44 Days

Early voting in person in the Texas primary elections begin one week from today, but you know that.

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Let’s see. Mayor John Whitmire has only been in office for 44 days and some folks, including the Chron E-Board, already have a case of the jitters over his transportation views.  I think it stems from the Houston Avenue changes. Commentary really doesn’t think today’s E-Board headline is appropriate. See this:

Whitmire shouldn’t reverse Turner’s support of Metro, cyclists, pedestrians (Editorial)

Here is the part on the Houston Avenue thing:

Council Member Mario Castillo said he wasn’t consulted before the city’s Feb. 2 announcement that it planned to remove barriers and medians in his district installed just weeks earlier on a stretch of Houston Avenueto improve safety. (A bicyclist was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver near the site in November.) About 70 people showed up at a hastily organized rally Feb. 4 to protest the decision to remove the new features.

Whitmire told us he ordered the changes on Houston Avenue after a Metro bus got stuck on the median, police officials told him the new design was dangerous and the pastor of an adjacent church said the new barriers restricted access to the church parking lot. “I’ve never been more confident in a decision in my years of public service,” said Whitmire, who was a state legislator for 50 years. 

This is also from the E-Board take:

The mayor bristled when asked if he agreed with (former Mayor Sylvester) Turner about the need for a “paradigm change” in transportation policy. “Don’t put Sylvester’s words in my mouth,” Whitmire said. “I ran to listen to the people.”

Here is the entire E-Board take: Whitmire shouldn’t reverse Turner on Metro, cyclists, pedestrians (houstonchronicle.com).

Those of us who know the mayor, who worked closely with him over the years, and who campaigned with him the last 18 months, understand when he says, “I ran to listen to the people.” He continuously encountered on the campaign trail folks who felt they weren’t listened to by some elected officials. It is kind of silly to judge him on his first 44 days in office. Just saying.

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This is weird. See this from the Chron today:

On paper, the scenario seemed unbelievable.

Recording artists Drake, 50 Cent, Chris Brown, Trey Songz and The Game are all registered to vote at the same beige, $300,000 house in a modest new development in Katy.

Nobody was more perplexed than the homeowners, who said they were unaware of the celebrities’ registrations. Neighbors said they had not seen any of the Grammy-nominated artists grilling outside, mowing the lawn or washing their cars.

It wasn’t a new reality TV show, but it appears to have been a prank perpetrated by someone who registered the artists to vote without their knowledge, armed only with their legal names and dates of birth. It did not even require an ID.

Amanda Ruisi, a representative for 50 Cent, said the rapper did not register to vote at the Katy house and had no idea somebody signed him up to vote there. His attorney started looking into the matter after the Chronicle reached out. 

The Chronicle made numerous efforts to reach representatives for the other artists but was not successful.

The apparent prank shines a spotlight on a potential loophole in federal voting registration law that allows virtually anyone to register friends, enemies or celebrities to vote. Whether the intent is malicious or not, experts say it is still illegal.

This case is high profile because it involves famous celebrities, said Randall Erben, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin who served as assistant secretary of state in Texas from 1989 to 1991. 

But the scheme likely would not allow anyone to actually cast fraudulent ballots, since they would not have one of the approved IDs to vote in Texas. And none of the five artists registered at the Katy house cast a ballot in last year’s elections, so no actual voter fraud occurred.

State law outlines strict penalties for submitting false or fraudulent registration forms in the first place. The crime, then, is high risk and low reward, says Erben.

“These people are either committing high misdemeanors or felonies,” Erben said of whoever registered the celebrities to vote. “This is not fooling around.”

Records from the Harris County Tax Assessor’s Office show someone filled out registration applications for each of the men on Aug. 15, a day when Drake was performing 1,500 miles away in Inglewood, Calif. Each form appears to have been filled out by the same person, according to a handwriting expert. 

Here is the entire read: Drake and 50 Cent are registered to vote at the same Katy house (houstonchronicle.com).

Talk about weird.

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57 years ago today, February 13, 1967, The Beatles released “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Both tunes were designated A-side, a double A-side record. Now you know.

Commentary has a “Penny Lane” t-shirt. The featured photo is the “Magical Mystery Tour” album that includes “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

Stay safe on this Fat Tuesday.