Bowl that will be voted on Oct. 6.Houston, Atlanta and Miami lost the 2009 Super Bowl to Tampa in May. When the Jets failed to get public support for a new stadium in Manhattan, the league took the 2010 Super Bowl from New York and announced that the three finalists that lost to Tampa would be finalists again.
"It would be a nice gesture by the NFL," McNair said Friday. "It would be an appropriate way for the NFL to recognize the great way in which Houston responded by taking in the evacuees from Hurricane Katrina."
[...]
Three owners said Houston was eliminated on the first ballot because enough owners from low-revenue franchises voted against McNair, a high-revenue owner who chairs the NFL's revenue committee that has caused a division among the owners.
If Houston didn't get the Super Bowl because of McNair's position as chairman of the committee, that would work against the city again.
"I don't know if we'll address revenue sharing until we have a new collective bargaining agreement with the players," McNair said. "I do know that we're ready, and we believe we deserve another Super Bowl because we did a super job with the last one."
OK, we want another Super Bowl. We probably should have gotten the '09 Bowl - at the least, we deserved more consideration than we got. And I'm sure McNair is just vocalizing what a lot of people involved in that process have thought.
But still. Seeing it in print like that, from the guy who'll make a boatload of money if it happens, just makes me a little squeamish. Maybe it's just me, I don't know. What do you think?
UPDATE: Tom says in the comments that McNair makes no more from the Super Bowl than he would from any other game, and he incurs other expenses in doing so which makes it a net loss for him. That's not what I would have expected, but as such I've amended the original post to reflect this.
Remember that "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog" cartoon? I think we've found its spiritual heir for the current era. Thanks much to Matt for pointing this out to me.
Surely you've always wanted to know about the inner workings of the famous Sausage Races that the Milwaukee Brewers have every game, right? Of course you have. Well, here you go.
He-Man sings 4 Non Blondes. Need I say more? Via Pete.
Kristin Mack confirms the rumor that radio talk show host Dan Patrick will be a candidate in the GOP primary to replace State Sen. Jon Lindsay in SD7. She notes the recent poll (PDF), which gives Patrick a lead in the race.
Greg has already done some analysis of this poll and what it means for the other candidates in the race. You can kind of see already what kind of campaigns everyone will be running - since there's no real ideological distinctions among them, they'll each focus on something different. Patrick will almost assuredly keep up the property-tax-cap drumbeat he's maintained for years now. Joe Nixon, who's owed bigtime by the insurance industry (the one true winner of his tort "reform" measure from 2003), will emphasize lawsuits and limits on them. City Council member Mark Ellis will press his newfound distaste for immigrants. And Peggy Hamric will talk about...well, I have no idea what Peggy Hamric will talk about. Off the top of my head, and without doing a Google search, I couldn't tell you what she's ever done. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to think that she'll do something to aim for the women's vote, however.
The key question is who makes the runoff, as I'm sure there will be one. I think Patrick has the best odds on name recognition alone, but I also think he'll have a much tougher time in a one-on-one race. Ellis seems like the longest shot, as he has the twin handicaps of being City of Houston and Jared Woodfill's whipping boy. I'd put Nixon slightly ahead of Hamric, poll numbers notwithstanding, but would not be willing to wager money on it.
Two side notes. One, as Chris Elam reports, Nixon has already taken to the airwaves, before Patrick's candicacy was confirmed. It'll be interesting to see how those two go after each other. Two, Greg notes that Ben Streusand will try his luck in SD18 against incumbent Democrat Ken Armbrister. Apparently, Streusand wants to be this decade's version of Gene Fontenot. At least those of us in Houston would be spared hearing his voice on TV and radio ads if SD18 is his target. For that, we can all be thankful.
UPDATE: For any non-Houstonians reading this, the Dan Patrick in question is not the ESPN guy, but this guy.
I've already mentioned John Courage's campaign kickoff event for tomorrow, so consider this a reminder that he's also in the running for the first round of Democracy for America endorsements, which you can vote on here. Here's the announcement of the competition, for which he's currently running second (the top ten will advance). Go help him out if you haven't already done it. You'll be hearing more about this next week.
As long as we're talking about official campaign launches, Mary Beth Harrell will have hers on September 27. Eye on Williamson has the details, with more to follow.
David Harris continues to criticize Smoky Joe Barton for his No vote on the Katrina relief package. From a press release:
The Harris Campaign recently issued a call to action asking all constituents in the district to call Joe Barton's office:
We are asking that all the good people of TX CD 6 immediately call Joe Barton and demand an explanation of his no vote.While many of us are working extra hours in shelters, in hospitals, and in our schools trying to help Texas take care of the displaced Katrina survivors, Barton put politics ahead of victims.
One constituent writes back:
"the receptionist told me that joe barton did not vote yes because he didn't know where the money was going. when i asked her why only 11 congressmen had such little faith in the process, she said the rest reacted in a knee jerk action to fix the problem without doing the 'dedicated research' that mr joe barton did."
"Dedicated research", eh? If anyone reading this places a call to Smoky Joe's office, may I suggest you ask if he had the same reservations about where the money in the porktacular transportation bill would be going. I for one would love to know what kind of "dedicated research" he did on that sucker.
It's a little outside my normal patch, but I drove down to Clear Lake last night to attend the Bay Area New Democrats (BAND) party at Tequila Willie's restaurant. The place was packed - at a guess, I'd say 250 people were there. And it was loud and raucous. If the energy and enthusiasm on display there is indicative of the Democratic mood nationwide, 2006 may be a lot of fun.
I got to meet and talk to Shane Sklar early in the evening. He made a couple of interesting observations. On the subject of the relief package for Katrina victims, which Congress overwhelmingly approved last week, his position is concise and intuitive, while Ron Paul needs to make a long speech to be understood. That's a relative rarity for a Democract these days, and he says he's getting a good response from people he's talked to, including people who've generally approved of Paul's "Doctor No" approach in the past. He also noted that Paul, who ran unopposed in his new district in 2004 and isn't all that well-known there, has been busy making appearances there lately. Like Tom DeLay in CD22, he knows he'll have a fight on his hands this year.
The main other piece of gossip I have is that Jim Sharp, who ran for the 1st Court of Appeals last year, is contemplating a run for the State Supreme Court against recent Perry appointee Don Willett, who got the gig as a reward for his political work. There's still a lot of statewide spots on the ballot that need Democratic nominees, so I gave him some encouragement on that score.
Several candidates and candidates' reps made speeches, the best-received of which may have been given by former BAND president Sherrie Matula, who is now a candidate for HD129 and who had her own personal cheering section. I didn't stay for all of this - it's a long drive home and I was fading. A good time was had by all, and if you're in the area I encourage you to seek these folks out. They know how to have fun.
This story about the director of Covenant House in New Orleans bringing her kids to Covenant House in Houston is a good one. Note especially how the kids are handling it.
Soon the majority of the New Orleans people had settled into their new city. [Executive director of Covenant House New Orleans Stacy] Koch said that after some initial confusion, things have gone smoothly."At first the kids wanted to stay in New Orleans," she said. "But in a way, the kids have better resources to deal with change than the staff does. Once they knew they were safe, they've dealt really well."
"Now we've come to the place where the kids are pretty well settled," [Covenant House Texas Executive Director Ronda G.] Robinson said. "One thing that's been great has been the attitude. Once they got clothed and fed, they took off on their own and got jobs. It's actually had a positive effect on my kids because they don't want to be outdone."
Several of the New Orleans youths have gone to local restaurants and gotten jobs. Others have enrolled for classes at Texas Southern University or the University of Houston.
Eighteen-year-old Isisiah said he has lived on the streets of New Orleans all of his life. After a previous stint at Covenant House, he re-entered the program on Aug. 22.
The events that have taken place since then, he said, have had a huge effect on him.
"I knew I had to get a job quick," he said. "In New Orleans, I was getting a GED and working at a KFC. I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to get a job. But I got a job and have applied for the Job Corps."
Isisiah was one of the first Covenant House New Orleans evacuees to find work in Houston, getting a job at Papa John's making pizza.
Since then, he's been preaching to his fellow evacuees that they need to see this transition as an opportunity.
"My problem was always thinking that everyone was out to get me," he said. "I was impatient. And I realized I needed to change that.
"A lot of New Orleans people never really had anything," he added. "I knew I had to change my attitude or that was going to be me for my whole life. I needed to change the way I talked, walked, acted, everything. When you go through so much for a long time, you've got to be the one to decide to do right. I'm trying to motivate everyone here.
"I want people to get jobs, to focus on their GEDs, to look at this as a way to change yourself. If I can do it, you can."
Via email from Linkmeister, here's an update from Dr. Mattox at the Astrodome which also strikes a very optimistic note.
From a social science standpoint, we are seeing a transformation in attitude among many of our new citizen guests, only about 4000 of whom remain on site. They have been totally treated with respect, and they are changing many mental attitudes. Some who come from three generations of parents who cannot read or write, are now saying, “You have treated me as a human for the first time in my life, I wish to be a contributing member of society, can you enroll me in school?” We then enroll them. Someone who is much smarter than me MUST began to write up the social science part of this operation, There is an ACUTE change, an intermediate development, and then we must monitor what is happening long term. I recognize that there are pessimists and skeptics on this list server, but believe me, I think this is a fantastic new beginning of a whole new wave of social change. If we assume a welfare state, it will happen. If we assume that with the destruction of a city (like the burning of Atlanta during the war between the states) a new and even better society can be developed, then the appropriate changes can occur, in health care, economics, government. Who knows, the Napoleanic code of Louisiana government may be changed.
I imagine we'll be studying the effects of the evacuation for many years to come.
In the news: The number of evacuees in Houston's big shelters continues to shrink, with the population at Reliant Park being condensed into Reliant Arena. Houston's housing market is officially no longer soft, with apartment occupancies at record levels. They may stay that way for awhile as a plurality of people in Houston's shelters do not want to return to New Orleans, with many of them wanting to stay here.
Finally, here's another Austin update from Hope and one from Ray, some San Antonio news from The Jeffersonian, and via 'stina we have 826 Valencia, which has sent volunteers in to the shelters to work with the children. Here's more on what they hope to do.
State Rep. Warren Chisum, the man behind the Double Secret Illegal Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment, has a question.
The sponsor of a proposal to lock a ban on same-sex marriages into the state constitution said Thursday that traditional marriage must be protected now or someone may try to legalize polygamy next."If you start down that road, where do you stop? Do you have multiple partners?" state Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, asked in a debate on Proposition 2, the gay marriage ban, one of nine constitutional amendments on the Nov. 8 ballot.
I believe John Cornyn has already answered that one for you, Warren, but thanks for playing anyway.
Let's be very clear on one thing: Gay marriage is already illegal in the state of Texas. The point of the Double Secret Illegal amendment is not to "protect" traditional marriages but to ensure that some day, when societal attitudes have changed (however long that may take), a small minority in the Texas Legislature will be able to block any initiatives to undo the currently existing law.
Chisum knows he's on the wrong side of history. He knows that he's eventually going to lose this fight, as all other opponents of civil rights have always done. He knows that as gay marriage gets accepted in more states and nothing bad happens societally or electorally to those who voted for it that more and more attitudes will begin to go against him. This is his chance to erect as high a barrier as he can, one that will withstand mere majority opposition, and he's taking it. That's what this is all about.
If you think that's wrong, these are the folks to talk to about it. They have coordinators everywhere in the state, so seek and ye shall find.
Everybody's already written about the new Google blog search tool - I'll give Dwight the finder's credit, since I saw it at his place first - so it's time I joined in. I like it a lot - it's fast, it gives me way more results than Technorati ever seems to (when it's not too busy to give me a result, that is), and, well, it's Google so I figure it'll stay around and continue to be useful. I've added a link to Google blog search results for this site on the sidebar under "Who Links Ya, Baby?" for future reference.
One amusing thing about this is that after the first page or so, there are some obvious spam sites in the results. Nothing that I recognize from my usual assortment of referral log spam, but at least now I can see a reason for someone to bother doing that, since those are links that may get inadvertently clicked by some unsuspecting soul. If they could add in an Exclude feature like IceRocket has, it'd well and truly be the bomb.
Behold the magic of frenzied corporate acquisitions.
Premier Parks went on a shopping spree in the late 1990s that would be the envy of any fun-lover. Among the items: Elitsch Gardens Amusement Park in Denver, Waterworld USA parks in California and Great Escape and Splashwater Kingdom in New York.By the time the company gobbled up the Waliby Family Parks, with locations in France, Belgium and Holland, it was pretty clear to some analysts that things were getting out of hand.
Then in 1998, the Oklahoma City-based company acquired the Six Flags chain of parks for $1.9 billion and later took on the Six Flags name. Now it finds itself saddled with more than $2 billion in debt, and the company is up for sale in the middle of a proxy battle.
This week the company announced it will close the landmark Six Flags AstroWorld theme park in Houston at the end of this season. AstroWorld, a Houston institution since 1968, is the victim of rising land values that overshadow its worth as an entertainment venue. The site at Loop 610 and Kirby could become a mixed-use development, including multifamily housing, retail and offices.
It is, of course, a big overstatement to say that Astroworld would be around for the foreseeable future if Six Flags had never been bought by Premier Parks. The park needed major upgrades and a better parking arrangement, and its location was suboptimal. Sooner or later it was going to have to answer the question about whether the rise in area property values meant that it was utilizing its real estate in a profit-maximizing way. Still, it's not impossible to imagine a scenario in which a healthier Six Flags, unencumbered by the bad decisions that Premier made, chose to give the venerable old place a facelift. Especially if you were a rollercoaster fan, the place still delivered good value. I think the odds were against it long term, but its death was not predestined. At least, it didn't have to be. Alas.
UPDATE: Shoulda read Ken Hoffman before I posted this.
Here's why I think AstroWorld finally bit the dust.A regular one-day ticket costs $42.99. That's a lot of money, but that's what theme parks are getting these days. Disney World charges $60 for a one-day pass. Sea World in San Antonio is $40.50.
But for the past several years, AstroWorld has been selling season passes for crazy low prices. You can buy them online for $59. I remember promotions where you could get them even cheaper.
That's when AstroWorld became an inexpensive day-care center. Each day, parents would drop off their kids in the morning, and pick them up on their way home from work. After a while, even a roller coaster is boring. The park was crowded with bored kids just hanging out.
Bored kids equals trouble. AstroWorld became an uncomfortable place for parents to bring young children.
In the theme park business, when you lose families, you go out of business.
As I recall, when we bought our season passes a couple of years ago, they were something like $90 apiece. The admission price then was in the $35-$40 range, so you needed to use it three times to make it worthwhile. Putting the issue of bored kids aside, it seems to me that making your season pass cost be less than 150% of a one-day admission is questionable economics. Yeah, you can make money on the pass holders, if they eat or buy souvenirs or play some of the carnival games. I avoided those things as much as possible, mostly because they were way overpriced. I'd be willing to bet that a lot of pass holders didn't spend all that much beyond the cost of the pass itself. If I were a financial guy for AstroWorld, I'd have been skeptical of that price point.
I had the opportunity yesterday (thanks to Melissa Noriega) to get a tour of the evacuee shelter at the George R. Brown Convention Center. I met with Terence Fontaine, who is on Mayor White's Executive Staff as Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and who is serving as Site Manager for the GRB shelter along with Rick Noriega. Talking to him made it easy to see why the place is running as smoothly as it is. You put good people in charge, you get good results.
We talked quite a bit about getting people from the shelter into more permanent housing. Like the Dome, the GRB was never supposed to be for the long term - the original idea was to have it wound down by this weekend, but as this Chron story says, they're not quite ready for that yet.
Slated to close Saturday, the four biggest shelters will remain open at least into next week because placing about 4,100 remaining Katrina evacuees is taking officials longer than anticipated.The placement process has slowed down because not enough basic furniture can be found for their apartments, and quarters for several hundred special needs evacuees have been difficult to find, said Frank Michel, spokesman for Mayor Bill White.
And unlike some of the evacuees who already have moved on from the shelters, some of those remaining were poor before Katrina struck and lack the wherewithal to help pay for establishing new households, Michel said Wednesday.
Shelter closings "will unfold when they unfold. People won't be kicked onto the street. We are moving so fast that the furniture suppliers can't keep up with us," he said.
On Wednesday morning, 4,158 evacuees remained at Reliant Park and George R. Brown Convention Center, down 665 from the day before.
The shelters' population was expected to drop another 500-700 by the end of the day Wednesday, said Coast Guard Lt. Joe Leonard, incident commander at Reliant Park.
If things go as expected, hundreds of evacuees will be placed daily over the next few days, and the area's biggest shelters could close early next week, Michel said.
That's all pretty much what Terence Fontaine told me. The city is committed to getting everybody situated and to getting the GRB back to its original function - there is in fact a convention going on this weekend, with shelter operations having been consolidated to free up the space - but in the meantime, they're not going to turn people away. Perhaps the reopening of certain parts of New Orleans will help, as this may entice some people who are currently in hotels or other short-term living spaces to go back home. We'll see.
John Courage will be making his official announcement of candidacy in CD21 on Saturday, with a bus tour to several locations in the district. Details are here for those interested in joining in the festivities.
Courage is also in the running for the first round of Democracy for America endorsements, which would help to get him some publicity and grassroots financial support. Cast a vote for him here. He's the only Texan on this ballot, but I'll bet future rounds will include people like Mary Beth Harrell and David Harris for consideration.
Texas officials are getting good poll reviews for their efforts in dealing with Katrina evacuees, with Houston Mayor Bill White leading the way.
The poll of 501 Harris County residents was conducted Friday-Sunday. The sampling error is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.Eighty percent of those polled rate White's response to the sudden arrival of evacuees as excellent or good.
[...]
Fifty-four percent of respondents rated [Harris County Judge Robert] Eckels' response as excellent or good. But 33 percent of those polled could not rate his performance, suggesting Eckels' name identification was not as high as White's. All but 7 percent polled had an opinion about White.
[...]
Perry, who asked Eckels to open Reliant Astrodome for evacuees, garnered a 59 percent favorable rating for his response.
Only 38 percent of those polled viewed Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina favorably, while 56 percent viewed his response as fair (21 percent) or poor (35 percent).
That roughly tracks national opinion. An AP-Ipsos poll found that slightly more than half, 52 percent of respondents, disapprove of Bush's handling of the hurricane relief.
Only 26 percent of Chronicle/KHOU poll respondents favorably rated the performance of [Louisiana Governor Kathleen] Blanco in the disaster, and 36 percent gave good or excellent ratings to [New Orleans Mayor Ray] Nagin.
FEMA's response to Katrina was rated favorably by 31 percent, with the highest percentage of respondents, 37 percent, rating it as poor.
Obviously, I'm happy to see Mayor White get this kind of credit for his performance. I think it's fair to say that he deserves it.
Rick Perry is the interesting case, given his anemic Texas Poll numbers from two weeks ago. As I said then, I think he'll get a bounce, but how much and how long it lasts is a guess. Too bad for him that the Texas Poll came out when it did. Depending on how the upcoming school finance ruling goes and how quickly another special session is called to deal with it, he may never see an uptick. Which, despite my antipathy, makes me feel a tiny bit sorry for him, since he has done good work here. Them's the breaks, though, and his awful overall record is more than enough to obliterate any fleeting goodwill I might otherwise have for him.
Please welcome to the Run Everywhere Club former Congressman Martin Frost. From an open letter he sent to Howard Dean, Chuck Schumer, and Rahm Emanuel:
It’s time to throw out the traditional playbook and be bold as you plan for the 2006 elections. There is a real possibility that next year’s contest will be a landslide for Democrats and you need to be prepared to win.Specifically, Emanuel and Schumer should file candidates for every single Congressional seat and every single Senatorial seat in the country, even those that have traditionally been Republican. And the DNC should be encouraging state legislative leaders throughout the country to take similar action on the state house and senate levels.
[...]
