Eclipse
There was another great job report this past Friday. The GOP talking heads on Fox News are flabbergasted. They don’t know how to respond to the strong economy under President Joe Biden. Maybe they ought to take a page from Gov. Greg Abbott’s political playbook. Abbott says it is the Texas economy that is picking up the nation’s economy. Get it? How desperate they are. What a joke.
_____
Folks know that Commentary doesn’t spend a lot of time putting out takes on college sports. It used to be that only the head coaches raked in all the dough. Now the NIL thing lets some athletes make some moola.
I am not one of those that is new to women’s basketball. I have been paying attention since the heyday of Jodi Conradt when she got hired to run the women’s program at UT in the 1970s. I check the women’s scores as often as the men’s and pay attention to the rankings and certainly the March Madness of both.
If you got to watch the championship game yesterday, you saw that the women play hard and bang each other up in the paint and under the board. Yesterday’s game was a great one regardless of who you were rooting for.
_____
From the who cares department. Someone retweeted this on Saturday:
@_fat_ugly_rat_
The fact trust Texas changed its licence plates in 2012 to just be plain white is absolutely the worst downgrade I’ve seen in a long time. The old ones were straight up some of the best license plates in the country.
_____
Today is total eclipse day. See the featured photo. I guess I will step outside this afternoon and check it out.
_____
The Chron has a take on the H-Town Firefighters and their pay here:
At the heart of Houston’s years-long battle with its firefighters – which recently ended in a landmark settlement – is the notion that the city’s firefighter pay lags far behind that of other major Texas cities. But a detailed examination of these departments’ pay packages shows the comparison is more nuanced.
The settlement is set to become the first labor contract that Houston firefighters have had since negotiations between the city and the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 341 first broke down in 2017. Combining $650 million in backpay, salary raises of up to 34% and interest from a possible bond to finance the payments, the agreement will cost Houston taxpayers more than $1 billion and take decades to pay off, city officials estimate.
Union leaders have long pointed out the stark difference in base salaries between Houston firefighters and those in other large Texas cities. A first-year classified firefighter in Houston earns a base salary of $51,843, compared to $57,576 in San Antonio, $64,954 in Austin, $69,033 in Fort Worth and $70,314 in Dallas.
A closer look at the overall compensation structure — including weekly work hours, take-home pay, overtime and additional perks — calls into question whether Houston firefighters’ pay package has been low enough to justify the massive cost the city will spend to settle the case.
Houston firefighters are not the worst paid by every metric, they would require higher wages and more incentives to be fully competitive with their peers. The Chronicle’s data analysis shows the new contract, set to go into effect in three months, will make their salary and benefits among the best in the state.
Whitmire, a major proponent of the contract, said it fulfills a major campaign promise – and one that will ultimately assist with recruitment and retention efforts.
“We cannot recruit firefighter cadets. We cannot retain firefighters who put their lives on the line each and every day,” Whitmire said in a recent City Council meeting. “I campaigned on it. I made the commitment to resolve it and quit kicking the can down the road. That’s what Houstonians expect.”
Here is the entire read: Whitmire said Houston firefighters are underpaid. Is that true? (houstonchronicle.com).
Let’s see “salary and benefits among the best in the state.”
There is nothing wrong with being “among the best in the state.” That is what great cities strive for. Now let’s figure out how to pay for this.
_____
50 years ago today, Hank Aaron hit career dinger 715 to break Babe Ruth’s record.
Ronel Blanco took a no-no into the 6th inning last night in Arlington. Yep, the same Ronel Blanco who tossed a no-no last Monday at The Yard. He should be getting an honor later today for his pitching last week. Nice pitching.
