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POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; APPLY FOR MAIL-IN BALLOT; Oct. 10 Deadline to REGISTER; Taxes, state parks, infrastructure: What you need to know about the Nov. 7 constitutional amendments election; A new COVID vaccine is here, but those at greatest risk may not get it as outreach drops off; Pearland prioritizes error-free tax worksheet for FY 2023-24 budget; NHCRWA board votes to reduce water rates for 2nd time in 2023; Outflanked by liberals, Oregon conservatives aim to become part of Idaho; Navy will take ‘years to recover’ from Tuberville military hold, says Biden nominee; Book Publishing Has a Toys ‘R’ Us Problem; Apple just killed the iPhone Lightning connector. What to do with your old chargers; The bizarre secret behind China’s spy balloon; China Brings Out the Big Guns in the South China Sea; NASA finally admits what everyone already knows: SLS is unaffordable; The ‘Devil Bird’ Lands in New York, With More Likely to Come; More

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

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Wednesdays at 11AM (CT) or Thursdays at 6PM on KPFT 90.1 FM-HD2, Houston’s Community Media. You can also hear the show:

1. Live online at KPFT.org (from anywhere in the world!)
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3. Visiting Archive.KPFT.ORG

Except for timely election info, the extensive list of voting resources will now be at the end.

1. VOTING IN THE NOVEMBER 7^TH GENERAL ELECTION:
   1. Make sure to register to vote, or update your address by the October 10thdeadline. Click here for more information on voter registration. 
   2. Deadline to apply for a mail ballot is Friday, October 27. Click here for the application.Fill it out, print it, and then mail it to our office before the deadline.
   3. There may or not be an election in your particular election precinct, so you may have to go to your local elections clerk website or go to http://www.VOTETEXAS.GOV
   4. Just be registered and apply for your mail-in ballot if you may qualify.
   5. Obtain a Voter Registration Application (HarrisVotes.com). You must register to vote in the county in which you reside.
   6. You can track your Mail Ballot Activity from our website with direct link provided here https://www.harrisvotes.com/Tracking
   7. In HARRIS COUNTY, go to COM. For any place in Texas, you can go to VOTETEXAS.GOV
2. Everything you need to know before voting for Houston’s new mayor in November election; COM | Tuesday, August 22, 2023/ 1:29PM
   1. MIKE: This is a really comprehensive article about Houston elections: Who’s running for what (including mayor, city controller), and all city council positions.
   2. “Has my district changed? What district am I in? Your district for voting for your city councilmember may have changed since the last election. The city council approved new district boundaries on Oct. 12, 2022 as part of the redistricting process after the 2020 federal census. Houstonians can visit the city’s redistricting website to view maps and determine which council district they reside in. …”
3. Taxes, state parks, infrastructure: What you need to know about the Nov. 7 constitutional amendments election; Texans will decide the fate of 14 constitutional amendments approved for the ballot by state lawmakers. Here’s a breakdown of each constitutional amendment and requirements to vote. by María Méndez, Yuriko Schumacher & Texas Tribune Staff | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Sept. 15, 2023 — 5 AM Central — TAGS: Politics, State government, Texas House of Representatives, Texas Legislature, Texas Senate,
   1. MIKE: This article from the Texas Tribune has way too much really detailed and specific information to read to you, but trust me: You want to go to this article and read it carefully. It contains links for not only how and where to vote anywhere in Texas, but also about the Texas Constitutional Amendments that will be on the ballot.
   2. MIKE: I’ll probably discuss the Amendments in October when we get to Early Voting.
   3. I also recommend going to Charles Kuffner’s insightful discussion of these amendments at his website, offthekuff.com or by following the link to the specific article at the reference below.
   4. REFERENCE: A guide to the constitutional amendments for November 2023 — Posted on September 19, 2023 by Charles Kuffner
4. A new COVID vaccine is here, but those at greatest risk may not get it as outreach drops off; By Amy Maxmen, KFF Health News | PBS.ORG | Sep 17, 2023 – 2:38 PM EDT / TAG: Health
   1. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends new COVID-19 booster vaccines for all — but many who need them most won’t get them. About 75 percent of people in the United States appear to have skipped last year’s bivalent booster, and nothing suggests uptake will be better this time around. …
   2. MIKE: Some people and articles are referring to the new Covid shot as a booster. Others are calling it a vaccine.
   3. MIKE: From my readings, it’s important to note that this is more of a vaccine than a simple booster. The version of Covid that this will vaccinate you against is different enough that calling it a “new” vaccine is the best description.
   4. MIKE: When you make your appointment, and even when you actually get your shot, it won’t hurt to ask if this is the most current vaccine recently approved by the FDA.
   5. MIKE: Also note that this is Covid vaccine is not also combined with a flu vaccine. The flu vaccine is a separate shot that you will have to request separately, but can get them at the same time if that is appropriate for you.
   6. MIKE: For more information, click on the link to the article that I have referenced in this post and the reference cited below.
   7. MIKE: And for those who don’t have medical insurance, you can still get a free Covid vaccination. Go to gov to find a location near you for a free shot.
   8. REFERENCE: Looking for the new COVID vaccine booster? Here’s where to get the shot. — By Megan Cerullo | CBSNEWS.COM | September 14, 2023 / 4:16 PM / MoneyWatch. TAGS: Booster Dose, COVID-19 Vaccine, COVID-19, COVID-19 Pandemic
   9. REFERENCE: Uninsured Americans can still get free Covid boosters — here’s how to find them; By Annika Kim Constantino (@annikakimc) | CNBC.COM | Published Tue, Sep 19 202311:19 AM EDT, Updated Tue, Sep 19 20231:03 PM EDT
   10. REFERENCE: Why officials aren’t calling this year’s new COVID shots ‘boosters’ — By Alexander Tin | CBSNEWS.COM | September 15, 2023 / 10:17 AM / CBS News. TAGS: COVID-19 Vaccine, COVID-19,
5. Pearland prioritizes error-free tax worksheet for FY 2023-24 budget; By Rachel Leland | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 4:13 PM Sep 15, 2023 CDT (Updated 4:13 PM Sep 15, 2023 CDT)
   1. As Pearland City Council finalizes the fiscal year 2023-24 budget, new practices to ensure this year’s tax worksheet is error-free were a top priority.
