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POSSIBLE TOPICS: Runoff Elections; Around $50M needed for water infrastructure, Conroe city staff members say; Water systems warn Americans could soon see major rate hikes to filter out toxic ‘forever chemicals’; Whitmire on transportation pause: ‘We will not sacrifice general mobility for recreation’; Houston-area customers will cover CenterPoint’s $100 million-plus power restoration costs after deadly storm; Passenger on United flight to Fresno had measles, officials confirm; Hey, America, here’s what’s actually going on with the economy; Republican-appointed University of Wisconsin regent refuses to step down when term ends; President warns new army officers to be ‘guardians of American democracy’; Kevin O’Leary’s dystopian fantasy of ruining the lives of campus protesters; [Tory] Conservatives want to bring back compulsory national service; Confronting Another Axis? History, Humility, and Wishful Thinking (Part 2); More

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig where we discuss local, state, national, and international stories. 

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:

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

1. I hope you’re sitting down while you listen to this. There is a June 15^th runoff elections. But first, I recommend going to OFFTHEKUFF[dot]COM to read the article titled, A couple of followups on the runoffs. I’m linking to on the show post. Kuff provides some happy results, and also reports that the June 15^th runoffs will be for the HCAD positions. I’m pasting in the election information directly from HarrisVotes[dot]Com:
   1. Early Vote Centers will be open from Monday, June 3 thru Tuesday, June 11 (Mon-Sat: 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. & Sun: 12 p.m. – 7 p.m.)
   2. Vote Centers will accept voters from 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. on Election Day, Saturday, June 15.
   3. Visit our “What’s on my Ballot?” page and enter your name or address to see all the contests and candidates you are eligible to vote on! (You can bring handwritten notes or printed sample ballots to the voting booth; just be sure to take it with you when you leave.)
   4. The deadline to apply for a mail ballot is June 4. Click here for the application. Please fill it out, print it, and mail it to our office before the deadline.
   5. Outside of Harris County, be sure to check with your local county clerks or election clerks.
   6. REFERENCE: A couple of followups on the runoffs; Posted on May 30, 2024 by Charles Kuffner
2. Around $50M needed for water infrastructure, Conroe city staff members say; By Lizzy Spangler | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 9:15 AM May 28, 2024 CDT. TAGS: Conroe (TX) City Council, Water,
   1. City Engineer Chris Bogert said around $50 million is needed to fund four water plants during a second discussion about the city’s available water capacity at Conroe City Council’s May 22 workshop meeting.
   2. “We’ve grossly underfed the infrastructure for years, and now we’re at a crossroads here,” Bogert said. “The development’s caught up.”
   3. What happened — City staff held a second discussion with City Council about the city’s available water capacity and the pace of development, during which Bogert and Public Works Director Norman McGuire expressed serious concerns about the city’s water situation.
   4. “We’re going to have to have some aggressive funding going forward to get out of this,” McGuire said. “Chris was right. There is no immediate fix. This is a two-year problem, guaranteed two years.” …
   5. The discussion held at the May 22 workshop meeting comes about a month after the first discussion of the city’s water capacity during its April 24 workshop meeting. At that April 24 meeting, Bogert and McGuire expressed the same concerns about water capacity and the pace of development.
   6. During the May 22 workshop meeting, Place 2 council member Curt Maddux asked staff if the city could dip into its fund balance—essentially a city’s savings account—to help fund water infrastructure. Collin Boothe, the city’s director of finance and assistant city administrator, said that could be an option, but that account must be drawn down carefully otherwise it could affect the city’s bond ratings. …
   7. Place 3 council member Harry Hardman said the focus needs to be on what is critically needed within the next two years.
   8. “We have to understand what is critical, and I say [the] next 24 months is critical,” Hardman said. “We have to address that with what we have. Thirty-six months … we have to look at alternatives, maybe bond elections, whatever. But … the can has been kicked as far as it’s going to be kicked.” …
   9. Bogert said McGuire is already getting calls regarding low water pressure.
   10. “When it’s 100 [degrees the week of May 27], the calls are going to go up,” Bogert said. “And next year is going to be the hardest. Next summer is going to be the hardest. The irrigation in the summer is when we’re hit the worst.” …
   11. Bogert also said after one well and one water plant come online in mid-June, the next water plant will not come online until around the summer of 2025.
   12. “None of those are silver bullets,” Bogert said. “They all help, but we have a hard gap for about 16 months or two years until we get those other wells online.”
   13. Meanwhile, budget discussions for fiscal year 2024-25 should begin this summer.
   14. MIKE: As population grows and the climate heats up, water is becoming a major problem everywhere. And we’re not even in the driest part of the country.
   15. MIKE: The Conroe City Council is trying to be responsive and responsible in managing development of water and sewer infrastructure, but in this story, it’s admitted that “the can has been kicked as far as it’s going to be kicked.” But it sounds to me like the can was kicked a little too far, and Conroe may now be facing a challenging two plus years of tight supplies.
   16. MIKE: All democratically elected governments tend to do this. No one wants to make the hard decisions before they have to and get voted out of office. The result is that hard decisions are often made on the cusp of ‘too late’.
3. Speaking of water and delaying the inevitable — Water systems warn Americans could soon see major rate hikes to filter out toxic ‘forever chemicals’; by Rachel Frazin | THEHILL.COM | 05/26/24 6:00 AM ET. TAGS: PFAS Water Treatment, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
   1. In exchange for cleaner water, Americans around the nation may soon have to pay hefty prices. 
   2. Water systems are starting to warn residents of massive rate hikes as they prepare to install technology to filter out toxic chemicals in a family known as PFAS.
   3. Utilities from South Florida to upstate New York have warned customers that they could see significant price increases after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandated that they remove the substances, which have been linked to a number of cancers and other diseases, from their systems.
   4. Last month, the EPA said it will require utilities whose water systems contain high levels of six types of PFAS to remove them from the water. 
   5. PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of thousands of chemicals that have been used to make a variety of nonstick and waterproof products and firefighting foam. 
   6. The substances have also become ubiquitous in the environment, due in part to the fact that they tend to persist for a long time instead of breaking down.
