Paxton whistleblowers ask for $6.7 million in damages

Posted on February 22, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

I wish them luck.

Still a crook any way you look

Senior officials who were fired after reporting Attorney General Ken Paxton to law enforcement for alleged criminal conduct in 2020 asked a Travis County judge Thursday to award them $6.7 million in damages.

Paxton’s office has until 5 p.m. Friday to submit concerns about the plaintiff’s proposed judgment.

District Court Judge Catherine Mauzy said she will enter her judgment early next week.

Four fired officials from the attorney general’s office — policy director James “Blake” Brickman, head of law enforcement David Maxwell, head of criminal justice Mark Penley and deputy attorney general for legal counsel Ryan Vassar — sued the agency in November 2020.

They alleged their terminations violated the Texas Whistleblower Act, which prohibits retaliation against public employees who report a violation of law in good faith. The employees were among eight top aides at the agency who reported Paxton’s conduct to the FBI and other law enforcement.

[…]

Brickman, Penley and Vassar testified Thursday in district court, detailing their allegations of Paxton’s alleged wrongdoing and the financial and emotional toll this drawn-out legal battle has taken on them and their families.

Brickman called it a four-year nightmare, Penley described the past four years as excruciating, and Vassar said it’s been frustrating.

Maxwell had surgery this week and was unable to attend, but his attorney, T.J. Turner, read aloud his client’s sworn written testimony.

“The emotional toil, reputational damage and pain and suffering that my family and I have endured because of the actions of [Attorney] General Paxton and the office of the attorney general is hard to talk about,” Turner read from Maxwell’s statement.

The former officials lamented that Paxton has been able to criticize them through press statements and public interviews with conservative media hosts without having to testify under oath.

[…]

Bill Helfand, a private lawyer representing the attorney general’s office, repeatedly questioned whether the attorneys were seeking more compensation than the law allows, suggesting some were billing for work outside the scope of this case.

The whistleblowers’ lawyers “did not testify to reasonableness and a necessity,” said Helfand, who appeared over Zoom. “Most of them testified to reasonableness of their fees but not necessity in the prosecution of this lawsuit.”

Helfand also sought two extra days to review the plaintiff’s proposed judgment and to reach an agreement with the whistleblowers’ attorneys, who are seeking double the $3.3 million Paxton’s office agreed to pay in a 2023 settlement the Legislature declined to fund.

The whistleblowers’ lawyers rejected the possibility of agreeing to terms with the agency.

“There’s not going to be — I feel confident in saying — an agreed-upon judgment,” attorney Tom Nesbitt said. “We didn’t come here seeking a settlement agreement with the OAG. We came here to have a trial because the OAG said it would not contest any issue of damages or liability.”

Mauzy gave Helfand one day to review the document and praised the testimony of the whistleblowers and their attorneys.

See here and here for a bit of background. This case has gone on for years – it was the catalyst for the impeachment of Paxton in 2023 and the FBI investigation of Paxton that is almost assuredly very, very dead. A judgement here is about the last order of business, to be followed by an appeal and likely another fight in the Lege over paying for the damages. That’s for another day. The one thing I’ll add here is that I hope these four men, like the now-former Republican legislators that Greg Abbott targeted with millions of dollars and lies because they opposed vouchers, do the right thing and actively oppose Ken Paxton for whatever office he seeks in 2026. The alternative is to just accept everything he’s done to them, now and in the future. Seems like a straightforward choice to me.

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Measles outbreak approaches 100 cases

Posted on February 22, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Up and up it goes.

Some private schools have shut down because of a rapidly escalating measles outbreak in West Texas. Local health departments are overstretched, pausing other important work as they race to limit the spread of this highly contagious virus.

Since the outbreak emerged three weeks ago, the Texas health department has confirmed 90 cases with at least 16 hospitalizations, as of Feb. 21. Most of those infected are under age 18. Officials suspect that nine additional measles cases reported in New Mexico, across the border from the epicenter of the Texas outbreak in Gaines, are linked to the Texas outbreak. Ongoing investigations seek to confirm that connection.

Health officials worry they’re missing cases. Undetected infections bode poorly for communities because doctors and health officials can’t contain transmission if they can’t identify who is infected.

“This is the tip of the iceberg,” said Rekha Lakshmanan, chief strategy officer for The Immunization Partnership in Houston, a nonprofit that advocates for vaccine access. “I think this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.”

An unknown number of parents may not be taking sick children to clinics where they could be tested, said Katherine Wells, the public health director in Lubbock, Texas. “If your kids are responding to fever reducers and you’re keeping hydrated, some people may keep them at home,” she said.

Most unvaccinated people will contract measles if they’re exposed to the airborne virus, which can linger for up to two hours indoors. Those infected can spread the disease before they have symptoms. Around 1 in 5 people with measles end up hospitalized, 1 in 10 children develop ear infections that can lead to permanent hearing loss, and about 1 in 1,000 children die from respiratory and neurological conditions.

Gaines has a large Mennonite population, which often shuns vaccinations. “We respect everyone’s right to vaccinate or not get vaccinated,” said Albert Pilkington, CEO of the Seminole Hospital District, in the heart of the county, in an interview with Texas Standard. “That’s just what it means to be an American, right?”

Local health officials have been trying to persuade the parents of unvaccinated children to protect their kids by bringing them to pop-up clinics offering measles vaccines.

“Some people who were on the fence, who thought measles wasn’t something their kids would see, are recalculating and coming forward for vaccination,” Wells said.

See here for the previous update. I recognize that under current law, people are able to opt out of getting their children vaccinated. I think such laws are generally harmful and misguided, I think this is a terrible thing to do to your kids, and I cannot say I respect any part of it.

The Associated Press adds some details.

The West Texas cases are concentrated in Gaines County, which has 57 infections, and Terry County, north of Gaines, where there are now 20 confirmed cases.

Dawson County, to the east of Gaines, was new to the count with six. Yoakum County has four and Lubbock, Lynn and Ector counties have a case each.

Texas state health department data shows the vast majority of cases are among people younger than 18: 26 in kids younger than 4 and 51 in kids 5-17 years old. Ten adults have measles and three cases are “pending” an age determination. The Ector County Health Department told the Odessa American its case was in a child too young to be vaccinated.

[…]

In New Mexico, all of the cases are in Lea County, which borders Gaines County in Texas. The state health department has said people may have been exposed at a grocery store, an elementary school, a church, Nor-Lea Hospital and a Walgreens in Hobbs, New Mexico.

That “child too young to be vaccinated”, which is to say a child under the age of about 15 months, is the reason why we need a vaccination rate of 95% or higher, and why I don’t respect anyone’s decision to opt out. That kid’s infection, whatever happens from here – and we all hope and pray all of these children will fully recover – is on all the adults who refused to vaccinate their kids. Your choice doesn’t just affect you. ABC News has more.

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This vaccine is for the birds

Posted on February 22, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Possibly good news for future egg prices, among other things.

Image credit: RubberBall Productions via Getty Images

A veterinary pharmaceutical company said they have received a conditional license for a bird flu vaccine to be used on chickens, potentially marking the first step toward mitigating a disease that has affected more than 150 million birds in the United States since 2022.

Zoetis, a New Jersey-based animal health company, announced Friday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Center for Veterinary Biologics has issued a conditional license for its Avian Influenza, otherwise known as bird flu, vaccine. The USDA issues conditional license for products that meet an “emergency situation.”

Though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the risk to the general public was low, the new strain of bird flu, H5N1, had spread to birds and livestock in all 50 states in recent months, including Texas, and infected nearly 70 people.

[…]

National regulatory agencies, along with the poultry industry, will now decide whether to vaccinate commercial flocks, according to Zoetis.

I could make a joke about how this will soon be put to a stop by Elmo or RFK Jr, but I will (just barely) restrain myself. Obviously, there’s a lot of potential for good here. I hope it’s a big success.

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TEA takes over South San Antonio ISD

Posted on February 22, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Of interest.

Following a state-mandated conservatorship and years of squabbling board members, the Texas Education Agency decided Wednesday to overhaul South San Antonio Independent School District’s entire board of trustees.

The state also appointed Saul Hinojosa, a retired superintendent for Somerset ISD, as South San’s new superintendent.

Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath appointed Hinojosa and a completely new seven-member board of managers, citing nearly two decades of elected trustee and administrative dysfunction, in which he said resulted in “diminished student academic outcomes, poor financial controls, public distrust and multiple TEA investigations.”

South San ISD’s board has been under TEA investigation four times, twice in 2021 and twice in 2023.

The decision to take over South San ISD comes after the TEA found the district was in violation of five different state education codes and demonstrated the district “failed to oversee the management of the district when it engaged in actions or inaction that could negatively impact district personnel and the students of SSAISD.”

Mentioned in the investigation’s final report was the board’s inability to keep a superintendent for a full term since 2011, repeated failures to meet quorum during board meetings and the district’s $12 million budget deficit.

According to the report, the TEA’s Special Investigations Unit will recommend to the Commissioner of Education that a sanction be issued up to and including the installation of a Board of Managers that replaces the existing board of trustees due to the current board’s demonstrated inability to ensure adherence to state law requirements relating to governance.

Abelrado “Abe” Saavedra was appointed as the district’s conservator in 2023 by the TEA. Saavedra was tasked with guiding the board and reporting back to the TEA.

Though the outgoing board of trustees seemed to be on an upward trajectory in September after Saavedra told the Report that “things had calmed down,” Saavedra had sent a letter to Morath last year urging him to install a board of managers.

In the letter, Saavedra said the solution would “facilitate a clean break from the governance failures that have persisted in South San Antonio ISD and facilitate an opportunity for the district to be governed by community members who can implement best practices and provide wise oversight and strong governance.”

According to Steve Lecholop, deputy commissioner of governance at the TEA, the state takeover of South San ISD is only the 10th district overhaul to occur since 2000.

SSAISD had 7,872 students in 18 schools as of the 2022-23 school year, so it’s much smaller than HISD. I can’t say I know much about it but I do know that I’ve seen headlines about its various issues over the years, so this doesn’t seem like a shock to me. I noted this in part because any TEA takeover is of interest for obvious reasons, the appearance of former HISD Superintendent Abe Saavedra, and that stat at the end about ten takeovers since 2000. I’d love to see a comprehensive report on how those other eight districts have done before and after the experience. Whatever happens from here, I wish everyone in SSAISD good luck and a good outcome.

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Harris County joins amicus against NIH cuts

Posted on February 21, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox:

Christian Menefee

Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee announced today that Harris County has joined a national legal fight to protect critical medical research funding. The county is part of a coalition challenging the Trump administration’s recent decision to cut the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for health researchers across the country. These cuts threaten to disrupt life-saving research and medical innovation, and put tens of millions of dollars at risk in the Texas Medical Center.

“Harris County is home to the largest medical center in the world, and these cuts pose a direct threat to public health and our economy,” said County Attorney Menefee. “This funding supports the life-changing work happening at the Texas Medical Center. It’s not just about numbers on a budget sheet—it’s about jobs, patients, and families who rely on medical advancements.”

