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Going forward, new shows will post for Thursday at 6PM (CT) broadcast and re-run on Sundays at 1PM and Wednesdays at 11AM.

AUDIO:

  

POSSIBLE TOPICS:

1. ELECTION INFO;
2. Vote Center at Country Inn and Suites in NW Harris Co. closed due to ongoing issues, officials say;
3. This Election Day will be unprecedented. Here’s how the Houston Landing will cover it;
4. HISD Halloween policy: No costumes allowed for middle, high school students;
5. Houston gives millions for HOA trash collection. What happens if it imposes a garbage fee?;
6. Another Houston-area city blocks utility-scale battery storage project. How will it affect the grid?;
7. The California exodus has continued. Here’s where most people leaving the Golden State moved to — and why.;
8. Second Texas doctor sued for providing gender-affirming care to minors;
9. 2 swing states show why the US is struggling to build enough houses;
10. The Group at the Center of Trump’s Planning for a Second Term Is One You Haven’t Heard of;
11. Musk’s plan to cut $2 trillion in U.S. spending could bring economic turmoil;

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:

1. Live online at KPFT.org (from anywhere in the world!)
2. Podcast on your phone’s Podcast App
3. Visiting Archive.KPFT.ORG

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

1. ELECTION INFO:
   1. The general election is Nov. 5, less than 1 week away. I’ve already sent in my mail-in ballot. I checked the HarrisVotes Ballot Tracking link, and my ballot was recorded to have arrived on October 22.
   2. Remember that if you need transport to a polling station, METRO will give you a free ride. “Simply show your voter ID or other approved documentation to the bus operator or fare inspector.”
   3. As a matter of public record, I voted NO on the HISD bonds. The Harris County Democratic and Republican Parties have both advised a “no” vote, and even the Houston Chronicle is recommending a “no” vote. For a school bond issue, this must be unprecedented.
   4. Early Vote Centers are open and will run through Friday, November 1 (Open Mon-Fri: 7a.m.–7 p.m.) If you’re already in line by 7PM, you CANNOT be turned away.
   5. On Election Day, Tuesday, November 5, Voting Centers will accept voters from 7a.m.–7p.m. Also on election day, if you’re already in line by 7PM, you CANNOT be turned away.
   6. In Harris County, you can visit the “What’s on my Ballot?” link at the HarrisVotes[dot]com page and enter your name or address to see all the contests and candidates on your personal ballot!
   7. To aid you in voting on a ballot in person, you can bring handwritten notes or printed sample ballots to the voting booth; just be sure to take them with you when you leave.
   8. Outside of Harris County … At the bottom of every show post, I have links to the various county clerks or election clerks in counties adjacent to Harris. For Texas generally, you can reach the Texas Secretary of State by going to VoteTexas[dot]gov.
   9. It’s also important to remember that if your eligibility to vote is questioned, you have the right to submit a provisional ballot which you can potentially “cure” later. They cannot refuse you the opportunity to vote on a provisional ballot.
   10. You can also go to ACLUTX[dot]ORG for questions and answers about your rights to vote without impediment. I’m providing that link in this show post.
   11. At the ACLUTX website, there is this specific piece of advice: “If you are turned away or denied a provisional ballot, you can call the Election Protection Hotline (1-866-OUR-VOTE or 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA) and the U.S. Department of Justice Voting Rights Hotline: 800-253-3931; TTY line 877-267-8971.”
   12. I also provide below this post, over a half-dozen links to various voting information reference resources that you may find useful.
   13. REFERENCE: Voting and elections — USA.GOV (Find out how to register to vote, where your voting location is, how presidential elections work, and more about voting in the United States.)
   14. REFERENCE: Texas Election Code
   15. REFERENCE: Texas Secretary of State, Alicia Pierce, Assistant Secretary of State for Communications,
   16. REFERENCE: Brennan Center for Justice, Sean Morales-Doyle,  Director, Voting Rights Program
   17. REFERENCE: Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar
   18. REFERENCE: Fort Bend County Election Administrator, John Oldham
   19. REFERENCE: League of Women Voters, Texas
   20. REFERENCE: BALLOTPEDIA — BALLOTPEDIA.ORG
   21. REFERENCE: S. Election Assistance Commission
   22. REFERENCE: 1993 National Voter Registration Act
2. Next is some polling location news from ABC13[dot]COM — Vote Center at Country Inn and Suites in NW Harris Co. closed due to ongoing issues, officials say; COM | Tuesday, October 29, 2024 1:33PM. TAGS: POLITICS, HOUSTON, HARRIS COUNTY, VOTER INFORMATION, HARRIS COUNTY VOTE, VOTE 2024, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ELECTION,
   1. Voters who would normally cast their ballot at the Country Inn and Suites hotel in northwest Harris County will need to find a different location.
   2. On Tuesday, the Harris County Elections Department announced the vote center at the hotel at 12915 FM 1960 Road W. is permanently closed due to ongoing water and power issues. …
   3. … Over the weekend, the location at the University of Houston’s Student Center was closed due to a water main break but resumed Monday.
   4. Also, on Sunday, officials said Vote Center 126F at the Courtyard Marriott Houston NW would be moved to the SpringHill Suites by Marriott Houston at 20303 Chasewood Park Drive due to air conditioner failure.
   5. Harris County residents can still cast their ballot at any location in the county. For a list of locations or one near you, visit the Harris County Clerk’s Office’s website.
   6. MIKE: It’s always a good idea to check the current polling locations before voting in person in case there have been some unavoidable changes.
   7. MIKE: As an additional resource, if you live anywhere in Texas, you can go to IWillVote[dot]COM to find polling or drop-off locations closest to you. If you are anywhere in the US, this site will also work for you.
