The new Congress maps dropped yesterday, and everybody has an opinion, analysis, and snark.
Proposed congressional redistricting map slices & dices the growing liberal and diverse populations of Austin, Houston, and DFW yet again
— James Slattery (@jcslattery) September 27, 2021
There’s literally a bill languishing in Congress that would’ve stopped this gerrymandering, but Congress has chosen to…pass no bills instead pic.twitter.com/ysgpQE8OgW
A rundown of how much TX GOP's proposed map would shore up nine of their own incumbents who badly need it:#TX02 Crenshaw: Trump +1 to Trump +23#TX03 Taylor: Trump +1 to Trump +15#TX06 Ellzey: Trump +3 to Trump +20#TX10 McCaul: Trump +2 to Trump +20 pic.twitter.com/PxgT5EtqLY
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) September 27, 2021
Two pairings with the proposed map:
— Daniel Friend (@DanielJFriend) September 27, 2021
- @RepAlGreen and @JacksonLeeTX18 in proposed #TX09
- @DanCrenshawTX and @RepSylviaGarcia in proposed #TX29
(On a side note: retiring @RepKevinBrady would be in Crenshaw's #TX02.) #txlege https://t.co/Jm0sgxqAwe
Texas’ first proposed congressional map has been posted. Houston gets one of the two new seats, and #TX07 (repped by @RepFletcher) becomes bluer w/ some new area in Fort Bend County. #TX02 (@RepDanCrenshaw) now takes in part of bright-red Montgomery Co: https://t.co/UcnE8cn9Yq pic.twitter.com/dBObdM3uYS
— Jasper Scherer (@jaspscherer) September 27, 2021
After first glance of proposed map:
— Steven Dial (@StevenDialFox4) September 27, 2021
TX33 @marcveasey (D) would lose some of Dallas
TX32 @colinallredtx (D) would snake through Dallas County and Colin
TX24 @bethvanduyne (R) would lose Denton, gain more Tarrant County.
TX3 @repvantaylor (R) gain Hunt County #txlege @FOX4 pic.twitter.com/wSKY0h6Sni
.@BucyForTexas @DrSchwertner @joanhuffman @DanPatrick @GregAbbott_TX what the hell is this? #redistricting #texas #txlege #Gerrymandering #wtf pic.twitter.com/TmVavU9ykn
— Craig Limeberry (@JollyCAL19) September 27, 2021
Keep in mind that these are the maiden efforts. There will be revisions, perhaps several, and then they will be challenged in court after implementation for 2022.
At first pass my reaction was "it could have been worse". They may eventually get that way, but these lines, while ugly and injurious to Texans of color, simply don't strike me as being the most terrible the Rethugs could have come up with. YMMV.
Reid Wilson at The Hill sees US cities -- citing Texas, Tennessee, Oregon, and Arkansas -- as being the pawns in the gerrymandering game. Fernando Ramirez at The Texas Signal has five takeaways, with Colin Allred getting a safe seat, Vicente Gonzalez getting gutted, and the lack of a Latino/a majority district being the most significant.
Moving on to other Lege affairs.
Speaker @DadePhelan refers #SB3, the transgender sports bill, to Public Education Committee. It’s headed by @RepHaroldDutton, who bottled up similar bill in 2nd special session. Stay tuned. Dutton is unpredictable. Background: https://t.co/XPta3JR4FA #txlege
— Bob Garrett (@RobertTGarrett) September 27, 2021
Texas abortion ban defies Medicaid protections for rape, incest victims https://t.co/6S3dfu0QjR
— 🌻TurboKitty🌻 (@TurboKitty) September 28, 2021
"The natural #gas supply system was faltering long before the lights went out" in February's freeze, says @CES_Baker_Inst's @cohan_ds. Now, as the #TXLege works to regulate #winterization for the future, "[t]he devil is in the details." https://t.co/P4hI3KAguY
— Baker Institute (@BakerInstitute) September 27, 2021
“Gas was such an important part of the failure and [gas suppliers] made such a profit,” said Michael Webber... “A lot of us might look and say that doesn't feel right, that the people who underperformed get rewarded.” #txlegehttps://t.co/CONHk4qH6E
— Texas Consumer Association (@TXConsumer) September 27, 2021
Texas taxpayers are going to be on the hook for an audit of votes in the 4 biggest counties in a state where Trump won by 600,000 votes.