Ever since losing the House and Senate in 1994, Democrats have narrowed rather than expanded the playing field. The theory was to concentrate resources in those races where we had the best chance to win. That strategy was successful for House Democrats in 1996 and 1998 when we picked up a total of 14 seats despite being badly outspent by Republicans. But it didn’t get us back into the majority and it led to a stalemate in the next three elections. Senate Democrats picked up a few seats last time around, but ultimately were dealt a significant loss in 2004.
It’s now time to shoot the moon. Recruit and file everywhere and then late in the cycle decide which races present the best opportunities. Be prepared to win some seats that you don’t deserve because the “force is with you.”
If necessary, the Party should pay the filing fees to encourage some candidates to enter the fray. Remember that the Republicans elected some “accidental Congressmen” in 1994 that only lasted one term — like those who defeated Dan Rostenkowski and Jack Brooks — but were there when they took control.
This represents quite a change from how Frost viewed the landscape last year:
We cannot afford to swing wildly at every pitch hoping for a homerun. We need to pick our pitches carefully, hit singles and doubles and run bases aggressively.
As it happens, Ruy Teixeira points to research which suggests that pouring the most money into a few key races is a suboptimal use of resources.
[I]t is hard to peg the exact point at which the returns from campaign spending become so negligible as to be worthless. Still, it is safe to say for the vast majority of candidates that the impact of expenditures beyond $1 million is heavily attenuated. What that means is simple: spending past $1 million gains far fewer votes (and maybe none at all) than does earlier spending.Targeted races are inevitably among the most expensive in country with both sides going all out to help their candidate across the finish line. Diminishing marginal returns mean that the effect of their help is severely limited. Put another way, campaign spending is like moving a boulder up a hill. The higher the dollar altitude, the steeper the path becomes and the less the boulder moves with the same force. By concentrating on races where the paths are steepest, the parties (who are pushing against one another anyway) move very few voters....
Because of diminishing returns, we know that a large investment in an expensive race will bring few votes, while a small investment in a cheaper race may bring many. Parties shy away from the latter on the grounds that hopeless candidates are hopeless causes. But the math says different. Suppose that we could increase the odds of twenty candidates from 5 to 10 percent for the same cost of helping two candidates with 45 percent chances get to 50 percent. By helping the twenty hapless candidates, we would increase the expected number of victories from 20 x 0.05 = 1 to 20 x 0.10 = 2. By helping the well-heeled candidates, we would increase the expected number of victories from 2 x .45 = 0.90 to 2 x .50 = 1. The first investment portfolio has an expected return of 1 additional victory, while the second one is just one-tenth of an additional victory.
That is a fairly realistic scenario. Seventy challengers in 2004 spent between $100,000 to $500,000, and 19 of them won at least 40 percent of the vote. Boosting their spending by as little as $50,000 or $100,000 would have a discernable effect on their chances, while increasing expenditures by $500,000 in an expensive race would likely have little effect. Parties ignore long shots because viewed individually no single candidate has a particularly good chance of winning. But as a group, long shots are ripe with possibility because of their numbers and because their low spending gives parties a chance to influence their chances. Targeting overlooks many potential winners....
The bottom line is that targeting does not help parties win elections. Instead, it impels them into high-spending races where the value of their contributions is minimal. The narrow group of targeted contests excludes many other elections where they have a distinct, albeit distant, chance of winning. By focusing so sharply on top-tier races, the parties effectively narrow the playing field in congressional elections, limiting their potential gains. And, all of their actions are predicated on their ability to predict which races will be close well before the election, an inherently dubious endeavor.
Amen. The goal has to be to retake at least one legislative chamber in 2006. It's long past time for the Bush administration to have some actual checks and balances on it, and the best way to do that is to give it some Congressional oversight. Take advantage of those sub-40 popularity numbers and make this simple, straightforward case to the voters. If not now, then when?
This is a bummer.
Though the number of homes afforded curbside pickup has increased steadily since 1990 to more than 160,000 — half of the residences in the city — too few take advantage, officials say. And Houston isn't alone. Some cities across the country have seen participation in curbside recycling plateau for a variety of reasons.In Houston, recycling has dropped more than 13 percent in recent years — from 11,770 tons in 2001 to 10,210 in fiscal 2005. That means the program costs the city too much money, while not doing enough to preserve natural resources, energy and landfill space and create jobs.
The city spent $1.3 million in the last fiscal year, including roughly $200,000 in fuel costs, to send collectors across the city to collect recyclables — even to neighborhoods where few participate. Yet the program only recovered about $855,000 by reducing landfill costs and selling the material.
"It is a loser right now, and it shouldn't be," said Elena Marks, who handles environmental and health policy for Mayor Bill White. "Our goal is to get it to break even, and ideally it should make money if you recycle enough material."
Recycling is something I do as a matter of habit. When the city stopped collecting glass, I started taking mine to a dropoff point (there's one at Center and Harvard, a mile or so from where I live). I recognize that that's a bigger time commitment than most people can make, but I just don't understand the reluctance to toss cans and plastic containers in a separate bin for curbside pickup. Why add to landfills when you don't have to? It makes no sense to me.
People who study the matter say a leading factor in the decline, in Houston and some other cities, is that the novelty of recycling that fueled its boom more than a decade ago no longer compels residents to voluntarily separate their trash and tote heavy bins. Another issue is that governments haven't done enough to remind residents of the benefits."Recycling rates throughout the country are flat, to slightly down," said Jerry Powell, owner/editor of Resource Recycling, a trade magazine. "It's fairly easy to not take part if you're not educated of the reasons. It slips off the radar screen."
Marks said the mayor wants to spend about $600,000 to rebuild the program here. The effort includes hiring someone to coordinate an education campaign, lost years ago to budget cuts, which could involve public-service announcements. The money also will fund a study to identify precisely how many people participate.
[...]
Besides civic virtue, there isn't much incentive to recycle, officials say. Unlike California, Texas doesn't set mandatory goals for the amounts of recyclables that must be diverted from landfills. And unlike New York City's, Houston's program is voluntary.
June Wright, whose sister lives in New York, said she is one of the few residents on her block who recycles regularly, and places her bin in the street to make sure the recycling drivers see it. She doesn't know why more of her neighbors don't get involved.
"It's good for the environment. It's good for the economy. And it gets the trash out of my house," she said.
I hope it's just a matter of education. Putting it in terms of being good financial sense ought to help, along with maybe a little civic pride. Houston is looking at how other cities have dealt with this. I hope we can figure it out.
More indictments for TRMPACers Jim Ellis and John Colyandro.
Jim Ellis, who heads Americans for a Republican Majority, and John Colyandro, former executive director of Texans for a Republican Majority, already are facing charges of money laundering in the case. Colyandro also faces 13 counts of unlawful acceptance of a corporate political contribution. The use of corporate money to influence political races is illegal in Texas.The money laundering charges stem from $190,000 in corporate money that was sent to the Republican National Committee. The party then spent the same amount of money on seven candidates for the Texas Legislature.
Austin attorney Joe Turner, who represents Colyandro, said the attorneys for the RNC examined and cleared all of the suspect transactions.
"Prosecutors must not be too confident in their indictments, otherwise there would be no need for these additional indictments on the same set of facts," Turner said. "We don't believe a crime was ever committed."
As this Statesman story notes, there are a couple of factors at play in these new indictments.
Time is running out for indictments. Under the election code, prosecutors have three years from the time of an alleged offense to bring charges.Tuesday's indictment was returned three years to the day the $190,000 check was cut.
The additional charges also seemed to be an attempt by prosecutors to cover their bets, giving jurors more than one count to consider. By including Ellis and Colyandro in one indictment and charging them with conspiracy — as opposed to indicting them separately — the prosecutors made it more likely that the two will be tried as co-defendants.
Finally, a lawyer involved in the case suggested that the conspiracy charge added an important twist. Instead of focusing on the exchange of money, it alleges that Ellis and Colyandro conspired to raise corporate money with the intent of laundering it into campaign donations for Texas candidates.
What of Tom DeLay, the founding father of these organizations? The Fort Bend County DA does not expect any charges will be referred to him.
At a news conference announcing the [TRMPAC] indictment, Earle hinted he might have sought an indictment of DeLay if he had jurisdiction. Jurisdiction for election law violations is held by the home county of the accused person.DeLay, R-Sugar Land, would fall under [Fort Bend County District Attorney John Healey Jr.]'s jurisdiction.
Healey said Earle called him after the news conference to say no referral against DeLay would be made at present.
"I can tell you he told me his comments were not intended to signal he had anything imminent to send to me in regard to Tom DeLay," Healey said. "We did not talk about the substantive facts of the case."
Healey said he felt certain Earle will handle the case properly.
"Knowing Mr. Earle's reputation and having talked to him ... if there is a matter in reference to a case against anybody stemming from this investigation, if there is a case to be made, supported by the evidence and the law, he will either present it to a grand jury or refer the matter to the proper authorities outside of his jurisdiction."
Healey said he did not know if Earle plans to give him any evidence in the future.
"It would be reckless for any district attorney to make reference to the likelihood of an investigation coming one's way unless, of course, the target was talking about it," Healey said.
So is DeLay off the hook for this particular incident, as this Roll Call article suggests? The Statesman article has quotes each way, while Jesse thinks it ain't over yet. I don't think it really matters so much. TRMPAC is DeLay's baby. Every headline in these stories refers to "DeLay associates", "DeLay aides", and so on. When the trials occur, DeLay's name will be invoked as often as the actual defendants'. Indictments or no, this is as much about Tom DeLay as anything.
It's also not like this is the only thing DeLay has to worry about. There's still the matter of an eventual ethics investigation for all his questionable lobbyist-paid travel in recent years, and of course there's still his old buddies Jack Abramoff and Mike Scanlon getting roasted by the feds. DeLay's name won't be disappearing from those headlines any time soon.
On a related note, there's a maddeningly vague story about Colyandro being dismissed as a defendant from a civil trial.
The federal district-court judge dismissed the case brought by two Texas Democrats against John Colyandro, the former executive director of the Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee (TRMPAC).The judge, Lee Yeakel, ruled that lawyers for the two Democrats failed to prove that Colyandro had knowingly broken Texas election law in using corporate contributions to fund campaign ads.
[...]
In his opinion, Yeakel wrote that the petition against Colyandro and his three co-defendants “fails to allege any facts that Colyandro intentionally or even knowingly violated the applicable sections of the Texas Election Code.”
Which lawsuit is this, and who are the plaintiffs? Who are Colyandro's codefendants? The most likely answer to that last question is Jim Ellis, Warren RoBold, and Bill Hammond, but you can't tell from the story itself, and I haven't found anything more illuminating in Google News. Anyone know anything more about this?
There's a Democratic primary in New York today. I didn't know there was such a thing as a Public Advocate in New York City until I started hearing about Andrew Raseij, but now that I do, he'd get my vote if I were there. He's done some thinking about the lessons of Katrina and how they relate to the office he seeks, which I think are worth your time to read. Check it out, and if you're in the City, please go and vote.
Rick Noriega. The man is amazing.
Noriega, who returned to Texas from Afghanistan Aug. 2, had been trying to make dinner plans with Mayor Bill White when he got a call from the mayor's office on Aug. 31."I'm thinking we're going to decide if it's going to be Italian food or Mexican food," Noriega said.
Instead, the mayor asked Noriega to join in on an 8 a.m. logistics meeting the next day, saying he wanted to tap into the lieutenant colonel's military experience in preparing to house evacuees.
Noriega told White he'd do whatever was needed, although he didn't realize at the time the magnitude of the effort White wanted to put together.
Noriega arrived at the convention center at 11 a.m. on Sept. 2. By 6 p.m., the George R. Brown was operational, with nearly 1,000 beds set up and a team of plumbers working to install 80 showers.
The next morning, the shelter was up and running.
"There's a lot of anxiety when you see buses roll up and no one knows what to expect," Noriega said. "This is a four-star shelter. It's been quite remarkable."
[...]
Manning the shelter is a round-the-clock duty. Noriega has only been home once in the past 12 days.
And as soon as he and his wife, Melissa, put their son to bed and were enjoying some quiet time, the phone rang. It was a conference call with the Red Cross, which lasted until after 1 a.m.
[...]
White tapped Noriega to run the facility just as he was about to return to his job at CenterPoint Energy.
The mayor asked CenterPoint's CEO if Noriega could be assigned to the evacuee effort at the convention center for 30 days.
"I still have a mission to serve," Noriega said.
Noriega breaks the mission into phases: The first was taking care of evacuees' immediate needs. Last week was focused on social services. This week he is in "demobilization," preparing to close the shelter as guests — that's what they call evacuees at the convention center — return to their homes or become Houstonians.
At the risk of gushing, Rick Noriega is a hero. Whenever he decides to run for higher office (after a long rest and an even longer vacation, I hope), I'll be proud to support him.
As a reminder, you can read Melissa Noriega's reports from the GRB here and here.
The venerable amusement park AstroWorld will close for good at the end of this season.
[A]fter 37 years, the landmark Six Flags AstroWorld theme park will close at the end of this season, the victim of rising land values that overshadow its worth as an entertainment venue."While attendance has gone down, the value of the land has gone up substantially," said Jim Dannhauser, chief financial officer of Oklahoma City-based Six Flags.
[...]
Jeff Peden, a director at Cushman and Wakefield, the real estate company that will market the land, said there is no asking price for the 109-acre site, but he estimated that it will sell for $95 million to $145 million.
"We've seen properties close to here go for $25 to $35 per square foot," said Peden.
"Kirby and 610, that's a great address in Houston," said Todd Edmonds, senior vice president of the real estate company Colliers International.
Something of that size will probably become a mixed-use development, including multifamily housing, retail and office, said Edmonds, who described the property as one of the largest contiguous pieces of land near the Medical Center.
That's what I'd have assumed. It's a good location for new housing, as it's right by the South Fannin light rail stop for an easy commute into town, and there's a real need for some retail space as well. My preference would be for it to include some smaller places to eat, places with quick in-and-out service, since all that's in the area now are two Pappas restaurants and a Joe's Crab Shack, none of which are appealing to me as a cheap and convenient lunch place. We'll see what we get.
This month, AstroWorld is open Saturday and Sunday. From Oct. 7 -30, it will be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The final day of operation is Oct. 30, the last day of Fright Fest.Attendance has suffered at parks nationally as these amusement centers compete with other forms of entertainment, such as television and the Internet, said James Zoltak, editor of Amusement Business.
Shutting down the park will not hurt the city's economy much because many of the seasonal jobs paid little more than minimum wage, he said.
The bigger loss, he said, is that theme parks offer people a sense of nostalgia, with grandparents taking their grandchildren to their favorite rides.
"You lose something that has been part of the city's culture and psyche for a number of years," Zoltak said.
I'm not a native, but I don't have the same attachment to AstroWorld that I do to some of Houston's other landmarks. I'll miss the roller coasters, and I'm sorry Olivia won't get to experience the place, but for whatever the reason, I'm not too upset about it. I've gone maybe 20 times since I moved to Houston (we had a season pass a couple of years ago), and it has felt like it was past its prime. Maybe I was already over it, I don't know. I do hope it has a good sendoff, because it does deserve that.
UPDATE: Tory thinks the last chapter has not yet been written.
Just a roundup of recent experiences of bloggers who've volunteered at evacuee shelters:
Perry sees a dichotomy.
Hope feels overwhelmed, while her coblogger Eileen reports some happy news.
Ray came down with a cold; he also has some happy news, and more techno-volunteering information.
Not a volunteer experience, but definitely worth a read: Via John, a firsthand account of the "Hurricane Pam" exercise.
And finally, benefit time: Tonight's the night for the Saint Arnold's Red Cross Fundraiser.
The only way to celebrate New Orleans is to have some good drink, good food and good music. We're going to supply two of the three: drink and music. You are welcome to bring your own tasty food. Music will be courtesy of the Zydeco Dots. Laissez les bon temps rouler! Admission will be $12 per person in advance, $15 at the door. 100% of the proceeds from this evening will go to the Red Cross. We will also be donating all the profits from any glass and shirt sales that night. So be charitable and have a good time! Here are the details:Red Cross Benefit at Saint Arnold Brewery
Tuesday, September 13
6 PM to 9 PM
Admission: $12 in advance, $15 at the door
For advance reservations, call or email Ann (ann@saintarnold.com or 713-686-9494) with credit card information. Advance reservations must be made by noon on Tuesday.
And a big one in Houston:
On Oct. 1, Reliant Stadium will be the site for concert featuring George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, Willie Nelson, Martina McBride and ZZ top.Tickets, which go on sale 10 a.m. Friday at Ticketmaster locations and online, run between $39.50 and $125, with a limited number of $1,000 VIP packages available.
I'll bet that sells out quickly, so be prepared to buy early if you want to go.
Via Nate, there are now three Republican contenders for the right to challenge Rep. Chet Edwards in CD17, down from five earlier on.
Former Capitol Hill assistant and attorney Tucker Anderson, Harvard graduate and Iraq war platoon leader Van Taylor and two-time Purple Heart recipient Bentley Nettles are raising money and promising a positive, strong campaign.The three have never held elected office, but each proclaim strong commitment to civil service and ties to the state going back at least six generations.
Potential candidates Texas A&M University assistant professor Todd Kent and former congressional candidate Fred Wood decided not to run.
With nearly four months before the filing deadline Jan. 2, other challengers can still enter the race.
Without knowing anything else about any of these guys, I'd rather see the former Capitol Hill assistant as Edwards' opponent than the other guys. All things being equal, I think the two veterans would give Edwards a tougher fight. Just my gut reaction.
Some Republicans wished for a lone candidate instead of another three-way campaign. In 2004, then state Rep. Arlene Wohlgemuth, R-Burleson, defeated former Waco school board president Dot Snyder in a runoff after Texas A&M professor Dave McIntyre finished a strong third in the primary. Several Republicans said the primary weakened Wohlgemuth going into the general election.“Many of us had hoped we would not have a primary battle, but it looks like that's now out of the question,” said M.A. Taylor, chairman of the McLennan County Republican Party.
“It just costs our candidates a lot of money, and lets Chet off scot-free. He gets to save his money, while we've got to spend ours,” Taylor said.
Edwards has already amassed more than $560,000 and likely won't face a Democratic challenger next spring. The Republican candidates don't have to announce their fundraising results until Oct. 15, when their first reports are due.
I don't think the eventual nominee will have any problems raising money. This is the one last office that Republicans in Texas think they should hold but don't. And of course the good thing about a contested primary is that it makes for regular news, which will help to raise these guys' name ID. Sure, they could wound each other with a nasty campaign, but that'll happen anyway in the general. If I'm a GOP chairman, that'd be low on my worry list.
Edwards has said that if Republicans couldn't defeat him in 2004, with President Bush on the ticket, they're not going to do it in 2006.Baylor University associate political science professor Thomas Myers said with the lack of proven candidates with prior political service, it is going to be tough for the Republican Party next year.
“Chet Edwards has all of that incumbency, all of the savvy that comes with those years of service, with all of the contacts in the community and a solid record of representing his district and I don't know that having fought in the Iraqi war will have much of a chance of overcoming that,” Myers said.
“I don't see the Republican Party having much of a chance in the general election,” Myers said.
M.A. Taylor, the county GOP chairman who shares no relation with the candidate, said don't count the party out.
“Chet said if they couldn't beat me with the President on the ballot, they couldn't beat me any other way,” Taylor said. “We'll just have to see.”
I appreciate Professor Myers' optimism, and I share it to an extent, but CD17 is a really red district, and Arlene Wohlgemuth was a really baggage-laden candidate. Edwards has many strengths, and he won't leave anything on the field, but his margin is tiny. It won't take too many of the 2004 crossovers to decide that the 2006 version of Not-Edwards is palatable to sink him. This one will keep me holding my breath until the returns are in.
Side note: Edwards has opened his home to a family of Katrina evacuees.
As most evacuees in Texas are sleeping in shelters, hotels and living rooms, one family left homeless by the storm has settled comfortably into a congressional bedroom.U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, has opened his usually vacant three-bedroom in Waco home to Johnnie Marchand and her family.