The coalition, which includes 45 local governments from across the country, has filed an amicus brief arguing that the NIH’s funding cuts are unjustified and would have devastating effects on research institutions and local economies. In Harris County, these cuts could lead to job losses, lab closures, and major setbacks for critical medical research.

“Once again, the Trump administration is playing politics with funding that our communities and economy rely on,” Menefee added. “This fight is about more than just dollar signs; it’s about the future of medical science and the ability of our local universities and hospitals to continue their life-saving research.”

The Texas Medical Center and its partner institutions—including Rice University, the University of Houston, and the Texas Heart Institute—employ over 120,000 people and contribute more than $24 billion each year to Harris County’s economy. Losing NIH funding wouldn’t just impact scientists and doctors; it would also hurt patients who depend on new treatments and medical discoveries being made here in Houston.

See here and here for the background. It’s important that Harris County get in there and defend itself, because as we know by their actions, the Republicans don’t care. I’m happy we got involved and I’m cheering for a good outcome in court.

That said, getting that good outcome isn’t enough.

From the beginning of this drama going on a month ago, the White House has been laser-focused on shutting down government-supported medical research in the United States. Of course, much of that is research into cancer cures or fundamental research building toward the same. The precise goal of all this shutting down is difficult to uncover — likely one half an effort to destroy or exercise control over academic/research institutions mixed with post-COVID hostility to medical research itself. On paper the effort was put on hold by a mix of the White House backing off and the original orders being blocked by judges. But in fact the White House has found very effective workarounds to evade the impact of those court orders. And that evasion, or those alternative paths to shutting down research grants, has accelerated, clamping down even harder this week.

I’m going to try to give a general outline of what’s happening. It’s difficult to describe all of it in detail: First, because a handful of different brakes are being applied at once and, second, because figuring it out is largely the work of people on the receiving end trying to interpret what they’re seeing. When they’re on the disbursing end it can also be difficult to get a full picture because there are different disbursal arms. And the White House/DOGE, etc., are taking various steps to reduce communication within NIH.

[…]

What I can say confidently is that the grant-approval system which the courts believe they have unfrozen remains at least mainly frozen. The White House is likely not technically violating the court order though certainly they are evading the spirit of that order.

I skipped the details because it’s pretty technical, but the bottom line is that there’s more than one way to block the grant money, and the White House is currently using those means. The reporting that Josh Marshall has been doing on this is heavily reliant on people who are directly affected by these actions, so if you are such a person or know such a person, read that post and follow the advice here to send in a tip via normal or encrypted channels. The more we know, the more we can do. The Chron has more.

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Multiple challengers line up for Fort Bend County Judge

Posted on February 21, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

We’ll see if they’re competing for an open seat or not.

Judge KP George

Another Democrat has entered the race for Fort Bend County Judge in 2026.

Eddie Sajjad, an entrepreneur and political consultant, announced his candidacy earlier this month.

Former Precinct 3 Constable Nabil Shike and Judge Christian Becerra, who presides over a district court, also are campaigning for the position as Democrats, the political party of incumbent County Judge KP George. George has faced backlash since he was criminally indicted in September on accusations that he worked with former staffer Taral Patel to create fake racist attacks against his own campaign on social media.

George has yet to formally announce his re-election campaign. A spokesperson for his office said earlier this month that George would announce his plans for the 2026 election “at the appropriate time.”

Sajjad has lived in Fort Bend County, a diverse and fast-growing area southwest of Houston, since 1997. In a news release announcing his campaign, Sajjad outlined 10 initiatives, including measures such as an artificial intelligence training program for residents, a voter education tool and an online platform where residents can track county spending.

I don’t know any of these contenders, I just happened to catch the story headline and thought it was worth noting. I’m a fan of Judge KP George, whose election in 2018 helped flip Fort Bend’s Commissioners Court just as Judge Lina Hidalgo’s election that year helped flip Harris County’s, but I strongly believe it’s time he step aside and let someone else give it a go. He’s absolutely entitled to his presumption of innocence, but politics are what they are, and this is not the profile of a winning candidate.

For what it’s worth, George has $377K in the bank, which is almost an order of magnitude more than what Judge Hidalgo has. That said, he didn’t raise any money over the last six months of 2024 while spending $115K. I’d say the financial signals about his possible candidacy are more mixed than hers are, but as with her if he doesn’t get into high gear on raising money quickly then that’s another reason to hang it up. We’ll see.

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Dispatches from Dallas, February 21 edition

Posted on February 21, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This is a weekly feature produced by my friend Ginger. Let us know what you think.

This week, in news from Dallas-Fort Worth, we have a lot of recent stuff but also some catchup from the last month while I was suffering with COVID. Don’t get sick, y’all. It’s not fun. But from the depths of the sofa and the scrolling of news sites and social media I bring you: news from the Lege; Dallas is about to start hiring some of those cops required by Prop U; some ballot news for the May elections in North Texas; short-term rental lawsuits in Dallas and Fort Worth; another inmate has died at the Tarrant County jail; news from the suburbs and exurbs, news about local museums, and environmental news; personnel changes across the metroplex in important offices, including one with a big golden parachute; some awful immigration news; and Dan Patrick does not want to electronically verify your genitals this time. And more!

This week’s post was brought to you by the music of Anonymous 4, the foursome who sang all that awesome medieval music in the 90s and 00s. I was lucky enough to see them live and they were fantastic.

Let’s jump in, starting with some North Texas news from the Lege and moving on from there:

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SCOTx hears appeal of lawsuits over Winter Storm Uri deaths

Posted on February 20, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

The question at issue is whether anyone can be sued, since at this point there are no defendants left.

The Texas Supreme Court revisited the deadly mass outages of the 2021 freeze on its fourth anniversary during a Wednesday hearing, which was well-timed as yet another cold front sweeps through Texas and strains the state’s at-times fragile power grid.

[…]

Lawsuits against most other sectors in the electricity supply chain — the gas producers, the electricity retailers and ERCOT itself — have been dismissed. That means the main path forward for thousands of Texans seeking billions of dollars in damages is suing the transmission and distribution utilities, which own the power lines and poles that deliver electricity.

Named in the combined lawsuits are CenterPoint Energy, the primary Houston-area utility; Oncor Electric Delivery, which serves the Dallas-Fort Worth areas and parts of West Texas; and AEP Texas, covering parts of South and West Texas.

A Houston court of appeals barred freeze victims from suing these utilities for negligence claims last April. But crucially, gross negligence and intentional misconduct claims, which allege a more severe degree of wrongdoing, were allowed to move forward. The utilities then appealed the Houston court of appeals’ decision to the Texas Supreme Court.

During Wednesday’s oral arguments in front of the Texas Supreme Court, Michael Heidler, representing the utilities, argued the companies shouldn’t be subject to liability under common law, which are laws that come from court decisions rather than legislation.

That’s because transmission and distribution utilities are already heavily regulated by ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas, and customers can complain about utilities to the PUC, Heidler said. He cited a 2003 case in which the Texas Supreme Court found that government regulations provided sufficient protections, so imposing common law wasn’t appropriate.

“This is a heavily regulated activity, and if there’s something that needs to happen differently, the PUC and ERCOT are well-equipped to tell us what to do, to change the regulations, to fix it,” Heidler said.

Ann Saucer, the lawyer representing Texans harmed by the 2021 freeze, said government regulation shouldn’t shield the utilities from the lawsuits. She argued that the three utilities failed to adequately “rotate” outages, which means outages should’ve cycled from neighborhood to neighborhood, as ERCOT had intended.

“(The utilities) could have rolled the blackouts so that one person has power for 45 minutes and then another person loses power for 45 minutes, and it rolls… (but) they left the switches off for people for days,” Saucer said. “They did that because they were consciously indifferent to people freezing to death.”

Prior to the 2021 freeze, ERCOT had told utilities to prepare to cut approximately 13 gigawatts of power in a “worst-case scenario,” Heidler said. But during the freeze, a maximum of 50 gigawatts of power capacity had to be cut, he said.

Heidler rebutted that it would’ve been “difficult, if not impossible” to cut that much power and rotate outages without damaging the grid. That’s because ERCOT requires that utilities maintain electricity to nuclear plants and prioritize other customers such as the military, law enforcement and public health communications facilities, he said.

Saucer has countered that utilities are partly responsible for that much power being lost, since they cut power to facilities needed to generate electricity.

See here and here for some background. The justices had skeptical questions for both sides, so it’s hard to say if either one had an advantage. Seems crazy to me that in the end after all that suffering and hundreds of deaths that literally no one might be held legally responsible, but that could happen. It’ll probably be a few months before we get a ruling.

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If the Texans want a new stadium, they can build it themselves

Posted on February 20, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Yeah, no.

When Texans owner Cal McNair named a new team president last month, the first thing he touted about Mike Tomon’s resume was his “extensive history in stadium development.”

Tomon was previously an executive at Legends, a stadium operations firm co-founded by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, where he worked on arrangements for new NFL stadiums in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and, most recently, Buffalo, which is set to open in 2026.

The Texans, meanwhile, have started negotiating a new lease agreement at NRG Stadium, their publicly-financed home since 2002. A recent facility assessment found the stadium was in average or below average condition compared to its peers, with a laundry list of needs from deferred maintenance over the years. But McNair’s quote and Tomon’s history suggest stronger ambitions: The team may want a new stadium entirely.

Two sources familiar with the Texans’ thinking told the Chronicle the Texans have explored the possibility of a new stadium, though the team has not committed to that path. The team has not proposed a new stadium in the lease negotiations, and the ultimate decision will depend on what makes the most financial sense for the Texans, the Rodeo and Harris County, which owns the campus and leases it to the two organizations, the two sources said.

“Our priority has always been to support a renovation of NRG Stadium and that’s where our focus remains,” Texans spokesperson Omar Majzoub said in a statement to the Chronicle. “As we’ve said before, we are committed to exploring all potential solutions to ensure long-term success and we look forward to working with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Harris County and HSCCC (the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp.) in identifying the best path forward.”

A decision could likely hinge on the price tag of a renovation. If the combined costs of maintenance – $1.4 billion is needed over 30 years at the stadium, according to a recent assessment – and premium features the Texans may want to add begin to approach the cost of a rebuild, the team could decide a new stadium is the better option.

[…]

A new stadium could prove to be a tough sell with taxpayers. Houston and Harris County’s elected leaders are paying off the debt they incurred to build NRG Stadium 25 years ago, using taxes on hotel rooms and car rentals.

The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, the joint venture that financed Houston’s stadium-building spree in the late 1990s and early 2000s, still owes $1 billion in principal debt on the bonds that paid to build NRG, Daikin Park and Toyota Center. It is not scheduled to pay them off until 2056, according to financial statements.

The Texans also have benefited from a team-friendly deal at NRG Stadium for the last two decades. The team put up revenue from permanent seat licenses toward the construction of the stadium, but it does not have to contribute toward most maintenance costs, unlike the Rockets and the Astros. The county is on the hook for those costs at NRG Park.

And the Texans often get more money in tax rebates than they have to pay in rent, according to financial audits – meaning the government essentially pays the team to play at NRG.

The sports authority’s debt load suggests it does not have room to take on additional loans to finance a new football stadium, and there does not appear to be enough money in the county’s general coffers to take on a rebuild.

