Interview with State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt

Posted on September 11, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Sen. Sarah Eckhardt

We wrap up our week with the statewide candidates with our candidate for Comptroller, Sen. Sarah Eckhardt. A fixture in Travis County politics, having been the first woman elected Travis County Judge after two terms as County Commissioner, she is now in her third term in the Senate from SD14. The daughter of former Congressman Bob Eckhardt, she has passed laws to protect children’s healthcare, to lower barriers for Texans returning to school, and to provide a tuition exemption for paramedics, among others. The Comptroller is an office with a lot of not-always-visible power, with oversight of budgets and the power of audits, and now management of the voucher program. It’s also now in the hands of wingnut former Senator Don Huffines, who was appointed as the second Acting Comptroller in less than a year as a peace offering by Greg Abbott, whom he had previously challenged as insufficiently zealous in a primary. The contrast between the two couldn’t be clearer, and you can hear all about it in the interview:

Here’s the transcript, provided as always by Greg Wythe. Next week will be an assortment of interviews for different offices, and after that we’ll get to a bunch of Legislative candidates. Let me know what you think.

PREVIOUSLY:

Rep. Jon Rosenthal – Railroad Commissioner – Transcript
Sen. Nathan Johnson – Attorney General – Transcript
Clayton Tucker – Ag Commissioner – Transcript

From the primaries:

Leticia Gutierrez – CD09 – Transcript
Christian Menefee, CD18 (from the special election) – Transcript
Rep. Sylvia Garcia, CD29 – Transcript
Melissa McDonough – CD38 – Transcript
Justin Early, CD31 – Transcript

Staci Childs – HD131 – Transcript

Letitia Plummer – Harris County Judge – Transcript
Abbie Kamin – Harris County Attorney – Transcript
Traci Gibson, HCDP Chair – Transcript

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Judicial Q&A: Samantha Davis

Posted on September 11, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

(Note: As I have done in past elections, I am running a series of Q&As for Democratic judicial candidates. I ran a series of these for candidates in contested primaries, and now these are for the rest of the candidates. I am running these responses in the order that I receive them from the candidates. Much more information about Democratic candidates, including links to interviews and judicial Q&As, can be found on Erik Manning’s spreadsheet.

Samantha Davis

1. Who are you and what are you running for?

I’m Samantha Y. Davis, and I'm running for Judge of the 313th Judicial District Court in Harris County. My legal career spans more than 20 years, concentrated in juvenile law, family law, DFPS cases, adoptions, and personal injury. I earned my J.D. from Thurgood Marshall School of Law and my undergraduate degree from the University of Houston-Downtown, and I’m a
Native Houstonian who has built my entire career serving this community.

Since 2019, I have served as the Harris County Juvenile Referee and Associate Judge, presiding over detention hearings, trials, and DFPS, adoption, and immigration-related matters in the Harris County Juvenile District Courts, including the 313th itself. That means I am not asking voters to take a chance on someone new to this bench — I am the judge already doing this work, asking for the opportunity to keep doing it as the elected Judge of the 313th.

2. What kind of cases does this court hear?

The 313th Judicial District Court is one of Harris County’s juvenile district courts. It hears juvenile criminal cases involving youth charged with violations of Texas law, and it hears child protection cases brought under the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), including allegations of abuse and neglect, family reunification, and adoption matters.

These are cases where the outcome shapes a child’s safety, a family’s stability, and often a young person’s entire future — which is exactly why I believe experience on this specific docket
matters so much in this race.

3. Why are you running for this particular bench?

I’ve spent the last several years serving this exact court system as the Harris County Juvenile Referee and Associate Judge, presiding over detention hearings, trials, and DFPS, adoption, and immigration-related matters in the Harris County Juvenile District Courts, including the 313th. I know firsthand what this docket demands: the urgency these families are facing, the real consequences of delay, and the balance a judge has to strike every day between accountability and rehabilitation.

I’m running because I believe the 313th needs a judge who has already done this work and understands it from every angle — not someone learning it for the first time — and because I care deeply about the children and families who depend on this court to treat them fairly and move their cases forward without unnecessary delay.

4. What are your qualifications for this job?

My legal career spans more than 20 years, concentrated in juvenile law, family law, DFPS cases, adoptions, and personal injury, with additional experience in probate, civil, and criminal matters. As a solo practitioner from 1999 to 2019, I represented juvenile clients charged with violations of Texas law and represented parents and children involved with DFPS. I was certified to serve as Attorney Ad Litem in Civil, Family, Juvenile, Probate, and Tax Courts, and I am also a Certified Mediator.

Since 2019, I have served as the Harris County Juvenile Referee and Associate Judge, presiding over detention hearings, trials, and DFPS, adoption, and immigration-related matters in the Harris County Juvenile District Courts, including the 313th. That breadth of experience — as defense counsel for juveniles, an advocate for parents and children in DFPS cases, a neutral Attorney Ad Litem, and now a sitting judge — gives me a complete view of how cases move through this court system from every vantage point.

5. Why is this race important?

The 313th Judicial District Court handles matters that directly affect child safety, family stability, and the future of young people in our community. The judge who sits on this bench decides how quickly a child reaches permanency, whether a family gets a real chance at safe reunification, and whether a young person is set on a path toward accountability and rehabilitation, rather than simply punishment.

Delays or inconsistency on this bench have lasting consequences for children and families who have no choice but to be here. Voters in this race are choosing who makes those decisions, and they deserve a judge who already understands this docket and is ready to serve it well, starting on day one.

6. Why should people vote for you in November?

I’m the candidate who is already doing this work. Since 2019, I’ve served as the Harris County Juvenile Referee and Associate Judge, presiding over the same detention hearings, trials, and DFPS matters that come before the 313th, and I bring more than 20 years of legal experience as defense counsel, an advocate for parents and children, and a neutral Attorney Ad Litem before that.

I’ve built a record of applying the law fairly and consistently, treating every child and family who appears before me with dignity, and balancing accountability with real opportunities for rehabilitation. I’m asking voters to elect the judge who is already doing this job on their behalf, and who is ready to keep doing it as the elected Judge of the 313th Judicial District Court.

PREVIOUSLY:

Judge Damiane Dianne Curvey, 280th Family District Court
Judge M. Monica Singh, Harris County Civil Court at Law #4
Judge Cory Sepolio, 269th Civil District Court

From the primaries:

Judge Kristen Hawkins, Supreme Court Justice, Place 7
Sarah Beth Landau, Chief Justice of the Fourteenth Court of Appeals
Judge Tanya Garrison, 157th Civil District Court
Julia Maldonado, 183rd Criminal District Court
Judge Brian Warren, 209th Criminal District Court
Judge Josh Hill, 232nd Criminal District Court
Judge Leah Shapiro, 315th Juvenile District Court
Judge James Horwitz, Harris County Probate Court #4
Ebony Williams, Harris County Civil Court at Law #2
Judge Andrew Wright, Harris County Criminal Court at Law #7

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Two more positive polls

Posted on September 11, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

From the AARP:

Today, AARP released new polling highlighting the outsized role Texas’s highly motivated older voters are poised to play in the state’s closely watched gubernatorial and Senate races in November — and the issues that will be top of mind for these pivotal voters at the ballot box, including Social Security, Medicare, and affordability.

“Texas’s upcoming elections will be among the most closely watched races in the country, and all eyes should be on the state’s older voters,” said Nancy LeaMond, AARP Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy Officer. “Voters age 50 and older are highly motivated to cast ballots, driven largely by financial concerns — from the cost of groceries, medicine and utilities to protecting Social Security. Their voices will be decisive on Election Day. Candidates who want to earn their support need to address these issues.”

Voters age 50 and older dominated both parties’ 2026 Texas primaries, accounting for nearly 55% of ballots cast in the Democratic primary and 78% of ballots cast in the Republican primary. AARP’s new polling suggests this high level of engagement is likely to continue: 84% of voters 50+ rated themselves a “10” on a 10-point motivation-to-vote scale, compared with 70% of voters under 50. Older swing voters make up almost 9% of the Texas electorate and roughly half of swing voters statewide, underscoring how influential this block will be for both tight races.

In the highly watched race for Senate, Democrat James Talarico holds a narrow 4-point (48%-44%) lead over Republican Ken Paxton, with 8% of voters undecided. Among voters age 50+, however, Paxton is up by 13 points (53%-40%). Talarico leads with 50+ swing voters by a significant margin (38%-17%).

In the governor’s race, Republican Greg Abbott holds a narrow 3-point (49%-46%) edge over Democrat Gina Hinojosa. Abbott’s lead is wider among 50+ voters, polling at 59% to Hinojosa’s 38%. Abbott also leads with 50+ swing voters by 31 points, and 50+ women by 15 points.

“This year’s Senate and gubernatorial races are both shaping up to be down to the wire, and older Texans are a crucial demographic for all candidates involved,” said Lisa A. Rodriguez, AARP Texas State Director. “Day-to-day realities like caring for an aging family member or grappling with rising grocery prices are driving their votes. They’re looking for leaders who will step in and advocate for policies that help them age with financial security, independence, and dignity.”

AARP’s polling found that affordability is the top issue for Texas voters 50+, followed by immigration and Social Security and Medicare.

[…]

AARP commissioned the bipartisan polling team of Fabrizio Ward (R) and Impact Research (D) to conduct the survey of likely Texas voters. This is the fifth poll in AARP’s 2026 battleground polling series, following surveys of Michigan, Arizona, Ohio and Georgia. The firms interviewed 895 likely voters statewide. The survey was done between August 30-September 1, 2026. The interviews were conducted via live interviewer on cell phone (40%) and landline (15%), as well as SMS-to-web (45%). The sample was randomly drawn from the Texas voter list. The margin of sampling error at the 95% confidence level for the 895 statewide sample is ±3.3%.

View the full survey results at www.aarp.org/tx2026voterpoll and more information on our poll at www.aarp.org/TXpoll. Additional information about AARP’s 2026 battleground polling series is available at www.aarp.org/voterpolls2026.

Poll data can be found here. Talarico does a little better across all the demographics than Hinojosa does, and I note that Ken Paxton continues to have Republican problems, as he only leads Talarico 83-9 among GOPers, with the rest undecided. Abbott leads Hinojosa 90-7 among the reds, which is both a decent showing there by Hinojosa (she leads among Dems 94-3, with Talarico at 94-2) and a reminder that Paxton is still working on those pesky Cornyn voters. Trump has a 43-54 approval rating, while Abbott clocks in at 44-48, and Dems are more motivated to vote.

And from Univision/YouGov:

A new N+ Univision News/YouGov survey points to an unsettled, competitive political landscape in Texas heading into the 2026 midterm elections. While statewide contests for governor, U.S. Senate, and the generic congressional ballot remain dead heats, the poll’s Latino oversample reveals friction inside the coalition that helped power Donald Trump’s historic gains two years ago.

Though Hispanic voters continue to give Democratic contenders an overall edge, the deeper story is a notable wave of second thoughts: roughly one in three Latino Trump voters now expresses doubt or outright regret over their 2024 choice, driven by administration actions, cost-of-living fatigue, and growing anxieties over racial profiling.

These shifting currents are poised to decide an already razor-thin gubernatorial contest. Statewide, Democrat Gina Hinojosa and Republican incumbent Greg Abbott are deadlocked at 47% each. Abbott’s challenge lies partly in a 12-point deficit among Latino voters, who back Hinojosa 54% to 42%. Yet that Hispanic advantage is held together almost entirely by Latina women, who favor Hinojosa by an 18-point margin (57% to 39%). In contrast, Latino men remain locked in a near-even split (49% Hinojosa to 47% Abbott), underscoring that even marginal shifts among Hispanic men could tip the balance statewide.

That dynamic carries over into the federal ticket. In the U.S. Senate race, Democrat James Talarico leads Republican Ken Paxton statewide, 48% to 43%, fueled by a wider 56% to 37% margin among Hispanic voters. Similarly, on the generic U.S. House ballot, Democrats hold a slight two-point edge statewide (48% to 46%), but expand that lead to 13 points (54% to 41%) within the Latino electorate.

Crucially, these numbers do not reflect an automatic snap-back to the historic, lopsided Democratic majorities of past decades. Republicans have preserved some foothold. Instead, the data captures a fracturing among Hispanics who crossed over to back Trump in 2024. While 64% of Latino Trump voters report feeling good about their vote and would repeat it, the remaining third shows cracks: 14% harbor some doubts, 7% report serious doubts that could alter their vote, and 12% voice outright regret. Roughly one-third of Latino Trump voters express some level of doubt, uncertainty, or regret. By comparison, statewide Trump voters show greater durability, with 73% reaffirming their vote and only 6% expressing regret.

Trump himself remains a polarizing and net-negative figure in Texas. Statewide, 42% of voters view him favorably, while 52% view him unfavorably. Among Latino voters, his standing is weaker: 38% view him favorably, while 55% view him unfavorably. That broader image problem helps explain why the doubts among some 2024 Trump voters matter heading into the midterms.

Scroll down to see the data. That’s the best result yet for Hinojosa, who has not led Abbott in any poll but has been within one point on a few of them. The generic Congressional ballot was 49-45 for Republicans in the AARP poll. I don’t expect to get back to 2010s levels of Latino Democratic voting, though that sure as hell would be nice, but given Democratic gains among white voters we probably don’t need to be at those levels. Again, I’d much rather have that than not. I found this poll via The Downballot, and the AARP poll via the Trib poll tracker, which currently has Talarico up by 3.6 points.

