Song #62 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “Ring of Fire”, originally by Anita Carter and covered by Social Distortion. Now I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking “But that’s a Johnny Cash song!” Listen to the intro here, which I think must have been recorded from a radio show, for the story. [...]
Posts from ‘June, 2012’
Former DeLay aide Ellis pleads guilty
This was out of the blue. Tom DeLay’s chief political aide, Jim Ellis, pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony charge of making an illegal campaign contribution during the 2002 election. Ellis, who headed DeLay’s Americans for a Republican Majority political action committee, was the aide who negotiated an exchange of $190,000 of corporate money for [...]
No Dome action yet
It’s still there. Beyond that, nothing to report. Harris County officials put off any final decision on the fate of the Astrodome on Tuesday, though the top executive suggested a new option for the deteriorating stadium. County Judge Ed Emmett said during the capital projects meeting that commissioners will continue to review four options for [...]
Local action on payday lending
Patricia Kilday Hart reports on a promising movement. No one was particularly surprised a year ago when the Texas Legislature failed – once again – to pass meaningful regulation of the payday and auto title loan industries. After all, the folks who charge triple digit interest on loans to society’s most desperately poor had invested [...]
Friday random ten: Hurricane season
We are officially in hurricane season now, and though Texas missed out on TS Debby, we know there’s more to come. So here are ten storm songs to get you through. 1. Full Force Gale – Van Morrison 2. Ready For The Storm – Gordian Knot 3. Ill Wind – Lonette McKee 4. Stormy Weather [...]
Erica Lee: How to Keep a First Grader Off Death Row
The following is from a series of guest posts that I will be presenting over the next few weeks. It is the beginning of the school year and excitement is in the air. Children are looking for their classmates in the hall. Parents are tucking in shoelaces and zipping backpacks. Teachers are taking one last [...]
Council adopts strip club fee
Here it comes. Seeking a solution to the bedeviling problem of untested rape evidence that is in some cases decades old, council imposed a $5-per-customer fee on strip clubs Wednesday so it can buy speedier lab work. That simple solution, however, may come with complications of its own, starting with court costs. “Houston has now [...]
California-style primaries
I’m deeply skeptical of this. In 2010, California voters approved getting rid of party-based primaries and adopting a “top-two” set-up, sometimes called a jungle primary. This month, the state tried the new primary model in which candidates of all parties ran at once on the same ballot. The top two vote-getters for statewide, congressional and [...]
Why do we want to subsidize the creation of minimum wage jobs?
That’s a question some people are asking in San Antonio. Thankfully, the local debate over whether to grant Maruchan Inc. of Japan millions of dollars to pay people very little money to make noodles has transcended the mere question of how many workers it would employ. And it’s heartening — in a depressing sort of [...]
Yvonne Gutierrez: Republican support for women’s health?
The following is from a series of guest posts that I will be presenting over the next few weeks. We all know there is a lot at stake for the 2012 election cycle. All eyes are on Washington but the old adage is true — all politics is local. State Legislative races are crucial. Especially [...]
Bond concerns
Early reactions to the HISD bond proposal that was unveiled last week. “I think in the long run any anti-tax opposition will make it a close race,” said state Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, predicting that Hispanics could swing the vote. Gallegos said he was worried about HISD’s timeline. The Houston Chronicle reported this month that [...]
It all depends on what your definition of success is
By any objective measure, tort “reform” has been a failure. A new study found no evidence that health care costs in Texas dipped after a 2003 constitutional amendment limited payouts in medical malpractice lawsuits, despite claims made to voters by some backers of tort reform. The researchers, who include University of Texas law professor Charles [...]
Texas blog roundup for the week of June 25
The Texas Progressive Alliance is in search of a shady spot and a cold beverage as it brings you this week’s roundup.
Gene Wu: Backyard Progressivism
The following is from a series of guest posts that I will be presenting over the next few weeks. Before I became involved in politics, I learned that there are real people in our communities who need hands-on assistance, people who are desperate for others to help lead them out of poverty. Beyond the typical [...]
Another homeless feeding update
Depending on how you look at it, time is either running out for the petition signature gatherers who hope to overturn the homeless feeding ordinance, or it isn’t. Free to Give Houston, a recently formed political action committee, needs about 28,000 registered voters’ signatures to trigger a charter amendment election in November. The group sent [...]
For spending Metro’s sales tax revenue on transit
A list of contributors almost as long as the University Line will hopefully someday be wrote a Sunday op-ed in favor of giving Metro more money for transit. Unfortunately, not all of the money that we voted for back in 1978 actually goes to provide transit service. A huge sum has been diverted to road [...]
Making open beaches a campaign issue
This is great. The Texas Supreme Court’s decision weakening the state Open Beaches Act has become a key issue in the race for one of the two contested Supreme Court seats in the Nov. 6 election. San Antonio attorney Michele Petty stood in front of a battered beach home in Surfside last weekend to criticize [...]