Marchand left her home in Algiers, across from the Mississippi River from New Orleans, and has a son, daughter and two grandchildren. They ended up at a Baptist church in Waco, and she accepted Edward's offer to stay in his home when she met him last Saturday.
She said she had no idea at the time Edwards was a congressman.
Via Eye on Williamson.
In case you're wondering why this site was unavailable earlier, it's because my webhost was affected by this.
A power failure in Los Angeles, the second-largest U.S. city, darkened downtown and several nearby cities, trapping people in elevators, disrupting refineries and snarling traffic.The blackout started around 12:35 p.m. local time, and almost all who lost power had it restored by 2 p.m., said Kim Hughes, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nation's largest municipal utility.
Power was lost in an area with about 2 million people after a worker with the utility accidentally overloaded a transmission line, tripping circuit protectors, Hughes said. Overloading the line caused an automatic shutdown of other lines to prevent damage to equipment.
"We wanted to put too many cars on the wrong freeway," Hughes said. "The system put the brakes on."
Obviously, we're back up and running again, though my mail server is still unavailable at the time of this writing. Hope everyone in the affected area is all right now.
Are you feeling adrift and without purpose now that Special SessionPalooza has come to an end? Well, if so, then here's some good news for you.
Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson said Friday night the court will rule within two weeks on the method the state should use to finance its public school system.With state legislators having failed in a regular session and two special sessions to replace the outmoded "Robin Hood" system this year, Jefferson said he doesn't know if the court's ruling will give the Legislature the guidance it needs.
Jefferson was the keynote speaker at Friday night's session in the mezzanine ballroom of the historic Driskill Hotel at the 21st annual John Ben Sheppard Texas Leadership Forum, which continues today at the State Capitol.
"I can't say it will be definitive," said Jefferson. "There will be a decision from the court and the Legislature will do what it does."
Doesn't look too good from a Perry prognostication skills perspective, does it? In any event, start girding your loins now, because the Lege will be back in session before you know it. Via Aaron Pena.
I'm not seeing nearly as many alerts for volunteers and/or donations to Katrina victims these days. That's good, in the sense that much of the immediate crisis of ensuring everybody is alive, fed, and healthy has been dealt with, but worrisome because the need goes much beyond the immediate future. Let's all keep up the good work.
Today's Chron talks about the decision many evacuees will be making: whether to stay in Houston or move back to Louisiana. For those who stay, will there be enough jobs for all of them?
"Houston can absorb a good portion," said Barton Smith, director of the Institute for Regional Forecasting at the University of Houston. "But at the rate we were growing, we can't absorb this added labor force overnight."Smith estimates 10,000 to 20,000 of the evacuees are looking for jobs and will make Houston their home for a year or two.
But according to the Texas Workforce Commission, the Houston area created only 23,000 new jobs in the past 12 months, he said. So far, the agency has received 7,200 inquiries from employers looking to hire evacuees.
Even if the state agency underestimated Houston's year-over-year job gains and it is really closer to 40,000, it still won't be easy for the city to find spots for so many new job seekers, Smith said.
And the skills brought by the new residents may not be the ones employers are looking for.
Many of the displaced worked in retail or for small businesses that offered personal services — two sectors that aren't growing in Houston, Smith said.
And unfortunately, as Tom notes, those types of job will likely be the slowest to return to New Orleans because they don't have the kind of capital to withstand the destruction that Katrina wrought on them. Even with federal aid, it's going to be a long haul for a lot of people.
On the plus side, more and more people are being moved out of the temporary shelters into more permanent residences.
There were 2,000 fewer evacuees at the George R. Brown Convention Center and Reliant Park on Sunday than the day before. Sunday night the total was 5,263 — down from 11,400 Sept. 6.By today, the headcount at the megashelters had dropped to 4,680.
As I understand it, the GRB's mission will most likely be completed by this weekend. That's really amazing, isn't it?
Catching up on some more State House news...Via Tejano Insider, Eddie Lucio III, son of State Sen. Eddie Lucio, will seek the HD38 seat being vacated by the retiring Rep. Jim Solis. Solis ran unopposed in 2004 after winning by a 68-32 margin in 2002 - the district was 63-37 Democratic in 2002, with Carole Keeton Rylander/Strayhorn getting 46.9% to lead all Republican contenders; only Susan Combs at 40.5% joined her in breaking the 40% barrier. In short, this seat will be won in the Democratic primary.
Elsewhere, I've mentioned before that former Congressional candidate Morris Meyer was looking at Rep. Bill Zedler's HD96. I've since received an email which suggests he's officially in this race. I'll see if I can get a confirmation on that.
More on the Texas Congressmen who voted against the aid package for Katrina victims: Here's Shane Sklar giving it to Rep. Ron Paul in the Baytown Sun.
Sklar says Paul’s ideology alienates him from the rest of Congress, which hurts residents of his district because he cannot generate support among other members for local projects.“Even though I may not have as much power as a freshman Republican, it’s still going to be more than our incumbent congressman,” Sklar said. “Making a point is one thing, but we need someone who can make a difference.”
[...]
Wasting no time in directly challenging the seat’s incumbent, Sklar on Friday issued a press release criticizing Paul’s vote against a $51.8 billion disaster relief package for Hurricane Katrina victims. Paul was one of 11 congressmen who voted against the package.
“No single vote could better show how Ron Paul’s time has come and gone,” Sklar said. “Like so many times in his eight terms in Congress, Ron Paul only wanted to make a meaningless philosophical point while the rest of the country wants to come to the aid of the victims of Katrina.”
I'll say again, I think this is a very smart line of attack, as it turns Ron Paul's strength into a liability. When principles make you look out of touch, they're not such great assets any more. And while it may well be that the voters in CD14 like a Congressman who puts principle above action, I surely don't see what the harm is in asking them.
What is Rep. Paul saying for himself?
Paul defended his vote by issuing a statement blasting the government for spending more money on a system he said has “failed spectacularly.”“In several disasters that have befallen my Gulf Coast district, my constituents have over and over again told me that they prefer to rebuild and recover without the help of federal agencies like FEMA, which so often impose their own bureaucratic solutions on the owners or private property,” Paul said in the statement.
Paul instead called on Congress to send federal dollars directly to victims or to community organizations dedicated to clean-up and reconstruction.
That sounds a little bit like an alternative to what got passed (by a 97-0 vote in the Senate to go along with that 410-11 House tally, by the way), which is something Greg focuses on in his criticism of Paul. Perhaps if Paul had taken action and introduced a bill to implement his ideas instead of simply claiming that they'd work better, his defense would be stouter. Well, at least his principles are still pristine.
And despite his rather weak protestations, at least Paul does have some principle on which to stand. What's Smoky Joe Barton's excuse?
Barton press secretary Karen Modlin said in a statement that Barton supports providing food, shelter and clothing to the hurricane victims but wants to make sure that federal funds are spent properly where they are needed."While he is supportive of the $10.5 billion in emergency funding provided last week, he believes that the bill before the House yesterday throws more than $50 billion at the problem without first sufficiently assessing needs and ensuring adequate safeguards are established for how the money is spent," Modlin said.
"It is critical that the federal government provide hurricane victims with assistance while being good stewards of hard-earned taxpayer dollars."
You know, that sounds an awful lot like an indictment of FEMA, along with an accusation that the House leadership is a bunch of reckless spenders. Who knew ol' Smoky Joe was such a maverick?
Seriously, whatever Smoky Joe is trying to say here, the same holds true of him as it does of Ron Paul: Where's his alternative plan? Unlike Ron Paul, Joe Barton is a loyal Republican team player who has the ear of the DeLays and Hasterts and can make things happen if he wants to. Where was he when this bill was being written? Why do so few of his colleagues share his concerns? If this is the best he can do, it's pretty pitiful.
On a related note, Rep. Lamar Smith held a town hall meeting in Austin on Saturday morning and ran into some hostile questions about Katrina relief, among other things.
In the wake of the hurricane, he said almost everything else on the legislative agenda has had to be shelved. He discussed how the judicial committee has had to address legislation to permit federal courts based in New Orleans to hear cases outside their juristiction, and noted that many other committees are having to address similar issues never before considered.Asked how Hurricane Katrina will affect the Congress' legislative priorities, and whether this should require a shift away from tax cuts, Smith said, "Yes, mostly." He said he believes that tax cuts do (or can) spike the economy, but remarked, "Realistically, the estate tax will not be repealed this year."
At this point, a man with silver hair stood up. "Representative Smith," he said firmly, "I have been a Republican since the early 1960's." Oh, no, I thought, here it comes - shill time. This guy had to be part of the crowd called in by the Travis County Republican Party this morning to give Smith some cover.
"I pay a lot for taxes," he continued, "and I consider it a social investment. I am outraged! When this catastrophe hit, the president's response was that we should 'give to private charity.' I am outraged that this party can't support our country. We can't deal with our own self-defense. You need to fire Chertoff and these FEMA clowns. What are you doing with our tax dollars?!"
At this point, the audience broke into applause. Smith, sticking to message, said it will be investigated: "We don't care who's responsible, we just want to find out who's responsible."
This is an important point for the Democratic party to pursue - that taxpayers did not get their money's worth with this Republican administration. This may attract outraged voters like this man.
If that attitude prevails, these guys may be in some trouble. Link via TX21.
The following is another report from the George R. Brown Convention Center by Melissa Noriega, sent to me on Saturday morning. Here's the first report, which I highly recommend if you haven't seen it already.
Last week went by in such a whoosh; I didn’t get anything out, but let me share a little with you this morning. (My friends get emails from me at 3-4-5 in the morning—I think it is a product of getting older.)Debit Cards
Friday was Red Cross Day. The administration and the media put out information that is sometimes unclear, partial or untrue, and the rumors about debit cards and vouchers sends waves of folks to the Dome area or the George R. Brown to cope with. On Friday, there were thousands of folks on the sidewalk outside, but the GRB and Rick were ready. They commandeered the whole end section for the Red Cross effort—the folks outside got moved inside as quickly as they could go through a metal detector wanding. They had an area to sit and fill out the paper, an area to get the facts verified and then to the computer folks to get their cards. The cards were not “hot” for a few hours—they had to load up and queue through the computer process somewhere else, I think. They moved 2000 folks before noon. It was incredible. The FEMA staff and Red Cross both ran out of the actual plastic cards.(I keep using these silly adjectives like “awesome,” but I cannot convey to you the level of both skill and will that drive the quality of the activities taking place at the GRB. I have been shocked at how little coverage there has been about it—everyone is talking about Reliant Center, but there is a CenterPoint team at GRB that is second to none. People still think they are the same company, but they are not. Remember that the next time your summer electricity bill comes through—these folks really deliver in an emergency and deserve some credit. EVERYONE down there, and there is a list—Second Baptist, CenterPoint, Marathon, SBC, HLSR, the beauty parlor lady—everyone has been brilliant and worked until out on their feet.)
Honduran Connection to New Orleans
There is also a Honduran thing going on—I didn’t know anything about it and I want to share it with la familia here:The Honduran-New Orleans connection is apparently long-lasting and quite intertwined. It is about bananas. We have been hearing reports that there were Hondurans somewhere in a hotel for several days, and a few days ago Rep Scott Hochberg took a team out to find 150 Hondurans in 7 rooms of a motel, several seriously injured and children sick. They were brought to our attention by several sources, including some brave professional women, the consul and a prominent local Latino attorney, who called us after finding them. Somewhere in there the mayor heard about them, and he called, too, and they bused them where they needed to go—shelter, hospital—in the middle of the night.
The Honduran consul volunteer explained to me that generations from Honduras have moved freely back and forth to NOLA. The capitol city is sister-city with New Orleans, and the bananas have shipped through New Orleans forever. Folks travel back and forth; families are US citizens or are Honduran or both. They have an independence festival about this time in NOLA—they are a long standing integral component of New Orleans life that I didn’t know about. (Thanks Gloria, Mary Alice, Michael, Scott, Olga and others. Tú sabes—you know who you are!)
My fear is that there are other pockets of Latinos—legal or illegal—that we are missing in this fury. America’s folks that don’t show and don’t demand on TV. If any of you know about groups of folks out there, call somebody. The International Red Cross from Latin America showed up yesterday. Maybe that will help.
Shelter to Services
The GRB is moving slowly but surely from a shelter to a services shop. The configuration was decidedly different yesterday—the area that had the Country Store (That’s what they called it) and the barbershop/beauty parlor was gone or drastically reduced. I found out later that the hair place was moved over by the 80 showers on the med end. They will shut down Saturday. People are moving out to housing pretty quickly. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo volunteers are doing the people-moving on a case-by-case basis and getting it done.I want to make a point here—the companies and the church folk have sent their very best, not the employee that they could spare. The guy entering data next to you in the Ops Center of the Command Center is likely to be a senior VP, and brings the skill set that goes with it. The other thing to note is how little ego folks have brought in the door. The meetings are crisp and productive, and red tape is cut quickly. (They do have a thing Rick calls the “Good Idea Fairy.” The fairies have good ideas and want someone else to do them…I confess to being one on occasion…Trying to work on it and “stay in my lane”--get whatever task I take on done before I cook up any new schemes.)
The Food Stamp area has had some problems—the legislature has cut the budget over several cycles so they only mostly have call centers, and there are not enough people to work a crisis like this. They pulled staff out of hospitals and got going, but the line was woeful. Rep Garnet Coleman was up here trying to get it streamlined, and helped a bunch. We also called Rep John Davis, who was the chair of the subcommittee that reorganized HHS, and he got the state folks on the phone to us to get some help. I am checking on that today. Note to people out there—elections have consequences, and when you diminish government to the point that you have no institutional knowledge or live staff, you get in trouble in a situation like this.
I must head back up there—they are busing guests to the arena area and back to get their cards, starting at 6 AM. Make no mistake—it is work for these folks to be evacuees…there is LOTS to do and keep up with. Love to all and God bless,
Melissa Noriega
Once again, my sincere thanks to Melissa and Rick Noriega for their service and for keeping us informed about what's happening.
(Regular blogging on my part will resume tomorrow.)
Well, for better or worse, Kuff has left the keys to the massive "Off the Kuff" mansion while he's otherwise preoccupied. So in the spirit of the blog, I'll add a few tidbits that fall within the blog's niche.
First up is this excellent read in the Chron on Vietnamese evacuees arriving in Houston post-Katrina:
With Vietnamese evacuees continuing to pour into Houston, some Asian representatives worry the community may be trying to do too much on its own.The uncounted thousands of Vietnamese storm victims are not going to the Astrodome or the George R. Brown Convention Center to seek help from the government, leaders say. Instead, many gather at Hong Kong City Mall on Bellaire, a privately run mall where they are being connected with ample free food and housing from fellow Vietnamese — help that cannot last indefinitely.
"The problem is, because the Vietnamese are not in the shelters, they are not receiving assistance" from the government and the American Red Cross, said Nguyen Dinh Thang, the head of Boat People S.O.S., a group that has helped Vietnamese from its Hong Kong City Mall office.
Many of the Vietnamese from New Orleans and Mississippi are staying with family and friends, while others are staying at Vietnamese Catholic churches and Buddhist temples. Some need medical attention, and many continue to look for lost relatives.
...
Some Vietnamese say they expect to stay in Houston permanently, which should solidify the city's role as the Vietnamese cultural center for the Gulf Coast. Though no one has an exact estimate, leaders say they think well more than 10,000 Vietnamese evacuees are now in Houston, on top of the 60,000 who already live in the region.
...
"The Vietnamese are not plugged into the mainstream services, and they need to be," said Watkins, who speaks fluent Vietnamese. "The people who were coming into our office were getting desperate."
Some had been staying in hotels they could no longer afford, while others had worn out their welcome at the houses of friends and relatives.
Asian leaders met with Mayor Bill White and City councilmen Gordon Quan and M.J. Khan earlier this week to consider ways to coordinate relief efforts among Asians.
But Quan later acknowledged it was proving difficult to get the different Asian groups to work together.
"It's like herding cats," he said. "The groups each want to do it on their own."
There's some community history that goes into this, as well as some Houston-area Asian community turf wars that have been the norm for too long. On the plus side, and make of it what you will, there's at least the benefit of an expansive and open-armed community willing to help. But one point ought to stand out for the sake of learning lessons from this that has nothing to do with one's worldview or whether we see government as the problem or the solution. It's just a matter of organization to help people to the fullest. Compare those $200 & $100 cards and vouchers to the $2000 cards given out by Red Cross and FEMA and the math is hard to add up for rent when the welcome mat gets a bit thinner. Hopefully, these folks get plugged in to the help and resources they need to locate loved ones and re-settle to the best of their abilities.
I'll be away from the computer for the next 48 hours or so due to various obligations. One or more of the fine folks who guest-posted for me in July may make an appearance if their schedules allow them; regardless, I'll be posting again by Sunday evening. Have a good weekend.
Missed this earlier in the week, but as always Tom was on top of it: The defense team for Jeff Skilling, Rick Causey, and Kenny Boy Lay have filed a motion to dismiss all charges on grounds of prosecutorial intimidation of defense witnesses.
Actions of the Enron Task Force have deprived Lay, Skilling and Causey "of their constitutional rights both to secure and confront witnesses, thereby stripping defendants of their ability fully and fairly to prepare for and defend themselves at trial. Put simply, witnesses are afraid to talk to us," the request stated.A redacted version of the request made of U.S. District Judge Sim Lake was made public today, though the lawyers filed the originally sealed motion last week. Some of the key evidence cited in this motion has not been made public.
The motion refers to an e-mail from a task force member telling a lawyer for a cooperating government witness to stop talking to Skilling's lawyer or "get rid" of him. The judge has viewed that e-mail and has so far barred the lawyers from revealing its full content.
[...]
According to the motion, those attorney affidavits state the lawyers or their clients were told by the government that Skilling's and Lay's lawyers were "bad news," and their clients would "pay" or the government would "go after" them if they cooperated with the defendants.
One lawyer allegedly says the Enron Task Force made a "veiled threat" to an attorney about it being "dangerous" for his client to help Enron defendants. Prosecutorial misconduct has been a common complaint from the defense lawyers in this case.
Prosecutors are not allowed to comment on the case while it's ongoing.
Lake said last week that he thinks there is a problem that many witnesses in the case at least perceive a threat from the government's Enron Task Force. But the judge said he had "not made any finding that the government has engaged in any illegal activity."
Lake last week asked the lawyers to agree on a way he could counsel witnesses that they are free to aid the defendants should they wish to do so.
He said he would be willing to have them come to court and hear it from the judge himself.
Towards that end, Judge Lake sent a letter to 38 defense witnesses telling them they have nothing to fear and inviting them to come talk to him. This solution was suggested by the Enron Task Force, so it's not quite what the defense had in mind.
Tom has provided a copy of the motion to dismiss for anyone who might like to download and read it. There's more in his post and in his followup on the Lake Letters, and also in this WaPo story. Finally, Stace weighs in as well.
Here are your 2005 candidates for City of Houston offices (PDF). Greg has a pretty full analysis. Like him, I'm a little surprised that no one bothered to challenge either City Controller Annise Parker or At Large Council Member Ron Green, both of whom are first-termers. Green did benefit from being in the right place at the right time last year, after Bert Keller got flambeed on talk radio for getting weak-kneed on property tax cuts. I'd have thought someone from the right would have mounted a challenge to Green on principle. Not that I mind - I too like Green, as does Tiffany, who was his classmate at River Oaks Elementary School back in the day. The one sure way I can get Tiffany to accompany me to a political outing is to tell her that Ron Green will be there.
As for Parker, you'd think that the presence of the Double Secret Illegal Anti-Gay Marriage amendment on the November ballot would have inspired some zealot to run against her in hopes of catching a wave. Such a person would not have won, but his or her service to the ideological cause would surely have not gone unnoticed by the Harris County GOP. For not having to experience the ugliness that would have ensued, we should all be very grateful.
