Past Blasts
Commentary is guessing the Chron got the photo it wanted of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a pi__ed off Judge Lina Hidalgo. See the featured photo. Judge Hidalgo held a press conference yesterday to call out crooked GOP AG Ken Paxton for trying to derail the Uplift Harris program that is giving $500 a month for 18 months to 1,900 low-income families in Harris County. It is another GOP effort to punish poor folks led by Paxton and State Sen. Paul Bettencourt. A visibly upset Judge Hidalgo’s mug is now in the Chron hard copy and on the Chron’s website.
This is the same Bettencourt who got his $623,000 PPP loan forgiven a couple of years ago and the same Bettencourt who help get us homeowners a few thousand dollars in property tax reductions. Under the GOP, if you are poor, you are sh_t out of luck.
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From the blasts from the past department. Check this:
For two decades Houston firefighters have fought one mayor after another in labor disputes that have hurt the rank and file far more than the politicians with whom they feuded.
While the leaders of the Houston Police Officers Union negotiated and won generous pay raises for their members, the firefighters’ confrontation politics generated plenty of heat but few financial benefits.
Earlier this month firefighters voted to reject a contract negotiated with Mayor Bill White’s administration and endorsed by their union’s leaders.
The above was from a Chron E-Board take from June 2005. Hopefully when the current deal with the firefighters is done, the H-Town Mayor will get some good credit from the E-Board.
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I also ran across this from the Chron:
Revelations that Houston’s police department let nearly two dozen homicides fall through the cracks, and that last year alone, it failed to investigate some 20,000 other kinds of cases with workable leads – from thefts to hit-and-runs – present us with a Rorschach test.
This was from then Chron columnist Lisa Falkenberg back on June 4, 2014
At around the same time, the Chron E-Board had a take on the 20,000 cases with this headline:
HPD needs help
Sub-headline:
As 20,000 crimes go ignored, more money won’t cure ineffective management at the top
Sound familiar. I think it is a bit more than ineffective management these days. It is more like a major structural change is in order. On a related note, HPD Chief Troy Finner will be holding a press conference this afternoon to address the latest on this debacle.
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I also found this quote:
“Strategic fencing in certain urban areas to direct the flow of traffic does make sense, but building a wall on the entire border is a preposterous idea.”
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, December 2006
How times have changed.
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Today is National Eight Track Tape Day. I still have a few.
Today is also National Pet Day. Yep.
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Injuries to our starting pitching is the main reason we are 4-9. It also doesn’t help that Jose Abreu is batting in the 8 spot. That is not where you are supposed to bat a player who we signed last year for $58.5 million for three years. We wrap up the series in KC this afternoon.
