POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; Color of child’s swimwear could save their life, study says; League City City Council approves residents keeping pigs as pets; Houston’s contract janitors are planning to strike if upcoming wage negotiations fail; BICYCLE EVENT, Houston Heights North, 2 days ago; Artists working to beautify utility and 5G boxes across Houston; Texas gun store ads posted on Houston school near NRA event; COVID-19 numbers rising according to Houston wastewater testing; Covid was vanishing last Memorial Day. Cases are five times higher now.; I am voting solely for Democrats! They can win it all if we trade tunnel vision for strategy.; Woman Legally Carrying Gun Fatally Shoots Man Who Fired AR-15 Into Crowd; CRIME IN THE UNITED STATES, 2011; Russia’s Gazprom cuts off some natural gas to Germany after Shell refused to pay for it in rubles; Nuclear Fusion Is Already Facing a Fuel Crisis; More.

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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 2022
      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 Centers, HARRIS 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 if eligible, REMEMBER TO FILL OUT AND MAIL YOUR MAIL-IN BALLOT APPLICATIONS FOR 2022
   1. You can track your Mail Ballot Activity from our website with direct link provided here https://www.harrisvotes.com/Tracking
3. Color of child’s swimwear could save their life, study says; By Brittany Taylor, Digital News Editor | CLICK2HOUSTON.COM | Published: May 30, 2022, 1:29 PM, Updated: May 30, 2022, 6:04 PM
   1. The color of your child’s swimsuit can play a huge role in preventing drowning incidents, according to a study.
   2. When most parents go shopping for their child’s swimsuit, they usually pick the child’s favorite color, cartoon character, or style and comfort. But a recent study conducted by ALIVE Solutions Inc., a company that specializes in aquatics safety, reports that the color of the child’s swimwear could make a difference in saving their life.
   3. The company put swimsuit colors to the test to see their visibility in both pools and open water. …
   4. What they found:
   5. – Top Colors were Neon Yellow / Green / Orange (still think bright and contrasting!)
   6. – White came in fourth place, but appeared more to be a light reflection or clouds on the surface and wouldn’t stand out in a crowd…
   7. – Neon Pink did not perform well [in lakes], like it did in the white bottom pool environment.
   8. – All other colors disappeared … quickly (and this was only 18″ of water).
   9. The company recommends bright and contrasting colors that can help people or lifeguards see the child if they go underwater. …
   10. MIKE: I recommend going to the article and seeing the photo graphics.
4. League City City Council approves residents keeping pigs as pets; By Jake Magee | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 6:59 PM May 24, 2022 CDT | Updated 6:59 PM May 24, 2022 CDT
   1. After weeks of debate, League City City Council has made a decision on residents keeping pigs as pets.
   2. City Council voted unanimously May 24 to allow residents to keep pigs as pets with certain restrictions.
   3. Pigs kept as pets must remain indoors, and any outdoor time must be brief, such as for the elimination of waste and exercise. Male pigs must be neutered, and female pigs must be spayed, despite the surgery to spay a pig being more complicated than neutering, according to League City documents.
   4. Pigs must also receive annual vaccinations and be microchipped. Outdoor areas for pigs must be cleaned daily.
   5. Council Member Chad Tressler added additional requirements when making a motion to approve allowing pigs as pets, including the restriction that pigs cannot be taller than 26 inches at the top of their shoulder. No other size restrictions, including on weight, were made.
   6. City Council first voted in favor of a less restrictive version of the ordinance on April 26. After, it came back for a second and final reading on May 10, but City Council postponed it to get on the same page about certain restrictions.
   7. Council members expressed relief at having the issue behind them after weeks of discussion.
   8. “Thank God we’re done with the pigs,” Mayor Pat Hallisey said.
5. Houston’s contract janitors are planning to strike if upcoming wage negotiations fail; The current contract will expire at the end of the month, leaving many janitors hopeful for an increase to their hourly minimum wage. By Lucio Vasquez / Haya Panjwani | HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | Posted on May 19, 2022, 8:09 AM (Last Updated: May 19, 2022, 9:53 AM)
   1. … [T]housands of janitors in Houston could go on strike … The janitors do not work for the city, but they are the ones who clean the private office buildings around town.