The Texans could finance the stadium themselves, but NFL teams almost always ask for subsidies. Of the NFL’s 30 current stadiums, only five were financed without them.

And now it can be six. Look, I’ve supported these propositions in the past. On balance, I think they were worthwhile, even if the claimed financial benefits were way overblown. Downtown is a better place for having Daikin Park and the Toyota Center in it. But as noted, the Texans have really really done well with their deal. They can well afford this, if indeed this is what they want or say they have to have. I’m open to offering general infrastructure improvements in the area around the stadium as an incentive for them to build it themselves. Beyond that, whether we’re talking renovation or new construction, this needs to be on them. Campos has more.

Posted in Elsewhere in Houston | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

No Eid on the HISD calendar

Posted on February 20, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Some folks would like it back.

The Houston chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations — a local Muslim advocacy group — is calling on Houston ISD to add a school holiday back for Eid al-Fitr during the 2025-2026 school year.

HISD’s Board of Managers approved an academic calendar Thursday that does not provide a day off to students or staff for Eid al-Fitr, a Muslim holiday that the district began recognizing with a day off in 2023. The Muslim holiday celebrates the end of Ramadan, a holy month of fasting and reflection.

The district began observing a spring holiday in 2023 during Eid al-Fitr in response to requests from the Muslim community in Houston, making it one of only three religious holidays at the time recognized by the state’s largest school district.

The exact date of Eid every year is unclear because it is dependent on the sighting of the crescent moon, but it is expected to begin in 2026 on the evening of Thursday, March 19 and end Friday, March 20. HISD does not have a school holiday scheduled for either date in the approved calendar.

[…]

“The removal of Eid as a school holiday is deeply disappointing for the thousands of Muslim families in HISD,” CAIR-Houston director William White said. “HISD has an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to diversity and equity by ensuring that all students, regardless of their religious background, feel seen and valued.”

The organization said it was urging the school district to listen to the Muslim community and reinstate Eid as a district-wide holiday. The group said it wanted to encourage parents, students and community members to “contact HISD leadership and advocate for this essential accommodation.”

I remember seeing the original story last fall but didn’t comment on it at the time. As the story notes, the Christian celebration of Good Friday and the Jewish celebration of Yom Kippur remain on the HISD calendar. The reason why a religious day of observance might be a day off from school is that a significant number of students will feel it necessary to put their religious obligations ahead of their school obligations. It’s neither fair nor a good look to make then choose, so the day off makes the most sense. It’s not mandatory for HISD to do this – the story doesn’t say, but I suspect very few other school districts offer this holiday – but I do think at the least the HISD community was owed more of a discussion before this change was made. I don’t know if anything can be done for this year at this late date, but I hope the matter is brought up for a longer conversation soon.

Posted in School days | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Texas blog roundup for the week of February 17

Posted on February 20, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

There are no tariffs or surcharges applied to this week’s Texas Progressive Alliance roundup, but check with us next week because you just can’t be sure anymore.

Off the Kuff has the January campaign finance reports for US Senate and Congress.

SocraticGadfly takes a look at Russia-Ukraine issues of the last several days.

As Musk/Trump attacks FEMA and climate science, the Houston Democracy Project asked why Republican At-Large Councilmember Twila Carter who attended Mattress Mack GOTV rally last October, is Chair of Council Committee that deals with these issues.

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

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

Space City Weather sings the praises of a fully operational and un-privatized National Weather Service.

The Barbed Wire bemoans the coming price hikes on beer.

Deceleration criticizes how Texas universities responded to the 2023 anti-DEI law.

The Dallas Observer has what you need to know about Dan Patrick and dick pics.

Your Local Epidemiologist explains what “indirect costs” are in NIH grants.

Lone Star Left reviews House committee assignments.

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Muskian rampage could close hundreds of federal buildings in Texas

Posted on February 19, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Look around, here today and maybe gone tomorrow.

Mickey Leland federal building

Billionaire Elon Musk’s chainsaw diet for the U.S. government could shutter near 450 federal offices across Texas that do anything from assisting ailing veterans to answering questions about retirement and disability benefits, records show.

The closures, which also could include as many as 25 San Antonio properties, would gut the government’s ability to deliver vital services Texans access daily, critics charge. Sites on the chopping block include offices of the Social Security Administration, the Farm Service Agency and the Small Business Administration along with Veterans Administration facilities, according to a federal website listing holdings by the General Services Administration, the government’s real estate arm.

“Elon Musk is on an authoritarian rampage through the federal government,” said Rob Weissman, co-president of watchdog group Public Citizen, which at press time has filed at least three lawsuits to rein in the billionaire Trump donor’s DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency.

“While Musk tried to say that this is all about improving efficiency, it’s not efficient to get rid of government offices that directly serve the public and play an important function,” Weissman added. “It’s completely arbitrary, dangerous and puts the cost back on all of us.”

As evidence of the closures’ unintended consequences, critics point to the Musk’s downsizing efforts at the Department of Energy, which were paused over fears they could affect the nation’s nuclear defense programs.

Citing communications from Trump administration officials, the Washington Post reports that DOGE’s plans to slash government spending include eliminating half of all federal nonmilitary real estate nationwide. Those cuts are planned on top of personnel reductions that have already taken place, including a mass firing of thousands of probationary employees on the job for fewer than two years.

[…]

Should Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency carry through with its plans, Texas would be hit especially hard. The Lone Star State is home to 894 federal offices, at least 50 of them in San Antonio, according to the GSA’s online inventory. That means up to 447 statewide could be on Musk’s chopping block.

Four people with knowledge of internal GSA talks told the Post that the property selloff is part of DOGE’s effort to force federal field workers to quit by decimating morale.

“We’ve heard from them that they want to make the buildings so crappy that people will leave,” one senior GSA official told the paper. “I think that’s the larger goal here, which is bring everybody back, the buildings are going to suck, their commutes are going to suck.”

Trinity University economist David Macpherson said a widespread closure of government offices would result in a glut of vacant space across San Antonio and other affected cities. However, he said the larger impact would come from the hemorrhaging of government employees, whose salaries and buying dollars play a significant role in local economies.

“It will increase unemployment, decrease spending and harm the city,” he said. “Economically, it can’t possibly do any good.”

The story says there’s at least 50 federal buildings in San Antonio, housing some 70 agencies. I don’t know what the comparable figure is for Houston – that GSA website allows you to search by state or Congressional district, but not by city or county – but it’s got to be larger than that. It sure would be nice to know what kind of effect we might be looking at. We know that Republicans won’t care, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Rebooting Texas’ film incentive program

Posted on February 19, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Everything old is new again.

A promise to make Texas the film capital of the world has left local creatives raring to cash in — and preparing for a legislative battle.

The Texas Senate has proposed injecting $498 million to revamp the state’s film incentive program, a historic sum that rivals most other states and more than doubles the $200 million lawmakers plugged into the program during the last budget cycle.

Film industry insiders, who have for years been fighting for a larger and more consistent funding stream, could hardly believe it when they heard the $498 million figure, a line item in the draft budget the Senate filed last month. According to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the funding would include $48 million in grants for small films and television commercials and up to $450 million in new tax credits, contingent on a bill passing.

“It’s like we are in a ‘stars aligned’ period,” said Brian Gannon, director of the Austin Film Commission. “There’s alignment across industry, across government. Everyone is excited.”

That excitement is palpable across Texas. From the 4,100-person town of Smithville to booming urban centers like Fort Worth, local officials, film commissions and business owners say movie production is a boon to their economy because it creates new jobs, attracts tourists and keeps businesses afloat.

In Smithville, a small town about 40 miles east of Austin, restaurant owners say they continue to reap benefits from the filming of the 1998 romantic drama “Hope Floats” because fans stop by to see the house where much of the Sandra Bullock movie was filmed and then wander into their outpost for a bite to eat.

Film stars have also thrown their weight behind film incentives. In a star-studded advertisement called True to Texas, Matthew McConaughey, Dennis Quaid, Woody Harrelson, Renee Zellweger and Billy Bob Thornton urge lawmakers to help “turn this state into a new Hollywood.” The actors say they want to tell Texas stories in their home state and need state support to do so.

Even so, economists remain skeptical about the return on investment of film incentives, and some state lawmakers say subsidizing movies is not the best use of taxpayer money.

“Half a billion dollars doesn’t need to be routed towards the entertainment industry,” said first-term state Rep. Daniel Alders, R-Tyler. “There are already Texas-sized incentives out here. Don’t act like you have to have a handout in order to do business in the state of Texas.”

Texas is one of 37 states to offer a film incentive program, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Those programs can take the form of cash grants, as in Texas, or tax credits, which are what some of Texas’ competitors, including Georgia and New Mexico, offer.

Under the 18-year-old program, the state provides rebates to reimburse production companies between 5% and 20% of what they spend in the state, including wages to Texas residents and costs to rent film space or book hotels. At least 60% of the production must be filmed in Texas, per state law. Productions can receive an additional 2.5% rebate if they film in underutilized or economically distressed areas.

Creative professionals say the program has been successful — it has created 182,000 Texas jobs and yielded $2.52 billion in-state spending, according to the Texas Film Commission which is housed under the governor’s office. And for every $1 paid out for a grant, $4.69 is spent in state, Adriana Cruz, executive director of the Texas Economic Development and Tourism division of the governor’s office testified last October.

Patrick, the second most powerful Texas official, has made transforming Texas into a film haven a priority this session, reserving Senate Bill 22 for that purpose. The bill has not been filed as of Thursday afternoon. Patrick’s office did not respond to The Texas Tribune’s questions, and several House members declined to weigh in until a bill was filed.

Industry leaders have proposed a transferable franchise tax credit — smaller film productions making less than $2.47 million in revenue are exempt from the tax — since Texas does not have a state income tax.

They’re also pushing for a more consistent funding stream instead of an amount that is determined at the whims of lawmakers every two years.

[…]

Economists who have studied tax incentive programs across the country have long been skeptical of their value. Research on film incentive programs in New York, Georgia, Michigan and California have found that tax credits have a negligible impact on economic activity, when measuring job growth and tax revenue.

In cases where a film incentive does spur job creation, it isn’t enough to justify the cost of the incentive, said Michael Thom, a tax expert at the University of Southern California.

“The incentives boost the industry’s profit margins, which is why they want them so badly,” Thom said, adding that the Texas Film Commission’s claim that the incentive program delivers a 469% return on investment is “preposterous.”

Some producers would choose to film in Texas even if they did not receive grant dollars, Thom said. And the figure doesn’t account for what the state could be losing by not spending that money on something else, whether public schools or safety.

Alders, the East Texas lawmaker, agrees.

“That calculation is a little disingenuous,” he said. Instead of using general revenue to refill the incentive program’s coffers, Alders suggested the funding come straight from the sales tax revenue the film industry generated.

“If we are getting money back, then that bucket should have been filled one time and should never have to be refilled with taxpayer dollars,” he said.

We’ve heard these arguments before, more than a decade ago, including from the video game industry, which was curiously unrepresented in this story. There are a lot of dimensions to this fight, including some localities that are not thrilled about big studio lots being built in their back yards, and of course a culture war angle involving the content of films seeking incentives. That led to a lawsuit that was eventually resolved in the state’s favor and is now being expressed as concerns over porn being filmed here. Because for sure that’s never happened before.

