Good for them. Attorney General Greg Abbott’s opinion [last] week, while not binding, is the latest of several challenges to same-sex benefits across the country that so far have had mixed results in the courts and prompted changes after officials in other states took action. In Texas, local governments from El Paso to San Antonio [...]
Posts Tagged ‘El Paso’
AusChron profiles Rep. Mary Gonzalez
It’s fair to say that freshman State Rep. Mary Gonzalez from HD75 in El Paso is not your typical first-term legislator. The Austin Chronicle has a nice chat with her. Only the second openly gay rep to serve in the Legislature (former Austin Rep. Glen Maxey was the first), she describes herself as “pansexual” – [...]
City wants the Lege to deal with payday lending
That’s what came out of the presentation to Council on payday lending on Tuesday. Houston leaders say they will wait to see whether the Legislature acts during its current session before voting on their proposal. Mayor Annise Parker has said the industry “cries out for regulation” and called the state’s failure to do so “disgraceful.” [...]
Who gets the water?
This will be worth watching. A simple idea has guided appropriations of Texas water for decades: First come, first served. Now, with drought conditions returning to almost the entire state, the principle is being put to the test by a fight over water in the Brazos River. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is withholding [...]
Desalinization and power plants
The Trib has another story about desalinization in Texas, and reading it brings up a point that I don’t think gets enough attention. Interest in desalination surged more than a decade ago, when the technology became more efficient and cost-competitive, according to Jorge Arroyo, a desalination specialist with the Texas Water Development Board. But the [...]
Interview with Rep. Silvestre Reyes
As discussed last week, we now enter a period in which I will be publishing some number of interviews with Congressional candidates in contested Democratic primaries around Texas. There’s a lot of interesting and high-profile races and I’d love to talk to everybody, but that’s not going to happen. I hope to have as many [...]
Two water stories
The future of Texas’ water supply sure is a hot topic in the papers these days. I hope that continues after we start getting normal rainfall again. Story One is about desalinization: For El Paso and a growing number of Texas cities, the question isn’t whether they have enough water, but what price people are [...]
More on the domestic partner benefits fight in El Paso
The Trib covers the fight over domestic partner benefits in El Paso. Pastor Tom Brown wants homosexuals to repent and turn to Christ. He certainly does not want them to be given taxpayer-financed health benefits. Brown, the charismatic leader of Word of Life Church, an independent evangelical congregation of about 1,500 members, is on a [...]
Keep an eye on El Paso
While we celebrate the advancement of civil rights in San Antonio, we must keep in mind that these fights are never truly over. The El Paso City Council voted to extend health insurance to domestic partnerships in 2009, but that was overturned at the ballot box last November. Undaunted, Council passed another ordinance in June, [...]
Not a drop to drink
I have two questions regarding this Trib story about the dire drought situation in Odessa. The city of Odessa, facing a dire drought situation, is looking to an unlikely example for help in finding water: the desert city of El Paso. Water pressure in Odessa dropped in August, and residents can only water their lawns [...]
No grass, no problems
Texas is in the midst of one its worst droughts ever, yet one of the more arid cities in the state is seeing no noticeable drop in its reservoirs. How is that possible? Simple: They got rid of lawns years ago. For decades this city in far West Texas defied the look of most desert [...]
Gallego to run for CD23 and other updates
State Rep. Pete Gallego has decided to run for Congress in CD23. Gallego first won election to the Texas House in 1990 and has chaired various committees and also been part of the Democratic leadership, doing time as head of the House Democratic and the Mexican American Legislative Caucuses. That’s made him known to state [...]
“America’s largest city with no pro sports teams”
This Houston Press lamentation about the city of Austin contained the following tidbit that caught my eye: Austin is America’s largest city with no pro sports teams (though some would debate the amateur status of the Texas Longhorns). Well, that depends on how you define “city”, and on how you define “pro”. I presume they [...]
New map, new opportunities: Travis, Bexar, El Paso
On to the urban counties. I’m grouping these three together because there’s really only one opportunity in each, and none of them are truly “new”. But never mind that. Let’s look at some data. District: 47 Incumbent: Paul Workman (first elected in 2010) County: Travis Best 2008 Dem performance: Barack Obama, 44.75% HD47 was the [...]
Abbott declines to offer transgender marriage opinion
Remember this, from back in May? The El Paso County attorney wants the state’s top lawyer to tell her whether she can issue a marriage certificate to a woman and a biological male who had a sex change operation to become a woman. County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal, in a letter sent last month, asked [...]
San Antonio smoking ban protests
The proposal to strengthen the smoking ban in San Antonio has drawn protest from a previously silent constituency. LULAC, the San Antonio Mixed Beverage Association, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the San Antonio Restaurant Association joined forces to create the Save Our Jobs Alliance. The coalition opposes strengthening the city’s [...]
If you thought gay marriage was contentious
The Attorney General is being asked for an opinion on transgender marriage. The El Paso County attorney wants the state’s top lawyer to tell her whether she can issue a marriage certificate to a woman and a biological male who had a sex change operation to become a woman. County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal, in [...]
Gay-baiting in the HD76 runoff
I had not paid much attention to the Democratic primary runoff in El Paso’s HD76, which is the only Democratic legislative runoff on the ballot. I don’t have a strong opinion one way or the other about the incumbent, Rep. Norma Chavez, and all I really knew up till now about her challenger, Naomi Gonzalez, [...]
Shapleigh’s successor
Via Greg, the El Paso Times runs down the possible contenders for the to-be-vacated Senate seat of Eliot Shapleigh. Potential Democratic candidates include County Attorney José Rodríguez and state Reps. Joe Pickett and Norma Chávez. Two Republicans, businessman Dee Margo and former state Rep. Pat Haggerty, also said they were interested in succeeding Shapleigh. Margo, [...]
Shapleigh not running for re-election
This is a big loss for the Senate, but there’s a potential upside that’s even bigger. State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, El Paso’s tireless adovcate for the poor and underpriveleged, announced today that he will not be running for re-election in 2010. “While other public service may lie ahead, I will not run for the Texas [...]
Here come stimulus money
The first batch of funds is arriving. The Department of Housing and Urban Development allocated more than $500 million to Texas cities and counties on Monday, part of a wave of stimulus money expected to flow into the state. Federal officials released $14.4 million more to support 12 Texas health centers, many of which provide [...]
The border camera boondoggle blues
Your tax dollars at work, courtesy of Governor Perry. A virtual border surveillance program Gov. Rick Perry has committed millions of taxpayer dollars to fell far short of expectations during the first six months of operation. Border sheriffs, who Perry gave $2 million to line the Texas-Mexico border with hundreds of Web cameras, installed only [...]