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Interview with Clayton Tucker

Posted on September 10, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Clayton Tucker

Next up on the queue for statewide candidates is Clayton Tucker, who is running for Commissioner of Agriculture. That office is currently held by Sid Miller, who was ousted with more than a little help by Greg Abbott, not without some very hard feelings. Tucker grew up part of a ranching family in Lampasas, and now runs the family ranch after having graduated from Southwestern University, working as a water/ag researcher for the National Science Foundation, studying in Taipei, and teaching kindergarten. He ran for SD24 in 2020 and is Secretary of the Texas Farmers Union, and is now a leading voice against the proliferation of data centers in Texas, joined in that campaign by current Ag Commissioner Sid Miller. We had a lot of ground to cover, and he was in a car going from one event to another as we spoke, so the audio is a little bumpy sometimes. But his message is clear, and you can hear it here:

A transcript of our conversation is here, courtesy of Greg Wythe, who also did some cleanup work on the audio.

PREVIOUSLY:

Rep. Jon Rosenthal – Railroad Commissioner – Transcript
Sen. Nathan Johnson – Attorney General – Transcript

From the primaries:

Leticia Gutierrez – CD09 – Transcript
Christian Menefee, CD18 (from the special election) – Transcript
Rep. Sylvia Garcia, CD29 – Transcript
Melissa McDonough – CD38 – Transcript
Justin Early, CD31 – Transcript

Staci Childs – HD131 – Transcript

Letitia Plummer – Harris County Judge – Transcript
Abbie Kamin – Harris County Attorney – Transcript
Traci Gibson, HCDP Chair – Transcript

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Judicial Q&A: Judge Cory Sepolio

Posted on September 10, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

(Note: As I have done in past elections, I am running a series of Q&As for Democratic judicial candidates. I ran a series of these for candidates in contested primaries, and now these are for the rest of the candidates. I am running these responses in the order that I receive them from the candidates. Much more information about Democratic candidates, including links to interviews and judicial Q&As, can be found on Erik Manning’s spreadsheet.

Judge Cory Sepolio

1. Who are you and in which court do you preside?

Hello. I’m Cory Don Sepolio, judge of the 269th Civil District Court.

2. What kind of cases does this court hear?

This is a civil district court. Texas civil district courts hear disputes involving money, damages or rights, They preside over important matters such as personal injury, oil and gas rights, breach of contract claims, water rights, government taking land, business disputes, title disputes involving land, criminal expunction cases, emergency restraining orders, and election contests. Because they have general jurisdiction, district courts also take on any civil matters not specifically assigned to other courts, allowing them to serve as Texas’s broad, catch‐all forum for resolving significant legal disputes. In addition, the legislature assigns several administrative duties to Texas civil district courts as well.

If a civil case in Texas is substantial, complex, or doesn’t fit neatly into another court’s jurisdiction, chances are it’s heard in a district court.

3. What have been your main accomplishments during your time on this bench?

As Judge, for the past eight years, I have a reputation for being trusted by both sides of the bar. I am one of the highest rated judges in the county. Out of the civil district court judges I am among the top in closures, trials. When hurricane Harvey bogged down the courthouses I continued to move our docket. When the pandemic closed the courthouse, I worked with county leadership and court administration to continue to move cases in a safe and equitable manner. I appoint lawyers from underrepresented communities to roles in the 269th. I mentor interns, young attorneys, and judges.

4. What do you hope to accomplish in your courtroom going forward?

I will continue to reduce the court’s docket with an eye towards justice and equity. I plan to work with our partners in the courthouse to create space for expedited mediations and trials to allow parties who wish, to obtain a quick and cost effective resolution to their claims.

5. Why is this race important?

I respect our system of resolving disputes and want to ensure the 269th will have the experience necessary to continue our work.

6. Why should people vote for you in November?

As a trial attorney I have a proven record of exemplary results. I have 28 years of legal experience. The benefit of 23 years in high stakes litigation, including 100 jury trials across Texas. I’ve handled everything from common law negligence, wrongful death, breach of contract cases, to capital murder and intoxicated manslaughter. I have represented hundreds of civil clients, both plaintiffs and defendants in court. I supervised attorneys, peace officers, paralegals, secretarial staff, court staff and interns. I am qualified above others in Experience, Temperament, and Impartiality for this bench.

PREVIOUSLY:

Judge Damiane Dianne Curvey, 280th Family District Court
Judge M. Monica Singh, Harris County Civil Court at Law #4

From the primaries:

Judge Kristen Hawkins, Supreme Court Justice, Place 7
Sarah Beth Landau, Chief Justice of the Fourteenth Court of Appeals
Judge Tanya Garrison, 157th Civil District Court
Julia Maldonado, 183rd Criminal District Court
Judge Brian Warren, 209th Criminal District Court
Judge Josh Hill, 232nd Criminal District Court
Judge Leah Shapiro, 315th Juvenile District Court
Judge James Horwitz, Harris County Probate Court #4
Ebony Williams, Harris County Civil Court at Law #2
Judge Andrew Wright, Harris County Criminal Court at Law #7

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Plummer internal poll claims 16-point lead

Posted on September 10, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

That would be nice.

Letitia Plummer

Letitia Plummer released an internal poll Tuesday that shows her leading Republican Orlando Sanchez by double digits in the race for Harris County Judge.

Plummer, a Democrat and former Houston City Council Member, led Sanchez 53% to 37% in the survey conducted by the Washington-based HIT Strategies. Nine percent of voters were undecided.

Republicans are hoping for a competitive race in November after eight years under progressive Judge Lina Hidalgo, who is not seeking reelection. Plummer’s pollster believes that growing dissatisfaction with Republican leaders at the top of the ticket, however, presents Sanchez with an uphill battle.

“With (Plummer’s) support still growing and Sanchez’s allies deeply unpopular with Harris County voters, this race represents a real opportunity,” said HIT Strategies President Terrance Woodbury, in a statement. “Her win can, and will, help power turnout for the entire Democratic ticket.”

The Sanchez campaign, in a statement, said that releasing paid, internal polling data reflects growing nerves on Plummer’s team, and that her “real” numbers are likely below 50%.

“This race is about Harris County but the Plummer campaign wants to hide her failed record and make this about Democrats versus Republicans,” said campaign spokesman Chris Beavers. “Voters know it’s about competence versus corruption.”

HIT Strategies conducted the poll over a week in mid-August among a sample of 600 likely general election voters in Harris County. It was released publicly Tuesday, a day after a virtual debate between Plummer and Sanchez was postponed due to technical difficulties.

Renée Cross, who leads the University of Houston’s political polling efforts, said the poll boasts a decent sample size but lacks demographic data, making it difficult to draw broad conclusions about its results.

Cross expects Plummer to win, but said a 16-point lead may be far-fetched given the slim margins of Democratic victories in the 2018 and 2022 races for county judge.

“I would expect the Democrat to do much better this year because the tide is going toward blue rather than red in this particular election,” Cross said. “But (16 points) is a lot in a county that is maybe blue, but not dark blue.”

The Plummer poll found that likely voters have soured on GOP leaders, with more than 60% of respondents viewing President Donald Trump unfavorably.

[…]

Mark Jones, a Rice University political scientist who conducts political polls with Texas Southern University, said partisan polls are often useful fundraising vehicles if the data reflects well on the candidate who commissioned it.

“It’s a poll with a goal and a mission, and that doesn’t mean it’s incorrect — the results it presents are very plausible,” Jones said. “(But) it’s being done for a campaign with an express goal.”

This is an internal poll and we don’t have access to its data, so we don’t need to dig into it. The reason to be wary of internal polls is not that they’re poorly designed or executed but that they only see the light of day if the candidate or campaign that commissioned it chooses to release it, and so you see what they want to be seen and not what they don’t. That said, when the bulk of the internal polls released come from one side, that does tell you something about the overall environment, which in this case is already known and is why Prof. Jones considers it a plausible result. You will note that the Orlando Sanchez campaign, which is surely doing its own polling or has access to polling done by other aligned groups, didn’t counter with their own data. That in and of itself tells you something.

I would frame this poll with two questions to consider. The first is, by how much do you think James Talarico will win Harris County? In 2018, Beto O’Rourke beat Ted Cruz in Harris County 58.0 to 41.3, or about a point more than Plummer is leading Sanchez in this poll. How likely do you think Talarico, who is sure to be the Democratic pacesetter, is to do better than that? Remember that as I’ve shown before, in recent elections Democratic candidates have run about nine points better in Harris County than they have statewide. If Talarico is going to win statewide, as polls indicate he could, that suggests his Harris County number would need to be probably at least 59 percent. None of this is set in stone, and of course the state polls may be overstating Talarico’s performance, but the point is that the Plummer +16 number doesn’t come from a vacuum and isn’t out of kilter with observed reality. It may or may not be right, but it is indeed plausible.

The second question is how much bigger will Talarico’s margin be than Plummer’s? Obviously, Beto, who won Harris County in 2018 by 16.7 points and 200K votes, did a hell of a lot better than Lina Hidalgo, who won by 1.6 points and 20K votes. Some of that was Beto’s crossover appeal – he had 16K more votes than the next-highest-scoring Democrat, while Ted Cruz was the second-worst performer among Republicans. (The worst was none other than Ken Paxton, who received four thousand fewer votes than Cruz.) But a lot of it was Ed Emmett’s crossover appeal. Not only was he the top Republican votegetter in 2018, besting Greg Abbott by 16K votes and the third-place Republican (from a judicial race) by 29K, he had been the top Republican votegetter in 2008 and 2010 as well (he didn’t have a Democratic opponent in 2014, so he didn’t qualify for that designation then). We’ll see how Talarico does compared to Beto, but I do not expect Orlando Sanchez to perform like Ed Emmett. Talarico at plus 19 outperforming Plummer by five or six (Beto outdid Lupe Valdez by six in 2018) puts her at +13 or +14, which again makes a 16-point lead in a poll a plausible result.

And that’s really all there is to it. Not that this one internal poll is The Truth – no poll ever is – just that it doesn’t stand out as being silly. Maybe it’s a stretch – if you wanted to bet the under, I would not try to talk you out of it – but there’s no reason to think it’s an illusion. Other polls may say differently, and if they do that’s fine. Better to have more data than less. But until or unless enough other data arises to show this is an outlier, it’s just another data point. Make of it what you will.

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The China gambit

Posted on September 10, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

You can smell the desperation.

Still a crook any way you look

There’s one thing Republicans really want Texans to be thinking about as they prepare to cast their ballots for U.S. Senate – China.

In the last week, several groups backing Attorney General Ken Paxton have dropped millions on broadcast advertisements that warn about the Chinese Communist Party buying land in the state.

In an election where affordability has dominated voter’s concerns, the threat of Chinese land ownership may seem like a random topic. Even some Republican operatives think so, with one calling it the party’s “eighth best issue.” Others see it as an attempt to win back Republicans who aren’t sold on Paxton before the campaign enters its final stretch.

“It is pretty niche,” said Brendan Steinhauser, a former campaign manager for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. He said the message is definitely going for the core activist base, but that “Cornyn Republicans also care about this.”

Republican enthusiasm dropped after the bruising primary between Paxton and Cornyn. A Fox News poll from July showed Paxton winning about 90% of Republicans when a candidate’s share of their own party is usually expected to be much higher. Paxton was only winning about 80% of Republicans in a Texas Politics Project poll from last month. These surveys also showed Talarico winning significantly more independent voters.

“The most recent polling continues to indicate that Republican enthusiasm is lower than expected for Texas elections, and that not all Republicans have consolidated behind the top of the ticket candidate,” said Josh Blank, director of research at the Texas Politics Project. “What’s going on right now is not a general election message. It’s a message aimed squarely at Republican voters to get them reengaged and to get them mobilized.”

[…]

Blank said the ads also underscore how Republicans have lost some of the most salient talking points that drove the last election.

“Immigration and border security have declined significantly as a primary concern of Texas Republicans,” he said. “The evaporation of this focal point has left Republican candidates searching for stand-in issues that mobilize the same kind of concerns among the Republican base about changes to culture and society.”

As campaign season begins to heat up, several said it’s not quite time yet for campaigns to put out their major general election messaging, and around mid-September ads will reorient to issues that concern wider swaths of voters. Blank said “it would be surprising if we’re seeing a lot of ads in late October about foreign land ownership.”

Regardless, Republicans in Texas are heading into a tough midterm. The pressure is on for Paxton to win back any voters he’s lost.

“I don’t think a bunch of Republicans are going to go vote for Talarico, but I do think it’s a possibility some of the Cornyn voters don’t vote for Paxton,” Steinhauser said. “The big wild card is independent voters.”

I suspect I won’t be able to avoid seeing some of these ads while I’m innocently trying to watch college football. It’s impossible to really disengage these days. Maybe we’ll see some effect in the polling, but even if we do, who knows if this was the main cause or if it had anything at all to do with it. I’m sure Paxton is just relieved that someone, anyone is spending money on his behalf. Link via Campos.

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Texas blog roundup for the week of September 7

Posted on September 10, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

The Texas Progressive Alliance says “Happy Labor Day, and welcome to the start of campaign season” as it brings you this week’s roundup.

Off the Kuff provides a Big Bend construction update.

SocraticGadfly reflects on ethical issues involved with using AI and apps to promote environmentalism, as well as the issue of how much “AI” actually exists.

Houston Democracy Project Blog said John Whitmire sits in open Houston City Council meetings saying HPD doesn’t interact with ICE, at the very same time HPD says they do work with ICE. Whitmire makes stuff up.

======================

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

The Bloggess invites you to time travel with her.

Law Dork celebrates the unsuccessful primary challenge by Rep. Seth Moulton.

Courier Texas explains how conservatives have been weaponizing the 2025 “Parental Rights Amendment” to the state constitution.

The Texas Observer talks to Democratic Railroad Commissioner candidate Jon Rosenthal.