   2. Right now, the average janitor at a private firm in Houston makes $10.75 an hour, according to the Service Employees International Union, which represents the janitors.
   3. The workers want a path to $15 an hour, as they said inflation is crippling their ability to pay for everyday items like food and gas.
   4. The current contract for more than 2,800 janitors [expired] at midnight [Tuesday], and workers said it could lead to a strike either right away or in a few days.
   5. MIKE: This appears to be a broad-based strike threat, as my research shows that the same thing is occurring in other cities around the country.
6. BICYCLE EVENT, Houston Heights North • 2 days ago (If you’re on NextDoor)(5-30-2022)
   1. I have a screen grab from a video taken by a woman trying to make a left turn. It’s a massive bike group that can only be called a “parade”. The group is taking up all the main lanes in the road, with no organizers, no police escort, and evident lawlessness; i.e., violating the traffic laws that govern motor vehicles and bikes.
   2. This isn’t a bunch of bicycle commuters. This is an organized group.
   3. If it’s a protest, they should call it such and get a permit or face consequences. If it’s a parade, they should have a permit and a police escort. If they’re violating laws and endangering others, they should face legal consequences.
   4. I’ve been faced with an enormous group of cyclists like this on the road while trying to make a left turn, and I found it very intimidating.
   5. This isn’t the only mass bike group in town that does something like this at regular or irregular intervals.
   6. MIKE: Discuss video from NextDoor; Areas of agreement on the “event”; areas of disagreement.
   7. MIKE: Several levels of concern in the video.
   8. REFERENCE: TxDOT Laws and Regulations FAQ
   9. REFERENCE: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MassHouston/permalink/10159361893509735/ — Illegal Amigos Bike Crew Birthday Taco Ride
7. Artists working to beautify utility and 5G boxes across Houston; By Jeff Ehling | ABC13.COM | Thursday, April 1, 2021
   1. Ever since 5G boxes showed up in Houston, they have been blasted by homeowners who say the boxes are an eyesore. The boxes are probably here to stay, so why not make them more appealing?
   2. Cell phone companies call them “ground furniture,” and the boxes are used to make internet and cell phone data run faster.
   3. Elia Quiles with Up Art Studio has plenty of experience turning ugly utility boxes into something communities can be proud of.
   4. Quiles and the City of Houston have partnered to turn hundreds of plain control boxes into public works of art. …
   5. ABC13 contacted Verizon about their 5G boxes and the company said it had been in talks with the city to allow visual improvements to the boxes, but ultimately things fell through.
   6. You can find many ideas on how to make utility boxes less of an eyesore online, from planting shrubs near the boxes to putting up lattice around them.
   7. But Quiles says whatever you dream up, be sure to contact the company that owns the boxes first, because the boxes are powered by electricity and you don’t want to get hurt or damage the gear.
   8. MIKE: But please keep the artists away from them. Art is a personal thing, and I’m not sure I want someone else’s personal thing in front of my house turning a blandly visible utility box into what I consider an obnoxious effort at art. I’d settle for simply a grassier shade of green. You can go to the article and watch the videos, then judge for yourself.
8. Texas gun store ads posted on Houston school near NRA event; The Austin firearms retailer promoted in the now-removed advertisements is listed as an exhibitor at the NRA Annual Meeting in Houston. Ariana Garcia | CHRON.COM | May 29, 2022, Updated: May 29, 2022 10:24 a.m.
   1. Advertisements for a Texas firearms retailer were placed on a high school just blocks away from where the National Rifle Association is holding its annual meeting in Houston this weekend. The promotional signs for Silencer Shop, an Austin-based store that specializes in firearm suppressors and accessories, were posted on utility boxes at the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, according to the school’s Assistant Principal Sean Tellez.
   2. Tellez posted a photo he took of the ad on Twitter Friday, writing: “I get that those are @HoustonTX utility boxes but get this nonsense off our block. Our kids shouldn’t see stuff like this slapped around because we live and learn two blocks from where the NRA insists on still having their convention.” …
   3. Tellez, in an emailed statement, said he and one of the school’s secretaries discovered the posters early Friday morning when they arrived on campus. The bright red ads were posted on city utility boxes on all four corners of the school as well as utility boxes across the street, he said. School staff members have since removed the ads.