   2. On Sept. 11, Pearland City Council approved the first reading of its FY 2023-24 budget, which was styled as “Realigning for Resilience,” a name that alludes to its efforts to correct course after a tax worksheet error in FY 2022-23 set the city back $7 million.
   3. The budget presentation included a breakdown of valuations for Harris, Fort Bend and Brazoria counties. The breakdowns showed a year-over-year increase in valuation for each county, a factor City Manager Trent Epperson said played a role in last year’s error.
   4. “This was something that was missed in the valuation error last year,” Epperson said. “Breaking this down by county as opposed to looking at it as a single lump rate sum on the tax worksheet is important.”
   5. City Council approved the first reading of the tax rate of $0.6554 per $100 valuation, which marks a more than 6-cent decrease in the tax rate over the past four years. [MIKE: This is a common adjustment in this very hot real estate market. You end up with higher property valuations but lower tax rates. That can still lead to a modest net tax increase over the previous year.]
   6. The $114 million budget includes a 1% increase in expenditures over FY 2022-23. The increase includes market competitive raises for the city’s 907 employees, capital improvement projects and public safety programs, according to agenda documents.
   7. The budget also proposes a 14% water rate increase, which would set the average household back an additional $12.40 per month, according to agenda documents. This increase is driven by public water infrastructure projects, such as the $175 million surface water treatment plant.
   8. Council Member Alex Kamkar put forward a motion to cut $1.7 million from the budget because he said he felt residents were “feeling the pinch” of the budget increase.
   9. “Families are feeling it. People trying to buy a house are feeling it,” Kamkar said before adding he felt cuts could be made to city wage increases and savings funds, such as the motor pool fund, which is set aside for future projects.
   10. Other city officials, including Council Member Jeffrey Barry, spoke against Kamkar’s motion, voicing they felt it was irresponsible to decrease the amount of money the city sets aside for future expenses, even if they are many years down the road.
   11. “The thing is, money costs a lot more in the future. So, if we’re not saving money right now, we’re going to have to pay for it later,” Barry said. “What you’re actually saying is, ‘I don’t mind paying more money later. I don’t mind going out to the citizens for the bond when, had I saved for the past five years, then we wouldn’t have a bond and interest to pay on that bond.’”
   12. Pearland City Council will vote on the second and final reading of the budget at its Sept. 25 meeting.
   13. MIKE: We’ve discussed Pearland’s property tax SNAFU in on our March 1, 2023 show, so I thought we owed it to listeners to do a follow-up on that.
   14. MIKE: I’m always intrigued by Pearland City Council Member Alex Kamkar. He’s obviously very conservative fiscally, but I think that his political philosophy makes him inherently shortsighted. As an example, “… he felt cuts could be made to city wage increases and savings funds, such as the motor pool fund, which is set aside for future projects.” In my opinion, that shows a combination of Scrooge-y treatment of city employees, potential employee and citizen endangerment long-term maintenance cost increases by stinting on the motor pool fund, and cutting or denying Pearland residents of future city improvements by cutting set-asides for future projects.
   15. MIKE: I’m willing to bet that as sure as night follows day, when it comes time for a tax increase to pay for City improvements or repairs that have become necessary, Alex Kamkar or his successor will be against tax increases for those, too. Instead, there will be cries for more belt-tightening to pay for those things. This sort of attitude ultimately leads to degradation of city services and infrastructure because — and you’ve heard me say this before — you get the government you pay for.
6. NHCRWA board votes to reduce water rates for 2nd time in 2023; By Cassandra Jenkins | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 4:21 PM Sep 14, 2023 CDT / Updated 4:20 PM Sep 14, 2023 CDT
   1. The North Harris County Regional Water Authority board voted Sept. 11 to reduce its water rates 50 cents for the second time in 2023.
   2. According to a Sept. 12 news release from the NHCRWA, the new surface water and groundwater rates will go into effect Oct. 1.
      1. Surface water rates will go from $4.55 to $4.05 per 1,000 gallons.
      2. Groundwater pumpage fees will be reduced from $4.10 to $3.60 per 1,000 gallons.
      3. The board has decreased prices a total of $1 per thousand gallons of usage this year.
      4. Combined cuts are expected to save NHCRWA customers approximately $60 million per year.
   3. “When our board addressed rates at the beginning of the year, we acted cautiously but with the stated intent to re-examine NHCRWA finances later in the year,” Board President Mark Ramsey said in the release. “This recent review revealed more revenue thus far in 2023 than had been anticipated earlier in the year, clearly enabling these additional rate cuts.”
   4. The September rate cuts are the second time in eight months the water authority has made reductions in 2023. The board approved the first reduction in January, and according to Community Impact, it was the first rate decrease in the authority’s history.
      1. Both surface water rates and groundwater pumpage fees were reduced by $0.50 per 1,000 gallons at that time.
      2. The first price reduction went into effect Feb. 1.
      3. The board voted to cut rates after finding a $30 million surplus in the operating budget.
   5. MIKE: This may surprise many of you, but I’m not a big fan of tax cuts; at least, I’m not a fan of poorly considered tax cuts. Utility rates are not much different in this regard.
   6. MIKE: For example, I note in the story that less is charged for pumped groundwater than for surface water. With subsidence in and around Houston being a decades-old problem that increases storm flooding, ground water should cost more for three reasons: 1) it creates an incentive to focus more on surface water sources, and 2) it builds up a cash reserve in the water district that can be used to facilitate and speed up the conversion of the North Harris County Regional Water Authority from ground water to surface water; and 3) this cash reserve could support a bond issue for the same reason: to help pay for increasing the access to more surface water to further replace dependence on ground water. This will not only be better for the environment in the long term. It will also keep present and future property owners in the district more likely to keep their heads above water.