   7. Exposure to these so-called forever chemicals has been linked to increased risks of prostate, kidney and testicular cancers, weakened immune systems, high cholesterol, and developmental issues in children. 
   8. Now, for the first time, utilities around the nation will be required to get them out of their drinking water to prevent customers’ exposure. But that will come at a price. 
   9. Last month, officials with Broward County, a populous South Florida locale, warned residentsthat those on county water could see “double or triple water rates for users.” …
   10. Fort Worth, Texas, officials also warned of consequences for ratepayers ahead of the EPA setting the rule last month.
   11. “It’s going to be expensive, and it’s going to impact our ratepayers, and we’re going to be doing everything we possibly can to get some federal support in terms of the funding, but we’re going to have to move forward,” Fort Worth Water Director Chris Harder told Fort Worth Report. …
   12. “A lot of systems are going to be faced with having to increase rates” as a result of the rule, said Chris Moody, regulatory technical manager at the American Water Works Association, a lobby group representing water providers. 
   13. It’s not entirely clear yet which water systems will need to filter out PFAS. The rule gives utilities a few years to test their water to determine if their levels of the chemicals fall above federal thresholds. If they do, utilities will then have to install technology to get rid of them.
   14. That means the locales that have informed their consumers of rate increases may only be the first of many. The EPA, in its rule, estimated that about 6 percent to 10 percent of water systems will ultimately be found to contain PFAS at levels requiring action.
   15. Moody said he believes this is an undercount and that more of the nation’s water systems could be contaminated. …
   16. Water providers recently settled a major class action lawsuit against manufacturers of PFAS, and chemical giants could have to collectively pay billions of dollars to offset treatment costs. 
   17. But, Moody said, the settlements are not expected to be enough to defray the expense. 
   18. “If you do get money through it, it’ll likely only help you with maybe a third or a fourth of the costs,” he said. 
   19. The added costs do come with the notable benefit of lowering communities’ exposure to the harmful substances: Garcia described PFAS treatment as “probably something important to do.” …
   20. MIKE: We’ve talked about PFAs on this show before. They’re serious carcinogens, and getting them out of our water is a good thing that will reduce illness and medical costs. But nothing is free and very little is cheap.
   21. MIKE: The class action settlements will defray the costs, but not cover them. I guess it could be argued that all of us who have used and benefitted from these chemicals will now be paying something like the true costs of them, but simply tripling everyone’s water rates is not sustainable for our nation’s poorest households. Some form of accommodation will have to be made for them.
4. This is from May 16^th, but I was not familiar with this bit of news, so you may not be either — Whitmire on transportation pause: ‘We will not sacrifice general mobility for recreation’; By Cassandra Jenkins | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 5:05 PM May 16, 2024 CDT / Updated 5:05 PM May 16, 2024 CDT. TAGS: Houston Mayor John Whitmire, Abbie Kamin,
   1. In public comments made May 16, Houston Mayor John Whitmire doubled down on an ongoing review his administration is conducting of planned transportation projects in the city that involve narrowing or reducing vehicle lanes.
   2. Whitmire, speaking to an audience gathered at a State of Mobility event hosted by Transportation Advocacy Group Houston, said the city “will not sacrifice general mobility for recreation.”
   3. The full story — Whitmire paused all transportation projects in March that would modify or change the use of vehicle lanes.
   4. Marlene Gafrick, Houston’s director of planning and development, said the pause is intended to allow the administration time to review projects and decide which roads need to be redesigned.
   5. “Going back to the [transportation] pause, we are doing things right,” Whitmire said at the TAG event. “We have to start doing projects that people will use across our region. Mobility is our No. 1 priority.”
   6. The pause has generated contention among Houstonians, including residents in the Heights and Montrose areas who have spoken out against the pause and in favor of projects along 11th Street, Shepherd and Durham drives, and Montrose Boulevard, among other streets. With some of the projects involving bicycle lanes or shared-use paths, cycling advocates have also taken issue with Whitmire’s framing of the projects as for “recreational” purposes, arguing that people should have options beyond cars for how to get around the city.
   7. Taking a step back — The pause was first made public when Whitmire tasked the Houston Public Works Department with evaluating the effectiveness and impact of the 11th Street Bikeway project. That project was carried out as a way to improve safety and reduce speeds along 11th Street, which planners said was prone to a high number of crashes as well as speeding vehicles. The Texas chapter of the American Public Works Association dubbed the 11th Street redesign as the 2024 In-House Project of the year in an announcement in early March.
   8. Erin Jones, public information officer for Houston Public Works, said Whitmire is trying to get a firsthand view of all city of Houston departments and the significant projects, programs and initiatives—a list that includes transportation and mobility.
   9. A closer look — Abbie Kamin, Houston City Council member for District C—which covers the Shepherd-Durham, 11th Street and Montrose projects—said she requested a sit-down meeting with Whitmire to discuss the implications of redesigning the Shepherd-Durham corridor in particular, which she said the Memorial Heights Redevelopment Authority was tasked with doing last week.
   10. [Kamin said that,] “When council has unanimously voted on projects that have gone through community engagement, years of planning and received overwhelming support, I’m concerned when there is an administrative decision to halt infrastructure-based safety and drainage projects,” she said. “We worked hard to get the federal dollars for Durham-Shepherd. At a time when the city is under severe financial constraints, we should not be putting at risk dollars like this that bring much-needed improvements as well as an economic engine that will revitalize the corridor.”
   11. Kamin said she has received 195 comments from residents in favor of the Shepherd-Durham project and only two who oppose.
   12. Whitmire said he has heard thousands of comments from residents who oppose the project.
   13. “We have to be mindful of walkability, pedestrian crosswalks, bike paths, 10-foot sidewalks—I could go on and on about the issues,” he said. “Durham-Shepherd keeps folks off of [Loop] 610. It keeps them off I-45, takes them down to Memorial to the Medical Center to the city of Houston. So, let’s all tell the rest of the story.”
   14. … As of May 16, no timeline has been given regarding the length of the pause.