   4. “Our initial concern and response was that we did not want our students seeing these posters as they arrived on campus as many were already nervous and on edge,” Tellez wrote. “I snapped that picture because it struck me as incredibly gross and insensitive for someone to post that there when you look just above and know you are posting it outside of a high school.”
   5. The posters were applied with an adhesive that was difficult to remove, Tellez said. “Our custodians and administrators began scraping what we could so the words could not be seen,” he said. “Later some good samaritans [sic] came by and began assisting completely removing the residue.”
   6. However, many students and parents took note of the posters before they were removed and were “disgusted and upset,” Tellez said.
   7. Less than a mile away from the high school, the NRA is holding its convention just days after an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. …
   8. Additional HISD Police officers were assigned to the Tellez’s school and extra school administrators and staff were closely monitoring the campus in light of the convention and the tragedy in Uvalde, Tellez said. “We continued to monitor the perimeter of campus as we were not sure what to expect with the convention and protests planned in response,” he said. “Being a school in such a unique location, we are used to being near demonstrations and protests but this convention made us a bit more nervous because of the nature of it.”
   9. Thankfully, Tellez said the events have remained calm and students were able to complete the school day and participate in evening events Friday without disruption. He is not aware if Houston ISD is investigating the incident at this time. …
   10. The Silencer Shop—which also sells weapons manufactured by Daniel Defense, the brand that canceled its appearance at the NRA convention and shut down its social media accounts after being linked to Tuesday’s massacre—is listed as an exhibitor at the event. The store did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the time of this writing. 
   11. MIKE:I tweeted @APsean_tellez FYI: If you have not already done so, you should officially report this to City of Houston. Those utility boxes are city (?) property. Just because the ads aren’t spray paint doesn’t mean that the law wasn’t broken, defacing public property. That’s a crime.
9. COVID-19 numbers rising according to Houston wastewater testing; Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5 have also been detected for the first time in Houston wastewater. Author: Stephanie Whitfield | KHOU.COM | Published: 10:38 AM CDT May 18, 2022, Updated: 12:43 PM CDT May 18, 2022
   1. Wastewater testing is showing that the viral load on May 16 was 170% compared to July 2020. The positivity rate is now at 11%.
   2. The wastewater testing shows that levels have been rising since the end of March.
   3. [Click the interactive map link to check the levels yourself]. The interactive map lets you go back through the entire pandemic to see what the levels were like at the time.
   4. The website also tracks the wastewater at Houston schools. Several schools are showing positive COVID samples in their wastewater.
10. Covid was vanishing last Memorial Day. Cases are five times higher now.; Covid-weary Americans enter summer with little effort to contain a still-raging pandemic. By Fenit Nirappil, Craig Pittman and Maureen O’Hagan | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | May 28, 2022 at 8:16 a.m. EDT
    1. For the third year, Americans are greeting the unofficial start of summer shadowed by the specter of the coronavirus amid rising covid-19 cases and hospitalizations across the country.
    2. The United States is recording more than 100,000 infections a day — at least five times higher than this point last year — as it confronts the most transmissible versions of the virus yet. Immunity built up as a result of the record winter outbreak appears to provide little protection against the latest variants, new research shows. And public health authorities are bracing for Memorial Day gatherings to fuel another bump in cases, potentially seeding a summer surge.
    3. It’s a far cry from a year ago… Back then, coronavirus seemed to teeter on the brink of defeat as cases plummeted to their lowest levels since spring 2020 and vaccines became widely available for adults. Even the vaccinated and boosted now grudgingly accept the virus as a formidable foe that’s here to stay as governments abandon measures to contain it. …
    4. Parents of children too young to be vaccinated are making cross-country travel plans. Octogenarians are venturing to bars. And families are celebrating graduations and weddings with throngs of mostly unmasked revelers — mindful they may get sick. Again.
    5. More than half of the U.S. population is living in areas classified as having medium or high covid-19 levels by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The latest cases have yet to overrun hospitals, but that could change as the virus spreads among more vulnerable people. The dominant strains circulating in the United States are the most contagious thus far.