Alison Cook has a brief rant about pizza.

The Eyewall does a nerdy deep dive into the factors and forecasts of Tropical Storm Edouard.

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Interview with Sen. Nathan Johnson

Posted on September 9, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Sen. Nathan Johnson

We continue with the statewide slate with Sen. Nathan Johnson, who is running to be the next Attorney General, and the first one to be something other than a partisan lapdog since the 90s. Johnson is a litigator with a law degree from UT, but is not your typical lawyer in that he was also a physics major in college and a musician who has composed scores for the hit anime series Dragon Ball Z. He did us the huge favor in 2018 of ousting one-term Sen. Don Huffines from SD16 and has managed to pass a bunch of bills on subjects ranging from data privacy protection to backup systems for power essential community facilities to getting private health insurance for an estimated 350,000 previously uninsured Texans. He’s running against fellow Sen. Mayes Middleton, who I’d describe as someone who wants to be even more Ken Paxton but with less baggage. Sen. Johnson was in a car for this Zoom call so there are a couple of audio glitches but he comes through clearly anyway. You can listen to it here:

The transcript, courtesy of Greg Wythe, is here. As noted, I’ll have more statewide candidates this week, then on to other races next week. Let me know what you think.

PREVIOUSLY:

Rep. Jon Rosenthal – Railroad Commissioner – Transcript

From the primaries:

Leticia Gutierrez – CD09 – Transcript
Christian Menefee, CD18 (from the special election) – Transcript
Rep. Sylvia Garcia, CD29 – Transcript
Melissa McDonough – CD38 – Transcript
Justin Early, CD31 – Transcript

Staci Childs – HD131 – Transcript

Letitia Plummer – Harris County Judge – Transcript
Abbie Kamin – Harris County Attorney – Transcript
Traci Gibson, HCDP Chair – Transcript

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Judicial Q&A: Judge M. Monica Singh

Posted on September 9, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

(Note: As I have done in past elections, I am running a series of Q&As for Democratic judicial candidates. I ran a series of these for candidates in contested primaries, and now these are for the rest of the candidates. I am running these responses in the order that I receive them from the candidates. Much more information about Democratic candidates, including links to interviews and judicial Q&As, can be found on Erik Manning’s spreadsheet.

Judge M. Monica Singh

1. Who are you and in which court do you preside?

I’m Judge M Monica Singh, and I have been presiding over Harris County Civil Court at Law No. 4 since 2022.

Before taking the bench, I spent over 20 years as a litigator, trying more than 100 cases to verdict and handling over 1,000 cases in total across my 25 years of practice, in the exact same area of law my court now hears. That experience shapes how I run court every single day.

Harris County’s first civil associate judge court was created during my time on the bench, and County Court at Law No. 5, the first new civil court established in Harris County since 1977, came together through bipartisan work I was proud to be part of. My court runs with near-zero backlog and resolves cases in roughly 365 days, so litigants aren’t left waiting years for their day in court.

I’m also proud to be the first elected female Sikh judge in the country, and I was the founder and currently serve as President of the Sikh National Bar Association, where I work to expand representation and access to justice within the legal profession, nationally and internationally.

I run on three principles: efficiency, empathy, and experience. That’s the standard I hold myself to on the bench, and it’s what I bring to every case that comes before me.

2. What kind of cases does this court hear?

Harris County Civil Court at Law No. 4 hears civil disputes with an amount in controversy up to $325,000, covering cases like breach of contract, personal injury, malpractice, and business disputes. My court also has jurisdiction over eminent domain proceedings, suits involving title to real or personal property, defamation claims, and appeals of civil cases from Harris County Justice Courts.

In short, this is where everyday people and businesses in Harris County come to resolve real disputes that matter to their lives and livelihoods, and it’s exactly the kind of work I spent over 20 years doing as a litigator before I took the bench.

3. What have been your main accomplishments during your time on this bench?

When I got on the bench, I was shocked at the scale of the housing crisis coming through the courts. It pushed me to think about practical, manageable ways to get people to their day in court faster, without cutting corners on fairness. I approached Commissioner Briones, and together we identified ARPA funding that helped establish Harris County’s first civil associate judge court.

That court has helped keep cases moving efficiently while still giving each one the attention it deserves. Building on that momentum, bipartisan work also helped establish County Court at Law No. 5, the first new civil court created in Harris County since 1977.

The result has been a docket with near-zero backlog and case resolution in roughly 365 days, so litigants aren’t left waiting years for resolution. Trial planning conferences have also become standard practice, giving everyone involved a real voice in setting dates that work for their case and their lives.

4. What do you hope to accomplish in your courtroom going forward?

I want to keep building on the efficiency my court has achieved, without ever losing sight of the people behind each case. The housing crisis showed me that access to the courts isn’t just a legal issue, it’s a practical one. Going forward, I want to keep finding ways to make the process faster and more manageable for the people who need it most, whether that’s expanding on the associate judge model, using technology to cut down wait times, or continuing to hold planning conferences that give litigants and attorneys real input into their own cases.

I also want to keep strengthening public trust in the courts by making sure every person who walks into my courtroom, regardless of background or resources, feels heard and treated with the same respect and attention.

At its core, my goal is simple: a courtroom that moves efficiently, treats people with empathy, and reflects the experience it takes to actually understand what’s at stake for the people in front of me.

5. Why is this race important?

This race matters because the courts are where people experience the justice system directly, and that experience shapes whether they trust it. Harris County is one of the most diverse counties in the country, and the people who come through our courts deserve judges who understand what’s actually at stake for them, not just the law on paper.

This seat also matters because of what’s been built here. Near-zero backlog, roughly 365-day case resolution, the first civil associate judge court in Harris County, and County Court at Law No. 5, the first new civil court in the county since 1977, didn’t happen by accident. They happened because someone was willing to do the work of building practical solutions instead of just maintaining the status quo. Losing that progress would mean litigants waiting longer, cases piling up, and a return to a system that moves slower than people’s lives do.

Ultimately, this race is about whether Harris County keeps a court that treats efficiency, empathy, and experience as non-negotiable, or risks losing ground on all three.

6. Why should people vote for you in November?

Vote for me because I bring efficiency, empathy, and experience to the bench, and I’ve proven all three. Over 25 years and 1,000-plus cases as a litigator, in the exact same area of law my court now hears, taught me what people actually need when they walk into a courtroom. As a judge, I’ve turned that experience into results: near-zero backlog, roughly 365-day case resolution, the first civil associate judge court in Harris County, and County Court at Law No. 5, the first new civil court in the county since 1977.

But results alone aren’t the whole story. I run my courtroom the way I wished someone had run mine when I was a litigator missing family moments to an unpredictable docket. That’s why I hold planning conferences for trial, so people have a real voice in their own case.

Harris County deserves a judge who has done the work, understands the stakes, and keeps building solutions instead of settling for the status quo. That’s what I offer on November’s ballot.

PREVIOUSLY:

Judge Damiane Dianne Curvey, 280th Family District Court

From the primaries:

Judge Kristen Hawkins, Supreme Court Justice, Place 7
Sarah Beth Landau, Chief Justice of the Fourteenth Court of Appeals
Judge Tanya Garrison, 157th Civil District Court
Julia Maldonado, 183rd Criminal District Court
Judge Brian Warren, 209th Criminal District Court
Judge Josh Hill, 232nd Criminal District Court
Judge Leah Shapiro, 315th Juvenile District Court
Judge James Horwitz, Harris County Probate Court #4
Ebony Williams, Harris County Civil Court at Law #2
Judge Andrew Wright, Harris County Criminal Court at Law #7

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Hemp ban remains in place

Posted on September 9, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Still no relief.

A Texas judge has allowed a wide-ranging THC ban to stay in effect after a hearing last week.

Delta-9 THC can generally be regarded as “regular THC.” When state and federal lawmakers legalized hemp, they defined it as cannabis with .3% delta-9 THC or less on a dry-weight basis. However, there are other forms of THC that were not originally regulated by state and federal hemp laws.

So, manufacturers and retailers began making and selling products with other forms of THC such as delta-8, which exploded in popularity over the last few years.

Now, those other forms of THC are banned in the state. A Travis County District Court judge recently ruled this ban can stay in effect as hemp businesses sue the state over it.

This is all the result of a Texas Supreme Court decision over the legality of delta-8 THC stemming from a lawsuit brought by hemp manufacturer Hometown Hero in 2021.

That year, the Texas Department of State Health Services said all forms of the substance besides .3% delta-9 THC on a dry weight basis were schedule I controlled substances.

Hometown Hero sued over the change. For a time, the ban on these other forms of THC was on pause while litigation was pending. The Texas Supreme Court ruled this year that the state could ban delta-8 and other forms of THC outside of delta-9.

The state implemented that ban on July 31, adding other forms of THC to the state’s controlled substances list. Possession of these alternative forms of THC is now a state felony.

See here for the previous update. The ban has been in effect since August 1, with a lot of sound and fury around it. This story doesn’t have much in the way of detail – this paywalled Statesman article appears to have more, but as noted it’s paywalled – but the bottom line is that the motion for a temporary restraining order was denied. There are still two federal lawsuits pending, though I have no idea where either of them are. I presume this ruling was in light of the previous 15th Court of Appeals ruling, and so perhaps there will be more to come in the state lawsuit, in the quest for an injunction against the law. As is often the case with litigation against Texas, which tends to involve multiple different cases, it’s hard to tell. But for now at least, nothing has changed.

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Interview with Rep. Jon Rosenthal

Posted on September 8, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Rep. Jon Rosenthal

It’s that time, it’s after Labor Day, and I’ve got interviews and judicial Q&As to bring you. My interview subjects this week will all be from statewide races, and I’m starting with someone I’ve talked to before, State Rep. Jon Rosenthal, who is running for a spot on the Railroad Commission. Elected in 2018 to HD135, ousting a long-term Republican in the process, Rosenthal is a mechanical engineer who worked for 25 years in the energy industry, on drilling rigs. Which makes him highly qualified for this job as a regulator of the energy industry, which would also be a novel concept. He worked as a plumber on construction sites before he earned his degree, and he was a political organizer before he won his first election. He was a hard worker in the House, and if you’ve ever met him you know he’s just a good dude, about as strong a contrast with his terrible opponent possible. I’ve interviewed him twice before, for his first election and after his first legislative session. Here he is again, now running for Railroad Commissioner:

Here’s a transcript of the interview, courtesy of Greg Wythe who uses an AI transcription tool, as he did with the primary and runoff interviews. As noted, I’ll have more statewide candidates this week, then on to other races next week. Let me know what you think.

PREVIOUSLY:

From the primaries:

Leticia Gutierrez – CD09 – Transcript
Christian Menefee, CD18 (from the special election) – Transcript
Rep. Sylvia Garcia, CD29 – Transcript
Melissa McDonough – CD38 – Transcript
Justin Early, CD31 – Transcript

Staci Childs – HD131 – Transcript

Letitia Plummer – Harris County Judge – Transcript
Abbie Kamin – Harris County Attorney – Transcript
Traci Gibson, HCDP Chair – Transcript

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Judicial Q&A Judge Damiane Dianne Curvey

Posted on September 8, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

(Note: As I have done in past elections, I am running a series of Q&As for Democratic judicial candidates. I ran a series of these for candidates in contested primaries, and now these are for the rest of the candidates. I am running these responses in the order that I receive them from the candidates. Much more information about Democratic candidates, including links to interviews and judicial Q&As, can be found on Erik Manning’s spreadsheet.

Judge Damiane Dianne Curvey

1. Who are you and in which court do you preside?

I’m Judge Damiane Dianne Curvey and I preside over the 280th Judicial District Court, Harris County, Texas.

2. What kind of cases does this court hear?

My court exclusively hears Protective Order cases involving Domestic Violence, Stalking and Harassment. It is a Civil Court, so I do not administer bail or sentence anyone to jail.

3. What have been your main accomplishments during your time on this bench?

I am proud of my record in this court as I have eradicated the excessive “Lifetime Protective Orders” given. I now require that any Lifetime PO given is only given by me. I have also increased accessibility to the courts by making it easier and cost-free to have an interpreter in the language of a litigant’s choosing. We have a designated Spanish interpreter in the court each day because of the large Spanish speaking population we serve. In addition, I have managed to increase our close out rates to those over 105% on average each month by instilling an efficient system into the workspace of the 280th staff.

4. What do you hope to accomplish in your courtroom going forward?

My main goal for the next term is to 1) get a closed caption screen for those litigants who are hard of hearing. With the increase of elder abuse, this is needed in order to better serve my population. 2) The other thing I want to do is to make it easier for Pro Se Litigants to prosecute or defend their cases by providing literature to teach them about “how to get evidence in”, “how to make an objection”, and how to litigate a case overall. This will increase our ability to close out cases expediently and leave more time for trials with two attorneys.

5. Why is this race important?

Domestic Violence, online stalking and harassment, and attempts at judicial intimidation are out of control. Deaths by intimate partners are on the news daily. Sadly, our justice system has yet to catch up with the online threats, stalking, harassment, and intimidation tactics used by abusers, and citizens are being caught in the middle of it. This Court must have a judge who is not afraid of being targeted, and a judge who leads with integrity and earnest rulings.

6. Why should people vote for you in November?

People should vote for me because I have the toughness and integrity to handle a court of this nature. I won’t be deterred or afraid to make the hard decisions, no matter what happens. The cases are not your garden-variety family law cases. I have over 18 years experience with those. These cases need a person with a sound mind, a kind heart, and a little bit of levity to handle situations that can lead to devastating outcomes.