3. This Election Day will be unprecedented. Here’s how the Houston Landing will cover it; by Angelica Arinze | HOUSTONLANDING.ORG | October 29, 2024 | 4:00 am. TAGS: Local Election Day Coverage, Local Races,
   1. With Election Day exactly a week away, the Houston Landing politics team is gearing up for an unprecedented, results-filled day for a myriad of local races. Here’s how we’re approaching our coverage of the day, including what we will be (and won’t be) covering.
   2. What [Houston Landing] will be covering  — At the Landing, we’ll be primarily focusing on a number of local races, ranging from county commissioners to constables: District Attorney…; County Attorney …; Commissioners …; Tax Assessor-Collector …; Constables …; Sheriff …; Flood Tax …; HISD Bond[s] …
   3. What [Houston Landing] won’t be covering — Unlike other news organizations, we won’t be covering national and state races, including at the presidential, Senate and federal level. While these races are important, politics reporter Paul Cobler says local races in pivotal states like Texas are just as critical, as these races have the potential to transform not just the state’s political landscape, but your neighborhood. 
   4. “If you turn on your phone or television on election night, you can expect to receive a deluge of breathless coverage about the state of the race for the presidency,” Cobler said. “No doubt, I’ll be right there with the rest of Houston, closely following coverage from the various battleground states being provided by countless other news agencies. They’ve got it covered.”
   5. Why we’re only covering local races (and why they matter) — While a national race has far-reaching impacts on the nation, local races have just as much of an impact — if not more — in a variety of circumstances. Part of the rationale behind our decision to stick to coverage on local races is because of the role and impact local representation has on your everyday life. …
   6. MIKE: This decision at Houston Landing actually echoes my philosophy for this show. Because some stories are heavily covered by the media-at-large, I try to discuss stories that you either are less likely to have heard about, or I offer analysis on more common stories that offer something different from what you may hear elsewhere.
   7. MIKE: There’s a lot more detail and information in the actual article, which I’ve linked to in this show post.
   8. MIKE: I whole-heartedly endorse this approach. Every election day, I struggle to find the local results I care about. State and national results are easy to track. It will be great to have a one-stop source that will follow these results in one easy-to-find news site. I strongly recommend making a note of this for your election day interest.
4. HISD Halloween policy: No costumes allowed for middle, high school students; While elementary schools can choose to let students dress up, middle and high school students are not allowed to wear costumes during the day. Author: Cory McCord (KHOU) | KHOU.COM | Published: 10:10 PM CDT October 29, 2024 / Updated: 10:10 PM CDT October 29, 2024. TAGS: Houston Independent School District (HISD), Halloween,
   1. Houston Independent School District officials announced that older students are no longer allowed to wear Halloween costumes to school.
   2. KHOU 11 News reached out to the district after seeing parents talking about it on social media.
   3. The district said schools can have Halloween celebrations that are short and cause minimal disruption to the core instructional day.
   4. While elementary schools can choose to let students dress up, middle and high school students are not allowed to wear costumes during the day. …
   5. MIKE: Included in the story is a statement from HISD that doesn’t further elaborate on the decision.
   6. MIKE: Personally, I think that this is a good idea for three reasons.
   7. MIKE: First, it’s a good idea for the same reason that school uniforms have become standard in most schools. It avoids the one-upmanship that can stress students when making a decision on what to wear as a costume to school, or whether to wear one at all.
   8. MIKE: Second, I agree that costumes in school are a distraction. They may be somewhat rationalized in elementary grades as an element of social education, but maybe should not be included there either.
   9. MIKE: And third, there are some families that object to any kind of Halloween celebration at all. I can see this as another example of separating church and state, as well as separation of Halloween and state. So, I’m cool with it.
5. Houston gives millions for HOA trash collection. What happens if it imposes a garbage fee?; by Hanna Holthaus | HOUSTONLANDING.ORG | October 28, 2024 | 4:00 am. TAGS: Houston, Trash Collection, Subsidies, Homeowner Associations, Budget Deficit, Garbage Fee,
   1. Houston has subsidized the private trash collection of some affluent neighborhoods for almost 40 years, a policy that could complicate the city’s consideration of a monthly garbage fee to help head off a looming budget deficit.
   2. Experts warn that implementing a garbage fee without ending the $3.3 million annual sponsorship to homeowner associations and civic clubs, representing some 47,000 households, could result in an additional burden on lower-income communities.
   3. The city has given participating associations $6 per household each month for their private garbage collection since the 1980s, resulting in neighborhoods with higher average median incomes receiving more frequent services, in part, on the taxpayers’ dime.
   4. [MIKE: From my further reading of this article, the $6 monthly subsidy is in lieu of the city having to pick up the trash in these neighborhoods. That puts a different wrinkle on the issue, as I will discuss later. Continuing …]
   5. The subsidy presents the city with a conundrum amid the Whitmire administration’s efforts to eliminate a budget deficit that is expected to top $200 million in fiscal 2025. 
   6. … Keeping the subsidy while imposing a garbage fee on the 437,000 households whose trash is collected by the city could provide an incentive for more neighborhoods to switch to private services, which would leave lower-income residents paying for more infrequent service.
   7. Do away with the subsidy and some of those HOAs and civic clubs could decide to change to city collection, raising the question of whether Houston has the capacity to add new neighborhoods to existing routes.   
   8. Mayor [Sylvester] Turner unsuccessfully tried to eliminate the subsidy eight years ago and faced criticism from affected residents. The idea has not been publicly raised since.
   9. Officials have talked about and resisted a garbage fee for decades, making Houston a state outlier. Each of the state’s largest cities has a garbage fee, ranging from $27.65 in Austin for a 32 gallon bin to $37.81 per month in Dallas. 
   10. The idea has re-emerged in Houston this year as the city faces a growing deficit.
   11. Switching to a monthly garbage fee could free up more than $107 million a year – the annual cost of operating the Department of Solid Waste Management.
   12. John Diamond, an economist with Rice University, did not know the reason the city historically has resisted a garbage fee, but said implementing one could have results at the ballot box. 