    6. “This one is really revved up, and it’s probably getting up there with something as transmissible as measles,” said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College, describing the BA.2.12.1 subvariant now accounting for more than half of new cases. “Over the Memorial Day holidays, if you are in settings where you are indoors with large numbers of people without masks … there is a good likelihood you will suffer a breakthrough infection.” …
    7. [A]n emerging body of research suggests [omicron] infections will not confer lasting protection as the virus’s latest iterations show remarkable ability to escape immunity. Experts say the recently infected who also received booster shots can count on at least several months of immunity, while the unvaccinated should expect little protection. …
    8. Experts say vaccines are still showing durability in protecting people against severe illness. But the initial burst of antibodies from shots or infections fades after several months, said Celine Gounder, an infectious-diseases specialist and senior fellow at Kaiser Health News. That means the virus can develop into an infection before the body’s immune system kicks in. …
    9. For most Americans, coronavirus has faded from the foreground.
    10. More than half say they are not too concerned or not at all concerned with coronavirus, according to a May survey by Monmouth University.
    11. Nearly three-quarters say they hope to vacation this summer and less than a third say coronavirus is a major factor in their plans, according to a recent Washington Post-Schar School poll. …
    12. At a southeast Portland pub, George Cummings, 85, took a leap of faith as he joined his friends from a local mountaineering and climbing club for drinks. He knows he’s at a higher risk because of his age and wears a mask at the grocery store. He said he has not received a second booster shot because his doctor had not told him they were available.
    13. He went maskless as he drank lemonade, ate a cheeseburger and mingled with a group of two dozen in the crowded bar.
    14. “I’m not sure I’m 100 percent comfortable with my decision, but the alternative was not to go to the event,” said Cummings, who lives alone and had suspended his social life for the better part of two years.
    15. “It’s almost a question of, do you want to live — and that includes some sort of social life for a human being — or am I going to hide in my basement?”
11. I am voting solely for Democrats! They can win it all if we trade tunnel vision for strategy.; I want to be very frank. I am very upset at our Democrats. Before rank & file, Democrats stop reading, DON’T. By Egberto Willies | EGBERTOWILLIES.COM | May 29, 2022
    1. I am as Progressive as one can get. I am a Democrat because, in a duopoly, that is the only place I can reside quasi-comfortably. I will be voting for every single Democrat I have the opportunity to vote for because the Republican politicians led by an ideology that kills and impoverishes are a clear and present danger to us all, Democrat, Independent, Republican, and otherwise. …
    2. We must continue to live to fight another day. Fascism is a one-way valve that, once installed, we can only dislodge with a revolution nobody ever prepares for at any time. So again, I will hold my nose and vote for many that do not deserve my vote. Most importantly, I will work feverishly to elect them. Just as feverishly, I will work to get more progressives who put the middle-class first in 2024. You see, one cannot sit back in any election cycle. One must continue to engage, educate, encourage, and empower those we want to vote for our causes every day of every single week of every single month of every year. …
    3. We can decide to penalize Democrats because they did not fulfill all of the promises they had the power to achieve. We can also understand the political game and work to kick out those who obstruct now in 2024 and replace them with those who unabashedly support the middle class. I choose the latter. …
    4. Those who do not have any interest in improving our lives have all the time in the world if they know we will eventually give up and leave the game. I won’t, nor should you.
12. Woman Legally Carrying Gun Fatally Shoots Man Who Fired AR-15 Into Crowd; By Bill Galluccio | KFBK.IHEART.COM [SACRAMENTO, CA.] | May 27, 2022
    1. A potential tragedy in West Virginia was stoppedby a legally armed woman. The woman, who was not identified, was attending a birthday-graduation party at an apartment complex in Charleston when 37-year-old Dennis Butlershowed up armed with an AR-15 and started shooting at the crowd of people.
    2. The woman pulled out her pistol and returned fire, fatally shooting Butler. …
    3. Butler was a convicted felon with a lengthy criminal historyand was not allowed to own firearms. He was arrested over 20 times and faced numerous charges in West Virginia and Pennsylvania dating back to 2005.
