“Everyone should watch television with the captions on, in almost all situations, even if your hearing is not an issue. I started doing it a few years ago and it has improved my viewing experience a lot.”
“The Bat-Signal wouldn’t work in real life. But that didn’t stop the team at Hacksmith Industries from making one that does.”
“Any reporters who cite the Catholic League without acknowledging that it’s just one angry wealthy guy who loves to pick fights with everyone who doesn’t bow down to the conservative wing of the Catholic Church is committing journalistic malpractice.”
“Donohue’s success is partly due to his focus on a particular niche of old, frightened, resentful white people. He fleeces old, frightened, resentful white Catholics, and is thus not in direct competition with groups like the Family Research Council or the Liberty Council or the Alliance Defending Freedom, all of which derive most of their income from fleecing old, frightened, resentful white Protestants.”
RIP, Estelle Harris, versatile character actor known for many roles but especially as George Costanza’s mother on Seinfeld.
“The galling cynicism of CBS News hiring Mick Mulvaney”.
RIP, cancel culture. It was never really a thing anyway.
“Local TV Station Unearths Ultra-Rare Interview Footage Of An 11-Year-Old Prince“, who offered support for teachers that were on strike.
“Totally normal journalism, right? The president announces another blockbuster jobs report and the press presents it as borderline bad news.”
I’m shocked and saddened to note that the above was the last entry from Eric Boehlert, who was killed in a bicycle accident later in the week. My condolences to his family and friends.
“To understand impacts of partisan media on beliefs & attitudes, we paid regular Fox News viewers to watch CNN instead for ~7 hrs/week for a month. Our results should worry you.”
RIP, Gerda Weissman Klein, Holocaust survivor, author, Emmy and Oscar winner, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner.
“Ukraine May Mark a Turning Point in Documenting War Crimes“.
“For Gibbons and other Young Earth Creationist cryptozoologists, finding a flesh-and-blood, living, breathing dinosaur would not only be a scientific triumph but, they hope, could bury Darwin’s theory of evolution and prove their beliefs right.”
“In an internal email obtained exclusively by Popular Information, Stand Together, the influential non-profit group run by right-wing billionaire Charles Koch, argues that the United States should seek to deliver a partial “victory” to Russia in Ukraine.”
Barney and Friends debuted 30 years ago. You and I, we are old.
RIP, Bobby Rydell, singer, actor, and the namesake of the high school in Grease.
I got your voter fraud right here.
“Decolonizing the Search for Extraterrestrial Life”.
“Thus, this story is a fanciful interpretation of what I imagine a Grizzly Bear Conflict Manager does, which I am almost entirely certain has nothing to do with what someone with this job actually does. Please do not come to this story for a true accounting of the job, you will be gravely disappointed, and possibly in danger if you ever encounter an actual grizzly. Needless to say, apologies to all genuine Grizzly Bear Conflict Managers out there.”
How Brett Favre used his fame and connections to steer millions of dollars in federal welfare funds to various personal projects.
RIP, Martha Turner, longtime Houston real estate icon.
Wish I could get paid to not watch Fox “News”. A major reason I don’t have cable TV is that I don’t want to subsidize them. With many cable packages you have no say in the matter- Fox gets a monthly cut of your fees whether you want them to or not.
The fact that the anti-evolution crowd thinks finding a Dino would be a death blow to evolution is further proof (if you needed it) that they don’t have clue one about what it really is. Nothing about evolution would preclude a very ancient species surviving a mass extinction in some very isolated environment. A supply of adequate food (or lack thereof) is what would matter, as would the local competition. Most marsupials in Australia would have been outcompeted by placental mammals but for the lucky accident of that land mass getting separated. Yes pure luck sometimes plays a role. Also we have one branch of the dinosaur family tree still with us; they’re called birds. Some of them make excellent pets.
That survey on Fox and CNN wasn’t really scientific.
It wasn’t double-blinded, of course, with people being paid to watch, vs. no control group. Second, the amount, $15 an hour, could easily lead to “motivated reasoning.” Third, there was no indication the non-Fox watching “stuck” after the experiment was over.
==
And, what Flypusher said on birds, and on cable TV until unbundling happens.
Charles,
(1) What do you think Democrats should do if County Judge Lina Hidalgo is indicted this summer (corruption scandal / Elevate Strategies LLC contract)? I know everyone is assumed innocent but, based on the information in the search warrants, things don’t look good. Also, do you know if there is a mechanism for us to nominate a different candidate if Judge Hidalgo were to withdraw?
(2) Do you have any thoughts on the extended JWEB computer outage last month that resulted over 280 defendants being released from jail? Universal Services Director Rick Noriega, appointed by Commissioners Court in late 2020, has been struggling and has lost the support of 5 department heads, including three democratic elected officials.
(3) The Harris County Bail Bond Board is meeting on Wednesday, 4/13/22. During that meeting, they are going to consider (again) whether to require bail bond companies/agents to collect a minimum fee (10% of the bail bond amount) before issuing a surety bond to defendants charged with the most serious violent crimes. Do you support this proposal?