7. MIKE: I got a campaign email on Tuesday that I thought was interesting and a little bit exciting. According to this email from the office of Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, that state is now an automatic voter registration state. To quote the Governor, “From now on in Pennsylvania, if you’re a legal, eligible voter getting or renewing your driver’s license or ID card at the DMV, you will be automatically registered to vote unless you choose to opt out. This will help tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians make their voice heard – no matter who you choose to vote for or what your views are.”
   1. MIKE: This is another example of how elections have consequences. Make sure you always vote. In Pennsylvania, they’re trying to make it easier. Vote for people in Texas who want to make it easier, and it will happen here, too.
8. Outflanked by liberals, Oregon conservatives aim to become part of Idaho; Much of conservative eastern Oregon wants to be part of Idaho, and a push to shift an old border is underway. By Scott Wilson | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | Updated September 15, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. EDT – Published September 15, 2023 at 8:17 a.m. EDT
   1. The Snake River has formed the border of Oregon and Idaho for more than a century and a half …
   2. Here on the Oregon side, where Bob Wheatley has lived his entire life, are a collection of high-end cannabis shops, a new Planned Parenthood clinic, and gas prices a dollar higher than those just over the river.
   3. Across the river in the town of Fruitland, in western Idaho, new housing subdivisions stretch out for miles from the main streets. Agriculture, bottling and construction businesses that just months ago were based in Oregon are thriving. One of Fruitland’s new problems is building enough schools to accommodate the out-of-state arrivals, many of them from Oregon. …
   4. These twin towns across an old border straddle a seam in the nation’s deepening political polarization, neighboring opposites living under starkly different laws. The river separates states that, perhaps more than in any other part of the nation, embrace the two parties’ most extreme positions on gun control, abortion rights, environmental regulation, drug legalization and other issues at the center of the American political debate.
   5. The result in eastern Oregon, from the volcanic Cascade Range to this border town, is a sense of profound political alienation. The disaffection among conservatives has spawned a movement to change the state’s political dynamic in a novel if quixotic way — rather than relocate or change the politics, which seems impossible to many here, why not move the border and become residents who live under the rules of Idaho?
   6. This is no small task.
   7. Both the Oregon and Idaho state legislatures, which are controlled by Democrats and Republicans respectively, would have to approve a border shift, which in this case would be the most significant geographically since western states began forming in the mid-19th century. The issue would then go to the U.S. Congress.
   8. But, as more than two dozen interviews across the state made clear, there is momentum behind the cause among a lightly populated region of ranch land, swift rivers, and vast pine forests. It is known formally as the Greater Idaho movement.
   9. So far 12 counties in central and eastern Oregon have voted in favor of local ballot measures that compel county leaders to study the idea of moving the border about 270 miles west. The movement envisions 14 full counties joining Idaho, along with parts of others.
   10. A 13th county is scheduled to take up the question on the May 2024 ballot. The region accounts for less than 10 percent of Oregon’s population, but most of its territory.
   11. The push to change the border is rooted in policy differences and a sense that, in Oregon, there will be no way for conservatives to influence the laws and regulations made by the elected representatives of the far more numerous Democratic voters who live on the western side of the Cascades.
   12. Idaho offers a much more comfortable political home for eastern Oregon’s conservatives, who live in many of the most racially homogenous counties in the state. In nearly every county that has voted to explore joining Idaho, White residents account for more than 80 percent of the population.
   13. The political contrast between the states is stark.
   14. Oregon Democrats have a more than 30 percent edge in voter registration over Republicans, and Joe Biden won the state by 16 percentage points in 2020. Idaho offers a mirror image: Republican voters outnumber Democrats more than 5 to 1, and Donald Trump defeated Biden by 30 percentage points. Both states have sent two senators from the same party to Washington — Democrats in Oregon, Republicans in Idaho.
   15. At 74, [Bob Wheatley, who retired recently after five decades as a local pharmacist,] has been considering a move across the river for years, returning his wife, Chrystine, a retired nurse, to the state where she grew up. But he could not sell his home for enough money to buy something comparable in Fruitland, where prices are rising because of the Oregon arrivals.
   16. So, in late 2020, Wheatley, never before a political activist, volunteered to gather signatures to place a measure on the May 2021 ballot compelling Malheur County commissioners to study joining Idaho. It passed easily.
   17. “I told Chrys, ‘I can’t move you, but maybe I can move the border,’” Wheatley said. “So that’s what we’re trying.”
   18. In many parts of the country, the divide between red and blue has prompted a re-sorting in which moving states has seemed simpler to tens of thousands of people than changing the party in charge.
   19. The Greater Idaho movement may be among the most extreme versions of this trend. But deep-blue California is also experiencing pockets of red resistance to dominant Democratic rule.
   20. El Dorado County, which bumps up against the southern tip of Lake Tahoe and the Nevada border, has been the venue recently for boisterous town hall meetings over whether to secede. Last year, San Bernardino County supervisors voted to study creating its own state. A movement to carve out a new “state of Jefferson” from parts of northeastern California has been simmering for more than a half century.
   21. MIKE: I think there may be merit to this idea, but only if you take it to the point of absurdity.
   22. MIKE: As a Democratic bastion in a Red state dominated by rural and small town voters, and with the state legislature further distorted by heavy gerrymandering, I could see sense in a movement to create States out of Texas’s Blue Counties, which appear to be Bexar County, Brooks County, Cameron County, Culberson County, Dallas County, Dimmit County, Duval County, El Paso County, Fort Bend County, Harris County, Hays County, Hidalgo County, Jim Hogg County, Maverick County, Presidio County, Starr County, Travis County, Webb County, Willacy County, and Zavala County.
   23. MIKE: Based on the numbers I’ve found, a good estimate for the current population of the State of Texas is 29,351,082. Also based on the numbers I’ve found, a good population estimate for the Counties that vote Blue is 14,827,562. When you do the math, that means that — by population — Blue Counties should mathematically out-vote Red counties, at least in statewide elections. Ergo, Texas should be a Blue State, though barely. Solid purple, at least.