   15. MIKE: I had of course heard about the Whitmire-mandated pauses on Montrose, Shepard/Durham, and 11^th Street, but I had not heard Whitmire’s explanation, and the rationale he expresses makes sense to me, saying “the city ‘will not sacrifice general mobility for recreation.’”
   16. MIKE: I do use Durham and Shepard, and I’ve driven the old 4-lane black top and the new 3-lane concrete. I think the 4 lanes of blacktop are best referred to as “nominally 4 lanes”. One or both of the edge lanes were so broken up that they were often avoided, or used primarily as turn lanes. The 3 lanes of concrete will probably allow better traffic flow in spite of the perception of traffic compression.
   17. MIKE: Further, while I don’t see a present need for 10-foot sidewalks, I certainly never liked the total absence of usable sidewalks on long stretches of these streets.
   18. MIKE: I’ve been old long enough that the notion of commuting to a job by bike seems like an alien concept to me, but even when I was younger, in a city like Houston, it mostly makes very little sense. First, there are the distances. Unless someone has a job within a mile or two of where they live, biking to work seems impractical, and not just because of the distances.
   19. MIKE: Sure, there are folks who can jog or bike for many, many miles, but that must work up a sweat, and that turns into body odor. Unless the workplace has facilities to wash up and change, it must surely impact co-workers and potential customers.
   20. MIKE: Further, I’m not sure why it is essential to put protected bicycle lanes on roads that already have heavy motor vehicle traffic. If we need bike lanes, whether for commuting or recreation, I’m puzzled as to why it doesn’t make sense to put bike lanes on parallel routes that are already low in traffic. It seems to me that present bicycle traffic is low enough that it isn’t unreasonable to put bikes on residential streets. Motor vehicles should already be doing maximum speeds of 20-30 mph, at most, on those streets. This should work well with bike speeds of 10-20 mph. These streets also tend to have frequent stop signs, which should make bike traffic safer for both cyclists and pedestrians.
   21. MIKE: In terms of safety, this seems a far better option than trying to protect bike riders from congested motor vehicles lanes traveling at speeds of 35-45 mph.
   22. MIKE: If bicycle commuting should indeed become a much more heavily used option, we can address that metaphorical bridge when we come to it.
   23. MIKE: As an aside, I keep suspecting that many bike lane advocates are drivers who hope that enough people will commute by bike to ease their vehicle traffic concerns.
   24. MIKE: But the broader delay on infrastructure construction, and the risks of losing federal and state dollars that are earmarked for it, are bigger concerns. The road reconstructions that include improved drainage and flood control, burying of utilities, new water supply lines, etc. are absolutely essential. These improvements are necessary not only to replace old and overburdened infrastructure, but also to accommodate city growth for the present and future, and to better prepare for climate change due to global warming.
   25. MIKE: I hope that the Whitmire administration doesn’t paint all projects with an overly broad brush. Sure, take a look at what’s planned, but they mustn’t let their notions of the perfect interfere with the long-negotiated good enough. Many if not all of these plans were hashed out through community input and engineering necessity over years. Everything in politics and civics is a compromise, and should not be discarded lightly.
5. Houston-area customers will cover CenterPoint’s $100 million-plus power restoration costs after deadly storm; The utility company said it plans to apply for interest-bearing securitization bonds to recover its storm-related costs, with that debt eventually being paid by its customers through monthly charges on their bills. By Adam Zuvanich | HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | Posted on May 24, 2024, 4:43 PM. TAGS: Energy & Environment, Houston, Infrastructure, Texas, TTN, Centerpoint Energy, Electricity Bills, Electricity Costs, Houston Energy, Power Outages, Public Utility Commission Of Texas,
   1. Multiple electricity transmission towers toppled over in the Cypress, Texas, area on Thursday, May 16, 2024. A tornado touched down in the area, according to the National Weather Service.
   2. Houston-area residents and businesses, hundreds of thousands of whom went without electricity in the days following last week’s deadly windstorm, will end up having to cover the costs associated with turning their power back on.
   3. CenterPoint Energy, which supplies power to the Houston region, said Friday it expects its restoration costs to exceed $100 million. The company also said it plans to apply for interest-bearing securitization bonds to recover its storm-related costs, with that debt eventually being paid by its customers through monthly charges on their bills.
   4. Sandra Haverlah, the president of the Texas Consumer Association, said it’s common and understandable for utility companies to recover their expenses after weather-related disasters, adding that she wouldn’t argue against the practice. But she said it’s still “unfair” for customers who in many cases are still recovering themselves after last Thursday’s derecho produced two tornadoes, damaged buildings and infrastructure, led to at least eight deaths and knocked out electricity for about 922,000 customers, with CenterPoint having since restored power to all but a few thousand. …
   5. CenterPoint said Thursday that its 7,000-plus employees and contractors had replaced more than 800 miles’ worth of electrical wires along with 700 transformers and roughly 2,000 utility poles. The company said in a statement Friday afternoon, when more than 3,000 homes, businesses and schools were without electricity, that its “focus remains on continuing to work around the clock until every last customer can be restored that can receive service.”
   6. The total restoration cost has not yet been determined, according to CenterPoint, which said it expects to seek approval from the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) to apply for securitization bonds. The company has done that after previous severe weather events such as Winter Storm Uri in 2021, when much of Texas faced prolonged freezing weather and extended power outages. …
   7. Haverlah said there could potentially be more cost-effective options than securitization bonds, at least for electricity customers. Selling such bonds provides up-front money for CenterPoint, she said, but also comes with additional costs such as interest and fees that will be factored into the related charges on customers’ bills.
   8. Among the alternatives are adding direct surcharges to customers’ bills or recovering the restoration costs through rate-increase requests made through PUCT, according to Haverlah. CenterPoint in recent months applied to increase its electricity delivery rate to cover years’ worth of capital investments it had made to bolster system resiliency and replace aging infrastructure.
   9. [Haverlah said of the securitization route,] “You’re taking this amount that’s already really large, that’s going to get loaded onto CenterPoint customers, and then adding a bunch of costs on top of that.”
   10. Energy costs already are a burden for many Houston-area residents. A survey released in April by the nonprofit Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute found that 47% of people in the Gulf Coast region with low to moderate incomes consider their electricity bills to be unaffordable, a percentage that is significantly higher than the statewide average.
