Now in our 12th year on KPFT!

FYI: WordPress is forcing me to work with a new type of editor, so things will look … different … for a while. I’m hoping I’ll improve with a learning curve. Please bear with me, and let me know of any odd glitches you see that I may not, so I can try to fix them. — Mike

Beginning April 20th, Thinkwing Radio will air on KPFT 90.1-HD2 on Sundays at 1PM, and will re-air on Mondays at 2PM and Wednesdays at 11AM. Thanks for listening!

AUDIO: 

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Sundays at 1PM and re-runs Wednesday at 11AM (CT) on KPFT 90.1 FM-HD2, Houston’s Community Media. You can also hear the show:

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Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig on KPFT Houston at 90.1-HD2, Galveston 89.5-HD2, and Huntsville 91.9-HD2. KPFT is Houston’s Community Media. On this show, we discuss local, state, national, and international stories that may have slipped under your radar. At my website, THINKWINGRADIO-dot-COM, I link to all the articles I read and cite, as well as other relevant sources. Articles and commentaries often include lots of internet links for those of you who want to dig deeper.

This begins the 7th week of Trump’s military occupation of Los Angeles and the third week of his deployment of Marines to his “Alligator Alcatraz”.

1. Small percentage of Harris County residents registered for flood control district’s warning alerts; Flood-prone Harris County has had a flooding warning system since the 1980s, but only about 40,000 of its 5 million residents are signed up to receive alerts. By Adam Zuvanich | HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | Posted on July 16, 2025, 6:03 PM (Last Updated: July 17, 2025, 10:36 AM). TAGS: Flooding, Harris County, Houston, Local News, Public Safety, Weather, flood warning system, flooding in Harris County, flooding in Houston Harris County Flood Control District, Harris County Flood Warning System,
   1. Flood warnings and weather alert systems have been top of mind in Texas since a wall of rainwater surged down the Guadalupe River early July 4, washing away homes and businesses and leading to the deaths of at least 130 people in the Hill Country, many of whom were visiting from the Houston area.
   2. Flood-prone Harris County has had a flooding alert system since the 1980s, but a relatively small number of its 5 million residents may know about it. Only about 40,000 residents are signed up to receive alerts through the Harris County Flood Control District’s Flood Warning System, according to agency spokesperson Emily Woodell. …
   3. Those who register for the free service at org can choose to receive text messages or emails about rainfall amounts and water levels within the Houston area’s many bayous and channels. There are more than 350 rain gauge sensors stationed across the region, Woodell said, and those who sign up for the alerts can request to receive localized information near their homes, schools or workplaces – or information for the entire county. …
   4. The data created by the series of sensors is automatically published on the flood control district’s social media channels, according to Woodell, who said the information is also shared with local elected officials and utilized by local television stations.
   5. And it’s used as part of flood mitigation planning.
   6. [Woodell said,] “We work with dozens of entities, in Harris County and around Harris County, to look at how water is coming into the county and also how it’s moving within the county. It’s important to help us understand what happens on the ground during a flood event. We can analyze where potential future improvements are needed.”
   7. For individual residents and their families, Woodell said receiving real-time rainfall and flooding data directly can promote “peace of mind” and help with decision-making during emergencies – such as the recent deadly flooding in Central Texas.
   8. [Woodell said,] “The flooding in the Hill Country has been so devastating to watch. … In Harris County, we’re no strangers to flooding. Our flooding looks a little different, but it happens nevertheless. The more people feel empowered to have that data at their fingertips. I think the safer we all are in the long run.”
   9. MIKE: For those who may have missed it, the web link to sign up for flood warnings is fwsalerts-dot-org. And the link is embedded in the story in this shows blog post.
   10. MIKE: I don’t think I had ever heard of this alert system before, so I thought it was important to make our listeners aware of it. It could be life-saving.
2. Houston City Council effectively bans homeless people from downtown and East Downtown sidewalks; By Dominic Anthony Walsh | HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | Posted on July 16, 2025, 1:40 PM (Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 2:07 PM). TAGS: City of Houston, Houston, Local News, Coalition For The Homeless Of Houston And Harris County, Homeless In Houston, Houston City Council, Houston Civility Ordinance, Houston Homeless, Community ,Houston, Police Department,
   1. A purple suitcase and pink tote bag containing all of Lasonya Harris’ possessions rested on a sidewalk Wednesday morning in front of Houston City Hall.
   2. After losing a sales job, she said, Harris has been sleeping outside, mostly in the public spaces of downtown Houston. Under an ordinance approved by the city council later Wednesday — after she spoke with Houston Public Media — she will face a potential fine of up to $500 and arrest if she continues living as she’s lived for the past two years.
   3. [Harris said,] “There are people like myself that’s hopeless. I’ve exhausted all of my limitation as to where I can go and where I can stay. I’m out of options. If I get off the sidewalk, I’m going to get in the grass or in the water — that’s all I know. It’s like, it’s out of options, and if they put another rule that you can’t be on the sidewalk at all sleeping, in day or night, that makes the homeless more vulnerable.”
   4. The city council updated the so-called “civility ordinance,” which prohibits sitting, lying down or placing personal possessions on sidewalks in 12 parts of the city from 7 a.m.-11 p.m. In downtown Houston and East Downtown, the rules will now apply 24/7, effectively banning the presence of homeless people in those areas.
   5. [Mayor John Whitmire said before the vote,] “No one is criminalizing the civility ordinance allowing people to be taken off the streets like a crime. They’re being handled compassionately. It’s a plan that’s been well thought out.”
   6. Violations of the civility ordinance are a Class C criminal misdemeanor.
   7. [MIKE: I want to pause and emphasize here that if violations are a Class C criminal misdemeanor, that means that contrary to Whitmire’s assertion, then yes, homelessness is literally being criminalized. Continuing …]
   8. Whitmire’s administration framed the change as a “pilot program” with the end goal being a citywide, 24/7 expansion of the civility ordinance.
   9. For Harris, there’s a glimmer of hope in Whitmire’s stated approach to addressing street homelessness. The city’s housing department, in partnership with the nonprofit Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County and other groups, is focusing on providing transitional beds, services and a path to permanent housing before enforcing the ordinance.
   10. [Harris said,] “If I was offered housing in any form, any program … yes, I will accept it.”
   11. The city is hoping to raise $70 million for the initiative, though it remains significantly short of that goal as it continues to seek $20 million from private philanthropy. Whitmire’s administration plans to supplement its efforts with about $40 million in federal disaster recovery funds.
   12. [MIKE: I’ll note here that that money is not sustainable, and surely will not be forthcoming again from the Trump regime. This is why Whitmire needed a tax increase for the next fiscal year. Continuing …]
   13. Harris and about a dozen other homeless people in front of City Hall are among an estimated population of 200 to 250 individuals who sleep on the streets in downtown Houston. The city’s housing department director, Mike Nichols, said the city has the resources to serve them.
   14. [Nichols said,] “It’s disappointing to some folks who would like to do it citywide. We can’t do that. The resources aren’t there for that. This is a moving system. I’m a systems guy. I’m a monies guy. And this is part of the system to move people from downtown to housing.”
