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Friday random ten: The city never sleeps, part 7

May 24th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
2 comments

I’ve been in a different city (Austin) all week for a training class, but I’m headed back to my own city (Houston) today. None of these songs are about either of those cities.

1. Miami 2017 – Billy Joel
2. Mission To Moscow – The Hot Club of Cowtown
3. Mobile – Marcia Ball
4. Montreaux’s Theme – Yes
5. New York City Serenade – Bruce Springsteen
6. New York Minute – Don Henley
7. The Night Chicago Died – Paper Lace
8. Odessa – The Mollys
9. Oh Atlanta – Little Feat
10. Opelousas (Sweet Relief) – Maria McKee

As I said, none of these songs are about Austin or Houston, but “Odessa” is a city in Texas, “Cowtown” is a nickname for Fort Worth though none of the original members of The Hot Club of Cowtown is from there, and of course Marcia Ball is an Austin icon. So there you have it. Have a great Memorial Day weekend, y’all.

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Posted in: Music.
Tagged: ·

We appear to have a budget

May 24th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
No comments yet

Took them long enough.

BagOfMoney

After days of jockeying and one-upsmanship, the Texas House and Senate each approved measures Wednesday evening critical to passing their next two-year budget.

“The results of these two bills together is a good conservative budget, and it’s something we can all be proud of,” said Senate Finance Chairman Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands.

With just five days left in the legislative session, both chambers needed to at least tentatively pass separate measures by midnight as part of a larger budget deal agreed to by leaders from both chambers last week.

The Senate voted 29-3 for House Bill 1025. Sens. Dan Patrick, R-Houston; Ken Paxton, R-McKinney; and Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, voted against the measure.

Senate Joint Resolution 1 passed the House 130-16, meaning it crossed the 100-vote threshold to avoid coming up for a second vote on Thursday.

The measure approved by the House would ask Texas voters to amend the state Constitution to create a new fund for water infrastructure projects. The Senate passed a $5.4 billion supplemental budget bill that would, among other things, put $2 billion in that new fund.

The negotiations over how exactly to approve the two measures exposed deep tensions between the House and Senate as lawmakers on both sides pushed for the other chamber to move first out of concerns that the other side might not keep its word.

I didn’t follow the ins and outs of this little soap opera because it was low comedy even by legislative standards, and in the end either it was going to get done or it wasn’t. Rick Perry could still blow it all up if he wants to, but that has always been the case. The bill to provide “relief” from the margins tax was substantially altered in the Senate and is in conference committee, and it’s not clear that either that or whatever crumbs have been thrown to TxDOT will meet Perry’s goals for avoiding a special session, at least for something other than redistricting. But at least the Lege hasn’t deliberately sabotaged things. Take your victories where you can. The Observer, Burka, and EoW have more.

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Posted in: Budget ballyhoo.
Tagged: · · · · · · · · · ·

Abbott is gearing up for Governor

May 24th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
2 comments

I have two things to say about this.

Still not Greg Abbott

Gov. Rick Perry hasn’t yet said whether he’s running for re-election — but Attorney General Greg Abbott doesn’t appear to be waiting for him to make up his mind.

Abbott is collecting résumés and assembling a gubernatorial campaign team. He’s shaking hands, giving speeches and edging his way onto the covers of small-town newspapers across the state. He also just opened a new campaign headquarters — an entire floor of the Texas Association of Broadcasters building in downtown Austin, according to a Republican consultant familiar with Abbott’s campaign.

And he’s building up his grassroots infrastructure online, collecting supporters via email blasts, web petitions and increasingly partisan and vociferous social media messaging.

[...]

While Abbott is waiting for Perry’s decision, expected to come in June after the gubernatorial veto period ends, he isn’t biding his time.

He’s sitting on an $18 million war chest — trumping Perry’s at last count.

He has used Twitter to brandish campaign mailers depicting handguns in holsters — aimed at staunch Second Amendment advocates — and to document his gubernatorial-style visits to the scenes of the West fertilizer depot explosion (he was the first statewide elected official there, surprising even his own staff) and the Granbury tornado.

On his Facebook page, Abbott implores supporters to sign a petition to “save religious liberty from the IRS’ wrath” and another to demand answers from the Obama administration on the “truth surrounding Benghazi.” Those were just two of many he has posted in recent weeks to collect email addresses and build a viral grassroots network.

He’s pressing the flesh in person, too, hopping from Tea Party meetings to ladies’ luncheons, from Fort Bend County to Beeville.

Of late, every pronouncement and ruling from the attorney general seems to be a campaign battle cry.

Last month, Abbott issued an opinion arguing that the Texas Constitution prohibits government entities from recognizing domestic partner insurance benefits. He told a crowd in Waco that he would sue the Obama administration to protect Texans’ gun rights if the U.S. joins a global United Nations arms treaty.

This month, he called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS’s scrutiny of Tea Party groups applying for tax-exempt status. He also threw the weight of his office behind grassroots activists concerned with an alleged “anti-American” slant in the lesson plans of CSCOPE, the state-developed curriculum management system used by many Texas public schools.

1. I’m still not convinced that Rick Perry will go quietly. If he’s still deluded enough to think he can run for President in 2016, I don’t see how making himself a lame duck in 2013 and a private citizen in January of 2015 helps him with that. Of course, losing in next March’s primary wouldn’t help either, but if he thinks he can win in 2016 then surely he thinks he can win in 2014, or he thinks Abbott will abide by their “agreement” to not run against each other. Basically, I just don’t see it in Perry’s character to stand down. I freely admit I could be wrong about this, but Perry strikes me as being like an aging formerly-elite athlete who maybe doesn’t have the most objective view of his own skill level but still shouldn’t be underestimated. I just wonder what kind of campaign he’d run against Abbott, who is nothing like KBH was in 2010. What case could Perry make to Republican primary voters to turn them away from Abbott? He must have some dirt somewhere, but would that be enough?

2. Unless you’re one of the 1.5 million people who voted in the 2012 or 2010 GOP primaries, Greg Abbott isn’t interested in talking to you. He doesn’t need your vote and doesn’t particularly care about your vote. He’s not making any pretense about being Governor of all of Texas. Rick Perry isn’t exactly a model of consensus and bipartisan outreach, but even he has had a few feints in that direction during the thousand or so years he’s been in the Governor’s mansion, most notably when he called on his fellow Aggie John Sharp to design and sell the margins tax back in 2006. As bad as Perry is, and Lord knows he’s terrible, I believe Abbott would be even more alienating and divisive as Governor. If that thought doesn’t scare you, it should.

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Posted in: Election 2014.
Tagged: · · · · · · · · ·

Someone attempted to do something about MBIA and the Sports Authority

May 24th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
1 comment

And others expressed their disapproval about it. What the “it” is, and who it was that was trying to do “it” remain unclear.

Who dunnit?

Who dunnit?

A surprise legislative maneuver has local government lobbyists scrambling to defend the agency that pays the debt on Houston’s sports stadiums against an alleged takeover attempt by the company that insures its bonds.

The insurer, MBIA, has hired lobbyists to circulate language that would prevent the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority from spending money on anything other than debt service and legally required payments without its creditors’ approval.

Sports Authority chairman J. Kent Friedman said the draft, which names neither the Sports Authority nor MBIA, appears innocuous at first glance.

“It’s extremely well done. You have to be an insider to know what this really does,” he said. “In effect, they would take over running the Sports Authority. I’m convinced they’ll try to stick it on some other piece of legislation at the end of the session, on the floor so it’ll get as little notoriety as possible, and try to slip it through.”

A Houston-area lawmaker had considered attaching the language to a pending financial transparency bill, Friedman and others said, but quickly dropped it when a lawyer whose feedback he had sought realized its implications. The legislator could not be reached Friday.

[...]

Harris County lobbyist Cathy Sisk called the legislative maneuver “bizarre,” saying the insurer appears to be trying to get lawmakers to do what a judge did not.

“We’ve pretty much alerted everybody in the delegation to watch for it,” Sisk said. “I’d like to think that means it doesn’t have much of a chance of being attached to anything, but you never know. Anything can happen in the Texas Legislature.”

City of Houston lobbyist Kippy Caraway said her team also is on alert.

Kevin Brown, a spokesman for MBIA affiliate National Public Finance Guarantee Corp., said what the firm seeks in its lawsuit against the Sports Authority and the goals of the draft amendment are different.

“The legislation that we have been promoting seeks to achieve greater transparency and accountability from certain governmental entities that are in financial distress,” he said. “The Sports Authority’s opposition to that legislation should raise serious questions for Houstonians and other stakeholders about the authority’s financial condition and the reasons for its objections.”

The draft amendment runs two pages and would apply to a “political subdivision in condition of financial stress,” as defined by five points that describe the Sports Authority.

The amendment says such an entity “may not, unless authorized by (its) creditors” spend money on anything other than debt service, payments required by law or a contract, or to maintain its assets. The draft also would, among other things, require the entity to submit to its creditors a plan stating how it will address its financial woes.

See here, here, and here for the background on MBIA and the Sports Authority. Frankly, the most important piece of information in this article is that the Chair of the Sports Authority is now being referred to as “J. Kent Friedman” again, after a brief run of being called “Kenny Friedman”. Whether this represents a return to copy-editing standards on the part of the Chron or the documenting of a brief midlife crisis on Friedman’s part also remains a mystery.

Things that the story left a mystery:

1. The identity of the legislator. Why wouldn’t you just say who the legislator was? So what if he couldn’t be reached for a comment by the time the story went to print? The fact that this amendment was drafted and this legislator was shopping it around before pulling it back isn’t in dispute, so no one’s reputation is on the line. What purpose is being served by holding back this information?

