The University of Houston is making a lot of noise about being added to the Big 12. Cougar Nation wants a seat at the grown-ups table and adding them makes all the sense in the world with one exception; economics.
UH had to subsidize their athletic program to the tune of more than $25 million in 2015. That ranks as the seven-largest subsidy. Only 12 schools (including Texas and Oklahoma) did not have to subsidize their programs.
The UH athletic program took in $44.8 Million (62nd in the nation). James Madison and South Florida produced more revenue for their respective schools. It’s also $30 million less than Iowa State who had the smallest revenue in the Big 12 among public universities.
It does not take a Noble Prize winner in economics to understand who pays for these “subsidies”, The university has increased tuition 22 percent between 2011-12 and 2015-16. Students and fans of the University of Houston might have a different opinion on the value of joining the Big 12 when confronted with tuition costs that are already higher than UT or Texas A&M.
There is always a lot of talk about taxes in Austin. One of the selling points politicians like to make is reminding people we have no state income tax (other states with no state income tax are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming).
That sounds really good, until you ask yourself how Texas pays the bills without one. The answer is sales and property taxes. Texas has the 12th highest sales tax in the nation at 8.17 percent (Tennessee is the highest with a 9.46 percent).
Texas also has a higher-than-average effective property tax (Fifth highest in the nation). This has gotten the attention of Austin lawmakers who are crying foul and looking to find ways to have municipalities cutback on their tax rates, but education officials say not so fast. Thanks to Austin cutting back on funding for education, schools and other government entities look to property tax to fill the gap.
A 2010 report from the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute found funding for education in Texas to be “antiquated”. The study group was co-chaired by Dan Patrick, now Texas’ lieutenant governor.
While an argument can be made on both sides of the issue of state income taxes, one thing seems to be very clear, not having a state income tax hurts the poor. Why? Because a state income tax is based on what a person earns. Sales taxes are considered regressive because they don’t change based on a person’s income. Someone making $15k a year pays the same tax for a gallon of milk as someone who makes $150k annually.
If you look at taxes paid as a percentage of income on the poorest to the wealthiest, Texas ranks fifth in the nation for having the most regressive state tax system. The poorest 20 percent pay 12.6 in taxes compared to the middle class (8.8 percent) and the top 1 percent (3.2).
Much like the federal tax system, the Texas tax system needs some fixing. It’s a simple question; how do we want to collect money to pay for state services. The answer? Well that’s a little harder.
There has certainly been a lot of attention on citizens who have been killed by police officers. The recent events (thanks to cellphone video) in Baton Rouge and Minneapolis have put a national spotlight on this very contentious issue.
Dyfed Loesche, a “data journalist” with Statista.com, did some digging and came up with, what I found to be, surprising numbers on what is happening in the country.
Watching the coverage and hearing the rhetoric, you would assume the majority of people being killed by police officers are black men, but you would be wrong. As of July 8, 238 white males have been killed versus 123 black men (you can see all the information on the data graph below).
The other number that jumps out to me is that of the 509 killed this year, at least 124 were thought to be suffering some sort of mental illness. David Brown, Dallas police chief, who lost 5 officers in a horrific attack said police are left to solve the problems left by government officials.
“Not enough mental health funding, let the cop handle it. Not enough drug addiction funding, let’s give it to the cops. Here in Dallas we have a loose dog problem. Let’s have the cops chase loose dogs. Schools fail, give it to the cops. 70 percent of the African-American community is being raised by single women, let’s give it to the cops to solve as well. That’s too much to ask. Policing was never meant to solve all those problems. I just ask other parts of our democracy along with the free press to help us.”
Just when you think politics can’t sink any lower, along comes a candidate who breaks through and lowers the bar even further. This time with a billboard which reads “Make America White Again”.
Rick Tyler, an independent candidate for the 3rd Congressional District in Tennessee is the person responsible for the messages (see below). According to a story from WSMV-TV, Tyler said the sign’s message is that America should go back to a “1960’s, Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver time when there were no break-ins; no violent crime; no mass immigration.”
He went on to add that he has no hatred in his heart for “people of color”, although one does wonder what he wants done to them. Maybe he can get them to leave voluntarily (who could blame them).
Tyler told a local ABC News affiliate that the sign was taken down on Tuesday evening after the story went viral. His restaurant, Whitewater Grille in Ocoee, is also facing calls for a boycott.
We need to remind ourselves that there will always be people who are extremists and are looking for a way to get noticed (can you say Westboro Baptist Church) and everyone has a right to their opinion, but there comes a time when somebody needs to say enough is enough.
Maybe we need to revisit freedom of speech along with the right to bear arms.
“Proof our country has gone to hell” is what one angry person tweeted after seeing a bronze sculpture of two girls taking a selfie in front of the Sugar Land, Texas City Hall.
According to a release from the sweetest city in the country, the sculpture, along with another bronze sculpture portraying a guitar player while sitting on the ledge of a fountain facing city walk represents activities which are common in the plaza.
Other angry tweets are questioning the use of tax-payer money to fund the project, but the two sculptures are part of a 10-piece collection donated by a Sugar Land resident to the City through the Sugar Land Legacy Foundation.
Now me, I can personally find outrage in a lot of things, but this? Once again, the wonderful world wide web demonstrates how far we have come as a people.
It’s not always easy living in Texas. The state has a lot of great things going for it, but like other states there are times when one has to shake their head in bewilderment.
Take for example the recent run-off election for a seat on the Texas State Board of Education. Mary Lou Bruner was a candidate who received 48 percent of the vote in a three-way primary, just two percentage points of winning, and since Texas is a red state, becoming the presumptive candidate to join the board.
The 69-year-old candidate, who looks like someone from the SNL Church Lady sketch, ran on a platform of keeping gay “subliminal messages” out of text books. Now you would think most conservative Republican voters would support that position, but then a funny thing happened; somebody started looking at her Facebook page and found these pearls of wisdom:
The United Nations launched a plot to depopulate the planet.
President Obama is a former gay prostitute.
Democrats secretly assassinated JFK because he was conservative.
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s beard made him look like “a terrorist.”
Dinosaurs and people lived at the same time.
The climate crisis was Karl Marx’s idea.
In a released statement, Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller said, “Texas escaped an education train wreck tonight. If Bruner had ultimately won election to the board, she would have instantly become the most embarrassingly uninformed and divisive member on a board that already too often puts politics ahead of making sure our kids get a sound education.”
In the end, the voters decided that Keven Ellis, Lufkin school board president might be better suited for the position proving that even a blind squirrel can find the nuts, even if they look like a church lady.
Something interesting is taking place in the world of journalism. The world is buzzing about the release of the Panama Papers which reveled prominent world leaders hiding millions of dollars in offshore accounts and avoiding paying taxes.
(It was also hard to believe there was gambling going on at Rick’s Place in Casablanca).
The fallout has already begun with Iceland’s Prime Minister resigning after the leaked documents showed his wife owned an offshore company with big claims on collapsed Icelandic banks. More resignations are expected as the U.S.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) reveal more names from the more than 11.5 million documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
This poses an interesting question for ICIJ and other journalists. Is it ethical to use stolen materials to publish a story, even if it is in the public’s interest to do so?
Back in 1971, Daniel Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers which showed how the Johnson administration systematically lied, not only to the public, but to congress as well about the Vietnam War.
Ellsberg was initially charged with conspiracy, espionage and theft of government property, but the charges were later dropped after prosecutors investigating the Watergate Scandal learned that the staff members in the Nixon White House had ordered the so-called White House Plumbers to engage in unlawful efforts to discredit Ellsberg.
Much like the Panama Papers, Ellsberg took the papers and released them to the N.Y. Times. At the time, Ellsberg said:
I felt that as an American citizen, as a responsible citizen, I could no longer cooperate in concealing this information from the American public. I did this clearly at my own jeopardy and I am prepared to answer to all the consequences of this decision.
The Times v. United States is generally thought of as a victory for an extensive reading of the First Amendment, but as the Supreme Court ruled on whether the government had made a successful case for prior restraint. Its decision did not void the Espionage Act or give the press unlimited freedom to publish classified documents.
There is big difference between classified documents and documents from a business, but the point ends up being the same; should the press use material that was stolen and not authorized?
The press faced a similar question when former CIA employee Eric Snowden leaked classified information from the National Security Agency to journalists with stories appearing in The Guardian and The Washington Post. Snowden has been called a hero, whistleblower, patriot and traitor.
I am all for outing the bad guys, but do two wrongs make it right? I guess that, once again is determined by what side of the fence you are sitting on.
Just when you think you’ve heard it all, along comes someone to prove you wrong. Meet Robert Morrow, the recently elected chair of the Republican Party for Travis County (home to the city of Austin and the fifth largest county in Texas).
Morrow beat his opponent James Dickey by more than 6,000 votes, finishing with 56.44 percent of the total votes counted in the race. So what’s the problem?
Seems Morrow has been known to be a little edgy in his opinions. In some of his recent tweets, he said:
Marco Rubio of Florida is “very likely a gay man who got married”
The Republican National Committee was just a “gay foam party”
“Would Hillary Clinton swallow all of your cum or would it be more of a Lorena Bobbitt situation”
For years, Morrow has alleged that Rick Perry is secretly bisexual; in 2010, he referred to him as “Gov. Skank Daddy” in an email.
Precinct chairman Edwin Mallory told the Texas Tribune “Just because Robert Morrow is whacked out a little bit, you have to look at the other side of the book — those poor bastards are so afraid of losing power, they will say or do anything to hold onto it. They know Robert Morrow won’t play ball with them.”
Other members of the Travis County Republican Party are trying to figure out a way to remove Morrow from office. Murrow’s response? “Tell them they can go fuck themselves.”
Today is Feb. 29 which means we are in a Leap Year, or as smart people call it; a bissextile year. Most people know we add an extra day to account for the fact that a standard solar calendar is 365 days, 48 minutes, 45 seconds or roughly 365 ¼ days.
What you may not know is our Gregorian calendar (instituted by Pope Gregory) requires losing 3 days every 400 years which means years ending in 00 don’t have a leap day, expect every 400 years when they do (got all this?).
I find it funny to note that the very first Playboy Club featuring waitresses in bunny outfits opened in Chicago on this date in 1960. Today is also Rare Disease Day, in honor (I’m guessing here) of today being a rare day.
Other famous happenings on this date happened back in 1504 when Christopher Columbus used a lunar eclipse to his advantage over the indigenous people of Jamaica and trick them into giving him food. Not to be outdone, the first warrants of the Salem witch trials were issued in 1692.
Ironically, Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to win an Oscar back in 1940 for her role in Gone with the Wind (not to be confused with Gone in 60 Seconds).
The nomination for the Republican Party presidential candidate has been interesting to say the least. Much like Ted Cruz’s successful election when he ran for the Senate, the goal it seems is to “out conservatize” the other.
While many pundits have long predicted Trump imploding, he continues to defy the odds and befuddle the establishment of the party by continuing to win states. I don’t think many republicans thought he would be able wear the conservative label and even attract the coveted evangelical vote, yet as of today, he remains the front-runner.
The race grew even more personal in South Carolina. I always assumed the palmetto state was gentile and respectfully southern until I remembered that Francis Underwood, the fictional president in the smash hit “House of Cards” is also from there.
Watching all this reminds me of that famous scene from the movie “The Hunt for the Red October” when a Russian sub is blown up due to the arrogance of its commander. It seems the Grand Old Party could be headed down the same path.
The University of Houston is making a lot of noise about being added to the Big 12. Cougar Nation wants a seat at the grown-ups table and adding them makes all the sense in the world with one exception; economics.
b. 29 which means we are in a Leap Year, or as smart people call it; a bissextile year. Most people know we add an extra day to account for the fact that a standard solar calendar is 365 days, 48 minutes, 45 seconds or roughly 365 ¼ days.
