"An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy."
Mon, March 15, 2021, 3PM (CT). POSSIBLE TOPICS: Voting info; “Vote By Mail” applications; Texas DMV announces end date for waiver of vehicle title, registration requirements; INCOME TAXES; Houston coronavirus updates: UK variant present throughout city, new data confirms; Houston City Council OKs measure to prevent water bill spikes caused by Winter Storm Uri; Montrose TIRZ presents ‘Liveable Centers’ plan for long-term investments in affordable housing, infrastructure; Harris County sues TxDOT over I-45 overhaul proposal; Another Texas GOP lawmaker is attempting to make abortion punishable by the death penalty; Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick focuses scorn on Public Utility Commission after winter storm, testing Gov. Greg Abbott; After Texas’ power grid failure, some in Lubbock worry about the city’s plans to join ERCOT; The percent of Texans vaccinated against COVID-19 now exceeds the percent who have tested positive for the virus; Biden will deploy FEMA to care for teenagers and children crossing border in record numbers; EXPLAINER: How dangerous is the Fukushima nuke plant today?; Irish foreign minister says UK guilty of ‘perverse nationalism’ over U.S. trade; Switzerland referendum: Voters support ban on face coverings in public; ‘Racist agenda’: Fear, worries over Sri Lanka’s burqa ban; Syria’s Asma al-Assad faces police investigation in the UK; In Fact, Dr. Seuss’ Name Rhymes With Voice; MORE. Guest: [AUDIO/VIDEO] #KPFTHouston 90.1FM
This program was recorded on SUNDAY, March 14. Due to Covid-19, shows are being prerecorded beginning March 13, 2020 and until further notice. We miss our live call-in participants, and look forward to a time we can once again go live.Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig(@ThinkwingRadio), a listener call-in show airing live every Monday from 3-4 PM (CT) on KPFT-FM 90.1 (Houston). My co-host and Editor is Andrew Ferguson.
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For the purposes of this show, I operate on two mottoes:
An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy.
You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.
“There’s a reason why you separate military and police. One fights the enemy of the State. The other serves and protects the People. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the State tend t become the People.” ~ Commander Adama, “Battlestar Galactica” (“WATER”, Season 1 episode 2, at the 28 minute mark.)
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Next Election: May 01, 2021 – Uniform Election. Early Voting: April 19th – April 27th
If you are denied your right to vote any place at any timeat any polling place for any reason, ask for (or demand) a provisional ballot rather than lose your vote.
Fill out a declaration at the polls describing a reasonable impediment to obtaining it, and show a copy or original of one of the following supporting forms of ID:
A government document that shows your name and an address, including your voter registration certificate
Current utility bill
Bank statement
Government check
Paycheck
A certified domestic (from a U.S. state or territory) birth certificate or (b) a document confirming birth admissible in a court of law which establishes your identity (which may include a foreign birth document)
Texans now have THRU April 13, 2021 to renew expired vehicle registrations …
MIKE: The next 4 local stories cited are from COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM, and all 4 are from their reporter, Emma Whalen. In the interests of full disclosure, I’m now a monthly subscriber. It’s only fair.
The U.K. variant of COVID-19, which early research indicates causes more severe symptoms and spreads faster than the original, is present throughout most of the city of Houston, new data finds. …
Preliminary data shows that as of Feb. 22, the U.K. variant made up 19% of the total amount of COVID-19 virus present in the city. …
The main concern among local health officials now, he said, is getting vaccinations distributed more quickly.
[On March 8, Houston Emergency Medical Director Dr. David Persse said,] “To some degree the race is on to get as many people vaccinated as possible to prevent another surge,” …
An estimated 25% of Houston households experienced a leak or disruption of water service during Winter Storm Uri, Houston Public Works reports.
As a new billing cycle approaches, Houston City Council approved a measure Mar. 10 to prevent a spike in water bills from meters registering and over-charging residents for leaking water.
A previous ordinance in place only covered 50% of a bill increase related to leaks but was expanded by council to fully cover leak-related costs in February.
“The current ordinance is insufficient in addressing the magnitude and impact of the winter storm,” said Erik Dunn, Houston Public Works assistant director.
For residents in single-family homes, all water bills will be automatically adjusted to either the same amount they paid in the previous month or the average amount they paid for the 12 months preceding the storm. The department will bill residents the lesser of the two amounts, Dunn told council.
For apartment complexes and multifamily buildings, property managers will need to apply for an adjusted bill through Houston Public Works. The adjustment will follow the same calculations as the single-family adjustment, officials said.
To do so, those in charge of multifamily complex water billing need to apply for the adjustment at houstonwaterbills.org and submit an insurance or Federal Emergency Management Agency claim to prove the building was impacted by the storm.