2. The full text of the amendment. Reporter Mike Morris has clearly seen it, since he quotes from it, but it runs two pages and all we get is a couple of sentence fragments. The amendment was apparently not filed, since I can’t find it via an amendment search using the phrase “political subdivision in condition of financial stress” or a combination of the words. But clearly it exists, so a document could be made of it and uploaded somewhere for the rest of us to see.

3. The bill that the unnamed legislator was going to try to attach it to. At this point in the session, it could only be attached to a Senate bill, and if adopted it would thus require a conference committee to get the different versions straightened out for final votes. If we knew the Senate bill in question, we could then ask the Senate author what he or she thinks of this maneuver. Given all of the sturm und drang we’ve seen recently, that might have made for a more interesting story than the one we got.

As it happens, from prior communication I’ve had with MBIA representatives, I was able to get answers to these questions. The bill in question was SB14, specifically the committee substitute CSSB14, authored by Sen. Tommy Williams. The House legislator was Rep. Jim Pitts, who was the House sponsor for the bill. I don’t know how you can call Rep. Pitts, who is based in Waxahachie, a “Houston-area lawmaker”, but I suppose that’s a minor quibble at this point Rep. Jim Murphy. The amendment, which was drafted but not officially filed, is here. Again, I’m not sure why this information wasn’t in the story. Be that as it may, MBIA disputed Friedman’s contention that this was an attempt to “take over” the agency, saying that the main purpose of the legislation was to enhance transparency and accountability. At last report, a point of order had been sustained against CSSB14 in the House, so this is all likely moot at this point. But we still should have known more about what was happening at the time.

UPDATE: I have since been informed by Judge Emmett’s office that the legislator was Rep. Jim Murphy, not Rep. Jim Pitts. I suspect this was a matter of confusing one Jim for another.

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Posted in: That's our Lege.
Tagged: · · · · · · · · ·

Beautifying Buffalo Bayou

May 24th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
1 comment

I’m really looking forward to seeing how this winds up.

The nonprofit Buffalo Bayou Partnership is overseeing $58 million in ecological restoration and enhancement to upgrade the 2.3-mile stretch between Shepherd and Sabine into a green gem with a slew of amenities and surprisingly diverse landscapes where native plants will star.

The Kinder Foundation’s $30 million catalyst gift launched the ambitious project in the 160 acre-park. The Wortham Foundation’s $5 million moved the partnership closer to its $23 million fundraising goal, and Harris County Flood Control District is contributing $5 million, partnership president Anne Olson said. One of the city’s tax zones will contribute $2 million per year for the park’s maintenance and operations when it’s completed in 2015.

The private-public effort will add trails, pedestrian bridges, public art, a nature playground, two ponds for dogs, quiet areas and recreational spaces and parking.

But one of the project’s key goals is restoring the diversity of landscapes historically found along the bayou.

“We’re trying to keep the park natural and green but take it to a more refined level by removing non-natives and invasives,” Olson said.

The flood control district has been clearing unwanted plants, dredging silt and sculpting bayou banks to improve water flow, decrease murkiness and ease erosion.

I’ve written about this project before, and the more I hear about it the more I can’t wait to see the finished product. If you’ve driven down Allen Parkway lately or were there for the Art Car Parade, you’ve seen some of the progress that they’ve been making. Where things go after the work is done is even more interesting to contemplate. There’s already a B-Cycle kiosk the Sabine end of the bayou; adding another at the Montrose/Studemont entry point, and another at the nearby Regent Square Alamo Drafthouse would be good ideas. Connecting the Bayou at the west end to Memorial Park would also be awesome. Lots to be excited about here.

On a fascinating little tangent, a couple of weeks ago a rare alligator snapping turtle, which had been thought to be extinct in Harris County, was found in the Bayou. It’s since been nursed back to health (it had fish hooks in its mouth) and released in the wild where it belongs. This doesn’t have anything to do with the story, I just thought it was cool.

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Posted in: Elsewhere in Houston.
Tagged: · · · ·

Redistricting hearing set in San Antonio

May 23rd, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
No comments yet

Texas Redistricting:

The San Antonio court entered an order this afternoon setting a hearing for May 29 at 9 a.m. to decide what to do with the Texas maps – or, more exactly, to decide how to decide what to do.

The order acknowledged that the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby Co. would “affect the final outcome of these proceedings,” but said “the Court would like to take reasonable steps to prepare for the difficult task ahead.”

Based on the parties’ prior representations, the court asked the parties to be prepared to agree at the hearing to a stipulation making the interim state senate map the final court-ordered senate plan – or, alternatively, to argue at the hearing why it should not be.

On the state house and congressional maps, the court asked the parties to be prepared to argue whether evidence from the D.C. preclearance case should be admitted into evidence in the San Antonio case and whether the plaintiffs should be allowed to supplement the record with new demographic data and data derived from the 2012 elections.

A copy of the order can be found here.

As we know, sine die is the 27th. There may or may not be a special session on redistricting afterward. SCOTUS hands down its ruling on Section 5 in June. The fun isn’t ending anytime soon.

UPDATE: More from Texas Redistricting and PDiddie.

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Posted in: Legal matters.
Tagged: · · · · · · · ·

Medicaid expansion is now double secret illegal

May 23rd, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
2 comments

Whatever.

It's constitutional - deal with it

It’s constitutional – deal with it

In a surprise turn in the House on Monday evening, a bill to reform Medicaid long-term and acute care services became a vehicle for the GOP’s platform against Medicaid expansion.

“Many of us are very weary of Medicaid expansion,” said state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, who offered an amendment to Senate Bill 7 that would ban Texas from expanding Medicaid eligibility without the approval of the Legislature. While House lawmakers recognize that Texas’ large number of uninsured residents is a problem, Leach said, “We don’t believe that Obamacare is the answer to that.”

Leach’s amendment — which was adopted with a vote of 87 to 57 — would prohibit the Health and Human Services Commission from providing “medical assistance to any person who would not have been eligible for that assistance and for whom federal matching funds were not available” under the state’s existing criteria for medical assistance.

State Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, expressed concern that the “broad stroke” of Leach’s amendment would handicap the state’s ability to stretch federal matching dollars in other programs, such as the 1115 Medicaid waiver program.

“I’m the first to tell you that the Medicaid system is very fragile,” said Zerwas, who has pushed this session for the Legislature to weigh in on the Medicaid expansion debate by approving “a Texas alternative” based on private-market reforms. “But this particular provision, in terms of restricting any ability to utilize matching funds for the provision of health care, is not the right amendment for this bill,” he said.

But under current law, Leach said, the state health commissioner or governor could expand Medicaid coverage without legislative approval. The expansion of Medicaid eligibility is “too big of a decision for the future of this state to be made by one person, and I believe the Legislature ought to be involved,” he said.

It’s hard to say that this makes much difference. Barring the election of a Democratic Governor in 2014 – I’ll leave it to you to estimate the odds of that – it’s pretty much a moot point anyway. Since in adding this amendment SB7 was altered from the Senate version, it has to go to a conference committee, so the amendment could wind up getting stripped anyway. But in all honesty, it probably doesn’t matter anyway. BOR and Trail Blazers have more.

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Posted in: Technology, science, and math.
Tagged: · · · · · · · ·

Texas blog roundup for the week of May 20

May 23rd, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
No comments yet

The Texas Progressive Alliance is counting down the minutes until sine die as we bring you this week’s roundup.

Off the Kuff comments on another Battleground Texas story, and what it says about how the organization is doing so far.

The state has plenty of money, and the GOP is still gutting government. That’s why WCNews at Eye on Williamson says that this is a golden opportunity for them, The oath or a pledge.

McBlogger asks if it’s a good idea to ask the ‘rich’ to forego Social Security.

Angelina Jolie’s killer boobs, the walking dead in the Texas Lege, and Ted Cruz killing off the Republican party. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs wonders if Dia de los Muertos came early this year.

At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw gives us the big picture on Texas and national party politics. Check out Texas is One BF Deal.

====================

And here are some more posts of interest from Texas blogs.

Open The Taps explains what they did not get accomplished this session with the craft beer bills, but which they plan to address again next session.

Letters from Texas says we need less judgment and more truth in the matters that are now dominating the news headlines.

Texas Clean Air Matters warns that it is too soon to remove Texas City from the air pollution watch list.

Juanita laments that some political endorsements just aren’t worth what you’d think they might be.

Nonsequitesue has some role models for charity.

Texas Leftist reconsiders Houston Mayor Annise Parker as a role model for GLBT rights.

Texpatriate looks forward to Rick Perry peeing in a cup.

Amy Valentine discovers that Amazon has a strange definition of “erotica”.

Jason Stanford connects the dots between high-stakes testing and cheating scandals.

BOR writes that Big Tobacco is on the verge of snuffing out its smaller competitors in Texas.

The Bloggess reminds us that we don’t need a giant corporation to teach our kids what strong women look like.

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Posted in: Blog stuff.
Tagged: ·

Your feedback requested on Chapter 9

May 23rd, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
No comments yet

From the Inbox, from CM Noriega:

Council Member Melissa Noriega announces a Special Called Transportation, Technology & Infrastructure Committee meeting Wednesday, June 12, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. TTI committee members will review the changes to Chapter 9, Stormwater Design Requirements, Chapter 13, Stormwater Quality Design Requirements and receive public comments.

The Standards Review Committee (SRC), Department of Public Works and Engineering (PWE) was established to review, revise, and update PWE’s Standards and Documents. The Public is invited to provide their input and to participate by the submittal of proposals for suggested changes, comments, recommendations and other information. The deadline is Friday, May 24, 2013.

In this year’s review cycle, SRC has reviewed Infrastructure Design Manual Chapter 9, Stormwater Design Requirements and Chapter 13, Stormwater Quality Design Requirements and the associated design specification and details on the basis of comments received from all interested parties.

The SRC’s draft versions of the recommendations are posted at this link.

All the interested parties are asked to please review the recommended changes and provide comments for the final review by no later than Friday, May 24, 2013. After that time the committee will review all the final comments and authorize the City Engineer to publish the 2012-2013 version of the Infrastructure Design Manual by July 1, 2013.