PREVIOUSLY:

From the primaries:

Judge Kristen Hawkins, Supreme Court Justice, Place 7
Sarah Beth Landau, Chief Justice of the Fourteenth Court of Appeals
Judge Tanya Garrison, 157th Civil District Court
Julia Maldonado, 183rd Criminal District Court
Judge Brian Warren, 209th Criminal District Court
Judge Josh Hill, 232nd Criminal District Court
Judge Leah Shapiro, 315th Juvenile District Court
Judge James Horwitz, Harris County Probate Court #4
Ebony Williams, Harris County Civil Court at Law #2
Judge Andrew Wright, Harris County Criminal Court at Law #7

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The 2026 HCAD Board of Directors elections

Posted on September 8, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Hey, remember when we had to have those dumb Harris Central Appraisal District (HCAD) Board of Directors special elections in May of 2024, because of a completely obscure provision of a 2023 Constitutional amendment that had been passed in 2023? Turnout was ridiculously low, those positions have little power or authority, and of course we had to have runoffs because there were more than two candidates in two of the races. All of them were non-partisan, per the new law, which meant nobody knew which candidates were Dems and which were Republicans. And no one has heard a thing about any of this since then, because again, they have little statutory authority and most of us have few to no interactions with HCAD.

Well, guess what? All those positions are up for re-election this November. Why didn’t you see them on your primary ballot in March? Because again, per the law they are non-partisan, so we will get another multi-candidate no-partisan-identifiers pileup that will almost certainly result in December runoffs, when nobody will be paying attention, for these offices that nobody pays attention to already. And one of them will serve only two years – the others will serve four – before having to be elected again (in the way of the State Senate and the SBOE after the first post-redistricting election), so we’ll get to have these on our ballots every two years forever. Isn’t this so much fun?

I’ve been aware of these elections for a few weeks now, in part because of a candidate reaching out to me about it, but I’d been completely unable to find 1) any coverage of this anywhere, and 2) a lineup of who’s running. The HCAD website has a “HCAD Board Election” link on it, but all it takes you to is the announcement of the election with instructions on how to file for it. I called them twice to try to get a list of candidates, but no one I spoke to knew anything about it. (They did their best to be helpful, I have no complaint about that, they just weren’t informed about it.) I finally got what I needed from the County Clerk’s office, and I needed the assistance from them because you needed to do a bit of trickery to find that list:

– From HarrisVotes.org, go to “Candidates” in the top ribbon, and click on Seeking Public Office.
– Scroll down to the section headed “Search financial filings”.
– Click on CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION AND EXPENDITURE REPORTS FOR VARIOUS COUNTY OFFICES, which will open a new tab.
– This is the normal search window for campaign finance reports, but also for things like designations of treasurer and other public forms. Click on the menu for “Category”, and click on “APPLICATION FOR A PLACE ON THE BALLOT(HCAD)”, all the way at the bottom.
– Choose a “Date (From)” of July 1 or earlier, and a “Date (To)” of today, and click Search.
– Voila! There are the eight candidates running for HCAD Board of Directors this November.

Here they are, with my annotations, the HCAD Board of Directors candidates:

Place 1:

Kathy Blueford-Daniels – Incumbent, Democrat, former HISD Trustee. Here’s my interview with her when she ran in the 2024 special election.

Beverly Barrett – Republican, originally going to be a candidate for HCDE, which you can see in that website.

Place 2:

Chris Ehlinger – Democrat, I’ve done an interview with him which will run soon.

Jourdyn Wilson – Democrat, based on her campaign Facebook page. I was unaware of her, will reach out for an interview.

Claudio Gutierrez – Republican, who ran for HD147 in 2024 per Ballotpedia. His website was not functioning when I looked him up.

Place 3:

Ericka McCrutcheon – Incumbent, Republican, also a non-functioning website. Past candidate for City Council.

Cris Moses – Past candidate for HISD Trustee, District II, which suggests Democrat, but no clear evidence on his website or via cursory Google searching.

Jesus Nieto – Possibly the former candidate for Katy ISD? If so, he’s a Democrat. I didn’t see anything definitively linking that person to this candidacy, so your guess is as good as mine.

Place 1 is easy, vote for Kathy Blueford-Daniels. Places 2 and 3, we’ll circle back. For sure, if you belong to a Democratic club or organization, do your due diligence and issue endorsements as you see fit. We’re already voting with very limited information in these races. Every little bit will help.

As was the case in 2024, I’ll keep an eye out for coverage. If you are or know more about any of these candidates, please leave a comment and tell us more. Also, if you reside in a county with at least 75,000 people, you will have these elections on your November ballot as well, as you had in May in 2024. You should find out more about who’s running in those elections.

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Paxton chickens out

Posted on September 7, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

You’ve heard of TACO – Trump Always Chickens Out – right? Here’s the Ken Paxton version of that.

Paxton also chickens out

As Texas hospitals learned this week that the Trump administration was currently holding up their $10 billion in Medicaid payments, the state’s attorney general and U.S. Senate hopeful Ken Paxton was noticeably silent.

Three years ago, Paxton’s office was quick to come to the state’s defense when the Biden administration threatened to withhold the same type of Medicaid funding to hospitals called the Comprehensive Hospital Increase Reimbursement Program, also known as CHIRP. If Texas’ payment that year had been disallowed, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could have withheld all the CHIRP funding that year, which is the same problem Texas is facing this year.

“This is not only a win for the integrity of Texas health care, but it’s also a defeat of Joe Biden’s unlawful overreach,” Paxton said almost a year ago in a news release declaring his “major nationwide legal victory.” “This rule is just one example of the Biden administration’s misuse of CMS, which was employed to target conservative states.”

But now confronted with facing off the Trump administration, Paxton has not used a tool — filing a lawsuit to retain the CHIRP funds — that has proved successful in the past even as Gov. Greg Abbott, another staunch Trump ally, has come out publicly that there’s nothing illegal about what Texas is doing to get those funds. Neither the attorney general’s office or Paxton’s political campaign have commented on the sudden halt of the money, which is costing Texas hospitals $27 million a day.

The silence is not surprising, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a professor of political science at the University of Houston. Paxton is facing a tight race for incumbent Sen. John Cornyn’s seat against a moneyed Democratic challenger, state Rep. James Talarico, and defying Trump and his loyalists is a liability, Rottinghaus said.

Early voting starts Oct. 19 and the 2026 Republican Midterm Convention starts in Dallas next week.

“You know, he’s in a very politically delicate situation, and he doesn’t want the story to be, Trump versus Paxton,” Rottinghaus said. “He’s biding his time in a way that is useful as a delay tactic to not make this a story that could splash back up on him.”

Last month, Abbott quietly stepped in to throw his support behind the Texas Health and Human Services Commission which has news of the behind-the-curtain impasse between Texas and Washington. The Texas Tribune was the first to report on the letter and the cuts facing hospitals.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Abbott reiterated that Texas was not backing down, a rare public example of a Republican in Texas fighting for Medicaid, which covers 4 million people statewide, most of them low-income. About a third of all children in Texas and two-thirds of Texans in nursing homes receive Medicaid.

According to the Texas Hospital Association, if they do not receive this Medicaid funding stream, hospitals are at risk of closing down their NICUs and maternity wards, which are among the most expensive services to maintain.

There’s more, so read the rest, and also read the earlier story about the money the hospitals are losing, which absolutely threatens their continued existence. You never have to hand it to Greg Abbott, but he is at least doing that thing that once upon a time was considered the most basic thing for an elected official to do, which is to fight for all the resources that their constituents are due. Which Ken Paxton is manifestly not doing, and for the most shameless of partisan reasons. This is who he is. Well, this and all the lying and grift is who he is.

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The decline and fall of the security robot

Posted on September 7, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

In case you were wondering what was going on with these things.

Robotics companies promise that video-camera-toting security robots can deter and detect crime. But many companies are rethinking the approach after a trail of canceled contracts and questions about whether the artificial intelligence-powered bots are meeting the needs of businesses and local governments.

Proof News found evidence of at least 21 security robot deployments since 2015. We contacted contract holders and combed news articles and determined that at least 13 of those programs have ended. Silicon Valley-based Knightscope secured the most security robot contracts, according to Proof’s analysis, and also suffered the bulk of cancellations.

For example, New York City’s then-Mayor Eric Adams installed a Knightscope robot on the overnight shift at the Times Square subway station, but the program was scrapped when the pilot expired in 2024. City leaders did not respond to Proof News’ questions about why the robot wasn’t renewed. By the end of its assignment, it was reportedly gathering dust in an empty storefront.

Outside Columbus, Ohio, the city of Dublin pulled the plug on a Knightscope robot in May, ending its two-year pilot program after less than 10 months. The city enlisted the robot, dubbed DubBot, to patrol a downtown park, but city spokeswoman Robyn Gray said it “did not fully meet our operational needs,” and failed to identify any criminal incidents or lead to any tickets or arrests.

Sheila Sparks isn’t surprised. Her family has operated Sparks Protection Services near Columbus for more than a decade and said a human touch is essential to de-escalating sticky situations.

“A robot can’t do that,” Sparks said.

Seeking a new path forward in the security industry, Knightscope CEO William Santana Li said the company is forging a new model, combining its robots and AI-powered software with another key ingredient: human security guards. Knightscope announced it purchased Event Risk LLC, a national security guard firm, earlier this year.

Knightscope has incurred net losses since inception in 2013, according to its most recent quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and is $273 million in debt. Knightscope hopes its pivot to incorporate people will give it a greater share of the physical security market — which the company believes is worth an estimated $230 billion annually.

Li declined to answer questions about the disbanded programs, but said in an email, “Technology cannot do everything — and neither can people — but the combination can be very powerful.”

So why am I blogging about this and not just adding this to the Sunday linkdump? Because Metro did a test of these Knightscope robots back in 2021. They turned up around town in some other places as well around that time – Houston Methodist Hospital, the Allen Center courtyards downtown, IAH’s parking garage, and some unnamed mid-scale, limited-service hotels. I can’t say I’ve seen any of these things in any of these places lately – or anywhere else – though as recently as two years ago they were still being employed by Houston Methodist. Maybe they’re still there now, providing at least one bright spot on Knightscope’s balance sheet.

Anyway. I saw this story on 404 Media, remembered the robots we had, verified they were made by the same company, did a little searching around, and voila, this blog post. Most sites make you become a premium member before they give you this kind of behind-the-scenes look, but you get it for free. You’re welcome.

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How can you avoid AI slop when streaming music?

Posted on September 7, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Good question.

True story: I like to listen to lo-fi ambient playlists while I work. It’s the ideal soundscape for getting stuff done, calming without being too distracting. But I’ve found over the past year or so that it’s become increasingly difficult to find a playlist or YouTube video of lo-fi music that isn’t full of AI-generated slop. I can hear it from a mile away (if the obvious uncanny Midjourney images attached to them weren’t a big enough red flag.) Now, it’s gotten to the point where, if I can’t locate a real human behind the channel, or they don’t actively note that their work is made without AI, I assume it’s AI. And that sucks.

But I’m sadly not alone on this journey of auditory confusion. Spotify has been at the forefront of polluting its users playlists and recommendations with vast swaths of AI slop. Many Spotify users have been vocal in their complaints, noting how nigh-on impossible it is to avoid this crap. No matter how carefully you curate your music, AI somehow finds its way in. And it seems that Spotify isn’t in much of a hurry to fix the problem. They’ve made a few concessions, mind you. In April, it launched, a test feature which shows, in a song’s credits, if an artist used AI. But that is a voluntary system that requires everyone involved to be honest, and AI slop merchants typically don’t want you to know that they’re tricking you.

Thousands of these AI slop tracks are uploaded to streaming platforms every day. They’re trying to outnumber the humans, to make it impossible to tell the difference. I imagine Spotify is not so secretly thrilled about the prospect of having fewer actual humans to pay out their $0.004 per stream royalties to artists. Unfortunately, this is becoming a new norm.

YouTube Music and Amazon Music have also avoided putting clear labels and filters on their platforms for users to avoid AI nonsense. By comparison, Deezer, a smaller platform, as noted by the BBC, “began both tagging albums that contain AI generated tracks produced by Suno, Udio and similar, and excluding the tracks from algorithmic recommendations or human-made playlists.” Apple Music said, external it was introducing “transparency tags” and were moving towards requiring disclosure from labels and distributors over whether or not they used AI. But, again, this seems to be voluntary, and slop houses don’t want to admit they’re selling you bilge from the plagiarism machine.

My confession is that up until fairly recently, I was still using the increasingly decrepit iPod I had been gifted for Father’s Day back in the 2010s. What that mostly meant was that all of the music I listened to was physically on that device – it was WiFi-only, so “streaming” wasn’t a thing for me. (*) I now use the company iPhone I carry as my iPod replacement, but I still have everything downloaded to it. So at least I always know what I’m playing.

I don’t have a good answer to the conundrum described above. My strategy works for me, but I obviously don’t find any new music that way. I’d like to think the AI music business will fall apart on its own, but it won’t. It’s going to take people being aware of it and actively rejecting it. Good luck with that. What’s your experience with this?

(*) For the most part, I do have a free Spotify account and the app on my Android phone, but I only use it in rental cars where I need that phone plugged in for mapping purposes. And I tend to go for basic classic rock type playlists, which at least avoid any obvious AI tunes. And since I first drafted this awhile ago, Spotify has started labeling AI artists and excluding them from algorithmic recommendations, which is a good start. But I doubt that remains the case forever, so continue to listen with care.

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Weekend link dump for September 6

Posted on September 6, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

“The political line of attack is pretty clear. Unlike so many other examples of chaotic and degenerate bullshit or egregious damage that shows up over time in indirect ways, this one is crystal clear: it’s all on Trump and something almost everyone feels in the here and now. You’re already struggling to make ends meet. Trump doesn’t care and isn’t doing anything about it. And all Trump will do is go create more chaos, do some stupid thing no one was asking for for his own kicks, making your situation worse.”

