By William Lutz on
7/30/2010 4:40 PM
Today’s accountability ratings didn’t come from Lake Wobegon, they came from the Texas Education Agency. But they still ranked a substantial majority of campuses and districts above average (officially: exemplary or recognized).
Commissioner of Education Robert Scott unveiled state accountability ratings at a press conference at Texas Education Agency headquarters today. According to the new ratings, 239 Texas School Districts are exemplary and 597 are recognized, while only 298 received an academically acceptable rating and 30 were ranked unacceptable (formerly called low performing).
Read More »
|
By William Lutz on
7/30/2010 10:37 AM
In last week's issue, I wrote an article naming what I believe are the ten most competitive races in Texas (the article is available on the current newsletter page for Lone Star Report subscribers). The first six or so I named were easy – races that obviously would be amongst the most competitive in the state. Beyond that, narrowing down the most competitive 15 or so to 10 is really a judgment call and was very difficult.
Also, I accidentally left the race between Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt (R-Lexington) and Pati Jacobs (D) off my sleeper list. It should have been included on the sleeper list, though as an incumbent, I still think Kleinschmidt will win re-election by a comfortable margin.
Of the races I put on the list, the ones I felt most tentative about were Turner-Zedler, Bolton-Workman, and Herrero-Scott.
Read More »
|
By William Lutz on
7/24/2010 12:37 PM
LAS VEGAS -- Conservative bloggers are more independent than their liberal counterparts. That is a key theme of the Right OnLine conference hosted at the Venetian Hotel by Americans for Prosperity.
Connecting this close to home, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, a Houstonian whose popular twitter handle is @MelissaTweets, led a panel on how to organize conservatives via the Internet. At that panel discussion, several of the speakers noted that Democrats have several donors who are – for all intents and purposes – on campaign payroll, whereas most conservatives bloggers are doing so of their own resources. In other words, internet liberals are about organizing while internet conservatives are about communicating.
A perfect example is Texas’s Burnt Orange Report. The blog basically distributes candidate and party talking points. The folks that run Burnt Orange Report admit on their own website, that they do paid political consulting for campaigns. Read More »
|
By William Lutz on
7/24/2010 12:21 PM
LAS VEGAS – Sometimes it’s amazing the power of words. Today’s Americans for Prosperity Right OnLine conference is occurring at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. At the conference’s general session today, delegates heard from Andrew Abboud, vice president of government relations and community development for Las Vegas Sands Corp, the parent company of the Venetian.
Abboud told delegates that when President Barack Obama told the American people last year that businesses taking stimulus funds should not go to Las Vegas, the impact on the hotel was immediate. Abboud told delegates that the Venetian lost $6 million in hotel room revenue due to cancellations occurring in the immediate aftermath of Obama’s speech. He said the lost food and beverage tab came to about $5 million. And that’s just one hotel. Imagine the impact on the whole city of Las Vegas, which is currently experiencing 15 percent unemployment.
Read More »
|
|
|
By William Lutz on
7/13/2010 4:00 PM
LSR Managing Editor William Lutz appeared on WFAA's Inside Texas Politics Sunday. In his "rant," Lutz slams the Environmental Protection Agency for its decision to reject the state's flexible permitting program. Lutz's commentary appears just after the interview with Rep. Phil King, approximately 7 and a half minutes into the program (about 10:30 left to go in the program). Inside Texas Politics airs every Sunday at 9 am. Click here to view:
Read More »
|
By William Lutz on
7/13/2010 3:55 PM
Attorney General Greg Abbott and Solicitor General James Ho defended the Texas Open Meetings Act from attack by a handful of city officials. The city officials argue that parts of the Open Meetings Act violate their First Amendment Rights. Ho filed a brief in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas defending the state’s open government laws. Click here to read the entire brief.“Openness in government is a First Amendment virtue, not a First Amendment violation,” the brief states. “The fundamental purpose of the First Amendment is to enable and empower people to engage in free, robust discourse about their government, its officials, and the policies they adopt on their behalf. Open meetings laws thus further, rather than frustrate, fundamental First Amendment values, by educating the public about the conduct and content of public business. Indeed, courts have frequently invoked the First Amendment itself to require public access to certain government proceedings.”
Read More »
|
By William Lutz on
7/13/2010 3:48 PM
Over the weekend, the Austin American-Statesman’s Kate Alexander published a story on the Teacher Retirement System that is well worth reading. She chronicles the history of the Teacher Retirement System’s move toward more alternative investments, such as hedge funds and private equity. This move has garnered significant controversy, and – as the article notes – has been sunset by the Legislature in 2012. Here are a couple of key pieces of background information. First, in 2005, the Legislature exempted a lot of information from public disclosure about the identity of private equity and other alternative investments the state makes. The return is public but in many cases, the identity of the private equity investment is not. The investing community is often an enemy of open government at the Capitol, and the 2005 bill I reference was pushed by private equity and venture capital firms.
Second, the Teacher Retirement System has been the subject of multiple allegations of political manipulation the past several years. A divided board past over a long-time civil servant and appointed a member of the governor’s staff as deputy director of the Teacher Retirement System.
Read More »
|
By William Lutz on
7/12/2010 4:26 PM
In last week’s issue, we published a story about a bill that has passed the U.S. House of Representatives that would force local governments and the state DPS to enter into collective bargaining with unions representing its employees. In that story we quoted Frank Sturzl, executive director of the Texas Municipal League, saying “If this doesn’t violate the 10th Amendment, I don’t know what does,” referring to the constitutional amendment that states that all powers not expressly granted to the federal government are reserved to the states or the people.
“The federal government is attempting to intrude upon our state’s authority to independently manage relations with our public employees,” said Abbott. “This law would force the State of Texas into federally mandated collective bargaining agreements with labor unions – despite the fact that state law does not authorize collective bargaining for state employees. If this constitutionally suspect legislation is passed, I will take legal action to protect our state from yet another case of federal overreach.”
Read More »
|
By William Lutz on
7/9/2010 4:03 PM
LSR Managing Editor William Lutz will appear on WFAA's Inside Texas Politics Sunday morning. The program airs at 9 am on Channel 8 in North Texas. Lutz will be expressing his concerns about the federal Environmental Protection Agency's recent decision to reject the Texas Council on Environmental Quality's flexible permit program.
Read More »
|