This program was recorded for broadcast  December 29, 2021. The recording attached is the original edition intended for that broadcast. For technical reasons, will be for technical reasons, it will be aired for the first time on January 5, 2022. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Wednesdays at 11AM (CT) on KPFT-HD2, Houston’s Community Station. You can also hear the show:

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Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig where we discuss local, state, national, and international stories. My co-host and show editor is Andrew Ferguson.

• An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy.
• You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.

1. Make sure you are registered to vote! VoteTexas.GOV – Texas Voter InformationTEXAS SoS VOTE-BY-MAIL BALLOT APPLICATION (ALL TEXAS COUNTIES) HarrisVotes.com­ – Countywide Voting Centers, (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965), Harris County Clerk
   1. Harris County “Vote-By-Mail’ Application for 2021
      1. Fort bend County Elections/Voter Registration Machine takes you to the proper link
      2. GalvestonVotes.org (Galveston County, TX)
      3. Liberty County Elections (Liberty County, TX)
      4. Montgomery County (TX) Elections
      5. Brazoria County (TX) Clerk Election Information
      6. Waller County (TX) Elections
      7. Chambers County (TX) Elections
      8. For personalized, nonpartisan voter guides and information, Consider visiting Vote.ORG.   Ballotpedia.com and Texas League of Women Voters are also good places to get election info.
      9. If you are denied your right to vote any place at any time at any polling place for any reason, ask for (or demand) a provisional ballot rather than lose your vote.
      10. HarrisVotes.com – Countywide Voting CentersHARRIS COUNTY – IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING: Do not possess and cannot reasonably obtain one of these IDs?
          1. 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:
          2. A government document that shows your name and an address, including your voter registration certificate
          3. Current utility bill
          4. Bank statement
          5. Government check
          6. Paycheck
          7. 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)
          8. You may vote early by-mail if:You are registered to vote and meet one of the following criteria:
             1. Away from the county of residence on Election Day and during the early voting period;
             2. Sick or disabled;
             3. 65 years of age or older on Election Day; or
             4. Confined in jail, but eligible to vote.
             5. Make sure you are registered:
             6. Ann Harris Bennett, Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar
             7. CHECK REGISTRATION STATUS HERE
             8. CLICK How to register to vote in Texas
             9. Outside Texas, try Vote.org.
2. BE REGISTERED TO VOTE, and for those of you whoa are eligible, REMEMBER TO FILL OUT AND MAIL YOUR MAIL-IN BALLOT APPLICATIONS FOR 2022
   1. Next Election: January 25, 2022 – Special Election – City of Houston, District G
   2. Early Voting: January 10 – January 21, 2022
3. Bellaire funds restrooms at Mulberry Park…; [EXCERPT]; By George Wiebe | COMMUNITYIMPACT | 3:49 PM Dec 28, 2021 CST | Updated 3:50 PM Dec 28, 2021 CST
   1. [D]uring the Dec. 20 meeting, the Council approved the purchase of a prefabricated restroom in Mulberry Park at the cost of $95,879.
   2. Located off Mulberry Lane in Bellaire, the park features baseball fields, a picnic table area, a playground and a tennis court among other amenities. Construction on the new restrooms is slated to wrap up at the start of the summer in 2022. …
   3. A. Mulberry Park, 700 Mulberry, Bellaire, TX: Tennis Court, Youth Softball Field, Open Green space, Picnic Shelter, Picnic Tables/Area.
   4. MIKE: From aerial photos, it looks like everyone has been making do with 2 porta potties outside the baseball field off the 1^st base line … which is also a considerable walk from the tennis courts. That cannot be pleasant! But they’ll be doing it until at least sometime in late 2022. At the earliest.
   5. ANDREW: Hopefully the new restrooms will be more centrally located.
4. South Rice Avenue bridge reopens over Brays Bayou; By Shawn Arrajj | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 1:14 PM Dec 17, 2021 CST | Updated 1:14 PM Dec 17, 2021 CST
   1. A bridge on South Rice Avenue traveling over Brays Bayou reopened to traffic Dec. 15 amid the ongoing Project Brays, a construction project by the Harris County Flood Control District intended to raise bridges along the bayou.