Just curious as to your thoughts.
Greg, things look a lot better for Judge Hidalgo than for AG Paxton. The search warrants some republicans keep drooling over as proof positive of her culpability didn’t include her at all. If Paxton can keep getting elected by lemming republicans while under indictment on felony charges, why do you think a Democrat incumbent who soared through her primary against many challengers would even consider withdrawing?
I don’t see Democrats seriously considering abandoning Judge Hidalgo in favor of either of the two runoff republicans, one is a political mercenary and the other is so far to the right that she isn’t going to draw the numbers of independents needed to win. Are you sure you’re on our side?
In regards to the Bail Bond Board, any action to interfere with current rates would be destined for the courts for years. Even if successful, the county jail is full so it would just force the revolving doors to spin faster. The evidence provided so far shows that bond rates were never set in stone and monetary bail doesn’t predict or limit criminal activity by accused people waiting their trial.
Jonathan,
I think AG Paxon actually has been damaged by the criminal indictments since he is now in a run-off with George P. Bush. If Paxon survives the run-off, I’m confident we can beat him. Also, I think most Democrats are less tolerant of corruption than Republicans, and we are much more likely to hold our officials accountable for their bad conduct/behavior. Still, I could be wrong. Before retiring, I was a peace officer for over 29 years, so maybe it’s just me. Anyway, if Judge Hidalgo is indicted for corruption and her opponent is Alexandra del Moral Mealer (endorsed by Mattress Mack), I don’t like our chances in a county-wide race.
As far as the county jail, I think it’s time for us to acknowledge that, for now, we need more bed space, not more bail bonds. Over 95% of the people in jail have at least one felony case (misdemeanor defendants are in/out in under 48 hours). The jail crowding issue has been caused by the Criminal District Courts, which have such a huge case backlog that thousands of violent offenders who normally would have been adjudicated, sentenced, and transferred to TDCJ are instead still in pre-trial status, stacked up in the Harris County Jail or out on bond. It’s really a disgrace that our county officials have allowed our local criminal justice system to become so dysfunctional for so long. While Hurricane Harvey (5 years ago) and COVID-19 did disrupt our criminal justice operations, those events are also being used to hide prolonged inaction, incompetence, poor coordination, poor decisions, and poor county leadership.
I really enjoy reading Offthekuff and generally agree with most of the opinions expressed by Charles. I just haven’t seen anything recently on the above topics.
Greg, we’ll just have to agree to disagree on Judge Hidalgo’s chances even if the investigation moves from three of her staff onto the judge herself. We’ve made too many strides in expanding access to those left out in the cold by republicans, Ms. Mealer has no experience whatsoever in the political realm but makes it clear that she is a slash & burn republican who would attempt to set back the clock.
Regarding the jail, according to the county’s jail population dashboard, of the over 9500 people being held, over 1000 are charged with misdemeanors or state jail felonies, 75% of inmates are Black or Hispanic, almost 4000 of the inmates have been deemed average to below average risk by pretrial services, and over 7800 of them have not had their trial or hearing. Building more jails didn’t work for the state when it previously embraced that path, the multitude of fiascos tied to the private jails/prisons are too numerous to mention and we’re already too willing to use incarceration to fix failed policies.
The problem with blaming the courts is that at best, how many trials can one of the courts hold in a year, especially district courts? Most of the backlog is from assistant DA’s being unwilling to offer acceptable deals to those charged and from local law enforcement agencies taking so long to provide access to evidence such as body camera footage, police reports, and physical evidence.
I’m not talking about past scandals coming from the Pct. 4 constable evidence room where defense attorney’s would be stonewalled for months before eventually being told evidence couldn’t be found or finding out it was destroyed or even further back where HPD’s poor handling led to contamination issues. No, I’m speaking off the labyrinth set up to drag things out while mostly young men sit in jail, even a quick review of the basics against clients would result in a dismissal. Those who honor their oaths are not going to accept an oppressive plea deal without checking the tenants of the case first, there’ve been too many corners cut by deputies to trust them now.
Being told by by an ADA fresh out of the JP courts that the best she’s going to do for a first time DWI is the diversion program when there are no recorded field sobriety tests, a breath test refusal, and an uncertified deputy’s opinion is going to back up the system when multiplied hundreds of times over and over. Some have claimed the reluctance comes from the District Attorney herself trying to avoid more bad press but I have my doubts. The bottom line is that the longer most cases linger, the more difficult they will be to prosecute and the incentive of those charged to accept junk deals is largely gone now that they aren’t usually held for lack of money. The expectation 95% of those charged will take the deal is foolhardy when the case is worthless, our system needs to change, not add more jails.
Jonathan, yes, we are just going to have to agree to disagree on Judge Hidalgo. Time will tell.