   15. Nichols declined to answer a question from city council last week about whether the city could immediately house the entire population, instead saying “as we move from street to street and district to district, the answer is yes.”
   16. Council member Letitia Plummer successfully pushed for an amendment to encourage the presence of mental health professionals and officers with special training in crisis response prior to the enforcement of the ordinance. She said the idea of enforcement by regular uniformed officers, who receive less training than specialized officers, “worries the heck out of me.” The amendment, which encourages but does not require the presence of specialized teams, was approved unanimously.
   17. At around 8:30 a.m. before the vote, an officer with the Houston Police Department (HPD) instructed a homeless man to move a stroller with personal possessions off the sidewalk in front of City Hall. The man declined to share his name or speak with Houston Public Media, and the officer was unable to say if he was specifically enforcing the civility ordinance. No social service provider was present, and there was no mention of transitional housing.
   18. Spokespersons for HPD and Whitmire’s office did not immediately return requests for comment on the encounter.
   19. When it comes to clearing homeless encampments, the city has highlighted four targeted efforts in the downtown area since November. Out of more than 130 people who were “engaged” by the city and its partners, 85 individuals were connected to “a housing solution.”
   20. Even for homeless people who face fines or arrests under the updated ordinance, the administration said it hopes to divert them to services and housing through the city’s special “homeless court.”
   21. [Said Larry Satterwhite, Whitmire’s director of public safety and homeland security,] “No one likes to issue the citation and bring them to court. No one likes to make an arrest. But I say again, it does give us another opportunity to try to get them help, and some of them take it.”
   22. [MIKE: Satterwhite doesn’t mention what happens to those who do not take it. I think that’s a material point that needs to be addressed, and I didn’t see any elaboration on this point in any of the three stories I read. Continuing …]
   23. Council member Mario Castillo said his conversations with the court [eased his concerns] about homeless people receiving citations.
   24. The ordinance passed in a 14-2 vote, with council members Tarsha Jackson and Abbie Kamin voting against the change.
   25. [Jackson told Houston Public Media after the vote,] “I don’t believe people should be penalized, especially our most vulnerable community, because they’re homeless. Ticketing — it can grow into something bigger. Once you get caught in the criminal justice system, it’s hard to come out. So I just didn’t like that approach.”
   26. Under a coordinated effort led by the Coalition for the Homeless, the city has made significant progress in reducing the homeless population over the past 15 years. Kamin called for the city to lean into the so-called “housing-first” approach.
   27. [Kamin said,] “That’s the Houston way — to bring in a coalition of wraparound services that goes to a location and addresses that one individual at a time, compassionately and holistically. But the civility ordinance itself doesn’t talk about that or address that.”
   28. According to the Coalition for the Homeless, about 8,400 people in the Houston area were homeless in 2011. Last year, the coalition counted about 3,300 homeless people in the area, including about 1,100 who slept outside of shelters in public spaces. Whitmire’s administration hopes to reduce that number to zero by eventually offering everyone who becomes homeless a path to permanent housing within 90 days.
   29. MIKE: This story was a little challenging to include because no one story captured all the nuances and potential pitfalls of this program for the homeless
   30. MIKE: I ended up referencing 3 stories. I have links to all of them in this show post.
   31. MIKE: For example, in a CHRON-DOT-COM story, Council Member Abbie Kamin notes that, “If they have a cart full of all their belongings, and they can only bring a drawer-full in, I would not want to leave everything I own behind, or a pet.”
   32. MIKE: In COMMUNITYIMPACT-DOT-COM, Kamin also notes that, a $500 fine to somebody that’s already living on the street is major.
   33. MIKE: I don’t want to put myself in a morally unambiguous position on this issue. I admit that I don’t like to see homeless people camped out on the street with bags and carts of possessions on the sidewalk, and I don’t like to see homeless encampments under bridges or in parks, but my feelings are of two parts.
   34. MIKE: But aside from the discomfort and unsightliness, I don’t like that these people are forced to live this way. It’s dangerous, it’s unhealthy, and it’s just simply inhumane.
   35. MIKE: I don’t see a complete solution currently existing in the reporting about this new ordinance. It seems that there’s a lot of detail about getting people off the street, but not so much about what happens next.
   36. MIKE: In that sense, it seems more aspirational than concrete, and I find that very troubling.
3. I don’t usually discuss restaurant news, but this article touches on some industry-wide problems — Is a certain kind of restaurant in danger? Houston spot announces its end.; By Timothy Malcolm, Weekend Editor | CHRON.COM | July 15, 2025. TAGS: Restaurants, Hospitality Business, Post-Covid Society,
   1. Maybe it’s just me, but there’s a certain kind of restaurant that feels like it’s disappearing faster than others. It’s the restaurant down the block that hasn’t received a big PR push, and it’s not advertising itself as “chef-forward.” It probably has white tablecloths but with moderate price points, and it’s serving some version of a food you’ve had at home, but with better hospitality.
   2. It’s very 1990s-coded — the kind of restaurant parents back then would have probably gone to for a rare date. … A perfectly good, kind of old-school feeling, capital-R Restaurant.
   3. [The pattern can be described as] reliable and just slightly more upscale than average spots you can always turn to.
   4. [One restaurant that has announced it’s closing says this:] “Having a restaurant in a city with so many delicious options like Houston is a lofty endeavor (even before COVID) — a challenge that we commend anyone for taking on.”
   5. Ginger & Fork is perfectly good. Owner Mary Li … believed the Inner Loop could benefit from better Chinese food than the typical corner-store spots serving orange chicken. Additionally, her experience bartending prepared her to create one of Houston’s most interesting restaurant combinations: Cantonese dishes, such as bone-brittle flounder and spicy squid, paired with margaritas and daiquiris.
   6. So, Ginger & Fork …[is]closing because, five years after the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged kitchens across the country, similar problems persist. …
   7. … [A]sk a restaurant owner why they’re struggling and you’ll hear similar answers. 
   8. [MIKE: And I think that this is the key part of the story for the industry broadly:]
   9. People have decided, for one reason or another, that waiting tables, doing dishes, and serving drinks are no longer sufficient jobs. Or, too many people are ordering through delivery apps. Or, nobody wants to tip anymore. Or, too many storms and outageshave made running a business too difficult. Or, the cost of food is too high. The cost of rent is too high. The cost of life is too high.
   10. All of this seems to be affecting those restaurants in the middle more than others. The ones like Ginger & Fork that are probably too big to strip down to the studs, but too small to handle the bumps in the road that appear to be getting bigger and more intrusive. So, are we now witnessing the end of this type of middle-class, practical, and ’90s-inspired restaurant? It’s difficult to answer that question, but for diners who enjoyed a fun mix of Cantonese and cocktails for a night out, there will soon be one less place to visit.
   11. MIKE: I’ve stripped out mentions of many the restaurants that have announced their closings, but you can go the article link provided in this show post.
