Category Archives: The great state of Texas

More kids are getting their COVID shots

Posted on November 4, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

So good to see. The possibility of the parties, vacations and family gatherings energized six families who attended the COVID-19 vaccination event on Wednesday inside Memorial Hermann, the morning after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially expanded eligibility to kids … Continue reading →

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Exempt yourself

Posted on October 29, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Is it really a regulation if you can just say nope, sorry, no can do? The Public Utility Commission of Texas approved weatherization standards for electricity generators on Thursday, requiring them to be ready for winter cold by by Dec. … Continue reading →

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More on the Abbott max anti-vaxx order

Posted on October 14, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Businesses will face a choice that they would rather not have to face. Companies doing business in Texas face new and complicated challenges after Gov. Greg Abbott this week banned COVID-19 vaccine mandates for all entities in the state — … Continue reading →

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Abbott goes max anti-vaxx

Posted on October 13, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

He really wants us dead. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday issued another executive order cracking down on COVID-19 vaccine mandates — this time banning any entity in Texas, including private businesses, from requiring vaccinations for employees or customers. Abbott … Continue reading →

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An overview of abortion attitudes in Texas

Posted on October 12, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

From the Texas Politics Project: Since the political rise of the pro-life movement in the 1990s, it’s often been suggested that elected Republicans were less seriously committed to banning abortion than their public pronouncements may have conveyed. The rationale behind … Continue reading →

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Climate change is bad for Texas

Posted on October 9, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

In case you were wondering. Climate change has made the Texas heat worse, with less relief as nighttime temperatures warm, a report from the state’s climatologist published Thursday found. Climate data also show that the state is experiencing extreme rainfall … Continue reading →

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More proof that vaccine mandates work

Posted on October 8, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

In the end, most people just get the damn shots. The rest is sound and fury. Protests, lawsuits and national media coverage surrounded Houston Methodist Hospital in June when it became the country’s first major health system to require a … Continue reading →

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The Delta surge is killing younger people

Posted on October 7, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

So many avoidable deaths. About two weeks later, sometime in August, the [woman in the San Antonio intensive care bed] died. She was in her mid-40s. She is among more than 9,000 Texans who have died from COVID-19 in August … Continue reading →

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Our latest wake-up call about our power grid

Posted on October 2, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Same song, next verse. Federal energy officials vowed to ensure that Texas improves its electricity grid and natural gas system after widespread blackouts during the February freeze led to more than 200 deaths and billions of dollars in property damage. … Continue reading →

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There will probably be another freeze this winter

Posted on September 26, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Hopefully not as bad, but, well, you know. Savor the rest of the summer and all of fall because this winter in Texas is going to be “frigid and flaky” similar to February’s deadly storm, according to the Farmers’ Almanac. … Continue reading →

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El Paso is doing all right with Delta

Posted on September 22, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Good for them, let’s hope it lasts. While some other metro areas like Austin reported record high numbers of COVID-19 patients in their area hospitals just last month, and while statewide hospitalizations came close to eclipsing the January peak of … Continue reading →

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COVID rate slows a bit, but ICUs still full

Posted on September 19, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

The good news. So far, the delta variant has fueled a month of Houston-area COVID hospitalizations over 3,000, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. But Texas Medical Center records show positive case rates may be slowly declining. … Continue reading →

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The wrong track

Posted on September 18, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Interesting, but there are some key questions left unasked. According to a poll conducted by Texas 2036, at least 92 percent of Texas voters said they were concerned about the future of the state, with 58 percent also stating they felt … Continue reading →

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Our COVID failures and our economy

Posted on September 14, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Remember when the goal was to get the economy going again? The recent surge in COVID-19 cases is not only hitting the state in terms of lives lost, but it’s taking its toll on the Texas economy. That’s according to … Continue reading →

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The final Ike Dike plan

Posted on September 13, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

It’s taken a long time to get to this point. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has released the final version of its Coastal Texas Study, which examines a proposed coastal barrier to protect the Houston region against storm surge. … Continue reading →

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Going after the snitch sites

Posted on September 11, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

I approve of this. When an anti-abortion group last week created a “pro-life whistleblower” website encouraging people to anonymously report violations of Texas’ new six-week abortion ban, a group of politically active Texans noticed one potentially fatal flaw. “They’re trying … Continue reading →

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The contract health worker surge

Posted on September 6, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Don’t know how sustainable this is. Dr. Esmaeil Porsa, president and CEO of Harris Health System, said the hospitals in the system were at a breaking point when he learned that 100 temporary medical workers were being sent to help. … Continue reading →