Anyway, this should be an interesting fight to watch. I don’t know that this is an issue on which Dan Patrick will go to the mats, but if he does it might provide a bit of leverage for Democrats, since it looks to me like this would not be able to pass on Republican votes alone. Gotta be aware of opportunities where they present themselves.

Posted in That's our Lege, TV and movies | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

WNBA appears set on Cleveland

Posted on February 19, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

But Houston could be next in line, and soon.

The WNBA is preparing to award Cleveland its 16th franchise, multiple sources have told SBJ, with an approximate bid worth a league record $250M.

The sources put Cleveland’s expansion chances as high as 90% — with an announcement expected no later than March — and said the WNBA has re-thought its original plan of adding just one team and could award one or two more franchises to bring its league total to 18 clubs. The presumed leaders for the second and third teams are Philadelphia, Houston, Nashville, Detroit and Miami, with the league reiterating tonight that nothing is finalized.

“The WNBA has received formal bids from many interested ownership groups in various markets and we are currently in the process of evaluating these proposals,” a WNBA spokesperson said in a statement.

Cleveland is expected to join the league for the 2028 season playing at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. They will be reprised as the Cleveland Rockers, an original WNBA franchise that folded after the 2003 season when former owner Gordon Gund could not sell the team due to tumbling revenue and erratic attendance. But in the two decades since, the league’s exponential growth and popularity has led to rising expansion fees. The Golden State Valkyries, the league’s 13th franchise launching in May, paid $50M to join the WNBA, while Toronto and Portland — the 14th and 15th franchises — paid $115M and $125M, respectively. Now that has doubled.

As recent as two weeks ago, the WNBA applied to trademark the name Rockers, as well as the names of three other former franchises: the Houston Comets, the Detroit Shock, the Miami Sol and the Charlotte Sting — all clues to who could be in the running for the 17th and 18th teams, but not a complete giveaway.

Sources said Houston “is probably the most positioned” for the 17th team largely because the Rockets recently built a 75,000 square-foot practice facility, owner Tilman Fertitta is reportedly worth more than $10B and they have an NBA infrastructure that is appealing to the league.

“The Comets are also an amazing brand, and it’s stunning they even left the league,” said a source, referencing the four-time champion Comets folding in 2008 due to $4M annual losses.

Philadelphia is likely another clear frontrunner, sources said, and indications are that when 76ers owner Josh Harris partnered with Comcast on a new arena in South Philadelphia, the priority was to house a WNBA team along with the Sixers and Flyers.

[…]

As to why the WNBA is willing to take on potentially three teams instead of one right now — with the last two likely arriving in 2029 or 2030 — the sense is that there have been multiple bids approaching $250M.

“How do you walk away from three quarters of a billion dollars?’’ one source said.

See here, here, and here for some background. Tough break for Austin, which put together a pretty good bid, but I don’t think the WNBA is going to stop at 18. They may pause for a bit, but as long as the demand is there, they will keep going. The talent pool is more than adequate.

As for why the Comets folded in 2008, other than that being a bad year for the economy, the team had been mediocre for several years, the sale of the team from the Rockets to second-tier furniture guy Hilton Koch was a disaster, and the league was going through some growing pains, as evidenced by the folding or relocation of several other original franchises. It’s a different time and both the league and the sport are in a better place. Yahoo, Sports Illustrated, KVUE, and the Chron have more.

Posted in Other sports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Some background on the measles outbreak

Posted on February 18, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

NBC News did some reporting on the growing measles outbreak in West Texas.

On Friday, the number of confirmed cases rose to 49, up from 24 earlier in the week, the state health department said. The majority of those cases are in Gaines County, which borders New Mexico.

Most cases are in school-age kids, and 13 have been hospitalized. All are unvaccinated against measles, which is one of the most contagious viruses in the world.

The latest measles case count likely represents a fraction of the true number of infections. Health officials — who are scrambling to get a handle on the vaccine-preventable outbreak — suspect 200 to 300 people in West Texas are infected but untested, and therefore not part of the state’s official tally so far.

[…]

The city of Seminole is the seat of Gaines County, Texas, and the epicenter of the current measles outbreak. It’s located in a vast, flat region filled with ranchers and peanut and cotton farmers.

There’s also a large Mennonite population, a religious sect that believes in “total separation from the outside world,” according to the Texas State Historical Association. These Mennonites chose to settle in Gaines County, in part, for its lack of regulation on private schools. This includes vaccine mandates.

As of the 2023-24 school year, Gaines County had one of the state’s highest vaccine exemption rates, at nearly 18%, according to health department data.

“We have a high, high number of unvaccinated,” said Tonya Guffey, the chief nursing officer at Seminole District Hospital. “It’s not that they’re not educated. It’s just what their belief is.”

Guffey noted that many of the unvaccinated people in the area were Mennonite. “We educate, we encourage, we do what we can for the community, but it’s their choice,” she said.

[…]

Measles cases were limited to rural areas surrounding Lubbock, Texas, the largest city in the region, until Friday afternoon, when Lubbock Public Health confirmed its first case.

The “hub” city, as it’s nicknamed, is where all of the big grocery and big box stores are.

People who live in Gaines County regularly head into Lubbock to shop and do other business. That includes a large number of unvaccinated people who may have been exposed to measles.

“Communities who don’t vaccinate are not necessarily isolated to their area. They commute to Lubbock,” said Dr. Ana Montanez, a pediatrician at Texas Tech Physicians in Lubbock. “By doing that, they’re taking the disease with them.”

Several of Montanez’s young patients were exposed recently, she said, one just by sitting in the same clinic waiting room with another child who was later confirmed to have measles. That child had traveled from another county for care.

As of our last update, the number was 48, but in reality it’s a lot higher as this story notes. Not everyone is showing symptoms or gotten formally diagnosed yet. Per the Statesman, the breakdown of where the known cases are now is as follows:

Gaines – 42 cases
Lubbock – 1 case
Lynn – 1 case
Terry – 3 cases
Yoakum – 2 cases

Plus the two from Houston, which again has thankfully remained at two. Per the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, 42 of the 49 cases so far are in children. But these numbers are just for Texas. As of the weekend, measles are now in New Mexico.

On Friday, New Mexico officials declared an outbreak in Lea County, just across state lines from Texas’ Gaines County. Two adults tested positive for measles, with three total cases this week. The first case, an unvaccinated teenager in Lea County, had no recent travel history and no known exposure to the Texas cases, raising alarms about measles spreading undetected.

While officials believe there’s a connection to the Texas outbreak, it’s still unconfirmed.

“We are investigating every suspected case, and we encourage sick individuals with symptoms consistent with measles to seek medical care,” Dr. Chad Smelser, deputy state epidemiologist for New Mexico’s health department, said in a statement.

New Mexico officials are notifying people possibly exposed to measles. Areas where people could have been exposed include an elementary school, two grocery stores, a church, a pharmacy and a hospital.

And again, measles is extremely contagious. It lingers in the air and survives for hours on surfaces. Get vaccinated or get sick, those are the choices. The Associated Press has more.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Solar For All grants caught in a trap

Posted on February 18, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

They can’t get out, at least not at this time.

More than $400 million in federal funding for Texas-based organizations to implement clean energy programs remains frozen, jeopardizing efforts to expand access to rooftop solar panels and battery storage systems in disadvantaged communities across the state.

The frozen grants are part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s $7 billion Solar for All program, which was created by the Biden administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

President Donald Trump first paused funds from this law and another climate-related law via his “Unleashing American Energy” executive order in late January. After a federal judge reiterated a court order that the Trump administration must release frozen grants this week, the EPA is now saying some grants from the two laws remain inaccessible because the agency is concerned about potential waste, fraud and abuse, without sharing information about any specific Solar for All issues.

Harris County led a statewide coalition — including the cities of Houston, San Antonio, Austin and Waco, as well as Dallas County — in securing nearly $250 million from the Solar for All program last April. The coalition wants to use the money to help more Texas residents afford solar panels and to provide backup power to local community centers, among other goals.

Clean Energy Fund of Texas, a Houston-based “green” bank, was awarded $156 million from the Solar for All program. The nonprofit plans to partner with Texas Southern University to deploy solar and battery technologies at historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic serving institutions and tribal colleges and universities across the southeastern United States.

[…]

Michelle Roos, director of the Environmental Protection Network, a national nonprofit focused on EPA activities, called the agency’s claims of potential waste, fraud and abuse a “lie.”

“This is just another attempt to try to shut down and deny people the opportunity to make the country healthier,” Roos said.

The Solar for All funding isn’t disbursed all at once; rather, groups submit reimbursement requests for their program expenses. Harris County is the sole entity receiving the coalition’s $250 million in funds from the federal government, which it passes through to the other groups. $54 million of that is allocated for the county itself.

So far, the county has only received approximately $30,000 of its share of funding, which has been used to hire an employee to oversee Solar for All activities, Menefee said. His office is “leaning heavily” on filing its own lawsuit fighting the Solar for All funding freeze, he said.

“One thing there is not in (the other two lawsuits) is representation from the South,” Menefee said.

See here for some background. I agree with Ms. Roos’ evaluation, but I would have included profanity in mine. This would benefit a lot of people, in the normal course of events by providing lower energy bills, and in times of power outages – you know, those extremely rare times around here when the grid fails us – by providing battery backup power. While there has already been successful litigation against this chaos and destruction, it would seem that County Attorney Menefee will need to do his thing to get what is rightfully ours. Let’s hope we can get it soon.

I need my palate cleansed, so in honor of how I started this post, here’s a little number you might be familiar with:

Hope that helped.

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

HISD joins lawsuit against social media companies

Posted on February 18, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Interesting.

Houston ISD is set to join a nationwide lawsuit that argues several major social media companies fueled an “unprecedented mental health crisis” among young people — and should pay school districts for the fallout.

HISD’s state-appointed board unanimously voted Thursday to enter into a legal agreement with three Texas firms that will represent the district in a two-year-old case that already involves hundreds of districts across the country. Under the deal, HISD will only have to pay legal fees if it wins or settles the lawsuit.

The districts already involved in the case argue the companies that own Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube created “addictive and dangerous” platforms that have spawned numerous problems for children and schools. Districts say they have had to hire additional staff to attend to students’ mounting social-emotional challenges, repair property that children damaged while participating in viral trends, spend time responding to repeated safety threats made over social media and more.

In response to school districts’ allegations, the four social media giants have largely made the case that they should not be on the hook for how children choose to engage online. Legal observers have said the school districts might face a steep challenge in winning the case.

HISD board member Angela Flowers said she has seen a wave of emotional turmoil wash over the younger generation as the mother of two recent graduates from the district’s Lamar High School. When her kids were in high school, they knew about a dozen classmates, friends and acquaintances who took their own lives, Flowers said.

“The data is that the suicides are up. That is the scary data,” Flowers said. “That’s why (social media) is like tobacco, it’s like alcohol. You cannot feed it to children.”

[…]

Win, lose or settle, Flowers wants to see HISD expand limits on students’ phone and social media use at school. She suggested several strategies that the district could look toward, including having teachers collect phones at the beginning of class or requiring students lock their phones in pocket-sized pouches for the duration of the school day.