   12. MIKE: Way back around March and April of 2020, when Andrew Ferguson was co-hosting with me, we had discussions about how Covid was going to change our lifestyles in ways we couldn’t entirely predict, and I think that this is still another example of that. In other words, the process of Covid-related change is still ongoing.
   13. MIKE: Covid has rocked the world in ways that may rival changes to post-plague Europe in the 14^th Thank goodness that the death rate from Covid is much less than 50% of the population, but the changes to how we live and how technology accelerated and adapted to those changes may be comparable. And businesses are still trying to figure out how to adapt to those changes, and survive.
4. I discussed this on the show just last week. It seems that city council took the matter very seriously and acted quickly — Restaurants, businesses in Houston will now be required to post dress codes; By Kevin Vu | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 3:40 PM Jul 17, 2025 CDT/Updated 5:28 PM Jul 17, 2025 CDT. TAGS: Houston, Nightclubs, Bars, Restaurants, Businesses, Dress Code Rules,
   1. Houston nightclubs, bars, restaurants and businesses will be required to display their dress code rules on the front of their establishments.
   2. … A new ordinance, approved during the July 17 City Council meeting, will require businesses within the city of Houston to post their dress code at or near the entrance for the public to clearly see. If not enforced, it will be “interpreted that there is no dress code, and no dress code policy shall be enforced,” according to the ordinance.
   3. Council member Edward Pollard pushed the effort after he and Controller Chris Hollins were denied entry to an establishment because of Hollins’ shoes. Pollard said they eventually got in and saw others who were also wearing tennis shoes.
   4. He said the ordinance is a way to prevent businesses from “arbitrarily selecting who gains entry based on attire” and eliminating any discriminatory practices.
   5. [Pollard said,] “I think it only makes sense. It’s only reasonable that if you have a policy that governs entry, and you’re a public establishment, the public should be aware of what the policy for entrance is.”
   6. Council members Julian Ramirez and Fred Flickinger said they have received concerned messages and complaints from the Greater Houston Restaurant Association about the ordinance. Pollard said his team reached out to the association, and after discussion, they no longer had concerns or questions.
   7. [The association wrote in a July 17 statement, “We appreciate the extra time and discussion, which resolved our questions around enforcement procedures and cost. We look forward to working with council and city departments to ensure the ordinance does not create unintended consequences for local restaurants.”
   8. Misty Starks, the director of communications for Pollard’s office, said once the ordinance is signed in a few days, it will go into effect immediately. Businesses will be expected to comply as soon as possible, she said.
   9. … The ordinance was approved in an 11-2 vote, with council members Mary Nan Huffman and Flickinger voting no, and council members Willie Davis and Twila Carter absent.
   10. Huffman said she voted against the ordinance as she felt it was “unnecessary government overreach,” and believes this isn’t an issue that matters to the public.
   11. [Huffman said,] “Prior to this item being placed on the council agenda, I can’t recall a time that somebody who showed up to a public session or came before this body and has even talked about this issue. Bars and restaurants will open to the public. They’re private establishments that should have the freedom to communicate their dress code in a manner that best aligns with their needs.”
   12. [MIKE: As I noted last week, Huffman is a white, blonde-haired Republican. Flickinger is also a white Republican. I’m betting that neither has ever experienced any sort of discrimination based on their appearance — particularly their skin color — and apparently neither has the capacity for empathy required to understand the problems that other folks might have experienced. Continuing …]
   13. … Council member Carolyn Evans-Shabazz said the ordinance considers an issue that those unaffected may not think about.
   14. [Evans-Shabazz said,] “I think this is a very good ordinance. It cuts down the possibility of confrontation when it’s very clear. Unless you walk in the skin of the possibility of discrimination, you may not understand why this is an issue. This is something that really happens a lot to, particularly, African American males.”
   15. Pollard said he believes this ordinance will keep the bad actors accountable, as it allows the public to have “legal remedy” against businesses that don’t post their dress code.
   16. MIKE: I can sum up my feelings on this ordinance in one word: “Good!”
   17. MIKE: I think that if an established of any sort has a dress code, it serves the entire public to know what it is. It also helps to stop any sort of discrimination based on alleged violations of a dress code when the dress code is posted prominently.
5. Solid Waste Management interim director looks to improve department; By Kevin Vu | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 3:52 PM Jul 18, 2025 CDT. TAGS: Houston, Houston Solid Waste Management Department, Mayor John Whitmire,
   1. During a July 16 City Council meeting, Larrius Hassan, interim director of Houston’s Solid Waste Management Department, discussed issues within the department, including aging fleets, credit card mismanagement, and outdated routes.
   2. … Hassan transitioned to the interim director role after the former director, Mark Wilfalk, resigned in March. Hassan said his team conducted a three-month review of the department’s operations, finances and route management, and found issues such as: Employees not working the full 40-hour work week; Supervisors who allowed employees to work from home, despite Mayor John Whitmire’s directive ordering all municipal employees to return to the office; 32% of fleets that were over seven years old; An average of 30 trucks that were down each day, and another 20 that would break down on their route; Employee participation in network shows, Houston Texans ads, travel and golfing using city dollars; [and] Outdated, decade-old collection routes due to underutilized software
   3. The report comes after numerous SWMD employees spoke during a July 8 City Council public comment session on the department’s inadequacies, such as “a lack of equipment, a lack of pay, and a lack of staffing,” that make their jobs difficult.
   4. [Said Gary Johnson, a senior side loader at SWMD,] “This administration has made a commitment for better police officers and a better fire department, but where’s the commitment for solid waste?”
   5. Over the past few months, City Council members said they have continued to receive numerous complaints about missed garbage and recycling pickups. According to 3-1-1 data, SWMD received more than 13,000 complaints in March regarding: 3,014 missed garbage pickups; 1,359 missed recycling pickups; 782 missed heavy trash pickups; [and] 626 missed yard waste pickups
   6. [District A council member Amy Peck said during the meeting,] “In District A, recycling was over two months behind, and then it was collected, and now we’re behind again. Picking up trash is the most basic service that we can offer to our citizens, and it’s not happening.”
   7. … Hassan said that after these issues were discovered, he made numerous changes to address these challenges, such as:
   8. [Requesting] the city’s Office of the Inspector General to investigate suspected credit card fraud within SWMD;
   9. Removed all purchasing cards except for four executive team members. Previously, a manager and their assistant had a purchasing card;
   10. Transitioned to a standardized five-day, 40-hour work week;
   11. Updated routes so that drivers collect from under 1,000 homes, instead of over 1,300 homes;
   12. [and] Planned to receive nine additional fleets in October.
   13. Mayor John Whitmire said Hassan inherited a “broken model” and that drastic changes were made.
   14. [Whitmire said,] “Are we where we need to be? No. Unfortunately, maybe this is a reminder to all of us that the votes we take matter.”
   15. MIKE: Some of these changes make a lot of sense to me, like limiting Waste Department credit cards and investigating potential abuse of department funds on personal shopping.
   16. MIKE: If trash pickups are being missed and people aren’t putting in a full 40-hour week, that’s also a problem, and periodically reviewing routes for efficiency and suitability makes sense. Better software and more frequent route reviews should help.
