Fort Bend County, y’all. RESOLUTION OF THE FORT BEND COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT IN SUPPORT OF EXPANSION OF MEDICAIL) COVERAGE WHEREAS, Texas has the highest rate of uninsured [24%) and underinsured in the United States and 23% of the residents of Fort Bend County are uninsured, and WHEREAS, Expanding Medicaid would ensure 1.5 million more Texans [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Fort Bend County’
On city delegations and firefighter pensions
There are two points of interest in this Chron editorial about the Legislature and the desire of the city to get a bill passed that would give it some leverage over the firefighters in their fight over the pension fund. Sometimes we wonder if there really is such a thing as a “Houston delegation” representing [...]
What they’re saying about education
The Chron has a couple of stories focusing on area legislators and their priorities for 2013. There will be many new faces in the Lege and the Senate in this session, so the more we know about what these folks have in mind, the better. This story is about Pearland Rep. Ed Thompson (R, HD29) [...]
Precinct analysis: City propositions
And we come to the city of Houston bond referenda, of which there were five on the ballot. Here’s the usual breakdown of them: Dist A Yes A No B Yes B No C Yes C No D Yes D No E Yes E No ========================================================================== 126 720 231 725 239 711 228 671 275 [...]
What I’ll be looking for tonight
Just a reminder that I’ll be on KPFT tonight starting at 7 PM to talk about the elections. Here’s a preview of the things I’ll be looking for: 1. SD10 – Sen. Wendy Davis vs Mark Shelton: Easily the most important race on the ballot in Texas. Davis has been a progressive champion and a [...]
Pro tip: Vote only once
Oops. After the Fort Bend Star received a tip about the Republican candidate for Fort Bend County Precinct 1 Commissioner, the Star conducted an in-depth review of Bruce Fleming and his wife, Nancy Fleming’s voting record. Our research found that for several years Fleming voted both in Bucks County, Pa. and in Fort Bend County. [...]
Fort Bend ISD goes BYOD
Students in the Fort Bend Independent School District may now bring their own mobile device to class to connect to the school’s WiFi and be part of the curriculum. Fort Bend ISD’s policy allows students to use electronic devices to access the WiFi network in the classroom. Before this year, the district forbade cellphone use [...]
Interview with Vy Nguyen
Fort Bend County is one of the most diverse places in America, with roughly equal shares of Anglo, African-American, Hispanic, and Asian populations. It’s fast-growing, now with three full State Rep. districts and a part of a fourth, and becoming more and more blue – President Obama received 48.5% of the vote in 2008, and [...]
Fort Bend Brewing
Microbreweries sure are a growth industry around here. Chris Leonard came to Houston and was struck by the similarity with his hometown of Philadelphia. It was enough to convince him to move to Missouri City from the City of Brotherly Love. “I see the opportunity here, and I’m really excited about it,” he said on [...]
Open house meetings for US90A/Southwest Rail Corridor project
From Metro: The New METRO is continuing work on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the US90A/Southwest Rail Corridor Project with meetings to inform the public about alternatives that will be considered as part of this federal process. The US90A Project newsletter has been distributed to communities in advance of the open house meetings [...]
Three primary stories
TX Trib: 4 Democrats Vying to Replace Hochberg in HD-137 Observers say the winner of the contest for HD-137 is likely to be decided in the Democratic primary, whose four candidates are former Capitol staffers Joseph Carlos Madden and Jamaal Smith, Harris County prosecutor Gene Wu and Alief Independent School District board member Sarah Winkler. [...]
See you later, alligator
In some parts of town, it’s more like See you sooner or later, alligator. This time of year, the proprietor of Janik Alligators in El Campo spends much of his time trying to keep that scenario from happening. In the last week and a half in Fort Bend County, he says, 21 alligators were removed [...]
Interview with KP George
There are many contested Democratic Congressional primaries around the state this year, but in a sense the most important one is for a race that’s not on any national list of races to watch. I’m talking about the CD22 primary, and the reason this race matters is because in 2010 the Democrats unknowingly nominated Kesha [...]
Fort Bend ISD goes iPad
I’m guessing stories like this are going to be increasingly common. [Three Fort Bend ISD campuses], all Title I schools that serve predominantly low-income students, are the launching pad for iAchieve, a school district initiative to create a tablet-based “e-curriculum.” Instead of simply distributing iPads to students and using educational apps already on the market, [...]
