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 [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Senfronia Thompson’
Not so fast on the North Forest charter plan
Not everyone is convinced that the plan to allow a consortium of charter schools to take over North Forest ISD is a good idea. In interviews Monday, state Rep. Senfronia Thompson and Sens. Rodney Ellis and John Whitmire, all Democrats, voiced reservations about the last-ditch attempt to prevent the annexation of North Forest to Houston [...]
Bike trail on utility rights-of-way bills filed
This is a big show of support for making bike trails on CenterPoint’s rights of way happen. Houston voters last fall approved a $166 million bond measure to expand the city’s trail system, to be matched by $105 million in private donations via the Houston Parks Board. About 78 miles of trails would get built, [...]
Second attempt at Sunday liquor sales
If at first you don’t succeed. Democratic Rep. Senfronia Thompson filed a bill last week that proposed liquor stores be allowed to operate seven days a week. Under the current law, liquor stores may operate from Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The stores must close on Sunday, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day [...]
African-American State Reps state their map objections
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Black-lawmakers-blast-revised-Texas-voting-maps-2346838.php Contending that African Americans have been an afterthought during the contentious yearlong redistricting process, four Houston lawmakers on Monday voiced their objections to the interim House map a three-judge panel drew recently. “A lot of emphasis over the past year, even up to now, has been focused on redistricting’s impact on Republicans and Democrats [...]
House passes budget
The main objective of the special session has now been accomplished. But not before one of the House’s biggest homophobes nearly derailed it on Thursday. Lengthy debate on a key budget bill featured many retreads of contentious topics from the regular session — but it was Rep. Wayne Christian’s revival of his famous “pansexual” amendment [...]
More on the microbrew compromise
Brewed And Never Battered gives its report from the House Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee hearing yesterday. Briefly on HB 602: No one expressed opposition, not even the Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas, who have opposed the bill in the past. There is some forthcoming compromise on that bill that apparently everyone is happy with [...]
Interview with State Rep. Senfronia Thompson
State Rep. Senfronia Thompson is an institution in the Texas House. First elected in 1973, she is the longest serving female member, and the longest serving African American member of that chamber. Her list of achievements is long enough that I’ll just quote from her Texas Tribune bio page: Thompson has authored and passed more [...]
Richie re-elected as TDP Chair, Two-Step survives
The first, Boyd Ritchie’s re-election as TDP Chair, was expected. The second was more unexpected. Texas Democrats this afternoon overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to scrap the Texas Two-Step system of awarding presidential delegates through both a primary and caucuses. Those pushing for change lost a preliminary fight in a rules committee meeting earlier today. But [...]
Did I mention that election season is officially underway?
Why, yes, I did. Add to the Controller email shenanigans questions about who does or doesn’t support Peter Brown, which recalls his own curious dual endorsement from 2007; allegations about who is or isn’t a Republican, and allegations about Gene Locke and sexism. The latter is the most incendiary shot fired by someone that actually [...]
Strip club fee dies
Boy, I had sure thought that HB982, the alternate strip club fee bill by Rep. Senfronia Thompson had passed the Senate, but apparently the vote to pass it was reconsidered and was never taken up again, so as a result, it’s dead. That means the current version of the fee – which was approved in [...]
Windstorm insurance bill passes House committee
I’ve mentioned the prospect of a special session several times lately. One of the issues that could be the cause of a special session is windstorm insurance, as the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association took it on the chin last year thanks to Hurricane Ike. Governor Perry even came to the floor of the House yesterday [...]
Monday Lege roundup
Lots of legislative action today beyond the voter ID vaudeville act. Here’s a quick roundup of some other bills of interest. – HB1736, also known as the Tim Cole Act for the man who was posthumously exonerated this February, has passed both chambers and is on its way to Governor Perry’s desk. The bill increases [...]
Followup on Keller impeachment resolution
I had a brief conversation with Rep. Lon Burnam about HR480, the House resolution to impeach Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller, which had a hearing on Monday. He’s working on getting enough support in the House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence to get it voted out of committee and brought to [...]
Ethics and finance bills to get their turn
One never really expects bills relating to ethics and campaign finance reform to make it through the process, but it’s still a good idea to keep an eye on them. In the last session, for example, at least 105 bills related to general ethics, lobbying or campaign-finance were filed. Only nineteen became law. This session, [...]
More on the alternate strip club tax
After publishing about the alternate strip club tax that passed the House yesterday, HB982, I had some correspondence with the offices of Rep. Ellen Cohen and Rep. Senfronia Thompson about the revenue estimates, which I noted seemed quite divergent. Rep. Cohen’s office sent me the following documents: HB 982 revenue estimates (PDF) – This is [...]
Alternate strip club fee bill passes House
I didn’t realize there was another bill dealing with the strip club fee out there, but there is, and it passed in the House. Sexually oriented businesses, including adult video stores and nude dancing clubs, would pay a 10 percent tax on their entry fees under a bill tentatively passed today on a voice vote [...]