Filibuster Anniversary
A year ago today, State Sen. Carol Alvarado started her 15-hour filibuster. It was a cool, emotional, and exhilarating watch. My landline is her campaign phone number and I remember getting calls throughout the night from folks across the country telling me to thank the Senator for her efforts.
You try standing on your feet for 15 hours without bathroom or water breaks and only talking about voter suppression.
A couple of days Sen. Carol Alvarado was at the White House, and she sent this out yesterday:
It was my distinct honor to join President Joe Biden at the White House for the signing of the CHIPS and Science Act.
This historic $280 billion legislation will boost domestic production of semiconductor chips, which we need for almost everything these days from our phones and computers to cars to medical equipment. Increasing semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. will decrease the cost of these goods for Americans as well as our dependence on Chinese and other foreign manufacturers.
Today Texas leads the nation in semiconductor manufacturing. More than 30,000 Texans already work in this field and in recent months, Samsung, Texas Instruments and GlobalWafers have announced major investments of $52 billion and 5,000 new jobs in the state.
As a state legislator, one of my top priorities has been promoting economic development to help provide all Texans and their families the opportunity to succeed and thrive. Ensuring we have the education and training in place to support our current and future workforce is key to our state’s economic success. That’s why I’ve passed legislation to create the Texas Industrial Workforce Apprenticeship Grant Program which focuses on meeting the state’s immediate industrial workforce needs and Recruit Texas to provide the Texas Workforce Commission and our colleges the tools to facilitate rapid response workforce development services for employers seeking to expand in or move to Texas.
With $53 billion directed specifically towards semiconductor chipmakers, Texas will need to make sure we have enough of these types of workforce programs in place to meet the labor demands of this expanding industry. This will be a top priority for me during the next legislative session.
CHIPS will help grow the number of high-skilled, high-paying jobs in Texas and across the country. Experts estimate for every 100 jobs created in semiconductor manufacturing, 192.2 indirect jobs are also created. Increasing our domestic chip production will decrease reliance on China’s semiconductor industry, and billions of dollars of funding for scientific research will propel us to global leadership in the development of cutting edge technology.
I congratulate President Biden for garnering the key bipartisan support needed to pass this bill. Our country is making great strides under the Democratic Leadership and I look forward to the economic benefits that this Act will bring.
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I must admit, Donald “Fifth Amendment” Trump has a nice ring to it. Or Donald the Fifth. Or Donald V. I hope they asked him: Your Dad would be proud to see you take the fifth, don’t you think, Donald?
Too funny.
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BTW: If you voted for the fella who said on the “Access Hollywood” tape, “grab them by the p____,” you don’t get to say anything about Beto calling someone a MFer.
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From the I Can’t Campaign on my Record Department, here is what Gov. Greg Abbott said on Fox News the other day:
“We will explain to our fellow Texans that the Beto campaign is being aided by a bunch of New Yorkers in addition to George Soros, and that will do nothing but harm his campaign.”
Sad.
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Congrats to the City of H-Town on securing this project. Here is from the Chron:
A Houston project aimed at taking one of the city’s most chaotic roads and re-imagining it as boulevard-like expanse where cars give up some space to pedestrians and cyclists will get a major boost from a federal grant.
The city’s Telephone Road project, estimated to cost $26.2 million, will receive nearly $21 million as part of the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant program, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, announced Tuesday.
The project along Telephone runs 2.8 miles from Lawndale Drive to Loop 610. Work on the design is nearing completion, with construction expected over the next three years. City officials, along with Gulfgate Redevelopment Authority, which is contributing tax revenue it controls, have called it a vital part of lifting up the surrounding community that has suffered from neglect for years.
“This transformative, multimodal revitalization project will uplift communities based on data-driven solutions, actions, investments, and provide more equity to a key part of our city,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a statement.
Combined with other projects along Telephone Road planned by the city and area management districts, more than 5 miles of Telephone from Polk to Reveille will be remade with wider sidewalks, dedicated bike lanes and landscaping.
I never would describe Telephone Road as chaotic. Oh, well.
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Commentary forgot to mention that yesterday was Rocky Colavito’s 89th birthday. He played most of his MLB career with Cleveland and the Tigers. He also had stints with the KC Athletics, White Sox, Dodgers and Yankees. He was a nine-time All Star. 374 career dingers and 1,159 career RBIs. Led the AL in dingers in 1959 with 42 and in 1965 led the AL with 108 RBIs. In 1956, he was AL Rookie of the Year Runner-up behind Hall of Fame great Luis Aparicio. Happy belated Birthday, Rocky! He was one of my favorites growing up.
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I said this on Monday:
With 52 games left on our schedule it is not likely we can overtake the Dodgers. On paper, we have a better shot at the AL best record. On paper though. We saw that happened in Oakland a couple of weeks ago.
This was in the Chron yesterday:
The Yankees’ 51 remaining games come against teams with a combined winning percentage of .499, which makes it the 14th-easiest remaining schedule in the league. It’s even softer for the Astros though, with their 51 final games coming against teams with a combined .476 winning percentage. Only the Mariners (.445), Cardinals (.457) and Reds (.469) have an easier final two months.
We are still tied with the Yankees.