The Harris County Jail count yesterday was 9,549, of which only 378 (4%) were in jail on a misdemeanor case (with most of those defendants just in some stage of being booked, given a PC hearing, issued a PR bond, and then released). So, with the jail population consisting of 96% felony defendants, I would argue that we’ve already diverted most of the low-level offenders and the jail is still full (despite the extensive use of bail bonds over the last three years). With crime surging across the county and the jail full of felony defendants, I believe we need more jail bed space (via outsourcing) instead of more bail bonds.
Yes, one possible source of relief in the jail population are the State Jail Felony (SJF) cases. Yesterday, there were 660 defendants in jail on SJF cases (mostly drug possession). Since a SJF case is punishable by 180 days to 2 years in jail, I have encouraged the DA’s Office to offer plea-bargain “time served” deals to all the SJF defendants who have already been in the Harris County Jail for 180+ days (even if convicted, they have already served the minimum SJF sentence). The DA’s I know advise that many SJF defendants, at the urging of their Public Defenders, often refuse their plea bargain offers and just continue to drag things out. In my experience, the biggest event that motivates a plea deal is a firm, fast approaching trial date. Over the last three years, instead of just granting a ton of bail bonds and approving numerous case resets, our judges (and our top local official, County Judge Hidalgo) should have led the charge to get all stakeholders on the same page and get criminal case dispositions flowing again. But, instead, here we are – thus my comment about inaction, incompetence, poor coordination, poor decisions, poor leadership.
FYI – To lower the jail population and help avoid a COVID-19 outbreak in the jail, I did propose the extensive use of “time served” plea bargain offers for SJF drug possession cases back in Feb 2021. I also advocated that the county offer SJF defendants free drug treatment vouchers so we can get to the root cause of most SJF cases (drug addiction). If you are interested in reading that post, please see the link below:
https://www.harriscountydemocrats.com/post/free-drug-treatment-vouchers-another-way-to-reduce-the-harris-county-jail-population
One last thought: Harris County continues to grow at a tremendous rate. Just through population growth alone, we can expect our jail population to rise. Eventually, we are going to need a new jail facility. Fortunately, I know Harris County already has a great location available for our future facility. Yes, it pays to plan ahead.
FYI – Felony indictments were just filed against County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s top three staff members, including her Chief of Staff (see link below). I know we all saw this coming.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/3-senior-staffers-of-judge-lina-hidalgo-indicted-in-harris-county-vaccine-contract-investigation/ar-AAW6kJt?ocid=uxbndlbing
Greg, as I mentioned before, the three staffers are not the county judge so I’m glad you at least agree on that fact. It won’t help the Judge but it isn’t likely to cause her to drop out of the race, I’m unaware of a mechanism for her to be replaced after the primary. The way Mrs. Mealer and Mr. Martinez are making their fight personal gives me lots of hope the one winning the runoff will be damaged goods for thousands of republicans, enough to counter any losses Judge Hidalgo encounters from her staffers. We’ll just have to wait and see.
We can both look at the same numbers from the county jail population dashboard and draw different conclusions but the fact remains that many are not particularly dangerous per their assessment, and yes, over 1000 are held for state jail felonies or misdemeanors. Paying a bail bond company doesn’t change their level of danger to the community, it merely pushes the risk of them fleeing onto the bondsman. And contrary to what some seem to think, when a bonded person doesn’t show up, the bond isn’t automatically handed to the county, the process can be drawn out for lengthy periods of time and never result in forfeiture depending on the specifics.
Frankly, the proposal to allow someone charged with a SJF or misdemeanor to plea guilty that has served a lengthy stay before trial is hogwash, once they’ve stayed that long they have little to lose unless it will be kept off their record. Drug addiction is an illness and should be treated as such, not with a prison sentence but with treatment, perhaps incentivized to not only be free to the addict but absent a criminal record upon completion.
On that last thought, there is no interest by most Democrat leaders to build more or bigger jails, certainly none in office locally. I don’t see much support coming from the tea party republicans either given it would mean increased taxes, the establishment republicans most interested in such an idea would be those wanting to grab their slice of the action, as usual. Even if the composition of commissioner’s court were to change tomorrow, it would be at least a year or more for a bond to be prepped and many more for something to be built, never mind staffed. We need to do things better, not revert to bad ideas from the past, we’re already back to sending hundreds of people charged to Louisiana with nothing to show for it.
Jonathan,
On most of these issues, we will just have to agree to disagree. Still, I would support a plea deal that expunges a drug possession case if the defendant successfully completed a free substance abuse treatment program AND stayed out of jail (no new offenses) for at least a year. The defendant getting clean and staying clean is the best outcome for everyone.
Yes, I agree there is currently no support to build a new jail facility. Still, those 500 inmates are in Louisiana because we have exceeded our local jail capacity (despite thousands of felony defendants already out on bond). Also, in ten years, the 701 N. San Jacinto Jail will be 41 years old. Whether to add more capacity or just replace aging facilities, we are going to eventually have to build a new jail. When we do, we have a good place for it.