   13. [Diamond said,] “Does it end up just being close enough to a wash that the political fallout from such a move is just not worth it?”
   14. … The city spends more than $3.3 million a year to subsidize private garbage collection for residents who live within participating civic or homeowners associations – accounting for 10 percent of the households needing garbage collection services. 
   15. District G residents represent almost 45 percent of all sponsored households with more than 21,000 participating residents, according to data from the Solid Waste Management Department. District E has the second highest number of participants, 19,000 people. 
   16. Together, the city subsidies total more than $2.9 million annually for the two council districts, which have the second and third highest median incomes in the city. 
   17. Private trash collection comes with varying benefits depending on the company, but can include two pickups per week, no limit on the number of trash cans and back-door collection service. Taking away the subsidy could have wide-reaching effects for some HOAs, an administrator for Lakeside Island told the Landing. 
   18. Matt Garvis has worked for Lakeside Island, a neighborhood association in West Houston, for nine years and lives in the area’s larger Lakeside Improvement Association. Prices for garbage collection and constable service have increased in recent years, prompting a recent internal vote to increase the annual fees, he said. 
   19. Without the garbage subsidy, the HOA would have an approximate $40,000 hole in its budget, he said. 
   20. The subsidy has been at $6 since its inception and reasonably could be raised to compete with inflation, District G Councilmember Mary Nan Huffman told the Landing. Huffman lives in an HOA-represented neighborhood that receives the monthly subsidy, and questioned the viability of a citywide fee.
   21. [Huffman asked,] “What would happen if you don’t pay your garbage fee? Are they going to stop picking up your trash?”
   22. The subsidies save the city money, Huffman said, because it would cost more per household to pick up the trash itself. …
   23. [MIKE: I’m going to read that part again: “The subsidies save the city money, because it would cost more per household to pick up the trash itself. Going on …]
   24. Houston’s 311 service center data shows that missed trash pickup was one of the most frequent problems reported by residents.
   25. [Matt] Garvis did not think neighbors would be as upset about the cancellation of the subsidy if they had the option to keep private services without paying the city fee. He said some residents likely would want to switch providers if the city fee was cheaper, but he echoed the concern that the city does not have the capacity. 
   26. “I don’t know how many neighborhoods would call their bluff,” he said.
   27. … The administration has not said when to expect results of a third-party study of the Solid Waste Management Department approved in May, but Mayor John Whitmire promised City Council it was not a roundabout way of instituting a fee. 
   28. [Whitmire said at the time,] “It’s all-inclusive – efficiencies, cost-effectiveness, performance. It’s not focused primarily on the garbage fee, but really to see how they’re doing so well with so little.”
   29. Solid Waste Management Director Mark Wilfalk supports the idea of a garbage fee. The department would operate more smoothly and save the city money with a fee, Wilfalk said, pointing to the city’s small charge for leasing garbage bins as an example.  
   30. By charging a small amount to residents each month for their city trash can, the department does not have to pull the additional $4 million from the general fund, he said.
   31. [Wilfalk said,] “So, imagine, what would happen today if the city didn’t have to expense $100-plus million dollars to the Solid Waste Department? How many more officers could we put out on the streets? How many more firefighters could we put out there? How could that response time improve? What could we do for our parks and the communities and our neighborhoods?”
   32. The success would depend on a fee structure, said Diamond, the Rice University economist. 
   33. A garbage fee can be a “regressive tax” on low- and middle-income residents, he said. It also could push more residents to private trash haulers for better service, reducing the city’s income anyway, he said.
   34. “In a sense, we’re moving toward a model of, say, the city just getting out of garbage collection altogether,” Diamond said.
   35. Like many cities, Houston currently contracts with private haulers for commercial and multi-family garbage collection, which adds to the annual expense without the worker salaries or the capital costs of truck maintenance.  
   36. Wilfalk anticipates the city switching to a fee-based model in the future to take the strain off the general fund and improve services for residents across the city.
   37. Many cities have a base rate with varying additional costs depending on the size of the garbage bin. In Austin, a 24-gallon bin costs $26.20 monthly, while a 96-gallon bin costs $58.40.
   38. Houston would need to collect at least $20.40 per month with the current number of residents served to break even on the current yearly cost of the Solid Waste Management Department expenses.
   39. “We either invest in the program or we stop complaining about the challenges that the program has,” Wilfalk said.
   40. MIKE: There’s actually a lot to unpack and analyze in this story.
   41. MIKE: First, if the City is giving a $6/month subsidy to some neighborhoods to avoid paying $20.40/month for the cost of providing that city service, that’s a good deal for Houston to save over $14/month, while those neighborhoods benefit by paying more for better service.
   42. There’s also the guess by Matt Garvis that eliminating the subsidy would not make these subsidized neighborhoods drop their superior service because, as is suggested in the article, they can better afford the superior private service. Of course, that’s just a guess, but I suspect there’s a better than even chance he’s right.
   43. MIKE: I’m going to do some speculation and extrapolation here, so bear with me.
   44. MIKE: Some years ago, I lived in a subdivision with an HOA. That HOA membership did not include trash pickup, but homeowners paid for that separately each month. At the time, trash pickup cost me about $35/month, but that was years ago. I expect it’s gone up.
   45. MIKE: Now compare that $6-monthly subsidy given to these communities to the minimum $20+ monthly fee that Houston is contemplating for trash pickup. The city is actually making a profit on that subsidy.
   46. MIKE: And this all brings us back to Mayor Whitmire’s insistence on not increasing property taxes to cover the city’s budget deficit.
   47. MIKE: As I’ve said many times on this show, Texas is effectively a flat tax state, and State law effectively requires that municipalities in Texas be flat tax cities.
   48. MIKE: As such, the closest that Houston can get to progressive taxation is to levy higher taxes on more valuable properties, if you buy into the assumption that more valuable properties are mostly owned by people better able to pay higher taxes.