   11. So Haverlah said she hopes CenterPoint and the state utility commission will be transparent about the restoration costs as well as the financial implications for both the company and its customers.
   12. “Either way, CenterPoint is going to recover that money,” she said. “At this point, it’s a matter of, how are they going to bill customers for the money and how that’ll work out.”
   13. MIKE: I’m no expert on this stuff, but let’s think about the arguments here.
   14. MIKE: Sandra Haverlah is certainly correct about one thing: CenterPoint should and will recover it’s money somehow, whether through a securitization bond or by rate increases or surcharges.
   15. MIKE: CenterPoint says that power restoration will cost something in the neighborhood of $100 million. Is that paid from cash they had on hand, or did they have to borrow that money to do these repairs? If it’s borrowed, then CenterPoint will have to pay interest on that loan until it’s paid back. A secured bond will put that cash immediately back in hand and they’ll pay off the loan. The bond fees and interest will subsequently be borne by their customers.
   16. MIKE: If CenterPoint recovers those costs through rate increases or bill surcharges, their initial loan will be paid in installments like any loan, accruing charges until it’s paid off. Ultimately their customers will pay those costs as well.
   17. MIKE: A difference here, though, is what might be called “opportunity cost”. If their cash outlay is paid back in a trickle, they lose the opportunity to use that cash in other ways until they have it paid back. With the secured bond, CenterPoint gets the cash back in a lump, or pays their debt in a lump. If they have an outstanding loan, that debt is an overhang on their balance sheets, meaning that borrowing more money for a need or an opportunity will be even more costly, since existing debt creates higher risk for a lender.
   18. MIKE: None of this is a defense of how CenterPoint wants to recover their costs. I’m just trying to show that there is complexity to their calculations.
   19. MIKE: There may be a way for CenterPoint to recover expenses that are optimal for both the company and their customers. Sandra Haverlah’s point is well taken. This question needs to be examined before CenterPoint makes a decision.
6. Passenger on United flight to Fresno had measles, officials confirm; COM | Monday, May 27, 2024 @ 3:00PM. TAGS: Health & Fitness, Fresno, Measles, Fresno Yosemite International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport,
   1. A passenger on a flight to Fresno was confirmed to be traveling with measles, according to LA County health officials.
   2. The traveler was United Flight 5591, which left Los Angeles at 8 pm on Sunday, May 19, and landed in Fresno at 9 pm.
   3. Their passenger who had measles, initially started their trip in Munich, Germany, and connected at LAX.
   4. Anyone who was assigned seats near that passenger on the flights will be notified by health officials.
   5. Measles is a highly contagious airborne disease that can cause severe sickness, especially in young children.
   6. The viral infection spreads easily through the air when an infected person breathes, talks, coughs, or sneezes.
   7. Measles symptoms don’t appear until 10 to 14 days after exposure. They include cough, runny nose, inflamed eyes, sore throat, fever, and a red, blotchy skin rash.
   8. Measles is easily preventable by a vaccine.
   9. Health officials encourage everyone to confirm their measles vaccination status with their healthcare provider.
   10. MIKE: I’ll point out several things that are not included in this story. First, since the person began their trip in Munich, Germany, it’s not automatically safe to assume that this person was a US citizen, or even a German citizen. The story simply does not say.
   11. MIKE: Second, the story makes no mention of whether this person claimed to have been previously vaccinated. And even if they were, vaccines are not 100% effective.
   12. MIKE: Third, the story doesn’t say if this person had any reason to suspect they had been exposed to measles or if any symptoms had occurred sooner and might have been spotted sooner (no pun intended).
   13. MIKE: I’ll also point out that if this person had reason to suspect exposure to measles, they wouldn’t be the first to avoid canceling travel plans and crossing their fingers that they wouldn’t get sick.
   14. MIKE: What this story does suggest to me is that, in an era of vaccine-deniers, it might not be unreasonable to consider rules requiring a vaccination record of some sort on file at a central facility that would be checked whenever someone is applying to travel on a common carrier. This would simply be part of checking someone’s ID before buying a ticket.
   15. MIKE: This is something that should be considered part of providing for the common good. If you’re freedom should end at the tip of my nose, I sure don’t want your nasty viruses entering my nose when I can’t otherwise avoid you.
7. Hey, America, here’s what’s actually going on with the economy; By Madison Hoff | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | May 25, 2024, 4:37 AM CDT. TAGS: Economy, Recession, Unemployment, Inflation , GDP,
   1. Hey, America, we totally understand if you’re not feeling so great about the economy.
   2. But if you think we’re in a recession, here’s some good news: We’re not in one, and there likely isn’t one coming, based on economic data and what experts who talked to Business Insider are seeing.
   3. A Harris poll for the Guardian found 56% of Americans believe the US is in a recession. Plus, it found a majority think we have a shrinking economy. Two reasons people may be feeling like the economy isn’t doing so well — despite the US not being in an official recession since the two-month one in early 2020 — are due to media coverage and how people view economic trends.
   4. David Kelly, chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management; Eugenio Alemán, Raymond James’ chief economist; and Gregory Daco, EY’s chief economist, told Business Insider the US isn’t in a recession.
   5. “Americans’ negative attitude towards the economy is largely due to incessantly negative media coverage of economic and social issues amplified by an even more negative social media feed,” Kelly told Business Insider in a statement.
   6. [MIKE: Funny that someone from JP Morgan would say that when JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon is consistently bearish on talking down the economy. But moving on …]
   7. Of course, not everything is perfect, and that could sour people’s views. Daco said that when you consider cost fatigue, inflation‘s cumulative effect, the largely frozen and unaffordable housing market, and also “the reduced amount of churn in the labor market and this perception that there are fewer opportunities out there in terms of jobs, then that leads to more pessimism about the implied state of the economy.” …
   8. US GDP is still growing. Kelly listed “growth and expected growth in quarterly GDP” as one of the “most important numbers to watch” in addition to payroll gains — which recently cooled but are still signaling a strong labor market — and the weekly unemployment insurance claims — which have been low as large-scale layoffs have not yet emerged.
