Insurance
I just saw this from ABC Channel 13 News:
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A federal judge has found Spring Branch ISD in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.
In 2021, Dr. Virginia Elizondo sued Spring Branch ISD alleging their school board system, comprised entirely of at-large seats, diminished the voting power of minorities.
Most school board members come from more affluent neighborhoods south of I-10, instead of seats being equally distributed among neighborhoods.
Elizondo had filed the suit after unsuccessfully running twice for a seat on the school board. At the time, a school board seat had never been held by a representative of color despite data showing nearly 60% of SBISD students identify as Hispanic.
The judge ruled in Elizondo’s favor on Monday, giving the district 20 days to submit a plan to divvy the district up into electoral districts.
“What this is gonna do is it’s gonna provide an opportunity for people to get elected by the people that live in their community,” Elizondo told ABC13.
ABC13 was not able to reach defendants in the suit for comment on Monday evening.
It is about time. Now let’s watch Spring Branch ISD spring into gerrymandering mode.
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My car got banged up about two and a half weeks ago. It was in the shop for six days. It cost me a good chunk in the deductible. Hopefully my insurance company will recoup my costs. This is the third time in the past year that I have had to file an insurance claim. Twice in the aftermath of Beryl and the one I just referenced. My car insurance premium is reasonable. My homeowner’s insurance premium is through the roof. Now check this from the Chron:
President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs could cause homeowners insurance premiums in Texas to rise even faster this year than they otherwise would have, a new study finds.
Even without tariffs, average premiums in Texas will rise by about $500 this year, according to projections from Insurify, an insurance comparison shopping website. But tariffs on imports such as Canadian lumber and Mexican lime — used in concrete — would push that to $713 a year, Insurify projects, bringing the average annual cost of homeowners insurance in Texas to $6,718 by the end of 2025 — an increase of 12% over last year.
Texas homeowners already pay some of the highest home insurance rates in the nation, especially in regions such as Houston and coastal Texas. Average homeowners and auto insurance rates have seen double-digit increases in recent years, according to data from the Texas Department of Insurance, due largely to costly natural disasters as well as overall inflation.
“In the last five years, 68 billion-dollar disasters have impacted Texas, the most of any state, causing about $108 billion in damages,” wrote Chase Gardner, data insights manager for Insurify, in an email. “Texas is one of the most at-risk states for hurricanes, coastal flooding, drought, hail, lightning, tornadoes, wildfires, ice storms, strong winds, heat waves, and cold waves.”
“All of these severe weather events increase risk for insurers,” he added. “The substantial climate related losses Texas home insurers face force them to pass more risk onto homeowners in the form of higher premiums.”
If Trump’s tariffs take effect and remain in effect, Gardner explained, claims will become even costlier, which will translate into higher premiums.
“Tariffs will fuel rate increases even more, because tariffs increase the cost of home repairs,” Gardner wrote. “Since rates are based largely on the cost to rebuild or repair a home, the added costs of tariffs will have to be passed on to the consumer through higher premiums.”
Here is the entire read: Trump’s tariffs could cause Texas homeowner insurance premiums to rise.
Commentary has said this before. Democrats need to make high homeowner’s insurance premiums an issue.
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On a related note, see this from USA Today:
WASHINGTON ― The White House on Tuesday slammed Amazon’s reported plans to list the prices of President Donald Trump‘s tariffs next to products.
“I just got off the phone with the president about the Amazon announcement. This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an April 29 briefing with reporters.
“Why did Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in four years?” she said, adding that “it’s not really a surprise” because “Amazon has partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm.”
Amazon’s decision to single out the cost of Trump’s tariffs on consumers, first reported by Punchbowl News, has set up a clash between Trump and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who has sought to curry favor with the new administration and met with Trump multiple times since his election win.
Good for Amazon.
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The Rockets are down three games to one and face elimination from the playoffs. They play tomorrow evening at Toyota.
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The Astros won last night. I have been kind of busy and have not been out to Daikin Park as much as I want. I look forward to the featured photo soon.