“Father and son make amazing prehistoric shark discovery during Jersey Shore vacation”.

“Gun deaths overall have been declining in recent years, but murder-suicides in which at least one of the victims was age 65 or older are higher than ever, according to a Trace analysis of data from the Gun Violence Archive.”

“More than a dozen local law enforcement agencies across the country have used opioid settlement money to procure Flock cameras and other AI-powered automated license plate readers (ALPRs), an investigation by Mother Jones has found.”

“How do you figure out if microplastics are affecting pregnancy?”

“Elena Vasquez and Marcus Chen have appeared as volcano experts, astronauts, thriller protagonists, podcast hosts, and academic co-authors across hundreds of independently produced AI-generated documents, never having lived.”

“Every person has the right to know their origins and the right to know their history.”

“Every conversation about “the crisis of men” seems to circle the same symptoms without identifying one of the underlying mechanisms driving them.”

“It Only Took One Conservative Grifter Being Nabbed by ICE to Convince MAGA It Hates Deportation”.

And here’s more than you wanted to know about that awful person who was just deported. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, keep your soul pure and don’t click on this link or the one above it.

“Thousands of Americans die every year from a chronically underreported cause: heat.”

“At the FBI, a history of hiring prostitutes or stealing from employer may no longer be a barrier to being hired”.

“Whatever obligation I have to love my enemies and to pray for those who persecute me, my obligation is different when it comes to those who make themselves the enemies of the poor, the weak, the widow and the orphan and the oppressed. I may be obliged to respond with love to my oppressor, but that is not my obligation when it comes to someone else’s oppressor.”

“The Compliance Department found that Santos made these statements with the intent to manipulate the price of the Yes or No contracts that he intended to purchase. Ultimately, these statements did in fact manipulate the price of said contracts.”

“You can just ignore the bad pundits. You don’t have to read them. You can just carry right on with your life.”

“MapQuest’s app surges to No. 1 in Navigation after refusing to rename Lake Ontario”. In a world of quislings and capitulators, be a MapQuest.

“A summer of food recalls, including the record-shattering cyclosporiasis outbreak tied to iceberg lettuce that has sickened thousands, has raised many Americans’ fears of contracting a foodborne illness. The recalls have focused attention on the Trump administration’s decision to cut funding and staff at several public health agencies, and prompted questions about whether those changes have made consumers more vulnerable.”

“Duane “Keffe D” Davis has been convicted in the murder trial of Tupac Shakur, a Las Vegas jury ruled on Monday, marking the first conviction since the rapper’s infamous death 30 years ago.”

“But the upshot of National Park Service v. National Trust for Historic Preservation is that whether or not Trump’s already-in-progress ballroom is “legal”—something that, in my view, the Supreme Court of the United States really ought to weigh, but whatever—no one has the power to stop its construction, even temporarily. As a result, if a federal court eventually rules on the merits that, no, Trump can’t build the ballroom, that conclusion will be academic. The ballroom will already be complete, and Getty Images will be awash in photos of Justice Clarence Thomas attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony, cocktail in hand, having an absolute blast.”

“Breaking Badly leaves no room for Gunn, the International Olympic Committee, or any other governing body that poorly conceived how breaking could be integrated as an Olympic sport, to take accountability for making a mockery of it. And, yes, all involved parties should apologize.”

RIP, Gloria Steinem, iconic feminist leader, author, co-founder of Ms magazine. And also, she was a CIA agent, early on. I had no idea.

RIP, Cassandra Wilson, two time Grammy-winning jazz singer and songwriter.

“Florida Republicans worry they won’t capture big redistricting gains”.

“Why the Hugging Face Hack Should Make You Worry More About A.I.”

“Would you look at that? Another story of Christians assuming they can break the rules and get away with it because of their faith. Another violation of consent. Another example of Christian privilege followed by false accusations of persecution.”

Posted in Blog stuff | Tagged | 1 Comment

The Crockett slate

Posted on September 6, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

I wish them all well.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, said she’s soon planning to endorse several Democratic candidates running for county judge and the Texas House, marking the first glimpse of her avowed plans to campaign for down-ballot nominees rather than her former U.S. Senate rival, James Talarico.

Crockett, a second-term congresswoman, lost the Senate Democratic primary to Talarico earlier this year. She quickly announced her support for the Austin lawmaker, but has not campaigned with him and has reiterated in interviews that she intends to focus on other races. Until now, she had not revealed which down-ballot contests she would target, beyond the handful of local candidates she endorsed just before the May runoffs.

In a brief interview with The Texas Tribune, Crockett said she’ll announce her general election slate “shortly” and estimated that it includes four state House candidates and three nominees for county judge, the office that functions as county executive in Texas.

The county judge candidates, Crockett said, come from areas where Democrats will need strong turnout.

“They are from some of our largest counties — counties that we need to make sure that they maintain their edge, as they did in the primary,” Crockett said.

The Dallas congresswoman started the Fueling Individual Rights Everywhere (FIRE) PAC after her March primary loss, and she has traveled around the country in support of candidates she’s endorsed through the PAC.

[…]

Crockett has teased her coming endorsements on her Threads page. The congresswoman said Alisa Simmons, a Democratic Tarrant County commissioner running for county judge in Texas’ third-largest county, will be among her endorsees. Simmons is challenging GOP incumbent Tim O’Hare, who spearheaded a push to turn Simmons’ precinct into a solidly Republican seat through mid-decade redistricting.

As for the state House candidates she’s backing, Crockett said she plans to be involved in a race in Harris County on behalf of a Democratic candidate who she’s known for “a very long time.”

“He’s very qualified,” Crockett said. “He’s running against one of my classmates from the state House who’s problematic.”

Her description appears to fit Tyler Smith, who is challenging GOP state Rep. Lacey Hull in a northwest Houston district, one of only a few options in the county that are both under Republican control and seen as competitive. Crockett has praised Smith on her Threads page as well.

During the primaries, she appeared on the ground to campaign with her endorsed candidates in Texas and around the country. Her PAC also made contributions to the candidates she backed and to a number of congressional colleagues.

Through the end of June, FIRE PAC had raised over $121,000 and had about $45,000 in cash on hand.

I have not said anything about the Crockett-Talarico discourse, and I intend to continue with that. Alisa Simmons and Tyler Smith are both excellent candidates to support. I will be publishing an interview with Tyler Smith in the near future, so look for that. I hope she raises a bunch of money for her slate and helps them on a path to victory. And that’s all I have to say.

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We need to know who these judges are

Posted on September 6, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

I want names.

Some attorneys are making millions of public dollars representing poor defendants through a long-criticized appointment system that has become a key driver of Harris County’s budget woes despite Commissioners Court aggressively ramping up funding for the public defender’s office in recent years.

Unlike many urban areas, Harris County relies largely on private attorneys to satisfy the Constitutional requirement that defendants who cannot afford their own counsel be given taxpayer-funded lawyers. The cost of this system has ballooned in recent years, and critics say it risks leaving countless defendants with inadequate help in court, as a new county audit shows many private attorneys continue to take on far more cases than experts recommend.

Hoping to save money and ensure each case gets adequate attention, Commissioners Court began increasing funding to the public defender’s office three years ago. The goal was for staff attorneys to soon take on half of all cases in which defendants cannot afford their own counsel.

Public defenders are handling a growing share of cases. But county leaders are now entering the fourth year of what was intended to be a three-year plan and the office is still representing less than a quarter of all indigent defendants – partly because judges often choose to assign private attorneys rather than public defenders.

Indigent defense costs also have continued to rise. One cause is a 2023 policy change intended to spur private attorneys to spend more time on their poor clients’ cases by paying them for time they spend working cases outside of the courthouse.

Yet a new county audit shows dozens of attorneys are carrying far more cases than anyone can effectively work, experts said.

The Texas Indigent Defense Commission recommends attorneys handle no more than 128 felonies or 226 misdemeanors per year. But an audit published Aug. 13 shows dozens of appointed attorneys exceeded those benchmarks between 2023 and 2025 – with one attorney collecting payment for 1,000 felonies in a single year, and others handling hundreds.

“Some defense counsels are pulling in $1 million a year,” said Thomas Hogan, an assistant professor at the South Texas College of Law. “That’s ridiculous, when a public defender is probably making somewhere between $100,000 to $200,000, regardless of whether they’re handling five capital murder cases or a bunch of misdemeanors.”

Commissioners continue to grapple with the climbing costs amid a projected $129 million deficit for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.

Budget officials expect a modest drop in indigent defense costs for the next fiscal year, but their estimates have consistently been too optimistic. These costs in the current budget year are projected to be $126 million — $23 million over budget and more than double what the county spent 5 years ago.

County budget director Daniel Ramos said at an Aug. 17 budget meeting that indigent defense and jail outsourcing costs had “driven at least half of this deficit over the last few years.”

Pay rates for private attorneys are set by the county’s district court judges, over whom commissioners have no authority. Ramos said “I live in fear” that the judges would choose to again increase the rates appointed attorneys can charge the county, which are already far higher than in peer counties.

By my rough count, 12 of the 44 district and county criminal court judges are Republicans, so while I’m sure they have contributed to this problem it’s got to be a big issue with Democratic judges as well. And as a voter and a big proponent of the public defender’s office, I want to know how much each judge is responsible for private defense attorney costs. There may be some reasons for it – a disproportionate percentage of serious felonies handled in their courts, an effort to finish off a case backlog, other factors, who knows. But we the voters, who lack a lot of the key information about the judges we vote on, deserve to know so we can make better choices. This should be public information. We should be able to put some pressure on the judges at the top of this list to change their ways, or see it become a campaign issue against them. That’s how this should work. Again, there may be good reasons for the expenses they are ringing up. I’m open to that, and I want to hear about it. But first we need the data. Let’s get it.

Posted in Crime and Punishment, Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Some Cybercab news

Posted on September 6, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Shot:

Elon Musk sent dozens of self-driving Cybercabs without steering wheels or brake pedals onto the streets of Austin on Thursday, betting that Americans will overcome their fears of rides with “no control” and hop inside.

The rollout of the gold-colored Teslas, which give passengers no way to take control in an emergency, comes as the company prepares to launch the service in other cities. Tesla shares have suffered amid a slump in vehicle sales, but they rose more than 5% Thursday on hopes that the futuristic-looking taxis will catch on quickly.

“No steering wheel, no pedals,” Tesla teased on X before the launch. Musk followed with a post showing a giant Cybercab floating above the Austin skyline and later wrote, “A Storm of Cybercabs.”

An invitation-only launch event was expected to be held later Thursday.

It is unclear how soon Musk intends to roll out the Cybercab service, but he needs to move quickly.

Tesla trails self-driving taxi leader Waymo in the number of cabs deployed and trips completed. To catch up, it must demonstrate that its camera-only system can safely navigate streets and avoid pedestrians. By contrast, Waymo and another rival, Amazon’s Zoox, supplement cameras with radar and a laser-based technology called lidar.

Even if the technology works well, Americans still need to be convinced.

A Pew Research Center survey conducted in February found that seven in 10 U.S. adults were “not too” or “not at all” comfortable riding in a driverless car.

Chaser:

The United States’ top automotive safety regulator has opened an investigation into Tesla’s decision to launch its new Cybercab on public roads with no steering wheel or pedals.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced Friday morning that it opened the probe mere hours after Tesla put the first Cybercabs on the streets of Austin, Texas. Federal vehicle safety regulations require manual controls like brake pedals, though the Department of Transportation recently proposed removing those requirements for vehicles that are designed to be autonomously driven.

“NHTSA fully supports the safe development and deployment of automated vehicles. But as the federal regulator, we need to ensure that all of our laws are followed,” administrator Jonathan Morrison said in a statement. “Our approach of balancing innovation with safety oversight will allow the United States to maintain its global leadership in AV innovation.”

NHTSA said Friday that Tesla told the agency it self-certified the Cybercab as being compliant with all of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). Automakers traditionally self-certify whether their vehicles comply with FMVSS rules.

In the filing, the agency said it was opening the investigation to “examine the process and technical data on which Tesla relied when certifying the Cybercab and related issues.” NHTSA said it will consider the extent to which the company’s certification depended on determinations that certain federal motor standards are inapplicable to the Cybercab.

There is precedent to NHTSA’s inquiry. In 2022, Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company Zoox self-certified its cube-like robotaxi, which lacks traditional controls such as a steering wheel and pedals. NHTSA then opened up what it called a “special order” seeking more information from Zoox and formally launched an audit query — the same process it is now using for Tesla — the following the year.

While Zoox was still heavily in its testing phase at that time, the investigation did slow its path to commercialization. Zoox had long maintained that the self-certification process was sufficient and in 2025 the federal agency gave the company an exemption to demonstrate — not commercially operate — its technology. Zoox then went through the official process and filed for a temporary Part 555 exemption from eight Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards in hopes it would get the final OK that would allow it to charge for robotaxi rides.

As noted, Zoox did eventually get that approval. Not that I or anyone should have any reason to trust Amazon, but I’d trust them more to handle the self-certification process than I would Elon Musk. You could not pay me enough to get into one of his weirdmobiles. Here’s more about that launch event and those vehicles. Stay away, do not give the bad man your money.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Of course Paxton is fudging his financial disclosure report

Posted on September 5, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

This is who he is.

Still a crook any way you look

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appears to have violated federal ethics law in significant ways when filing recent disclosures of his assets and liabilities, creating confusion about his net worth and holdings, a review by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found.