   9. Real GDP for the US has continued to be robust, even if growth has been slowing.
   10. Unemployment rates in the US have been low. The unemployment rate did climb from 3.8% in March to 3.9% in April, but that’s still low. …
   11. In the Great Recession, the US unemployment rate skyrocketed from 5.0% in December 2007 to 9.5% in June 2009. It took years for the job market to fully recover after that recession, while unemployment plummeted after the brief but deep Covid recession in 2020.
   12. CPI data shows US inflation is stubborn but has been under 4%. Inflation is still elevated and stubborn, but the year-over-year change in the Consumer Price Index has cooled from the high 2021 and 2022 rates. Alemán said while inflation is comparatively low, “the surge in inflation since 2021 has pushed Americans to try to figure out what to buy and what not to buy — something that we were not used to doing before.” …
   13. The S&P 500 has generally been rising for over a year. In 2024, the S&P 500 hit multiple all-time highs. The Harris poll for the Guardian found nearly half thought the S&P 500 index had actually been down.
   14. There isn’t a US recession now or one coming soon either. If you’re worried about a recession coming soon, you may feel better knowing that experts don’t think so. Alemán said Raymond James doesn’t foresee one but expects a slowdown in economic activity. Looking at the next 12 months, Daco said recession odds are relatively low. Kelly said the US isn’t “even close” to a recession. …
   15. There are still some data points and trends Americans may be concerned about. Sales for existing homes and new homes dropped recently. While mortgage rates are back below 7%, they’re still elevated. Layoffs are happening at some major companies, inflation is still not back to the Fed’s 2% target, and it looks like interest rates are still going to be high for a while. …
   16. So hooray for no recession and likely no recession anytime soon. However, just because we aren’t in a recession doesn’t mean the economy is perfect.
   17. MIKE: This is another example of the news you consume determining the world view you have, and not necessarily vice versa.
   18. MIKE: I can’t tell you where to get your information, though if you ask, I will. But what I can tell you is that diversity of sources and perspectives makes a difference.
   19. MIKE: We all have biases in our perspectives, and I’m no exception. What I try to do is base my views on the world on a preponderance of the evidence. I guess I’m borrowing that term from civil law, and which I take to mean ‘more likely than not’.
   20. MIKE: I start with following news sources I feel I can trust. In my case, I’ve had over 50 years of news consumption to shape that view, but if you’re starting from what I might call a “naïve base point”, you’ll have to exert more effort.
   21. MIKE: One way to begin might be to search the term, “News Bias Rankings’. A number of possible sources will pop up, and you can begin there. After scanning several of these sources, certain trends will likely appear among them as to which news media tend to skew left, right, or center, and how far at the extremes. My advice is that whatever your bias inclination might be, avoid the extremes in either direction.
   22. MIKE: There’s an expression: “The truth is paywalled, but the lies are free.” I would love it if there was a group subscription model like there is in the music industry for business consumers. Pay a certain amount per month or per year and you can subscribe to a group of news media for anywhere from a few articles per month to unlimited. But that’s not the world we live in.
   23. MIKE: There are good sources of reasonably factual news that generally have no paywalls. Some are public services like PBS, BBC, the Australian Broadcast Corporation (known as ABC down under), CBC (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). A good rule of thumb might be publicly sponsored news sources from small “L” liberal democracies.
   24. MIKE: Associated Press and Reuters get generally high marks. The Guardian (UK) is not paywalled. My experience is that the news organizations from US companies ABC, CBS, and NBC are generally good news sources. I avoid FOX News except for stories where they have no political axe to grind such as science, and some business stories about specific companies or industry trends.
   25. MIKE: There are certainly others that I haven’t mentioned, but these are a good start.
   26. MIKE: Some paywalled services allow you a certain number of free articles per month if you establish a login and provide an email address. Those sites usually offer 3-5 free articles per month.
   27. MIKE: I would love to provide links, but my internet has been down as I write this. Fortunately, my word processor is not cloud-based, but I do hope this helps.
   28. REFERENCE: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls; The case for making journalism free — at least during the 2024 election. By Richard Stengel | THEATLANTIC.COM | April 14, 2024
8. Republican-appointed University of Wisconsin regent refuses to step down when term ends; COM | Updated 12:56 PM CDT, May 25, 2024. TAGS: University of Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker, Robert Atwell, UW Board of Regents, Gov. Tony Evers,
   1. A conservative University of Wisconsin regent says he won’t step down when his term ends this month.
   2. Then-Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, appointed Robert Atwell to the Board of Regents in May 2017. His seven-year term ends this month.
   3. Atwell sent an email to Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman, regents President Karen Walsh and regents Executive Director Megan Wasley on Monday saying he won’t step down until he chooses to resign or the state Senate confirms a successor.
   4. The state Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that political appointees don’t have to leave their posts until the Senate confirms their successor. Atwell said in his email that Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos reminded him that he could remain in his position on the regents.
   5. Democratic Tony Evers has yet to announce Atwell’s successor. …
   6. Atwell said he hoped that his “temporary continuation” as regent will support communication between legislators and the regents. …
   7. [In an email, one of Atwell’s complaints was] that no one has ever answered his questions about how many faculty and staff quit or were fired because they defied the system’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
   8. Atwell is one of two Walker-appointed regents who remain on the board. The other is Cris Peterson. Her term expires in May 2025
   9. MIKE: This short article reminds us that Republicans often don’t like to give up power until they’re forced to. Buyer beware.
9. President warns new army officers to be ‘guardians of American democracy’; President entreats graduates at commencement to ‘hold fast’ to oath to US constitution in veiled reference to Trump’s threat to democracy. By Oliver Milman in New York and agency | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Sat 25 May 2024 12.50 EDT / First published on Sat 25 May 2024 12.24 EDT. Tags: Joe Biden, US military, Donald Trump, New York,
   1. Joe Biden has called newly graduating US military officers the “guardians of American democracy” at a commencement speech at the elite West Point military academy in New York state, where the US president, without mentioning Donald Trump by name, gave strong warnings of unprecedented threats to US freedom.
