Tag Archives: Galveston

The Pauline Road Fire

Posted on March 21, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This is a little close for comfort. Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough declared a local state of disaster as a 2,000-acre wildfire in Sam Houston National Forest prompted over 900 home evacuations and school closures. The disaster declaration comes as … Continue reading →

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Beryl was stronger than we thought

Posted on February 12, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Some lessons for the future here. A new report from the National Hurricane Center found that Hurricane Beryl roared into the upper Texas Gulf Coast with maximum winds of 92 miles per hour, just 3 miles per hour shy of … Continue reading →

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James Helton and Wavery Guidry

Posted on January 19, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

What an amazing story. On Galveston Island lies a story that could have been forgotten if not for the efforts of local historians. Two Black lifeguards, James Helton and Wavery Guidry, who made over 30 rescues combined between 1935 and … Continue reading →

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Parents of Santa Fe school shooter found not negligent

Posted on August 21, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Of interest. The parents of the accused gunman in the 2018 Santa Fe school shooting were found not liable for negligence by a Galveston County jury Monday. The civil case was filed shortly after the shooting by parents of the … Continue reading →

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Questioning the police response to the Santa Fe school shooting

Posted on August 6, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Interesting. Testimony by a former Galveston County sheriff’s deputy Thursday raised questions about how fast and effectively police responded to the mass shooting inside Santa Fe High School. Sgt. Brent Cooley, retired from the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office, testified that … Continue reading →

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Full Fifth Circuit overturns Galveston redistricting ruling

Posted on August 5, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Terrible. They’re just making this shit up as they go. Distinct minority groups cannot join together in coalitions to claim their votes are diluted in redistricting cases under the Voting Rights Act, a divided federal appeals court ruled Thursday, acknowledging … Continue reading →

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Galveston’s recovery

Posted on July 15, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I wish them well. Gaido’s, like most businesses in Galveston, is hoping for a swift return to normalcy after Hurricane Beryl knocked out power across much of the island during the region’s peak economic season. Five days after landfall, many … Continue reading →

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Flooding in Texas

Posted on July 11, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

We have a lot. We’re going to get more. Any questions? The combination of rising sea levels and sinking land along the Texas Gulf Coast has made the region one of the most frequently flooded in the country, according to … Continue reading →

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“Venice of the South” sounds like an optimistic outlook to me

Posted on June 1, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Just a reminder, Galveston is going to be mostly under water in the not too distant future. In a city that once built a 17-foot seawall to keep Mother Nature in check, Galveston is slowly but steadily bracing itself against … Continue reading →

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Full Fifth Circuit hears Galveston redistricting case

Posted on May 19, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Always hard to feel any optimism when these guys are involved. Conservatives on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals occasionally sounded like Fox News talking heads Tuesday as they weighed whether coalitions composed of multiple minority groups are protected under … Continue reading →

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Texas man seeks to “investigate” ex’s out of state abortion

Posted on May 5, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Take a couple of deep breaths and we’ll have a brief discussion of this on the other side. A Texas man has asked a court for permission to launch an investigation into his ex-partner’s alleged out-of-state abortion, which could lead … Continue reading →

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One last pre-election look at those Appraisal Board elections

Posted on May 4, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

From the Trib, which did the initial reporting that informed me of these dumb new elections in the first place. The new law requires only counties with more than 75,000 residents to hold the elections, a designation that applies to … Continue reading →

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Good luck finding any info about those county appraisal board elections

Posted on April 18, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

As you know, I’ve written a bunch about the HCAD Board elections, including doing interviews with four of the candidates, so that you my readers and anyone else who stumbles across this page can hopefully know a little something about … Continue reading →

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And the seas will rise

Posted on April 3, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

We’re so not ready for this. Cities along the Gulf Coast are bracing for 10 to 12 inches of sea level rise by 2050, and data from a study in the journal Nature last week showed those risks will be … Continue reading →

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Nikki Haley’s best counties

Posted on March 13, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Both Stace and I have noted the handful of counties in which President Biden underperformed in the primary election. That led me to wonder what the analogous situation was like on the Republican side. Where did Nikki Haley overperform her … Continue reading →

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We’re going to be electing what now?