   49. MIKE: A city trash fee would be even less progressive, costing Houston’s poor and middle class as much as some millionaires.
   50. MIKE: My recommendation is as follows: 1) Explore the ramifications of eliminating the $6-monthly trash subsidy to wealthier neighborhoods. If they would continue with their private trash pickup anyway, then eliminate it. If not, then leave it as-is and let inflation devalue its impact over time on the city’s waste management budget. 2) And the solution I much prefer … Raise property taxes to the degree necessary to cover the city’s deficits and replenish its rainy-day fund. This effectively would allow elimination of the monthly trash container fee; it would effectively charge wealthier residents more for trash pickup than poorer residents; and it would render this whole debate moot.
6. Another Houston-area city blocks utility-scale battery storage project. How will it affect the grid?; By Claire Hao, Staff writer | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM | Oct 27, 2024. TAGS: Katy (TX), League City (TX), Utility-Sized Battery Storage Facilities,
   1. Battery storage facilities, seen by many as a key component in shoring up the state’s fragile electricity grid, have taken fitful steps to gain a foothold in some Houston area cities. After months of delays, League City in September allowed its first under a newly crafted ordinance, and Katy earlier this month voted to block an application.
   2. Batteries, which can store excess electricity when it’s plentiful and cheap and sell that electricity back to the power grid when it’s expensive and in short supply, have made key contributions to the Texas power grid over the last two summers. Still, several area cities have paused or denied development, often due to residents’ fears of uncommon battery storage fires. 
   3. Earlier this month, Katy City Council unanimously voted to deny a permit for a battery storage application. Dozens of residents wrote to council members or spoke at council meetings against the project, proposed by developer Vesper Energy, many citing its location just over a half-mile from Katy High School. Some also noted that Vesper has no experience operating battery storage facilities, though it has operational solar farms. 
   4. The opposition in Katy mirrors the wave of protest from residents seven months earlier in League City when battery storage developers began applying to build there. After pausing its consideration of applications in April, the city hired a consulting firm to draft a battery storage ordinance. The ordinance, which requires setbacks of at least 200 feet from homes and schools, or what’s deemed necessary by airborne hazards modeling, passed in July. 
   5. The community pushback comes as Texas is one of the fastest-growing states for battery storage facilities, a technology that began to take off across the country in 2018. More than 4,700 megawatts of energy storage are connected to the grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, compared to just 275 megawatts online in 2020. 
   6. More than 154,000 megawatts of battery storage facilities have applied to connect to the ERCOT grid – more than the entirety of ERCOT’s projection of peak power demand by 2030. Though many facilities may not be built, it indicates that development interest is unlikely to slow.
   7. League City last month approved a battery storage project from Peregrine Energy despite continued pushback from some residents concerned with its location …
   8. League City struggled to find examples of other ordinances on which to model its version, possibly the first in the state, Mayor Nick Long said in an interview. After the ordinance was approved, some developers told League City they wouldn’t build a battery storage facility in the city, Long said. …
   9. Representatives of Vesper Energy and Peregrine Energy didn’t reply to requests for comment.
   10. Battery storage facilities, generally located near substations, contain hundreds of lithium ion batteries. Though uncommon, lithium ion battery storage facilities can overheat, which in worst-case scenarios [leads] to fires. Concerns arise because substations are often located near electricity consumers.
   11. The industry has emphasized that the rate of failure has dropped 97% between 2018 and 2023 as the technology improved and as various industry standards were developed.
   12. That wasn’t good enough for many Katy residents … 
   13. Katy Council Member Gina Hicks has emailed the mayor requesting the formation of an advisory committee to identify locations in the city suitable for potential battery storage projects, she said in an interview.
   14. Hicks voted at the October council meeting to deny a proposed battery storage facility in line with the concerns of her constituents, even though she said it was a “mob vote” based on fear rather than data. 
   15. [Hicks said at the meeting,] “When we have the brownouts and the blackouts… It will be because we cannot meet demand. Just know that we as a community chose this.”
   16. Even though he’s not necessarily a proponent of battery storage technologies, League City Council Member Chad Tressler said at a September council meeting he’s “much more not a fan of the lack of hardiness in our grid.” He also cited House Bill 40, which the Texas Legislature passed in 2015 to prohibit local ordinances on a host of the oil and gas activities after Denton tried to ban fracking. 
   17. “If we take a stance that is a hard ‘no’ on these, we run the risk of taking this out of our hands and putting it in the hands of the legislature,” Tressler said. 
   18. MIKE: This has turned into an interesting regional debate and discussion of battery storage facilities generally, and I find that to be a good thing. As we switch over to more renewable energy, utility-scale energy storage facilities will be essential buffers against variation in sun and wind power generation. There will likely be more than one technological solution to this need, and there will likely be many variations on codes and ordinances regulating their construction, depending on local needs and opinions.
   19. MIKE: Let’s see how this policy debate develops.
7. The California exodus has continued. Here’s where most people leaving the Golden State moved to — and why.; Erin Snodgrass, Alcynna Lloyd, and Noah Sheidlower | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | Oct 27, 2024, 1:04 PM CDT. TAGS: California, Texas, Florida, New York,
   1. Between 2022 and 2023, over 690,100 people left California, according to new census data.
   2. Movers were motivated by economic and personal reasons, including the cost of living and home ownership.
   3. Just over 422,000 people also moved into the Golden State during that same time period, data shows.
   4. Kellee Speakman, a native Californian, started dreaming about life in Texas in 2022.
   5. The 50-year-old elementary school teacher and self-identified conservative was frustrated with California’s COVID-19 policies and intrigued by Texans proudly flaunting their “freedoms,” Speakman told Business Insider earlier this year.
   6. So, in January 2022, Speakman and her family packed up and left Temecula, California, for the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
   7. But it only took four months for Speakman to start planning her return to California, citing Texas’ higher-than-expected cost of living and politics. … The family was back in the Golden State by summer. …
   8. … Let’s get into the numbers.