A new roadmap for investments in infrastructure and affordable housing in Montrose was finalized March 8.
The Montrose Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, or TIRZ, has been working with urban design consultants from Asakura Robinson for over a year to collect feedback from community members, businesses and local officials. The end result, the Liveable Centers Plan, which was presented publicly for the first time March 8, outlines strategies for preserving the neighborhood’s identity as a bohemian enclave while managing new growth.
“If we do this correctly, when you see the streets, the greenways and the pedestrian right of way, you’ll know you’re in Montrose,” Montrose TIRZ Chair Joe Webb said. “You won’t need a sign. You’ll know it because of the way the neighborhood looks and feels.”
The Montrose TIRZ is funded through a portion of property tax collections within its defined boundaries. It has an approved budget of $167 million, based on projected revenue over the next 25 years, according to city records.
The Liveable Centers Plan serves as a guide for how the TIRZ can best utilize its funds, Webb said.
The plan lays out goals for restoring the neighborhoods’ affordability, promoting artists and small businesses, managing the effects of climate change, and improving mobility for pedestrians and drivers. …
A right-to-return policy would require any housing development that uses TIRZ funds to prioritize units for prospective residents who have previously been displaced from the community due to the rising cost of living, said Jeff Reichman, an analyst with data analytics and public policy firm January Advisors.
The lawsuit alleges that TxDOT failed to adequately consider the full environmental ramifications of the project in its Final Environmental Impact Statement, which is a federally required step. …
The announcement comes after over a year of advocacy from various groups, such as the ‘Make I-45 Better Coalition’ and ‘Stop TxDOT I-45’. Both have expressed concern over the impact of the project on neighborhoods in the East End and Northside of Houston where the proposed reroute and expansion of I-45 will displace over 900 residences, 300 businesses, five places of worship and two schools, according to the agency’s Final Environmental Impact Statement.
Local officials have repeatedly made attempts to influence the project. Beginning in 2019, the city of Houston led a separate public input process, which resulted in proposed alternatives to the plan, including one in which the 1960s-era highway would be upgraded for safety improvements but maintain its current footprint. …
After the agency’s Final Environmental Impact Statement was issued in September 2020, critics of the plan noted that it failed to incorporate many of the recommendations identified through the city’s public input process. …
Proponents of the project have said it will ease congestion, particularly for commuters, update the highway’s safety and mitigate flooding issues along its path. …
Throughout the process, TxDOT officials have said they will continue to accept and incorporate feedback.
“We were looking forward to continuing our work with stakeholders on refining the plans for the project, but these plans may now be in jeopardy due to the lawsuit. We look forward to discussing our efforts to mitigate concerns about implementing the HGAC’s vision for I-45,” TxDOT Executive Director James Bass wrote in a statement to Community Impact Newspaper. …
On Feb. 4, the Texas Department of Transportation issued its Record of Decision, signaling one of the final hurdles before construction can begin.
FILE THIS NEXT STORY UNDER “ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES”.
A Texas lawmaker has filed a bill that would abolish and criminalize abortions, leaving women and physicians who perform the procedure to face criminal charges that could carry the death penalty.
The legislation, filed Tuesday by state Rep. Bryan Slaton, does not include exceptions for rape or incest. It does exempt ectopic pregnancies that seriously threaten the life of the woman “when a reasonable alternative to save the lives of both the mother and the unborn child is unavailable.”
“It is time for Texas to protect the natural right to life for the tiniest and most innocent Texans, and this bill does just that,” Slaton said. “It’s time Republicans make it clear that we actually think abortion is murder. … Unborn children are dying at a faster rate in Texas than COVID patients, but Texas isn’t taking the abortion crisis seriously.”
Similar measures have in the past been filed by state Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, who received death threats and was placed under the protection of the Texas Department of Public Safety after he introduced the bill in 2017. The legislation did not receive a hearing. …
The bill bans abortions starting at fertilization; …
Slaton, a freshman Republican from Royse City, previously tried to stop the House from naming bridges or streets without first voting to abolish abortion. The amendment failed, but was supported by more than 40 lawmakers, about half of the Republicans in the House. …
MIKE: There’s a lot in the article about Dan Patrick’s involvement in Texas Senate hearingsabout ERCOT, but I think that the most interesting thrust of the story can be summed up by this bit: “… What is driving the dynamic is the source of growing speculation in Austin. There is a political backdrop: Patrick has never been able to fully shake rumors that he is interested in the governor’s office, despite insisting he would never run against Abbott and repeatedly saying he plans to run for a third term as lieutenant governor in 2022. …”
MIKE: Let’s consider the implications of Patrick running for governor:
If Patrick chooses to run for governor, he’ll have to vacate his job at Lt. Governor regardless of the outcome. He may be provoked to run because of Abbott’s vulnerability (and alleged incompetence) in the ERCOT situation. This may be seen as making Abbott uniquely vulnerable, politically, in this 2022 election cycle.