   24. MIKE: Going back to the logic of the activists in the story, the more populous half of Texas — the Blue Counties — should secede from Texas and form their own state, which I might call “Reason”. So, the Blue Counties would form the State of Reason.
   25. MIKE: This logic might also apply to Blue counties in every other state. So where would it end?
   26. MIKE: I know of people who, if they made the choice today, would not move to Texas or Florida or almost any other Republican-dominated state. I know of people who have seriously thought about moving out of such states, if only they could.
   27. MIKE: As the story points out, changing the borders of a state or carving out a new state requires the permission of the state governments involved, plus the consent of Congress.
   28. MIKE: If we can’t abolish the Electoral College, or pass the Equal Rights Amendment, or make Washington DC and Puerto Rico states, what are the chances of changing state borders or carving out a new state from existing ones?
   29. MIKE: The way I see it, all of us have 3 choices in these matters: Vote for change; Don’t vote and don’t complain; or Vote with your feet.
   30. REFERENCE: These are the reddest and bluest counties in Texas, based on recent election results — by Christopher Adams | KXAN.COM (Austin) | Posted: Oct 31, 2022 / 07:12 AM CDT (Updated: Jun 23, 2023 / 10:47 AM CDT )
   31. Reference: Texas Counties by Population (XLS File)— TEXAS-DEMOGRAPHICS.COM (“… the 254 Texas counties sorted by population from largest to smallest. The population data are from the 2022 Population Estimates Program and 2021 American Community Survey.)
   32. REFERENCE: Reference (Thinkwing Radio, 2023-9-20) XLSX File- Texas Counties by Population— TEXAS-DEMOGRAPHICS.COM
9. Navy will take ‘years to recover’ from Tuberville military hold, says Biden nominee; by Ellen MitchellCOM | 09/14/23 4:59 PM ET. Tags Joe Biden Tommy Tuberville
   1. It will take the Navy “years to recover” from Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) months-long hold on hundreds of military promotions, according to President Biden’s nominee to next lead the service. 
   2. “It will take years to recover from … the promotion delays that we will see going forward,” Adm. Lisa Franchetti told lawmakers during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to consider her nomination for chief of naval operations. 
   3. Tuberville since the spring has held firm on a blockade against more than 300 nonpolitical military promotions over his objection to the Pentagon’s policy to allow service members leave time and travel expenses to seek abortions outside of the states where they are based. 
   4. Tuberville has refused to budge on his hold despite growing pressure from Senate Republican colleagues and leaders.  
   5. Military officials, meanwhile, have repeatedly argued that the blockade hurts military readiness by keeping key leaders out of their intended jobs and adding stress to military families, putting national security in jeopardy. 
   6. Franchetti echoed that thinking Thursday, telling senators that Tuberville’s hold has created “a lot of uncertainty” for Naval families. …
   7. If confirmed, Franchetti, who has been vice chief of naval operations since last fall, will be the first woman to hold the position of the Navy’s highest-ranking officer. She will also be the first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 
   8. Biden nominated Franchetti in July, noting then that she had already made history as the second woman ever to achieve the rank of four-star admiral in the Navy.  
   9. MIKE: There is so much wrong with this. Delaying the promotion confirmation for decision-making high-level officers injures our ability to make long term national defense plans. At the same time, Tuberville and his enablers are demonstrating how far they have fallen as the US political party most interested in our national defense and security. And finally, it shows us again how broken the Senate is and how badly the rules have to be changed and reformed, specifically because so many Senators and Senate leaders how learned how to abuse them and bend them to stifle the country’s necessary business, and now do so on a regular basis.
   10. MIKE: There is something to be said for Senate rules that offer some protection for the minority against a tyranny of the majority, but at some point, the rules must let business get done.
10. In business news with national implications, I’ve talked before on this show about “leveraged buyouts” by private equity firms. Even former Texas Governor Rick Perry called this activity “vulture capitalism” — Book Publishing Has a Toys ‘R’ Us Problem; A private-equity acquisition will saddle Simon & Schuster with $1 billion in debt. What could go wrong? By Carter Dougherty and Andrew Park | THEATLANTIC.COM | September 9, 2023
    1. Earlier this year, the Department of Justice blocked Penguin Random House, owned by the German media giant Bertelsmann, from acquiring Simon & Schuster. The big five publishers—HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Hachette, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster—already control about 80 percent of the book market. The literary class was relieved.
    2. Less than a year later, the private-equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts announced that it would buy Simon & Schuster. Because the firm doesn’t already own a competing publisher, the deal is unlikely to trigger another antitrust probe. But KKR, infamous as Wall Street’s “barbarians at the gate” since the 1980s, may leave Simon & Schuster employees and authors yearning for a third choice beyond a multinational conglomerate or a powerful financial firm. …
    3. On its face, the Simon & Schuster acquisition appears to be a standard private-equity deal, which is precisely the problem. Private equity is the anodyne label adopted after “leveraged buyouts” got a bad name, in part thanks to KKR’s ravaging of RJR Nabisco after a $25 billion takeover in 1988. In a leveraged buyout, the buyer takes over a company with a small amount of its own money, a larger amount of investors’ money, and a whole lot of debt. KKR agreed to pay $1.62 billion for Simon & Schuster, of which $1 billion will reportedly be borrowed money.
    4. From the perspective of the private-equity firm, leverage is a feature, not a bug. Purchase a company for $100 million in cash with no debt, make $5 million in profit annually, and it will deliver a return of 5 percent. Buy the same company using 60 percent debt, and that same profit in absolute terms yields a 12.5 percent return.