   2. Biden, speaking in front of about 1,000 graduating cadets at the US army training academy on Saturday, urged the newly minted officers to “hold fast” to their military oath “not to a political party, not to a president but to the constitution of the United States of America, against all enemies, foreign and domestic”.
   3. In remarks that could be seen as a thinly veiled reference to the threat to democracy Biden believes Trump poses to the US as the two candidates battle for the White House in this November’s election, the president said that the oath taken by the military is “as important to your nation now as it ever has been”. …
   4. The president said that the US was founded on an idea of equality but that “ideas need defenders to make them real and that’s what you, the class of 2024, are all about. The defenders of freedom, champions of liberty, guardians – and I mean this – guardians of American democracy. You must keep us free at this time, like none before.”
   5. Biden outlined a global situation that he said had placed unprecedented challenges upon the US military, warning that the cadets are “graduating into a world like none before … There’s never been a time in history when we’ve asked our military to do so many, many different things in so many different places around the world, all at the same time.” …
   6. Biden said that the Nato alliance was “stronger than ever”, praised the US military for its efforts in erecting a pier and delivering air drops to provide aid to Palestinians suffering amid Israel’s war in Gaza, and said that the US was “standing up for peace and stability” regarding the threat posed by China to Taiwan. …
   7. Trump … has seen some of his support from the military community erode. In 2016, he won 60% of voters who said at the time that they served in the military, according to exit polls conducted by NBC News.
   8. That figure dropped to 54% in 2020, according to NBC News. …
   9. MIKE: This speech by Biden would not usually be anything remarkable. Presidents say similar things to every West Point graduating class. What makes this one different and worth mentioning, is the times we are living in, and the special emphasis that Joe Biden put into his words. I can “hear” that emphasis even in the text of his speech.
   10. MIKE: What I hear him saying to this graduating class of Army officers is that they owe loyalty above all — to no one and nothing — except the US Constitution to which they have taken an oath.
   11. MIKE: Our military people stood by the Constitution during the Trump era when it was sometimes made very hard for them to do so. I’ve read stories of generals being faced with decisions of who to obey and when, and whether orders were political or military, and what their oaths required them to do. We should never again put our military people in anything remotely like that position, no matter what rank level they’re at.
   12. MIKE: That’s what I hear Joe Biden saying to this cadet class.
   13. MIKE: Now I think he needs to emphasize the same thing to the Treasury Department and their Secret Service people. There have been questions over the past few years whether the Secret Service protective details feel that their final allegiance is to the people that they’re assigned to protect or to their Constitutional oaths. There have been too many scenarios that have come to light where there seems to be some ambiguity in the minds of some agents.
   14. MIKE: Let’s be clear. There should be none. And if a President loses an election, there should be no questions as to whether the soon-to-be ex-president’s Secret Service detail will defend the loser’s determination to stay in power, or whether the ex-president’s Secret Service detail will assist in escorting that person out.
10. Kevin O’Leary’s dystopian fantasy of ruining the lives of campus protesters; by Ian Weiss, opinion contributor | THEHILL.COM | 05/26/24 4:00 PM ET. (Ian Weiss is an attorney specializing in civil commercial litigation in New York City.) Tags: Campus Protests, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Free Speech, Gaza,  Israel,  Kevin O’Leary,  Technology,
    1. Canadian business mogul Kevin O’Leary has a new favorite hobby: threatening college students with the destruction of their livelihoods “forever” if they’re caught at pro-Palestine protests. The “Shark Tank” judge says he will use omnipresent “1080p” and “4K” surveillance cameras capable of “retinal scanning” whose footage will be analyzed by “AI protocols” and made readily available to employers through background checks on the “deep web” and the “dark web.”
    2. “I know who you are,” O’Leary says. For the rest of their lives, the protestors “won’t know why they didn’t get that job,” he says. “I won’t be hiring any of them.” When asked whether it’s fair for a single act hang over someone’s head for the rest of their life, his answer? “ Life is hard, then you die.”
    3. Gen Z is already suffering from a mental health crisis thanks to by Big Tech. The last thing they need are villains like O’Leary giving them nightmares about how they’ll be haunted “forever” by some Orwellian regime of technofascist corporate blacklisting. …
    4. [M]uch of what O’Leary has been saying about the present power of facial-recognition technology and “dark web” background checks sounds like he got it from those scenes in action movies where someone says “enhance.” …
    5. First, laws already exist to protect Americans from the type of oppressive hiring practices O’Leary is promoting. It sure sounds like he’s been breaking some. For instance, under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA), an employer can’t reject a job applicant based on a third-party background check without giving the applicant a copy of the report so he or she can dispute its accuracy and completeness with the company that created it. And if the job’s salary is below $75,000, the FCRA prohibits a background check company’s report from including any negative information that is over seven years old, except for records of criminal convictions.
    6. There are also some state and local laws that stop employers from holding applicants’ politics against them. …
    7. Second, the extraordinary cruelty of O’Leary’s position — the injustice of which he seems to embrace — should spur an urgent public push for even stronger laws against such schemes. For a huge swath of Americans, the constitutional right to free speech is useless without privacy laws that free their speech from employers’ surveillance. A 2016 Pew survey found that Americans try to hide their online behavior from their employers, supervisors and co-workers over twice as often as they try to hide it from the government.
    8. What does that say about what’s really constraining Americans’ speech these days? We separate church and state to stop them from interfering with each other — it’s time to do the same with the job market and the marketplace of ideas.
    9. America already has legal and policy frameworks for new “Stop Kevin O’Leary” laws to build on. The FCRA starts by stating “there is a need to insure that consumer reporting agencies exercise their grave responsibilities with fairness, impartiality, and a respect for the consumer’s right to privacy.” For that exact reason, the FCRA should be amended to further restrict background checks’ disclosures of job seekers’ political activities. We could start by simply raising the $75,000 salary limit so that dirt gets scrubbed from more background checks after seven years.