   2. The new four-lane bridge, which has been under construction since spring 2021, was rebuilt to be wider, taller and longer than it was previously. . …
   3. The scope of $480 million Project Brays included raising 14 bridges in total across four segments spanning from Fondren Road in southwest Houston to Broadway Street. Work on six bridges has been completed in its entirety, while the flood control district expects to wrap up work on the remaining eight bridges in 2022.
   4. By raising the bridges, Brays Bayou will be able to convey more floodwater, officials said. In total, 15,000 homes are expected to [effectively] be removed from the 100-year flood plain upon completion, Community Impact Newspaper previously reported.
   5. REFERENCE: Brays Bayou, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
5. Tunnel back in consideration as Army Corps extends study of flood projects on Buffalo Bayou; By Shawn Arrajj | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 2:13 AM Dec 28, 2021 CST | Updated 2:19 AM Dec 28, 2021 CST
   1. The Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District announced in December a schedule extension and funding boost for an ongoing study into how to address flooding on Buffalo Bayou. … The study looks into ways to improve the safety of the Addicks and Barker reservoirs while also identifying measures to address flooding along Buffalo Bayou and its tributaries.
   2. The interim report, released in October 2020, considered nine approaches [including an underground tunnel], but its cost-benefit analysis favored three — constructing a reservoir in Cypress Creek, deepening and widening Buffalo Bayou, and acquiring more properties around the Barker and Addicks reservoirs. …
   3. [P]resident of the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, Anne Olson has been following the work closely. She said she is glad to hear the tunnel appears to be getting a closer evaluation, [though] she acknowledged it would come with a higher price tag. …
   4. Before endorsing the tunnel completely, Olson said there are questions that need to be answered, such as where the outfall would be.
   5. The study extension was funded by an additional $1.8 million in federal funds … bringing the total federal cost to $7.8 million, according to the Army Corps statement. Another $3.4 million in local funds will come from Harris County precincts 3 and 4.
   6. MIKE: Flooding in metro Houston and other parts of the country are existential problems, but asking, “where the outfall would be” is an excellent question, and one I think is determinative. It will presumably go somewhere into Galveston Bay, but everything in our watershed ends up in Galveston Bay. I think the Bay is what is called “brackish, i.e., neither salt water nor freshwater. So there are concerns about what sudden huge inflows of fresh water will do to that eco system. It’s too bad we can’t bring that outflow west to semi-arid parts of Texas. Much more expensive, but SO much more useful.
   7. MIKE: Another excellent question is not asked I the article: How would this tunnel be built? There are two methods I know of. One, is actually tunneling. That’s a big, expensive deal, and hard in an area with such a high water table. The second method is something called “cut and cover”. It’s how the first NYC subways were built. You dig an enormous trench, do your construction, and then cover it over. Voila! Tunnel! That second option is much cheaper than tunneling, but where would they cut and what would the multiyear disruption look like?
   8. ANDREW: The Legislature would never go for it, but oil and gas companies transport material all the time. Why not make some of those transports carry some of this outfall to arid areas by law as corporate community service?
6. Closures on Tomball Tollway to resume after Christmas, continue throughout January; By Chandler France | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 10:00 AM Dec 27, 2021 CST
   1. Portions of the Tomball Tollway, the tolled portion of Hwy. 249, will be closed nightly between 9 p.m.-5 a.m. Dec. 27-30, Community Impact Newspaper previously reported. The northbound and southbound lanes of the tollway between Boudreaux Road and the Grand Parkway will be closed during that period.
   2. MIKE: Why is there a “tolled portion” of SH-249? It’s probably because Republicans don’t believe in taxes, let alone progressive But they’re all for regressive user fees that keep the riffraff out.
   3. Congressman pushes back on Pennsylvania bridge tolling plan; By Victor Skinner, contributor | TheCenterSquare.com | Dec 27, 2021
   4. A Pennsylvania congressman is pushing back against plans by [Democratic] Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration to install tolls on nine bridges throughout the commonwealth, pointing to public opposition and existing money available to fund bridge work.