    5. Crucially, Simon & Schuster, not KKR, is responsible for repaying the debt. KKR simply raises it, against the publisher’s franchise value, to fund the acquisition. Lenders have no recourse to KKR or its executives, who are legally shielded from liability. (Technically, KKR won’t own Simon & Schuster; the owner will be a fund that KKR “advises.”) Moody’s will likely assign the $1 billion debt a credit rating about five levels below investment-grade, according to Bloomberg—the corporate equivalent of subprime mortgages. …
    6. Based on terms granted to similarly rated borrowers, and on our analysis of Bloomberg data on recent transactions, Simon & Schuster would have to pay interest rates above 9 percent. That would cost the publisher nearly $100 million, about 40 percent of operating income in 2022, on interest alone. In raw financial terms, the transaction will weaken Simon & Schuster the moment it closes, never mind what KKR does as an owner. (Both KKR and Simon & Schuster declined to comment for this article.) …
    7. Private-equity executives argue that the debt is worth it: They have the business savvy to make their new acquisition so much more profitable that they’ll be able to sell it in a few years for much more than they paid for it. (Richard Sarnoff, the chairman of media at KKR, was a longtime publishing CFO.) Where will that extra value come from? KKR is touting plans to expand into new genres of publishing domestically, and into overseas markets, among other tactics. But the standard private-equity playbook is a mixture of slashing costs and pumping up cash flow. Sometimes this pays off, at least for the private-equity firm, because there are workers to let go and assets to sell.
    8. But the push toward pure short-term profit maximization can get ugly. Although private equity’s foray into book publishing is new, funds have been buying up news publications for the past decade. When they do, they tend to lay off reporters and editors, cut back on print editions, and invest less in the resources necessary for great journalism. Alden Global Capital, one of the most infamous, is known for acquiring newspapers and then selling off their buildings to its own real-estate-flipping subsidiary. (In at least one case, that resulted in a major newspaper paying rent to Alden for office space it used to own.) But those moves may not apply to book publishing. Simon & Schuster does not own the building at Rockefeller Center that bears its name. It has only about 1,500 employees, and KKR has said that no layoffs are planned.
    9. So the new owners might seek other ways to juice short-term returns. Dan Sinykin, a professor at Emory University and the author of the forthcoming Big Fiction: How Conglomeration Changed the Publishing Industry and American Literature, predicts that KKR will double down even more than big publishers already have on proven authors or celebrity memoirs, at the expense of riskier unknown writers—an approach akin to Hollywood’s love of the sequel. To a cost-cutter, established brands substitute for expensive marketing. …
    10. Ultimately, KKR may not even need to solve the riddle of increased profitability. As is often the case with private equity, it can profit even if Simon & Schuster does not. The $620 million not covered by debt will come from a fund that KKR assembled from a collection of entities including a dozen state pension funds, a Chinese insurer, and a pilots’ union in Iceland. Appelbaum predicts that the sliver from KKR itself could be 2 to 10 percent, or $12.4 million to $62 million. (The actual amount isn’t public.) KKR put up only 06 percent of its own money in the RJR Nabisco takeover.
    11. But the company can start harvesting cash immediately. Private-equity firms collect “management fees” from their own investors and “monitoring” or “advisory” fees from companies they purchase. KKR and its partners collected $185 million in advisory fees from Toys “R” Us before bankrupting it. With Simon & Schuster, fees alone could let KKR make its own money back in a few years.
    12. Another technique for extracting money goes by the opaque name “dividend recapitalization.” A recent headline in The Wall Street Journal described it more transparently: “debt-fueled payouts.” The acquired company issues a bond to raise money that is then paid out to its new owners and used to refinance old debt. It’s a common tactic in private equity. Earlier this year, KKR pulled $750 million ($385 million for itself) out of Atlantic Aviation, which provides services to plane owners. The company now groans under a debt load seven times its annual earnings, according to Moody’s.
    13. In their recent book about private equity, These Are the Plunderers, Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner recount maddening stories about KKR: how it bankrupted Toys “R” Us; gouged residents of Bayonne, New Jersey, for water and sewage; and, very recently, ran a vital provider of emergency services into the ground. If KKR’s latest deal follows a similar trajectory, Morgenson and Rosner might have a harder time documenting it. Their publisher is Simon & Schuster.
    14. MIKE: Private equity acquisitions, aka leveraged buyouts, aka vulture capitalism. Whatever you call it, a corpse flower smells the same by any other name.
    15. MIKE: Leveraged buyouts often kill companies, and the private equity firms make money whether the acquisition lives or dies. I was working for Sears when Edward Lambert’s ESL Investments took it over through its recently-acquired K-Mart company, merging both into Sears Holdings. The quick results were cuts in sales commissions, and removing light bulbs to save money. I can tell you that a store with 50% less lighting is not a conducive sales environment. The stores became increasingly decrepit.
    16. MIKE: It took a long time for Sears to technically lose money under Lambert’s management, but that’s because ESL’s Sears Holdings kept selling real estate assets and brands (such as Lands End, Craftsman, Kenmore, etc.), and finally closing stores.
    17. MIKE: This is a much longer story, better told over some beers.
    18. MIKE: A COM article points out that , “Private equity was involved in the downfalls of Payless Shoes, Deadspin, Shopko, and RadioShack. Taylor Swift has placed blame on the “unregulated world of private equity” for a battle over her music. Surprise medical bills? A private equity link. The Hollywood writers’ gripes? Same thing.” This quote has additional links if you
    19. MIKE: In my opinion, leveraged buyouts need much more financial regulation, because as it stands, it’s the employees and communities they serve that get hurt. If private equity firm KKR succeeds in buying Simon & Schuster, I don’t think we can expect a better result.