Closer to me, someone named Larry Williams slipped in under the deadline to challenge Adrian Garcia. Garcia is so ubiquitous at all kinds of neighborhood meetings and events that transitioning to campaign mode should be no big deal for him, and I expect him to cruise to a well-deserved reelection with a big margin.
Now I just need to find a complete list of HISD and HCC candidates, and I'll be done.
The following is an email from Robin Holzer of the Citizens Transportation Coalition.
In September, please consider participating in Envision Houston Region 2030, at one of five free workshops designed to involve the public in creating a regional vision for future growth in the Houston
area. This is a joint effort of Blueprint Houston and the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC).For the first time ever, H-GAC is inviting communities to help create alternative growth scenarios for the metro area. If you believe that we must plan to preserve our quality of life even as millions of new
people locate in our region, then you should definitely participate!The Houston-Harris County workshop is on Sat Sept 17 at 8:30 am. Note NEW location: UH Hilton, 4800 Calhoun, 77024 (This workshop was originally scheduled for the George R. Brown Conv. Ctr. but was relocated to accommodate Katrina evacuees.)
There are four other workshops around the region on Sept 22, 24, 30, and Oct 1, and you may participate in any of them. You may check workshop dates, locations, and register to participate online here.
Because this process is a direct result of our efforts in 2004 to give citizens a voice in the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP 2025), CTC will "sponsor" tables of participants. Please let me know if you will join us under our "banner."
Please review these citizen bulletins for more info:
* "A regional vision for future growth"
* "When, where, and how to grow?"
In the meantime, if you have questions or comments about the process, please visit the EHR topic in CTC's online forum.
Should be interesting.
Two roadwork-related stories with an impact on me and my neighborhood. First is a report on the alternative ideas for the viaduct that would connect the Hardy Toll Road to its downtown extension.
The 50-year-old viaduct is a four-lane, elevated bridge that begins at Commerce Street and heads north over Buffalo Bayou and I-10 before reaching Quitman Street.TxDOT wants to widen the viaduct and expand it to the planned future Hardy Toll Road extension near Loop 610.
While some alternatives still involve the taking of residential property for the extension, a number of others reroute the viaduct into areas of the Near Northside more heavily populated by businesses.
Four of the designs reroute Elysian Street east after Burnett along a path between Maury and Maffitt, which is less residential.
The plan would call for the acquisition of no more than two residential properties and between eight and 11 commercial properties from Harrington north to the proposed Hardy Toll Road extension.
The estimated cost is $33.2 million to $38.3 million.
Three other alternatives, which include the initial plan to build directly along the current path of the viaduct, would require between 15 and 21 residential properties to be purchased at a cost of $37 million to $40.3 million.
"The main goal is that we have to replace that existing bridge," said Todd Thurber, a public engineer for TxDOT. "But the only alternative to what we initially proposed is to come through more commercial property."
I really really hope they get this right, and that it's done in a way that's sensitive to the needs of the Near Northside folks. The Hardy extension is a key to alleviating I-45 traffic, which in turn would hopefully mitigate the plans to widen it. There's to be another public meeting on this later on, so I'll keep an eye open for it.
Closer to home, there's the Studewood reconstruction project, which is right now a big mess because the contractor is out of money. There will be a public meeting next week to address this.
Concerns among Heights residents about what appears to be the stalling of a major road construction project on Studewood Street has led state Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, and District H City Councilman Adrian Garcia to call a public meeting about the project.The meeting will be held from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Heights Fire Station, 107 E. 12th St.
Doug Stephens, a public engineer from TxDOT, along with engineers from the city of Houston, will be on hand to answer questions at the meeting.
[...]
Farrar said the meeting will address any neighborhood concerns, and alert people to exactly what is holding up construction.
"(Infrastructure Services Inc.) has run into some issues that you often do when you work in older neighborhoods," Farrar said. "They're working with older pipes, smaller pipes, stuff breaking down. Those are some of the issues. What it's doing is adding cost above and beyond the initial contract.
"They are in the process of securing more money," Farrar added.
Farrar said once the contractor receives additional funds, the work will continue.
I sure hope so.
Possibly the least surprising news yet in the Hurricane Katrina story.
The Missouri attorney general, Jay Nixon, filed a lawsuit this afternoon against InternetDonations.org, the hub for a constellation of Web sites erected over the last several days purporting to collect donations for victims of Hurricane Katrina.Also named in the lawsuit, Mr. Nixon said, is the apparent operator of the donation sites, Frank Weltner, a St. Louis resident and radio talk show personality with ties to neo-Nazi organizations and the notorious Web site JewWatch.com.
The Missouri lawsuit seeks to freeze the assets of Internet Donations Inc., a nonprofit entity registered with the Missouri secretary of state's office by Mr. Weltner on Sept. 2, and to shut down the dozen or so Web sites with names like KatrinaFamilies.com, Katrina-Donations.com and NewOrleansCharities.com. Those sites appear to have been hastily registered and mounted since Hurricane Katrina devastated large swaths of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi last week.
Be careful who you give to, people. Though, as Ginger reminds us, it is possible to be overzealous in this regard. NYT link via Roger Ailes.
Via the SciGuy, here's the best Katrina resource list I've come across. Kudos to Laura Haynes of the Chron for putting it together.
Reports from volunteer duty: Eileen, the Chron's Ken Hoffman, and Lou Negretti, who's curiously uninformed about Austin's evacuee efforts. For the record, some 6000 evacuees were expected in Austin, with the first wave arriving on Sunday. As of Wednesday, there were about 4200 in the capital city.
Speculation on what the future of New Orleans and the evacuee host cities may look like: from Tory, Ray in Austin, Mike Fjetland, and Laurence. On a more sobering note, Amanda passes along word about disease and contamination from a doctor currently in New Orleans.
Latinos for Texas notes that many people displaced by Katrina are Mexican nationals, and they may be reluctant to ask for help.
Benefits: For you New Yorkers, there's Jazz at Lincoln Center, next Saturday the 17th (via Rob. Closer to home, the Saint Arnold brewery will be holding a Red Cross fundraiser on Tuesday the 13th:
RED CROSS FUNDRAISER AT SAINT ARNOLD'S ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 The only way to celebrate New Orleans is to have some good drink, good food and good music. We're going to supply two of the three: drink and music. You are welcome to bring your own tasty food. Music will be courtesy of the Zydeco Dots. Laissez les bon temps rouler! Admission will be $12 per person in advance, $15 at the door. 100% of the proceeds from this evening will go to the Red Cross. We will also be donating all the profits from any glass and shirt sales that night. So be charitable and have a good time! Here are the details:Red Cross Benefit at Saint Arnold Brewery
Tuesday, September 13
6 PM to 9 PM
Admission: $12 in advance, $15 at the door
For advance reservations, call or email Ann (ann@saintarnold.com or 713-686-9494). She will accept cash, credit cards, checks and flattery (while appreciated, the flattery will not go towards the admission). Advance reservations must be made by noon on Tuesday.
Finally, a comment from Susan Wade:
My name is Susan Wade, and my brother is an Austin firefighter. He was in touch with the local Veterans for Peace group, and heard of a VfP group that drove from California to Louisiana last week and set up an aid station. They're in Covington, LA and were the first relief on the ground there. We organized supplies (they had only the first load they brought with them), and Daryl loaded his truck (camper shell and a huge luggage rack) and drove to Covington last Saturday night. He and a friend have been volunteering there ever since. VfP has collected supplies and sent more pickups to Covington from Central Texas.I was able to talk with Daryl by cell phone (his service is spotty, of course) on Monday night. They're working with the Red Cross now. That day, re-supply had improved dramatically, and they're starting to feel like they're making headway.
Tonight, when I got home, there was a message from Daryl saying they've had word of a small town in Mississippi (Laurel) that's received no assistance yet at all. We're organizing supplies and drivers again. If any of your readers want to make a donation that they can be certain will go right now to people in desperate need because of Katrina, I know for a fact the VfP is doing that. They have a PayPal and credit card site set up. Here's the link.
If anyone else wants to go do unglamorous relief work, it sounds as if rural Mississippi is the place to go. I'll serve as a contact for direct info from Covington for any who are interested. Email is swade@texas.net
As always, send me any Katrina information you'd like for me to publicize.
Campaigns elsewhere are getting off the ground today, but for obvious reasons Houston's Mayor Bill White cancelled his campaign launch today. As the Chron notes, he probably won't need to do much politicking anyway.
As expected, White drew no well-funded opposition in his bid for a second term as filing for the Nov. 8 election ended at 5 p.m. Wednesday.Running against him are community activist Gladys Marie House, who previously has run for City Council, and 2003 mayoral candidates Anthony Dutrow, Luis Ullrich and Jack Terence. The three combined took less than 1 percent of that year's mayoral vote.
City Controller Annise Parker is unopposed, as are many Council members. A complete list of candidates will be published tomorrow, so look for that.
White has other reasons to feel good about his reelection chances, even before his stellar performance in response to Katrina.
White raised $2.2 million during the first six months of this year. And he continues to take in cash, with a $500-per-person reception scheduled later this month.Having that much money on hand makes a statement about his political potency, discouraging opposition, and sets the stage for potential political promotions.
White, the former chairman of the state Democratic Party, has raised money across party lines. Among the notable Republicans who have contributed are lawyer Daryl Bristow; engineer Jim Dannenbaum; key Bush fund-raisers Rich and Nancy Kinder; Houston Texans owner Bob McNair; homebuilder Bob Perry; Randy DeLay, brother of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land; lawyer John O'Neill; and homebuilders Dick and David Weekly.
Someday, like 2010 or 2012, when Bill White runs for a statewide office, I'll be very interested to see what those guys do with their money. Will they be in favor of Bill White before they oppose him? Or will their current warm fuzzies win out over partisan preference? File this away for later and see.
More Congressional action: Shane Sklar, the Democratic candidate running in CD14, formally kicked off his campaign in Victoria.
Victoria-born Shane Sklar kicked off his campaign for the Congressional seat now held by Ron Paul by calling for a review of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in light of that bureau's response after Hurricane Katrina."The federal government was ill prepared for this disaster, even though we knew it would occur," said Sklar, speaking before a crowd of about 45 gathered Wednesday morning in DeLeon Plaza in downtown Victoria. "This is simply inexcusable."
A review of FEMA's disaster-response capabilities is important, said Sklar, because the 14th Congressional District - which stretches across 10 counties from the Galveston area to Aransas County south of Victoria and is one of the largest coastal congressional districts in U.S. - could be the next area to be hit by a Katrina.
He said a review should look into "the details of what didn't happen after this natural disaster occurred. I thought with the terrorism preparations that we've had in our country, there might have been a little better plans set in place and response time. We could have done a better job."
The 29-year-old Democrat, former executive director of the Independent Cattlemen's Association of Texas, said the 14th District's congressman must take the lead in a review of FEMA to ensure that response plans will be developed that are simple and effective.
"I think it's very important for the congressman from this area to lead an effort like that. The lives of my family and your family are literally at stake," said Sklar, a fourth-generation rancher who grew up in Edna and was student body president at Victoria College. "We cannot afford to get caught unprepared again."
Sklar intimated that Ron Paul, the incumbent Republican from Surfside Beach in Brazoria County, isn't the man for that job.
He said he respects Paul for standing up for philosophical principles. "But after eight terms in Congress, he has had plenty of chances to make his point."
Sklar said the district needs more than just a congressman who wants to make a philosophical point.
"This isn't a job for someone who simply sits back and lets things happen. We need a congressman who will make a difference. That's why I would want to take a lead in this."
I'm highlighting so much of the story because I think the points that Sklar is raising will be difficult ones for Ron Paul to answer. The House just voted 410-11 to approve a $51.8 billion emergency aid package for Katrina victims. Was Paul one of those 11? (I'll have to look.) If so, will his constituents agree that his staunch libertarian principles outweigh helping people who desperately need it? If not, is he making an exception here or has he always supported this sort of aid package before? Given that CD14 includes a lot of vulnerable Texas coastline, including Galveston Island, what kind of proactive steps does Paul support the government taking to protect them from a future Katrina?
It may well be that Paul has consistent answers, ones which his constituents will approve, for all these questions. But I suspect it's more than just good politics for Shane Sklar to ask them.
UPDATE: Ask and ye shall be answered: Paul was indeed one of the eleven No votes. Interestingly enough, so was Smokey Joe Barton. Calling David Harris!
This was in yesterday's news but I didn't have a chance to get to it: State Rep. Richard Raymond has officially announced that he's running for Rep. Henry Cuellar's CD28 seat.
"Being a Republican is catching up to Henry Cuellar," Raymond said, noting that Cuellar has supported GOP proposals that include privatizing Social Security, Real ID immigration legislation and school vouchers.Raymond, 44, a state representative from Laredo since 2001, will enter a March Democratic primary that is likely to be crowded with familiar names in the district that swings from Webb and Zapata counties in the south through Bexar County and up into Hays County in the north.
Cuellar, a first-term incumbent, took the seat from former congressman Ciro Rodriguez of San Antonio last year in a bitter primary contest that included unsubstantiated charges of voter fraud in Cuellar's home turf along the border.
Both Cuellar and Rodriguez are expected to enter the primary as well.
[...]
Earlier today, Raymond launched his campaign in Laredo where he touted endorsements from Laredo Mayor Betty Flores as well as Webb County District Attorney Joe Rubio, Webb County Judge Louis Bruni and Web County Sheriff Rick Flores. He also has the backing of former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Martin Frost.
Getting endorsements from Laredo politicians is big for Raymond. It was turnout in Webb County, where the voters there were excited about possibly electing their first native Congress member, that pushed Cueller over the top. I slightly prefer Ciro Rodriguez on the issues - I still haven't quite forgiven Raymond for his yes vote on HJR6, especially when an abstention would have been good enough. But Raymond is almost surely the stronger candidate, and he's definitely preferable to Cuellar. So keep an eye on this one, it's sure to be a barnburner. Link via The Jeffersonian.
On a related note, the Quorum Report says that 26-year-old Sergio Mora, a former aide to Raymond and State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, will run for Raymond's open seat.
I'd heard a rumor that this was coming down, though to be honest I thought they'd be indicting people instead of the organizations.
The Texas Association of Business and Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee have been indicted on charges of illegally using corporate money to help Republicans win control of the Texas Legislature in 2002.The indictments, released publicly this morning, include 128 counts against the business group and two against the political action committee, which was created by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land.
The Travis County grand jury that issued the indictments, however, took no action against the Texas Association of Business' president, Bill Hammond, or any other officials with the group today.
[...]
If convicted, the state's largest business group faces the threat of fines — up to $20,000 for each count. But the indictments also complicate the group's defense against civil lawsuits filed by losing Democratic candidates. Damages in those suits could be double the $1.7 million that the association spent on 4 million mailers to voters in 2002.
The four indictments against the business group — two of which were issued last month and then sealed — break down the counts by different actions the group took. They include:
•14 counts of prohibited political contributions by a corporation (TAB) for paying Hammond and staffer Jack Campbell to do political work.
•28 additional counts for fraudulently soliciting money from corporations to use in the 2002 election..
•83 additional counts of prohibited political contributions by a corporation for paying for political mailers and TV commercials.
•Three counts of prohibited political expenditures by a corporation for spending money in connection with 23 legislative campaigns.
All the counts are third-degree felonies.
TRMPAC, in the lone indictment against it, is charged with two counts of illegally accepting corporate donations, including $100,000 from the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care.
Texas House speaker candidate Tom Craddick collected that check at a Houston restaurant days before the 2002 election. He has said he didn't know the amount of the check and was just passing it along to the PAC.
Craddick, who became speaker after Republicans took control in the 2002 elections, was not named in the indictments.
Let the games begin. These are going to be some fun trials to witness. A press release with the Texas Democratic Party's response to the indictments is beneath the fold.
UPDATE: Don't miss this awesome flowchart diagramming who did what to whom in TAB and TRMPAC. Thanks to In the Pink for the catch.
UPDATE: Here's an intriguing tidbit from Bloomberg:
DeLay spokesman Kevin Madden said the indictment of the PAC is "limited to a political organization and does not affect Mr. DeLay." Madden said DeLay voluntarily spoke with the district attorney's office last month about the inquiry and told them his role in the PAC was limited to serving on its advisory board and appearing at fund raisers, Madden said.
What I'd give to have been a fly on that wall, let me tell you.
Today, the Texas Association of Business (TAB) and Texans for a Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC) were indicted for 130 charges of criminal campaign activities stemming from conduct during the 2002 general election.
Although they were not named individually, the indictments themselves involve activities and organizations that point directly to U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, and Governor Rick Perry.
“Today’s indictments show how a handful of operatives working for Texas Republicans orchestrated a scheme to launder illegal corporate contributions to help Republican candidates in the 2002 elections,” said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Charles Soechting.
“When they needed help in 2002, Tom DeLay, Tom Craddick, and the Governor’s cronies engaged these corrupt special interest groups in this illegal scheme, and the people of Texas have paid the price ever since,” he added.
Although none of the officeholders were named in the indictments, the substance of the charges points directly to them, Soechting explained, noting that Tom DeLay was the founder of TRMPAC and the direct involvement of Speaker Craddick and the Governor’s future Chief of Staff Mike Toomey in activities specifically spelled out in the indictments.
“The groups named in today’s indictments participated in this illegal scheme for one reason – they expected a payoff in the 2003 legislative session, and they got it in the form of congressional redistricting, tort reform, and attempts to pass private school vouchers,” Soechting said.
“The Republicans chose to play a corrupt ‘pay to play’ game, and in 2006, Texas voters have the opportunity to make them pay the price,” Soechting concluded.
Though I expect he'll get a bounce from his activities relating to Katrina evacuees, Governor Perry's poll numbers stink.
If the 2006 primary were held today, 46 percent of Republican voters would support Mr. Perry, compared with 28 percent for Mrs. Strayhorn. Nearly one-quarter are undecided. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.[...]
The Perry camp said poll results will fluctuate, but the governor is focused on doing his job. Mr. Perry has a 55 percent positive job-approval rating among Republicans and a 30 percent negative rating.
Among all voters, though, Mr. Perry's job approval has fallen to 39 percent, down 12 points from six months ago. The governor has been unsuccessful in getting the Legislature to lower property taxes and change the state's system of funding education.
The Texas Poll is quarterly, as I recall. Note that the SurveyUSA results from July track these more recent number pretty closely. And let me say again - Fifty-five percent approval among Republicans? That just ain't good for a guy who lives and breathes on his base.
Other tidbits:
Meanwhile, 54 percent of Democratic primary voters are undecided on whom to support in the March contest. Sixteen percent support former Comptroller John Sharp, who has not said whether he's running, and 10 percent favor former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell. Eight percent would vote for Felix Alvarado, an assistant principal in Fort Worth, and 12 percent support various other candidates.
The high undecided number may be a function of the relative scarcity of coverage on this side of the equation. I'm almost ready for Sharp to get off the pot just so that the media would have something to talk about besides the Rick 'n' Carole Show.
How Texans rate some other politicians' job performance in a new Texas poll:52% approve of President Bush's work, his lowest mark in Texas since he became president (43 percent disapprove).
Think it'll get national attention if Bush drops below 50% approval in Texas?
25% approve of state House Speaker Tom Craddick's performance (29 percent disapproved, 46 percent didn't have an opinion).23% approve of the Legislature's work (65 percent disapprove).
One word - Ouch.
64% approve of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's performance, as she continues her reign as the state's most popular elected official (19 percent disapprove).42% approve of U.S. Sen. John Cornyn's job performance (21 percent disapprove).
Going back to SurveyUSA for a minute, both Senators do better in the Texas poll than in SUSA's. Cornyn's approval number is almost the same, but his disapproval number is 36% in SUSA. Make of that what you will.
After the nice things I said about Governor Perry earlier, it kind of restores my faith to see a story like this.
Gov. Rick Perry, in hurricane relief tours around the state, in news releases and on his official state Web site, has urged Texans to contribute to three groups: the Red Cross, Salvation Army and the OneStar Foundation.The last of those is a volunteer-coordinating effort founded by Mr. Perry. His prominent promotion of his own foundation has prompted some to question whether the governor is trying to benefit politically from the outpouring of sympathy and good works in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
[...]