You can provide your comments two ways:

For more information contact Rajiv Arya at 832.394.9131or at email: Rajiv.Arya@houstontx.gov

Also from the inbox, via Ed Browne:

The public comment period for revisions to Chapter 9 of the City of Houston Infrastructure Design Manual closes on May 24, 2013.  Comments must be submitted to standardsreviewcommittee@houstontx.gov no later than that date.  The draft of the revisions for Chapter 9  was released prior to the final City Council vote on Chapter 42 (which deals with urban development) of the municipal Code of Ordinances.  Please note that these two manuals, the municipal Code of Ordinances and the Public Works and Engineering (PW&E) Infrastructure Design Manual (IDM), are distinct but different.  The Code of Ordinances are voted upon by City Council after public hearings, while the IDM is approved by a PW&E Standards Committee not subject to a vote or hearings.
Here’s a link to our comments on proposed revisions to our red-lined copy of Chapter 9.
There are several key points that are particularly important to note:
  • This sentence was removed in the new version of Chapter 9: “Drainage criteria administered by the City of Houston and complemented by Harris County and the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) for newly designed areas provides protection from Structural Flooding from a 100-year storm event.”   We hope that the City doesn’t quit trying to provide protection from a 100-year storm event and that FEMA and commercial insurers don’t abandoned Houston to our floods.  Removing a sentence does not remove the City’s responsibility to protect its citizens from preventable disasters. (see Section 9.01.A.1)
  • Chapter 9 is not harmonized with Chapter 42.  Recent Chapter 42 changes include increasing development density for single family residences  dramatically (from 7 to 27 homes per acre) and designating all of incorporated Houston as urban.  Urban density means more concrete and more concrete means more water runs off of properties.  The stormwater runoff coefficient, C, that percentage of a property that is impermeable, needs to be changed in Chapter 9 to reflect an all urban City.  Any roadways being reconstructed by Rebuild Houston need to assume stormwater runoff of 90% or higher. (see 9.05.B.3.a.1)
  • Chapter 9 allows fees in-lieu-of detention (see Section 9.05.H.2.a.).  Section 9.02.J. says that payments in-lieu-of detention will be allowed only if deficit drainage systems are improved to sufficient capacity to convey new and existing runoff.  If conveyance systems are being asked to carry all the runoff, then they need to have been designed using urban stormwater runoff  (C>90%)  that assumes all the water will be carried by the roadway conveyance and have capacity in excess of this.  If Rebuild Houston intends to install subregional detention ponds, then all conveyance routes must be designed and built to handle more than the 100-year event; i.e., C >100%.   Any fee paid in-lieu-of providing detention needs to go to a Rebuild Houston fund earmarked to build subregional detention in the subregion where the fee was paid.  It should not go towards the General Fund, nor to be used on any road project anywhere within the City.
  • Attempts by the City to deal with “Grandfathering” will cause more confusion than anything.  Inspectors will be unable to discern the small amount of new detention added when redeveloping properties with existing impervious cover (concrete).  Enforcement would be virtually impossible.  Our suggestion is that all development or redevelopment install the same amount of detention.  Inspectors could very easily tell whether detention was installed or not and requiring everyone to install the same detention would reduce, if not eliminate, creative ways to avoid detention.  We also recommend that elevating properties would require mitigating for 100% of runoff due to the elevation. (see Section 9.05.H.3.)
  • Subregional (huge) detention ponds have been touted as the City’s savior by several Houston Mayors, but they are not.  It will be years (if ever) before Rebuild Houston funding begins to accumulate enough funds for these detention ponds.  Back-of-the-napkin math suggests that we would need approximately 600 subregional detention ponds, each of about 640 acre-feet (huge), if we want to do away with requiring local detention.  This would cost tens of billions and land available for purchase may not be optimally placed for detention, and will become scarcer as Chapter 42 is implemented.  Clearly, we’ll need to build some anyway, even if local detention is used, because we’re only mitigating for half the runoff produced.  A more subtle problem is our insistence that our roadways are designed to convey excess water in heavy rains, so the roadways will need to carry the water to the subregional detention ponds.  Trouble is, major thoroughfares that need to carry emergency vehicles, or provide an evacuation route, must not flood even in an extreme event.  Theoretically, all neighborhoods will have access to emergency and evacuation routes, so the question becomes, “How will the need to convey water to subregional detention ponds and the need for safe passage be reconciled?”  The answer is that they cannot unless major thoroughfares are designed with much larger drainage systems than currently used, and that costs even more money.  Chapter 42 densification will not wait for Rebuild Houston money to accumulate, so we strongly advocate for local on-site detention with no in-lieu-of payments. (See section 9.05.H.5)
Please refer to our other pages for more information about the relationships between Chapter 42 and Chapter 9.  Use whatever comments you wish to get your own talking points for the June 12th meeting or to send comments to the City (standardsreviewcommittee@houstontx.gov).

Finally, the Planning Department will hold numerous community meetings to discuss the recent changes to Chapter 42:

Thursday, May 23, 2013, 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Sunnyside Multi-Service Center
9314 Cullen
Houston, Texas 77051

Thursday, May 23, 2013, 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Northeast Multi-Service Center
9720 Spaulding
Houston, Texas 77016

Wednesday, May 29, 2013, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Briar Grove Elementary School
6145 San Felipe
Houston, Texas 77057

Wednesday, May 29, 2013, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Avenue CDC Home Ownership Center
707 Quitman
Houston, Texas77009

Thursday, May 30, 2013, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m
Garden Villa Community Center
6720 South Haywood Drive
Houston, Texas770612

Monday, June 3, 2013, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m
La Fontaine Reception Hall
7758 West Tidwell
Houston, Texas 77040

Thursday, June 6, 2013, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Freed Community Center
6818 Shady Villa Lane
Houston, Texas 77055

Tuesday, June 10, 2013, 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Willowridge High School
16301 Chimney Rock Road
Houston, Texas 77053

Thursday, June 10, 2013, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Jefferson Davis High School
1101 Quitman
Houston, Texas 77009

Tuesday, June 18, 2013, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Memorial Drive United Methodist Church
12955 Memorial Drive
Houston, Texas 77024

To learn more about this program and download applications, visit http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/Neighborhood/prevailLotBldg.html.

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Posted in: Local politics.
Tagged: · · · ·

The fight over domestic partnership benefits is just beginning

May 22nd, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
No comments yet

Stuff like this was inevitable.

On the right side of history

Leaders of two Christian groups want City Council to stop extending benefits to domestic partners of city employees, now that the state attorney general has called the benefits unconstitutional.

City officials reject the demand, at least for now.

Pastor Gerald Ripley of Voices for Marriage and Philip Sevilla of Texas Leadership Coalition made the request Wednesday with backing from a few sign-carrying supporters at City Hall.

Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an opinion April 29 stating cities that offer marriage benefits to employees’ same-sex partners are violating the Texas Constitution. San Antonio has done so since 2011, at an annual cost then estimated at $300,000.

Ripley and Sevilla also voiced opposition to Councilman Diego Bernal’s proposal to update the city’s anti-discrimination policies by adding protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. Further, Ripley and Sevilla oppose funding a city liaison to the gay community. The city’s Governance Committee takes up Bernal’s proposals on Tuesday.

Ripley demanded the domestic partner benefits policy be reversed by June 30. “Lawsuits will be filed if necessary,” he said.

“We cannot allow this in San Antonio. We are not San Francisco,” Sevilla said.

City attorney Mike Bernard said the city won’t change its policy while the nation’s highest court weighs two cases that could impact Abbott’s opinion. Rulings could come in a few weeks, he said.
“We’re not going to do anything until the U.S. Supreme Court rules,” he said Wednesday.

Abbott issued his opinion back in April. He stated in his opinion that Texas’ double secret illegal anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment didn’t necessarily bar cities and ISDs and what have you from offering benefits to the unmarried partners of employees, they just couldn’t do it in a way that made it look like they were equating those not-married relationships with marriage. Perhaps because of that wiggle room, or just perhaps because they thought Abbott was being more political than analytical, the cities that have offered domestic partnership benefits have basically ignored Abbott’s opinion so far. On top of that, the voters in Pflugerville re-elected the two trustees of their school board that supported its domestic partnership policy that led to Abbott’s opinion, defeating two candidates that had targeted them over this. One way or another this will ultimately be decided in a court, whether or not SCOTUS upholds or throws out DOMA. The next step will be when one of the anti-equality groups finds a plaintiff to file a suit against their city or ISD. Stay tuned.

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Posted in: The great state of Texas.
Tagged: · · · · · · · · · · · ·

Houston gets Super Bowl LI

May 22nd, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
1 comment

All right!

NFL owners voted today to give Houston Super Bowl LI in 2017.

At their spring meeting at the Hyatt Harborside, the owners voted the coveted Super Bowl L to San Francisco over South Florida.

South Florida took another one on the chin in the next vote, losing Super Bowl LI to Houston. The Houston group made the final presentation of the day to the owners.

This will be the third Super Bowl played in Houston – the first since Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004.

“This is a great day for Houston, bringing back the Super Bowl to Houston,” said Ric Campo, chairman of Houston’s bid committee. “I know a lot of people are celebrating in Houston, but it’s important to remember our friends in Oklahoma. They have our prayers and support as they rebuild. We are thinking of them while we celebrate this great game for Houston.”

[...]

Houston was favored over South Florida for the last two weeks. The consensus was that San Francisco was a lock because of the 49ers’ new Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. That meant South Florida, which has hosted 10 Super Bowls, competed against Houston.

When Dolphins owner Stephen Ross failed to get $350 million from taxpayers to improve Sun Life Stadium, he conceded Super Bowl LI to Houston. While trying to get his legislature to approve a Dade County referendum that might have provided the $350 million, Ross said without the improvements, South Florida wouldn’t get one of the Super Bowls.