    20. MIKE: If you want to learn some more about leveraged buyouts, I’ve added some links below this story.
    21. REFERENCE: What is private equity, and why is it killing everything you love?; Private equity led to the closing of Toys R Us and cost 30,000 workers their jobs — and it’s hardly the only example of a deal gone wrong. By Emily Stewart (stewart@vox.com) | VOX.COM | Jan 6, 2020, 7:00am EST
    22. REFERENCE: Private equity’s role in retail has killed 1.3 million jobs, study says; Women and people of color have been disproportionately affected by closures at debt-saddled stores. By Abha Bhattarai | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | July 24, 2019 at 11:16 a.m. EDT
11. Apple just killed the iPhone Lightning connector. What to do with your old chargers; Analysis by Allison Morrow | CNN | Updated 4:28 PM EDT, Tue September 12, 2023
    1. At long last, Apple is killing its proprietary Lightning port in the iPhone 15 and embracing a charging cable that’s compatible with non-Apple products. That’s one less extra cord cluttering your nightstand. One less thing to forget when packing for a weekend getaway. …
    2. Retiring the Lightning cable could even generate, in the short term, a surge of e-waste as iPhone users toss their useless Lightning cables in a drawer. (Which, to be clear, isn’t recommended. Apple says it has a “robust” recycling program where you can bring in used chargers and cables. You can also look for a local e-waste recycling center or Best Buy store for environmentally friendly options.) …
    3. There are about 66 million tons of electronic waste generated each year, says Ruediger Kuehr, head of the United Nations University’s Sustainable Cycles Program. Charging cables, he said account for “a few hundred thousand tons.”
    4. “When we look to the pure numbers, it’s close to nothing,” Kuehr said. “But we nevertheless think it’s a very important step in order to make people … aware of the issue we are facing.”
    5. E-waste is a growing problem that has yet to enter the mainstream consciousness. Most of it ends up where it shouldn’t — in our closets and junk drawers — which means more materials such as copper, gold and platinum have to be mined to produce new products.
    6. “You can make money out of it, but you have to really do a lot of steps,” Kuehr says. “This is not understandable for the consumer in comparison to all the other waste streams.”
    7. Nearly 80% of all e-waste generated around the globe is not properly treated, he said. …
    8. [T]o Apple’s credit, the company has been “a leader in scraping off rare earth metals from its reuse pile to recover these expensive materials,” Chertow says, noting that last year Apple said it was reusing more than two-thirds of the aluminum it needed. “These days, waste experts find that “reuse” is most often a better path than recycling as more can be recovered.”
    9. MIKE: Whether the iPhone 15 has a truly universal USB-C plug or their proprietary Thunderbolt plug which is kinda-sorta compatible with USB-C remains to be seen. The last thing I’ve read is that Apple will be using a conventional USB-C port and not their variation called Thunderbolt.
    10. MIKE: However, this is a good time to discuss electronics recycling, which has become easier to do than even several years ago. Every hard drive, phone, and cable or keyboard makes a difference in the big picture. Below this story, I’ve compiled a partial list of some of the easier-to-access recycling resources. There are others. We should all try our best.
    11. REFERENCE: Apple Recycling Programs — APPLE.COM (Apple products only. See details)
    12. REFERENCE: Electronics, Appliances and Fitness Equipment Recycling at Best Buy — BESTBUY.COM
    13. REFERENCE: Recycling Services at Staples
    14. REFERENCE: Houston Solid Waste Management Department – Electronics Donation and Recycling (Free to Houston City residents only)
    15. REFERENCE: Texas Recycles TVs Program — TCEQ.TEXAS.GOV
    16. REFERENCE: Texas Recycles Computers Program — TCEQ.TEXAS.GOV
    17. REFERENCE: What Devices Can I Recycle at uBreakiFix® by Asurion and Asurion Tech Repair & Solutions™ in Houston — UBREAKIFIX.COM
    18. REFERENCE: E-Waste Recycling Options in the Houston Region 2022 — SIERRACLUB.ORG
    19. REFERENCE: Republic Services Electronics Recycling — REPUBLICSERVICES.COM
12. The bizarre secret behind China’s spy balloon; By David Martin | CBSNEWS.COM | September 17, 2023 / 9:26 AM / CBS News
    1. For more info: Mark A. Milley, chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
    2. It was surely the most bizarre crisis of the Biden administration: America’s top-of-the-line jet fighters being sent up to shoot down, of all things, a balloon – a Chinese spy balloon that was floating across the United States, which had the nation and its politicians in a tizzy.
    3. Now, seven months later, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tells “CBS News Sunday Morning” the balloon wasn’t spying. “The intelligence community, their assessment – and it’s a high-confidence assessment – [is] that there was no intelligence collection by that balloon,” he said.
    4. So, why was it over the United States? There are various theories, with at least one leading theory that it was blown off-track.
    5. The balloon had been headed toward Hawaii, but the winds at 60,000 feet apparently took over. “Those winds are very high,” Milley said. “The particular motor on that aircraft can’t go against those winds at that altitude.” …
    6. After the Navy raised the wreckage from the bottom of the Atlantic, technical experts discovered the balloon’s sensors had never been activated while over the Continental United States. …
    7. So, [David Martin of CBSNEWS] asked, “Bottom line, it was a spy balloon, but it wasn’t spying?”
    8. Milley replied, “I would say it was a spy balloon that we know with high degree of certainty got no intelligence, and didn’t transmit any intelligence back to China.”
    9. MIKE: So why have a spy balloon not doing any spying?
    10. MIKE: Did you know that forensic technology is so sophisticated that they can actually tell after an accident if an aircraft’s control lights were on or off?
    11. MIKE: My amateur theory might be that the Chinese knew where the spy balloon was going, couldn’t change course, and didn’t want to make the whole incident worse by actually turning on their sensors over North America. Perhaps part of their calculation was that US technology would eventually figure out that the electronics were turned off.
    12. MIKE: It’s a good thing that Biden took a very measured approach to this incident. Wars have started over lesser miscalculations.
13. China Brings Out the Big Guns in the South China Sea; The Chinese navy and maritime militia are using water cannons, laser dazzlers, and harassing tactics to try to push smaller nations out of the area. By Jack Detsch | FOREIGNPOLICY.COM | September 15, 2023, 1:57 PM
    1. China’s naval pressure campaign against rival nations in the South China Sea has reached unprecedented heights since yearly short-term moratoriums on fishing were lifted, with Chinese ships shadowing Western warships in the region and seeking to interrupt maritime resupply on a submerged, Philippine-claimed island. 