— Sko Hayes (@skohayes) September 27, 2021
They can't get reliable electricity, but Abbott needs to signal his loyalty to his master. #Sorry #txlege https://t.co/ed1nr2T8RE
Angela Valenzuela of the Texas Educational Equity, Politics & Policy blog posts about a new conservative website that purports to track where critical race theory is taught at US schools.
Criticalrace.org, created by (Cornell Law School professor William) Jacobson, features a state-by-state list of more than 200 colleges and universities promoting critical race theory -- which he describes as “a radical ideology that focuses on race as the key to understanding society, and objectifies people based on race.” Launched last weekend, the website was a six-month project by Legal Insurrection, the conservative blog run by Jacobson. It contains information about various schools -- including Cornell in Ithaca, where Jacobson teaches -- as well as links to critical race training activity there.
Jacobson told Fox News that people need to know that higher education “is the source of the problem.”
“It provides the ideological mothers’ milk for activists and trains the people who then go onto jobs in government and primary/secondary education and the ‘journalists’ who push this coverage,” he said.
Criminal and social injustice updates, apparently now a daily feature.
No indictments for four HPD officers fired over death of Nicolas Chavez https://t.co/tFgqeXzRBI via @houstonchron #hounews
— Matt Schwartz (@SchwartzChron) September 27, 2021
Bicyclists angry weekend crash that injured six riders has not led to swift charges for teen driver @BikeHouston @TxDOT https://t.co/ATy7XCLVfj via @houstonchron
— Dug Begley (@DugBegley) September 27, 2021
A new state law penalizes police budget cuts and forced the Austin City Council to restore funding cut last year. But in the longer term, there are two potential workarounds to the law. Whether the city will pursue them or not is another question. #txlege https://t.co/ZCPuoWP0t1
— Honest Austin (@HonestATX) September 27, 2021
For the latest issue, @michaelsbarajas spoke with Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (@theloserteacher), who's pushing for a local civil rights office to investigate the kind of discrimination he faced as a city staffer. https://t.co/KEd00MtiEs
— Texas Observer (@TexasObserver) September 27, 2021
Why on earth would Houston build 88 affordable-housing units for $15 million rather than 362 for $16.2m? New column: https://t.co/X99DyRX2mS
— EricaGrieder (@EricaGrieder) September 26, 2021
*✏️#Migrants arrested by #Texas in border crackdown are being imprisoned for weeks without legal help or formal charges: Jolie McCullough, @TexasTribune #IndependentLeftTop5 #SupportIndependentMedia #GeneralStrike #news #analysis #directaction #MutualAidhttps://t.co/8j0aNt9PtW pic.twitter.com/J902rwUkyU
— IndependentLeft.news (@IndLeftNews) September 28, 2021
One environmental update (and it's a big one):
An old city dump in Sunnyside has long been an eyesore. It's about to be replaced with America's largest urban solar farm that will help the climate, add jobs and reenergize the community.
— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) September 28, 2021
https://t.co/pjQlcinB2a
Tens of thousands of solar panels will line an area the size of 200 football fields and produce enough energy to power 5,000 homes. ... Houston, known for having one of the highest number of greenhouse gas emitters, will be able to offset 120 million pounds of CO2 per year through this solar farm alone.
Closing today with these.
Connor Towne O’Neill, one of the producers of the NPR podcast White Lies, discusses his book Down Along with That Devil’s Bones.
It examines the nation's reckoning with Confederate monuments through the lens of the fight over monuments to one particular figure from the Civil War: Nathan Bedford Forrest. O’Neill will speak at a virtual event with west Houston's Blue Willow Bookshop Thursday evening.
I am honored to be speaking at the @womensmarchatx ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 People from all over the state will converge in Austin at the steps of the Capitol on October 2nd, 2021. Join us! It will be a beautiful day of action in Austin. #WomensMarchATX #WMATX2021 #txlege pic.twitter.com/55cKy08pRJ
— Sarah Eckhardt (@sarah_eckhardt) September 26, 2021