“We can’t keep knowing that it’s bad and not doing anything about it,” she said.

I don’t have a strong opinion about this. I’m certainly not going to defend any of the companies being sued but it’s not clear to me how one apportions blame for some of the harms being cited. Feels like a bit of a longshot to see any benefit, but as long as there’s no cost for getting involved I don’t see any reason not to do so. If this eventually translates into some kind of settlement, great.

Posted in Legal matters, School days | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Interview with Anthony Rios and Ringo Bosley of the Houston Progressive Caucus

Posted on February 17, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

I reported on the creation of the Houston Progressive Caucus a couple of weeks ago, and as is my habit I had some questions about their mission and strategy beyond what was contained in their press release and on their website. So I reached out to Karthik Soora, the SD15 candidate from last year who was listed as the contact for the Caucus, and asked him if we could have a chat about it. He set me up with Anthony Rios and Ringo Bosley of the Caucus for an interview, and so here we are. I had some questions about where this came from, what kind of issues they will champion, what we should expect to see from them in the short to medium term, and more. Here’s what we talked about:

If you have any questions about them, you should click on their website or connect with them on BlueSky or elsewhere and engage directly.

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Starbase City gets its vote

Posted on February 17, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Company town incoming.

Cameron County’s top elected official on Wednesday signed an order clearing the way for an election that would allow employees of SpaceX’s South Texas launch site to make it the county’s newest city.

The order, signed by County Judge Eddie Treviño, approves a petition filed in December by several SpaceX employees requesting an election to determine whether their Starbase headquarters could become a town under the same name.

The would-be town is roughly 25 miles east of Brownsville along the Gulf of Mexico.

If approved by voters in the town’s proposed area, the base would become a Type C municipality, defined as less than two square miles with 200 to 5,000 residents. Type C municipalities use a commission form of government with a mayor and two commissioners; the petition notes that SpaceX’s security manager, Gunnar Milburn, is the sole candidate for mayor.

The petition required at least 10% of potential residents to sign, and a simple majority is required in the election to create the new city. The petition had just over 70 signatures and an affidavit attached to the judge’s order showed just under 500 people living in the area, including almost 120 children.

Almost all of the signatures on the petitions were by people with addresses the affidavit marked as residences of SpaceX employees.

The affidavit also states that SpaceX owns almost all of the homes; just four homes listed in the affidavit are not owned by SpaceX, which also owns all of the land within the prospective city’s footprint, “with only a few exceptions.”

See here for the background. I’m uncomfortable with anything that gives Ellie any kind of power, but I don’t live there and if this is what the locals want and they think it will make it easier for them to manage their roads and drainage and whatnot, then I don’t see that I have grounds to object. Seems likely this will pass, but I’ll keep an eye on it.

Posted in Election 2025 | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Buzbee’s client drops lawsuit against Jay-Z

Posted on February 17, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Well, well.

An Alabama woman who said she was raped by rappers Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs when she was 13 withdrew her civil lawsuit against both men on Friday, according to court filings.

The unidentified woman in December added Jay-Z, whose legal name is Shawn Carter, to a lawsuit she had filed against Combs in Manhattan federal court, alleging that she was attacked by the singers in 2000 after Combs’ limo driver offered her a ride to an MTV Video Music Awards after-party.

The court document submitted by the woman’s attorneys announcing the voluntary dismissal did not include any reasons or explanation for the withdrawal.

Jay-Z, who vehemently denied the claims and tried to get extracted from the lawsuit, called the woman’s decision to withdraw her claim “a victory” and said the “fictional tale” she and her lawyers created was “laughable.”

“The frivolous, fictious and appalling allegations have been dismissed,” he said in a statement posted on social media. “This civil suit was without merit and never going anywhere.”

Combs remains jailed in New York awaiting a criminal trial on federal sex trafficking charges. He also faces a wave of sexual assault lawsuits, many of which were filed by the plaintiff’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee, a Texas attorney who says his firm represents over 150 people, both men and women, who allege sexual abuse and exploitation by Combs.

Lawyers for Combs said dismissal of the lawsuit without a settlement confirmed that other lawsuits he is facing are built on falsehoods.

“For months, we have seen case after case filed by individuals hiding behind anonymity, pushed forward by an attorney more focused on media headlines than legal merit. Just like this claim, the others will fall apart because there is no truth to them,” they said in a statement, adding that Combs “has never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone — man or woman, adult or minor.”

When asked for a response, Buzbee responded “no comment” in an email Friday night.

Buzbee’s firm, which has set up a 1-800 number for accusers, has filed a wave of lawsuits against the hip-hop mogul. Buzbee’s lawsuits allege that many of the people he represents were abused at parties in New York, California and Florida where individuals were given drinks that were laced with drugs.

Statements from both rappers derisively referred to Buzbee and his firm as the “1-800-lawyer.” Jay-Z accused him of “hiding behind Jane Doe” for financial gain.

“When they quickly realize that the money grab is going fail, they get to walk away with no repercussions,” he wrote. “The system has failed.”

See here, here, here, here, and here for some background. There are still multiple other suits that are as far as I know still active, including all of the ones that Buzbee has filed against Combs, the one he filed against Jay-Z’s company Roc Nation, and the one that Jay-Z filed against Buzbee that alleged extortion. All I’m going to say at this point is that all of this is a big mess and it will take some time to fully untangle. The Chron has more.

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Weekend link dump for February 16

Posted on February 16, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

“Daisy is, of course, not a real grandmother but an AI bot created by computer scientists to combat fraud. Her task is simply to waste the time of the people who are trying to scam her.”

“Stories of Resistance: Lessons from Across the Globe”.

“The scramble to save critical climate data from Trump’s war on DEI”.

“But the most shocking casting rule concerns location. While Bachelor welcomes applicants from both the U.S. and Canada, there’s one Canadian province that’s excluded – Quebec. Any applications from legal residents of Quebec are immediately rejected, even if the applicant is a Canadian citizen. When you consider the marginalization of French Canadians, and The Bachelor’s infamy for lack of diversity, it makes this casting rule even more problematic.”

“Because the Americans are a captive consumer for Canadian crude, one option for Canada in a trade war would be to put export taxes on oil and gas to ratchet the price for U.S. refineries to the point where it’s no longer profitable. In that scenario, the U.S. would be staring down the barrel of fuel shortages or companies forced to operate at a loss, creating enormous economic pressure on President Trump.”

RIP, Dick Jauron, former NFL coach of the Chicago Bears and Buffalo Bills.

RIP, Tom Robbins, iconic novelist best known for “Still Life With Woodpecker” and “Even Cowgirls Get The Blues”.

“There is reporting at other federal agencies indicating that DOGE members have performed unauthorized changes and locked civil servants out of the sensitive systems they gained access to. We further recommend that DOGE members be placed under insider threat monitoring and alerting after their access to payment systems is revoked. Continued access to any payment systems by DOGE members, even ‘read only,’ likely poses the single greatest insider threat risk the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever faced.”

“DOGE’s placement at the DOE even raises a truly bizarre-sounding possibility: that a pseudo-department named after a shiba inu could get actual access to nuclear weapons. Fortunately, despite Musk’s ever-expanding power over government systems, it would take far more than barging into the right office to do this. But at a moment where all kinds of governmental norms are in flux, it’s worth looking at what exactly separates someone like Musk from perhaps the greatest destructive force on the planet — and what other kinds of risks his access could pose.”

RIP, Cheyenne, the oldest orangutan at the Houston Zoo.

“A rare ring of light surrounding a galaxy nearly 590 million light-years away from Earth has been discovered by a space telescope that scientists hope will uncover more cosmic phenomena throughout the universe, the European Space Agency announced on Monday.”

Crooks protecting crooks.

“What does this mean for people outraged by Musk’s recent behavior? Take it out on Tesla by boycotting the company. Any further dip in Tesla sales would amplify growing calls for Musk’s ouster as CEO. Whatever time Musk spends doing damage control is time not spent dismantling federal agencies or elevating Europe’s far right. If you were considering buying a Tesla, don’t. If you’re renting a car, choose another brand. And if you own a Tesla, sell it. Yes, that would help: A deluge of used Teslas would lower their resale value, further depressing the new-car sales that the company depends upon.”

“Thomson Reuters has won the first major AI copyright case in the United States.”

“A letter signed by mayors and local leaders across 39 states is calling on Congress to protect all clean energy tax credits made available to state and local governments, which had been responsible for creating thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in investments before President Donald Trump froze the funds.”

“So think what this means. Adams isn’t off the hook. He’s essentially been given 10 months to perform for his freedom. Perform for Donald Trump. Indeed, Bove said explicitly that one of the reasons Adams shouldn’t have been charged is that being on trial takes Adams’ focus away from helping Donald Trump with mass deportations out of New York City. (Again, they’re refreshingly candid about why this is happening.)”

“Hackers have defaced select pages on the DOGE website. Reports indicate the database the page draws from can be easily accessed by outsiders.”

RIP, L. Clifford Davis, longtime Fort Worth attorney and civil rights activist who opened one of the first Black law firms in Tarrant County and was one of the county’s first Black judges.

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged | 1 Comment

Republicans don’t care at all about the NIH cuts

Posted on February 16, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Or on their constituents or even themselves.

Rep. Lizzie Fletcher

For years Republicans and Democrats alike have touted the medical breakthroughs at Texas medical research institutions like MD Anderson and Baylor College of Medicine.

But after President Donald Trump announced a policy change at the National Institutes of Health last week that would slash federal funding for those Houston institutions by tens of millions of dollars, Texas Democrats find themselves alone in trying to stave off the cuts, at least publicly.

U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, said she asked all members in the Texas congressional delegation to sign a letter to the Trump administration warning the cuts would “devastate medical research in our state.” The four-term congresswoman said while every Democratic member signed, not a single Republican House member agreed to do so.

“I am disappointed,” Fletcher said in a statement. “These cuts hurt our constituents. And these cuts undermine the very system of scientific research and groundbreaking advancements that we are so proud happen here in Houston.”

Texas Republicans have largely stayed quiet on the cuts, despite protest from medical institutions across Texas, which collectively received $1.9 billion in NIH funding last year.

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, who was treated for Hodgkin lymphoma at MD Anderson, questioned the amount of funding U.S. medical research institutions were getting, while acknowledging the medical breakthroughs it had enabled.

“People travel from all across the world to our innovative cancer centers to receive top not treatment. MD Anderson is one of them, and they saved my life,” he said in a statement. “However, we are $36 trillion in debt and barreling toward a debt crisis. There is no reason the federal government should be paying 70% of a university’s administrative costs for research.”

Other Republican members did not respond to requests for comment Friday. This week many cheered on the administration’s wider spending cuts, carried out by Texas billionaire Elon Musk and staffers at his Department of Government Efficiency

“Elon is blowing the lid off DC’s deep corruption, and the left is LOSING IT!,” Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, wrote on X this week. “The real constitutional crisis? Decades of fraud, waste, and abuse—YOUR money stolen to keep the swamp alive.”