   9. Census data released on October 17 shows that over 690,100 people left California for another state between 2022 and 2023, while just over 422,000 moved into the Golden State from elsewhere in the US. The data comes from the American Community Survey, which includes responses to questions concerning moving patterns.
   10. There were fewer net migrations during this period than the year prior …
   11. For Californians seeking greener pastures, Texas remains the top choice.
   12. Nearly 94,000 former Californians relocated to Texas between 2022 and 2023, a decrease from over 102,000 who made the move the previous year and down from the 108,000 who moved between 2020 and 2021. In contrast, just over 38,700 people moved from Texas to California during the same time. …
   13. Californians look for affordability in Texas — In the past year, many people moving from California to Texas have shared with BI their motivations for relocating.
   14. Some pointed to political factors or job opportunities as their main reasons, while others mentioned that rising costs made living in California’s major cities unsustainable, prompting them to look for a quieter, more affordable suburb in Texas.
   15. Jeffrey VonderHaar, an owner of a medical equipment business, told BI earlier this year that he was planning to move from Calabasas, California, to a neighborhood outside Houston.
   16. After 26 years in California, VonderHaar said he was leaving because the regulations, taxes, and high cost of goods made it increasingly difficult to run his business and manage daily living expenses. …
   17. He said he found Texas to be significantly more business-friendly. While he intends to keep his business in California, where he doesn’t foresee much expansion, he is looking to grow his operations in Texas.
   18. By moving to Texas, he and his family were also able to purchase a larger home on four acres of land for $1.275 million.
   19. Michelle Clifford, a 33-year-old sales manager, shared with BI that in July, moving from California to Texasallowed her and her husband to purchase their first home, giving them and their children a lifestyle they once thought was unattainable.
   20. The couple lives in Celina, a rapidly growing town north of Dallas. There, they bought a 2,400-square-foot home on an acre of land for around $600,000. …
   21. Where people are moving to California from —
   22. While fewer people from other states moved to California between 2022 and 2023 than between 2021 and 2022, the allure of the Golden State remains robust.
   23. The route from Texas to California was the most popular among movers from 2022 to 2023. According to census data, 38,732 relocated to California during this period….
   24. Abby Raisz, Senior Research Manager at the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, told CBS News in November that job opportunities partly drive the influx of Texas transplants to California.
   25. As companies move back to in-person work, Raisz said that many employees who worked remotely during the pandemic are returning to California. There has also been a rise in new tech jobs. …
   26. … The wider group of movers to California between 2022 and 2023 also includes some individuals returning back to the state.
   27. BI spoke with several Californians who had moved away, only to regret their decision or discover that they were better suited for life in California. …
   28. Dannielle Price, 47, moved from Riverside, California, to Texas for the second time earlier this year. She moved to Henderson, Texas, with her daughters in 2021, hoping to buy a home. However, due to her children’s struggles to adjust and the harsh summer heat, they returned to California just months after settling in Texas.
   29. After facing challenges in finding suitable housing in California, Price decided to give Texas another chance this year, bringing her children and co-parent, Eiman Monam, 45, with her.
   30. Despite settling into an apartment in Tyler, the family still feels that Texas isn’t the right fit for them.
   31. “We are definitely not planning to stay in Texas. We just want to get back home to California once our lease is up in May,” Price said. “We’d rather deal with the high cost of living and have the convenience. It’s home.”
   32. MIKE: I did a lot of editing for this article. I cut many of personal story elements, and also edited to make the story more Texas-specific.
   33. MIKE: I moved to Texas from New York City in 1977, and for the most part, I’ve never regretted the move. Houston suits me in ways that New York City and, frankly, other parts of Texas do not. But I could say the same about if I had moved to other parts of New York state. No place is perfect.
   34. MIKE: But it should be noted that originally, my first choice was Dallas. After staying there a couple of days and checking out the city and job opportunities, I decided it wasn’t for me. Than we went to Houston, and I instantly liked the cosmopolitan vibe I found here.
   35. MIKE: I think that this pretty much describes what’s happening in this story about migration between California and Texas. Many of the folks moving here have never lived here. They’re taking a gamble that they’ll like it better in Texas, but it’s not for everyone, and it also depends on where in Texas they try to resettle.
   36. MIKE: I would also note than if someone from California owned an expensive home there, what they can by anywhere in Texas after selling that home will be a huge upgrade. Hence, those folks may find Texas much more satisfying in terms of lifestyle and value.
   37. MIKE: There is no cookie-cutter answer to the question of whether it’s better to live in California or Texas. It’s very personal, very situational, and there is also a dumb-luck component to when and where someone decides to try resettling.
8. Second Texas doctor sued for providing gender-affirming care to minors; By Eleanor Klibanoff | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | Oct. 30, 2024@9 hours ago. TAGS: Health care, Politics, State government, Ken Paxton,
   1. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing a second doctor for allegedly violating state law and providing gender-affirming medical care to minors.
   2. Hector Granados is an El Paso pediatric endocrinologist. Paxton accuses him in the lawsuit of prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapy to more than 20 minors to treat gender dysphoria, or the distress someone can feel when their gender identity doesn’t match their physical appearance.
   3. In 2023, Texas passed Senate Bill 14, which prohibited medical providers from prescribing certain gender-affirming treatments, including puberty blockers and hormones, to minors to assist them to medically transition.
   4. Earlier this month, Paxton filed a similar lawsuit against Dr. May Lau, an adolescent medicine physician and associate professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. The lawsuits say these doctors are “radical gender activists” who are circumventing the law. Both suits seek financial penalties as well as the revocation of the doctors’ medical licenses.
   5. “Granados’s practices, publications, and presentations reveal an entrenched commitment to a gender ideology that desires to medically transition the biological sex of children or affirm the belief that a child’s gender identity is inconsistent with their biological sex,” Paxton wrote in the lawsuit filed Tuesday.