   5. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) is promoting the Major Bridge P3 Initiative to install tolls on nine major bridges as a necessary funding source to replace or repair the structures. …
   6. S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, [R-Pa.], who led a successful effort to kill similar tolls a decade ago, wrote a letter to PennDOT officials last week outlining why he opposes the bridge tolling plan, which he alleges is moving forward before proper public review. …
   7. [Thompson] led a successful effort to kill similar tolls a decade ago …
   8. MIKE: And here we have an interesting inversion of what I might expect in a political dynamic. The Democratic governor is advocating for bridge tolls while the Republican Congressman is fighting back against it. Is this just partisan contrarianism or is there something else going on?
   9. Finnish Man Passes on Paying $22,600 to Replace His Tesla’s Battery, Blows Up Car Instead; A Tesla repair shop told a Model S owner that replacing the battery would cost more than $22,600. He decided to stick 66 pounds of dynamite on the car. By Jody Serrano | GIZMODO.COM | Dec. 24, 2021, Friday 12:30PM
   10. A 2013 Tesla Model S owner who was told he would have to pay more than US$22,600 to replace the battery on his car. A used 2013 Model S in Finland, sells for more than $42,900. But Katainen decides that’s not for him, proving that there is indeed a thin line between logic, rage, and insanity.
   11. MIKE: How do these 3 stories connect? Road construction and maintenance are funded by fuel taxes and vehicle registrations. As electric vehicles become more prevalent, and if we object to toll roads, how will road infrastructure be funded? And will be it be funded regressively or progressively?
   12. ANDREW: I think fuel tax will be viable for a long time, due to high costs of buying and maintaining EVs keeping gas cars common. If necessary, though, many public charging stations already require payment to use, so tax could be collected there. Gas-to-EV conversion is also making progress, which might make EVs more affordable and popular. Conversion services or project kits could be taxed. If battery replacement gets to a reasonable price, that could be a further tax opportunity.
7. Family of man killed in crash involving HPD officer says they want justice; By Stefania Okolie | ABC13.COM | Monday, December 27, 2021 9:06PM
   1. … 77-year old Charles Payne, had just left church on Sunday, according to family. He was driving north on N. Shepherd Drive when surveillance showed him making a right turn before an officer inside of a marked HPD SUV unit slammed into him. Payne was killed.
   2. “Not on duty, no siren, and he was speeding.” Mrs. Payne says that is what an investigator told her at her home in regards to the officer involved in the crash. …
   3. From an earlier-in-the-day version of this story: The impact of the crash was so strong that the patrol car’s wheels came off the pavement, and the other car was pushed down the road. The video shows the patrol car did not have its lights on, but the Harris County District Attorney’s Office says it’s too soon to tell.
   4. Houston police cruiser slams into car en route to disturbance call; COM | Wednesday, November 18, 2020
      1. A Houston police officer was on their way to a family disturbance call when a civilian driver ran a stop sign and collided with the cruiser, according to police. The crash rolled the civilian’s vehicle onto its side. The officer was not driving with emergency lights or a siren, but was trying to get to the scene quickly, HPD said. The driver of the other vehicle suffered a cut to their head.
   5. Former HPD officer charged after crash that killed man days before Thanksgiving [2020]; COM | Wednesday, July 14, 2021
      1. [Prosecutors] said Valdez was driving 90 miles an hour in a 35 mile-per-hour zone and did not use emergency lights or sirens.
   6. HPD cruiser, truck collide near Memorial City; Julian Gill, HOUSTON CHRONICLE | March 1, 2019, Updated: March 2, 2019 6:18 p.m.
      1. The officer was traveling eastbound on Westview while the pickup was traveling southbound on Gessner. The officer’s emergency lights weren’t activated at the time, police said.
      2. Police are investigating whether a pickup truck ran a red light Friday near Memorial City, causing a collision with a Houston police officer.
      3. Woman’s lawsuit over 2011 Christmas Eve collision with Houston police car headed back to Harris County court; By Karen Kidd | Nov 14, 2019
      4. … Maria Christina Gomez was driving eastbound on Crosstimbers Road on a cold and rainy Christmas Eve morning [in 2011]. As she approached the intersection at Lockwood, the traffic light facing her turned green and she proceeded into the intersection. A City police car slid into the intersection and collided with Gomez’s vehicle. According to Gomez, Bobby Joe Simmons, the officer who was driving the police car, was not using the police car’s emergency lights or siren when his car collided with hers.