Mr. Perry created OneStar as a nonprofit charitable organization in January 2004 to coordinate faith-based initiatives and promote volunteerism. Its chief executive is Susan Weddington, who left the state Republican Party chairmanship to run the organization.
[...]
Through legislation, the governor placed his divisions of faith-based initiatives, adult mentoring and the AmeriCorps volunteer program in the OneStar Foundation. It operates with federal grant money.
In the past several months, Ms. Weddington and Mr. Perry have been featured speakers of the Texas Restoration Project, a statewide effort to unite churches and organize their membership to vote in coming elections.
Mr. Perry's picture is prominent throughout OneStar's Web site, which says the foundation was "birthed from the heart and vision of Governor Rick Perry."
Ms. Weddington said that her office is serving as a clearinghouse for evacuee relief efforts, trying to connect donated goods with those who need them through the Texas Responds Web page, part of the OneStar site.
"Obviously, the governor tapped us because we do work for and on behalf of the state," she said. "This is the logical place."
[...]
Suzii Paynter, director of citizenship for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, said OneStar has done a good job of coordinating the huge influx of donation efforts. The foundation's Web page has taken information and made it available to groups throughout the state, she said.
"Rick Perry has never lacked for photo-ops. But there is a huge need for money and donations that can be used in this state that don't need to go through the big national organizations," Ms. Paynter said.
She said that while there might be some political aspect to it, One- Star is also fulfilling a tremendous need.
"Does it look like that there might be an incidental self-serving aspect to it? Perhaps. My experience with politicians is that if you give them a handle, they'll grab it," she said.
This is just a reminder to me why mixing charity and politics is a bad idea. Maybe the OneStar Foundation is everything it's cracked up to be and more. Maybe it really is the logical place to route this kind of work. Maybe if this were all happening in 2007 with Chris Bell in the Governor's mansion, the OneStar Foundation would still be doing this work. I don't know. What I do know is that we've seen politicians use charitable organizations and fundraisers for their own benefit before. They do this because there's no requirement to report who gives money to a charity, so they can avert some campaign finance laws. What assurances do I have, other than Kathy Walt telling me that politics has nothing, NOTHING I TELL YOU, to do with this, that OneStar is on the up and up?
What I'm getting at is this: Charity and politics should be separate. Especially in a situation like this, it's just too suspicious otherwise. Link via Tex Prodigy.
Today is the 105th anniversary of the Galveston hurricane, which killed 8000 people in 1900. To commemorate the occasion, Galveston's Judge Susan Criss has written the following open letter to the Katrina evacuees here:
Dear Visitors from Louisiana, Mississippi & Alabama,The first thing that I want you to know is that you are very welcome here. We are so glad that you are safe.
Many, many people here want to do what ever is necessary to help you. Please let us know what you need.
The second thing that I want you to know is that we understand what is to suffer through and survive hurricanes here. Although many of us have survived dangerous and destructive storms, none of us have suffered through a storm as horrific as Katrina.
But this island that is our home has. Up until Katrina this nation's worst natural disaster was the Storm of 1900. September 8, 2005 is the 105th anniversary of that hurricane.
Over 8000 lives were lost. Three fourths of Galveston was completely destroyed by the 150 miles per hour winds and the 15 and a half foot storm surge.
There had not been any evacuation. The storm was not expected. People climbed up to their attics. Many ended up spending the night clinging to tree limbs. When daylight came and the storm had passed they found corpses all over the streets and yards.Water was contaminated. Clara Barton, the founder of The American Red Cross, came here to help with the relief effort. There was concern over sanitation, disease, disposing of the dead and looting. Galveston was under martial law for a week.
Some questioned whether it made sense to rebuild. Some moved up the coast to to Houston. But most stayed and began the challenging work of rebuilding.
Before the storm Galveston was 9 feet below sea level. After the cleanup, city officials decided to "raise the grade". The entire city was raised by 17 feet. The lifting of the city began in 1903 and cost about 3 and a half million dollars. They also built our seawall.
In the year 2000 we celebrated the 100 year anniversary of Galveston's surviving the Storm of 1900. We thanked God that our ancestors had the courage and foresight to rebuild this beautiful home of ours. We realized that many bonds had formed between families who rode out the storm together. Those bonds have survived several generations and exist today.
A statue of a man holding his family with his hand reaching up towards heaven was put on the seawall to honor the spirit of the survivors.
We live in a wonderful city that was rebuilt after being destroyed by a hurricane. We know that your cities can be rebuilt. If it was possible in 1900, it is possible now.
Our ancestors could not have rebuilt this city without hope despite overwhelming desperation and fear. Please remember that hope is there for you also.
May God bless you and keep you safe.
More information on that terrible storm can be found here.
Kevin Drum cites another example to bolster his thesis of George Bush as a bad CEO. As Rick Casey tells us, Houston Mayor Bill White is the gold standard for CEOs-turned-politician.
It's the unsung quality in political leadership, a pedestrian skill rarely mentioned by pundits or political scientists.But it's absolutely essential in a crisis.
It is the ability to run a meeting, and Houston Mayor Bill White has it.
The example that Casey cites of White and County Judge Robert Eckels ensuring that the evacuees know what's going on and have a voice in the process is excellent.
Around the table are elected officials and key city and county staff, as well as executives from KBR, CenterPoint Energy and the Wedge Group, church leaders, American Red Cross and FEMA executives, and heads of the Houston Food Bank and the United Way.One group represented at the table is something of a surprise: The Metropolitan Organization.
TMO is part of a network of community organizations that works under principles originally developed by the late activist Saul Alinsky. It and its sister groups across the state are known for their willingness to forcefully confront public officials on issues affecting low-income citizens.
Eckels and White had the good sense to agree to put to use the group's skill at listening to traditionally disenfranchised people. Beginning Saturday, they allowed TMO organizers and leaders into the Astrodome.
"We figured there were a lot of people in the Astrodome who had been leaders in New Orleans," said Renee Barrios, TMO's lead organizer. "We decided to organize them. We announced over the loudspeakers that all church and neighborhood leaders should come to a particular section up in the stands."
About 50 came up, she said, to talk about the problems and issues the residents were facing. The number has grown to about 100 in the days since, and those go out and talk to other residents about their concerns.
So Barrios sits at the table to voice the concerns of the evacuees. The notion that their concerns should be heard is both obvious and rarely executed.
He makes it look easy, doesn't he? By the way, as Houtopia notes, Mayor White has cancelled his kickoff celebration, which was scheduled for tomorrow.
On to the roundup: Would you believe that FEMA has a rap song for kids on its website? About disaster preparedness? I swear, every passing day reveals to me more and more just what geniuses they are at The Onion for not throwing up their hands and saying "We surrender! We can't compete with this reality!" Link via TAPped.
Linkmeister points to an array of reports from a doctor working with evacuees inside the Astrodome. It's compelling stuff.
The members of the Louisiana Search and Rescue Dog Team have suffered extensive damage to their homes in Katrina. Help in Houston has information about how you can make a contribution for them.
Looking for benefit concerts? The Hand Stamp blog has what you need to know. This weekend, the action is at Numbers and The Proletariat. More info in this article - I've got to check out the "New Orleans Happy Hour" on Thursdays at Cosmos Cafe, which is right in my neighborhood.
Via email from the Jay Aiyer campaign:
Can you send out a plea for volunteers to come to the Jay Aiyer Campaign office at 6634 Southwest Freeway (Hillcroft and 59) ASAP and bring their laptops if possible? People are being sent to the campaign office from the motels (which do NOT HAVE internet access) to do their FEMA registration. Volunteers are needed to do their data entry and the process for them. We have wireless access. We also have extra computers that can be used if you don't have a laptop. We need help tonight and tomorrow. The number to call is 713-266-2005. Please help if you can - apparently these people were sent to the office by an elected official who knew of the internet access. Thanks.
And via email from Skye Kilaen:
I've been working the Texas 211 line, as a volunteer and also drafted during the day from my regular state agency job. One of the most frustrating requests has been how to replace lost IDs, since people can't get jobs, apartments, or replacement Social Security checks without them. We just didn't know what to tell people.Finally found this.
No fee, just need to mail or fax the form.
Of all the Katrina-info-lists I've posted, this one at Go Fug Yourself is in the place I'd have least expected it. It's still a good list, so check it out and try not to waste too much time clicking on their other links.
UPDATE: Missed a couple of posts from The Jeffersonian on the cost of Katrina to SA, and the formation of the San Antonio Hurricane Relief Fund - info found here.
The following came via email from Michelle Harris, David Harris' wife, on behalf of the Fort Worth Police Department:
Officer Tom Wiederhold, one of our FWPD L.E.E.A.N coordinators, has spoken with Lt Carol Aldridge, Commander of Dist 2, New Orleans Police Department. She has made the following request for items:· Contractor size heavy-duty trash bags,
· large rubber trash barrels
· walkie talkies with a range of at least 5 miles
· Nylon duty gear
· Duty knives
· Dry rat and roach poison
· "Dry" foot care medicines
· One gallon water jugs
· "Small" fruit juices and cases of soft drinks or Gatorade
· Dehydrated or dried fruit rations (like hikers carry) **NO fresh fruit, please**
· Granola bars
· Charcoal grills and cook tops with "self lighting" charcoal
· Socks would be nice
· And all the ICE they can getDONATIONS can be taken to the Fort Worth Police Academy, 1000 Calvert The FWPD L.E.E.A.N. group will head out for New Orleans early Thursday (09-08-05) morning, if possible. These items are needed A.S.A.P.!
Lt. Aldridge asked that all items be packaged to keep dry and stored so that they won't get wet (all materials are being kept outside). Their Officers are sleeping in tents, so anything "camping" would help. She will be gathering a list of boot sizes to forward as an additional need.
According to the lieutenant, Federal assistance is coming, but the majority of relief items are being diverted or maintained at the Federal impound and not reaching officers in her District. Basically, they are not receiving these basic needs items and need our help.
*** What is L.E.E.A.N. ? - The Ft Worth Police Dept "Law Enforcement Emergency Assistance Network" is up and running to provide help to any Police Families coming into the North Texas area as well as collecting Equipment and needed personal itmes to send to the Storm Damaged areas. The Peer Support Team is the Lead, Cpl Jim Houck is in charge. Donations of items may be brought to the FT Worth Police Academy. The collections will be for items only, no monies will be accepted. As we learn what is most needed by the Officers we will pass that information on. There are several relief efforts under way and we want to make sure that we do not duplicate too much!
Dean A. Sullivan, Lieutenant
Fort Worth Police Department
Public Information Officer
ofc: (817) 392-4214
fax: (817) 392-4216
Houston Helps is another one-stop source for Katrina assistance information. Lots of good information there, so check it out. Via H-Town Blogs.
Nick Lampson has a comprehensive list of Katrina resources on his homepage. Mike Fjetland drove a vanload of relief supplies to Baton Rouge over the weekend. What's Tom DeLay been up to?
On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, sought to deflect criticism of the federal response before announcing that House hearings on the issue had been canceled -- and pressing for a joint review instead."The emergency response system was set up to work from the bottom up," DeLay said late Tuesday.
DeLay added that Alabama and Mississippi did a much better job of responding quickly than Louisiana. Alabama and Mississippi have Republican governors. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco is a Democrat.
Not that he's playing politics or anything like that, mind you. I just wonder if his perfectly rational explanation for not rolling back the gas tax would have applied to the estate tax repeal if the House hadn't already approved that.
I'd like to thank Tim in the comments for pointing out this statement on Katrina relief efforts by Senator Barack Obama. Pretty easy to see why he has so many fans around the country.
Finally, the following came via email from a listserv I'm on:
The Wireless Internet Service Providers Organization, known as PART-15.org, is working with the Federal Emergency management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reestablish internal communications and provide connectivity to those affected by Katrina. This organization offers opportunities to volunteer equipment, personnel or supplies, to donate funds, and to provide shelter relief services. Click here for more.The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's National Emergency Resource Registry provides opportunities for those interested in donating communications-related expertise or equipment, including laptop or notebook computers and network construction and maintenance equipment.
If you know of any other organizations focusing on technology-related relief efforts that are accepting contributions, please forward this information to katrina_relief@acm.org, and we will post it on the ACM Home Page. For those interested in contributing to those organizations identified by FEMA for support of Katrina relief efforts, they are listed online here.
As always, more as I get it.
I'm sure I'll get back to regular political and electoral blogging sooner or later, but for now I'll just pass along some tidbits I've seen elsewhere. BOR has several items of interest: here, here, here, and here. And In the Pink reports that State Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos (D, Austin) is making an announcement today, which could speculatively be that he's retiring. I'll update this post when I know more.
UPDATE: Senator Barrientos is retiring. Here's the press release:
State Senator Gonzalo Barrientos (D-Austin) announced today that he will not seek to represent Travis County for another term in the Texas Legislature. First elected to the legislature in 1974, Barrientos served ten years in the Texas House of Representatives before being elected to the Texas Senate in 1984. “After thirty years pursuing a high calling, my heart is telling me to continue fighting for the things I believe in, but to find another way to wage that fight,” Barrientos said. “I will serve out my current term, but I shall not seek another.”As a legislator Senator Barrientos authored, co-authored, sponsored and co-sponsored almost 550 pieces of legislation. Among the bills of which he is most proud are the state’s Top Ten Percent law, which addressed the Hopwood ruling by guaranteeing college admission for Texas high school students graduating in the top ten percent of their class, a package of bills from the 71st Regular Session addressing the state’s school dropout problem, the creation of the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District, and the creation and funding of Texas Task Force One. Through decades of service on House Appropriations and Senate Finance, the senator consistently pushed for better pay and benefits for state employees. As a whole, Barrientos legislative record reflects his focus on education and his steadfast advocacy for society’s most vulnerable members. Barrientos distilled his legislative philosophy simply. “Looking back, I would say that through thirty years in office, what I did more than anything else was follow my heart.”
Senator Barrientos quoted his favorite president, John Kennedy, as he concluded by urging colleagues to return to the tradition of bipartisanship as they wrestle with the issues of the day in the future. “In his inaugural address, President Kennedy said ‘civility is not a sign of weakness,’” Barrientos remembered. “As they work in the next session and beyond to further the common good, I hope that my colleagues in the house and senate will take that to heart.”
My thanks to Senator Barrientos for his dedicated service.
Ray in Austin continues to be a great resource for Katrina information. Here's an introduction to the people of South Louisiana, and here's a vow that Mardi Gras will go on.
Hope and Eileen spent some time at the Austin Convention Center today, and she's got some advice for anyone else who plans on volunteering. She also created a nifty little handout with phone numbers that evacuees should know. I've uploaded the Word doc here for anyone who wants to print a copy for themselves.
Matt Albright, posting on Rob Booth's blog, says:
For those in the West Houston area: If you have evacuees in your home or know of someone who does, our church will be serving free evening dinners to evacuees. The church is located on Clay Road West of Hwy 6. It is about a block past Los Cucos Mexican Restaurant on the South side of the road.
The church in question is Bear Creek Baptist Church. Full information and a schedule at Matt's post.
Want to donate food, clothing, or toiletries to the relief efforts this week but don't have the time to get to a dropoff center? The City of Houston's Solid Waste Management Department is sponsoring a Food and Clothing Drive, and they'll pick up your donations from your curb for you.
By placing canned goods, non-perishable food items, clothes and toiletries in a grocery bag at the curb on the resident's SWMD garbage collection day the week of September 6-9, 2005*, Houstonians will help contribute to these devastated families. The Curbside Food and Clothing Drive is for Houston residents who are serviced directly by the City of Houston Solid Waste Management Department.
In other words, if your garbage is collected on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, you can still have your donations collected this way. There's more at the SWMD web page - you can also use their service centers as dropoff points. Via Help in Houston, which also has a list of places where you can volunteer your time.
US Rep. Chet Edwards announces that the Department of Labor has granted $75 million to the Texas Workforce Commission for Katrina evacuee relief efforts.
Following the approval by Congress of $10.5 billion for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts last week, U.S. Representative Chet Edwards today announced that the U. S. Department of Labor will release up to $75 million to the Texas Workforce Commission to provide a wide range of services to evacuees from areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Approximately $23.5 million will be available immediately."This is just the first step, but in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it is vital that this emergency funding moves quickly toward relief efforts in Texas and the Gulf Coast region. Together, federal, state and local authorities must continue to work diligently to protect and assist those in need," said Edwards.
[...]
The Department of Labor project was funded under the federal WORKFORCE INVESTMENT ACT (WIA) as a national emergency grant and will provide for a wide range of assistance for the evacuees such as: temporary employment to assist disaster relief efforts, supporting shelter operations, and assisting with humanitarian needs; needs-related payments for those not eligible for or who have exhausted either Disaster Unemployment Assistance or Unemployment Insurance; short-term, vocational training that could be useful in rebuilding or resettlement efforts; job search assistance; temporary unsubsidized employment opportunities in the private sector; and dissemination of information on how to access DUA or UI; establishment of temporary shelters; and crisis and financial counseling.
[...]
Additional general information about hurricane recovery assistance available through the Department of Labor can be found on this website.
Norbizness has some useful Austin info, underneath some good Simpsons quotes.
The Red State reports on his volunteer experience in San Antonio.
As always, please send me information about relief efforts that you'd like me to disseminate via email to kuff - at - offthekuff - dot - com. Thanks!
Bob Denver, whose portrayal of goofy castaway Gilligan on the 1960s TV show Gilligan's Island made him an iconic figure to generations of TV viewers, has died. He was 70.He died Friday at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in North Carolina of complications from treatment he was receiving for cancer, his agent, Mike Eisenstadt, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
I'm a child of the 70s and 80s. I've seen every episode. Reading this obituary got me to thinking about iconicness.
Denver's signature role was Gilligan, but when he took the role in 1964 he was already widely known to TV audiences for another iconic character, Maynard G. Krebs, the bearded beatnik friend of Dwayne Hickman's Dobie in the The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, which aired on CBS from 1959 to 1963.Krebs, whose only desire was to play the bongos and hang out at coffee houses, would shriek every time the word "work" was mentioned in his presence.
I've never seen that show. I've heard of the character and knew he was a beatnik, but knew nothing else about it.
Denver went on to star in other TV series, including The Good Guys and Dusty's Trail, as well as to make numerous appearances in films and TV shows.But he never escaped the role of Gilligan, so much so that in one of his top 10 lists - "the top 10 things that will make you stand up and cheer" - Late Show host David Letterman once simply shouted out Denver's name to raucous applause.
"It was the mid-'70s when I realized it wasn't going off the air," Denver told The Associated Press in 2001, noting then that he enjoyed checking eBay each day to keep up on the prices Gilligan's Island memorabilia were fetching.
"I certainly didn't set out to have a series rerun forever, but it's not a bad experience at all," he added.
Every now and then I think about some of the cultural touchstones of my youth and wonder how much - or if at all - I'll share those experiences with Olivia. You can give all the usual reasons why Gilligan's Island will be to her as The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis is to me - mostly, many more entertainment options clamoring for her attention - but I think it's simpler than that. I outgrew Gilligan's Island in the 1970s. I don't watch any of those "iconic" shows any more - in many cases, I haven't seen them since they went off the air, whether or not they're still airing somewhere today. I suppose Olivia may be surfing Nickelodeon or TVLand some day and and pause long enough to say "Hey, Dad, did you ever watch this?", but beyond that I'm hard pressed to think of a reason why she'd ever know anything about them. Maybe it'll be different for other parents and other kids, I couldn't say. But if Bob Denver's legacy will live on beyond my demographic, it probably won't be because of me.
I suppose a small part of me is sad about that. Who doesn't like sharing childhood memories with their kids, even the cheesy ones? But I think there'll be plenty of that; they'll just be memories I actually bother to remember from time to time. That'll leave more room for us to discover new things together, and that more than makes up for any icons that get discarded along the way.