   17. MIKE: Whether it’s essential that all city employees physically report to work as opposed to working from home … I don’t have enough information to say whether that’s just pre-Covid bias because that’s how it was done before, or if in some cases being in the office actually makes some people more productive. I’m suspecting that it mostly a matter of “old-think”.
   18. MIKE: I admit that I’m puzzled by the “nine additional fleets” comment. What does that mean? How many vehicles are in a fleet? Are all the vehicles garbage trucks?
6. Now we get to the cost and revenue side of these and other changes — Houston residents may soon pay for service that’s been free for decades; Author: Victor Jacobo | KHOU.COM | Published: 6:18 PM CDT July 17, 2025/Updated: 10:09 AM CDT July 18, 2025. TAGS: Houston, Houston Solid Waste Management Department, Waste Collection Service Fee, Trash and Recycling,
   1. As complaints over missed recycling pickups this summer have highlighted issues with Houston’s Solid Waste Management Department, calls for a potential fee to support waste collection service have grown.
   2. 3-1-1 data shows complaints of missed recycling collection spiked in June to more than 8,000 instances. Other categories like garbage and heavy trash pickups, have also seen an uptick in complaints.
   3. Solid Waste Management went through a recent leadership change in March, when former Director Mark Wilfalk resigned.
   4. Larius Hassen took over as interim director and at Wednesday’s City Council meeting shared details of what has impacted service at the department.
   5. That includes issues like a loss of 30 staff members due to recent retirement buyout plans offered by the Whitmire administration, old routing software, an aging fleet and only one location for trucks to drop off recycling waste for processing.
   6. [MIKE: If there are staffing issues caused by Solid Waste Management staff members taking retirement buyout packages, I put that at the feet of the Whitmire administration. I hate to say it, but it sounds like a Trumpian-DOGE-like problem of inviting experienced people to leave and then discovering that you actually needed them. Continuing …]
   7. [C]ouncil members noted more support is needed for the department.
   8. [Democratic District I Council Member Joaquin Martinez said at Wednesday’s meeting,] “Every neighboring city has a trash fee. I think we all know that that needs to be looked at.”
   9. Houston is an outlier among major cities in the state for not having a solid waste fee. Money for Solid Waste Management comes out of the city’s General Fund balance. Dallas, Austin and San Antonio have fees ranging from about $14 to around $38.
   10. KHOU 11 recently asked Houstonians experiencing delayed recycling collection if they would be open to a solid waste fee to improve service.
   11. [Russell Grones, who lives in Westbury, told KHOU 11,] “Yeah, you have to do something with [recycling]. If not, it’s going into the landfill, which isn’t the best place for it.”
   12. A 2023 survey from the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University found that two-thirds of Houstonians who responded would be in favor of some kind of fee for solid waste collection. Recent smaller surveys in 2025 have also found that around 66% of city residents would be in support.
   13. But some residents worry about the impact that could have on their own household budgets.
   14. [Mary Plail of Westbury said,] “We’re both retirees and we are on fixed incomes. I mean, it depends if it’s outrageously expensive, probably then I would take it to the dump or recycle center or even consider not doing it.”
   15. Daniel Potter with the Kinder Institute told KHOU 11 that survey takers said they would be open to a sliding scale for a solid waste fee to adjust for households’ income limits.
   16. [MIKE: I’ll note here that what these survey takers are talking about is called “progressive taxation”, and it’s something that Texas Republicans have made impossible through legislation and Texas constitutional amendments. That’s why Texas is what I call a flat-tax state. Continuing …]
   17. Potter [of the Kinder Institute] also said the 2023 data found the City of Houston already spends about $18 per household on solid waste, which comes out of the city’s General Fund balance.
   18. [Potter told KHOU 11,] “If you added [a] $10 dedicated [fee] on top of that, $15 dedicated on top of that, all of a sudden, the funding that we are spending here in Houston for our trash and recycling picked up is quite comparable to what is being spent elsewhere.”
   19. That approximate amount could make a big difference.
   20. [Potter said,] “We could anticipate that [the fee] could go a long way to helping improve, buying additional trucks, getting additional crew members, the different things that are needed to help stand up better-functioning trash and recycling pickup.”
   21. Discussion about a fee has grown in City Hall in recent years. Council members like Joaquin Martinez have been among the most vocal, saying that in his interactions with constituents, there is an openness to a fee if it means improved service.
   22. Solid Waste Interim Director Larius Hassen told KHOU 11 last month a solid waste fee “is going to have to come in sooner or later,” but for now is focused on an overhaul of the department.
   23. Mayor John Whitmire has signaled discussions over a fee would likely be part of next year’s city budget planning. Whitmire has said multiple times he has wanted to first address efficiencies in departments citywide, before going to taxpayers and asking, “what type of city they want to live in,” to explore ways to generate revenue for improving city services.
   24. Last year, the City Council commissioned a study to look at ways to improve Solid Waste Management, including the potential impact of a fee.
   25. A spokesperson for Mayor Whitmire said the results of the study will be reviewed by Solid Waste Management later this month. It will then be verified and finalized before the department briefs the mayor on the findings.
   26. MIKE: Regular listeners might recall that I was advocating for a property tax increase last year because state law permitted it that one time because of weather disasters.
   27. MIKE: Texas is a flat tax state, but the closest we come to progressive taxation is property taxes. Because properties with higher assessed values pay more taxes, even though at the same rates, it’s likely that wealthier property owners will pay more of their share.
   28. MIKE: On the other hand, a simple flat fee may end up subsidizing wealthier property owners who may actually generate more trash and recycling, and so are getting a relative discount on the backs of taxpayers of more modest means.
   29. MIKE: This tends to support my previously stated hypothesis on this show that Mayor Whitmire, while nominally a Democrat, is actually governing Houston more like a center-right Republican.
   30. MIKE: However, this may be a situation where I actually agree with Mayor Whitmire’s statement quote in our last story that, “maybe this is a reminder to all of us that the votes we take matter.”
   31. MIKE: Whitmire meant City Council votes. I mean voting in elections, because how you vote in elections does
7. While we’re on the subject of trash pickup and recycling, there’s a story I saved from about a year ago that is relevant here — Recycling Is Broken. Should I Even Bother?; By Winston Choi-Schagrin | NYTIMES.COM | June 17, 2024. TAGS: Recycling, recycling rates, plastics, metals, paper,
   1. Recycling can have big environmental benefits. For one thing, it keeps unwanted objects out of landfills or incinerators, where they can produce potent greenhouse gasses and potentially hazardous pollutants.
   2. Even more important, recycling allows us to extract fewer resources. The amount of energy required to recycle aluminum, for example, is less than 5 percent of the energy needed to mine new ore from the ground. Similarly, the more paper we recycle, the fewer trees we cut down.
   3. But recycling rates in the United States have remained stubbornly flat for years. And, in some cases, they’re dismal. Just 10 percent of plastics are actually recycled. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of tons of recyclable waste are exported, often to developing countries.