    2. The People’s Liberation Army Navy’s ongoing blockade of the Second Thomas Shoal, a submerged reef that’s part of the Spratly Island chain in the West Philippine Sea, has become a rallying point for Southeast Asian countries concerned about China’s harassment of smaller nations on the high seas. In early August, the Philippines accused Chinese vessels of firing water cannons at its Coast Guard ships as they attempted to resupply the reef. 
    3. It was a major display of force by China, including six large Coast Guard ships and four naval vessels. “It looked to be a calculated show of force by China,” said Ray Powell, the director of SeaLight, a Stanford University project focused on China’s maritime gray zone activities. “It looked like China was trying to send the Philippines a message that playtime is over. We’re bringing in the big guns.” 
    4. China basically claims almost all of the South China Sea, asserting “indisputable sovereignty” over the Spratly Islands, the Paracel Islands, and the Scarborough Shoal via a so-called nine-dash line ringing the sea. While those claims are disputed by almost every other country in the region, including Taiwan, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, China has spent more than a decade creating facts on the ground by artificially enhancing atolls and reefs, turning them into airfields and ports. …
    5. It’s not the first recent maritime flare-up between Chinese and Philippine sailors. Even during the administration of the mercurial former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who sought to strengthen relations with Beijing …, Manila filed a formal diplomatic protest in 2021, when more than 200 Chinese fishing boats laid anchor at the disputed Whitsun Reef in the Spratly chain. The Philippines also sought arbitration at the Hague over the territorial dispute with China in the sea in 2016. 
    6. But with new Philippine President Bongbong Marcos in power and taking a more hawkish tack toward China, the tensions have kicked up another notch. Through the summer, China repositioned large portions of its maritime militia forces to operate out of Mischief Reef, according to Powell. Mischief, an atoll in the South China Sea that has been developed by Beijing and armed with anti-aircraft missiles, is about 25 miles from Second Thomas Shoal. 
    7. … Manila has dusted off Vietnam’s playbook from 2014, when Chinese vessels harassed Hanoi’s navy over an oil rig dispute in the South China Sea, by naming and shaming China directly. “When it comes to international relations, anything that you publicize that has a reputational cost for China, hits a nerve with the Chinese,” Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela told Bloomberg in August. 
    8. The push against Second Thomas Shoal is also a sign to experts that China’s navy can more effectively sustain itself at sea from disputed islands in the South China Sea. And just as China’s air force has used constant incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone as a tactic to burn out Taipei’s pilots, it is using the pressure campaign at sea to exhaust Philippine forces. …
    9. And the more that China uses Coast Guard and maritime militia forces to harass the Philippine and other regional navies, the more routine China’s aggressive posture becomes. …
    10. Chinese military strategists believe that under the constant pressure, the United States would go away rather than continue to contest its maritime control. 
    11. Even with the Philippines adamant that it will continue to resupply the sunken reef despite Chinese harassment, experts are worried that the Biden administration needs a longer-term solution to the recurring crisis, which has bedeviled the last three U.S. administrations. 
    12. “The Philippines and the U.S. are going to have to come up with a solution for Second Thomas Shoal,” said Powell. “Because otherwise, time and the elements will solve it for them, and at that point, China will just own the shoal.” 
    13. MIKE: I’ve been following this story for years, since before the Chinese started building the islands they’re now using as advanced bases. The more they build their military forces — especially their naval and air forces — the more aggressive they have become.
    14. MIKE: China’s naval and air activity in and around the South China Sea has more than a little to do with Vietnam’s newly close relationship with the United States.
    15. MIKE: There was a time just a few years ago that I observed that the world felt like it was in prewar era but when I was saying that, I expected the war to be in the waters around China. Not a full-on invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
    16. MIKE: But as has been observed by some, Ukraine and Taiwan are not disconnected. Russia’s failure to win what was widely expected to be a quick victory in Ukraine may be giving China greater caution regarding any attempt to take Taiwan by force. As Lawrence O’Donnell noted on Tuesday night, no country goes into a war with a clear expectation of how long it will last, and I have noted that no exit strategy survives contact with the enemy.
    17. MIKE: Russia’s experience in Ukraine, and the innovative ways that Ukraine has asymmetrically fought the war with its novel use of resources both donated and locally produced, have provided lessons that every military in the world is studying with varying degrees of concern. China is no exception.
14. NASA finally admits what everyone already knows: SLS is unaffordable; “At current cost levels the SLS program is unsustainable.” By Eric Berger | ARSTECHNICA.COM | 9/7/2023, 3:21 PM
    1. In a new report, the federal department charged with analyzing how efficiently US taxpayer dollars are spent, the Government Accountability Office, says NASA lacks transparency on the true costs of its Space Launch System rocket program.
    2. Published on Thursday, the new report (see .pdf) examines the billions of dollars spent by NASA on the development of the massive rocket, which made a successful debut launch in late 2022 with the Artemis I mission. Surprisingly, as part of the reporting process, NASA officials admitted the rocket was too expensive to support its lunar exploration efforts as part of the Artemis program.
    3. “Senior NASA officials told GAO that at current cost levels, the SLS [Space Launch System] program is unaffordable,” the new report states.
    4. The Government Accountability Office expressed serious concerns about NASA’s decision not to measure production costs of SLS rocket elements, including the core stages and rocket engines needed for future launches. Instead, NASA told the report authors that it plans to “monitor production costs and affordability of the SLS program via the five-year production and operations cost estimate.”
    5. However, the report states, these are “poor tools” for a cost baseline for the SLS rocket program and will make it difficult for taxpayers to measure costs and the performance of NASA and its contractors over time. Moreover, the report indicates that NASA has not regularly updated its five-year production cost estimates for the rocket. The report also cites concerns about development costs of future hardware for NASA’s big-ticket rocket program, including the Exploration Upper Stage.