In a Republican primary for the Governor candidacy, only one can get the Governor spot on the ballot. So either Abbott or Patrick would be out. The winner of the primary will have to then have to stand in a general election.
That means that someone else would be running for the to-be-vacant Lt. Governor spot. Those people will have to stand in primaries and then run in the general.
This presents the interesting prospect of a significant turnover at the top of Texas government regardless of how things turn out.
… Lubbock [is] one of the few areas of the state not connected to Texas’ independent power grid. …
The plan for Lubbock to join the Texas energy grid has been in the works since 2015, and already millions of dollars have been poured into constructing transmission lines.
But as ERCOT leaders have been cast as villains of the February disaster, more officials are pushing back against the move. …
Many Lubbock officials are still optimistic about joining the ERCOT, which isn’t regulated by the federal government. They’re hoping the Texas Legislature’s proposed reforms will prevent another disaster from occurring, but they haven’t ruled out pushing for a delay if it appears winterization efforts are faltering. …
Warren Lasher, ERCOT senior director of system planning, said electric providers Oncor and Lubbock Power and Light are currently finishing construction on the connecting transmission circuits.
“We are also working with [Lubbock Power and Light] on the final arrangements for them to participate in the ERCOT market,” Lasher said in an email, adding that their timeline has distribution circuits transitioning to ERCOT’s grid “scheduled to be implemented in late May [of 2021].” …
On March 14: At least 9.8% of people in Texas are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, which exceeds the percent of people who have tested positive for the virus. Meanwhile, as cases and hospitalization levels decline across Texas, testing rates are dropping, too. Experts are not surprised that the demand for testing has decreased as people get vaccinated. Texans age 50 and older can get vaccinated starting March 15. …
Biden will deploy FEMA to care for teenagers and children crossing border in record numbers – The deployment will support what the Department of Homeland Security called a 90-day government-wide effort at the border, where the Biden administration is struggling to care for a record number of teenagers and children arriving without their parents. by Nick Miroff | THE WASHINGTON POST by way of TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | March 13, 20218 PM Central
“The federal government is responding to the arrival of record numbers of individuals, including unaccompanied children, at the southwest border,” DHS said in a statement.
Conditions inside U.S. border stations have deteriorated in recent days, according to lawyers who represent migrant children, becoming dangerously overcrowded with nearly 4,000 minors who are jam-packed in holding facilities and jail cells designed for adults.
Another 8,500 teens and children are in Health and Human Services custody awaiting placement with parents or other relatives already living in the United States. HHS has been unable to add capacity fast enough to get the minors out of Border Patrol sites, which are essentially police stations.
Soon after taking office, President Biden said his administration would no longer turn back unaccompanied minors who cross the border without their parents, a policy that the Trump administration implemented using an emergency health order. …
Biden officials have not said why they did not anticipate or better prepare for the unprecedented surge that has occurred since then in the Rio Grande Valley, where as many as 700 teens and children have crossed without parents in recent days. …
DHS continues to use the public health order to “expel” single adults and some of the families that have also begun arriving in soaring numbers. Last month, border agents made more than 100,000 arrests and detentions along the border, and this month they are on pace to take more than 130,000 into custody.
The latest HHS and DHS statistics show about 75% of the minors are ages 15 to 17. But some of those in custody are age 6 or even younger, and the specialized care they require has placed significant strain on federal agencies. …
OKUMA, Japan (AP) — After a magnitude 9.0 earthquake on March 11, 2011, a tsunami 17 meters (56 feet) high slammed into the[Fukushima Daiichi coastal nuclear power plant, destroying its power supply and cooling systems and causing meltdowns at reactors No. 1, 2 and 3.
The plant’s three other reactors were offline and survived, though a fourth building, along with two of the three melted reactors, had hydrogen explosions, spewing massive radiation and causing long-term contamination in the area
Proper equipment has now replaced ragged plastic hoses held together with tape and an outdoor power switchboard infested by rats, which caused Radiation levels have declined, allowing workers and visitors to wear regular clothes and surgical masks in most areas.
But deep inside the plant, danger still lurks. Officials don’t know exactly how long the cleanup will take, whether it will be successful and what might become of the land where the plant sits. …
About 900 tons of melted nuclear fuel remain inside the three damaged reactors; Officials say it will take 30-40 years to remove. Critics say that’s overly optimistic.
Removing spent fuel from cooling pools inside the reactor buildings has been delayed for up to five years. If the plant’s pools lose their cooling water in another major quake, exposed fuel rods could overheat and cause an even worse meltdown.