   4. [MIKE: These numbers are over a year old. It’s also hard to draw direct equivalents since some sources are in percentages and others are in tons. The latest numbers I could find suggest that US recycling generally, and of plastics in particular, has actually gotten worse, but exports of trash and recyclables have also shrunk. I must infer that we’re burning and burying higher percentages of our potential recyclables, because we’re certainly not throwing away less. Continuing …]
   5. It’s no wonder a lot of readers have asked us whether individual efforts make any difference at all. To answer that question, it helps to understand how the system works and how people use it.
   6. Why is recycling struggling? — The way the system is set up, recycling is a business. And our recyclables — metals, paper, and plastics — are commodities.
   7. When you throw something into the blue bin, whether it’s recyclable or not, it gets carted off to a sorting plant where it runs along a conveyor belt and gets grouped with similar items. Then, the recyclable stuff is bundled. The process is labor-intensive.
   8. One of the biggest challenges is that companies don’t want their material contaminated with things they don’t recycle or can’t recycle. The more random stuff that goes into a sorting plant, the more work facilities need to do to weed it out. And that increases costs.
   9. Once that’s done, if the plant can find a buyer at a price that makes sense, the bundles will be shipped off to a recycling plant. Sometimes a local one, and sometimes one as far away as Africa or Southeast Asia. If they can’t, everything goes into a landfill or gets incinerated.
   10. Some items are easy. Others, not so much. — Recycling metals makes a lot of sense from an economic perspective, for the reasons outlined above. It’s just a lot cheaper than scraping ore from the ground. And, metals like aluminum can be endlessly recycled.
   11. It also makes environmental sense. Mining contaminates soil and waterways. Recycling aluminum cans requires just a small fraction of the energy and water that mining does.
   12. And recycling paper helps keep forests intact. Paper packaging accounts for around 10 percent of global logging, according to the forest conservation group Canopy. We save water, energy, and greenhouse gas emissions when we recycle compared with products made from new pulp.
   13. With glass and plastics, however, things start to get complicated.
   14. Although intact glass is endlessly recyclable (the process has been around since Roman times) it often gets crushed or damaged on its way to sorting facilities, lowering its quality and sometimes rendering it unusable.
   15. And “plastics” is an umbrella term for a seemingly endless number of different compounds with different chemicals and additives that can determine every attribute from color to stiffness.
   16. That’s a problem for recyclers. Different kinds of plastic can’t be melted down together, so they have to be painstakingly, and expensively, sorted by color and composition.
   17. Also: Plastics, if recycled at all, are usually “downcycled” into garden furniture or plastic fiber for insulation, after which it’s no longer recyclable. Recycling plastics again and again isn’t usually possible.
   18. The result is that manufacturers often opt for new plastic, made from the plentiful byproducts of oil and gas, because it’s cheaper and easier.
   19. [There are] Small solutions, big solutions — One way to improve recycling is to regulate what can be sold in the first place. Almost three dozen countries in Africa have banned single-use plastics. And 170 countries have pledged to “significantly reduce” the use of plastics by 2030.
   20. Another way is with technology, said Cody Marshall, the chief system optimization officer at The Recycling Partnership, a national nonprofit organization. More sorting plants are adopting better optical scanners that can detect a greater variety of plastics. (That technology is improving, but it’s still imperfect.)
   21. When you do buy things, consider whether you can recycle the packaging. When choosing drinks, metal containers are generally better than plastics. When you shop online, you can sometimes ask for less packaging, as with Amazon’s “frustration-free” option. And remember the first two Rs: reduce and reuse.
   22. Although these are small things you can do, the reality is that recycling’s challenges are systemic.
   23. So, is it worth the effort?
   24. In theory, every item you recycle can keep resources in the ground, avoid greenhouse gases and help keep the environment healthy. And that’s all good.
   25. [Said Reid Lifset, a research scholar at Yale’s School of the Environment,] “The value is in displacing virgin materials.”
   26. But here’s the critical part: Don’t wish-cycle.
   27. Follow the instructions provided by your local hauler. If you throw in stuff they don’t want, the effort needed to weed it out makes it less likely that anything will get recycled at all.
   28. MIKE: I actually try pretty hard to recycle as much as I can. My subdivision uses a private trash service, and they don’t take glass.
   29. MIKE: Glass represents an enormous frustration for me because, as the article states, it’s almost as recyclable as metal, but that changes once it breaks or shatters. Glass is also heavy and bulky to transport, and might break on your property or in your vehicle during the process of moving it yourself.
   30. MIKE: If you’re outside the City of Houston but within Harris County and 12 adjacent counties, I’m linking to County recycling centers provided courtesy of the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC).
   31. MIKE: There are 6 city recycling centers in Houston, which I’m also linking to in this show post. They take glass, among other things, and you have to bring not only a government ID, but also a recent utility bill or lease agreement. The ID with address I can understand, but if you have a State ID with your address, why do you also need a bill? It just seems unnecessarily burdensome.
   32. MIKE: Almost no one wants plastic bags because they’re flimsy and jam up machines. I recycle them by using my grocery bags without holes as liners for small trash cans. It keeps the can clean, it upcycles the bags once, and it avoids the need to buy trash can liners.
   33. MIKE: Once in a while, I bring random bags into Lowes or Home Depot where they take plastic bags. What happens to them after that, I don’t know.
   34. MIKE: When it comes to plastic containers, it gets tricky. Some are more recyclable than others. In some cases, it’s best to recycle a container with the cap on, but in some cases, the bottle and the cap have different recycle numbers. In my opinion, if you’re in doubt, toss the cap or recycle it separately. That at least raises the chances that the bottle will be recycled.
   35. MIKE: I also found an old-ish article about how to recycle your old printer. I’ve linked to that as a reference in the show post.
   36. REFERENCE: How to Recycle or Donate Your Old Printer — PCMAG.COM, By Jason Cohen. Updated April 19, 2024
8. In some odd county news — Harris County leaders waiting on details on Judge Lina Hidalgo’s penny childcare tax increase plan; ByNick Natario | ABC13.COM | Friday, July 18, 2025 11:10AM. TAGS: Politics, Harris County, Houston, Child Care, Houston Politics, Judge Lina Hidalgo, Taxes,
   1. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo told ABC13 viewers about a tax increase for a county child care program, which wasn’t just new to our viewers but to commissioners who will be voting on it soon.
   2. … On Wednesday, Hidalgo shared with ABC13 her plans for a penny proposal to keep a child care program running.
   3. [Hidalgo explained,] “That would allow us … to continue these programs and actually expand them a little bit.”
   4. It’s a proposal she shared for the first time with ABC13 viewers — a report that wasn’t just new for our viewers, but also for county commissioners.
   5. [Commissioner Tom Ramsey said,] “When you called just a little while ago, that’s when we heard about the program. It was news reports, no briefings.”
   6. Ramsey said it’s not new. He said he’s been in the dark from other proposals. …
   7. … At next month’s commissioners court meeting, Hidalgo said she plans to add to the agenda a penny proposal to keep a child care program going.