   6. Granados did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
   7. The lawsuit alleges Granados violated SB 14, but also says he engaged in fraud by continuing to provide patients with puberty blockers for gender transition while claiming in medical records that the treatment is necessary for precocious puberty, or the early onset of sexual development.
   8. The minors Granados is accused of treating are between the ages of 12 and 17, with the majority 15 or older.
   9. In August 2015, Granados helped open El Paso’s first clinic treating transgender children and teens through Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. At the time, the clinic was lauded as filling a necessary gap in the region. …
   10. Granados now works in private practice, according to his website. He was an assistant professor at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso medical school until 2019. The university did not respond to a request for comment.
   11. While Granados practices in El Paso County, the lawsuit was filed in Kaufman County, southeast of Dallas, where one of the 21 patients listed in the lawsuit lives.
   12. MIKE: I think we need to examine AG Paxton’s “justice dysphoria”. He thinks that he’s a lawyer when he’s really an ideological culture warrior devoid of actual legal ethics or judgment.
   13. MIKE: Is there treatment for that?
   14. MIKE: The State of Texas, run by allegedly “small government” Republicans, needs to get the hell out of doctors’ offices and stop legislating health protocols and medical treatment.
   15. MIKE: Elections have consequences. Remember that when these dangerous clowns are running for office.
9. 2 swing states show why the US is struggling to build enough houses; By Eliza Relman | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | Oct 25, 2024, 5:00 AM CDT. TAGS: Housing, Election 2024, Politics, Arizona, Real Estate, Home Prices,
   1. … Renters and homeowners in the handful of swing states that will likely determine the US presidential election — which include Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Nevada — have been disproportionately hit by rising housing costs, caused by decades of underbuilding, a surge in new residents, high construction costs, and red tape.
   2. Since 2017, “in six of the seven states, home prices have risen faster than the national average, and the national average is already quite high. In all seven states, rent growth has been higher than the national average,” [said]Alex Horowitz, the director of Pew’s housing-policy project, told Business Insider, citing data from Zillow and Apartment List.
   3. Two swing states — Arizona and Pennsylvania — exemplify in their own ways how housing markets across the country have failed to address the key issue they face: too few homes.
   4. In Arizona, sprawling subdivisions can sprawl only so far, and population growth over the years has outstripped supply. While Pennsylvania’s population shrank in recent years, it’s still struggling to dig itself out of a construction-worker shortage after years of underbuilding.
   5. … For years, Arizona has been among the fastest-growing states in the country. Sprawling subdivisions helped accommodate the growing population and were enough to keep housing costs relatively low through the early 2010s.
   6. The pandemic supercharged pressure on the housing market. Since 2020, Arizona has welcomed hundreds of thousands of new residents. As demand spiked, snarled supply chains helped inflate construction costs. Since January 2020, home prices in Arizona have risen by 55%, compared to a national average of 45%, while rents have jumped 27%, compared to a national average of 22%, Horowitz said.
   7. MIKE: I believe that this story actually should be partly seen as an immigration reform story.
   8. MIKE: There are essential jobs that need to be done that either Americans don’t want, or we simply don’t have enough skilled labor to fulfill economic need. This is the best reason for immigration reform.
   9. MIKE: We need to have worker visas for Latin and other immigrants — whether skilled, semi-skilled, or unskilled — so that they can work legally in agriculture, construction, or wherever the need is. This would be a win-win for all parties concerned, both businesses and prospective immigrants.
   10. MIKE: Instead, we have Rightwingers demanding deportation of the workers and business people we need to keep our economy healthy. It’s insane.
10. The Group at the Center of Trump’s Planning for a Second Term Is One You Haven’t Heard of; America First Policy Institute didn’t even exist four years ago. But it is poised to be more influential than Project 2025. By Ken Bensinger and David A. Fahrenthold | NYTIMES.COM | Oct. 24, 2024. TAGS: Donald Trump, Linda McMahon, 2024 Elections: News, Polls and Analysis, S. Politics, Heritage Foundation
    1. Late this summer, a prominent right-wing think tank invited conservatives from around the country to learn how to work in a second Donald J. Trump administration.
    2. In a series of training sessions in Washington, former Trump officials shared strategies with attendees for combating leftist civil servants in the federal government and dealing with the mainstream media. Participants were sent home with a thick binder of materials for further study. One section’s title: “Tales From the Swamp: How Federal Bureaucrats Resisted President Trump.”
    3. The classes could easily have been the work of Project 2025, the conservative policy blueprint and personnel project that was created by loyalists to Mr. Trump and that has been turned into a political cudgel by Democrats seeking to link its most radical prescriptions to the former president.
    4. But the meetings had nothing to do with that enterprise or its principal backer, the Heritage Foundation. Instead, they were the work of the America First Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank that has, with little fanfare or scrutiny, installed itself as the Trump campaign’s primary partner in making concrete plans to wield power again.
    5. Founded by three wealthy Texans in late 2020, the group, known as A.F.P.I., has quickly inserted itself into nearly every corner of Mr. Trump’s political machine, and is closer than any other outside player in his planning for a second term. …
    6. Like Project 2025, the institute developed a plan for staffing and setting the policy agenda for every federal agency, one that prioritizes loyalty to Mr. Trump and aggressive flexing of executive power from Day 1. Ms. Rollins declined an interview but has said that A.F.P.I. has already drafted nearly 300 executive orders ready for Mr. Trump’s signature should he win the election.
    7. It’s impossible to predict which policies Mr. Trump will prioritize, and a spokesman for the nonprofit, Marc Lotter, noted that the group “does not speak on behalf of any candidate, campaign or transition.”
    8. But unlike the creators of Heritage’s Project 2025, the key architects of A.F.P.I.’s transition plan are now advising the Trump campaign, a testament to the strategy and discretion of the organization.