Among them: Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, reported owning seven homes but said he earned no income from any. Yet all but one was listed for rent during the reporting periods, and some current residents and neighbors at those addresses confirmed that the properties were rented, the news organizations found. Receiving income and not reporting it is a violation of federal disclosure law, three ethics experts said.

Additionally, Paxton did not disclose mortgages for three condos at a Utah golf resort that federal law requires him to list as liabilities if they are not personal residences.

He also valued his stake in a vacant plot of Texas land at up to $50,000 on last year’s filing, but his business partner told the newsrooms Paxton’s share for years has been worth about $1 million. Federal financial disclosure law requires property to be listed at fair market value.

The apparent errors and omissions the newsrooms found obscure the extent of Paxton’s income streams, assets and debt, making it difficult for voters to make sense of his finances as they mull whether to support him in November’s election, the ethics experts said.

“It reflects either pure sloppiness on Paxton’s part or a deliberate effort to conceal some of his investments and property holdings,” said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for the nonpartisan good-government group Public Citizen.

If Paxton wins, an incomplete picture of his finances could prevent watchdogs from evaluating his conflicts of interest as a senator, Holman and others said.

The apparent omissions are part of a pattern for Paxton. Over three terms as attorney general, he has withheld financial information that could explain how he became a multimillionaire and had the resources to purchase more than a dozen properties in five states. He began including many of these on his state disclosures only after the Texas Ethics Commission closed a loophole in 2024 that Paxton had cited to leave them off. Most were acquired while Paxton earned a government salary of $153,750.

In the new federal disclosure, filed in August after Paxton received a three-month extension, he reported a net worth between $1 million and $27 million. That is a significantly higher range than the negative $1.9 million to $11.1 million net worth he reported a year ago, before he had secured the Republican nomination but after he had declared his candidacy for federal office.

The spike was driven not by Paxton’s acquisition of more assets but because the reported value on several of his properties soared.

Paxton’s report omitted listing as assets seven properties worth about $5.2 million collectively, including the Utah condos for which he did not disclose mortgages. He co-owns all of his known real estate holdings with his estranged wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, property records show. The eight he reported are held by their blind trust, which is managed by a family friend.

[…]

Before being elected to the state Legislature in 2002, Paxton worked at a law firm in the Dallas area and was a corporate attorney for JCPenney. His state financial disclosure for 2001 listed assets totaling no more than $170,000, a ProPublica and Tribune analysis found.

By 2015, his household net worth had grown to $5.4 million, according to financial records lawmakers subpoenaed in 2023 after impeaching Paxton on charges that he took bribes in exchange for helping an Austin real estate investor.

Read the rest, there’s a lot more. We’ve discussed the mysteries of Ken Paxton’s sudden wealth before. He’s largely managed to keep his secrets, but it’s hard to come up with an explanation for them that isn’t sketchy at the very least. Maybe someday we’ll find out. I’d love for an empowered IRS to audit the hell out of him, but there’s enough here for a real investigation regardless. We just need to have an investigator that actually wants to enforce the law at the helm. Electing James Talarico to the Senate would be a good first step towards that.

Posted in Election 2026 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Local US Attorney wants some ICE records sealed

Posted on September 5, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

I don’t know what to make of this.

Federal authorities filed a court motion asking a judge to seal a document that revealed new details about an ICE operation in Houston’s East End that led to the deadly July 7 shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.

U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz said he “strongly objected” to the dissemination of the internal ICE document on Friday. He said it contained personal information about law enforcement officers and witnesses that could be used by “anti-law enforcement agitators who will use it to dox federal agents.”

Doxxing is the act of publishing private details about a person to punish or harass them.

Reitz didn’t explain how the document became public. But late last week, a federal prosecutor in his office filed a court motion acknowledging that the U.S. attorney’s office had “inadvertently” submitted the ICE records in federal court in an immigration case involving Daniel Tirado Pantoja, one of the witnesses to Salgado’s killing who was held for weeks in ICE custody.

Records show that one of Reitz’s prosecutors filed the ICE document as an exhibit on Aug. 11 to challenge Tirado’s release from ICE custody. A judge later ordered Tirado’s release.

The record remained public at a records terminal Thursday at the federal courthouse after Assistant U.S. Attorney Ariel Wiley — the same prosecutor in Reitz’s office whose name appears on the filing of the original document — asked to seal the exhibit late Friday, records show. The Chronicle obtained the document last week at the public terminal.

The motion to seal was filed after the Houston Chronicle reported that ICE agents wrote about the incident in an I-213 form, which is used by ICE agents to document their arrests of migrants and is seldom made public. The document detailed how an outside law enforcement agency supplied the ICE agents with a tip about two immigrants in a white van.

The intel set into motion an ICE operation to find the van. ICE agents found Salgado — also in a white van — as he prepared to take his brother and two construction workers to a job site. Salgado was not the original target of the operation, according to the documents and Reitz’s earlier remarks.

The ICE agents pursued the van, and the report says the driver rammed their vehicles. An ICE agent shot and killed Salgado on the 6800 block of Canal Street.

Wiley’s request does not specify which information in the partially redacted document authorities did not want made public. The unredacted information includes the names of the deportation officers who drafted their respective reports and two agents who arrested Tirado. It also contained personal details and a mugshot of Tirado.

See here for all my posts on this topic. Normally one would have to take a request like this seriously, because the Justice Department is a respected and generally trusted branch of the government run by honest professionals who take their mission seriously. We all know why that’s not the case right now, and I see no reason to give a partisan hatchet man like Aaron Reitz any benefit of the doubt. He can make his argument, but make him prove everything he claims, because we’ve seen far too many lies from everyone associated with Trump and his operation to believe a word they say.

UPDATE: Like I said, none of these evildoers deserve any benefit of the doubt.

Over the “strongest possible” objections from the federal prosecutor handling the case, leaders at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., quashed plans to bring civil rights charges against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent accused of shooting a Venezuelan immigrant and then lying about it.

The agent, 52-year-old Christian Castro, allegedly shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg in Minneapolis this January during Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration’s immigration blitz that sent thousands of federal agents into the state. The incident was one of three shootings by immigration agents in the city, the other two of which were fatal.

Federal prosecutors in Minnesota had been preparing to charge Castro with deprivation of rights under color of law for the shooting of Sosa-Celis, according to several people familiar with the case. Those charges are similar to the ones leveled against Minneapolis police officers accused in George Floyd’s killing and can carry hefty prison sentences.

Late on Tuesday, Matthew Evans, the assistant U.S. attorney in Minnesota in charge of the case, told lawyers for Sosa-Celis and other victims to prepare for Castro to be charged “only with False Statements,” according to an email that was reviewed by ProPublica.

That charge would likely carry a far less severe punishment if he were convicted.

“This is being directed by the Main Justice and the US Attorney,” Evans wrote in a remarkably candid account of internal deliberations. “I objected in the strongest possible terms and fought it as hard as I could. It wasn’t enough.”

He wrote that the false statement charges could come soon and would likely be filed under seal.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to try to get justice for your clients,” Evans concluded the email.

It may take decades to get to the bottom of all the corruption of this regime.

Posted in La Migra, Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Metro reverses service cuts after backlash

Posted on September 5, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

It started with this.

Just not so fast anymore

The Metropolitan Transit Authority is proposing to cut bus and rail service hours next fiscal year as officials deal with budget pressures.

Metro’s proposed $1.7 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 would mark its first reduction in spending since the COVID-19 pandemic and test whether the agency can preserve core services without weakening its finances or leaving riders to absorb deeper service cuts in the years ahead.

Houston’s transit agency proposes to cut rail service hours by 5% and bus hours by 1.6%. Metro officials said the agency has not yet identified specific route or frequency changes.

The proposal would balance Metro’s operating budget by cutting spending by $40 million and pulling $146 million from the agency’s fund balance. The budget also would reduce spending on longer term projects by $241 million next year.

Metro also plans to restructure its debt to lower its costs over the next four years, extending the repayment period at a higher interest rate.

This would give Metro flexibility in the near term but would mean higher debt costs over time. It also could prompt scrutiny from credit-rating agencies, financial adviser Carlos Allen of PFM told the Metro board on Monday.

[…]

Metro’s proposal also would transfer $228 million in sales tax revenue to local governments in its service area for road repairs, part of the agency’s longstanding, voter-approved “General Mobility Program.”

In addition to those funds, however, the proposal allocates $40 million for additional street improvement projects, most of them within Houston city limits.

Peter Eccles of transit advocacy group Link Houston said that money should instead support transit services.

“With their successful experiment increasing frequency during the World Cup, Metro proved again that increased service leads to higher ridership,” Eccles said. “It’s frustrating to see Metro consider cutting service while diverting another $40 million to road repaving while riders keep asking for more frequent and more reliable service.”

The budget also includes money for new vehicles and improvements intended to make the system more reliable. Metro plans to add 68 buses, 116 MetroLift vehicles, 195 vans and 39 alternative-service vehicles.

Metro projects local bus boardings will increase 2% next year, while Park & Ride boardings are projected to grow 12% and MetroLift trips 2%. The agency also plans to continue funding Community Connector, its on-demand microtransit service, as well as more bus shelters and road repairs along bus routes.

Metro says it projects it will collect less in sales tax revenue over the next few years, which I can believe. And I think we all know who to blame for that. I had complaints about them cut back on making additional road-paving payments – that $40 million could have offset the as-yet unspecified service cuts – and about cutting service when they projected ridership to increase. Well, I wasn’t alone, because after that story hit, Metro backtracked.

The revised budget would raise Metro’s operating budget by $15 million, to $1.015 billion, to cover higher transit and technology costs. To pay for it, Metro would cut $40 million from its five-year capital plan, delaying lower-priority projects such as improvements to its administration building.

Metro also expects to save $7 million through staff reductions and an early-retirement incentive. Most of the 177 eliminated positions are administrative and non-union positions.

“We are taking any reduction in our budget affecting service off the table,” Metro CFO George Fotinos said during a Wednesday budget hearing.

The revision came after transit advocates criticized the agency’s initial proposal, saying it did not reflect riders’ priorities. Advocates also oppose Metro’s plan to allocate $40 million to repaving roads, primarily within Houston city limits.

That spending is in addition to the $228 million the agency will transfer to local governments in its service area for road repairs, part of the agency’s longstanding, voter-approved “General Mobility Program.”

“Riders are clear: They want more service, not less, so we appreciate that Metro’s board urged staff to find a way to keep service intact,” said Robin Holzer, Director of Link Houston. “Nonetheless, Metro is still proposing to divert another $40 million towards asphalt — dollars that could pay for a 6% increase in bus service instead.”

Always glad to see some well-directed complaining get results. Kudos all around. On a side note, in my original post, before the second story came out, I had wondered again about those Community Connectors. How much do they cost again, how many people are riding them, and how many of them are connecting to other Metro services? I was going to say that I hadn’t spotted one of those shuttles in the Heights in many weeks, and then I did on 11th at Studewood on Friday. The universe works in mysterious ways. I still want to know what the obsession with these things is about.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Overton Insights: Abbott 47, Hinojosa 46

Posted on September 4, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Of interest.

Rep. Gina Hinojosa

Today, a new poll from Overton Insights — commissioned by conservative think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation — found that Republican Governor Greg Abbott leads Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa by one point.

The Wednesday morning margin is not an outlier based on this summer’s polling. According to the website 270 to Win, three of the last nine nonpartisan public polls have Hinojosa within a point.

While Hinojosa has never led a poll, she’s also never trailed a poll by more than eight points. Abbott has won all three of his previous elections by double digits.

Overton Insights Polling Director Mark Cunningham says the declining support for Abbott implied by the polls may be due to issues with the Republican brand. President Trump won Texas by 13.9 points in the 2024 presidential election but now holds a net-negative approval rating in the state of Texas. Cunningham sees this as evidence that Trump’s favorability has had consequences for Republican candidates statewide, including Abbott and Senate candidate Ken Paxton.

“It’s not so much about Abbott on his own, it’s about the Republican brand in Texas,” Cunningham said, “This is more of a story, I think, about the Republican brand and Donald Trump being an issue rather than Greg Abbott running a bad campaign.”

[…]

“Four years ago, summer polls had Beto O’Rourke neck and neck with Governor Abbott, and the Governor beat him by double digits,” Abbott campaign Press Secretary Eduardo Leal told KXAN.

“I actually went back and looked four years ago and there’s an Echelon poll about the same time in the election cycle that we’re at right now and it was a two point race at that point in time. One to two points now doesn’t necessarily mean one to two points on election night,” political strategist Derek Ryan said. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that Abbott needs to worry. It’s just a reminder that every campaign needs to be a hard fought campaign, regardless of what the polling numbers say.”

Here’s the poll data, which also has Talarico up 44-43 on Paxton. It’s a weird poll for a couple of reasons – nobody goes to tenths of a percent in polls because they’re just not that accurate, the poll also pushed leaners and managed to get answers from everyone, and strangest of all, there were more “don’t know/no answer” responses in the Senate race. It’s also the first result I’ve seen in which Hinojosa had a higher percentage of the vote than Talarico did, though he was in a dead tie after the leaners were forced to pick a candidate, while she trailed 51-49 after that. None of this is disqualifying, just strange.

As for the claims about the 2022 polls, at least Derek Ryan cited an actual poll. I largely didn’t follow the polls too closely in 2022, but I do have two results from September: the UT/Texas Politics Project poll had Abbott up 45-40 over Beto, while the UH-TSU Texas Trends poll had Abbott up 49-42. The June UT/TPP poll had Abbott up 45-39. Closer than the final 11-point margin, but any prognosticator would have pegged that race as “likely Republican”.