Alan Rosen: A Call To Protect Our Children
The following is from a series of guest posts that I will be presenting over the next few weeks. Every day, the internet opens up new doors for communication, commerce, and the betterment of all our lives. But, with great advances in technology come huge risks and the responsibility rests with each of us to [...]
Take the train to your dining destination
Katharine Shilcutt writes about how she gets to some of her favorite restaurants. When owner Staci Davis decided on a location for her restaurant, Radical Eats, one thing was extremely important to her above all: Davis wanted her vegan paradise to have access to the new Metro light rail North Line that’s currently being built along Fulton. When [...]
UH prof writes letter in support of resolution with Metro
After I published about UH holding up construction on the Southeast Line over concerns about the route, I was forwarded a letter sent by UH English professor Irving Rothman to UH President Renu Khator asking her to get this issue resolved. Here’s the letter. When I first arrived in Houston with my family in 1967, [...]
Steve Brown: The Grown-Up’s Platform
The following is from a series of guest posts that I will be presenting over the next few weeks. Texas Democrats recently adopted a very progressive platform that addresses critical areas of need in our state. It also gives reasonable, mature Texans an alternative to empty ideological rhetoric. Although most headlines will center on our [...]
Latinos and marriage equality
You’ve probably seen some coverage by now of how African American views of marriage equality have shifted in its favor in the wake of President Obama’s announcement that he now supports it. But what about Latinos and their views? The recent news coverage and analysis of this issue has focused almost exclusively on comparing the [...]
Houston gets grant for bike paths
Nice. It’s not a trail to nowhere, but the Heights Bike Path ends abruptly at McKee Street east of downtown, and from there cyclists have to share the road with four-wheeled vehicles. A peloton of politicians gathered near that terminus Friday afternoon to celebrate an election year bring-home-the-bacon $15 million federal grant that will pay [...]
Recycle that polystyrene
From the Inbox: Polystyrene Foam Recycling Available Beginning Monday, June 25, 2012 Beginning Monday, June 25, 2012, the City of Houston will accept clean block style or packaging polystyrene foam at the Westpark Recycling Center, 5900 Westpark, Houston 77057 and the Environmental Service Center South, 11500 South Post Oak Lane, Houston 77045. Residents can drop off [...]
Weekend link dump for June 24
The days are getting shorter already. Those who can, do. Those who aren’t asked to do, complain about it. I don’t care how Americans feel about broccoli. I still hate it. Learning about cocaine usage from what gets flushed down the potty. Who ever said dentistry was boring? Use your smartphone instead of your ATM [...]
Guest posts coming
Over the next few weeks I’m going to be running a series of guest posts that I have solicited from a variety of people. I’m doing this partly to give myself a bit of a breather during the summer lull and my own vacation time, and partly because I’m privileged to know a bunch of [...]
Our stupid beer laws in action
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Owners of the popular Eatsie Boys food truck will open their first stand-alone restaurant later this year on Montrose Boulevard, serving everything from breakfast items to sandwiches to house-made gelato. Closer to downtown, and possibly around the same time, the young entrepreneurs will cut the ribbon on [...]
Henry Cisneros
The Express News bring us an update on former San Antonio Mayor and onetime rising star Henry Cisneros. Henry Cisneros still talks about housing and urban development with passion, about the future of cities and the ways in which immigrant communities can help the country thrive. He still talks politics and remains involved with President [...]
FIFA may face up to reality
The world of international soccer may finally adopt technology to help officiate its games. The most powerful man in soccer called goal-line technology a “necessity” Wednesday, only hours after Ukraine was denied what appeared to be a legitimate goal in its must-win match against England at the European Championship. “After last night’s match GLT is [...]
HISD will not raise the tax rate
Instead, they will dip into their reserves to balance their $1.5 billion budget for this year. The amount is about the same as last year, when the district reduced spending by approximately 5 percent to offset unprecedented state cuts. Instead of seeking a tax increase – which the school board has been reluctant to embrace [...]
Defacing Picasso
Some people, I swear. Officials at the Menil Collection don’t know why a man spray-painted Pablo Picasso’s “Woman in a Red Armchair” at the museum, but the act wasn’t caught just on surveillance cameras. It also was captured by a bystander with a smartphone camera and subsequently posted on YouTube with a caption naming the [...]
You say “Manchaca”, I say “Menchaca”
Let’s start a Facebook page to settle it once and for all. Austin’s long-held knack for mangling street pronunciations is so rich it could be its own game show category. As in: “This well-known University of Texas-area street’s name suggests a circular motion.” “What is GWAD-a-loop, Alex?” But it is the misspelling, not the mispronunciation, [...]