    10. New reforms can also draw inspiration from “ban the box” laws that several states and municipalities have enacted to curtail an employer’s consideration of an applicant’s criminal history. Those laws embody a strong public policy in favor of second chances and fresh starts. …
    11. Most Americans would likely agree that similar legal protections should be afforded to those with a history of nonviolent protest … There is nothing uniquely odious about pro-Palestine protesters that would warrant their uniquely permanent banishment from the workplace.
    12. MIKE: First, let me say that I’ve never liked Kevin O’Leary. Any time I’ve dropped in on “Shark Tank”, I’m always struck by how eager he is to take maximum advantage of people pitching their ideas on the show. He has seemed to me to be a cruel, greedy man. I might describe him as Ebeneezer Scrooge, but with better grooming.
    13. MIKE: This story about him just reinforces that feeling. Would calling O’leary “evil” be going too far? I’m not sure.
    14. MIKE: In any case, I think that Attorney Weiss’s suggestion for “Stop Kevin O’Leary” laws is an excellent idea, and we should name them that.
    15. MIKE: We all do things we regret — or may not. But if, for example, we break the law and then pay our debt to society, should punishment extend outside of the law to the rest of our lives?
    16. MIKE: That may often be how it seems, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try as a society to do better.
11. [Tory] Conservatives want to bring back compulsory national service; Jennifer McKiernan & Emily McGarvey,BBC Politics | BBC.COM | May 26, 2024 (15 hours ago). TAGS: UK Parliament, Rishi Sunak, Military, British Army, Mandatory National Service,
    1. Twelve months of mandatory national service would be reintroduced by the Conservatives if they win the general election.
    2. Eighteen-year-olds would be able to apply for one of 30,000 full-time military placements or volunteering one weekend a month carrying out a community service.
    3. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he believed bringing back compulsory service across the UK would help foster the “national spirit” that emerged during the pandemic.
    4. Labour criticised the plans, expected to cost about £2.5bn, as “desperate” and “unfunded”.
    5. The Conservatives want the first teenagers to take part in a pilot from September 2025, with details to be worked out by a Royal Commission
    6. The armed forces placements would allow young people to learn about cyber security, logistics, procurement, or civil response operations.
    7. Non-military volunteering would involve 25 days with organisations such as the fire service, the police and the NHS.
    8. Mr Sunak said: “This is a great country but generations of young people have not had the opportunities or experience they deserve and there are forces trying to divide our society in this increasingly uncertain world.
    9. “I will bring in a new model of national service to create a shared sense of purpose among our young people and a renewed sense of pride in our country.”
    10. He added the move would help young people learn “real world skills, do new things and contribute to their community and our country”.
    11. The Conservatives said the move would help ensure young people who were not employed, in education or training, or at risk of getting involved with crime, would [be] diverted away from “lives of unemployment and crime”.
    12. They were unable to say what sanctions those not taking part could face.
    13. Instead, they argued, national service would provide “valuable work experience” and “ignite a passion for a future career in healthcare, public service, charity or the armed forces”.
    14. The party said the £2.5bn cost of national service would see £1.5bn diverted from levelling up’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund from 2028. A further £1bn would come from plans to crack down on tax avoidance and evasion.
    15. A Labour Party spokesperson said former Prime Minister David Cameron had outlined a similar idea with his “Big Society” in 2010.
        1. MIKE: The story then diverts into comments form Labour that the Tories hollowed out the military and that’s why they need this program, but I note that they still don’t disagree with it in principle. Continuing …
    16. Military conscription has never applied in Northern Ireland, and so far there are no details about what would happen there.
    17. National service was introduced in 1947 after World War Two by Clement Attlee’s Labour government.
    18. It meant men between the ages of 17 and 21 had to serve in the armed forces for 18 months.
    19. The mandatory national service scheme came to an end in 1960. …
    20. Earlier this year, the Chief of the General Staff, Sir Patrick Sanders, suggested the UK might need a “citizen army” to fight Putin but his concerns were dismissed by Mr Sunak’s team at the time as “not helpful”.
    21. A number of European countries, including Sweden, Norway and Denmark, already have a form of conscription for their armed forces.
    22. Conscription requires young men and women to serve for a limited time in uniform. It means that some of the population will have had some military training – and can then be assigned to reserve units should war break out.
    23. Cuts in the British Army have seen its size fall from more than 100,000 in 2010 to around 73,000 as of January 2024.
    24. MIKE: While this article is about the United Kingdom, I agree with it, and have been saying as much on the radio since 2010.
    25. MIKE: A country needs a professional army at its core for contingencies. But in the event of a national emergency, that central core of professionals will not only be the nation’s first responders. They’ll also be the trainers for all the citizen soldiers who follow.
    26. MIKE: I also agree with the basic outline of offering the option of 12 months of military training, which is essentially basic physical, weapons, equipment, and other training. I also agree and have myself proposed a public service option that would be non-military in nature but would have the benefit of both teaching skills to trainees as well as benefiting from their labor for the social and national good.
    27. MIKE: But one of the reasons I’ve been a strong proponent of a similar scheme is that I think it’s good for the citizenry as part of their basic education, either after high school or after college. And I think it would have the effect of closing divides in this country.
    28. MIKE: I believe that since the draft ended, we lost one key benefit of even a peacetime army: The opportunity for people from all walks of life to meet and get to know other Americans from other walks of life. I think most people would find that the strangers that had been vilified in the small closed social circles they came from were maybe not as bad as they were led to believe, and they might even make some new friends.
    29. MIKE: There would also be opportunities for participants to see what other parts of the country are like, whether it be cities, small towns, colonias, Indian reservations, poor neighborhoods, or richer neighborhoods.
    30. MIKE: I do believe that there are useful skills that trainees could learn that will help them advance in their lives. I also feel that on balance, instituting some form of universal national service would be enormously beneficial for this country not just for its national defense, but also for its social and political cohesion.
    31. MIKE: I’m including a reference article below this blog post that gives details on how the proposed UK plan might work. I strongly suggest clicking through and reading it. It sounds very reasonable and plausible.
    32. REFERENCE: What is the Tory national service plan and how might it work?; By Sean Seddon, BBC News | BBC.COM | May 26, 2024 (8 hours ago). TAGS: Conservative Party, Military, James Cleverly, Young people, “The proposed new scheme would not be conscription, where people are legally required to join the armed forces for a period. But it would compel people by law to complete a community programme over a 12-month period, or enrol in a year-long military training scheme, when they turn 18….”