For what it’s worth, that 270 To Win poll aggregator has Abbott leading Hinojosa 47.2 to 43.6, while the corresponding Senate poll collector has Talarico up 45.4 to 42.8, which sounds about right to me. The fact that this poll was sponsored by a wingnut lobbying firm makes it amusing, but I wouldn’t put any more stock in it than that. Link to the poll data via The Downballot.

Posted in Election 2026 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Feds charge that alleged felon ICE agent with making false statements

Posted on September 4, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

It’s something.

A federal grand jury has indicted an ICE officer on charges of making false statements about the nonfatal shooting of a man during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota last winter, according to a person familiar with the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

The charges against the officer, Christian Castro of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, represent a rare instance of President Trump’s Justice Department accusing a federal agent of criminal wrongdoing at work.

Mr. Castro, who had been previously charged in state court, was among the thousands of federal agents who flooded Minnesota over the objections of local officials. Those agents made thousands of arrests, clashed regularly with residents and shot three people during the campaign, leaving two U.S. citizens dead.

The indictment against Mr. Castro was filed under seal and officials expect to make it public once he is in custody.

Prosecutors said Mr. Castro shot and wounded Julio C. Sosa-Celis, who is from Venezuela and who lacked legal status in the United States. The Jan. 14 shooting was followed by hours of protests and vandalism.

Top Trump administration officials initially came to Mr. Castro’s defense. But unlike the administration’s position in other shootings, federal officials publicly distanced themselves from Mr. Castro in the weeks that followed. Criminal charges against Mr. Sosa-Celis and another man were dropped, Mr. Castro was suspended and video footage emerged that contradicted key aspects of the initial federal account.

It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Castro had hired a lawyer for the federal case.

Federal prosecutors were still considering whether to file civil rights charges against Mr. Castro, the person familiar with the case said on Thursday.

Three other people familiar with the case — Robin Wolpert, a lawyer for Mr. Sosa-Celis; Frederick J. Goetz, a lawyer for a roommate of Mr. Sosa-Celis who has been classified as a victim in the case; and a third person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information — said in August that prosecutors were preparing to charge Mr. Castro with civil rights crimes. Ms. Wolpert and Mr. Goetz said they’d been informed of those plans by prosecutors and that the charges did not materialize on the timeline they had provided.

See here for the most recent update. There is now of course the question of whether Castro can be found or if he hotfooted it to Mexico as some people warned about before Greg Abbott helped spring him from jail. The Thursday episode of the What Next podcast discussed this case, with guest Quinta Jurecic reporting that she had received a statement from Abbott’s office basically saying they had law enforcement eyes on him. So we’ll see. Texas Public Radio has more.

UPDATE: Christian Castro has turned himself in to federal authorities. But the legal fights are not over.

Christian Castro was taken into federal custody on charges of making false statements to investigators about the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in January, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.

The federal charges follow Castro’s release from jail last week after Texas’ governor refused to immediately sign an extradition warrant to hand him over to Minnesota authorities, who have charged him separately with assault and false reporting of a crime related to the same shooting.

[…]

Earlier this week, a federal prosecutor working on the case told lawyers for Sosa-Celis and other victims that Justice Department officials blocked the prosecutor’s push to bring a more serious civil rights charge against the officer for the shooting, ProPublica reported on Wednesday.

But the person familiar with the investigation disputed the prosecutor’s characterization, saying the civil rights probe is continuing and there has been no final decision on whether to bring additional charges. The prosecutor, Matthew Evans, has been fired and is under investigation for alleged obstruction of a grand jury probe, the person said.

An automatic email response from Evans’ Justice Department account said he was on leave. Other attempts to reach him were not immediately successful.

An attorney for Sosa-Celis said the Justice Department has “grossly undercharged this case,” adding that Castro’s statements were made to “cover up the fact that he shot my client through the door of an occupied house without a self-defense justification.”

“Mr. Sosa Celis wants Mr. Castro to be held fully accountable for his crimes,” said the attorney, Robin Wolpert. The American Liberties Union of Minnesota said Thursday that Sosa-Celis also plans to seek damages from the federal government.

Not clear what will happen with the state charges. I’m sure there will be more legal wrangling over them.

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Here comes Zoox

Posted on September 4, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

To Houston and San Diego.

Another autonomous vehicle company is coming to Houston.

Why it matters: Zoox, Amazon’s robotaxi company, is joining Houston’s growing autonomous vehicle industry, as the city continues to serve as a testing ground for self-driving technology.

Driving the news: Zoox will begin testing in Houston later this month, initially using retrofitted SUVs with safety drivers to map streets and collect data, the company announced Tuesday.

Zoom in: Initial testing will cover Rice Village, the Texas Medical Center, the Galleria area, Memorial Park, Downtown, Midtown and Hyde Park.

  • The company plans to eventually test its autonomous robotaxis and open a local depot for charging and maintenance.

What they’re saying: “Houston is our most sprawling market to date,” Zoox said in its announcement, pointing to the city’s “complex service-road networks, unique merging scenarios” and extreme heat, heavy rain and flooding as “rigorous” tests for its technology.

See here for some background. As of a month ago, Zoox was coming to Austin and Dallas. Didn’t take too long for them to come here as well. Apparently we’ll see SUVs with mapping gear on them first, before we see those weird little bus-like Zoox-mobiles. Not in my neighborhood, not yet, anyway. Who’s excited about this? I ask sincerely, I’m curious. Waymo has been the big player so far, as Tesla’s service area is tiny and Nuro isn’t here yet. I’ve finally seen someone get into a Waymo, one of my neighbors who said they liked it a lot. I still can’t tell for the most part if the ones I see driving around have a passenger in them or not. Anyway, more options for this sort of thing if that’s also your sort of thing. Zoox’s press release is here, and Reuters and CultureMap have more.

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Woodlands non-annexation agreement

Posted on September 3, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

I have mixed feelings about this.

Mayor John Whitmire

Houston leaders have approved a $50 million deal with The Woodlands, guaranteeing the city will never annex the township and winding down a shared project fund between the entities.

The agreement passed city council Wednesday morning, with Mayor John Whitmire and city finance officials praising a “win-win deal” that will give Houston a rare infusion of funds and help shore up the city’s struggling general fund budget amid ongoing financial woes – though critics warned the move produces quick cash at the expense of significant future funding.

“We better be responsible and accept this $50 million because we may never see it again, and Lord knows we need it,” Whitmire said.

The deal, which received unanimous support from The Woodlands Township Board of Directors last week, amends a 2007 agreement that originally blocked annexation through 2057. The possibility of annexation is now eliminated indefinitely as long as the deal’s terms are met.

In exchange, The Woodlands will relinquish $22.6 million sitting in a shared project fund fed by both entities’ sales tax revenue, then pay Houston $9 million in 2027, $9 million in 2028, and $9.4 million in 2030.

City Controller Chris Hollins warned the deal trades immediate cash for the city’s long-term financial health. Houston currently receives roughly $2.4 million each year from The Woodlands through the fund, with future contributions projected to grow based on rising sales taxes.

Hollins argued in a Tuesday night letter to council members that Houston is likely leaving at least $100 million in future revenue for projects on the table in exchange for a one-time infusion of general fund cash.

“This is a short-term fix that does not solve our city’s problems,” Hollins said. “This is not a deal that any of you would make with your own money, and we shouldn’t do it with taxpayer dollars either.”

Whitmire has argued that such projections are not guaranteed. The state Legislature has not viewed annexation deals positively and could once again alter state laws on incorporation or regional partnerships over the thirty years. Houston is better off making a deal now, he said.

Some council members also worried state lawmakers would seek to punish the city if the deal was rejected.

Annexation has long been considered unlikely, however, especially after the Texas Legislature in 2017 ended forced municipal annexation, requiring an automatic voter referendum before larger cities could annex smaller communities.

It’s easy to understand the justification for this deal. The city does need the money. Given the current wobbliness of the national economy, inflation may greatly devalue the future value of the long-term deal. And yes, the Republican leadership is always a threat, though that at least could be mitigated by, you know, electing more people that don’t hate cities and Democrats. It’s a tacit admission that the Mayoral strategy of trying to appease our abusers in the hope that they’ll leave us alone isn’t so viable. We also seem to have gotten a decent price. For sure, this isn’t a Chicago parking meters situation.

I also very much understand Controller Hollins’ objections. We’re turning off a revenue source that would long outlast the value of this deal. We probably could have gotten an even better deal – if the Woodlands Township board ratified it unanimously, they thought it was a good deal for them. The legislative threat might look very different in a couple of months, in which case maybe we should have waited a bit.

I get it. I’m not sure I like it, but I’m also not sure it’s wrong. It will help in the here and now, and that is very much not nothing. Campos and Houston Public Media have more.

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Data centers and the local housing market

Posted on September 3, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s an angle on the data center story that I hadn’t considered before.

Stargate was pitched to Abilene by some of the biggest names in artificial intelligence, including Oracle and Open AI.

Executives said the project would give the United States a comfortable lead in the AI arms race against China. Plus, it would create thousands of jobs. Abilene — as the flagship city of the project — would see the biggest economic returns.

President Trump announced the project during a White House press conference in January 2025.

“Together, these world leading technology giants are announcing the formation of Stargate, so put that name down in your books, because I think you’re going to hear a lot about it in the future,” Trump said.

To incentivize Stargate to continue investing, the Abilene City Council gave Stargate an 85% tax abatement. Even with the tax break, Oracle said Abilene will get an estimated $30 million annually from an area that used to be a field of mesquite trees and the influx of workers into the city.

The project created 9,000 immediate construction jobs and is expected to create 1,000 long-term jobs once it’s completed, representatives from Oracle said.

More than two years into construction for the project, city leaders say they are starting to see economic gains. In a promotional video for Stargate, Misty Mayo, the CEO of the Development Corporation of Abilene, said the influx of people coming to Abilene to build Stargate is keeping stores full and local businesses flourishing. She also said the property tax revenue is helping revitalize the city’s downtown and public school system.

“New tax revenue funds new roads. New tax revenue makes a new grocery store interested in expanding into your community, because now they can make money,” she said in the video.

KUT News requested interviews with Mayo and Mayor Weldon Hurt. Hurt did not respond to requests for comment, and Mayo’s team said she was unavailable.

Speaking to local business owners on Abilene’s downtown strip, the answer to whether Stargate has stimulated business is mixed.

[…]

Diana Luna is a self-described “techie” who is also campaigning to become a Texas state representative.

“I actually thought that as somebody that comes from a technological background that I kind of knew [what] was coming,” she said about Stargate. “But the economic effects for the most vulnerable communities are actually what I did not see coming.”

Most concerning to Luna is the housing crisis that’s unfurling in Abilene. Like many others, she blames Stargate. She’s critical of the promises made by city leaders about the project.

“If we’re supposed to be in this economic boom, where is the money?” Luna said. “Because nobody feels like we’re in an economic boom. Nobody feels that ‘Texas miracle’ here. Everything’s just getting more expensive.”

She said the city was already struggling with housing shortages before Stargate and thousands of workers converged on the city.

“We have three universities and one large Air Force base here,” she said. “So this is exacerbating what’s already a housing shortage in this area.”

Abilene Christian University said in June that more than 100 of its incoming students did not have a place to live for the upcoming fall semester. University officials blamed the city’s rental market, saying properties traditionally leased to students are now being purchased, repurposed or converted into short-term housing. To fill the gap, the university said it plans to reopen a former residence hall that had previously been slated for demolition.

The housing shortage, Luna said, has also caused the city’s rent prices to skyrocket, leaving many residents suddenly struggling to afford rent.

The average rent in Abilene is almost $2,600 a month, according to Zillow. That’s up nearly 50% since last year. On average, it’s cheaper to rent in Austin right now than it is in Abilene.

That is just a wild statistic. One of the big draws of places like Abilene is precisely that it costs less to live there than it does in the bigger and more cosmopolitan urban centers. Not so much now. And if you’re thinking surely they must have a lot of open space outside the city for housing construction, read the beginning of this story, which is about a family that moved to the outskirts of Abilene, near to family that lived in a house they had for decades, and now they’re surrounded by data center construction, rendering their neighborhood more or less a dead zone. Where do you think Stargate would be built, after all?

Anyway. The average rent in Houston is $1,900 a month, per Zillow. I would not have guessed we’d be cheaper than Abilene by any amount, let alone by that much. Also, here’s Diana Luna‘s campaign webpage. She’s running in a tough district, to say the least – it went 76-23 for Ted Cruz over Beto O’Rourke in 2018 – but at least she has a strong issue to campaign on. I’ll be interested to see if she bends the curve at all.

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More rural revolt stuff

Posted on September 3, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Keep ’em coming.

Rural voters may not stop the spread of data centers, but they could stop Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

The Republican is bleeding support from small towns as he seeks a fourth term because of two late-emerging issues: power-hungry tech campuses and a planned $33 billion electric transmission build-out.

Pushback against Abbott points to larger fears about losing rural identities, but also to everyday concerns about construction, pollution and tight supplies of water and electricity. Shawn Nanny, a Republican county commissioner in West Texas, said data centers and power line plans are the “straws that broke the camel’s back” when it comes to Abbott and other Texas GOP leaders.

Some longtime conservatives are now considering the unthinkable — voting in November for a Democrat to be Texas’ next governor. And Abbott’s August directive to pause Texas data center grid approvals hasn’t convinced all of them to vote for him.

“They understand the repercussions of that, but you know what I’m hearing is, ‘Yeah, we’ll have a Democrat in there and grit our teeth and bear it, but hopefully we’ll come out of it the following election,’” said Nanny, who lives in Tom Green County. “They’re so upset; they just want [Abbott] out.”

The welcoming approach that Abbott’s Texas has taken toward data centers until now makes the rural pushback — and the governor’s retreat — particularly striking as the industry grapples with resistance nationwide.

