The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance hopes everyone -- even Ted Cruz -- is dry and safe as it brings you this week's roundup of lefty blog posts from our rather soaked Lone Star State.

Off the Kuff reviewed how several bad bills met their end in the waning days of the legislative session.

Letters from Texas worries about the possible effect of the Supreme Court taking up the latest Texas redistricting case.

Lightseeker at Texas Kaos shines a bright light on the woeful lack of responsible, adult leadership among some in the Texas Legislature: Texas Legislators Who Put the Child in Childish.

Socratic Gadfly, with a hat tip to a fellow TPA blogger and his favorite name for a certain Southern senator, killed the birds of both Rick Santorum and another possible GOP candidate.

Hillary Clinton visits Houston on Thursday to collect an award and raise funds, notes PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is appalled at the level of racism and xenophobia exhibited by Texas Republicans who deny birth certificates to Texans born to not properly documented mothers.

From WCNews at Eye on Williamson: There are many Texans that need a government that works for them and not just for business, corporations and wealthy campaign donors.  It's been a windfall for business, and scraps for the rest of us.

Egberto Willies indicates that America needs more from Hillary Clinton at this stage than 'listening and learning', while McBlogger takes a swipe at Bernie Sanders.

The Lewisville Texan Journal posted about the flooding in North Texas, while Neil at All People Have Value said that floods in Houston forced people to yield some habitat to wildlife, if only for a brief time. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

The Queso documents flood effects in Wimberley and rounds up a bunch of flood-related resources for those who need them.

Eric Berger tries to explain where all that rain came from.

Offcite has ten of the major changes to I-45 wrapping around downtown Houston that you might not have been aware of.

Free Press Houston recapped the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductions, which included a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Texas Vox celebrates an expansion of homeowners' solar rights.

Ashton Garcia advocates for gender-neutral bathrooms.

The SA Current introduces us to "Mansplainer: The Statue".

RG Ratcliffe reminds us that the Lege is hoarding $18 billion of our money.

jobsanger sees the Texas Senate's emphasis on bigotry in this past session.

And Chris Hooks took note of one of the stranger bonds formed during the 84th Session: The Texas Observer and Dr. Steven Hotze.

Houston mayoral fora next week

The weather is turning suitable to outside the home activities for the local citizen political activists.

With three mayoral forums scheduled for next week, the policy debate in the race to become Houston's next mayor is about to begin in earnest.

The events, which will focus on arts and culture, economic development, and labor and community concerns, kick off a months-long cycle in which the candidates will appear before various interest groups, speaking to their specific concerns.

Teddy Schleifer's departure from the Houston Chronicle resulted in the expected void of coverage of the scrum to be the city's next chief executive.  Hopefully that's improving with Rebecca Elliott on the beat, the Texas Lege wrapping up (without a special session), and that the only flooding to be concerned with is the runoff from North Texas (Brazos, San Jacinto, Trinity).

Wednesday's arts forum at the Asia Society comes two days after the conclusion of this year's legislative session in Austin and is expected to be the first time the candidates appear together since former Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia entered the race.

The forum hosted by Houston Arts Alliance, Houston Museum District, Theater District Houston and Miller Outdoor Theatre begins at 6:30 p.m. and will be moderated by KTRK reporter Miya Shay. Each of the seven attending candidates -- Garcia, Rep. Sylvester Turner, former Rep. Chris Bell, City Council member Stephen Costello, former mayor of Kemah Bill King, 2013 mayoral runner-up Ben Hall and businessman Marty McVey -- will have a minute to introduce himself before being asked a series of four arts and culture-related questions, for which he will have two minutes to respond. Time allowing, the candidates also will take questions from the audience before offering closing statements.

Thursday's forum hosted by SPARC Growth Houston, a coalition of economic development groups, will focus on the city budget and economic development. It begins at 6 p.m. at the University of Houston and is structured similarly, with Rice University sociology Professor Stephen Klineberg discussing the results of his Houston Area Survey before representatives of area chambers of commerce ask the seven candidates five questions, to which they each will have 90 seconds to respond.

Then, on Saturday, the candidates are set to appear before area labor and community organizations for a 9 a.m. forum at Talento Bilingue. Each will have a minute to introduce himself and a minute to answer the 10 questions posed by panelists from the Texas Organizing Project, Harris County AFL-CIO, Fe y Justicia Workers Center, Mi Familia Vota and Houston Gulf Coast Building and Construction Trades Council. Six of the candidates, Costello not included, have confirmed their attendance, according to event organizer Linda Morales.

Charles has some good questions.  And two weeks from tomorrow, the Meyerland Dems host mayoral, council at-large, and controller candidates at their regularly scheduled meeting.  Hopefully many blog posts to come on the issues presented by Houston's next leaders to start the summer.