    9. [Said Heath Brown, a professor of public policy at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who studies presidential transitions,] “[A.F.P.I] understood what Heritage didn’t: Transition work is always best kept very quiet.”
    10. … The institute’s policy book, titled “The America First Agenda,” is slimmer than the much-debated plans espoused in Project 2025’s 900-page “Mandate for Leadership.” Absent are attention-grabbing proposals such as banning pornography, prohibiting the mailing of abortion pills or ending the Justice Department’s status as an independent agency.
    11. But its vision is no less Trumpist: It calls for halting federal funding for Planned Parenthood and for mandatory ultrasounds before abortions, including those carried out with medication. It seeks to make concealed weapons permits reciprocal in all 50 states, increase petroleum production, remove the United States from the Paris Agreement, impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients and establish legally only two genders.
    12. It also goes significantly further than Project 2025 in one key area, calling for the elimination of nearly all civil service protections for federal workers by making them at-will employees — a strategy supporters believe will allow Mr. Trump and his aides to root out career staff members who they believe stood in his way in his first administration. …
    13. That change could allow officials to try to fire civil servants for almost any reason, including for defying Mr. Trump or speaking out on positions like acknowledging climate change that challenge administration policies. …
    14. [Transition team co-chair, Howard Lutnick, the chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald said in a television interview last week that] his main priority in selecting potential appointees was fidelity to Mr. Trump. “He’s the C.E.O.,” he said.
    15. [MIKE: This kind of thinking is precisely why business people who have never served in government should not be president. Continuing …
    16. … The A.F.P.I. was born soon after Mr. Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election, when Ms. Rollins and Ms. McMahon approached Tim Dunn, a billionaire Texas oilman, about creating a national organization that could lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration.
    17. Rollins, who served as Mr. Trump’s director of domestic policy, had been the president of the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, where Mr. Dunn is a longtime board member. Together, they had helped pursue Mr. Dunn’s agenda of reshaping Texas politics, pushing the State Legislature to send public funding to private schools and to increase Christianity’s role in civic life.
    18. Within weeks, Mr. Dunn and two other wealthy directors of the Texas nonprofit, Cody Campbell and Tim Lyles, registered A.F.P.I. Mr. Dunn and Mr. Campbell still sit on its board, along with a number of other deep-pocketed donors, including the chief executive of Goya Foods, Bob Unanue, and Trish Duggan, a Florida philanthropist and a Scientologist. …
    19. Its sister organization, America First Works, is one of three groups working directly with the Trump campaign on get-out-the-vote activities in battleground states.
    20. And its legal arm, led by Pam Bondi, a former lawyer for Mr. Trump, has been filing voting lawsuits in battleground states. In May, for example, it sued the board of elections in Fulton County, Ga., on behalf of a board member who sought the right not to certify an election based on suspicion of fraud.
    21. A county judge rejected that argument last week, stating that “our Constitution and our election code do not allow for that to happen.” …
    22. MIKE: There is so much more in this article that should scare the dickens out of you, and there are two main things I take away from the story: 1) That there is a political culture in America trying to stage a legal coup to subvert the Constitution and impose their ideologies on an unwilling American public, and 2) That there is way too much money in too few hands that aim to subvert American politics, and way too little law to deal with it.
    23. MIKE: I am not usually given to hyperbole, but as a nation, we are in grave danger. I only hope that these folks are not given a chance to implement their ideas and polices. Remember that elections have consequences and vote.
11. Musk’s plan to cut $2 trillion in U.S. spending could bring economic turmoil; By Tony Romm | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | October 29, 2024 at 5:54 p.m. EDT. TAGS: Elon Musk, Donald Trump, US Economy, US Budget Cuts,
    1. Elon Musk appeared to acknowledge Tuesday that his pledge to help former president Donald Trump slash federal spending could unleash severe, short-term economic turmoil, underscoring the fiscal stakes as voters weigh whether to send the Republican back to the White House.
    2. Musk first outlined his highly aggressive target at a raucous campaign rally in New York last weekend [in Madison Square Graden], promising to identify “at least $2 trillion in cuts” as part of a formal review of federal agencies that he would conduct if Trump wins next week’s election.
    3. But the audacious pledge, which drew rapt applause, belied a harsh fiscal reality: Slashing the budget that steeply would require decimating an array of government services, including food, health care and housing aid — and it could erode funding for programs that lawmakers in both parties say they want to protect, from defense to Social Security.
    4. By Tuesday, Musk appeared to acknowledge the economic risks of his proposal. On X, the social media site he owns, the tech mogul agreed with another user’s post that argued his federal review — and other Trump policies — risked a “severe overreaction in the economy,” causing financial markets to “tumble” before the country’s fiscal standing later improves.
    5. “Sounds about right,” Musk wrote in response.
    6. In the 2024 fiscal year, the U.S. government spent more than $6.75 trillion, according to the Treasury Department. For Musk to reach his target, particularly in a single year, his review would need to find a way to eliminate about one-third of all federal spending.
    7. The $2 trillion cut would be virtually impossible to achieve, unless Musk extracts savings in areas long considered sacrosanct in Washington, including spending on the military and benefit programs like Social Security. Otherwise, the cuts to many domestic programs could exceed 80 percent next year, including for air safety, food inspections, infrastructure repairs and more, according to experts across the political spectrum.
    8. For now, the tech billionaire has not unfurled more of his thinking. He did not respond Tuesday to an email seeking comment, nor did a spokesman for the Trump campaign. …
    9. Musk has emerged as one of Trump’s most prominent and powerful financiers, donating tens of millions of dollars to help elect the Republican presidential candidate and frequently appearing at his campaign rallies. Trump, meanwhile, has promised to pursue key policies that benefit the billionaire founder of SpaceX and Tesla, while potentially appointing him to examine and reduce federal regulation.