“Rural people feel like they are the ones seeing the brunt of this, and they don’t like it,” said Jim Henson, executive director of the Texas Politics Project. “These issues are starting to bond together a lot of the people against data centers.”

[…]

Numerous conservative voters in sparsely populated areas said in interviews they feel like Abbott and state Republican lawmakers from larger cities have been over eager to support business and infrastructure build-outs that threaten their way of life.

And activists across the political spectrum bemoan state lawmakers’ actions to strip counties and municipalities of authority — so much so that in most unincorporated areas, Texas counties can only regulate data centers’ drainage plans, floodway construction, septic tanks and driveway permits.

Rural residents say there’s a growing tension between Abbott’s push to support the “Texas economic miracle” by enticing big business to less populated areas and the state’s long-standing ranching and agricultural traditions.

“It feels like an attack on a culture, a way of life, because now I think rural Texas is feeling like ‘Okay, now they want us, but don’t want our culture — they want our resources,’” said Suzanne Bellsnyder, an Abbott campaign field director in 2014 who now runs the Texas Rural Reporter website.

Democrats, including [Gina] Hinojosa, have been leaning into rural voters’ antipathy, as have some Republicans. They say rural Texans’ concerns are being ignored for the sake of business interests.

Hinojosa on Tuesday unveiled a new campaign ad targeting “Abbott Intelligence” in rural markets.

“I’ve spent this campaign crossing Texas, and everywhere I go, rural voters tell me Greg Abbott stopped listening to them years ago,” Hinojosa said last week in a statement. “As governor, I’ll fight to put the people of Texas first, not the billionaire class.”

[…]

Many of [Hood County resident Mary Jo] Bloomquist’s friends told her they aren’t sure what to do at the ballot box. Maybe they’ll abstain from voting in the governor’s race altogether, or maybe they’ll vote for another candidate.

Bloomquist, who couldn’t recall ever voting for a Democrat, said she wouldn’t vote for Abbott again.

“He sold Texans out to big business, and I just don’t trust him anymore,” Bloomquist said.

See here for the previous entry in this genre. The irony of the Republican war on local control, which was squarely aimed at bringing big blue cities to heel, coming back to bite them on the ass because of data centers, is so rich that I might overdose. I know, I know, Lucy and the football and all that, but this is what is before our eyes. It’s fine to be wary, but let’s not be doomers.

Three things to add: One is Greg Abbott facing the press, to try and explain himself to a non-suckup audience. He just never does that under normal circumstances, which tells you how much he’d feeling the heat. And also how out of touch he is with normal people.

Two:

I’m sure he’ll deny he ever said it, tape or no tape.

And three, here’s a headline for you: Rural and suburban voters haven’t looked this Democratic since 2018. That was a pretty good year, as I recall.

Posted in Election 2026 | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Texas blog roundup for the week of August 31

Posted on September 3, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

The Texas Progressive Alliance will always love Dolly Parton as it brings you this week’s roundup.

Off the Kuff analyzes the two most recent polls of the Senate race.

SocraticGadfly talks about the reality, and non-reality, of Interior’s mandatory cuts in Colorado River water supply.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project Blog reported on the Houston City Council Public Safety Committee meeting where HPD Chief Diaz failed to show up. The bottom line appears to be we can’t have HPD/ICE transparency because HPD isn’t following the law.

==========================

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

The Current reviewed Greg Abbott’s cursed summer playlist.

The Dallas Observer reported on the use of Flock cameras on college campuses.

Texas Monthly talked to Billy Gibbons about the future of ZZ Top.

Pete von der Haar eulogized Dolly Parton.

Caroline Pitchkolan copes with the fear created by immigration enforcement.

The Texas Observer has a message for Dan Patrick about his book-banning obsession, from an Abilene public school librarian.

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The suspense list

Posted on September 2, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Don’t panic. Check your status, but anything can be fixed for now.

Still the only voter ID anyone should need

Multiple headlines recently have fueled confusion among Texas voters who have been placed on the state’s suspense list.

Voters on the suspense list can still vote. Despite its name, being placed on the suspense list does not mean a voter’s registration was suspended, canceled or that the voter was removed from the voter roll.

The list is made up of registered voters whose local election officials have reason to believe they may no longer live at the address they used to register to vote. Texas voters move every day, and they often don’t update their address on their voter registration record.

Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson with the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, said the number of voters on the suspense list now — 1.2 million out of more than 18 million registered voters — is consistent with what the state has seen in previous election cycles.

Voters on the suspense list can confirm their address by contacting their local voter registrar ahead of the Oct. 5 voter registration deadline and filling out a new voter registration form with their updated address. Voters can also update their address at the polls.

[…]

By law, if a county voter registrar “has reason to believe that a voter’s current residence is different from that indicated on the registration records,” the voter registrar “shall deliver to the voter a written confirmation notice requesting confirmation of the voter’s current residence,” according to the secretary of state’s office guidance.

Every two years, each county voter registrar mails a new voter registration certificate to all active voters, a move required by law to keep the voter roll up to date.

If the U.S. Postal Service returns the certificate as nondeliverable, the voter registrar must then confirm that the voter still lives at that address.

That’s when a voter is added to the suspense list.

A voter registrar mails a notice of address confirmation to voters when:

  • The voter’s registration certificate has been returned as nondeliverable.
  • A jury summons or any mailing sent to the voter was returned as nondeliverable.
  • The voter registrar has received information indicating the voter no longer resides at the address on file. For example, parents can notify their voter registrar if their children have moved or a voter themselves can call the voter registrar to say they no longer live at that address.

Although some county election officials had trouble mailing voter registration certificates in December due to issues with the state’s voter registration and management system, the certificates were mailed out ahead of the primary election earlier this year.

You can check your voter registration status at VoteTexas.gov. But county voter registration lists are managed by county election officials, who have the most up-to-date information about your voter registration record. When in doubt, contact your county voter registrar directly. You can find a list and contact information by county here.

If you voted in the primary or in May or in any of the special elections this year, you’re fine. If you’re on the suspense list, you just have to fill out a new voter registration form, with your new address. That means printing it and mailing it in, so don’t wait around, but that’s all you have to do. And even if you don’t do that in time, you can still vote, you’ll just have to fill out some extra paperwork afterward, to fix your address.

So don’t panic. Is there other skullduggery going on with the intent of creating chaos and undermining the election? Yes, but so far none of that has had any official effect. For now, go about your business. For sure, check your registration status and encourage others to do so, especially if you’ve moved recently and haven’t voted this year. But don’t panic. Anything can be fixed for now. The Chron has more.

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Tarrant County to cut voting locations

Posted on September 2, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Welp.

Republican officials in a major battleground Texas county voted Tuesday to slash Election Day polling locations by 30% for the November midterm elections.

Under the new plan, Tarrant County will have 224 Election Day voting locations, down from 316 in the 2022 midterms. It will also have 47 early voting locations, down from 50.

The county commissioners approved the early voting and Election Day location plans in separate 3-2 votes. County Judge Tim O’Hare and Commissioners Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez voted in favor of both plans, while Commissioners Roderick Miles Jr. and Alisa Simmons voted against them.

The Republican majority also rejected amendments that would have restored polling locations at the University of Texas at Arlington and the Northeast and South campuses of Tarrant County College. Another amendment seeking to restore dozens of Election Day locations also failed 2-3.

Outraged Tarrant County voters showed up at Tuesday’s county commissioners meeting in force, more than filling two overflow rooms and holding signs with a clear message about the Republican local officials who supported the plan: “Vote them out.”

“We are making national headlines for all the wrong reasons this week,” Tarrant County resident Brooke Whittaker told county leaders. “Ordinary citizens should not have to come down here and explain to you why making it harder to vote is a bad idea, but here we are.”

[…]

State Rep. Chris Turner (D) blasted GOP county leaders for closing polls, particularly at the University of Texas at Arlington and Bethlehem Baptist Church.

“Stripping a major university of its polling site is not a neutral decision,” Turner said in a letter posted on social media. “It is a deliberate barrier placed in front of young voters, first-time voters, and voters who already face disproportionate obstacles to civic participation.”

“Equally unacceptable is the proposed elimination of Bethlehem Baptist Church, a site that opened in 2024 and has since become a model of community engagement,” Turner went on. “From 2024 to 2026, Bethlehem Baptist Church more than tripled its voter turnout, a clear sign that when communities are given accessible, trusted locations, they show up.”

Kayla Gillespie, a student at the University of Texas at Arlington, spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, imploring leaders to keep the campus polling site open.

“Accessibility is one of the biggest factors when it comes to young voters,” she said.

During the debate, Simmons read from an email in which a UTA official said the university was “happy to accommodate early voting and day-of voting at the Maverick Activity Center.” Election Administrator Clint Ludwig said he did not receive final confirmation from the university until the Saturday before the vote.

Simmons argued that sending students to another location ignored the practical burden involved. “You expect the student to walk a mile to the Arlington sub-courthouse,” she said. “You walk a mile and it’s going to take you about 45 minutes each way, and you’ve got class to get back to.”

[…]

Voters did not appear to be persuaded by GOP officials’ claims that the cuts were motivated by financial constraints.

“You tell us this is about efficiency and saving our tax dollars,” Tarrant County voter Laney Hawes told officials. “I’d love to know what you all think our tax dollars are for. They are to serve us and I can’t think of a better use of taxpayer money than to encourage and support the democratic process.”

Simmons said an analysis of the adopted list showed that the quarter of Tarrant County ZIP codes with the lowest poverty rates would lose about 15% of their Election Day locations, while the quarter with the highest poverty rates would lose about 41%.

Miles compared the new barriers to the poll taxes imposed on earlier generations of voters, holding up the poll-tax receipt belonging to his wife’s great-grandmother, Maggie McCain.

“She was willing to suffer the indignity of having to pay a poll tax for a right that belonged to her,” he said. “What we are doing with reducing polling locations is instituting barriers to making access to voting for people. It’s modern-day poll taxes.”

Voters were furious when county leaders initially considered a plan last month that would have cut almost half of the Election Day polls and closed eight early voting sites, including some on college campuses.

But Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare (R), who leads the county government, will have to face those voters himself in November. He decided to postpone the final vote to Sept. 1 to add more locations.

O’Hare has drawn a serious challenger in his re-election bid: Democratic County Commissioner Alisa Simmons, whose district was dismantled by a mid-decade gerrymander O’Hare spearheaded last year. Simmons has called the voting location closures a “deliberate act to reduce voter access.”

During Tuesday’s debate, Simmons said the cuts were about political control rather than saving money.

“What you have not heard today is anything about cost,” she said. “This is not about cost. This is about power.”

Sure seems hard to justify cutting by almost a third the voting locations in a growing county. But that’s what the Republican majority on Tarrant County Commissioners Court have done. I don’t think they will achieve their objective, I think they just made a lot of people mad, but some lessons have to be learned the hard way. And of course we wouldn’t be dealing with any of this if we still had an intact Voting Rights Act, because this would have had to survive preclearance first. Add it to the list of reasons why an even stronger VRA needs to be brought back. The Fort Worth Report, the Trib, and Lone Star Left have coverage from the meeting, and NOTUS and MS Now have more.

Posted in Election 2026 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Garden Oaks Theater has been saved

Posted on September 2, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Some good news.

After facing the possibility of demolition and a months-long fundraising effort to raise more than $3.1 million, a Houston nonprofit that grew out of the campaign to save the River Oaks Theatre is moving forward with plans to purchase the historic Garden Oaks Theater and transform it into a new Arts & Film Center after Labor Day.

Since February, Arthouse Houston has led a campaign to save the nearly 80-year-old theater at 3732 N. Shepherd Drive from demolition after Grace Church sold the property to Houston-based Heights Investment Fund for $7.1 million. The effort quickly gained the attention of many Houstonians, including influencers and award-winning filmmakers, who called on the community to help preserve the city’s historic landmark.

After several extensions, including a final one in August, the organization had raised more than $2.8 million through a community fundraising effort as of Tuesday. While Arthouse Houston still needs roughly $400,000, the organization said it was moving forward into phase two of its plans to build a new Arts & Film Center set to hold a grand opening in 2028, according to a release by the nonprofit.

“In partnership with other Houston arts organizations, we will establish the historic cinema as a new Arts & Film Center that can support and help to grow film as an art form and industry in Texas and beyond,” said Maureen McNamara, director of Arthouse Houston, in a written statement.

The new community Arts & Film Center is broken up into three phases, with the second phase including the construction of more classrooms, productions studios, screening spaces and community gathering areas, the organization’s release states. Phase two will also include the restoration of the historic marquee and neon blade sign, the ornamental grand staircase handrail and the restoration of its original murals.

The third phase will include purchasing additional production, exhibition, education and performance equipment, as well as installing the necessary technology.

The entire project, including the purchase of the property, restoration and equipment, is expected to cost approximately $18 million. The post-war Art Deco cinema will host major film premieres, live-performances and festivals. It will also house a film and media production studios, an arts and media education center, a microcinema and flex theater space.

I was aware of this but hadn’t been paying close attention. I’m glad to see the advocates for this historic building were successful in their efforts – Lord knows preservation is a tough slog in this city. There’s still work to be done, so go here and learn more about the project and what they still need. You can make a donation here if you want to get involved.

In addition to a slideshow that neatly explains the status quo, CultureMap has this detail of interest:

While other historic movie buildings have been repurposed as grocery stores, music venues, and other event spaces, the Garden Oaks will be one of only two remaining historic cinemas (the River Oaks Theatre is the other) in Houston that still operate as movie houses.

Now you know. Kudos to all for the hard work. See the latest email from Arthouse Houston for more.

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