[…]

Roy speaks frequently of the life saying treatment he received there. And U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston, wrote an op-ed in 2020 in which he praised MD Anderson for the care they gave his mother, who died from breast cancer at age 35, including enrolling her in an early clinical trial for the chemotherapy drug Taxotere.

“My mom knew that this clinical trial would mean a small extension on her life at best,” Crenshaw wrote. “She knew that Taxotere would not ultimately save her life, but that her trial would provide doctors like Peter Ravdin — who led the clinical trial — the scientific research they needed to improve the drug and save the lives of others.”

See here for the background. If you or someone you know is being affected, even as the initial order was halted in court, you should know who is on your side and who would be happy to throw you in the trash. Elections have consequences indeed. Josh Marshall has more.

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On paying for school security

Posted on February 16, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

The Lege passed a big unfunded mandate in 2023 for schools to hire more security guards. They’re under some pressure to pay up for it this session, though there’s plenty of reason to think they’ll still cheap out.

Since Texas passed a law in 2023 requiring public school districts to have an armed officer at each campus, districts have repeatedly asked the state for more money to fulfill the requirement.

In this year’s legislative session, lawmakers have pledged to increase school safety funding. The 2023 law, House Bill 3, increased that annual safety allotment to $10 per student and $15,000 per school in a district.

The question legislators face this session: will they come close to increasing that allotment to the $100 per student that districts say is necessary to finally fill the funding gap?

HB 3 passed in response to the 2022 shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde that left 19 children and two teachers dead. But since its passage, more than half of Texas school districts do not meet the one armed officer per school requirement, according to a January Senate Education Committee report.

Many school district officials call HB 3 an unfunded mandate, saying the increases to the existing school safety allotment it created pay only a small part of the cost of adding full-time personnel to all schools.

A possible increase is part of the conversation this session. In his State of the State address this month, Gov. Greg Abbott asked the Legislature to invest an additional $500 million for school safety. Both the House and Senate’s proposed budgets for 2026 and 2027 would increase school safety funding by $400 million over the next two years.

Still, school leaders say the amount proposed may not be enough. On top of that, a law enforcement shortage nationwide and in Texas makes it more difficult to staff armed officers at all schools.

[…]

Signed into law in June 2023, HB 3 increased how much districts receive for school safety each year to $10.00 per student from $9.72 per student, with an additional $15,000 for each campus in a school district. HB 3 also provided the Texas Education Agency a one-time figure of $1.1 billion to distribute to school districts for safety upgrades.

Under HB 3, an average-sized Texas elementary school — which has about 600 students — would receive about $21,000 per year from the school safety allotment. That figure comes well short of the at least $60,000 to $70,000 school officials say is necessary to pay an armed guard each year.

New funding for the armed guard requirement was in addition to several other new measures, like one mandating that certain school personnel must undergo a “mental health first-aid training program.” The law also gave the state more power to require active-shooter plans.

Though it received bipartisan support, HB 3 was not universally praised. Before and after the bill was signed into law, school district officials said the state wasn’t providing enough money for the new mandates.

During debate in early 2023, some lawmakers said that requiring an armed guard at each school could endanger students instead of making them more safe. A 2021 study by researchers at The Violence Project suggested that adding armed guards in schools doesn’t reduce gun-related injuries.

Efforts that session to tighten Texas’ gun laws were also a non-starter, with Uvalde parents left disappointed after a bill died that would have raised the minimum age for Texans purchasing semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21.

With no school safety funding increases since HB 3 passed, many school districts have taken “good cause exceptions” from the armed guard requirement. Districts can take an exception if, for example, they have school marshals that act as security guards or safety-trained employees who carry handguns on school grounds.

See here for the background. The safe bet is always to take the under. The Lege and Greg Abbott always have higher priorities than public schools – remember how Abbott vetoed the bill to increase school funding because his precious voucher bill didn’t pass? – and even a nominal increase may well come with extra strings attached. I do think some funding increase will pass – Republicans don’t like spending money on schools, but they do like spending money on cops – and there are bipartisan bills to make it happen. It’s more a question of how much and what the catch is than will it or won’t it. But if the latest version of Abbott’s wet kiss to religious schools and the wealthy parents who send their kids to them somehow stumbles, then all bets are off.

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Ismaeli Center update

Posted on February 16, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

An almost-20-year saga is drawing to a close. I’m excited to see what the end result is.

What once was there

Work has resumed on the massive Ismaili Center near Buffalo Bayou after the death of the Aga Khan IV, the leader of the world’s millions of Shia Ismaili Muslims known for his civic service in Houston.

Considered one of the globe’s wealthiest religious leaders, the Aga Khan IV—born Prince Karim Al-Hussaini—died last week at his home in Lisbon. He was 88. The next day, his son, Prince Rahim Al-Hussaini, was named to succeed him as the Aga Khan V, the 50th hereditary Imam of a lineage that claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammed.

While mourning the death of their imam and celebrating their new leader, Houston representatives from the Ismaili Council for the U.S.A said that they expect to stick to schedule; they still plan to finish the Ismaili Center this year, and new construction will include prayer spaces and host art exhibitions, concerts and interfaith lectures.

Several years ago, the Aga Khan IV led the metro’s Ismaili Muslim community to begin construction on the five-story marbled center towering 72 feet over its 11 acres of land near Buffalo Bayou. Now, the Aga Khan V is expected to follow through with the plans to construct the first Ismaili Center in the U.S. The center would be the seventh of its kind in the world.

“We don’t anticipate any delay in the opening of the center due to the passing of His Highness Prince Karim and the accession of Prince Rahim,” said Omar Samji, a spokesperson for the Ismaili Council, during an interview last week. “This is the project that is nearly completed, and it’s on schedule to be complete by the end of 2025.”

[…]

The Ismaili Center is a “gift” to Houston, the home of “tens of thousands” of Ismaili Muslims, said Farah Lalani, another Ismaili Council spokesperson. The Houston Chronicle has estimated that the metro has about 40,000 Ismaili Muslims who live in a region boasting one of the largest Muslim populations in Texas and in the U.S. (The Houston metro has roughly 500,000 Muslims, according to the Council on American Islamic Relations.)

The concept for the Ismaili Center dates back to 2006 when the Aga Khan Foundation paid a non-disclosed amount to buy land along Allen Parkway, replacing the historic Robinson Warehouse. The foundation is part of the Aga Khan Development Network.

Former Houston Mayor Bill White recognized the foundation for partnering on the “Tolerance” project in 2011. Donors (including members of the Ismaili community) funded seven stainless-steel, 10-foot-tall human statues to the art installation as a symbol of harmony along Allen Parkway, just across the road from the future Ismaili Center. The center, White said at the time, “will be an architectural statement and a place of peace, harmony, and welcome.”

In 2021, Ismaili Council President Al-Karim Alidina revealed plans for the center as construction began. U.K.-based firm Farshid Moussavi Architecture designed the structure, and Thomas Woltz of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, known for his work on Memorial Park in Houston, crafted its gardens. In 2023, former Mayor Sylvester Turner joined Prince Amyn Aga Khan, the younger brother of the late Aga Khan IV, at an on-site ceremony to recognize the progress of the construction. The mayor expressed support for the center and offered the key to the city to the Aga Khan IV through his brother as a symbol of support.

See here for my previous update, and click the article for a picture of what it looks like now. While the architect for this project was hired in early 2019, construction didn’t start until almost three years later. Indeed, as this story notes, the Aga Khan Foundation has owned the site since 2006, where the old Robinson Warehouse once stood. I took pictures of its demise over the next couple of months, and then it stood empty for so long that people complained about it, having forgotten that there was a purpose planned for it. It just took forever for it to happen. And now they’re saying it will be done by the end of this year. I’m a little dizzy at the thought, but I cannot wait to see it in its newfound glory.

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Dr. Carpenter ordered to stop sending abortion pills to Texas

Posted on February 15, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

And we’re off.

A Collin County judge has ordered a New York doctor to stop prescribing abortion-inducing medication to Texas residents and ordered her to pay a $100,000 fine.

Thursday’s ruling is the opening salvo in what’s expected to be a lengthy legal battle likely to end up at the U.S. Supreme Court, as Texas’ near-total abortion ban runs up against New York’s law protecting abortion providers from out-of-state legal action.

Dr. Margaret Carpenter is an abortion provider and co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, a group that helps doctors navigate legal and regulatory barriers to provide abortion medication through the mail. These so-called “shield providers,” located in states where abortion is still legal, are working under a set of yet-untested laws designed to stymie abortion bans in states like Texas.

In December, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Carpenter, accusing her of prescribing abortion medication to a Collin County woman in violation of Texas’ abortion laws. Neither Carpenter nor her lawyers responded to the suit. As expected, Carpenter did not attend the Wednesday hearing before Collin County District Judge Bryan Gantt, according to The New York Times.

On Thursday, Gantt ruled that Carpenter had violated Texas law by practicing without a license and facilitating an abortion, and “that an unborn child died as a result of these violations.” Gantt issued a permanent injunction against Carpenter prescribing abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents. Violating an injunction can come with additional penalties, including jail time.

Carpenter was ordered to pay a $100,000 fine and about $13,000 in attorneys’ fees. Paxton’s office is expected to ask New York state to enforce the judgement, which is typically standard practice between states. But New York is expected to try to block any of Texas’ efforts to hold Carpenter to its legal standards, a clash that will likely require the federal courts to intervene.

See here and here for the background. Of course Dr. Carpenter was not going to come to Texas to defend herself – among other things, she’d have been dragooned to Louisiana. We’re following a script right now, and it’s New York’s line. Once they tell Ken Paxton to pound sand, we’ll be off to the federal courts, and from there it gets less predictable. The Current and The 19th have more.

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Yeah, still more measles

Posted on February 15, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

The number keeps going up.

As a West Texas measles outbreak continues to worsen, experts are concerned an increase in nonmedical vaccine exemptions among schoolchildren could make such outbreaks more common.

Twenty-four cases of the highly contagious respiratory illness have been confirmed in Gaines County, all of them in individuals who have not received the vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella. Twenty-two cases are children under age 18, and six are children under age 5, Texas Department of State Health Services said Tuesday.

The recent outbreak represents the highest number of measles cases in Texas since 2019, when the state reported 23 cases across a dozen counties. But experts worry outbreaks could become more common in Texas due to a rise in “conscientious exemptions,” or parents and guardians who refuse to get their children vaccinated for religious, moral or philosophical reasons. Nonmedical vaccine exemptions have soared over the past decade, and Gaines County has one of the highest opt-out rates in Texas.

“Medical experts have been telling me for a year that it was going to happen,” said Terri Burke, the executive director of the Houston-based nonprofit The Immunization Partnership. “It was just a matter of time.”

The first two measles cases in West Texas came about two weeks after the virus was found in a pair of Houston residents. Officials said the West Texas outbreak does not appear to be connected to the Houston cases, and no other cases had been reported in Houston as of Wednesday.

Declining vaccination rates are concerning because measles can cause severe illness, said Dr. Catherine Troisi, an epidemiologist at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health. One in five unvaccinated Americans will need to be hospitalized, and one in 1,000 will develop brain swelling that could cause deafness or an intellectual disability, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Gaines County, nine children have needed to be hospitalized for treatment, the DSHS said.

