
[WB1] While the Texas population has grown significantly over the last decade, Harris County lost some 82,000 net domestic migrants over that period according to New Geography, with other Houston-area suburban counties gaining some 362,000 new residents. If the county can’t get its violent crime pandemic and flooding issues under control, expect that outflow to continue.
[WB2] A man charged in a fatal shooting that put a three-year-old girl in the hospital was, it turns out, out on bond for another violent assault at the time.
[WB3] The Washington Free Beacon notes that Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, nominated to head ICE (see WB5), sought to release some 1,500 inmates this year. To her credit, Harris County DA Kim Ogg resisted Gonzalez’s dangerous gambit.
[WB4] Harris County settled a wrongful-death case this week for $4.75 million of taxpayer money. How much will HPD’s Harding Street Massacre eventually cost the City of Houston?
[WB5] An appeals court has dealt Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner a blow in his ongoing battles with Houston firefighters.
[WB6] The city that criminalized the feeding of homeless people has now cracked down on the “problem” of renegade donation boxes. Conveniently, the city will now collect a $191 annual fee for said boxes. No good deed ever goes unpunished (or untaxed) in this city.
[WB7] A private company will soon be installing interactive digital kiosks around the city, which is unlikely to have much impact on the permanent inferiority complex of so many Houston elected officials.
[WB8] A purportedly objective journalist for Houston Public Media tweeted this. So many activist-journos aren’t even trying to hide it any more.
[WB9] The Chronicle’s activist-journos that cover the state legislature have, unsurprisingly, mischaracterized legislative action aimed at barring the neo-racist concepts espoused by Critical Race Theory from public education in Texas. The biased lead sentence fairly well signaled the activist-journos’ view on the matter: “After months of denouncing calls for the country to more fully reckon with its discriminatory roots, Texas Republicans are….”
Does the newspaper no longer have any editors?
Here is a brief critique of Critical Race Theory. The Chron’s activist-journos don’t provide a link to the concise legislation, perhaps because readers might easily discover its provisions are more common-sense than controversial.
[WB10] Also in the Texas Legislature this week, a fellow Democrat blocked Houston-area Rep. Harold Dutton’s legislation related to a possible state takeover of HISD, leading Dutton to retaliate by pushing forward on legislation that would ban biological boys from competing in girls’ sports in Texas (many activist-journos really don’t like that accurate description).
[WB11] LULAC has (rightly) called attention to the lack of action following the beating of a 63-year-old Hispanic woman at a METRO bus stop by a man (Reginald Fitzgerald) who allegedly said “I hate Mexicans” during the assault. Strangely, the term “hate crime” is not mentioned once in the article, the race of the accused is not referenced, and none of the usual suspects are featured with “hate crime” outrage quotes. What odd omissions!
[WB12] Predictably, one of Professor Doctor Peter Hotez’s biggest fans, Lisa Gray of the Houston Chronicle, used her platform to lament all the people being mean to the outspoken medical researcher/administrator following the publication of his Nature article. There is no excuse for violent threats, of course, but it’s not clear what Professor Doctor Hotez expected when he came out in favor of using government force to “dismantle” groups with which he disagrees (see WB13). When pressed on twitter, Ms. Gray never did say whether she agreed with Doctor Hotez’s latest authoritarian impulse.
[WB13] On Monday, Rice Epicurean Markets will become the first significant Houston grocer to end their mask requirement in stores. With vaccines now readily available (in most of the grocery pharmacies, even), we are quickly reaching the point that mask requirements in stores are not useful, and may actually be harming vaccine uptake (as many people wonder, rightly, what point there is to taking the shot if nothing changes).
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