12. MIKE: Last week, I read the first part of an opinion piece called — Confronting Another Axis? History, Humility, and Wishful Thinking; Philip Zelikow | TNSR.ORG (Texas National Security Review) | Vol 7, Issue 3 Summer 2024. TAGS: Geopolitics, History, Cold War, Axis Powers, World War 2, The World War 2 Allies,
    1. [From] The Texas National Security Review is an interdisciplinary journal that is committed to excellence, scholarly rigor, and big ideas.
    2. [The author,] Philip Zelikow is … An attorney and former career diplomat, Zelikow’s federal service includes work across the government in the five administrations from President Ronald Reagan through President Barack Obama. [among many other qualifications].
    3. MIKE: This week, I’ll be reading PART 2. TO RECAP … :
    4. Drawing on his extensive experience as a historian and diplomat, Philip Zelikow warns that the United States faces an exceptionally volatile time in global politics and that the period of maximum danger might be in the next one to three years. He highlights lessons from the anti-American partnerships developed by the Axis powers in World War II and [by]Moscow and Beijing during the early Cold War. Zelikow reminds decision-makers who face Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea today to remember that adversaries can miscalculate and recalculate and that it can be difficult to fully understand internal divisions within an adversary’s government, how rival states draw their own lessons from different interpretations of history, and how they might quickly react to a new event that appears to shift power dynamics.
    5. The United States faces a purposeful set of powerful adversaries in a rapidly changing and militarized period of history, short of all-out war. This is the third time the United States has been confronted with such a situation. The first was between 1937 and 1941 and was resolved by American entry into World War II. The second was between 1948 and 1962, implicating the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. Thankfully, world war was avoided and in November 1962 the Soviet Union relaxed its stance in the central confrontation in Europe.¹
    6. It is not yet clear when and how the present-day crisis will resolve.
    7. We are in an exceptionally volatile, dynamic, and unstable period of world history. During the next two or three years, the situation will probably settle more durably in one direction or another: wider war or uneasy peace. There is a serious possibility of worldwide warfare. Because of the variety of contingencies and outcomes, some involving nuclear arsenals, this period could be more difficult to gauge and more dangerous for the United States than the prior two episodes.
    8. [Zelikow trains] a historian’s microscope on some of the inner deliberations in past episodes. …
    9. MIKE: Last week, we left off Part 1 having discussed how close NATO and the USSR came to confrontation over Yugoslavia in 1951. We now continue with Part 2. …
    10. In 1951, as the U.S. government looked around at other dangers beyond Korea, there was only one main vector for possible enemy escalation. It was in Europe. In 2024, the situation is more complicated. Today, [Zelikow’s] measure of “serious possibility” is more Nitze’s [lower probability rather than Kent’s more pessimistic guess].
    11. In February 2021, a year before it happened, [Zelikow] would have placed no higher odds than [Nitze’s] in favor of a comprehensive Russian invasion of Ukraine, an invasion that would follow the public announcement of a Chinese-Russian partnership “without limits.”⁶ We can all reflect on what we misjudged back in early 2021.
    12. Today the United States has to examine at least four main vectors for enemy escalation. These could involve Russia, China, Iran (including Israel), and North Korea, on their own or linked in some way.
    13. The Ties that Sometimes Bind — Speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in February 2023, China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi said, “Crisis and chaos appear repeatedly before us, but within crisis there is opportunity.”⁷ …
    14. [MIKE: I’ll note here that this is interesting because I have heard over the years that the Chinese character for “crisis” is a combination of the characters for “danger” and “opportunity”. If that is true, there could be a cultural and linguistic factor in shaping Wang’s view of the situation. Continuing …]
    15. All three of the major anti-American partnerships during the last hundred years were founded on a common core. In each case, the partners believe that the United States is the leader or anchor of a domineering imperial or neo-imperial system. They believe this hegemonic system strains in every way to block or strangle their nation’s aspirations. They rally others [who also feel oppressed] to their cause ….
    16. That is the core. Beyond that core, though, the partnerships may not have any master plan or planners. Historically, the partners rarely trusted each other. They often do not even like each other.
    17. Historical analogies are only useful for suggesting what is possible, not what is probable. … Recalling this history of past anti-American partnerships illustrates opportunism, constant strategic calculation and recalculation, divided counsels, and the potential for quick, dramatic changes. …
    18. The American view of the history draws a clear separation between the Axis powers of the 1930s and 1940s and the Communist bloc during the high Cold War. Yet U.S. adversaries see these conflicts differently.
    19. From their point of view these sets of struggles had a lot of continuity. To them, in both cases, strange bedfellows got together to resist domineering imperialists, to achieve true independence, and [to] gain control of, or at least a rightful share in running, the reigning world order. …
    20. The anti-imperialists, the anti-hegemonists, all focus on America as the anchor and symbol of what they resent — the supposed confinement, power wrapped in pieties, opposing national assertion by new great powers. … Like the old, the new anti-hegemonists all glorify war and sacrifice in their public culture.
    21. The anti-American leaders like Putin and Xi do not have as much personal experience of war and violence as leaders like Adolf Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, or Benito Mussolini did (though there are some exceptions in Iran). The new generation of anti-American leaders are feeling their way. … They are wondering if it is their historical mission to usher in a new age of what they may think of as necessary violence. We in America, for our part, are trying to keep such a new age at bay.
    22. MIKE: I’ll read the next part of this article on next week’s show. I’ve added some references for your consideration at the bottom of this show post. Stay tuned for the rest of this article on next week’s show.
    23. REFERENCE: Two-Theatre War — BRITANNICA.COM (Also refers to the shift to a “1½-War strategy, and the evolution back to a 2-War or 2½-War posture.)
    24. REFERENCE: Sakhalin — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    25. REFERENCE: S. Navy Destroyer Conducts Freedom of Navigation Operation in the South China Sea — NAVY.MIL (US Navy)

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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)
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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?
      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:
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         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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