- Texas Freedom Caucus Announces Program to Target Wasteful Spending
- Galveston County judge urges Abbott to freeze property values due to coronavirus – Property taxes only go up across the board in a local taxing entity when local officials adopt a new tax rate higher than the revenue neutral Effective Tax Rate. Values can double in aggregate and there would be no tax increase except for local officials setting a tax rate that raises more revenue from the same taxpayers/properties as the year before. Tomorrows commentary is on this topic.
- Gov. Greg Abbott meets with president
- In White House meeting, Trump praises Abbott for coronavirus response
- Texas Supreme Court Orders Release of Dallas Salon Owner Jailed for Opening Business Contrary to Shelter Regulations, more, more
- Texas Republican Executive Committee Members to Abbott: Pardon Shelley Luther
- Governor Abbott Modifies COVID-19 Executive Orders To Eliminate Confinement As A Punishment – but you can still have your bankruptcy peril added to with huge fines! Thanks for almost nothing Abbott.
- Texas Judge Who Jailed Hair Stylist Harassed at His Home; Judges Rebuke Paxton – good. Most of these officials need some public heat on them.
- AG Paxton Announces Coordinating Council Plan to Help Eradicate Human Trafficking
- Railroad Commission allows temporary storage of oil in other underground places
- Comptroller’s Office Reminds Taxpayers About Extended Franchise Tax Deadline
- Texas Ag. Commissioner Miller seeks federal help to protect beef industry
- Texas Education Agency Issues Guidance for 2020 Graduation Ceremonies
- How gun control advocates plan to make Texas a top political priority in 2020
- HD47: Runoff Review: Fleck and Berry Compete for Austin-Area District
- Support among whites, independents, older Texans fuels MJ Hegar lead over Royce West in Texas Senate runoff – what? So older Democrats are racists?
- Vice Chairman Cortez and Texas House Members Request New Election Procedures From Governor Abbott – Dems are pushing, pushing, pushing.
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- Coronavirus related
- Let’s Not Pretend This Is Constitutional
- COVID-19 mitigation is a weighing of harms
- Comparing the Wuhan virus with the 1968 Hong Kong flu, more
- Experts now admit COVID-19 mortality rate much lower then predicted
- Five Trends in Coronavirus Data Indicate Texas is in Strong Shape
- Texas COVID-19 situation report for 5/7/2020 (pdf) – 948 deaths in Q1 plus April, a third of Q2. Official Texas 2018/19 flu season deaths were 9249 by end of July last year, over 10,000 for the year. Should our rights have been scuttled for that, less than 10% of a “regular” year’s flu death rate?
- Are daily local COVID-19 case number proclamations useful?
- Podcast: Pratt on Texas Interview with Dr. Stephen Balch AUDIO
- Health officials wasted time on the speculative, didn’t harden the known
- Two Seniors Infected With COVID-19 Die in Collin County, Including 1 at McKinney Assisted-Living Facility
- State helping Brownwood-Brown Co. Health Dept. after 6 COVID-19 deaths at nursing home
- Another Midland Medical Lodge resident dead from COVID-19
- Pennsylvania: Average coronavirus death age 79; 67% happened in nursing homes
- ‘Professor Lockdown’ Modeler Resigns in Disgrace
- Threats follow protest arrests in Ector County
- Dallas Salon Owner Sentenced to Seven Days in Jail for Violating Order to Close Her Business, Fined $7,000 – no, she was sentenced for refusing to denounce herself, Soviet-style, and be compelled by the judge to agree to his political point of view.
- Meet the Dallas salon owner whose decision to reopen put her in the middle of a national debate
- Texas Supreme Court Orders Release of Dallas Salon Owner Jailed for Opening Business Contrary to Shelter Regulations, more, more
- Massage parlor, tattoo shop in Abilene upset they can’t open yet, plan protests
- Lockdown snitches, rats & busybodies exposed
- ‘I’m big on the Constitution:’ California owner defies orders, opens gym, calling it essential – all my life these same stay-at-home do-gooders have berated with me with how important, critical is “working out” and now they fight to keep gyms closed.
- ‘A Disease Spread by the Rich’
- Doctors find hydroxychloroquin success rate at 91%, urge Arizona governor to make drug available
- Cuomo Plans to Charge State Income Taxes to Hero Healthcare Workers
- NYC mayor forbids protests
- Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants to ban guns from state Capitol after coronavirus lockdown protests – she should be scared, that’s a main point of the Second Amendment and an armed populace.
- ‘Every One of Them’: California Begins Forcibly Quarantining People – Separating Families – Over COVID-19
- Yale Scientist: Reopening America Is ‘Awfully Close to Genocide’ – an example of why the “elite” universities are not elite at all.
- Salvadoran president accuses Costa Rica of sham coronavirus count – this is entertaining to see the bickering.
- Face Masks Make a Political Statement in Era of Coronavirus – that’s all masks do
- Zimmerman: I will NOT wear a mask
- The Maskification of America happened quickly, but not for everybody
- Hillstone Restaurant Group employee seeks judge’s order to be allowed to use mask
- Coronavirus exposes a crucial educational divide: Critical thinking – public ed is a joke
- Hundreds of inmates at Fort Worth federal prison test positive for COVID-19
- New reporting requirements lower Taylor County’s coronavirus count to 206
- Big changes to Taylor County’s COVID-19 numbers after prison populations removed
- Bexar Jail Coronavirus Cases ‘Starting to Level Off’ as Mass Testing Continues
- Ector County Health Department says apartment and hotel pools must remain closed
- “There’s no sense in risking it”: As Texas eases restrictions, a family keeps its social distance – living in irrational fear is nothing new, sadly.