   8. The program is Early REACH, which allows eligible kids four and under to go to child care for free.
   9. The county created it using federal COVID-19 relief dollars. Hidalgo said the money is running out.
   10. In order to keep the program running, Hidalgo said it’ll cost $60 million. To get the money, she’s turning to a penny tax proposal. Hidalgo said it’ll cost homeowners $10 more per year for every $100,000 of home evaluation. …
   11. MIKE: There’s some other stuff in the story that amounts to all the precinct commissioners saying they feel blindsided by the proposal, with some saying it more tactfully than others.
   12. MIKE: In case you don’t know, even residents of Houston and other cities in Harris County still pay country taxes on top of the city taxes, but the good news is that county residents still get benefits from the county taxes they pay, such as Harris Health clinics.
   13. MIKE: This story will get more concrete coverage when the County Court starts discussing the next budget, so we’ll see what happens then.
9. 7 million Texans could lose health coverage under expiring tax credits, ACA changes in GOP megabill; By Gabby Birenbaum | TEXASTRIBUNE.ORG | July 18, 20255 AM Central. TAGS: Congress, Healthcare, Medicaid,
   1. Up to 7 million Texans are expected to lose their health insurance through coming changes to the Affordable Care Act marketplace under Republicans’ tax and spending megabill, according to an analysis by health policy experts — a serious blow to a state health care system already strained by the highest uninsured rate in the nation.
   2. Nearly 4 million Texans signed up for ACA health plans this year, a high-water mark in the marketplace’s 12-year history. But between the looming expiration of Biden-era enhanced premium tax credits — which lower out-of-pocket costs for people with marketplace coverage — and changes in the recently passed GOP megabill, the state’s uninsured population is expected to spike.
   3. The effects could reverberate across the health care landscape, with higher premiums, more financial strain on hospitals, and destabilized insurance marketplaces, experts said.
   4. Because Texas never expanded Medicaid to people earning above the federal poverty level — as 40 other states have done — the ACA marketplace has been an enormous driver of coverage, particularly among lower-income people. Texas’ uninsured rate fell from 23.7 percent in 2010 to 17.4 percent by 2023, with ACA enrollment contributing significantly.
   5. Of the state’s nearly 4 million enrollees this year, close to 2.5 million earn between 100 and 150% of the federal poverty level; [that’s $32,150 to $48,225] for a family of four. That means the ACA has helped fill the gap for people who would be eligible for Medicaid in expansion states, where adults who earn up to 138% of the federal poverty level are eligible.
   6. The vast majority of Medicaid recipients in Texas are children. Low-income adults can only qualify if they or their child have a documented disability, are pregnant or over 65, or are a parent with a monthly income of less than $300 for a family of four.
   7. The impending changes could represent the biggest source of coverage loss since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, said Cynthia Cox, director of the Program on the ACA at KFF, a nonprofit health policy organization that has projected the state-by-state effect of Trump’s megabill. …
   8. … Much of the attention around the Republican tax and spending bill has focused on cuts to Medicaid, especially the imposition of work requirements. But Texas is insulated from those changes owing to its status as a non-expansion state, and Medicaid coverage loss — while projected by KFF to be about 200,000 — is muted compared to other states.
   9. The ACA is another story.
   10. For one, the bill adds new layers of bureaucracy that make it harder to enroll in coverage through the marketplace, with an end to automatic renewal, and [adding] income documentation requirements.
   11. It also shortens the open enrollment period to just one month and ends year-round enrollment for people earning under 150 percent of the federal poverty level in 2026. [It] prevents certain lawfully present immigrants — including DACA recipients, [and] people with Temporary Protected Status and refugees — from acquiring insurance through the ACA marketplace.
   12. The changes will affect most Texans who receive marketplace coverage, 95% of whom claimed a sliding-scale premium subsidy — a monthly tax credit designed to make premiums more affordable based on income — in 2025. Over 1.4 million enrollees — or 36 percent — automatically renewed their plans, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.
   13. Republicans say the changes will eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in the ACA marketplace and help reduce untenable federal spending levels. More frequent documentation and verification processes, they contend, will ensure that taxpayers are only funding health care costs for those who are truly eligible.
   14. [Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement about ending duplicative enrollment in multiple federal health insurance programs,] “Under the Trump Administration, we will no longer tolerate waste, fraud, and abuse at the expense of our most vulnerable citizens. With the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, we now have the tools to strengthen these vital programs for generations to come.”
   15. But health care researchers argue the cumulative effect will worsen health outcomes.
   16. [Said Lynn Cowles, the health and food justice director at Every Texan, a left-leaning think tank,] “The whole bill is just designed to dismantle these health programs by getting people to disenroll in them, which then makes the entire system less functional. …”
   17. KFF projects that ACA changes in the bill will lead to 560,000 Texans losing coverage. …
   18. ACA enrollment in Texas has skyrocketed since 2021 because of a federal expansion of premium tax credits, a monthly subsidy to insurers that lowers the cost of premiums based on expected income. … Lawmakers also capped premiums based on income, driving down monthly costs for the lowest-income people who claim the tax credits. ACA enrollees earning less than 150% of the poverty threshold — between $15,650 and $23,475 for individuals in Texas — pay little to no monthly premium.
   19. The policy was created by the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021 and renewed in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Both bills passed with only Democratic votes.
   20. For states like Texas that never expanded Medicaid, the enhanced premium tax credits have been a lifeline for lower-income people who do not qualify for Medicaid. Fifty-eight percent of Texas enrollees have a monthly cost of under $10. …
   21. But the enhanced premium tax credits are set to expire at the end of the 2025 — and premiums could skyrocket. This is especially true for lower-income enrollees. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan think tank, projects [for example] that someone earning $22,000 a year would see their monthly premium rise from $0 to $63 per month.
   22. KFF projects more than 1.1 million Texans could lose coverage if the tax credits expire. Congress could still strike a deal to extend them — which some GOP senators have expressed openness to — but doing so is unlikely in Republican-controlled Washington.
   23. For those earning over 400% of the poverty level who have claimed tax credits for the past four years — many of them small-business owners, rural Texans or people approaching retirement age — premiums will increase by threefold in some cases, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Using 2024 data, KFF projected that the average premium in Texas will rise by 115%, or $456 per year, for people who use tax credits to get insurance through the ACA. …
   24. When premiums become prohibitively expensive, people — especially those who are healthy — tend to drop their coverage, heightening risk for insurance companies and further driving up premiums for enrollees who do not receive coverage through the ACA marketplace. And when the marketplace as a whole contracts, insurers face further cost pressure, which they pass on to enrollees.
   25. Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Texas, the state’s largest insurer, has requested a rate increase of 21% next year for ACA-compliant individual plans, according to a copy of their rate filing shared with The Texas Tribune. A spokesperson for the company said it was a preliminary rate hike but confirmed rate increases are being driven by federal changes to the ACA market and tax credit expiration.
   26. MIKE: There’s quite a but more to this story that I simply don’t have time to read. You can click on the story link in this show’s blog post for the rest.