The melted cores in Units 1, 2 and 3 mostly fell to the bottom of their primary containment vessels, some mixing with the concrete foundation, making removal extremely difficult. The areas are still too dangerous for humans, meaning details about the melted fuel are still largely unknown. …
Contaminated cooling water has constantly escaped from the damaged primary containment vessels into the reactor building basements, where it mixes with groundwater that seeps in. The water is pumped up and treated. Part is recycled as cooling water, with the remainder stored in 1,000 huge tanks crowding the plant. …
Tiny amounts of radiation have continued leaking into the sea and elsewhere through underground passages, though the amount today is small and fish caught off the coast are safe to eat, scientists say. …
TEPCO [Tokyo Electric Power Co.] Says the tanks’ 1.37 million ton storage capacity will be full in 2022. A government panel’s recommendation that the water be released into the sea is facing fierce opposition from local residents, especially fishermen concerned about further damage to the area’s reputation. A decision is pending. …
Ten years on, Japan doesn’t have a plan to dispose of the highly radioactive melted fuel, debris and waste at the plant. Technology also isn’t advanced enough yet to manage the waste by reducing its toxicity.There are about 500,000 tons of solid radioactive waste, including contaminated debris and soil, sludge from water treatment, scrapped tanks and other waste.
It’s unclear what the plant will look like when the work there is done. Local officials and residents say they expect the complex to one day be open space where they can walk freely. But there’s no clear idea if or when that might happen.
LONDON (Reuters) – Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney said on Saturday that Britain was demonstrating “perverse nationalism” by seeking to reach a trade deal with the United States before the European Union and questioned whether it was a trustworthy partner.
“This idea that Britain can get there first is narrow minded thinking, frankly. It’s a perverse nationalism when actually Britain and the EU should work together as partners,” he said in an interview with The Times newspaper.
Coveney advocated Britain working with the EU and Canada to reach a joint trade deal with the United States, although the EU does not currently have plans for a major U.S. trade deal.
He also questioned Britain’s trustworthiness following its plans to unilaterally delay imposing checks required by the Brexit deal on some food products travelling from England, Scotland or Wales to Northern Ireland.
Switzerland has narrowly voted in favour of banning face coverings in public, including the burka or niqab worn by Muslim women.
Official results showed the measure had passed by 51.2% to 48.8% in Sunday’s referendum.
The proposal was put forward by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) which campaigned with slogans such as “Stop extremism”.
A leading Swiss Islamic group said it was “a dark day” for Muslims.
MIKE: The irony here is that most people in the West are wearing face coverings because of Covid. Under this new law, can Islamic women wear face coverings if the coverings look medical, or are those banned, too? And would a medical face covering be considered Islamic?
Sri Lanka’s move to ban the burqa on “national security” grounds while calling its use “religious extremism” has been termed a “racist agenda” used to cause divisions in the country.
A burqa is an outer garment worn to cover the entire body and the face and is used by some Muslim women.
On Saturday, Sri Lanka’s Minister for Public Security Sarath Weerasekera said he had signed a paper for cabinet approval to ban the burqa, adding that the government also plans to ban more than 1,000 Islamic schools that were defying national education policy.
Sri Lankans expressed disapproval of the proposal, with many viewing the act as an attempt to appease Sri Lanka’s Buddhist majority and cause divisions.
Police in the United Kingdom have opened an investigation into allegations that Asma al-Assad, wife of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, incited and encouraged “terrorist” acts in Syria.
Al-Assad, a dual British-Syrian national, could be stripped of her UK citizenship if convicted of the crime, according to media reports. …
The case against al-Assad was brought by Guernica 37, a conflict-focused international justice law firm that also deals with “transnational litigation involving the enforcement of fundamental human rights protection”. …
Toby Cadman, founder of Guernica 37, told Al Jazeera the Syrian first lady had allegedly participated in crimes.
“What she is suspected of doing is having incited acts that have resulted in death in Syria. Meeting with troops, making public statements, glorifying conduct of the army that has resulted in half a million deaths and the use of chemical and other forms of banned weapons. It is not just that she is the wife of the president, our allegations are she has actively campaigned and actively participated in those crimes and so she must face justice,” he said.
“It could result in the stripping of her citizenship. We of course don’t want that to happen, we want her to face trial.” …
… The question facing America is not, no matter what Fox News or CNN or other news outlets might claim, “Is Dr. Seuss being canceled?” (He’s not.) The question facing America is “Have you been pronouncing Dr. Seuss’ name wrong your entire life?”
The answer to that question is yes, you have. Dr. Seuss does not rhyme with goose. Dr. Seuss is a German name with a German pronunciation, and it rhymes with Joyce. …
Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig 