What the West report tells us is that 33(83% of the total) facilities in Texas that store fertilizer grade ammonium nitrate still are located within a quarter mile of homes. Apart from weakening the reporting and classification requirements, the only substantive thing Governor Abbott has done is to remove your right to find out if you live near a storage location. Continue reading Go, West!
It’s been an interesting month. I live in Austin Texas, boom town USA. Everything is happening in construction, although nothing much in transport. In many ways Austin reminds me of rapidly developing cities in China, India and other developing countries. I’ve travelled some inside Texas, but most on I10 and out East. I’ve tended to dismiss what I’ve seen in small towns, mostly because I figured they were unrepresentative. Earlier this month I did my first real US roadtrip. I had my Mum with me for a month and figured a week or so out of the heat of Texas … Continue reading Decaying Texas
And for the record, Lehmbergs arrest for drink driving was shameful, and yes she should of resigned. But because she didn’t doesn’t make it OK for the Governor to abuse his power to try to remove her. Don’t let the Lehmberg arrest though distract from the real issue, abuse of power and term limits. Continue reading Power corrupts
Governor Perry is well known for his brags that “the Lone Star State’s winning mix of low taxes, reasonable regulatory structure, fair court system and world-class workforce has been paying dividends” and bringing business to Texas, even when it isn’t true. For the day to day Texan, their freedom is becoming increasingly an illusion too. To have real freedom, you need choice. Increasingly Texans have no freedom, because they have no choice. This week, Attorney General Abbott confirmed the ban of releasing information to the public as Tier II reports in the 1986 Emergancy Planning and Community Right to Know Act … Continue reading The Texas Freedom Illusion
The influx of workers, the migration of people continues apace, as does the Governors low tax, low regulation mantra. Gov. Perry to Newsmax: Low Taxes, Less Regulation Key to ‘Texas Miracle’ The lax oversight though has direct impact on everything from fertilizer plants, to your children. Systems in place better work, there is often no fallback. New director finds sex offender office in shambles http://t.co/Gr1DSC2yHI #txlege @HoustonChron — ChronicleMike (@ChronicleMike) May 7, 2014 Continue reading Low regulation comes with a cost
I’m not trying to conflate two separate subjects with this post, but finally people are starting to get part of the real need for alternate transport options in Austin. Urban Rail and Drink Driving. NPR posted a link to this KUT segment/web page to it’s facebook page today. I listened to the story as I drove to work this morning on Morning Edition. Providing additional transport isn’t enough, it will need a generational change. However, generational change needs real leadership to solve this problem and that’s been distinctly lacking from the “Rail or Fail” Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, and departing Governor of … Continue reading Austin and Alcohol tourism
Michael King sums up how I feel about what’s been going on in Texas in relation to Womens Health, the Affordable Care act. I don’t always agree with King, but when I do it’s always the same problem. For entirely political reasons, Gov. Rick Perry has not only opposed and obstructed the federal health care law at every available opportunity, he has done nothing to offer a usable alternative or even to maintain the entirely inadequate existing state health care programs. It has been more important for Perry and his GOP allies to fight a holy war against Planned Parenthood … Continue reading Dead Reckoning: The TDI rules don’t quite blind the navigators