If the owners had voted the game to South Florida without the stadium improvements, they would have sent a strong message that taxpayer money wasn’t necessary to improve a stadium before it can host a Super Bowl.

Yeah, the owners obviously couldn’t let that happen. We did spend some money on Reliant’s scoreboard, but on the shakedown scale that’s pretty small potatoes. We had a good bid and we won on the merits, which is how it should be. I’m looking forward to all the hoopla in 2017. There will be some haters, of course, but who cares? Let ‘em whine, we don’t care. The only bad news is that we’ll need to wait awhile to get the economic impact estimate, but I’m sure it will be worth the wait. Hair Balls has more.

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Posted in: Elsewhere in Houston.
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Shark fins

May 22nd, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
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I’m not sure why the practice of shark finning wasn’t illegal already.

We’re the dangerous ones

Texas lawmakers are considering a ban on the sale and possession of shark fins, a move that reflects a growing trend to protect the imperiled creatures at the top of the ocean food chain.

Conservationists say the global trade for the age-old delicacy has helped drive rampant illegal shark finning. The practice involves slicing off valued fins from living sharks and dumping their still-writhing bodies back into the ocean to die.

They estimate that tens of millions of sharks are killed each year to support the shark fin market. By also banning the trade, “we are reducing the number of sharks killed specifically for their fins,” said Katie Jarl, Texas state director for the Humane Society of the United States, which is lobbying for the ban in Texas and elsewhere.

Eight states already have outlawed the trade, but Texas would be the first along the Gulf Coast to prohibit it. The Senate could sign off on House Bill 852 by Rep. Eddie Lucio III, a Brownsville Democrat, as soon as Monday.

While the legislation has bipartisan support, some fishing operators who catch sharks legally oppose the ban. The fin, which is used to make an expensive Chinese soup, is the most valuable part of the shark, said Buddy Guindon, who owns Katie’s Seafood Market in Galveston and operates commercial fishing boats in the Gulf.

“All it will do is drive fishermen out of Texas,” perhaps to Louisiana, which has less stringent catch limits and no ban on sales, Guindon said. “It’s not going to stop illegal shark finning.”

Texas and the United States already have some of the world’s toughest restrictions on shark fishing. The state limits fishermen to one shark per day, while federal law requires that sharks caught legally in all U.S. waters must be landed with fins attached.

But the regulations are difficult to enforce because the fins are easy to conceal.

Here’s HB852. Unfortunately, it appears to be dead in the water after running into some resistance on the Senate floor, mostly from frequent anti-environmentalist Troy Fraser. It’s not like the wholesale slaughter of sharks is some kind of major issue with global implications or anything. That does argue for federal action, since it almost surely is the case that banning it in Texas would simply shift the practice to Louisiana, but generally speaking state action is a great catalyst for federal action, and we just missed a chance to make something happen. Sorry about that, sharks.

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Posted in: That's our Lege.
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Alexan Heights trying again

May 22nd, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
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The Leader News reports that the proposed mid-rise apartment complex for Yale at 7th Street has been reworked in a way that would avoid the need for a variance.

Alexan Heights on Yale

The deed restrictions involved single-family homes within the proposed complex — properties that the owners did not want to sell and that TCR was able to design around. TCR’s earlier request for construction with a variance failed before the Houston Planning Commission.

An advance copy of the new notice was part of a TCR/Maple Multi-Family Land TX letter to District C Councilwoman Ellen Cohen dated April 19, portions of which read: “The replat includes properties that were previously restricted to single family. The deed restrictions for these properties have been amended to allow multi-family so the replat will include all 3.55 acres of the site as an unrestricted reserve.”

The letter to Cohen also says TCR has restricted the project’s driveway on Allston Street to be a service exit, left turn only, to divert traffic away from the neighborhood. And, the developer “is willing to work” with Allston Street neighbors if they seek parking restrictions or “No Parking” signs adjacent to the apartment project.

In addition, the letter to Cohen says that if the city will approve a HAWK signal — a crossing signal controlled by pedestrians or bicyclists — at the bike trail adjacent to the mid-rise’s site, TCR will fund and build it. Similarly, the company “is prepared to make a contribution” to the detention pond/park at Rutland and 6th streets.

See here for the last update, and see here for a copy of the letter sent to CM Cohen’s office, which they shared with me. “TCR” is Trammel Crow Residential. I had thought they’d get the variance that they were ultimately denied, so I’m not going to speculate what may happen here. The neighborhood is still opposed to the idea, or at least the more vocal factions of the neighborhood is opposed. I know there’s a lot of interest in putting some kind of signal at the bike trail crosswalk, so you’d think there might be room for negotiation here. Be that as it may, there is a public hearing scheduled for 2:30 p.m. May 23 at City Hall Annex, 900 Bagby St to discuss this, so we’ll see what happens this time. Swamplot has more.

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Posted in: Elsewhere in Houston.
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PAC Plus polls Latinos in Texas

May 21st, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
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BOR reported last week on a poll of Texas Latinos conducted by PAC Plus. They zeroed in on the questions that had to do with Latinos’ impressions of Republicans and Democrats.

For the survey PAC+ interviewed 2,685 randomly selected registered Hispanic voters in Texas counties with the highest number of Latino eligible voters: Bexar, Dallas, Tarrant, El Paso and Harris. The findings give support to a major part of Democrats plan to take back Texas — register and turnout Latino voters. According to pollster Dr. Julie Martinez Ortega, “Latino voters make up 43% of the ‘Texas Blue’ vote,”.

Republicans most straightforward pitch to Hispanics has been to try and co-identify as “conservative” and play up shared family values. It appears that whatever assumptions about shared values Republicans made were incorrect. When asked, “When it comes to social issues — such as religion, abortion and same-sex marriage — which party do you generally think does the best job of representing your views? Democrats or Republicans?”, 58% said Democrats and only 24% identified with Republicans. This backs up other recent polls that show Hispanics by large margins support a woman’s right to end her pregnancy. Adriana Maestas, of the National Latina Institute of Reproductive Health, gave an early warning to Republicans over their “conventional wisdom” on Hispanics and social issues prior to the 2012 election when she said, “…if the GOP continues to reach out to Latino voters based on the perceived social agenda. These kinds of messages may not be well received this election year.” She was correct as 58% of those survey by PAC+ supported Obama and only 24% supported Romney.

On economic issues, “like jobs, the economy, and immigration”, Hispanics still identified most with Democrats at 57%. One of the most successful tools Republicans have used is recruiting Hispanic candidates. A majority of respondents said they were more likely to vote for a candidate because they were “Hispanic”, with 44% saying they would be much more likely. Senator Ted Cruz accordingly got 32% of the Hispanic vote, but 21% of those surveyed actually thought he was a Democrat.

Emphasis in the original. I want to dig into that last data point a bit. The question about how much Latino support Cruz has received – specifically, how much of a boost he got in heavily Democratic Latino areas – has been a frequent topic of discussion since his election last November. I’ve written several posts on the subject. Here are the relevant numbers from the PAC Plus poll:

What did you do in the 2012 contest for President?


Obama      58%
Romney     24%
Neither    19%

What did you do in the contest for Senate?


Sadler     27%
Cruz       32%
Neither    41%

To the best of your knowledge, is Senator Ted Cruz a Democrat or a Republican? If you’re not sure, just make your best guess.


Democrat   21%
Republican 61%
Not sure   18%

Would you be more likely to support a candidate who is Hispanic than one who is not?


Much       25%
Somewhat   20%
Not        22%
Not sure   33%

Full toplines are here. If you take the “Neither”s at their word in the Presidential question, Obama got about 70% of the Latinos who did vote, which is entirely in agreement with the Latino Decisions exit poll of Texas. The Sadler/Cruz numbers, needless to say, stick out like a sore thumb. My explanation for the huge disparity is that the 2012 Senate race was basically indistinguishable from any other statewide downballot race, at least once the GOP primary was over. I can’t honestly say I ever saw a Ted Cruz ad on TV, and as we know Paul Sadler didn’t have two dimes to rub together. I strongly suspect a large number of people polled simply didn’t recognize Sadler’s name and thus said they didn’t vote, while some other said they voted for Cruz because of their mistaken belief that he’s a Democrat or because if all else were equal they preferred a Latino to a non-Latino. We know that while there was some dropoff in voting in the Sadler/Cruz race, it wasn’t that much – both candidates got over 97% of the total vote as their party’s Presidential candidate, a figure that holds consistent through each of the State Rep districts, so the much larger “Neither” answer here is unlikely to be accurate. If you go to the House members’ page and click on an individual Member, you can now see the election data for each of the State Rep districts. A check of the most heavily Latino State Rep districts shows clearly the disparity between the poll result and the actual election numbers:


Dist   SSRV  Obama  Sadler  Diff  Romney  Cruz  Diff
====================================================
35     76.7   66.3   61.4   -4.9    32.7  36.0  +3.3
36     85.4   74.6   70.8   -3.8    24.4  27.0  +2.6
37     80.0   69.2   60.8   -8.4    29.7  35.0  +5.3
38     79.9   66.1   58.4   -7.7    32.9  38.1  +5.2
39     83.9   73.9   69.6   -4.3    25.1  28.1  +3.0
40     87.5   75.2   70.9   -4.3    23.7  26.6  +2.9
42     88.4   75.5   63.3  -12.2    23.4  32.5  +8.9
75     82.8   72.2   66.9   -5.3    26.6  29.7  +3.1
76     82.9   76.8   71.5   -5.3    21.8  25.7  +3.8
79     71.3   64.6   60.1   -4.5    34.1  36.9  +2.8
80     80.4   68.4   60.5   -7.9    30.7  35.6  +4.9

SSVR = Spanish Surname Registered Voters; the number given is a percentage. In most districts, Sadler had a modest decrease in vote percentage compared to President Obama, while Cruz gained a smaller number of points on Mitt Romney. Only in four of the 11 districts is the dropoff from Obama to Sadler significant. Cruz benefited from being a Latino candidate running against a non-Latino candidate in a race where neither candidate was well known. As I’ve shown before, this was true for other Latino candidates – Democratic, Republican, and Libertarian – in similar contests. Democrats get the bulk of Latino votes, but in the absence of information about the candidates they will lose a few votes to Latino candidates from other parties. When you get right down to it, this is yet another commercial for Battleground Texas and their neighbor-to-neighbor model for getting out the vote. Latinos vastly prefer the Democratic position on the issues. Like all voters, they need to have accurate information about the candidates to ensure they make the choice that best reflects their values, and they need a reason to go to the polls to express those values. No matter how we study this issue, or how much evidence we amass on it, the same conclusions remain valid.

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Posted in: Election 2012.
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Better late than never, I guess

May 21st, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
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Way to be ahead of the curve, y’all.

It's constitutional - deal with it

It’s constitutional – deal with it

A resolution endorsing the expansion of Medicaid was approved by Texas Medical Association delegates Saturday at the group’s annual meeting in San Antonio.

“The patients need the care and, if we pass Medicaid expansion, it will lower our taxes. How can you be against that?” said the measure’s author, Dr. Robert Luedecke, a San Antonio anesthesiologist and member of the Bexar County Medical Society.

He doubtful the group’s stance will sway Gov. Rick Perry, who last month said, “Texas will not be held hostage to the Obama administration’s attempt to force us into this fool’s errand.”

The resolution, which Luedecke said was adopted by a voice vote of the 500 delegates gathered at the Convention Center, estimates that Texas could reap $100 billion in matching federal funds over a 10-year span in return for $15 billion investment, under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

A separate vote to oppose Medicaid expansion was voted down before this one was done, so they have that going for them, which is nice. I think it’s safe to say that the TMA has managed to avoid having any influence over the Medicaid expansion debate for the legislative session. I do mean it when I say “better late than never”, but in this case, not by very much.

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Posted in: Show Business for Ugly People.
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Bike trails bill signed

May 21st, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
1 comment
CenterPoint rights of way

CenterPoint rights of way

The Chron has a brief blurb about Rick Perry signing the bill that will allow the CenterPoint rights of way in Harris County to be used as hike and bike trails. See here for the background, and here for a map of the two big rights of way that are in question; the map is embedded in this post as well. Compare this map to that of the Bayou Greenways, which will also have bike trails built along them in places where they don’t currently exist. The bayous run almost entirely east-west, while the CenterPoint rights of way are north-south. It’s easy to see the benefit of having them added to the hike and bike trail network, as they will provide connections between trails, all of which will be off-road. It’s sweet to finally clear a path for this, as it were, and to do so in a way that didn’t require sacrificing all notions of liability. Obviously, there’s still a lot of work to be done – we’re probably three to five years away from seeing this completed – but this bill was a necessary first step, and the Houston bond referendum that was passed last year will provide an immediate boost. It’s a big deal, and another great amenity for the city and the county. Kudos to all for getting it done.

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Posted in: That's our Lege.
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Are we too hip for our own good?

May 21st, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
2 comments

Craig Hlavaty notes Houston’s current status as the It City of the national media, and wonders if that’s necessarily a good thing for us.

Hipper than I am, not that this is difficult

But with the praise and accolades, lots of Houstonians are fearful that the Bayou City will become a boomtown cesspool of out-of-towners clogging our roadways, gyms, eateries, apartment complexes, and bars with their non-Texan ways. Pronouncing Houston “how-stun” and Humble like this.

There even seems to be a slight difference of opinion in how to even properly abbreviate Houston, with homers saying that it is and always shall be HOU, and others gunning for HTX, though some snarl that that is too close to Austin’s ATX designation. HTX is for “newstonians” according to the Houstorian Twitter feed, an authority on all things regarding Houston history that isn’t the Chron’s own Bayou City History blog.

And I won’t even go into all the nicknames that abound. Bayou City, Clutch City, Space City, the Bayou City, H-Town, Screwston, City Of Syrup, The Armpit, and a few others that involve curse words not welcome at a family paper.

Many people are wishing that the national media would just shut up about us already, lest we become something that we don’t want to be. But why keep Houston a secret? Why stifle the love?

“Easy, just look at Austin, ” says Jay Rascoe, one of Houston’s biggest champions of tacos and beer, with a handful of beer festivals under his belt that he has planned with his wife Cathy. He points to Austin’s expansion into a yuppie resort city, a convention mecca, and generally where dreams go to die painful corporate deaths as reasons why we should keep HOU hid.

“If you look at areas like Garden Oaks and the Heights, a lot of old mom-and-pops are closing down and selling their lots for big bucks to developers,” says Rascoe. “Gentrification comes with a price — the loss of a city’s identity and character.”

Rascoe adds that the creature comforts of the suburbs are entrenching into Houston’s Inner Loop. Plus, it’s not downtown H-Town that is being sold by these lists, it’s really the ‘burbs — because many newbies can’t tell where Houston begins and ends.

[...]

Local musician Craig Kinsey, of eternal Sideshow Tramps fame, is torn on Houston getting a close-up.

“Many talented artists, chefs, musicians, dancers, and good business people can profit from the attention,” Kinsey says, before reminding us about the inherent downside to things going above ground.

“All that is good will slowly turn lame. Right now we enjoy the rich fruit of a family farm. Bring in national or worldwide attention and you will see the “Monsantofication” of all we partake in here,” Kinsey adds.

Food for thought. Delicious, locally-sourced food for thought. With a pint of 8th Wonder on the side.

Audio engineer Josh Webster has another take on the new influx of baby Houstonites.

“I think people who are willing to leave their homes in another city to move to a strange place with a notorious climate, for more opportunities are the kind of people we should want to be our neighbors,” said Webster.

I tend to agree with Mr. Webster. Even before the national media noticed us, the thing you’d most often hear newcomers to Houston say about our fair city is how friendly and welcoming it is. Lots of us are from someplace else, so we’re generally pretty cool with the idea. If we’re worried about newcomers changing Houston, I think it’s quite clear that they have been all along, and mostly for the better. To a large degree, that’s what Houston is all about. Finally, I think we’re a long way away from taking our current level of cachet too seriously and venturing into “Portlandia” territory. I figure the media will have abandoned us in favor of the next new hotness long before that might happen.

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Posted in: Elsewhere in Houston.
Tagged: · ·

The 2013 Mayor’s race just got real, y’all

May 20th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
11 comments

Look who’s back:

Need I mention that it was posted on the fence surrounding an empty lot? Look for other signs just like it on a utility pole near you. And be sure to tell anyone who wants to vote for Eric Dick for Mayor to be sure to check the straight ticket Republican box on this year’s ballot.

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Posted in: Election 2013.
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Still no support for term limits

May 20th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
No comments yet

Fine by me.

Still no limits on corndogs

The full House, for the second time in eight years, drove a stake through the chance of imposing term limits on the governor and other statewide officeholders.

The proposed constitutional amendment that would have gone to voters was defeated 80-61 on Wednesday. The Senate had passed the proposed amendment last month 27-4.

Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, fought for the proposal saying that 36 other states had similar restrictions that allows fresh ideas and talent into the executive branch.

Larson invoked Rick Perry’s long tenure and pointed out that he has controlled state government through making every appointment in the state — the first governor to do so.

Perry has served more than 12 years in the top office and said he will announce in June whether he will seek a fourth full term as governor.

[...]

In addition to the governor and lieutenant governor, the bill would have limited the attorney general, comptroller, land commissioner, agriculture commissioner and secretary of state to two, consecutive four-year terms. The three members of the Railroad Commission would be subject to two, consecutive six-year terms.

The Senate last passed a term limit proposal in 1995, which would have restricted both statewide officials and lawmakers. But the resolution, which lacked the backing of then-House Speaker Pete Laney, died in committee without a full House vote.

See here for the background, and here for SJR13. Note that there were 80 votes against SJR13. It didn’t just lack sufficient support to qualify for the ballot, it couldn’t get a majority. I’m rather stunned by that, as I’m sure is Rice prof Mark Jones, who predicted smooth sailing for it in the House in that earlier story about it easily passing the Senate. Here’s the unofficial record vote; by my count, a small majority of Dems voted Yes, while a fairly large majority of Rs voted No. I suspect it may be awhile before we see another attempt to impose term limits. If the Rick Perry argument didn’t work, I don’t know what would.

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Posted in: That's our Lege.
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Amazon has a strange idea of what constitutes “erotica”

May 20th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
2 comments

In last week’s Texas blog roundup, we saluted Amy Valentine for successfully turning her blog about surviving breast cancer into a book about surviving breast cancer. Amy is a friend of mine from my class at Trinity University, and I’ve been following her blog since its inception, partly because I’ve cared about what’s happening with her, and partly because she’s dealt with this awful situation with great humor and courage. It turns out that the joke is on her, as her book – a Kindle download – has been classified by Amazon as something it is not.

Breast cancer is not erotic

Amazon’s Kindle has categorized my digital breast cancer memoir as Erotica. The funniest part is that I notified Amazon of the error. After all, there is nothing erotic about breast cancer. Yet, Amazon refused to recategorize my book! They pointed out the book’s “adult content” and told me it would never be placed in a “general public listing.” I felt like I was a 12-year-old girl getting a scolding from her Sunday School teacher. I know my book’s title, Killer Boobs, can be a bit risque and the cover art, which was in the stock photos that Amazon provided, is of a naked woman’s torso, but when partnered with the overall book topic, it all works. After all, my breasts did try to kill me. And the skinny model’s torso on the cover looks more like a cancer patient in my eyes than a sexy playboy model. I don’t know who I feel most sorry for: folks hoping for Erotic literature who mistakenly buy my book, or my 77-year-old mother’s friends who purchase the digital book and then find out that other buyers purchased “Bondage Babes” and “Whips, Chains, and Lipstick.” Amazon Kindle editors will really be upset when I publish my memoir’s sequel on my harrowing and sometimes funny trip through breast cancer world: “Cleavage to Die For.”

I joked to Amy on her Facebook page that the title and art would work equally well for a Mickey Spillane novel, but there is a bit of serious business underneath all the boob jokes. Every book has a potential audience, and no book can find its audience if it’s off in the wrong section of the bookstore, whether virtual or not. If you are sent a link to Amy’s book, and see that the webpage its on contains recommendations like the ones listed above or the books that were recommended for me, you’re probably not going to have an accurate picture of what it is you’re looking at. I don’t know what Amazon’s algorithms are, but surely they ought to have some capacity for taking a writer’s word for the fact that her book is about chemo and healing and not whips and handcuffs when she tries to tell them that. A book about breasts is not necessarily a book about sex.

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Posted in: Books.
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290 toll lane opens

May 20th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
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You solo drivers on US 290 can now take advantage of the HOV lane to make your daily commute a little less grim, beginning today.

Based on time of day, drivers will pay between $1 and $5 for using the lanes, while eligible carpoolers can still use them for free. In the mornings, vehicles must have three occupants between 6:45 a.m. and 8 a.m., while only two people per vehicle are required at other times.

The carpool lanes run from near FM 1960 to the Northwest Transit Center near Interstate 10 and Loop 610. The transit center, park and ride buses and the carpool lanes are operated by Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Metro also manages toll lanes along Interstate 45 and U.S. 59. Carpool lanes along 59 north of downtown are scheduled to open later this year.

About 7,500 vehicles use the carpool lane daily along 290, Metro officials said. Adding solo drivers who pay is expected to increase the use to about 9,000 vehicles. Raising and lowering prices is meant to control use.

See here for some background, and here for more on Metro’s HOV/HOT lane service. Doesn’t sound like it’s enough volume to make much of a dent in the daily commute time for most folks, but I suppose if you’re one of the ones paying for the privilege of driving in the HOV lane it’ll make a difference for you. It’s going to be a long couple of years while 290 gets revamped and expanded, and I hardly ever have to drive on it.

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Posted in: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
Tagged: · · · · ·

Weekend link dump for May 19

May 19th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
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Turns out “tiger” parenting isn’t such a good idea.

When pirate costumes go wrong.

“Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers. Oh, and they should put those damn smartphones down and get off my lawn already.”

Please turn off your portable electronic devices prior to takeoff. Unless you don’t feel like it. Really doesn’t matter much one way or the other.

President Obama would like to use 3-D printers to make weapons, too. Someone alert Steve Stockman.

I realize we’re coming to the end of the school year, but this advice on how to get along with your child’s teacher is still timely.

Rand Paul is at least as nuts as his father.

“The Benghazi attacks (the consulate and the CIA compound) are absolutely not unprecedented even though they’re being treated that way by Republicans”.

It’s time for passwords to die. The current system is insecure and unmanageable.

“To put it bluntly, we will see far more handgun deaths due to black market firearms this week than we will see from 3D printed guns in our entire lifetime.”

The UN thinks we should eat more bugs. That sound you hear is Ted Cruz’s head exploding.

“It is, as you might expect, the biggest pile of direwolf excrement I’ve seen on the internet this week.”

There’s a long list of reasons why “racecraft” is a disreputable field of study.

RIP, Dr. Joyce Brothers, pop psychology pioneer.

“Today’s CBO estimate puts the deficit at 2.1 percent of GDP by 2015. Simpson-Bowles called for reducing the deficit to 2.3 percent of GDP by 2015. So we got beyond their recommendation without punishing any old people or cutting taxes even more for the wealthy and corporations. Go figure.”

RIP, Billie Sol Estes, the kind of flamboyant Texas con man they don’t make anymore.

“Still, the fact that the right is being forced to fall back from predicting a staggering rise in health-care costs to explaining away the staggering decline in health-care costs represents real progress.”

“The whole “second term curse” narrative is mostly a media construct, but it’s actually a self-perpetuating one.”

“There is a scandal in all of this—several, actually, and some are more significant than the one that is getting all the attention.”

Ten real world princesses who don’t need Disney makeovers.

If writing that the “great, deluded middle class–subsidized by the government and coddled by politicians” needs to experience a decade-long siege of high unemployment isn’t “get[ting] off on other people’s suffering”, I don’t know what “getting off on other people’s suffering” could possibly mean.

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Posted in: Blog stuff.
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House approves charter expansion bill SB2

May 19th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
1 comment

A big step forward for those who would like to see more charters.

Senate Bill 2 passed on a 105-34 vote on second reading. It now faces a third reading before it can be reconciled with a similar version the Senate passed last month.

“I think the bill supports quality charters, helping them to expand and grow but at the same time helping to shut down the poor performers,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock, R-Killeen.

Its author, Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, has called SB2 the most comprehensive charter school legislation since the state introduced the publicly funded and privately run schools in the 1990s. Previous efforts to change the system made it through the Senate but failed to gain traction in the House.

The bill would update rules on the renewal, expansion and revocation of charters, raising the current cap of 215 charters that can be authorized at any one time by allowing an additional 10 per year up to a total of 275 by 2019. Charter holders may operate multiple schools under a single charter.

It would also tighten nepotism rules – an amendment exempts current employees – and give operators the right of first refusal on the lease or purchase of unused facilities in traditional public school districts.

[...]

The House adopted other amendments, including one requiring teachers at charter schools to hold bachelor’s degrees and another requiring the majority of a charter’s board members to be “qualified voters.”

Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, introduced the latter amendment, saying it was not aimed at any particular charter operator. Critics of the Harmony Public Schools charter network have complained to lawmakers in the past about the presence of Turkish citizens among Harmony leadership.

Since the House adopted amendments that make the bill differ from the one that the Senate passed, it has to go through a conference committee and get re-passed by each chamber. I don’t expect that will cause any problems, but sometimes strange things happen in the last days of a session. Trail Blazers and the Observer have more.

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Posted in: That's our Lege.
Tagged: · · · · · · · · ·

Michael Morton Act signed into law

May 19th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
2 comments

Excellent news.

With exoneree Michael Morton by his side, Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday signed a measure that aims to avoid wrongful convictions by preventing prosecutors from suppressing evidence.

“This is a major victory for integrity and fairness in our judicial system,” Perry said of Senate Bill 1611, which was named for Morton, who spent 25 years in prison before being exonerated. It was the governor’s first public signing ceremony of the session.

[...]

Under SB 1611, prosecutors will be required to turn over evidence to defendants accused of crimes and to keep a record of the evidence they disclose. The landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brady v. Maryland already requires prosecutors to give defendants information that is “material either to guilt or to punishment.” The Morton Act requires disclosure of evidence regardless of its materiality to guilt or punishment. It is the first significant reform to Texas discovery laws since 1965.

[...]

State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, who co-authored the bill with state Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, said the bill’s passage represented “an important milestone in the journey toward justice in Texas.” Duncan said the legislation would help preserve liberty in the state.

After signing the bill, Perry handed Morton the pen he used to do it, and state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, presented Morton with the gavel used to mark the passage of the bill in the House.

Well done all around. When SB1611 was first introduced, it was opposed by the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association on the grounds that it would have also required defense attorneys to open their files to discovery, much like prosecutors are required to do. I hadn’t followed this bill very closely so I wasn’t sure if the TCDLA was now on board with SB1611 – their website and Facebook page give no indication that I could find. I eventually found a comment by TDCLA President-elect Bobby Sims on this Grits post (scroll all the way down; Sims’ handle is Longhorn74) which makes it clear that in the end the TDCLA did support SB1611. All’s well that ends well. It would be nice if there were an equally happy ending for HB166, the bill to establish an Innocence Commission, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. One step at a time, I guess.

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Posted in: Crime and Punishment.
Tagged: · · · · · · · ·

Making downtown parking easier

May 19th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
No comments yet

Makes sense.

NoParking

In downtown Houston, there are about 3,200 parking spaces on the street – and a whopping 5,800 signs drivers must decipher to use them without getting towed or ticketed.

Aiming to fix this “confusing mishmash of signs,” as Mayor Annise Parker put it, City Council on Wednesday approved a $1.3 million contract with a Houston firm that will spend the next year removing signs and replacing them with a standardized set.

The types of parking signs posted downtown will drop from 120 to as few as 16.

“The goal is to have people be comfortable coming downtown knowing where they can park and not having a nasty surprise with their car being towed,” Parker said. “The theory apparently was previously that it’s better to have specific signs to say, ‘On this block you can do this between these hours.’ I don’t believe that. I think there ought to be consistency across downtown.”

Downtown Management District staff spent a week in a golf cart traveling streets, cataloging and photographing parking signs. The list showed, for example, at least 22 different versions of the same “no parking” message. In some places they found five or six signs stacked on the same post pointing in various directions, in what Councilman James Rodriguez called a befuddling “totem pole.”

Such proliferations of placards make it easy to miss the one that applies to you, Parker said, adding that the city also must keep curbs painted yellow in no-parking areas.

“I don’t want any ‘gotchas’ out there,” she said. “We want people who come downtown for a festival to have a great time at the festival and go back and find that their car is still in the same place they left it. Hear me: My goal is to write fewer parking tickets in downtown Houston and encourage everybody to come down and have a good time.”

I think everyone who has parked downtown has experienced this. It’s a welcome effort, and one that is not without cost to the city – as noted elsewhere in the story, the city collects $9.1 million from parking tickets but only $6.1 million from parking meters. Clearly, this is part of the recent focus on downtown retail, to help remove one of the obstacles to successful retail downtown by making people feel less confused and intimidated by the parking situation. I don’t know how much difference it will make, but it can’t hurt. Oh, and turning the old signs into an art project is all kinds of awesome. I can’t wait to see what that looks like. KUHF has more.

