Even Red America has fallen out of love with Trump.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Democratic Party, come on over. I have something I think you are going to like. No, it is not another consultant. You already own enough
Texas Democrats aren’t afraid to accuse Republicans of giving tax cuts to billionaires. They seem afraid to promise tax cuts to everyone else.
Texas Democrats know how to talk about taxes when the subject is Republicans giving tax breaks to billionaires and corporations. They know how to complain about loopholes. They know how
A Small Solar Panel Could Help Working Families Cut Their Electric Bills. So why is it still so hard to use?
A few months ago I wrote about Bright Saver, a nonprofit selling small plug-in solar systems designed for ordinary people. The idea is almost embarrassingly simple. You put a solar
Texas State Taxes a $12,000 Burden on a Family of Four
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says Texans need tax relief. He says families are being squeezed by the cost of living, and he has made lowering taxes one of the centerpieces
Politics: What are the latest on the coming election?
Here’s what stands out this morning, Monday, August 24, with new polling folded into the news rather than separated from it. The biggest Texas development is that the national press
When Turner Helped Create a $95,000 Job, Houston Went Crazy. Whitmire Created a $127,000 Job. Why the Difference?
Houston has seen this movie before. A mayor knows someone. A city job appears. The salary is unusually high. The position was not handled like an ordinary city job. Reporters
Houston, how accurate are Flock cameras? They have been found to be as inaccurate as 71%.
Houston has embraced Flock Safety’s artificial-intelligence license-plate cameras as another tool for fighting crime. Police can search the system for vehicles associated with suspects, stolen cars, and criminal investigations. The
The Frightened Governor: Greg Abbott Says He Isn’t Worried. His Calendar Says Otherwise.
Greg Abbott wants Texans to know that he is not worried. That is important, because lately he has been behaving like a man with a smoke detector going off in
Trump refuses to release the Epstein files; Whitmire refuses to release the Chris Brown files.
The Mayor Says Chris Brown Worked. The Controller Says: Show Me. Houston Mayor John Whitmire says his administration is serious about rooting out waste at City Hall. City Controller Chris
Texas Solves Age Discrimination: Grandma, Get in Line – 26th Amendment
A federal appeals court has presented Texas Republicans with the sort of constitutional problem nobody in Austin was asking for: They may eventually have to treat younger voters the same
The Senate Map Democrats Were Not Supposed to Have
For most of this election cycle, the conventional wisdom was simple: Democrats might win the House, but the Senate was probably beyond their reach. That conventional wisdom is beginning to
Nate Silver Gives James Talarico a 2-to-1 Chance of Winning Texas
Nate Silver is one of America’s best-known election forecasters. A statistician and the founder of FiveThirtyEight, he became nationally known after correctly predicting 49 of 50 states in the 2008
The Glove That Can Kill – on the hands of ICE Agents
They call it a “de-escalation device.” One expert compared the pain to a bee sting. That sounds almost harmless. Until you learn that a Kentucky man was shocked with one
Chronicle treated her like shite and now wants her to write op-eds for the Chronicle – Lina Hidalgo
Thumbs down: What will County Judge Linda Hidalgo do once she finishes her time in office at the end of this year? Substack author, for one. She made her first big
Meet Vikki Goodwin and Dan Patrick – Good vs Evil
Most Texans probably know who Dan Patrick is. Vikki Goodwin is another matter. In the latest Texas A&M Bush School/ReconMR poll, Goodwin led Patrick 48% to 46% among likely voters.
Republicans keep losing seats: the Trump effect
The Seats Keep Falling One election can be dismissed as a fluke. Thirty Republican state legislative seats changing hands since Donald Trump returned to office begins to look like something
I called the Houston Chronicle a whore. My AI research mule objected.
I called the Houston Chronicle a whore. Santiago, my AI research mule, objected. Naturally. I wasn’t accusing anyone at the newspaper of taking an envelope of cash and changing an
Pinky and the Brain Go to Austin
Back in the 1990s, I had an idea. I tried to convince some people I considered pretty smart that we needed a permanent organization whose job was to study government
Immigrants Are Still Chasing the American Dream. Too Many Americans Have Quit.
Decades ago, I met a young Mexican woman in Houston. She had come to the United States illegally. She had children, and somewhere along the way the man in her