Sorry, Bob. Rest in peace anyway.
Via Dwight, a simple and elegant way to help evacuees and their loved ones find each other: Let them keep their old phone numbers.
Is it too much to ask Bell South to:
- Let displaced account holders log in and claim their accounts (phone numbers) via the Internet. What's happening at the Astrodome?
- Offer every subscriber in the devastated area a free soft phone with voice mail that replicates their old home number? Softphones that would do the job are available. If the numbers were transferable then Skype could probably scale a solution in just hours rather than weeks.
- Drop the fee until the home line is up and running again?
- Enable voice messages via e-mail if required.
- Enable call forwarding if appropriate.
- Provide copies of old phone bills? Help people reconnect with old friends, families, schools, employers, banks.
As Dwight notes, Skype is a VoIP provider, so all this may be easy for them to say. But still, it's a great suggestion and a natural extension of the idea used for Air America's Public Voicemail.
Following up on the report from the GRB by Melissa Noriega, here's the Chron story which categorizes Rick Noriega's involvement.
Houston government has historically partnered with the city's business community when it undertakes major projects.That spirit, which drove much of Houston's development in the city's formative years, was tapped again when Mayor Bill White called on executives to help the city transform the George R. Brown Convention into a shelter for hurricane evacuees.
"The idea is to get the best person available, right here, for the job," said White, who has likened the relief effort to taking care of customers.
State Rep. Rick Noriega, a CenterPoint Energy executive and a Texas Army National Guard officer, for instance, was asked to run the convention center shelter shortly after returning from Kabul, Afghanistan, where he helped establish a training center for thousands of troops.
[...]
Noriega, who was about to return to his CenterPoint job after his stint in Afghanistan, was chosen when the mayor asked CenterPoint's CEO if he could be assigned to the evacuee effort at the convention center for 30 days.
CenterPoint officials agreed and went a step further.
"CenterPoint volunteered its entire volunteer force," Noriega said, a force that includes managers with years of experience handling emergencies.
The company also provided cots and ice, and bought and installed 80 showers.
And CenterPoint executives set up a computer system, with help from IBM, for processing evacuees as they arrived, and supplied walkie-talkies.
I've posted repeatedly on the things going on here in Texas and how you can get involved locally in assisting evacuees. I want to stress that these folks are going to be arriving in other places soon - Oregon, for example:
Gov. Ted Kulongoski said he signed an agreement Monday with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to accept [as many as 1000] evacuees and to receive federal funding for their care. Displaced residents might arrive as soon as Wednesday, but officials weren't certain.Kulongoski said he will stay involved but wants the Red Cross to call the shots.
"If you know anything about what happened in New Orleans, it's that no one took charge," Kulongoski said. "Everyone was running around pointing their fingers at everyone. We're not going to repeat that mistake here."
Check with your local Red Cross to see if you're getting some new neighbors who'll need some assistance. Here's some info for folks in Illinois.
Melissa Noriega is the wife of State Rep. Rick Noriega. She served as State Rep for their district in his place this session while he was serving in Afghanistan with the Texas Army National Guard. She sent me the following email about what is going on at the George R. Brown Convention Center, where Rick Noriega has been site commander since Friday:
My husband, Rick Noriega, humble public servant and state rep extrordinaire, has managed once again to blow even me away. You all really should see what God, Mayorbill and Col. Rick Noriega have wrought.The GRB is organized, orderly and automated. When the folks arrived, we cheered and clapped for them, whisked away their dirty clothes while they showered, and got them squared away. The moms get queen sized air mattresses and the single men cots,seniors whichever is easiest, in different areas, separated by police and National Guard walking around being very present and very nice. Everyone gets a blanket and a pillow, and if they ask, they can have a second one. The sheets are clearly donated and the floor of the GRB is a sea of quilt squares and out-of-style stripes. The generous people of Houston reached into their linen closets and made up the visitors' beds.
There is a chow hall. It is set up with round tables and chairs in groups. There are handwashing stations set up everywhere, with the hand gel to kill germs--so far the group is pretty healthy. There are port-a-potties tucked away from everyone. There is bottled water everywhere. The guests (that's what they are called--NOT refugees or victims) sit down and eat, with plasticware and napkins. There is a schedule for meals, and lots of food lines, so folks don't have to stand long.
Upstairs there is a ballroom set up with TWO FULL SIZE park gyms set ups for the children. (Thanks to Parks and Rec.) With chopped rubber chips underneath. If parents need to leave the kiddos to do paperwork or med stuff, they get a wristband that matches the kids and the volunteers will watch them while they play with the toys donated, again by the wonderful people of Houston.
The middle ballroom is a TV room, with CNN and Fox going--these folks are needing info and news. As I stood in the doorway, a woman pointed at the screen and began to cry. There was a volunteer holding a fat-cheeked baby on her shoulder. The mother said she had been under the bridge up on the TV at that moment for 6 days, holding this fat baby until she thought she couldn't hold him one more minute. She said when she got to GRB, a vounteer held the baby until she could shower and put on fresh clothes. She said she waded out from her house to the bridge with her son and two others in a laundry basket over her head while the water was up to her chin. She was terrifed that she would hit a hole and she and the three babies would all drown.
The third ballroom is a library, with carrels of books, games and activites and a reading area. They just set up a computer lab there, so anyone can check websites or their email. There are also some computers for the older kids. The Parks folks set up both the park room and the library and have done an amazing job with a VERY small crew.
There is a command center, where they are building automated programs to figure out how many beds are left, how many folks they have and who they are. CenterPoint (our Electric Utility and Rick's company) and Second Baptist executives, as well as the City of Houston, folks are front and center, with a smattering of Marathon Oil folks doing the IT stuff with a guy from a mangement consulting firm who is our brother-in-law, Jerry Weisenfelder. He was here all Sat nite automating the whole record system. Incredible. I saw Dave McClanahan, the head of CenterPoint, VP Tom Standish, Jeff Cohen, the editor of the Chron and a Sr. VP of Marathon, all volunteering--checking in guests, ushering folks to their spot, working on the IT systems. It was extraordinary.
Mayor White gave Rick what he needed and the authority to do it. Every hour a new challenge arises and they march through it--the Rodeo folks showed up to help, and they got handed the transportation needs--getting families back together, getting people to other locations--and anyone who has been to the Rodeo know what geniuses they are at moving people! Thanks HLSR!
There is a hospital--with mobile vans for dental and X-ray. (Thanks to UTMB and Mike McKinney.) There is a full size pharmacy (thanks to CVS), with security and staff. All of it has been built in 48 hours.
The City of Houston, CenterPoint, all the hundreds of volunteers, Second Baptist (the "2nd" folks are VERY sharp--Pastor Young lent at least three command staff level folks who are incredible.) The George Brown staff are brilliant and handling hairy things, like med hazardous waste and moving huge groups of people with great competence and a lovely attitude. The fancy Hilton next door is washing the guest clothes and returning them, as well as washing soiled linens. LOTS of babies and very small children. Lots of
dirty linen.The fire dept. folk, HPD--all are performing at max with a great attitude. I haven't even begun to name all the groups and individuals that deserve kudos, but there is what amounts to a city under the roof of Houston's George Brown Convention Center, and everyone has done an incredible, magnificent job. I am beyond proud of my husband, grateful to God for the attitude and help everyone has provided, impressed with the City of Houston folks and just downright amazed at what has been done so quickly and so well. Next - school. That stuff starts tomorrow.
This is NOT a permanent solution for these folks--a shelter is not housing, but Houston has risen to the task and has been magnificent. Please remember that this will not be over tomorrow when the news cameras go away and everyone goes back to work. We will need to work this hard to get these folks hooked up with opportunites to work and live again.
Pray for everyone down here--God bless,
Melissa Noriega
Thank you, Melissa and Rick Noriega. Thank you very much.
If this story doesn't move you, I don't know what would.
BATON ROUGE, La. — In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard, this group of refugees stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader.They were holding hands. Three of the children were about 2 years old, and one was wearing only diapers. A 3-year-old girl, who wore colorful barrettes on the ends of her braids, had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he told rescuers his name was Deamonte Love.
I'm relieved to say that the story has a happy ending. Read it and try not to cry. Via Talk Left.
This is the best thing Homeland Security has ever done.
The Yves St. Laurent and Tommy Hilfiger labels may be phony, but the thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims getting knockoff items seized by federal customs officials probably don't mind.Displaced survivors in the Houston Astrodome can choose from counterfeit and abandoned clothing, toys, and even dog food.
More than 100,000 items were quickly taken from warehouses and more will follow, said Kristi Clemens, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection division.
The agency has some 1 million items stored, and Customs officials are going through their inventory to see what else would be useful. While the initial shipment went to Texas, officials are looking toward a wider distribution, Clemens said.
For humans, virtually anything that you can wear is available: underwear, jeans, baseball caps, T-shirts, shoes and socks. For dogs: much needed food. For children, toys. For everyone: clean sheets and blankets.
Clemens said officials are looking for locations to deliver items in Louisiana and Mississippi, and then will scout for shelters in other states.
Whoever thought of that deserves a raise.
Meanwhile, the Houston City Council has approved $10 million in disaster relief money.
The money, which would come from a street and bridge construction fund, might be used to pay for the personnel, equipment and supplies to help the tens of thousands of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina.Mayor Bill White said that the city has spent less than $1 million so far on ramping up shelters and other services for evacuees. He said he'd also secured millions of dollars in funding pledges from private sources.
"If something happens, we need to be able to act quickly," he said.
The City expects to be mostly if not fully reimbursed by FEMA for these expenses.
It may be a little late for this, but just in case:
JUDGE ROBERT ECKELS AND MAYOR BILL WHITE ENCOURAGE ADDITIONAL VOLUNTEERISM AND APPLAUDE THE VOLUNTEER SPIRIT OF THE COMMUNITY
Sep 5th, 2005
R E L I A N T C E N T E R
J I C
Joint Information Center
Hurricane Katrina Houston Response
Monday, September 5, 2005 5:00 PM
Contacts: 832.667.3192
832.667.3193
832.667.3188
Fax: 832.667.3187
Media AdvisoryJUDGE ROBERT ECKELS AND MAYOR BILL WHITE ENCOURAGE ADDITIONAL VOLUNTEERISM AND APPLAUDE THE VOLUNTEER SPIRIT OF THE COMMUNITY
(HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS) – Harris County Judge Robert Eckels and Houston Mayor Bill White are asking citizens to further reach-out to the evacuees by volunteering at Reliant Park. One thousand more volunteers are needed to share in Houston’s spirit and big-hearted efforts. Volunteers are asked to come directly to Reliant Park now and to stay throughout the night. Volunteers are asked to follow signage and enter the facility at McNee and Kirby where they will directed to the Volunteer Check-in.
Over 25,000 volunteers thus far have volunteered in the relief campaign for the 22,400 Hurricane Katrina evacuees currently finding shelter at Reliant Park. Reliant Park has become the largest evacuation shelter in U.S. history and has been able to continue its efforts largely because of the level of volunteerism and support by those citizens. The response from the citizens of Houston and Harris County has been remarkable. However, this is an ongoing effort and volunteers are still needed and are encouraged to continue volunteering at the Reliant Park facilities.
“Once again Harris County residents have risen to the challenge of helping their fellow neighbor,” said Judge Robert Eckels. “The mayor and I are so proud of our community in their continuous support through not only their donations, but in their volunteerism as well.”
I expect there will continue to be opportunities throughout the week and beyond. I know there are several that are available via my employer; if you work for a large firm here, the odds are thy're there for you as well.
David Harris, the newly-announced candidate for CD06 (whom I met, briefly, along with his wife Michelle and daughter Emma this weekend), has a press release (see it here) announcing that Mission Arlington is working on Katrina relief and has a list of things it needs for evacuees in the Metroplex area.
Scott Chaffin, whom you may recall is looking for RVs to help house evacuees, has also set up a Katrina Emergency Villages wiki in case anyone else has some spare land to offer for that kind of effort.
Do you knit? Christine is collecting knitted goods for the victims of Katrina that are here in Houston. It may be warm now, but folks will still be here when the mercury starts to drop.
Online resources for helping victims and their families find each other are springing up all over. Tom points to this one by the The Librarians' Index to the Internet. Over at The Jeffersonian, there's word of the the Katrina "I'm OK" registry, whose purpose is "to assist family and friends searching for news about someone displaced by Hurricane Katrina". Along similar lines, Dwight notes the Katrina PeopleFinder Project.
Via email from Galveston County Judge Susan Criss:
The Gleaning From the Harvest warehouse is a drop off point for food, hygiene items ( toothbrushes, etc), paper goods, & diapers for Katrina evacuees. The warehouse is located @ 900 53rd St., Galveston. This is right behind Santiago's Restaurant on Broadway. The warehouse will be open Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm to receive donations.Contact numbers are 409 939 8064 and 409 770 7204.
Gleanings From The Harvest is a food procurement & distribution network dedicated to seeing that no one goes hungry.
Nathan reminds us that the Houston SPCA is also helping Katrina victims.
Via Metroblogging Houston: a disaster relief benefit concert featuring Paul Van Dyk. Sunday, September 25, at the Meridian, 1503 Chartres, buy tickets here.
Chron society columnist Shelby Hodge notes that Brennan's Restaurant will have a daylong fundraiser this Friday to benefit "the cooks, servers and restaurant workers of New Orleans".
From 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., those donating a minimum $40 will be invited into the restaurant for a glass of wine and hors d'oeuvres, with all monies going to the New Orleans Hospitality Workers Disaster Relief Fund. The fund was established by and the benefit is sponsored by the Commander's Palace Family of Restaurants of which Brennans of Houston is a member.
More info on that here.
PDiddie and Lyn report from the Astrodome. Hope checks in from Austin.
Will Reed of Technology For All was also at the Dome.
Technology For All has been working with FEMA here at the dome to expand their registration process. This is a critical issue now at all sites in addition to assisting with the locator process. TFA has been asked to assist at Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center with the development of another CTC there when the Telco orders are processed as well as other efforts including a digital story telling project with the University of Houston.We will be working with Deaf Link at the dome this morning to operate a hearing impaired intake center. We have also been asked to assist with CTC development programs for San Antonio, Dallas, Ft. Worth as well as various other locations here in Houston. TFA will be working with other CTCs in Houston to expand local efforts at existing CTCs and CTCs we have under development at other relief centers. I thank my friend Gene Crick for his assistance in helping hand off the task of identifying local CTC/community networking point persons in other Texas cities that can help local Evacuee Community efforts there. Each of these sites in Houston and in other cities will need hardware, volunteers and $'s to pull this off. As we know the needs and who the point persons and organizations in other cities are, we will post it.
[...]
There has been overwhelming support in terms of time and resources from our community, business and of course our individual volunteers. The Red Cross database does need more EXPERIENCED volunteers for data entry here at the dome this morning. They are far behind and could use competent volunteer support. If you know interested parties please let us know by making a comment on this blog (click on the # below to make a comment) or send an email to Will.Reed@techforall.org . The ACT Center is located in the Astrodome on the bottom level at the south entrance. We are open this morning at 9AM. Any data entry volunteers can report there and we can get them to the Red Cross. We also continue to need volunteers locally to assist evacuees who are not computer literate to input people locator and FEMA information.
Via Rob Booth.
Anne notes an interview with HISD bus drivers who helped evacuate people from New Orleans. She has some other good links here.
Please feel free to email me (kuff - at - offthekuff - dot - com) if you have any Katrina-related information that I can help disseminate. Thanks!
Governor Perry may have overpromised how many evacuees the state of Texas could handle.
The deluge of Louisiana hurricane evacuees has left questions about whether Texas officials had adequately planned to handle the thousands driven from their homes by a major disaster.The capacity of facilities in Houston, San Antonio and Dallas to house evacuees was far below what Gov. Rick Perry had offered to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco last week. And by Sunday, Perry's office admitted that "unsuitable overflow conditions" may exist at some shelters and began organizing an airlift to other states.
The governor's aides on Sunday defended the state's emergency management system, saying planning has kept the inflow of people from turning into another disaster.
"If you're asking if there had ever been a plan to take a quarter of a million people from Louisiana in a week, no. Was there a plan to handle catastrophic events, absolutely," said Perry spokesman Robert Black.
Perry's aides said the governor had offered to take 75,000, but the number has swollen to 139,000 housed in 137 shelters across Texas, with another 100,000 people staying in hotels.
While the impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans was massive, the fact Perry and his staff repeatedly underestimated how many people could be housed at facilities in Texas raised questions about how well the state had prepared for a hurricane here or a major terrorist attack that created thousands of evacuees.
The governor and his senior staff often seemed to be improvising the details of how to house the Louisiana exodus.
[...]
"To be candid, we hope it slows down," San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger said on Saturday. Perry's spokesman said questions about how many people the governor said could be housed in each city was nothing more than a "numbers game."
"I don't think it was ever in concrete that there had to be 25,000 in any particular area. That is where the bulk of them were going to go, in the three major metro areas," Black said.
I bow to no one in my disdain for Governor Goodhair, but I'm inclined to cut him some slack here. I believe there were models and projections which suggested that Texas could handle a certain influx, and the reality didn't match up. The intentions were good, the execution was a little sloppy, but overall I think they did the best they could. Now we need to move some of these folks to other states and to other facilities here.
The following is a comment from Ryan Goodland:
I've been at the Astrodome the past two days and have met a wonderful woman named Dorothy Broussard. She's eighty-seven years old, here by herself, and has lost everything. Dorothy has a terrific sense of humor and personality; she's given me a recipe for homemade wine (an orange, sugar, and a liter water bottle, "But you be careful! You're going to get drunk and get kicked out of school!") and she wears this knotted, dimestore-ugly black wig to cover her grey hair ("People helping out here keep passing me up because I look so young with this on!" she told me, giggling.) She's incredibly smart too; in her spare time before Hurricane Katrina she studied geneology at her local library and has tracked her family line back four generations (which, if my numbers are right, would stop at the Civil War).Here's where I need help. She has a grandson named Bruce Summers who, the last time she heard from him, was living in or around San Diego. I've called 411 for information in San Diego and Los Angeles and checked the numbers for Bruce Summers off of Google Phone Directory in California, Oregon, and Washington state. If I can find him, I think Ms. Broussard will have a home. I'd keep searching, but I need to get some rest for the day at the Dome tommorrow.
This is where you enter. If you know anything about tracking people down on the internet, please start searching for Bruce Summers. The US Census, or a more comprehensive database of addresses and phone numbers if you know one, online might be helpful. I believe Google can cross-check addresses against phone numbers, so if you only have one you can find the other.
Her name is Dorothy Broussard. Her grandson is Bruce Summers.
So if you're sitting at home on your day off wondering what you could do to contribute to the humanitarian crisis we're facing in Texas right now, I cannot think of a better way to help your fellow citizens on a day that commemorates those who have given so much to our nation than helping re-unite an old woman with a family member.
A great city is that which has the greatest men and women. - Walt Whitman
If you have any success, please please call me at 832-656-0298. My name is Ryan Goodland.
If you can help, please do.
The following is a press release:
Drop-in Center for Homeless Youth Opens Doors in
Montrose AreaContact: Sharon Cooper
Company: StandUp For Kids
Address: 3400 Montrose Blvd., Suite 818
Houston, Texas 77006
Phone: 281-827-3208
Email: sharonc@standupforkids.org
URL: http://www.standupforkids.org/
Houston, TX- StandUp For Kids, a national all volunteer organization, opens a drop-in center for homeless and at-risk youth in Houston.
Anticipating a surge in the number of homeless onto the streets of Houston in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, StandUp For Kids is opening the doors on the new Troy Vincent Andrews Outreach Center.
The center, located at 3400 Montrose Blvd. in Suite 818, serves as a safe environment for homeless youth to come for temporary relief from the harshness of the streets and to receive aid in leaving the streets. Volunteers working at the center assist the homeless youth with the network of support required to leave the street.