“This can be very serious,” Troisi said. “It is not a benign disease.”

[…]

Public health officials have set up measles screening sites in the area, [Katherine Wells, the director of Lubbock Public Health] said. Officials are also providing guidance to public schools, private schools and day cares.

“I hope this increases awareness around vaccines and shows why it’s so important,” she said.

The South Plains Public Health District, which serves Gaines County, set up a clinic to offer the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine amid the outbreak. More than 70 people have visited the clinic since last Thursday, SPPHD executive director Zach Holbrooks said in an email.

See here, here, and here for the background. And oh, wait, did I say 24 cases? That was as of, like, Tuesday. We’re now up to 48 cases as of Friday.

An outbreak of measles has spread to 48 cases across four counties in the South Plains region of northwestern Texas, doubling in scope from earlier this week, health officials said.

Most of the cases are in school-aged children, including 13 cases in children younger than 5 years old and another 29 in children between 5 and 17, the Texas Department of State Health Services said Friday. Thirteen people have been hospitalized to be treated for the highly contagious respiratory illness.

All 48 cases involve individuals who have either not received the vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella, or whose vaccination status is unknown, the DSHS said.

Gaines County remains the epicenter of the outbreak, with 42 cases of measles reported there Friday. But there are now three cases in Terry County and two in Yoakum County, which border Gaines County to the north, and one case in nearby Lynn County, the DSHS said.

Houston also reported two measles cases last month, but officials have said they do not appear to be linked to the South Plains outbreak.

Officials working to contain the South Plains outbreak said earlier this week that cases may continue to rise before they subside. The DSHS offered a similar assessment on Friday.

“Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in Gaines County and the surrounding communities,” the public health agency said in a statement.

At least there haven’t been any more cases in Houston. I have no idea how high this number is going to go, but those first two cases were reported on January 29, so we went from two to 48 in just over two weeks. That sure seems like a lot. I don’t know how many of those 70 people at the South Plains Public Health District got themselves the MMR vaccine, but every little bit helps. This is going to burn until it runs out of fuel, and making yourself not be fuel is the best defense you have. Daily Kos has more.

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Texas A&M’s nukes

Posted on February 15, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Interesting.

The Texas A&M University System has selected four companies to explore developing advanced nuclear reactors on its Rellis research campus in Bryan, university officials announced Tuesday morning.

Each of the four companies — Kairos Power, Natura Resources, Aalo Atomics and Terrestrial Energy — could potentially build at least one commercial reactor on the Rellis Campus, company executives said.

The announcement comes after Texas A&M sought an early site permit from federal regulators in November to offer land to nuclear companies. If approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Texas A&M would be the only higher education institution in the country with a commercial nuclear reactor site license.

Ultimately, the goal is to create an “energy proving ground” at the Rellis Campus that can serve as a test bed for cutting-edge energy technologies, Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp said in an interview. A&M would offer companies its nuclear engineering expertise, as well as a site to demonstrate commercial viability of their technology to kickstart further development, he said.

Texas A&M’s leaders want to host what are known as small modular reactors, which are supposed to be smaller, easier to build and safer than traditional nuclear plants. Thus far, only three SMRs are operational in the world, none in the United States. One U.S. attempt sputtered to an end in 2023 after cost estimates tripled to $9.3 billion.

“We hope that at the end of it, we can show the rest of the country that SMRs are a viable, safe, reliable option to make sure we don’t run out of power in this country,” Sharp said.

He cited projections of surging demand for electricity nationwide largely to accommodate power-hungry data centers, particularly those hosting artificial intelligence computing systems.

The demand is there, we know that much. I’ll take this over bringing coal plants back online, for sure. Maybe this doesn’t work out the way they’d like, but it’s worth the effort. If legislative Republicans could find a way to be a little less stupid about wind and solar energy right now, we’d be much better positioned going forward.

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Here’s that Whitmire government efficiency report

Posted on February 14, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

I’m whelmed.

Mayor John Whitmire

A sweeping study of Houston’s 22 departments, their finances and operations revealed potential misuse of city credit cards and a pressing need to streamline city government to make it more efficient, according to an executive summary obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

The review, conducted by the accounting firm Ernst & Young, pinpointed long-standing problems with the city’s outdated organizational structure and contracting procedures.

About 42% of city managers only have one to three people who report to them, the analysis shows, and the city has challenges with pay equity and competitive compensation. The firm’s report also notes that career pathways gaps created opportunities for “fake promotions” of employees into management roles that didn’t oversee anyone.

Authorized city employees can obtain purchasing cards, or “p-cards,” that essentially act the same way as a corporate credit card so they can make purchases for city business. The review found that p-card payments were split to allow for larger purchases that would have typically been over spending limits, and that some items were purchased from unauthorized vendors.

“This assessment confirms what many of us already knew: We have work to do to build a government that truly earns the trust of its residents,” Mayor John Whitmire wrote in a memo to city council members Tuesday.

He continued: “I believe that by acting on these findings, we can create a city government that is more transparent, efficient and focused on delivering results. We can show Houstonians that their government works for them and that every decision we make is rooted in accountability and service.”

City officials have been waiting for the results of the financial overview since it was commissioned in May 2024. The mayor’s office sent a summary of the results to council members Tuesday, and said it was a “critical first step” in restoring public trust in city government.

The study showed a need for improvements in four main categories over the course of six weeks: performance and accountability, operations and efficiency, spending and procurement, and financial controls and risks.

The report is here – it’s quite long and gets very much into the weeds of how departments can and should operate, so unless this really floats your boat I’d just stick to the Mayor’s letter and executive summary. At a high level, I’m fine with the recommendations, and I’m sure there are plenty of things the city could do better. I say go for it, within reason and the collective bargaining agreement with the municipal union.

But the thing that stood out to me, especially after months of talk about how this audit will help save the city’s bacon on the budget, I didn’t see a single dollar amount listed for the savings that we could get if this plan were fully implemented. Not even some aspirational pie-in-the-sky number that no one will believe. So I have to ask, is that all there is? As I’ve said, I’m sure there’s some savings to be had, just not “make a big dent in the current deficit”-level savings. What does Mayor Whitmire think this will do for the city’s budget? Because he’s going to have to put a budget out real soon now, and that’s when it all gets real.

UPDATE: The Houston Landing story has some theoretical numbers.

Mayor John Whitmire on Wednesday lauded the results of a long-awaited efficiency study that found potential mismanagement of funds among city departments and a lack of accountability measures, but how much money the city could save remained unknown.

The mayor’s team presented the findings of the Ernst and Young study at City Council and identified duplicative contracts, a lack of accountability in department spending and redundancy in departments as opportunities for change.

Specific savings, however, largely will stay unidentified until Whitmire unveils his budget proposal in the spring.

In the meantime, Whitmire said the administration plans to offer the firm another contract to help find solutions.

Whitmire’s executive team said the bulk of savings is estimated to be between 5 and 15 percent of Houston’s $2.2 billion facilities and construction budget. That represents an estimated savings of $113 million to $341 million.

Whitmire repeatedly has pointed to the report as his reason to reject calls for a property tax rate increase or the implementation of new fees. He said Wednesday he would see through the auditing process before asking taxpayers to contribute more money to close Houston’s growing $330 million deficit – which could be further impacted by ongoing negotiations with the Houston Police Officers Union.

“It is so revealing why Houstonians are frustrated and why I will not go to them and ask for additional resources, until, in my judgment, regain their confidence that we’re using their money wisely,” the mayor said.

The efficiency study examined 22 city departments, including police and fire, and focused on performance, organization, spending and forensic accounting. Ernst and Young is completing a similar audit of Houston’s tax increment reinvestment zones.

Well those are definitely numbers. I’m not sure where they came from – as noted, there are no numbers cited in either the mayor’s letter at the beginning or the executive summary – and I’m not sure why the facilities and construction budget is being used as the benchmark, as that doesn’t seem to be tied to the things that are identified as areas of improvement. The way these things tend to go, expect the lower end to be much more likely than the upper end to be realistic, and while that’s a substantial number it’s still a ways off from being sufficient to close the deficit on its own. The budget will tell the story of how this might be achieved and how painful it will be. Emily Hynds has notes from the Council meeting where this was discussed if you want more.

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Appeals Court hears Catholic Charities case

Posted on February 14, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Hoping for a good outcome.

Still a crook any way you look

A Texas appeals court panel on Wednesday appeared skeptical of the procedure used by Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office as it sought to question under oath the leader of one of the state’s largest migrant aid organizations.

The issue landed in the appeal court after a trial court’s ruling last summer that state investigators could not depose the executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley before filing a lawsuit against the group. Paxton’s office said it was investigating whether the charity had violated state laws against human trafficking and harboring undocumented immigrants; it has not filed a lawsuit against Catholic Charities.

In a University of Texas at Austin School of Law courtroom Wednesday morning, three justices of the 15th Court of Appeals — all Republicans appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott — questioned why the state had used what’s called a Rule 202 petition when it had other avenues to try to seek the testimony of Catholic Charities’ leader during its investigation.

One justice also questioned the purpose of trying to compel the nun in charge of the charity to testify since she could invoke her 5th Amendment right to not incriminate herself; another noted that other courts have ruled that the tool was not intended for routine use.

Most states allow lawyers to depose someone before a lawsuit is filed, typically in situations where a person may die before the lawsuit can be filed. In Texas, lawyers can also question someone under oath for an investigation before a lawsuit is filed, but they need a judge’s approval to do so — and in this case the lower court denied that request from Paxton’s office.

Should courts allow the use of the rule, Paxton’s office could wield it to compel testimony under oath from people it is investigating before formally accusing them of wrongdoing in a court.

Justice Scott K. Field said other laws give the AG’s office the ability to depose someone without filing a lawsuit, “then why do you need Rule 202?” The other mechanisms include letters that the attorney general’s office can send to demand information or testimony, as well a state statute called “request to examine,” which Paxton’s office relied on in similar investigations until a federal judge in October found it unconstitutional. That finding was appealed to the federal 5th Circuit.

[…]

Chief Justice Scott A. Brister asked Stone whether the attorney general’s office believes it can force people to answer questions under oath any time it believes someone is violating the law, without having to file a lawsuit.

Stone responded that because the question had not been raised to the court previously, it’s not a tool the attorney general’s office has used routinely in investigations.

“Not yet,” Brister said, looking directly at Stone.

William Powell, lawyer for the Rio Grande Valley charity, told justices that the state had not presented any evidence to substantiate its investigation or show any wrongdoing by Catholic Charities.

The charity handed state investigators a sworn statement from its director, Sister Norma Pimentel, stating that the charity only helps migrants who have been processed and released legally into the country with paperwork by federal immigration officials, Powell said.

“The only thing really that the attorney general can say is, ‘I didn’t have to present any evidence because I automatically win because I’m the attorney general,’” Powell said. “I don’t understand how they could think that a deposition of Sister Norma is going to produce anything different than what she already swore under oath.”

“Maybe they have some Perry Masons that cross examine,” said Brister, referring to the mid-20th century TV series about a criminal defense lawyer in Los Angeles who works to exonerate wrongfully charged clients — often getting the real killer to confess on the witness stand.