8. Houston police car rushing to call strikes, kills bicyclist; by ASSOCIATED PRESS via CBSAUSTIN.COM | Wednesday, October 9^th, 2019
   1. Police in Houston say a man on a bicycle was killed when he was struck by a police cruiser that was rushing to a suicide call.
   2. Assistant Police Chief Henry Gaw says the collision occurred Tuesday evening and preliminary findings indicate the bicyclist failed to yield at a stop sign before riding into a dimly lit intersection where he was struck.
   3. The cruiser was traveling at a high rate of speed to the call and did not have its emergency lights flashing or siren sounding. …
   4. Victim’s family: Fatal police car crash ‘preventable’; Lawyer: Speed a factor in fatal crash. Attorney for scientist’s family says HPD officer was going ‘far in excess’ of limit. PEGGY O’HARE, HOUSTON CHRONICLE | Sep. 9, 2010
   5. The attorney for the family of a Baylor medical scientist killed in a crash with a Houston police car going to an emergency call without flashing lights and sirens said the first-year police officer was driving “far in excess” of the posted 35 mph speed limit based on evidence reviewed by an independent accident reconstruction expert.
   6. Houston attorney Richard LaGarde said the Houston Police Department told his accident reconstruction expert that Officer Kyle Dozier was driving 57 mph — 22 mph over the speed limit – when he struck a Scion that made a left turn in front of him in the dark, killing Baylor College of Medicine scientist and professor Estela Medrano, 67, and seriously injuring her husband, Jorge A. Medrano, 71.
   7. At some point before the impact, the officer was driving 90 mph, according to information recovered from the police car’s crash data computer, LaGarde said. …
   8. Estela Medrano’s family called her Aug. 30 [2010] death “a tragic and preventable event” that “could have and should have been avoided.” They are asking HPD to reconsider its policies regarding police officers’ use of lights and sirens while responding to emergency calls.
   9. MIKE: Is there a familiar theme here??? When my wife worked at Baylor, I knew the Medranos. They were lovely people. And 11 years later, HPD cars – and many others around the country – are still speeding without lights flashing. Whether day or night, gauging the speed of an oncoming vehicle is tricky, but is especially challenging when that vehicle is going far faster than one expects in a given speed zone. In the absence of warning signals, there’s no reason to expect a vehicle to be going so much faster than the speed limit. After so many accidents over so many decades for the same reasons, this situation is both inexcusable and intolerable. A speeding police car should always, at a minimum, have flashing lights on.
   10. ANDREW: No-lights no-siren should be restricted to a certain area around the call location, and to the speed limit, or at most five MPH over. IMO, these incidents are another case of the “warrior class” mentality pervasive in policing. They forget they’re civilians too, and should be subject to the same rules we all are. It’s one of the arguments for decentralizing law enforcement– if everyone’s protecting everyone else, nobody gets special privileges, and egos aren’t inflated by them.
   11. FURTHER REFERENCE:
       1. Police Vehicle Warning Signals—An Innovative Approach to Officer Safety; By Scott Potter, Managing Partner, Patriot Fleet Group, LLC | as seen inORG
       2. Police cars nearly twice as likely to crash while responding to emergencies, UI study finds; By: Tom Snee, Office of Strategic Communication | Iowa Now/EDU | 2018.04.18 | 10:47 am
9. MIKE: A personal peeve: Just because something is “plain”, doesn’t make it vanilla. Let alone French vanilla. (Not even named in French.) Vanilla is an actual flavoring, typically incorporating actual vanilla. French Vanilla is a particular style of vanilla that also typically includes actual vanilla. How do companies get away with calling something with these ingredients, vanilla?:
   1. ‘SUGAR, NON-DAIRY CREAMER [HYDROGENATED COCONUT OIL, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, SODIUM CASEINATE (MILK DERIVATIVE), DIPOTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, SUGAR, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, SODIUM SILICOALUMINATE, SODIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE, SOY LECITHIN, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, ARTIFICIAL COLOR], MODIFIED WHEY, DRY SWEET WHEY; COFFEE, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: SILICON DIOXIDE (ANTICAKING AGENT), SALT, CELLULOSE GUM, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR.’
   2. THAT, is NOT Vanilla!!