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Zombie trees

Posted on September 3, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

We are still experiencing the effects of the freeze. Zombies are in your yard, in parks and along roadsides and other green spaces throughout Texas. They’re trees that are partly dead and partly alive, struggling to move forward and waiting … Continue reading →

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Please enjoy the higher natural gas prices you’ll soon be paying

Posted on September 1, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

And by “enjoy”, I mean “blame Greg Abbott”. Texans are on the hook for $3.6 billion in natural gas costs incurred by utilities during one freezing week in February — a burden consumers will bear for a decade or longer. … Continue reading →

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Readin’ and writin’ and gettin’ COVID

Posted on August 30, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Welcome back to school, kids. Positive COVID-19 cases among Texas public school students rose by more than 9,000 last week, the highest number ever recorded in a seven-day period, state data shows. As of Aug. 22, there were 14,033 reports … Continue reading →

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More teenagers are getting vaccinated

Posted on August 25, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Good, but not enough in itself. As a third COVID wave coincides with the back-to-school season, more Texas teenagers are getting the vaccine — but health experts say they need to see shots increase in even larger numbers to protect … Continue reading →

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The approval and the mandates

Posted on August 24, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, the FDA has given its final approval to the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19. That should mean a lot of good things, but among them it should mean broader vaccine mandates are now in … Continue reading →

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The mask rebellion

Posted on August 22, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Sweet, sweet music to the ears. The local mask rebellion, coupled with the fresh threat of legal action from President Joe Biden’s administration, poses the most serious challenge yet to [Gov. Greg] Abbott’s emergency powers, which he has wielded in … Continue reading →

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I don’t know what to make of these Spectrum/Ipsos polls about COVID and mask mandates

Posted on August 21, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

I’m going to present to you three Spectrum News stories about a poll they commissioned regarding COVID issues, and then I’m going to tell you what I think about them. (Spoiler alert: The post title more or less sums it … Continue reading →

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A few words from the CEO of the Medical Center

Posted on August 21, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

From an interview he did with Lisa Gray. What we’re seeing, sadly, is more of the same, only with more intense numbers. The number of people who are testing positive in our community continues to escalate month over month. The … Continue reading →

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The abortion ban chaos is coming

Posted on August 17, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

It’s already ugly. The National Abortion Federation has told doctors in Texas it will stop referring patients and sending money to clinics that offer abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. In North Texas, the Texas Equal Action Fund will … Continue reading →

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It’s a bad time to go to a rural hospital

Posted on August 15, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Only gonna get worse, too, at least in the short term. For the past week, Brooke Hale has been told “no” about 80 times a day. The executive assistant at Altus Lumberton Hospital has spent her shifts on the phone … Continue reading →

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Census data is out

Posted on August 14, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Get ready, there’s about to be a whole lot more legislative activity. Setting the stage for what is expected to be a bruising battle over political representation, the results of the 2020 census released Thursday showed that Texas’ explosive growth … Continue reading →

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Fort Bend joins the lawsuit parade

Posted on August 12, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Come on in, the water’s fine. As the Delta variant drives a pandemic surge, Fort Bend County officials on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order banning local government from implementing public health mandates. “I’ll do all … Continue reading →

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Abbott flails about on the COVID surge

Posted on August 12, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

He remains committed to the bit. Gov. Greg Abbott announced new moves Monday to fight the coronavirus pandemic as it rages again in Texas, including asking hospitals to again put off certain elective procedures to free up space for COVID-19 … Continue reading →

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Overflow COVID tents

Posted on August 11, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

This is fine. Harris Health System’s intensive care units are nearly full as the delta variant sends more COVID-19 patients into hospitals, prompting the safety-net health system for the county’s indigent communities to construct tents for triaging patients. As of Monday afternoon, Lyndon … Continue reading →

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A timeline of the blackout

Posted on August 9, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Of interest. A new report from University of Texas at Austin energy experts lays much of the blame for power outages during the state’s deadly February freeze on the failure of natural gas producers to fully weatherize their facilities.” The … Continue reading →

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There needs to be more defiance of Greg Abbott and his no-mandates mandate

Posted on August 8, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

I find a bit of a pattern in this story and wonder if there may be something to it. School districts, local officials and hospitals are pushing back on Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order barring mask and vaccine mandates, setting … Continue reading →

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Who favors a vaccine mandate?

Posted on August 6, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

A lot of people, apparently. Don’t expect it to make much difference, though. Most Texans support measures requiring all eligible people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a recent survey. More than 65 percent of Texans said they would … Continue reading →

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