See here for the background. This is the first appeal of the four cases that this new court will hear. I have to assume that if Paxton strikes out here, he may realize he has no path forward. He’ll still go to the Supreme Court, but this court is basically its clone. I’m hopeful based on what is reported here, but it’s not over till it’s over. Here’s hoping.

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Dispatches from Dallas, February 14 edition

Posted on February 14, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This is a weekly feature produced by my friend Ginger. Let us know what you think.

It’s been a while since we’ve had news from Dallas-Fort Worth because your humble correspondent has had her first run-in with Covid. It’s been a doozy. Next week we should be back to our regular coverage, but this week I’m concentrating on one of the weirdest ongoing stories happening here in the Metroplex: the upcoming breakup of Keller ISD.

Keller ISD covers the eastern part of Fort Worth and the suburb of Keller. The district is highly regarded but, like every other district in Texas, facing demographic and financial challenges exacerbated by the choices of our state government. I missed the beginning of this story because I don’t hang around on Facebook enough, and certainly not in the parts where stakeholders in Keller ISD spend time, but the story is that certain members of Keller’s seven-member board decided they wanted to split the poorer western side of the district from the eastern, suburban side of the district, with the dividing line being Old Denton Road. This was all happening in November and December, when we were all busy with other things.

Somehow, this has become an actual plan that appears to be happening. Keller’s web site refers to this project as “reshaping” and has a proposed map for the split. Some of the trustees were blindsided by the reveal of the proposed split back in January. The superintendent, who had only joined the district in December 2023, offered her resignation and the board named an interim superintendent in their January 30 meeting.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot of opposition. At the meeting on the 30th, 200 speakers signed up and the majority were against the split. The Star-Telegram has editorialized against the split. Republican State Rep. Nate Schatzline, the pastor of Mercy Culture, is open to the plan but is concerned it will drive down property values if the new school district isn’t as high-performing as Keller ISD; he would represent much of the new district. Democratic Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons, whom regular readers will know as a foil of Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare, is also against the split.

So what is going on here? One piece of it is almost certainly the public interest lawsuit against Keller’s at-large trustee election system. I’ve written about these before but the gist of it is that Brewer Storefront, the public advocacy arm of a big law firm, has been threatening to sue districts around the state for at-large trustee elections. In the case of Keller ISD, they have May elections and that’s also a factor. These two rules make it harder for voters of color to have their say, which is illegal under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (to the extent that still applies under the current administration). Brewer is now pushing to stop the split as well.

But the other rumor I’ve heard and can’t confirm is that the trustees behind the original split discussions–whom I can only guess at by seeing who’s against it, because it’s not them–are your bog-standard reactionary school board haters and the split is happening for obvious reasons. I find this theory somewhat compelling because it fits with everything else happening in Texas, in North Texas school boards, and because the start of these discussions in November and December aligns with a time when it became clear the Justice Department wouldn’t do anything about resegregation of school districts. This quote from an opponent of the split makes that clear:

The saddest thing of all was when a student said to my son I hope they split the district so that I can go to school with all white kids

Some further reading on this story:

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Mike Miles gets graded

Posted on February 13, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

“Needs improvement”.

State-appointed Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles lost several points in his annual performance evaluation from the board for failing to effectively communicate with community members and for not prioritizing a positive culture, according to recently released district records.

Miles earned 66.7 of the 100 possible points on his evaluation, meaning he received a bonus of $126,730, or 66.7% of the maximum possible bonus of $190,000, according to the evaluation the Board of Managers approved in an 8-1 vote in October meeting.

HISD initially said in October that the results of the evaluation were confidential, but it released the full scores to the Chronicle in response to an open records request.

According to an amendment to Miles’ contract, 60% of his evaluation is based on whether he met four specific student outcome goals and honored the constraints that the board set in November 2023, while the remaining 40% is based on how he scored on an executive leadership and vision rubric.

He earned 35 of 60 available points in the student outcomes section and 31.7 out of 40 points on the executive leadership and vision rubric.

Miles earned a perfect score from board members for demonstrating vision, as well as high marks for making effective decisions and maintaining an effective budget. The board also determined that he had effectively maximized human capital and worked well “as part of a high-performing team.”

However, he lost points for falling short on the district’s goal for third-grade student performance on the reading STAAR during the 2023-24 academic year. Board members also determined he had not been effective at constructing a positive communications strategy or prioritizing a positive culture and people wellness, according to the scores.

[…]

The executive leadership and vision rubric evaluates Miles based on how he has demonstrated vision, made effective decisions, maximized human capital, worked well as part of a high-functioning team, constructed a positive communications strategy, created and maintained an effective budget, and prioritized positive culture and wellness.

Each of the eight metrics is assigned a ranking ranging from “ineffective” to “highly effective” based on a score ranging from zero to five, except for the “demonstrates vision” category, which is assigned a score ranging from zero to 10. The scores are determined for each metric based on how Miles met a series of criteria.

Miles earned a 2.5 out of five for his communication strategy. To earn a higher score, he would need to strengthen outreach to parents, school partners and community members; communicate transparently to strengthen trust and engagement; and internalize the importance of clear communication strategies to support teachers and school leaders.

Miles also earned 2.5 out of five possible points on the “positive culture and wellness” section of the rubric. The maximum score requires Miles to create multiple feedback opportunities for community members, dedicate more resources to a positive culture and expand collaboration with community members.

Isn’t a 67, like, a D? Surely he could set a better example than that. And how he managed to avoid getting zeroes on the “communication” and “positive culture” rubrics – I’d demand a recount. There’s more if you want to read it. I’m just rolling my eyes.

UPDATE: The Chron editorial board is also unimpressed.

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RRC finds no fault in that Energy Transfer Pipeline explosion

Posted on February 13, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

What’s a giant fireball among friends, am I right?

An investigation by Texas regulators into the massive pipeline explosion in Deer Park last fall has found no safety violations by the pipeline’s operator Energy Transfer Company – a determination drawing outrage from people who had to flee their homes during the inferno.

“I’m stunned,” said Brandi Gardner, who said her sense of safety has been shattered by the terror of the pipeline exploding just beyond her family’s backyard. “That valve should have been protected all along with barriers… especially knowing that it was so close to a residential area.”

The investigation report from the Texas Railroad Commission provides little information explaining how the state pipeline safety agency reached its “no violations” conclusion, beyond saying that inspectors met with company officials and reviewed various records. The Railroad Commission did not grant interviews or answer Houston Landing’s questions on Monday.

Energy Transfer’s above-ground pipeline valve carrying natural gas liquids exploded on Sept. 16 and burned for nearly four days after an SUV crashed into it, killing the driver, burning and melting nearby homes, cars and power lines, and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of homes and businesses in Deer Park and La Porte.

Although the pipeline valve was located in a heavily populated area, next to busy Spencer Highway and adjacent to a high-traffic Walmart Supercenter parking lot, it was surrounded with only a chain link fence, archived Google Street View images show.

It is unclear from the Railroad Commission’s vaguely written report how inspectors deemed chain link fencing to have been adequate protection against vehicle strikes. About 25,000 vehicles a day travel that stretch of Spencer Highway.

Bill Caram, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a national safety advocacy group, said the lack of any violations being cited in the Deer Park explosion illustrates a critical problem with the nation’s pipeline safety laws.

Pipeline safety rules say each valve must be “protected from damage or tampering,” Caram said, but they give operators the latitude to determine how to best achieve the result.

“The code is frustratingly vague about the types of protection operators need to have around valves,” Caram said. “I would have thought that the level of loss and destruction we witnessed was enough proof that Energy Transfer’s efforts fell short of requirements.”

[…]

The Railroad Commission’s report, which appears to have been quietly uploaded into the agency’s online regulatory database on Friday, has just three sentences of findings and contributing factors for the explosion.

The regulatory report cites Energy Transfer’s investigation as determining that the root cause of the pipeline rupture and fire was due to the vehicle crash. The report then notes: “To minimize the possibility of recurrence, [Energy Transfer] added additional concrete barricades (jersey barriers) around the valve site and other similar locations. After records review, no rules violations were cited.”

Energy Transfer, in a brief emailed statement to the Landing, said the company was in compliance with all rules and regulations at the time of the SUV crash and that “there are no required actions to be done before an event that is unforeseeable (an intentional act by a third party).”

See here, here, and here for some background. I don’t know what I expected, but I can’t say I’m surprised. It’s the Railroad Commission, this is how they roll. There is something we can do about it, though.

Vincent Gardner, who is Brandi Gardner’s husband, expressed frustration that it seems there is no local, state or federal agency that is trying to help their neighborhood recover or taking action to protect against future pipeline explosions caused by vehicle crashes.

“This is all being swept under the rug. They want this to go away as fast as possible. It’s obvious. They want business to go on as usual,” Vincent Gardner said.

Your State Rep is Briscoe Cain, and we elect one member of the RRC every two years. If as you say that is what they want and it’s not what you want, well, you will have the chance to take direct action about it next year. The Chron has more.

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Is this the end of the penny?

Posted on February 13, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

It could be.

President Donald Trump says he has directed the Treasury Department to stop minting new pennies, citing the rising cost of producing the one-cent coin.

“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!” Trump wrote in a post Sunday night on his Truth Social site. “I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.”

The move by Trump is the latest in what has been a rapid-fire effort by his new administration to enact sweeping change through executive order and proclamation on issues ranging from immigration, to gender and diversity, to the name of the Gulf of Mexico.

Trump had not discussed his desire to eliminate the penny during his campaign. But Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency raised the prospect in a post on X last month highlighting the penny’s cost.

The U.S. Mint reported losing $85.3 million in the 2024 fiscal year that ended in September on the nearly 3.2 billion pennies it produced. Every penny cost nearly $0.037 — up from $0.031 the year before.

The mint also loses money on the nickel, with each of the $0.05 coins costing nearly $0.14 to make.

It is unclear whether Trump has the power to unilaterally eliminate the lowly one-cent coin. Currency specifications — including the size and metal content of coins — are dictated by Congress.

But Robert K. Triest, an economics professor at Northeastern University, has argued that there might be wiggle room.

“The process of discontinuing the penny in the U.S. is a little unclear. It would likely require an act of Congress, but the Secretary of the Treasury might be able to simply stop the minting of new pennies,” he said last month.

I have defended the existence of the penny in the past, more because I like coins than for any coherent practical or ideological reason. Especially post-pandemic, coin usage is way down, and so the removal of the penny from daily life would be felt far less than it once would have been. In terms of the reckless lawbreaking and unconscionable damage that Trump and Musk are doing to the country, this is way, way down on the list of concerns. In terms of cutting costs and saving money, this is barely even a rounding error, one that only sounds substantive to someone who doesn’t understand the difference between “million”, “billion”, and “trillion”. If and when we do kill off the penny (and maybe the nickel and who knows what other coins), I’d like to see us do it with a bit more ceremony – there’s a lot of interesting history here, we should give it its due. But I’m not going to expend any energy on that now.

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Texas blog roundup for the week of February 10

Posted on February 13, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

The Texas Progressive Alliance remembers when widespread lawbreaking was considered a bad thing as it brings you this week’s roundup.

Continue reading →

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