    4. Hazelett said that the woman stayed at the scene and cooperated with investigators. She is not facing charges.
13. CRIME IN THE UNITED STATES, 2011 [Download Printable Document]
    1. Overview
    2. Of the 12,664 murder victims in 2011 for which supplemental data were received, most (77.6 percent) were male.  (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 1.)
    3. Concerning murder victims for whom race was known, 50.0 percent were black, 46.0 percent were white, and 2.6 percent were of other races.  Race was unknown for 175 victims.  (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 2.)
    4. Single victim/single offender situations accounted for 48.4 percent of all murders for which the UCR Program received supplemental data.  (See Expanded Homicide Data Table 4.)
    5. Of the offenders for whom gender was known, 89.3 percent were males.  (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 3.)
    6. Of the offenders for whom race was known, 52.4 percent were black, 45.2 percent were white, and 2.4 percent were of other races.  The race was unknown for 4,077 offenders.  (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 3.)
    7. Of the homicides for which the FBI received weapons data, most (67.8 percent) involved the use of firearms.  Handguns comprised 72.5 percent of the firearms used in murder and nonnegligent [sic] manslaughter incidents in 2011.  (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 8.)   
    8. In 2011, in incidents of murder for which the relationships of murder victims and offenders were known, 54.3 percent were killed by someone they knew (acquaintance, neighbor, friend, boyfriend, etc.); 24.8 percent of victims were slain by family members.  The relationship of murder victims and offenders was unknown in 44.1 percent of murder and nonnegligent [sic] manslaughter incidents in 2011.  (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 10.)
    9. Of the female murder victims for whom the relationships to their offenders were known, 36.5 percent were murdered by their husbands or boyfriends.  (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Tables 2 and 10.)
    10. Of the murders for which the circumstance surrounding the murder was known,
        9 percent of victims were murdered during arguments (including romantic triangles) in 2011.  Felony circumstances (rape, robbery, burglary, etc.) accounted for 23.1 percent of murders.  Circumstances were unknown for 38.0 percent of reported homicides.  (Based on Expanded Homicide Data Table 11.)
    11. Law enforcement reported 653 justifiable homicides in 2011.  Of those, law enforcement officers justifiably killed 393 felons, and private citizens justifiably killed 260 people during the commission of a crime.  (See Expanded Homicide Data Tables 14 and 15.)
    12. 
    13. REFERENCE: Number of murders in the United States by relationship of victim to offender in 2020 – COM
    14. REFERENCE: Examining differences between mass, multiple, and single-victim homicides to inform prevention: findings from the National Violent Death Reporting System — injepijournal.biomedcentral.com
    15. REFERENCE: How many people are shot in the U.S.? How many people in America are injured by gunshots? — BRADYUNITED.ORG
    16. REFERENCE: America’s gun culture – in seven charts — BBC.COM
    17. REFERENCE: Gun violence in the United States, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
14. Russia’s Gazprom cuts off some natural gas to Germany after Shell refused to pay for it in rubles; Huileng Tan | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | June 1, 2022, 1 hour ago
    1. Russian energy-giant Gazprom said it has completely halted natural-gas supply to Shell under a contract that supplies the fuel to Germany, Europe’s largest economy. The move came after Shell refused to pay Gazprom in rubles.
    2. Gazprom made the announcement on Wednesday — a day after it cut off natural-gas supplies to the Netherlands for the same reason.
    3. In a March 31 decree, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that natural-gas payments be made in rubles, which would entail opening a euro and ruble account with the country’s Gazprombankto process payments.
    4. Gazprom said in its Telegram channel on Tuesday that Shell Energy Europe had notified Gazprom “it does not intend to make payments under the contract for the supply of gas to Germany in rubles.”
    5. “As of the end of the business day on May 31 (the payment deadline stipulated by the contract), Gazprom Export had not received payment from Shell Energy Europe Limited for gas supplies in April,” the Russian company wrote.
    6. “Gazprom Export notified Shell Energy Europe Limited of the suspension of gas supplies under this contract from June 1, 2022” — until payment is made in rubles, the Russian company continued.
    7. Contracts for Russian gas to Europe transported via pipelines are typically denominated in euros, according to the Financial Times. …

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