   27. MIKE: Note that all the benefits that enabled poorer Texans to get health insurance came under Biden and the Democrats, and all the benefits taken away that will make it harder or impossible for poorer Texans to get healthcare are being taken away Trump and the Republicans.
   28. MIKE: So again, elections have consequences, and in this case, the consequences are likely to be poorer health and even death in some cases.
   29. MIKE: But at least all Texans and all Americans can feel a warm sense of pride that their sacrifices in health for themselves and their families will help needy billionaires keep more of the money that they can’t possibly spend in multiple lifetimes.
10. And in other healthcare impoverishment news — A clinic blames its closing on Trump’s Medicaid cuts. Patients don’t buy it.; By Hannah Knowles | WASHINGTONPOST.COM | July 13, 2025 at 5:00 a.m. EDT. TAGS: Medicaid cuts, President Donald Trump, Rural Hospitals, Rural Health Care Facilities,
    1. The only health clinic [in CURTIS, Nebraska] is shutting down, and the hospital CEO has blamed Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s signature legislation. But residents of Curtis — a one-stoplight town in deep-red farm country — aren’t buying that explanation.
    2. “Anyone who’s saying that Medicaid cuts is why they’re closing is a liar,” [said] April Roberts … as she oversaw lunch at the Curtis Area Senior Center.
    3. The retirees trickling in for fried chicken and soft-serve ice cream will be hit hardest when the clinic closes this fall, Roberts fears. Seniors who sometimes go in multiple times a month to have blood drawn will have to drive 40 miles to the next nearest health center. Sick people, she worries, will put off checkups and get sicker.
    4. Arriving for lunch, retired Navy veteran Jim Christensen said he’d read an op-ed that “tried to blame everything on Trump.”
    5. “Horse feathers,” he said, dismissing the idea.
    6. Curtis has become an early test case of the politics of Trump’s agenda in rural America, where voters vulnerable to Medicaid cuts in Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” law are reluctant to blame the president or congressional Republicans who approved it. Many people in Curtis have directed their frustration at their hospital system instead of their representatives in Washington.
    7. Democrats and health care advocates are pointing to the town — population 806 in the last census — as a first casualty of Republicans’ health care overhaul. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and others have referred to the town on social media as a model of what’s to come for rural hospitals around the country. Close to half of rural hospitals nationwide already lose money, and analysts expect Trump’s tax and spending law to add more strain.
    8. Community Hospital, the nonprofit that runs the clinic known as the Curtis Medical Center and a couple of other facilities in the region, plunged into the center of that national story when it announced on July 2 — one day before the bill’s passage — that a confluence of factors had made its Curtis outpost unsustainable. It cited years-long financial challenges, inflation and “anticipated federal budget cuts to Medicaid,” the public health insurance program for lower-income and disabled Americans. …
    9. Community Hospital was already losing money, and officials said they are trying to make sure they remain financially viable for the 30,000 people they serve throughout their facilities. But the timing of their decision to announce the Curtis closure has stoked suspicions in the town, leaving some residents convinced their health provider was using the president as a scapegoat.
    10. Popp, a three-time Trump voter, thought the president was cutting wasteful spending and didn’t think he caused the closure. Jorgensen, [the retired corn and cattle farmer and] a registered Republican who never voted for Trump, was frustrated that so few of her neighbors believed the Medicaid cuts played a role. …
    11. “They’re huge Trumpers … and so it doesn’t matter what he does — there’s an excuse for it,” Jorgensen said. [She’s] used to being the odd one out in Frontier County, where 86 percent of the vote went to Trump last fall. …
    12. Trump repeatedly promised this year that he would not cut Medicaid. He expanded the GOP tent to include more low-income voters without college degrees, and some Republicans warned that any reduction in benefits would undercut their pitch that they are the new party of the working class.
    13. But Trump and Republican lawmakers needed to offset some of the enormous cost of the tax cuts, deportations and other campaign promises in their tax and spending law. So they turned to Medicaid. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that about 12 million people will lose health coverage because of the law, which is nonetheless projected to add trillions to the federal debt over the next decade.
    14. Republicans say that changes like work requirements will reduce fraud and ensure Medicaid is available for those it was originally intended to serve, including pregnant women and the disabled. But researchers warn those requirements will create onerous paperwork that, in practice, will prevent eligible people from getting their benefits. …
    15. MIKE: There’s quite a bit more that gets into numbers and other details. But what it amounts to is elaborating on the damage that Trump and his Republicans are doing to public health, among other things.
11. There’s so much going on in the world that I want to discuss, but the crises in our nation and the challenges in our region and state have taken up most of the time I have to do this show. One story that I think deserves attention is this one — Israel and Syria agree ceasefire as Israel allows Syrian troops limited access to Sweida; By Reuters | REUTERS.COM | July 19, 20254:22 PM CDT/Updated 6 hours ago. TAGS: Syria’s Sweida Province, Israel, Middle East,
    1. Israel and Syria have agreed to a ceasefire, the U.S. envoy to Turkey said on Friday, after days of bloodshed in the predominantly Druze area that has killed over 300 people.
    2. On Wednesday, Israel launched airstrikes in Damascus and hit government forces in the south, demanding they withdraw and saying that Israel aimed to protect Syrian Druze — part of a small but influential minority that also has members in Lebanon and Israel.
    3. [Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, … said that Israel and Syria agreed to the ceasefire supported by Turkey, Jordan, and neighbors. …
    4. Syria’s Sweida province has been engulfed by nearly a week of violence triggered by clashes between Bedouin fighters and Druze factions.
    5. Earlier on Friday, an Israeli official said Israel agreed to allow Syrian forces limited access to the Sweida area of southern Syria for the next two days.
    6. The Syrian presidency said late on Friday that authorities would deploy a force in the south dedicated to ending the clashes, in coordination with political and security measures to restore stability and prevent the return of violence.
    7. Damascus earlier this week dispatched government troops to quell the fighting, but they were accused of carrying out widespread violations against the Druze and were hit by Israeli strikes before withdrawing under a truce agreed on Wednesday.
    8. Israel had repeatedly said it would not allow Syrian troops to deploy to the country’s south, but on Friday it said it would grant them a brief window to end renewed clashes there. …
    9. Describing Syria’s new rulers as barely disguised jihadists, Israel has vowed to shield the area’s Druze community from attack, encouraged by calls from Israel’s own Druze minority. …
    10. Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has worked to establish warmer ties with the U.S., accused Israel of trying to fracture Syria and promised to protect its Druze minority. …
    11. MIKE: This is more regional tragedy rooted in religious and sectarian animosity, of which there never seems to be any shortage in this world. The story goes into more detail.