Posted on January 13, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I had no idea about this. It sure wasn’t covered in the runup to this past election. In a state known for too many elections, there’s another one coming to Texas’ 50 largest counties. This May, voters in those most … Continue reading →

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Fifth Circuit does its thing with Galveston redistricting

Posted on December 13, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Death, taxes, and the Fifth Circuit being terrible. The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked a new political map imposed on Galveston County by a lower court from taking effect. Plaintiffs are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to … Continue reading →

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Galveston ordered to use its current map for 2024

Posted on December 6, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Pending the Fifth Circuit, of course. A federal judge ruled Galveston County must keep its old commissioner precinct map in place for the 2024 election while a federal appeals court mulls overturning its precedent and allowing new maps which do … Continue reading →

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Fifth Circuit upholds (*) Galveston redistricting ruling

Posted on November 12, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

With an asterisk, as noted in the title. A federal appeals court Friday ruled that Galveston County commissioners violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act by eliminating the only majority-minority district in its latest redistricting process. The 5th Circuit Court of … Continue reading →

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Galveston redistricting ruling paused

Posted on October 23, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

The Fifth Circuit strikes again. Less than a week after a federal judge ruled Galveston County’s precinct maps violated the Voting Rights Act, the U.S Fifth Circuit Court issued a stay on the order. U.S. Circuit Court Judge Jeffery V. … Continue reading →

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Galveston County redistricting ruled illegal

Posted on October 14, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Good news. Galveston County Commissioners Court violated the Voting Rights Act when it approved a 2021 map that greatly limited voting power for Black and Latino voters in the county, a judge ruled Friday. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge … Continue reading →

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Galveston redistricting lawsuit gets underway

Posted on August 14, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

This could be a big one. n the home of Juneteenth, the culmination of Galveston County’s decade-long effort to undermine the political power of Black and Latino voters is on trial. In the only county-level redistricting case which the federal … Continue reading →

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Another look at Texas redistricting litigation after the Alabama SCOTUS ruling

Posted on June 24, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

An explainer from the Trib. The state faces an assortment of legal challenges to its congressional and statehouse maps, including allegations of intentional discrimination, vote dilution and racial gerrymandering. For example: In the Rio Grande Valley, the plaintiffs allege map-drawers … Continue reading →

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Will the SCOTUS ruling on Alabama redistricting affect Texas?

Posted on June 11, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s start here. In a surprise win for voting rights activists, the U.S. Supreme Court breathed new life into the Civil Rights Act and may have paved the way to end Texas’s gerrymandered district. The case, Allen v. Milligan, came … Continue reading →

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What will it take to keep those ten appellate court benches we won in 2018?

Posted on February 21, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

As you may recall, Democrats won a ton of Appellate Court races in 2018. Ten of them, in fact, five each on the First and Fourteenth Courts of Appeals, the first such victories since winning a lone bench in 2008. … Continue reading →

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What I want from the next HCDP Chair

Posted on February 6, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

As you know, the Harris County Democratic Party will soon have a new Chair. And as you know, I am a Democratic precinct chair, which means I’m one of the several hundred people that will vote on who that is. … Continue reading →

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Let’s protect Galveston’s red wolves

Posted on September 4, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

They’re one of the cooler things about Galveston. The coyotes that roam Galveston Island are quickly becoming famous. The animals are the subject of dedicated social media pages and their silhouettes have been emblazoned on T-shirts. Earlier this year, they … Continue reading →

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Rockport, Dickinson, Port Arthur: Five years after Harvey

Posted on August 24, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Yeah, we’re at “five years after Hurricane Harvey made landfall” time. Here’s a long story about how three smaller towns that were in its path are doing now. Each day, Gary Billy drives past the empty corner lot where his … Continue reading →

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Offshore wind farm proposed

Posted on July 25, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s do it. The Gulf of Mexico’s first offshore wind farms will be developed off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana, the Biden administration announced Wednesday, and together they’re projected to produce enough energy to power around 3 million homes. … Continue reading →

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Losing Clear Creek ISD candidate sues to overturn her loss

Posted on July 14, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

This is probably going to amount to nothing, but we still have to get through it. A conservative candidate who ran for a seat on the Clear Creek ISD school board to fight “indoctrination” in May, has filed a lawsuit … Continue reading →

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Another look at how Galveston County disenfranchised its voters of color

Posted on May 30, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

The Trib takes a deep dive. Carver Park in Texas City, created during segregation, is considered the first African American county park in the state. It sits on land donated by descendants of freedmen who survived slavery and pioneered one … Continue reading →

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The New Orleans perspective on the Ike Dike

Posted on April 28, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Of interest. Kelly Burks-Copes braces herself against the wind and marches past the ruins of Fort San Jacinto, a strategic spot on a sandy, wave-battered point where Spain, France, the Republic of Texas, the Confederacy and the United States have … Continue reading →

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Second lawsuit filed over Galveston redistricting

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Similar grounds, different plaintiffs. A coalition of civil rights groups in Texas filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against Galveston County, alleging that the county’s redistricting plan intentionally discriminates against a growing minority population in the Gulf Coast community. The complaint, … Continue reading →

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Justice Department sues over Galveston County Commissioners Court map

Posted on March 26, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Good, but remember how the federal courts are these days before getting too optimistic. The Department of Justice on Thursday sued Galveston County over its new redistricting map, accusing Republican county officials of violating the Voting Rights Act last year … Continue reading →

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