Sanchez ends his Senate campaign
This news broke late Friday. Leading Democratic U.S. senatorial candidate Ricardo Sanchez announced Friday that he’s ending his campaign to replace retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. In a statement issued by his campaign to supporters, Sanchez said anemic fundraising and the loss of his house to a fire had led him to conclude that a [...]
Christie, Burks, Davis, Brown
Those are your runoff winners. Jack Christie’s victory was the most dramatic, coming in his fifth attempt to defeat Jolanda Jones, an opponent he had forced into multiple runoff elections. Helena Brown was the other candidate who beat an incumbent, defeating Brenda Stardig by a 10 percent margin for the District A seat, according to [...]
Early vote totals, Days Four and Five
Here’s your EV totals for Thursday and Friday, plus the 2009 spreadsheet, the 2007 daily EV report, and the Erik Vidor spreadsheet. And here’s the cumulative summary for the first five days: Type 2005 2007 2009 2011 ===================================== In Person 15,996 10,767 19,366 14,349 Absentee 1,891 3,555 3,801 4,340 Total 17,887 14,322 22,967 15,689 09 [...]
Our gay state
Is getting gayer, according to the Census. It’s no secret that Austin and Central Texas have much appeal for same-sex couples, but new census data from 2010 underscore the depth and breadth of the attraction. Among the highlights from an American-Statesman analysis of the data: • Travis County has the state’s highest rate — 1.25 [...]
Seliger-Solomons 2.0
Go to http://gis1.tlc.state.tx.us and have a gander at Plan C130 to see the version of the Seliger-Solomons Congressional plan that was passed last night by the Senate redistricting committee. The biggest changes are in and around Harris County, mostly due to CD36, which Rep. Solomons had admitted was ridiculous. Gone is its bizarre shape, which [...]
They like him! They really like him!
Here’s your heartwarming story for the week. The Republican Party of Fort Bend County Executive Committee has unanimously passed a resolution in support of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay expressing “appreciation for his tireless service to our community, the State of Texas and the nation and the price that he has paid for being [...]
San Antonio moves past Dallas
They’re #2! Not that it really matters. [San Antonio's] 1.3 million residents put it at the No. 2 spot for Texas’ largest cities and had the office of Mayor Julián Castro declaring San Antonio’s “rising prominence as one of America’s fastest-growing big cities.” San Antonio followed Houston, the state’s largest city with 2 million residents, [...]
More on Metro’s rail to Fort Bend plan
Here’s a story from the first of the public meetings Metro is holding on the proposed US90A rail line to Fort Bend. Planners of a proposed project to extend light rail service from Houston to Missouri City are hopeful about securing $1 million federal funding for the undertaking. Kimberly Slaughter, senior vice president of the [...]
Metro seeks input for commuter rail line to Fort Bend
Metro is taking another step forward on the commuter rail line along US 90A to Fort Bend County that was part of the 2003 Metro Solutions referendum. Kimberly Slaughter, Senior Vice President of Service Design & Development for Metro, unveiled the project’s design at a press conference [Monday] morning. The train — known clunkily as [...]
A more suburban Metro?
Another possible feature of the Census data, of which I had not been previously aware, could be characterized as Metro redistricting. The city of Houston could lose its majority control of the Metro board if the 2010 Census shows that population in the part of Metro’s service area outside the city limits has grown enough [...]
OutSmart story on the Fort Bend LGBT Political Caucus
Nice story in OutSmart about the fledgling Fort Bend LGBT Political Caucus, which was formed a couple of months ago. This is one of those websites that’s basically a fancy scan of the print magazine, so you can’t quote from it or anything useful like that, which means you have to actually click the link [...]
Interview with Stephen Brown
I’ve focused entirely on Harris County so far in this interview series. That’s because there are a lot of interesting races here, both at a district and countywide level, and also because that’s where I live. But there’s a lot of action going on in Fort Bend County too, as it has become a battleground [...]
This ain’t your daddy’s Fort Bend
Interesting article about the changing demographics in Fort Bend County and the changes in politics that have come with it. Today the GOP holds 27 of 31 elective offices in the county. Rick Miller aims to keep it that way. The 65-year-old retired Navy pilot moved to Sugar Land in 1999, and, with his wife, [...]
Fort Bend LGBT Political Caucus happy hour Monday
As you know, I’m a fan of the Houston GLBT Political Caucus and the work they do. I’m pleased to note that Fort Bend County now has a counterpart to that, the Fort Bend LGBT Political Caucus, which you can find on Facebook and Twitter. If you live or work out that way and would [...]