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As a Democrat, I woke up this morning feeling better about our prospects. Thank you, Wisconsin.

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This online story is making the rounds this morning:

Tesla sales plunged 13% in the first three months of this year, as the company reported the largest drop in deliveries in its history by far, amid backlash against CEO Elon Musk and as growing competition from other automakers’ electric vehicles took a large bite out of demand for its EVs.

Let’s see, the DOGE dog is leading the charge on the MAGA side and folks aren’t buying his cars. Nothing wrong with that.

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Last I checked, Commentary pays $109 every four weeks to get my Chron hard copy tossed to my lawn every morning. I also am a strong believer in supporting local journalism through my Chron subscription. Particularly their investigative department. They have a doozey of a piece this morning on the Midtown Redevelopment Authority. See the Chron headline:

Exclusive: A Houston agency bought 118 acres for affordable housing, then quietly sold some to investors

Here is how the investigative story begins:

Houston’s Midtown development zone spent more than a decade assembling 118 acres of land in and around Third Ward for affordable housing, hoping to stop pricey new townhomes from taking over the neighborhood.

Then, in recent years, the agency sold 16.6 acres of that land to developers or investors – some of which has been divided into lots for new townhomes.

In the process, the Midtown Redevelopment Authority undercut its own housing plans, left community leaders, its housing partners and its board members in the dark about the deals’ implications, and enriched a woman prosecutors say was dating the Midtown executive who handled most of the sales.

Despite Midtown seeking to make a profit on the sales, it didn’t offer the land on the open market to the highest bidder. Some of the sales even brought in less money than Midtown had paid for the land in the first place.

These land sales are just one questionable use of Midtown’s affordable housing resources, which – like almost all of the agency’s revenues – come from local property taxpayers. A Houston Chronicle investigation this year showed the agency spent $22 million in housing funds on One Emancipation Center, a half-empty office tower where no one lives.

Here is the entire incredible read: A Houston agency squandered 16.6 acres of land for affordable housing.

If you care about how the City of H-Town is run, you need to go check out this piece. This is rampant corruption. The folks involved obviously thought they were above the law.

Mike Morris and Amelia Winger have written an excellent investigative piece. Members of the H-Town City Council all ought to be outraged, but some won’t be.

You must ask why this corruption at Midtown festered for this long.

At least we finally have a mayor who is more than willing to root this crap out.

I will say it again. This is why I shell out $109 every four weeks to get my Chron delivered. Nice job, Chron.

Subscribe, please.

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The featured photo is the front page of today’s Chron on the City of H-Town paying a lot of overtime. See this from the Chron:

According to data presented Tuesday, the police department was budgeted $13.7 million in overtime pay, but is on track to spend nearly $40 million – a 190% increase over its budget.

The fire department, while budgeted for $45.3 million in overtime, is on track to spend $88 million – a 94% increase over budget.

While Solid Waste was only budgeted $4 million in overtime, the department is on track to instead spend $7.1 million – 75% over its budget, according to data presented Tuesday. 

H-Town Mayor John Whitmire didn’t create this overtime situation. He is playing catch-up. Folks want public safety, and their trash picked up on time.

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After five games, our pitching looks good. I can’t say that about our hitting. We only have two dingers.

Meanwhile, MLB tweeted this today:

For the first time in his career, Kyle Tucker has homered in 4 straight games!

The homie ends this afternoon with a 3 pm start against the Giants.