By the way, tacked on to the very end of the story is a note that Council approved the Uptown/Memorial TIRZ. You’d think after all the buildup leading to that vote that it might have warranted its own story, but apparently not. I understand that CM Helena Brown did vote no. That isn’t newsworthy anymore, either.

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Posted in: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
Tagged: · · · ·

Where are all the teenage drivers?

May 19th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
3 comments

There’s a lot less of them than there used to be.

TDL_Sample

Between 2001 and 2010, Texas added only 2,578 drivers age 16 to 21 while the age group grew by more than 238,000 statewide, dropping the percentage with a license from 62.4 percent to 55.9 percent.

Young adults who drive are doing so less often, researchers said, following a decade-long trend of higher gas prices and fewer young adult drivers.

Young people and transportation experts cite a variety of reasons why obtaining a driver’s license, once a rite of passage for any youngster, is becoming less important.

“Their status symbol, and maybe their focal point of choice, is their phone and the device they carry,” said Russell Henk, program director for the Teens in the Driver’s Seat program, a safety campaign created by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. “A car, 10 to 20 years ago, was the way to get together. Not anymore.”

The economy, and the need to lower costs by reducing gas consumption, is part of the reason for the drop, which officials say has yielded safety benefits.

“That has been a clear reason why we have seen a decrease in fatal crashes for that age group,” Henk said.

Fatalities for young drivers dropped dramatically between 2007 and 2010, including a 47 percent drop in fatalities for 16- and-17-year-olds, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. Preliminary data for 2012, however, shows road fatalities among young people might be on the rise.

Some suggest environmental consciousness is convincing young adults to ditch their gas-guzzling cars when possible, or to bike or walk to get some exercise.

Classes are being taught via webcast, goods can be bought without driving and friends can connect online from their respective homes. Even the workday commute can be erased.

“We live in a world where productivity is valued over placement,” said Taylor Kilroy, a University of Houston Law Center student and head of the school’s Energy and Environmental Law Society. “If an employee can produce the same quality work from home, why not allow them to work instead of being stuck in traffic?”

The trend nationwide goes farther back than 2001, and there’s not a strong consensus on the reasons for it. The economic downturn certainly contributed to the steeper decline of the past few years, but there’s more to it than that. This Grist story from 2010 gets at some of the other reasons.

Consider, for example, the fact that teen employment has been falling for most of the last decade. In 1978 (the beginning of the period that Advertising Age looks at) about 48 percent of driving-age teens in the U.S. held a job. By 2008, that number had fallen to 33 percent, and it now stands at just 26 percent. (Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.) And while I couldn’t find reliable stats on the relationship between teen employment and teen driving, it’s easy to believe that falling employment meant that teens had less reason to drive, and also less money to pay for cars and gas.

Likewise, the fall in teen employment coincided with both an increase in college attendance, and a decline in the real earning power of minimum wage work, particularly in the 1980s and the early- to mid-2000s. Rising college attendance may have have contributed to a decline in the need to drive, while falling minimum wage earnings reduced teens’ purchasing power.

And then consider the effect of rising oil prices. The chart below shows the difference 1970 and 2008 — a different period than Advertising Age looked at — but the lesson is pretty clear: By 2008, it was taking an awful lot of time for a young worker to earn enough money to fill the tank.

I was a teenage driver nearer the beginning of the period in question. I got my license in New York when I was 17, but most of the driving I did back then was of the weekend and summertime variety, because I didn’t have my own car and I wouldn’t have driven to school even if I did – I went to high school in Manhattan, so driving would have been really expensive, and there was no place to park. I lived on campus as a college student, and didn’t have a car till midway through my junior year, when I inherited my grandmother’s car after she passed away. So my experience tracks with what that Grist article suggests – I did most of my driving between the ages of 17 and 21 during the summer after I graduated high school, when I had a job that I couldn’t get to via public transportation. Otherwise, I just didn’t need a car that much.

I think the key to understanding this trend is to see if driving among people in their 20s, especially those who came of driving age during the tough economic times of recent years, also declines. If so, then we may be seeing a long-term shift that might have implications for our road capacity needs of the future, among other things. If not, it’s probably no big deal. See The Highwayman and EoW for more on related topics.

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Posted in: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
Tagged: · · ·

Saturday video break: Crossroads

May 18th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
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Song #19 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Crossroads”, originally by Robert Johnson and covered by Cream. Here’s the original:

Robert Johnson was just an amazing pioneer of blues music, who had a huge influence on rock and roll music. Odds are pretty good that if you like rock, you’re familiar with some of the music that was shaped by his influence. Like this Cream classic, for instance:

Great stuff. Rest in peace, Robert Johnson, wherever you are.

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Posted in: Music.
Tagged: ·

Budget deal reached

May 18th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
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And the crowd goes wild.

BagOfMoney

Top House and Senate negotiators agreed to a two-year budget for the state of Texas Friday that restores about $4 billion of $5.4 billion in cuts to public education made in 2011. It also creates a path for lawmakers to put $2 billion toward water infrastructure projects.

The five House members and five Senators of the Budget Conference Committee voted unanimously to adopt a final draft of the portions of the budget that remained unresolved, including Article 3, the portion focused on education and the area on which most of Friday’s negotiations focused on.

The main numbers of the budget are still being calculated by the Legislative Budget Board. But John Opperman, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s budget director, said the total budget would be less than the $195.5 billion budget the Senate approved earlier in the session. The budget is about $700 million below the state’s constitutional spending limit, he said. The budget still needs to be approved by the full House and Senate and signed by the governor.

The budget adopted Friday does not include a controversial rider setting guidelines around how Texas might negotiate with the federal government over expanding Medicaid. Senators had adopted the rider in their budget plan but the House had voted it down.

“The House wouldn’t agree to it,” said Senate Finance Chair Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands.

Under Friday’s deal, the $2 billion in water funding will come from the state’s Rainy Day fund, a reserve made up mostly of oil and gas taxes. That funding will be found in House Bill 1025, a supplemental budget bill that addresses funding on various issues.

The roughly $4 billion for public education hews closely to what Democrats had pushed for all week after acknowledging they were not going to be able to completely restore last session’s cuts. Budget conferees agreed to $3.2 billion for the Foundation School Program, the main account the state uses to fund public education. Another $200 million is expected to be added to the Foundation School Program in HB 1025.

As part of the $4 billion education package, negotiators also agreed on a $330 million infusion into the Teacher Retirement System’s pension fund.

All in all, not too shabby. The lack of a Medicaid rider is disappointing, but not terribly surprising. Too many Republicans, starting with Perry, Dewhurst, and Abbott, who just don’t care if people can’t get health care. The $4 billion in public education money is impressive, the highest number I’ve seen all session for public ed. It’s not $5.4 billion, but it’s a pretty significant fraction of it. There were a lot of twists and turns and allegations and accusations along the way, with various deals along the way being reported as agreed to and blown up, with threats of a special session featuring all kinds of awful agenda items for Democrats if they didn’t give in. Burka accused the Democrats of “forgetting how to win” after they spiked a deal that would have infused $3.5 billion into public ed but represented a walk-back of prior commitments by the Rs. I wonder what he thinks of them now. There are of course still reasons why a special session may happen, but assuming Rick Perry doesn’t spike the budget the scope for such sessions is now a lot smaller, and thus a lot less dangerous. Nice work, y’all. BOR has more.

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Posted in: Budget ballyhoo.
Tagged: · · · · · · · · · · ·

Craft beer bills pass the House

May 18th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
1 comment

Hallelujah!

A raft of bills that would dramatically alter the way beer is sold and consumed in Texas sailed through tentative approval from the House on Friday after a lengthy and disputatious process between brewers and beer distributors. If finally approved next week, the legislation will go straight to the governor’s desk without another stop.

The bills represent the largest overhaul of the industry in Texas since the Legislature legalized brewpubs in 1993. Under the new regulatory scheme, brewpubs and craft brewers would be allowed more flexibility to sell their products — privileges beermakers have sought for more than a decade.

The package includes Senate Bills 515, 516, 517, and 518, by state Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, which decrease restrictions on craft brewers and brewpubs.

Under the new rules, the cap on brewpub production would be doubled, from 5,000 barrels a year to 10,000. Brewpubs would also be allowed to sell their beer to distributors, in addition to selling limited amounts of their own beer directly to retailers.

The bills adjust breweries’ right to circumvent beer distributors and sell beer directly to retailers. Larger breweries than before would now be allowed to self distribute, but the limit on how much they are allowed to self distribute has been lowered.

Also, breweries would now be able to sell beer for on-site consumption — a major victory for Frank Mancuso, the Central Texas sales representative for the Saint Arnold Brewing Company of Houston, the oldest craft brewer in the state. Mancuso came to the House Gallery with a large number of other Texas brewers, who broke into applause when the last of the bills finally passed.

“We’ve been working on this for eight sessions now,” he said. “Selling beer at our location is something we’ve wanted to do for a long while.”

I only remember this going on in the last four sessions, but regardless, it’s been a long and arduous road to this point. I’m going to crack open a Saint Arnold’s to celebrate. Major kudos to everyone involved – I’m especially proud to say that my State Rep through 2012, Jessica Farrar, was an early and ardent leader in this fight. Here’s a little beer music to commemorate the moment. Please note that it contains some naughty language, so exercise care while watching:

We do love beer. Thanks to these bills, it’s easier to love.

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Posted in: That's our Lege.
Tagged: · · · · · · · · · · · ·

Abbott predicts special session for redistricting

May 18th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
1 comment

For the first time, someone says out loud the rumor of a special session on redistricting.