Homeless youth can receive food, clothing, and hygiene products at the drop in center. The center also provides mail service, phone service for reaching relatives and job hunting, educational and development workshops to assist homeless youth with the transition off the streets, one-on-one counseling, and assistance obtaining legal documentation such as birth certificates, social security cards, and Texas ID cards.
Volunteers at the center also provide referrals to various agencies to deal with whatever health and crisis issues the youth have.
The drop-in center hours are:
Friday 5:30 - 8:30pm
Saturday 3-8pm
Sunday 1-5pm
Monday 10am - 2pm
People interested in volunteering or donating can call the outreach center at 713-522-2211 or email houston@standupforkids.org.
More information on StandUp For Kids can be found by visiting the website at www.standupforkids.org
StandUp For Kids is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization founded in 1990 to help rescue homeless and at-risk youth. With national headquarters in San Diego, California, STANDUP FOR KIDS is run almost entirely by volunteers, and has established more than thirty outreach programs in fifteen states.
Reports from evacuee centers: Ted in Houston and Damon in Austin. Bob reports from Fort Bend, where that county's Basic Emergency Plan is, um, very very basic. Liberty reports from Galveston.
The national media is now covering Houston for its role in housing evacuees. Via Tory, this is one of the better pieces on Houston I can recall seeing.
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco has appointed former FEMA head James Lee Witt to oversee the recovery of New Orleans.
It's excerpted in the Chron today, but you really ought to read this open letter to the President from the editors of the New Orleans Times-Picayune in it entirity.
The same day that this story about TxDOT reconsidering its I-45 options (which I posted on at the time), there was also this story about the Hardy Toll Road extension and a public meeting about it to be held that day buried in the This Week section.
Since TxDOT first unveiled its plan to rebuild the Elysian Viaduct late last year, Near Northside residents and city preservation advocates have been critical of the plan, saying it would further erode the fabric of the neighborhood.As currently constructed, the 50-year-old Elysian Viaduct is a four-lane, elevated bridge that begins at Commerce Street and heads north over Buffalo Bayou and I-10 before reaching Quitman Street.
The proposed .6-mile extension would further the viaduct to the planned future Hardy Toll Road extension near Loop 610.
TxDOT has said that the viaduct is unsafe and needs to be replaced.
But the possibility of extending the viaduct and adding shoulders to it has worried some residents who live along its proposed path.
A number of buildings along that path would have to be bought and torn down to make way for the construction, while homes close to the new road will have a major connector to the Hardy Toll Road right in the middle of their residential neighborhood.
[...]
After residents echoed their concerns at the December unveiling of TxDOT's plan for the viaduct, department officials said they would return with alternatives that create the least possible disruption to the neighborhood.
TxDOT will present those alternative plans at the meeting.
TxDOT project manager Pat Henry said the department has created a number of new alternatives for the viaduct, including rerouting the new road away from the existing bridge and into areas that are less populated by residents.
"We've added a number of different alignments based on the concerns we heard at the first meeting," Henry said.
Very similar things being said about the Hardy as has been said about I-45, including that doing nothing is not an option. I'll be interested in seeing a report from that meeting.
If you're in Houston, please do a little homework before dropping stuff off somewhere or showing up to volunteer.
Each group and location has specific rules, needs and logistical challenges — adding red tape to the process of matching volunteers, donations and hurricane victims, they said.Houston residents, for example, are being asked not to bring donations directly to the shelters at Reliant Park or the George R. Brown Convention Center. Residents should avoid leaving donations at any nondesignated sites, since there's no way to collect them.
Two warehouses have opened near the Reliant and Brown shelters to handle donations, freeing up shelters running short on storage space because of a deluge of donations and hopefully giving needier shelters a place to call for supplies.
There will be two drop off locations - Gulf Haven Church at 10716 Sabo Road and West Houston Church at 2390 West Sam Houston Parkway North at Hammerly. Both locations will accept clothing, bedding, diapers, formula and other babyproducts, which will be taken to the warehouses for distribution. For most people, it may be easier to drop off donations at churches and community groups that have made plans to deliver them or to leave donations on the curb for city pickup.
Coordinators urged prospective donors and volunteers to check Web sites and make some calls to research what goods or assistance are needed.
Today, for example, the Houston Food Bank gave notice that it doesn't need any more volunteers. For now, anyway. By Tuesday, that could change, organizers said.
Volunteers should remain patient and try to remember that nonprofit agencies are being stretched thin, said Marilyn Fountain, community relations coordinator for Star of Hope.
"We do not want to frustrate people who are calling in whose hearts are in the right place," she said.
[...]
Help will be needed for months, and Fountain has a list of specific items that shelters still need to serve hurricane evacuees, including school supplies, grooming products, diapers, baby wipes and over-the-counter medicine.
She recommends donating larger family-size items, rather than travel-sized goods, when possible.
Blankets, towels, new underwear and tote bags or other containers to carry their new goods in are also in short supply, [Scott Arthur, Star of Hope spokesman] said.
At the House of Amos clothes pantry, volunteers are desperate for larger-sized diapers and school uniforms, including white and navy polo shirts, said Beryl Hogshead, a member of the nonprofit's board of directors.
Residents must also remember that these pantries and shelters still have Houston clients to serve, which really strains their supplies.
"The need is tremendous in the area," Hogshead said. "I had no sack lunches left for any of the regular people. They all went to hurricane people."
Emphasis mine. I know other things will be coming along, but we have to think of this crisis in terms of months, not days. The DomeBlog is a fabulous resource - see these two entries by Dwight for examples.
Help In Houston says:
Houston Association of REALTORS, KPRC, Houston Area Urban League, Houston Bar Association, and the Houston Young Lawyers Association have all teamed up to create the "Make a Home" program.
More information at the links.
A comprehensive list of links and information for Galveston area relief efforts is here.
Metroblogging Houston has a cool charity effort and a pointer to Metblogging message boards, which has some useful New Orleans-related threads going.
Via The Jeffersonian, the Express News has a resource page for all things Katrina-related in San Antonio.
For Austin, there's loads of information from Kesher Talk, Burnt Orange Report, Amanda, Eileen, and Ray In Austin, who also has a volunteer opportunity for techies.
Via World O'Crap, Joanna from BlondeSense is in the affected area, taking donations for supplies to drop off. Details are at the link above and also here and here.
Finally, here's Air America Radio's Public Voicemail
Air America Radio's Public Voicemail1-866-217-6255
Air America Radio's Public Voicemail is a way for disconnected people to communicate in the wake of Katrina.
Here's how it works:
Call the toll-free number above, enter your everyday phone number, and then record a message. Other people who know your everyday phone number (even if it doesn't work anymore) can call Emergency Voicemail, enter the phone number they associate with you, and hear your message.
You can also search for messages left by people whose phone numbers you know.
Air America Radio will leave Public Voicemail in service for as long as this crisis continues. You can call it whenever you are trying to locate someone, or if you are trying to be found.
Via Julia, who has more links in one post than I've ever seen anywhere.
Governor Perry says that Texas has taken in about all the evacuees it can handle.
Hurricane Katrina evacuees continued their exodus from Louisiana into Texas on Saturday, landing as far west as the sombrero-shaped El Paso Civic Center but flowing mainly to Houston, San Antonio and Dallas.Gov. Rick Perry said the state was nearing its capacity to take evacuees.
Dallas officials asked Perry to urge the Federal Emergency Management Agency to curtail the influx there, well before that city had reached the state's goal of placing 15,000 evacuees in the Metroplex.
As San Antonio approached the halfway mark of its 25,000-person goal, it was pressing for stepped-up federal involvement in the costly humanitarian effort.
Along with Houston, which is accommodating 25,000 evacuees in four large government-owned facilities and thousands more in other shelters and hotels, San Antonio and Dallas-Fort Worth have borne the largest share of the task.
Pressure on those cities was starting to subside with use of facilities in Austin, Corpus Christi, Lubbock, Amarillo and Belton. Texas A&M University opened its Reed Arena to displaced Hurricane Katrina survivors.
"Texas is committed to doing everything it can to help our neighbors from Louisiana, but we want to make certain that we can provide them with the medical care, food, shelter, safety, education and other services they need to start getting their lives back together," Perry said Saturday.
"Local officials are beginning to notify us that they are quickly approaching capacity in the number of evacuees they believe they can assist," he said.
On Saturday alone, 6,000 Louisianans arrived by bus and 10,000 by military transport aircraft and commercial carriers, the governor's office reported. They joined nearly 125,000 people staying in 97 shelters around the state, many in the Houston area.
Additionally, an estimated 100,000 Louisianans are lodged in Texas hotels. An undetermined number has found other shelter in the state.
Perry renewed his call for more communities to come forward to help shoulder the load. Perry also implored officials in other states to help accommodate flooding victims.
In Houston, some evacuees are being moved from the Astrodome to other shelters.
At least 600 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina were going to be evacuated from the Houston Astrodome complex to other shelters in Texas, county and federal officials said this morning."We are over capacity now. The Astrodome has too many people -- 15,000 -- we are going to be moving more people in the Reliant Center and the George R. Brown convention center in downtown Houston," said County Judge Robert Eckels.
Several of the charter bus drivers said their initial instructions -- from officials of Metro -- were to drive their passengers to shelters in Austin or San Antonio.
"Harris County is being inundated with thousands of people coming to Texas. We are just trying to decide what the logistics will be," Eckels said.
About ten to 15 more charter buses were expected to arrive at the Reliant Astrodome complex early Sunday morning, as county, state and federal officials decided where to send more storm survivors.
It would seem that my concerns about an oversupply in Houston's housing market are at least for now no longer operative.
The number of Houston-area apartments available for hurricane victims is quickly shrinking.Evacuees and corporate housing companies have been snapping up hundreds of units. Victims of Hurricane Katrina, who will be out of their homes for months, are seeking bigger, less costly places to live. In many cases they are looking for a place large enough to house a family spanning multiple generations on a tight budget.
"It appears the availability of apartments all over the city is going to be quickly going away," said Bruce McClenny, president of Apartment Data Services, a Houston firm that tracks apartment inventory.
While most of the requests for rentals last week were coming from corporate housing firms locking up blocks of units for companies needing to house employees, some were already being rented by evacuees trolling the city for places to stay.
[...]
Gavan James, senior vice president of Oakwood Corporate Housing, said in addition to businesses requesting housing for their displaced employees, government agencies involved in the rescue effort are creating demand.
"We're looking at doubling or tripling our operation in Houston based on this. And that's from what we know today. It could go exponentially higher," James said.
Apartment operators are feeling the pinch.
Rockwell Management, which runs 17 apartment complexes throughout Houston, received requests for more than 500 units last week from corporate relocation firms.
"Our availability is quickly diminishing," the company's Jill Koob said.
[...]
Demand is particularly strong for larger units that can house big families, according to leasing agents who are seeing families of five or more crammed in small apartments.
But most complexes typically contain a small percentage of large units.
"There's a real shortage of three-bedroom apartments all over Texas," said John Baen, a real estate professor at the University of North Texas. "The majority of apartments in Texas are one bedroom or efficiencies because they make more per square foot."
[...]
One company that converted six upscale apartment complexes to condominium properties is gong to use the unsold condos as rental units to house hurricane victims.
Ron Lozoff, owner of Atlanta-based Choice Condominiums, said some 500 units will be leased as apartments.
"All the apartments are filling up really quick," Lozoff said. "We have people walking in lobbies with kids in their arms and credit cards."
Moreover, National Realty Investments, an investment firm that buys new homes to resell, is renting 40 of its new homes to hurricane victims.
Scattered throughout the area, the homes are being offered on short-term leases at market rents.
[...]
Before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, there were some 70,000 empty apartments in Houston, amounting to a 14 percent vacancy rate, according to Apartment Data Services.
That led the owners of these units to offer special rates and concessions to lure renters to their properties.
But with the influx of new tenants, some said the days of eager landlords may soon pass.
"They will adjust their rates, I'm sure," McClenny said.
There tightening supply could become more severe if short-term renters end up here permanently.
Information related to assistance and volunteering will be in the next post.
I so don't want to think about the political battle that's sure to follow the death of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. That's about all I have to say on the subject right now.
Scott Chaffin emails to say that he's got space available at his Brazos River campground for Katrina evacuees, but he needs some help in accomodating them:
Please consider donating, for long-term use, your idle RV or travel trailer. We are opening our park to our good neighbors from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama who have lost so much in Hurricane Katrina. We have RV hookups available for their use, but we don't have RVs. Your donation can make all the difference in the world to people who are looking for a place to call home for a few weeks or months as they sort through the aftermath. It's absolutlely crucial that we all work together to help out our friends and family. Please email (info@buckbrazos.com) or call (254-898-2825) if you're able and willing to help out. We can help make arrangements for getting your RV or fifth-wheel to our place. Buck loves to drive.
He's working with other folks elsewhere to put together a national effort of this kind. I think it's a great idea, one that ought to be cost-effective as well as fairly easy to accomplish. I don't own an RV, and I don't think I know anyone who does, but if you do, I urge you to contact him at the email address or phone number above and see if you can help.
Hope has more information about other local efforts to aide Katrina evacuees in Austin.
I haven't mentioned it before, but I hope you know that the Chronicle has a forum for Katrina discussions. There are threads on what to donate and where, and threads like this one devoted to locating family members. Via Nate, the Waco Tribune has a message board for help in finding and contacting evacuees. Eric Berger points to this Red Cross resource for finding people who are still missing. And via Rob Booth, a local nonprofit called Technology for All is working with officials to set up a data center so people at the Dome can let loved ones know that they're there.
Something I missed earlier - New Orleans is the headquarters of ACORN, one of the leading advocacy groups for poor and working families in America. Their office was destroyed by Katrina, according to Nathan Newman. If you've donated to the Red Cross and want to do more, consider putting a donation to ACORN on your list.
Finally, Chris Bell has called for a month-long suspension of the gas tax to counterbalance the recent spike in pump prices. I'm always a little leery of things like this, but if it's true as Comptroller Strayhorn says that Texas has a $1.2 billion surplus right now due to "higher oil and natural gas prices and sales taxes", and if it's true as Governor Perry says that "the federal government will be paying for 100 percent of costs incurred by Texas" for housing Katrina evacuees, then I think Bell's call makes sense. It would certainly help people and businesses who are already struggling with the current high price of gasoline to make it through the initial cost spikes. It's certainly worth a discussion.
Just as a reminder, the Chron has a section of full Katrina coverage, which I expect will be around for a long time, and a separate RSS feed for that section.
Volunteers Needed At Astrodome, Convention Center
Houstonians want to help and their help is needed at two of the state's largest evacuation centers, Local 2 reported Friday.Volunteers are needed at the Astrodome. They should go to the Main Street Yellow Lot.
Volunteers will work 10-hour shifts covering all hours after a one- to two-hour training session.
Donations are no longer needed. Please do not drop them off at the Dome until requested.
City officials also asked for volunteers at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, which was turned into a shelter.
Those interested should go to the Polk Street parking lot. Volunteers will work four-hour shifts.
The following items are also needed. Donations should be dropped off at Exhibit Hall E.
* Toiletry Items
* Towels
* Blankets
* Sheets, Bedding
* Cots
* Air Mattresses
Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn has announced that Texas is currently running a surplus and that it should use that money to assist Katrina evacuees.
Texas has realized a $1.2 billion surplus in the past three months from higher oil and natural gas prices and sales taxes, which could be used to help pay for hurricane relief costs, Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn said Friday.Strayhorn said Gov. Rick Perry should immediately call a three-day special legislative session so the money can be appropriated to help pay for increased costs for education, security and health providers dealing with more than 150,000 Katrina refugees.
"Texans have huge hearts, and thankfully we've also got the money to provide real, lasting relief to the schools, cities and counties that have opened their doors to the refugees of this horrific natural disaster," she said.
Strayhorn is challenging Perry in next year's GOP primary.
There's no need for a special session at this time, said Robert Black, a spokesman for Perry. He said the federal government will be paying for 100 percent of costs incurred by Texas.
President Bush on Friday granted Perry's request for an emergency declaration, making Texas eligible for a portion of the $10.5 billion in federal aid passed by Congress.
Mark Sanders, a spokesman for Strayhorn, said it's unclear what the federal government is going to do to help Texas communities, but the state money is a sure thing.
Have you listened to that radio interview with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin? Apparently, it got a response.
Less than 24 hours later, the mayor found himself aboard Air Force One, face to face with the president at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. He repeated his criticisms, he said in an interview Friday night, and got a positive response from the president."He said he was fully committed to getting us the resources we need," Nagin said in the tattered Hyatt hotel next to the Superdome. "I told him I knew we could work together, and he said he understood."
In their two hours together, first on Air Force One and then during a flyover of the city in the president's helicopter, Nagin said Bush did not mention the radio tirade until the mayor himself brought it up.
"I told him: 'I said some things yesterday that may have offended you, and if they did, I apologize. But if you were in my shoes, what would you do?' " Nagin said. "He said he had heard I had said some things, but that he really didn't understand all of it. And then he said: 'You and I are OK.' "
Nagin grinned, adding: "The president loves frankness."
Asked if his radio interview, in which he unleashed profanities and vulgarities, had produced the reaction he was seeking, Nagin replied, "I guess it had some effect and got things to a turning point."
Nagin is a Democrat, but he endorsed Bush in 2004. Just so you know.
What kind of effect is the inlux of evacuees having on Texas' Health and Human Services Commission? Father John has a report.
The question that has to be asked at this point is, what things would be like if the Houston region had 30% of the staff it currently has, with fewer and smaller offices than it has today? You may say that this is a once in a life time event, but we had similar (though admittedly smaller scale) crises in 1994 and 2001, due to local area flooding. In those cases, we had the staff to handle the job, but we would not have been able to have handled it with the staff the agency plans on down-sizing to.One thing's for sure, National Guardsmen do not know how to work a Food Stamp case, and issue benefits on an EBT Card.
There are a lot of people who never thought they would be applying for Food Stamps that were standing in line today. No one along the Gulf Coast should be too sure that it won't be them, one of these days.
Keep your eyes on this story over the next few weeks and months.
Via Hope: About 5000 evacuees are coming to Austin.
The refugees, who will arrive by bus from Houston or New Orleans, will be first be directed to the Delco Center — an Austin school district student activity center in Northeast Austin — to be evaluated and given information about local services. From there, they will be bused to the Toney Burger Center in South Austin, where the Red Cross has set up an emergency shelter.The Burger Center, which has a capacity of 500, has seen only a trickle of refugees spending the night since it opened earlier this week. Once that shelter is full, officials will open the Austin Convention Center, a facility with a capacity of 5,000.
Austin residents, here's how you can help. Amanda has more, with information for other cities as well. Ray in Austin has information about a benefit concert at Shoal Creek Saloon.
Here's a new Houston blog with information on grassroots relief efforts. You can email information to helpinhouston@gmail.com if you want your own announcement posted there.
City Council Member Adrian Garcia is holding a barbecue on Monday to raise funds for Katrina relief.
Where: Bella Vista Church, 807 E. 36th Street, Houston, TX 77022When: Lunch will be served at 1 p.m.
WE NEED:
* Meat and side dishes for the lunch such as beans, potato salad, bags of chips, drinks
* Toiletries such as toothpaste, hygiene products, deodorant, baby wipes, diapers
* School supplies
* Volunteers to help set up, clean up and to help distribute donated items
Donations can be dropped off at the Heights Storefront on Friday or brought to Bella Vista Church on Monday from 9 a.m to 12 noon. For those of you donating food items or bringing food on Monday, please contact me as soon as possible so that I can track these items. Please pass this on to anyone interested.Thank you, in advance, for your willingness to help those who have suffered loss due to Hurricane Katrina. Help us show what makes District H a great place to live.
Rhonda
713-247-2003
Another new Chronicle blog: In Exile, written by Abram Himelstein, who had taught inner city children to write in New Orleans until forced to flee by Hurricane Katrina. He's now staying with family in Houston.