    10. Musk has referred to that prospective operation as the “Department of Government Efficiency” — DOGE [or “DOG-E], for short, a reference to an internet meme. He unveiled his latest thinking about the wide-ranging review at the same, highly controversial Trump campaign event Sunday where other speakers repeatedly invoked racist tropes.
    11. [Asked Howard Lutnick, the chief executive of Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald, who is helping to lead Trump’s transition planning team if the GOP candidate is elected,] “How much do you think we can rip out of this wasted, $6.5 trillion Harris-Biden budget?”.
    12. “I think we can do at least $2 trillion,” Musk responded, later promising his operation aims to “get the government off your back and out of your pocketbook. Your money is being wasted, and the Department of Government Efficiency is going to fix that,” he said.
    13. But the math is much more complicated in a nation where the national debt exceeds $35 trillion.
    14. First is the matter of Musk’s timeline: He has not specified if he plans to slash $2 trillion immediately, or over a longer period, since budget experts generally assess fiscal impacts over a 10-year window. If he tries to find all of those savings in a single fiscal year, the consequences could prove catastrophic.
    15. When Congress haggles over federal spending — often bringing the nation mere hours from a government shutdown — it often focuses on what’s known as discretionary spending. That money includes many programs at agencies like the Education Department, the Department of Labor and the Pentagon, which has awarded lucrative contracts to Musk’s SpaceX.
    16. But discretionary spending amounted to about $1.6 trillion in the 2024 fiscal year, meaning even if Musk could cut nearly every dollar at most federal agencies — ending some federal college aid, wiping out funds for federal law enforcement and consumer protection and more — it still would not be enough to reach his goal.
    17. Adding to the challenge, some Republicans historically have argued that defense funding should be off limits from any spending cuts, potentially forcing Musk to seek more savings elsewhere. Nor is the SpaceX chief likely to scrounge enough simply by focusing on federal waste and fraud alone, a frequent target of conservatives’ ire, which can sum up to about $300 billion annually, according to some estimates by government watchdogs.
    18. [Said Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a center-right think tank,] “The idea that one can cut $2 trillion in wasteful and unnecessary programs is absolutely absurd. There’s a long history of the fantasy that one smart businessman will just identify trillions in waste, but that’s just not how it works.”
    19. More likely, Musk would need to pursue much broader cuts that include what are known as mandatory programs, such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which are funded as a requirement of federal law. To achieve his savings, he would need to propose dramatic, structural changes to these and other benefits, from lessening payment amounts to limiting eligibility, perhaps even raising the retirement age.
    20. [Said Marc Goldwein, the senior vice president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which advocates for deficit reduction,] “It would be borderline impossible if they’re not going to look at other parts of the budget.”
    21. By his math, Goldwein said that Musk would have to slash all spending, including defense and entitlements, by one third to accomplish his goal in a single year — or, by an unfathomable 80 percent, if these and other politically sensitive programs were off the table. That aligned with similar estimates from the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which has opposed past GOP cuts.
    22. Even stretching those savings out over a decade, the typical Washington long-term budget window, would mean spending reductions ranging between 25 and 60 percent, Goldwein said.
    23. Republicans learned firsthand how difficult it can be to translate calls for severe austerity into spending reductions that voters can stomach. Soon after taking control of the House last year, far-right lawmakers tried but failed to secure a smaller demand — $130 billion in cuts — over the objections of fellow GOP members who thought it could severely harm their districts (and reelection prospects).
    24. Trump failed to trim the federal budget four years ago, even as he proposed deep cuts to domestic programs, including Medicaid, which helps low-income families obtain health insurance. He sought those dramatic reductions on the heels of a package of tax cuts that ultimately added trillions to the federal debt.
    25. This time, Trump has signaled that he could try to bypass Congress altogether for spending decisions — unilaterally seeking to cut some funding in a move that could trigger a high-stakes constitutional showdown.
    26. In the meantime, the former president has endorsed new tax breaks, particularly for businesses, contributing to a broader economic agenda that could add about $8 trillion to the debt, according to CRFB.
    27. [Said Goldwein,] “If he were saving $2 trillion over a decade, that would reduce it to $6 trillion, which would be a meaningful improvement but still bad.”
    28. MIKE: Let’s sum up some realities. First, even if cutting $2 trillion from the US budget to cut the deficit was a good idea, you know that those cuts would just be matched by tax cuts to the rich and corporations.
    29. MIKE: Second, cuts of that magnitude to government spending would probably bring the worst disaster to the US economy since the Great Depression, when Hoover’s answer to the Depression was to cut government spending to match the reduction in government revenue. That demonstrably made things much worse, and is part of the historical record.
    30. MIKE: Third, if you exclude defense spending (which is practically a given), the cuts that would be necessary to discretionary spending would basically end discretionary spending. That would plunge many Americans into poverty and even homelessness.
    31. MIKE: Fourth, what do you think would be the social consequences of all of the above? I’ve often said that Conservatives generally, and the rich specifically, shouldn’t look at social programs as wasteful spending. They should look at those programs as life insurance. Without them, there would be social violence and maybe even revolution. And that violence would probably strike the rich worse than anyone.
    32. MIKE: As an aside, the tariffs that Trump advocates would be equivalent to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of June 17, 1930. That made the Great Depression even worse, both in the US and globally. Again, that is historically documented fact.
    33. MIKE: So let’s sum up. Trump’s plan, as articulated by Elon Musk, will ruin the best economy in the history of the United States, further enrich the rich while further impoverishing the poor and middle class, probably bring on a national and possibly global economic depression, and potentially foment the worst social violence that the US has ever seen, possibly culminating in civil war and revolution.
    34. MIKE: If that’s Trump’s platform, you know what to do when you vote.
    35. MIKE: In my humble opinion, the way to cut the deficit and maybe work toward budget surpluses is to raise taxes on the rich and corporations, and eliminate some of the loopholes that unfairly benefit the rich and corporations.

=====================================================

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?
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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.
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