Still not Greg Abbott

Attorney General Greg Abbott let House members know in the Republican caucus meeting on Tuesday that he expects and is hoping for a special session on redistricting — sooner than later.

Several lawmakers in the meeting confirmed that Abbott was hoping the governor will call a special session very shortly after the regular one ends on May 27.

“Don’t pack your bags on May 28,” several members quoted him saying.

[...]

Everything is kind of on hold until the Supreme Court rules on whether the pre-clearance requirements, mostly imposed on Southern states with a history of discrimination, is even legal. That is likely to come next month.

In the meanwhile, Abbott would very much like to codify the maps tweaked by the courts, giving him strength if he needs to return to court to defend the districts.

[...]

If Perry does call a special session, he’s likely hoping it will be swift and sure because the maps are already in place. While there is certain to be a minority push for better representation, the truth is everyone in the Legislature got there last November running in those districts.

With a filing deadline for offices coming in early December, the Legislature would have to get the maps to the court by late August to give adequate time for review, Li said. That’s cutting it pretty close.

More likely in June. But there’s also another deadline looming: Perry is expected to become a grandfather for the first time around June 20. Bets are he won’t want to be dealing with a special session when he’s got something more special going on.

See here, here, and here for some background. “Expects” and “is hoping for” are two different things, so it’s still not clear if this means anything more than rumor, albeit a better-sourced rumor. It still doesn’t really mean anything until we hear Rick Perry say it. And Perry still isn’t talking, though just about everybody else is.

“I think a special session is pretty much certain,” said state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas. “The reason is that the attorney general wants the Legislature to approve the maps the courts have drawn for redistricting. There are a number of people (Democrats) who won’t vote for that. (The Republicans) don’t have the votes to get it through in the regular session, but they can push it through during a special session.”

During the regular session, Senate Democrats can block legislation under the so-called two-thirds rule, which requires 21 votes to bring up a bill for debate. That rule doesn’t apply during special sessions.

State Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, who chaired the Senate’s redistricting committee two years ago, acknowledged that redistricting might be the focus of a special session.

“Even though no one has uttered a word to me about it,” he said, “we all know that’s out there.”

In the House, state Rep. Dan Branch, a Republican from Dallas and member of House Speaker Joe Straus’ leadership team, called a special session on redistricting a “real possibility.”

State Rep. Drew Darby, R- San Angelo and chairman of the House Redistricting committee, said his staff is looking into what would be involved if a special session on redistricting is called.

“We stand ready. We are preparing for any eventuality,” Darby said.

For all the speculation about a special session, the governor’s office has remained quiet on the issue. And only the governor has the power to call one and to put items on its agenda. Josh Havens, a Perry spokesman, said it’s premature to talk about a special session.

Once again, the mere fact of a special session doesn’t mean the two thirds rule is not in play. The Senate sets its rules at the start of each session, and it can choose by majority vote whether or not to adhere to that rule. I’d expect that they would choose not to, but my point again is that it is a choice, not a default.

The reasons for having a special session now remain unclear, at least to me. Dems want to wait till SCOTUS rules on Section 5, while Abbott is talking about how having the interim maps be codified by the Lege would make his position in court stronger. That sounds like both of them have some expectation that Section 5 will survive, though it should be noted that there were Section 2 violations found in the original maps as well, so regardless of what SCOTUS says there likely will be some ongoing litigation. We know that most of the plaintiffs are not willing to settle for the interim maps, though the fact that everyone in the Lege was elected under those maps, nearly all more comfortably than in 2008, might complicate things a bit. I’m still not sure that everyone has thought all of this through, and I’m not sure it’s even possible to do that coherently. At this point, I have no idea what to expect.

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Posted in: That's our Lege.
Tagged: · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·

Laptops for fewer, at least for now

May 18th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
No comments yet

HISD’s proposed laptops for all proposal has been scaled back from an 18 school pilot to a ten school pilot in response to concerns that they weren’t quite ready yet for anything bigger than that.

Lenny Schad, chief technology officer for the Houston Independent School District, told the school board via email this week that consultants recently concluded HISD’s technological capacity wasn’t yet sufficient to dole out that many laptops. The review, he said, found that the bandwidth was lacking, and current staff wouldn’t be able to support the increased network demand.

In late April, Schad told the board that he hoped to start the laptop program at up to 18 high schools, but that the number depended on further analysis of the district’s readiness. Schad said he and his staff agree with the consultants’ recommendation to scale back to 10 schools, which would amount to more than 17,400 laptops for students and teachers.

The proposed campuses (at least one in each trustee’s area) are Sam Houston, Kashmere, Chavez, Bellaire, Sharps­town, Lee, Austin and Madison high schools, the all-boys school and the all-girls school. The single-gender campuses, which serve middle school students, already have a one-to-one technology program, according to HISD spokesman Jason Spencer.

“Implementing at 10 high schools will provide HISD with a good user base to ensure our plan and strategy is tested,” Schad said in his email to the school board.

This will likely knock the initial price tag down from $10 million to something smaller, though HISD did not provide a figure at this time. In my previous entry on this, I got some feedback asking how HISD was going to be able to service all this new equipment; I think we now have an answer to that concern. Better to start a little smaller than you originally hoped than too big and not be able to handle it.

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Posted in: School days.
Tagged: · · · · ·

Friday random ten: The city never sleeps, part 6

May 17th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
No comments yet

More Memphis and more foreign places.

1. Leningrad – Billy Joel
2. Lisdoonvarna – Ceili’s Muse
3. Liverpool Sunset – Gerald Jay Markoe
4. London Homesick Blues – Flying Fish Sailors
5. (Making The Run To) Gladewater – Michelle Shocked
6. Marching Bands Of Manhattan – Death Cab For Cutie
7. Memphis Exorcism – Squirrel Nut Zippers
8. Memphis In The Meantime – John Hiatt
9. Merano – from “Chess”
10. Miami – Shorty Long

Lisdoonvarna is a spoken-word song about a small spa town in Ireland that used to be the site of a large music festival. It remains the site of a ginormous annual matchmaking festival, which frankly sounds like an even better subject for a song. Merano is in northern Italy and has a long association with the game of chess. Memphis, I trust, you are familiar with.

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Posted in: Music.
Tagged: ·

Craft distilling

May 17th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
3 comments

We’re all familiar with the craft brewing industry in Texas, but did you know there is also a growing number of craft distillers in the Lone Star State? Whether you knew that or not, you will probably not be surprised to learn that they too have been held back by archaic alcohol laws, but like their brothers and sisters in the beermaking world, things are looking up for them now.

Yellow Rose Distilling

Twenty years after the rebirth of the craft-beer movement, and 30 years after boutique wineries found a foothold in America, spirits including scotch and bourbon are finally getting the small-batch treatment, with local distilleries redefining made-in-Texas spirits.

Distilleries of any kind were banned in Texas until 1997, when Tito Beveridge of Tito’s Vodka fought for legislation to legalize the industry once again. Now there are 43 distilleries with active permits in the state (though not all licensees are actively producing spirits), enough to place Texas at ninth in the nation with plenty of room to grow. California, the nation’s leader in distilleries, has about 250 independent producers operating.

Most of those Texas distilleries make spirits that don’t require aging, such as vodka or rum, but in the past five years a fledgling movement toward craft whiskeys has flourished across the state, with new brands that are already getting international attention.

[...]

Unlike wineries, distilleries in Texas are currently barred from offering tastings of their spirits on site or from selling directly to the consumer from the distillery. That’s set to change if Texas Senate Bill 905, which passed the state Senate in March and the House earlier this month, is signed by Gov. Rick Perry.

“Allowing distilleries to have on-premise and off-premise sales will bring visitors to the distilleries, which will hopefully increase sales and bring attention to Texas products,” notes the staff of state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, one of the bill’s authors.

Other bills designed to help Texas distilleries compete with out-of-state brands are under review by the Texas House of Representatives, including SB 828, which allows in-state distilleries to designate an official agent to conduct product samplings and take orders from wholesalers, as out-of-state distilleries do, and S.B. 652, which will allow Texas distilleries (as well as wineries and breweries) to buy and sell their products to other licensed distilleries.

Here are SB905 and SB828, which has also passed the House by now. SB652 is on the House calendar for today, as are the craft beer bills for which we’ve all been patiently waiting. I can only presume the reason why the distillers got their legislation through with no apparent fuss is that there isn’t an established industry of large distillers and liquor distributors to oppose them.

Anyway. The Press had a cover story on Texas’ craft distillers back in 2011 that’s worth your time to read. Yellow Rose was the first to open in the Houston area last year, and the craft distillery legislation that currently awaits Rick Perry’s signature would directly affect them:

Assuming SB 905 is signed and takes effect, Yellow Rose will move its microdistillery to central Houston near North Post Oak and Katy Freeway, seizing the opportunity to use tours as a marketing and sales tool.

As it is currently located north of Tomball, that would most likely mean it will become an actual Houston business instead of merely a “Houston-area” business once SB905 is law. I hope one of the city’s lobbyists has expressed support for this bill to Perry.

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Posted in: That's our Lege.
Tagged: · · · · · · · · · ·

Mike Anderson reveals that he has cancer

May 17th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
1 comment

Very sorry to hear this.

DA Mike Anderson

DA Mike Anderson

Mike Anderson, Harris County’s district attorney, informed his staff Thursday that he has been diagnosed with cancer.

“I have great doctors and am undergoing treatment. I fully intend to beat this,” said a brief email sent Thursday and signed “Mike.”

“Many people have asked how they can help me. I would ask that you keep me and my family in your prayers and continue to do the great work that you’re doing to make this the best DA’s office in these United States.”

Sara Marie Kinney, a spokeswoman for the office, released the email and said no other details were available, including the type of cancer and how long the elected district attorney has had it.

I wish DA Anderson all the best for a swift and full recovery. His Facebook page is here if you want to post a get-well message. KTRK has more.

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Posted in: Local politics.
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