Tulane University has cancelled its fall semester. They will accept credit from any regionally accredited university for students who take classes elsewhere. Rice has already announced that they will waive tuition for Tulane students (via Ginger). And my alma mater says it will be enrolling displaced students as well.
Finally, Patrick passes along word that our fellow Trinity classmate and Beard Award-nominated food writer Paul "Pableaux" Johnson made it out of New Orleans safely. That's very good news.
Via Greg comes this message from Harris County Judge Robert Eckels.
The Astrodome site is not turning away evacuees. The gates are open. When a bus arrives, medical personnel board the bus and determine the medical needs of the persons on board. They are then unloaded and given food and water.We currently have approximately 18,000 evacuees on site- 15,000 in the Astrodome and 3,000 in the Reliant Arena. The Reliant Arena is a temporary shelter, a transitional site. Its purpose is to assess the medical needs of the evacuees and provide food and water. They will be sent to another shelter as soon as the location of the shelter has been determined.
Reliant Center is now being used as a shelter. Reliant Center can hold approximately 11,000 people. The George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston will open as a shelter in the immediate future.
Reliant Stadium is not being used as a shelter. The Houston Texans will play football in Reliant Stadium unaffected by the operations in the Astrodome, Reliant Center, and Reliant Arena.
Dallas and San Antonio shelters are open. Dallas can accommodate 12,500 in several shelters set up in the city. San Antonio can accommodate 25,000 evacuees in several shelters set up in the city.
The Houston area does not expect large numbers of evacuees to continue to flood the area. The Unified Command is currently developing plans to process the evacuees and determine their final destination.
Consideration is being made to send some of the overflow to shelters in Dallas, San Antonio, and Huntsville.
From a press release put out by US Rep. Chet Edwards after the U.S. House of Representatives appropriated $10.5 billion in emergency funding for hurricane relief efforts:
The President's action makes Federal funding available to the State and all 254 counties of the State of Texas. Specifically, assistance is available to State and eligible local governments for emergency protective measures that are undertaken to save lives and protect public health and safety. Emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 100 percent Federal funding. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: FEMA (202) 646-4600.[...]
On Thursday, Edwards asked the Department of Veterans Affairs about the possibility of using vacant space at the Waco VA hospital for shelter for those displaced in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He was told by the Central Texas VA system that 60 beds in Waco and 30 in Temple, which are in empty wings or buildings, would be offered. Edwards is working with the VA to determine if more space is available for any evacuees coming to Central Texas.
"VA hospitals are uniquely prepared to assist in times of national tragedy, and I am working with the Central Texas VA system to utilize space at the Waco VA hospital to assist in that vital effort," said Edwards, ranking Democrat on the House Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee. "I think the VA is moving ahead, but we have to be decisive in this situation with families in dire need, and I am going to urge the VA to not let any bureaucratic process slow down needed services to victims of the hurricane."
Via email from Skye Kilaen:
I know there's a Red Cross hotline, but folks can also call the state's information and referral network by dialing 2-1-1. If they're using a Lousisiana cell phone and 2-1-1 doesn't work, they can call 1-888-312-4567. 2-1-1 can provide shelter location information, information about access to available medical care (such as dialysis), requests for food, requests for prescription assistance, requests for diapers and formula, information related to accessing out of state Food Stamp or other benefits, and donation and volunteer information. (I'm told informally that the wait time hasn't exceeded 5-7 minutes in the last couple of days, and they've called in additional volunteers to staff the lines this weekend so they can continue to provide help.)The Department of State Health Services has developed two Katrina-related web pages that will serve as resources to the general public and health professionals. They will be updating these pages as information becomes available:
Hurricane Katrina Information and Resources
Hurricane Katrina Information for Health-Care Professionals and Allied Fields
Anyone receiving Social Security payments that have been interrupted by Hurricane Katrina can go to any Social Security office to get an emergency payment. Social Security is working with the Louisiana Governor's office to identify locations for temporary mail delivery. Any Social Security field office can make payments in critical cases. For information about changing mailing addresses, direct deposit, or locating the nearest Social Security office, call 1-800-772-1213 or go online at www.socialsecurity.gov.
Via email from Larissa Lindsay, this is just plain ugly.
"Did you escape the hurricane without your birth control?" asks Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas."As a courtesy to women fleeing Hurricane Katrina, we will offer one free cycle (one month) of birth control or one free Emergency Contraception kit to women" who come to a Houston-area Planned Parenthood clinic and produce a valid Louisiana or Mississippi driver's license.
The group's website says the offer is good until September 10.
The generosity does not impress a pro-life group that considers birth control pills and emergency contraception abortifacients.
"It is absolutely unconscionable that Planned Parenthood would use the tragedy of hurricane Katrina to push its shameless agenda on the American public," said Jim Sedlak, executive director of American Life League's STOPP International.
Thousands of people displaced by the Hurricane are being moved from the New Orleans Superdome to the Houston's Astrodome.
"In New York City in 2001, Planned Parenthood used the 9/11 attacks to publicize its programs by offering free contraceptives and abortions for the week after the terrorists struck," said Sedlak.
"Now the organization is exploiting one of the worst natural disasters in American history for cheap publicity by offering one month's supply of free birth control and so-called emergency contraception to victims of Katrina.
"If Planned Parenthood really wants to help, it should donate a portion of the millions of dollars in profits it makes every year to aid in the victims' plights," Sedlak said.
He called Planned Parenthood's latest stunt disgusting and inappropriate but not surprising: "The bottom line is that Planned Parenthood is out to promote its own agenda and will stop at nothing to take advantage of an opportunity to do so."
What a detestable person he is. Putting aside the fact that some women (like my sister when she was a teenager) take the pill to regulate their periods, there's other reasons why contraception will be needed, as Amanda pointedly reminds us. I'm just appalled.
Since I've seen the issue of international response raised elsewhere, I thought I'd point out this (via Radley Balko), and this (via Kos).
(I know there's other news today. I haven't got the heart to care. Maybe tomorrow, maybe not.)
I dropped off some clothing at the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store on Washington Ave and some food and diapers at the Houston Food Bank this afternoon. The Food Bank was a madhouse, and I mean that in a very positive way. Tons of stuff was being dropped off, and they had more than enough volunteers. Let's all remember that as with the tsunami, there will be an ongoing, very likely long-term need for donations and volunteer support.
Here's an interview with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. To say the least, it's very blunt. Listen to the whole thing.
That link comes via New Orleans native Ray in Austin, who has a whole lot more on his site. Start at the top and scroll down.
If you haven't already, read this piece by Eric Berger from 2001 about what we've seen this week was going to look like. It's scary how accurate it is.
UPDATE: Here's a transcript of the Nagin interview - thanks, Karin! Also, here's a National Geographic article and a Scientific American article on the same subject as the Berger piece - thanks to Charles M and Kevin for the links.
From the comments:
The Westchase Business District is having a relief drive today from 11 to 2. They're looking for the usual stuff: "Current short term needs include: Poptarts, cereal bars, peanut butter, jelly, 1 lb. packages of lunch meat, canned meats, spaghetti, chili, stew (anything that can be warmed in a microwave), canned fruits, cereal, and crackers. Snacks for children are also welcome."Donations are being taken at West Houston Assistance Ministries, located at the corner of Meadowglen and Rogerdale (one block east of the Beltway, just south of Westheimer). A typical busy day has 30 families and 60 individuals seeking assistance from WHAM; one day this week, they had 271 individuals and 77 families.
If you can't make it there between 11 and 2 or want to volunteer, you can contact WHAM: call Louise (713-977-5522) or Virginia (281-974-6064).
I'm going to be dropping stuff off at the Houston Food Bank today and looking for a place to drop off some baby clothes Olivia has outgrown - after checking here, I'll try the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store on Washington Ave.
The Lone Star Times is blogging from the Dome. Do read this entry if nothing else. It took me a couple of tries to connect to their site today, so they may be experiencing a high traffic load. Here Rob notes something from this Chron story with the headline "Some Houstonians question welcome-mat effort" - the "question" highlighted came not from a blogger but from a commenter. With that, I'll point out the first comment on this SciGuy post, which reports a dispatch from a local doctor in New Orleans. Here's the comment:
I feel sorry for the conditions that people who are trying to help are experiencing. Do I feel sorry for the people they are trying to help? NO. They ignored a government ordered evacuation and now they are screaming and demanding the goverment do something for them. What ever happened to personal responsibility? They should have left when told to do so, because they did not they put themselves in this horrible situation and have no right to demand anything at this point.Posted by: Kathy Hoffman at September 2, 2005 09:07 AM
I don't know who Kathy Hoffman is, but apparently she lives in a world where everyone has a car and the financial wherewithal to leave town unexpectedly for at least a few days if a friendly doorstop in a safe and reachable place isn't available. How it is that Kathy Hoffman could still be living in that world after all we've learned about the Katrina refugees is beyond me.
Here's the latest from the DomeBlog. They may need to expand that focus, since evacuees are now being placed in the Relaiant Center and George R. Brown Convention Center.
Nearly 13,000 evacuees from New Orleans filled Reliant Astrodome by early this morning, with officials saying the facility was full. But buses from New Orleans kept coming, and arrangements were made to place them in nearby Reliant Arena.Officials said they expect as many as 18,000 people to be sheltered in the Reliant Park complex by noon today.
That included about 1,750 who arrived on about 35 buses and who were initially told they would be turned away.
More buses showed up this morning, and remain parked outside the Astrodome. Although many people are being allowed off the buses and are standing in lines outside Reliant Arena, many remain on the buses.
Volunteers who pull into the parking lot to deliver supplies -- such as soap, towels and other items for personal hygiene -- are being mobbed by small crowds of evacuees.
The number in the Astrodome is about half of the estimated 25,000 relief officials said would be sheltered in that building. Officials early this morning would not say whether they would still be able to accommodate that many.
More will be headed to Dallas:
At least 25,000 Hurricane Katrina refugees from Louisiana will begin relocating here Saturday, state and local officials confirmed Thursday evening.City and county leaders scrambled to find suitable shelter for such an influx of storm victims, who they expected to arrive primarily by bus and plane.
Reunion Arena and a 200,000-square-foot portion of the Dallas Convention Center, both downtown, could house as many as 12,000 people, City Manager Mary Suhm said.
But Dallas County Judge Margaret Keliher said she's asking leaders of neighboring counties to help shelter refugees, as Ms. Suhm acknowledged Dallas probably will need help to absorb a population equal to that of University Park or Farmers Branch.
"We don't have all the answers yet, but we're going to be ready," Judge Keliher said.
After agreeing to house 25,000 refugees at the Astrodome and other Houston locations Wednesday, Gov. Rick Perry was asked by Louisiana officials Thursday morning to take 25,000 more, and then a few hours later an additional 25,000 – for a total of 75,000 displaced residents who will move to Texas.
"We were asked this morning to take 25,000 more, and we said yes we would. San Antonio was our first choice because of the I-10 corridor, making it easier to transport people there," said Robert Black, a spokesman for the governor.
"Then they contacted us again this afternoon and asked us to take another 25,000. The next logical place in the state was Dallas. Both San Antonio and Dallas made sense because of their infrastructure and because they have the personnel to handle an emergency situation such as this," he said.
"We believe they have the necessary resources to draw upon."
[...]
Juan Ortiz, emergency management coordinator for Fort Worth and Tarrant County, said he hasn't heard from the state or the city of Dallas about a specific number of refugees North Texas is expected to handle.
Taking care of 25,000 people, however, would have to be a regional effort, he said.
"We're assuming that no one city could do that alone, not Dallas and not Fort Worth" Mr. Ortiz said.
He said Tarrant County shelters and a few motels were housing 541 refugees by early Thursday night. He wasn't sure how many evacuees Tarrant County could handle on its own.
I certainly hope that counties like Collin and Denton will do their fair share.
Tom and Loren assess the financial impact of Katrina. Whatever people are estimating for the costs now, expect it to be a lot more when all is said and done.
Before we get started, Jim Thompson asks:
Does anybody out there know of places that are matching donations to hurricane relief funds? For example, 37signals was matching donations up to $5000, but they hit their limit before I could forward a copy of my Red Cross donation. Perhaps there are other organizations out there with deeper pockets than 37signals that are also matching donations; if so, I could make my little donation count double, triple, or even more.
He answers his own question by noting that donations made to the Red Cross during tonight's Texans game (until 11 PM) will be matched, up to $1 million. Other options surely do exist, and be sure to check with your employer (I need to find the form that my employer requires for a match). And here's another possibility that's worth your time to consider (via Julia).
There's going to be a lot of blame thrown around for this, not just for why the levees didn't work as effectively as they could have but also for why the relief efforts so far seem to be substandard at best. Here's a scenario to consider: Suppose New Orleans had been hit instead by a dirty bomb, planted by a terrorist. We'd have a similar situation - hundreds if not thousands dead, a city of a half-million people needing to be evacuated and left empty for at least a month if not much longer, and so forth. Heck, let's even speculate that we had a few days' warning of the event so that people could have been told to get out before it happened.
You would think, four years after 9/11 and with all the supposed focus on terrorism and national security, that there'd be some contingency plans somewhere that could be drawn upon to facilitate things, from the evacuation to refugee settlement and so on. If that were the case, then surely such plans would be useful here. Do you see any evidence of a plan like that in action? If not, why not? How is it we're that unprepared? And note, this isn't just a federal issue. Every major city, and every state that has a major city, should have some idea of what to do and some way of carrying it out. I'm not encouraged by what I'm seeing. (And I see I'm not the only one thinking along these lines.)
Regarding looting, Atrios has already said all that needs to be said about the difference between "looting" and "finding bread and soda from a local grocery store". If Thomas Aquinas says "It is not theft, properly speaking, to take secretly and use another's property in a case of extreme need: because that which he takes for the support of his life becomes his own property by reason of that need," that's good enough for me.
How long will there be refugees in the Astrodome? Harris County Judge Robert Eckels is thinking "in terms of days, maybe weeks".
County Judge Robert Eckels, however, said officials are not expecting to house refugees in the stadium very long."I'm thinking in terms of days, maybe weeks," he said. "The dome is not suited well for this kind of a crowd for a long term. When you get 20,000 or 30,000 people in a single place, you have problems with privacy."
I think he's being unrealistic. How long will it take for New Orleans to be mostly habitable again? What will these people have to go back to when it is? I'm sure he's right about the Dome not being suitable for the long term. But what are the other options?
The Chronicle, by the way, now has a Dome Blog to report on what's happening in there. Here's a dispatch which gives you an idea.
Finally, I couldn't agree more with this.
I'll be dropping off some stuff at the Houston Food Bank tomorrow. If you're planning to give to them, here's a list of items they're seeking.
UPDATE: Metroblogging Houston has a report with photos from the Dome.
UPDATE: San Antonio will be taking in refugees as well, to be housed at the former Kelly Air Force Base. The San Antonio Food Bank will need your help as well. Via The Jeffersonian.
This is welcome news.
The Texas Department of Transportation, faced with opposition from residents to a planned expansion of the North Freeway, is rethinking its proposal and looking at the Hardy Toll Road to help provide added capacity."It could be half and half. It could be one or the other. We will look at both alternatives," said TxDOT district engineer Gary Trietsch. "That will probably take us at least a year. We'll see where we are a year from now."
Welcome to the table, Gary. What took you guys so long?
The regional Transportation Policy Council, which screens proposals for federal road funding in the metro area, was scheduled to vote Friday on adding three new lanes to the freeway, which is also Interstate 45 North. But that vote was taken off the agenda.[...]
When the item comes before the policy council again, probably in October, it will recommend new lanes on the freeway, the toll road or both, said Alan Clark, transportation planning manager for the Houston-Galveston Area Council.
Clark said possible ways to do that, besides widening one or both roads, include adding elevated lanes to the freeway as on Interstate 35 through Austin, or suspend lanes over frontage roads as on the North Central Expressway in Dallas.
I have my doubts about elevated options, but I'm willing to hear them out. There are tradeoffs that I'd be open to making, and at this point almost anything is preferable to a big land grab for extra lanes.
TxDOT has said it will also consider putting the freeway in a tunnel, as proposed by Woodland Heights resident and transportation engineer Gonzalo Camacho, but Clark said the idea raises questions. "Where would you connect it? Once you were in it, where could you get off?"
I believe Camacho has addressed those questions in his presentation. I'll drop him a note and ask him. In the meantime, why not have him over to H-GAC for a little chat? Let's get this dialogue started!
My favorite bit from the whole article:
TxDOT's estimate of the widening's cost, $600 million, was ridiculed by opponents. Clark said $1.5 billion is a more likely figure and could rise before the job is finished.
I give John Wilson of GHASP full marks for that. His presentation made it abundantly clear that anyone in TxDOT who believed in a $600 million price tag (and I should note that their original tally was $400 million) has been sucking too many exhaust fumes.
Eric Scheffey has been arrested in Colorado for practicing medicine without a license.
He is charged with five counts of practicing medicine without a license, Aspen officials said. The charges stem from allegations that Scheffey illegally attended to patients at his clinic, East Harris County Orthopedics Associates at 9343 N. Loop East, after his license was suspended in August 2003, said Harris County Assistant District Attorney Robert Freyer.Freyer would not provide further details on the charges, which he said were contained in an indictment unsealed Tuesday in Harris County. Freyer said practicing medicine without a license is classified as a third-degree felony.
An attempt Tuesday night to reach Scheffey's attorney for comment was unsuccessful.
The Pitkin County Sheriff's Office in Aspen said Tuesday in a prepared statement that it was contacted by the Harris County District Attorney's Office last week requesting assistance in locating Scheffey, "whom Harris County considered a flight risk."
Investigators found Scheffey at a private residence where he was arrested "without incident," the statement said.
Scheffey's license was finally revoked this February after a 20-year career of mayhem and malpractice. I look forward to hearing more about what he was doing up in Colorado.
UPDATE: Scheffey is out on bond.
Scheffey's longtime lawyer, Ace Pickens of Austin, called the charges — five counts of practicing medicine without a license — "ludicrous."Scheffey is accused of seeing patients in his clinic after his license was suspended in August 2003. The Texas Medical Board revoked his license in February and fined him $854,000.
Pickens said the allegations of seeing patients illegally were dismissed by another legal entity last year. In 2004, administrative law judges in Austin who heard the medical board's case against Scheffey said two reported instances of Scheffey seeing patients after his license was suspended amounted to nothing more than "transitioning" patients to another doctor.
But Harris County Assistant District Attorney Rob Freyer said, "There's information out there that shows there's more to it than that. ... We received information he was continuing to engage in conduct that was in defiance of the board's order. We investigated that. That information had validity to it."
Freyer said he does not know whether Scheffey plans to waive or fight extradition.
Stay tuned.
The Statesman reports that five-term Republican Rep. Suzanna Hupp will not run for reelection next year, making her at least the fifth GOP incumbent to either step down or seek to step up. Her district is somewhat more hospitable than that of the retiring Bob Griggs. She won with a shade under 61% last year; by my count the district overall was 59.2% Republican in 2004, down a tad from the 60.3% tally in 2002.
Looking at the precincts, HD54 is basically a very purple swath of Bell County (Bush got 53.4% there, Hupp 51.7%, while Democrats Bob Scarborough and JR Molina each won a majority) and very red Lampasas and Burnet Counties (Bush 74.6%, Hupp 71.5%), with about half the votes in each. I don't know if one exists or not, but a Democrat who could hold the losses down in Burnet and Lampasas while carrying Bell would have a shot. For certain, this is a seat that ought to be harder for the Republicans to have to defend, so I hope someone will step up; perhaps 2004 nominee Edward Lindsay will have another go at it.
Aaron Pena has Hupp's going-away statement.
Elsewhere, Ken Rodriguez reports that Rep. Carlos Uresti is planning to challenge Sen. Frank Madla in the primaries (see here for earlier reports on that), with San Antonio City Council member Richard Perez in the wings to run as Uresti's replacement. The Jeffersonian has some analysis of that scenario. And Greg passes on a report that Democratic State Rep. Dora Olivo may face a primary challenge.