[WB1] In October 2020, a cabal of Harris County leaders acted to wrest administration of elections from an elected official and decided that Isabel Longoria, a woman with no real qualifications to administer anything (she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology) and no real experience administering anything, would be the right person for the job (no doubt with the backing of Commissioner Rodney Ellis, the guiding force behind all important moves at the county level). Longoria, of course, has been a Democrat staffer and loyalist, which was apparently the main requirement for the job.
Longoria continues to do a dismal job running elections in Harris County, this time violating state law by being late with her count. Her office contended it was more important to get the count right rather than be on time (although the state of Texas thinks both are important). Apparently, that wasn’t even the case, as her office announced over the weekend it had to account for another 10,000 votes it hadn’t counted when it was emphasizing it was getting the count right (slowly). Longoria’s office didn’t actually notice the error – the Secretary of State notified the incompetents of the discrepancy.
The Democrats who run Harris County have now done to elections what they have done to criminal justice. There’s no reason to think firing this incompetent and appointing another party hack is going to lead to a different outcome.
The firings will probably need to be done by voters, and go higher up the food chain.
[WB2] Twelve incumbent Democratic judges lost in last week’s primary. KTRK-13 talked to voters who think Harris County’s bail/crime pandemic caused a voter backlash against Democratic incumbent judges. The area newspaper (whose editorial slant has pushed a progressive criminal justice “reform” agenda) found “experts” to “say” that the bail debate “likely had little role in ousting” the incumbents. Rice professor Mark Jones offered a more nuanced view to KPRC-2 news.
[WB3] KPRC-2’s Robert Arnold reports that Harris County estimates it will take at least two years to make any sort of dent in the county’s massive criminal case backlog. If judges continue to put dangerous criminals back on the street almost immediately after they’re arrested, it would seem that the Houston area is going to remain a very dangerous place for the foreseeable future.
[WB4] A woman was shot in west Houston not far from Phoenicia this past week. While shootings are, unfortunately, not unusual in Houston these days, this admission says quite a bit about the unsafe state of the city:
Investigators said they recovered some evidence at the scene.
“The one thing about that area out there is there is a lot of discharging firearms. So, there’s a lot of old pistol casings laying all over the place,” Lt. R. Willkens said.
Oh.
[WB5] Here’s another sign that Houston has largely become lawless. But there’s a surveillance video, so – yay?
[WB6] Charles Blain reports on the Turner Administration’s controversial selection of a political partisan to help oversee redistricting in the City of Houston.
[WB7] A KTRK-13 news producer has opinions.
[WB8] The Chronicle’s Future Poop writer must miss Trump terribly, to tweet about him as often as she does.
[WB9] Congratulations to the Houston Cougars men’s basketball team, which clinched the American Athletic Conference regular season title this week and will begin play in the conference tournament next weekend (though they are already assured an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament).
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