Triple Play
This is from the Chron on cheating, crooked Ken Paxton:
In a rare press conference on Tuesday, Attorney General Ken Paxton dodged questions about recent reporting that he may have violated election laws and about luxury condos he bought in Utah.
The Republican U.S. Senate candidate appeared in Fort Worth to tout endorsements from 22 sheriffs and sought to tie his Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico, to efforts to defund police departments.
“He voted against tightening bail restrictions for violent and repeat offenders. He voted against mandatory minimum sentences for human smugglers. He voted against designating the Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations.” Paxton said. “That is one of the most anti-law enforcement records in the history of Texas.”
But things took a turn when he opened the press conference up to questions from reporters.
Paxton refused to answer a question about a New York Times report that he recently bought three condominiums at a luxury resort in Utah worth more than $1 million.
“We’re here with the sheriffs, I’d like to keep things to law enforcement,” Paxton said. “That’s what I’m going to answer.”
He also dodged the next question, about a report by the Texas Tribune that Paxton may have illegally voted by using an old address on his voter registration rather than his current home — even as he has sought to crack down on voter fraud from his attorney general post.
I saw the video of the above. Paxton just comes across looking like a lazy sleazeball. He has a pathetic look. I am betting that he ends up taking the cowardly road and skips the debate with Rep. Talarico. Talarico would crush him.
Speaking of, Talarico now has his second ad running.
_____
Speaking of MAGA sleazeballs, check this from the Chron:
State Rep. Tom Oliverson has made lowering health care costs a top goal in the Legislature, even as the anesthesia conglomerate where he’s a partner and investor has been accused of driving them up.
The company, U.S. Anesthesia Partners, has been under the microscope of the Federal Trade Commission since 2023 for swallowing up smaller clinics and ratcheting up prices.
Now it’s being blamed for raising insurance premiums for hundreds of thousands of Texas teachers.
A top official with the Teacher Retirement System of Texas recently singled out USAP before a legislative committee, where Oliverson is a member, for costing teachers $11 million more per year last year — an outlier even by the standards of America’s costly medical system.
Oliverson, who has made health care affordability one of his stated priorities, sat silent as the Retirement System official explained that the cost equated to a 0.4% increase on premiums for more than 400,000 of the state’s active teachers.
The Republican doctor said he was silent because he didn’t know what to say.
“That was all pretty shocking stuff to hear,” Oliverson said Friday. “Here I am sitting on a committee and they’re accusing my company of wrongdoing, basically.”
Here is the entire read: Houston lawmaker’s firm blamed for $11M Texas teacher insurance hike.
What, me crooked? Let me say it again. These MAGA guys have lost any sight of the moral high ground. Pitiful. Ripoffs.
_____
I was there last night. Let Jeremy Rakes, the Marlins MLB beat writer explain:
HOUSTON — The Marlins turned the first triple play of the season in the eighth inning against the Astros on Tuesday night at Daikin Park.
After Yordan Alvarez and Isaac Paredes led off the eighth with back-to-back singles, Jose Altuve grounded a 1-0 offering from Zach Brzykcy to (third baseman) Leo Jiménez, who promptly stepped on third. After recording the first out, Jiménez whipped the ball to (second baseman) Xavier Edwards to get the out at second.
With Altuve still a few feet from the first-base bag, Edwards turned and threw it as quickly as he could. (first baseman) Kyle Stowers hauled it in at first to get the final out with a few inches to spare while catcher Joe Mack threw his arms up to celebrate Miami tallying all three outs in the span of just a few seconds.
A perfect triple play. My best friend and I just turned and looked at each other. We were stunned. We had never witnessed an MLB triple play in person. Wow. A first for sure. Lucky for us, we ended up winning the game. The featured photo is from the Astros holiday nights.