    12. REFERENCE: Syrian gov’t forces begin withdrawing from Sweida as Israel vows to protect Druze; Withdrawal follows announcement of truce, which a Druze spiritual leader says includes ‘full integration of the province’ into Syrian state, though other community leaders reject it. By Jacob Magid, Emanuel Fabian, Lazar Berman, Nava Freiberg and Agencies | TIMESOFISRAEL.COM | Today, 12:55 am/Updated: 17 July 2025, 1:56 am. TAGS: Syria, Israel, Druze, Sweida City,
12. Pentagon probes examine key Hegseth allies [as they look into the Signal app controversy]; By Daniel Lippman and Jack Detsch | POLITICO.COM | 07/14/2025 03:40 PM EDT. TAGS: White House, Military, Department Of Defense, Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, Signal App,
    1. Two of the Pentagon’s top investigative bodies are digging into a pair of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s close aides and their role in the controversy surrounding government use of the Signal app to discuss sensitive information, according to three people familiar with the probes.
    2. The Defense Department Inspector General’s office first opened an investigation in early April into whether Hegseth violated the agency’s standards for sharing classified information by using the commercial messaging app to discuss active attack plans in Yemen.
    3. As part of that probe, investigators are looking into whether senior Hegseth aide Ricky Buria helped the Pentagon chief set up an unsecured internet line that bypassed the agency’s security protocols and allowed Hegseth to access Signal, according to the three people, all of whom were interviewed recently by officials about the situation. The Signal app is not approved for government use when discussing classified information because of security concerns.
    4. —>In a separate inquiry led by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, a federal law enforcement agency within the Pentagon, investigators are asking whether Buria could have been a source for leaks when he sat in on sensitive meetings as a military aide earlier this year and had access to Hegseth’s devices, according to the three people.
    5. Investigators for the Air Force agency, known as OSI, also want to know whether the Pentagon chief’s personal attorney, Tim Parlatore — who serves as a top DOD adviser — attended meetings beyond his clearance level where classified information was discussed, and his role investigating the leaks, the three people said. The focus of the DOD probes on the two top Hegseth aides has not been previously reported.
    6. The inquiries into the actions of Hegseth and his inner circle could further destabilize the Pentagon’s top ranks after a spate of firings in a leak investigation left the Defense secretary without a chief of staff or a top policy adviser for months. The Air Force investigation began this spring.
    7. “Ricky and Tim are some of the folks that they’re zeroing in on as they try to get to the root of everything,” said one of the people familiar with the two probes. This person, like the others, was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive ongoing investigations.
    8. Buria didn’t respond to a request for comment, while Parlatore declined to comment. The DOD IG declined to comment, citing longstanding policy not to talk publicly about the scope or timeline of oversight projects. The Air Force declined to discuss details about the probe.
    9. Buria, the top military aide who recently transitioned to a senior DOD civilian job, and Parlatore, Hegseth’s longtime lawyer, have emerged as two of the Pentagon chief’s most trusted allies.
    10. But officials have hinted that the administration’s patience may be wearing thin from repeated missteps by Hegseth and his close allies— including catching much of Washington off guard on key policy decisions ranging from the freeze of Ukraine military aid to reviewing the AUKUS submarine deal.
    11. That Defense Department investigators have homed in on Buria and Parlatore also represents a possible step forward in a probe that has consumed the Pentagon for months.
    12. The Pentagon IG probe came after reports in The Atlantic that Hegseth in March had used Signal to discuss details of military operations in Yemen with top Trump administration officials.
    13. Questions the IG investigators have asked witnesses include, “Who wrote the information attributed to the Secretary of Defense in The Atlantic regarding the ‘Houthi PC Small Group’ Signal chat?” and “Please describe who was present with the Secretary of Defense on March 15, 2025,” the day he sent the messages, according to an email to potential witnesses ahead of interviews and obtained by POLITICO. The questions were first reported by the Associated Press.
    14. Investigators have asked about the vulnerabilities and weaknesses of the Signal app, how extensively Hegseth used it and the veracity of messages reported by The Atlantic, according to the three people and the emails.
    15. The IG and OSI have also questioned witnesses about whether they were ever asked to delete Signal messages off their phones, according to two of the people, which could violate federal records laws, such as the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act. These may carry civil and administrative penalties. Officials can also be sentenced to jail time and forced to pay fines if they are found guilty of removing classified information or destroying government records under similar laws.
    16. One of the people said that OSI investigators asked by name whether Buria or Parlatore made those requests.
    17. The Pentagon did not answer questions about probes into Hegseth or his allies at the Defense Department, but it championed the Pentagon chief’s resume. “Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has successfully reoriented the Department of Defense to put the interests of America’s Warfighters and America’s taxpayers first, and it has never been better positioned to execute on its mission than it is today,” Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell said in an emailed statement. “The success speaks for itself.”
    18. An Air Force spokesperson confirmed OSI is “conducting an investigation into allegations of unauthorized disclosures” on behalf of Hegseth’s office, but declined to comment on the specifics of the probe. One of the people with knowledge of the matter said the investigators have been talking to witnesses since late April.
    19. The investigations have intensified questions about Hegseth’s leadership in the department, one of the people familiar with the probe said. POLITICO previously reported that Hegseth was deferring to U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Erik Kurilla as planning for American military strikes against Iran ramped up last month. U.S. allies have also been caught off guard by the Pentagon’s abrupt pause of some weapons shipments to Ukraine.
    20. Hegseth’s closest allies maintain that he has played a key role in the strikes, pushing NATO allies to a 5 percent defense spending target, and boosting recruiting. “None of this would have been possible without the complete unity and discipline of the OSD team and the vision and leadership of our commander-in-chief,” Parnell said in the statement.
    21. Parlatore’s presence in Hegseth’s inner circle has raised questions about conflicts of interest, as he has been involved in multiple legal cases opposing the U.S. government, including defending retired four-star Adm. Robert Burke against charges of alleged corruption. Parlatore, who has said he doesn’t market himself to clients as a Navy reservist or a Hegseth adviser, has dismissed the notion that his law
    22. MIKE: There’s more to the story. If you want to read the rest, click on the link at the show post. A bit of good news that attaches to this is that Trump’s corrupt Department of Justice is not performing this investigation, so we’ll cross our fingers that it’s honest and fruitful.

That’s all we have time for today. You’ve been listening to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig from KPFT Houston 90.1-HD2, Galveston 89.5-HD2, and Huntsville 91.9-HD2. We are Houston’s Community Media. I hope you’ve enjoyed the show and found it interesting, and I look forward to sharing this time with you again next week. Y’all take care!

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      5. Government check
      6. Paycheck
      7. A certified domestic (from a U.S. state or territory) birth certificate or (b) a document confirming birth admissible in a court of law which establishes your identity (which may include a foreign birth document)
      8. You may vote early by-mail if:You are registered to vote and meet one of the following criteria:
         1. Away from the county of residence on Election Day and during the early voting period;
         2. Sick or disabled;
         3. 65 years of age or older on Election Day; or
         4. Confined in jail, but eligible to vote.
         5. Make sure you are registered:
         6. Ann Harris Bennett, Tax Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar
         7. CHECK REGISTRATION STATUS HERE
         8. CLICK How to register to vote in Texas
         9. Outside Texas, try Vote.org.
2. BE REGISTERED TO VOTE, and if eligible, REMEMBER TO FILL OUT AND MAIL 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.
   3. You can track your Mail Ballot Activity from our website with direct link provided here https://www.harrisvotes.com/Tracking

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