    6. Another problem with NASA’s cost estimates is that they do not appear to account for delays to Artemis missions. It is probable that the Artemis II mission, a crewed flight around the Moon, will launch no earlier than 2025. The Artemis III crewed landing will likely slip to at least 2026, if not more, with additional delays down the line. At least one NASA official apparently told the Government Accountability Office that these delays would have no cost impacts, which seems highly improbable.
    7. “Some NASA officials told us that changes to Artemis mission dates should not affect the SLS program’s cost estimate,” the report states. “Other officials noted that the program’s cost estimate would be expected to increase to account for the delay to the Artemis IV mission, which shifted from 2026 to 2028.”
    8. NASA officials interviewed by the Government Accountability Office acknowledged that they were concerned about the costs of the SLS rocket.
    9. .”NASA recognizes the need to improve the affordability of the SLS program and is taking steps to do so,” the report states. “Senior agency officials have told us that at current cost levels the SLS program is unsustainable and exceeds what NASA officials believe will be available for its Artemis missions.”
    10. Officials from the space agency said they had a four-step plan to reduce costs of the SLS rocket program over time:
        1. Stabilize the flight schedule
        2. Achieve learning curve efficiencies
        3. Encourage innovation
        4. Adjust acquisition strategies to reduce cost risk
    11. … “NASA, however, has not yet identified specific program-level cost-saving goals which it hopes to achieve,” the authors write. …
    12. While NASA certainly deserves credit for talking about the excessive cost of the SLS rocket—a fact that has been pointed out by critics for more than a decade but largely ignored by NASA officials and congressional leaders—it is not at all clear that they will be able to control costs. For example, NASA recently said that it is working with the primary contractor of the SLS rocket’s main engines, Aerojet, to reduce the cost of each engine by 30 percent, down to $70.5 million by the end of this decade.
    13. However, NASA’s inspector general, Paul Martin, said this claim was dubious. According to Martin, when calculating the projected cost savings of the new RS-25 engines, NASA and Aerojet only included material, engineering support, and touch labor, while project management and overhead costs are excluded.
    14. And even at $70.5 million, these engines are very, very far from being affordable compared to the existing US commercial market for powerful rocket engines. Blue Origin manufactures an engine of comparable power and size, the BE-4, for less than $20 million. And SpaceX is seeking to push the similarly powerful Raptor rocket engine costs even lower, to less than $1 million per engine.
    15. MIKE: The Space Launch System (SLS) is one of those concepts that seemed like a good idea at the time. The original idea was to take leftover parts and technology from the Space Shuttle program such as engines, boosters, fuel tanks etc., and scale them up to a bigger, more powerful launcher that could take the US back to the moon and beyond.
    16. MIKE: I have no idea how such a seemingly smart technological evolution went so wrong, but recall that reusable rockets were still pretty much a crazy dream at the start of the SLS project. Now, at over a billion dollars per mission and launching only once every year or two, it looks like NASA will have to rethink this rocket’s future.
15. The ‘Devil Bird’ Lands in New York, With More Likely to Come; Anhingas, water birds with snakelike necks, have turned up in Prospect Park in Brooklyn and far upstate, a sign of shifting ranges for birds from the South. By James Crugnale | NYTIMES.COM | May 4, 2023
    1. For two weeks, a strange bird has perched in Brooklyn over the treetops of one of the Three Sisters Islands in Prospect Park Lake. It shows no signs of heading back to the place it most likely came from in the South.
    2. Meet the anhinga, a large water bird with a snaky neck that has joined other high-profile vagrant birds in recent years by making a rare appearance outside of its typical migration range.
    3. The bird’s name comes from the Tupi Indian language of Brazil and means “devil bird.” And according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, it’s not from around here: Anhingas in the United States generally range from the Southern states along the gulf coast to Texas, stretching into the Carolinas in the summer.
    4. The Prospect Park anhinga is the first devil bird observed in Kings County, and only the second sighting in New York City since 1992. When Radka Osickova first spotted it with the Brooklyn Bird Club, she couldn’t believe her eyes. …
    5. Researchers say that this rogue anhinga didn’t merely veer off course, but that it was taking advantage of a habitat that was newly available to it because of rising temperatures.
    6. “What we are seeing here is likely an expanding population from the previous typical range of the species in the southeastern United States,” said Andrew Farnsworth, a researcher at the Cornell lab. …
    7. Kenn Kaufman, a bird expert and field guide author, says we’re seeing a broad pattern emerging with Southern birds in search of new nesting territories.
    8. “In evolutionary terms, these far-flung wanderers might be viewed as testing the limits,” Mr. Kaufman said. …
    9. MIKE: This is evolution in action, but fast enough for humans to see. It’s one of the clear signs that what we commonly call by its Frank Luntz, Republican focus-grouped name of Climate Change is still rooted in the more alarming-sounding but still accurate “Global Warming”.
    10. MIKE: This expansion of range by the anhinga, parakeets, and other species of plants and animals is not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing. It’s just species in general, and individuals in particular, trying to survive and thrive. But we should take it as another sign and omen that climate change is coming, whether human-caused or natural, and we need to both adapt to it and try to mitigate it.

 

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1. Make sure you are registered to vote! VoteTexas.GOV – Texas Voter Information
   1. It’s time to snail-mail (no emails or faxes) in your application for mail-ballots, IF you qualify TEXAS SoS VOTE-BY-MAIL BALLOT APPLICATION (ALL TEXAS COUNTIES) HarrisVotes.com­ – Countywide Voting Centers, (Election Information Line (713) 755-6965), Harris County Clerk
   2. Obtain a Voter Registration Application (HarrisVotes.com)
   3. Harris County “Vote-By-Mail’ Application for 2023
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   4. 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.
   5. 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.
   6. HarrisVotes.com – Countywide Voting Centers, HARRIS COUNTY – IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR VOTING: Do not possess and cannot reasonably obtain one of these IDs?
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         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 NEW MAIL-IN BALLOT APPLICATIONS FOR 2023.
   1. Obtain a Voter Registration Application (HarrisVotes.com)
   2. Just be registered and apply for your mail-in ballot if you may qualify.
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