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- Federal/DC related to Texas
- Trump’s New Message: Time to Move On to the Economic Recovery
- Trump Touts Texas as Model for Reopening Even as Cases Climb – “cases” are not all that important. Remember, it is hospitalizations that are the concern.
- Gov. Greg Abbott meets with president
- Trump administration cuts 60 Chinese companies from suppling N95 masks, citing low quality
- Sen. Cruz Calls on Congress to Focus on Getting Americans Back to Work and Holding China Accountable
- Cruz: Hollywood Fully Complicit in Massive Problem of Chinese Censorship VIDEO
- The Coronavirus Will Be Leviathan’s Enabler
- ‘Think big’ Pelosi says it would be ‘penny foolish’ to stop coronavirus stimulus spending
- TX19 Rep. Arrington shares virtual tour of D.C.
- Luring Medical Manufacturing Home with the BEAT CHINA Act
- Libs: Republican congressman Chip Roy advocates for dangerous “herd immunity” policy – dangerous immunity?
- Lead prosecutor in Flynn case abruptly resigns as new exculpatory evidence is unsealed
- Justice Department dropping criminal case against ex-Trump adviser Flynn
- Fox: Schiff “in panic mode” over release of Russia-collusion transcripts
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- Presidential race / national politics
- Biden might not end up needing his transition team, but the Democratic party does
- The Kavanaugh-Biden double standard and an appalling lack of curiosity over Michael Flynn
- Biden: I’ll change Title IX sexual harassment, assault rules back to forcing the accused to prove their innocence – why not, that’s how Leftist/Marxist courts work.
- Facebook appoints 20 members to its ‘Supreme Court’ for speech rules, including noted Trump critic
- Freeing the School-Choice Genie
- Finland’s basic-income trial found people were happier but weren’t more likely to get jobs – the idea “didn’t fully work”
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- Border / immigration
- Sens. Cruz, Cotton, Colleagues Urge President Trump to Pause Immigration, Protect American Jobs
- WaPo: Donald Trump Demands Cost Estimates for Painting the Border Wall
- Advocates Warn of More Immigrant Deaths Without ICE Action
- 48 Pounds of Liquid Meth Seized at Immigration Checkpoint 80 Miles from Border
- A Unanimous Supreme Court Brushes Back the Legal Resistance
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- Business
- 3.2 Million Jobless Claims Added in Last Week, Bringing Pandemic Total to 33 Million
- Texans could soon have to start looking for work to keep unemployment benefits if reopening continues – good, we can’t dig our way out with people sitting at home
- 247,179 more Texans filed for unemployment, but their jobs might not be waiting for them when they return – thanks to politicians
- Layoffs start turning from temporary to permanent across America
- Neiman Marcus Becomes 2nd Major Retailer to Seek Chapter 11
- Southwest Airlines launches first summer fare sale. Wait. What?
- Southwest CEO urges TSA to add temperature scans to screening checks
- Airlines flew empty flights to get coronavirus aid; now they’re asking Congress for help
- Gunman Sought After 3 Dead in String of Houston Shootings
- Green flag: IndyCar to open its delayed season in Texas
- Successful static fire SpaceX Raptor engine test on 4th Starship prototype
- Blue Origin to deliver first BE-4 engines to ULA this summer
- COVID-19 Is Just The Latest Blow To Electric Scooter Companies – as I said, in most uses & places, it was all just a fad.
- North Texas oil industry could take hit of $800 million by 2024 due to COVID-19
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- Crime & general news of Texas
- Midland PD officer injured during disturbance call, suspect is in custody
- Katy man arrested for alleged ‘super aggravated’ sexual assault of young child
- Thousands of honey bees swarm Pearland woman’s home VIDEO
- Montgomery County Pct. 4 Constable’s deputy rescues turtle crossing road
- Trucker Charged in Serial Killings Faces Scrutiny Across US
- An Off-Duty TSA Agent Catches Houston Police Helicopter Crash on Video VIDEO
- Semi-truck driver ejected, killed on I-20 in Mitchell County, faulty tire could have contributed to crash
- Fuel delivery truck explodes in Early
- Abilene man indicted on murder count; woman killed at hotel
- Would-be condom thief arrested by Abilene police, sent to jail – might need ‘em there.
- Former UT Longhorn Earl Thomas speaks out after violent altercation with wife
- Woman caught washing checks; it will cost her some prison time
- Levelland family of 5 displaced after overnight fire
- Lubbock police investigate fatal hit and run
- Body found at Lake Meredith identified as missing Canyon man
- Lubbock man indicted, charged with child sexual assault
- Husband killed in home invasion at north Harris County apartment
- Fire breaks out at east Houston motel
- Wichita Falls police arrest suspect accused of robbing elderly business woman
- Wichita Falls police investigating death of child
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- Local government
- Galveston County judge urges Abbott to freeze property values due to coronavirus – Property taxes only go up across the board in a local taxing entity when local officials adopt a new tax rate higher than the revenue neutral Effective Tax Rate. Values can double in aggregate and there would be no tax increase except for local officials setting a tax rate that raises more revenue from the same taxpayers/properties as the year before.
- Fort Worth Launches Post-COVID-19 Economic Task Force
- Austin ISD Should Dump Radical Sex Education
- Electra ISD in discussions to install solar panels – have funds? Got to waste ‘em.
- Bexar Co. commissioners Deciding How to Use $79M in Federal Coronavirus Relief – local gov’t seems to have had a windfall with this lockdown
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Colleges & universities
Demand for refunds intensifies among college students - UTPB: School will be different in the fall
- MSU Cycling members keep succeeding through lost racing season
- TTU College Of Education Receives $1.5M Grant To Train 400 Texas Special Educators
- TTU Prof: Redesigning Work Areas Can Improve Teamwork, Potentially Save Lives
- A&M is looking at Saturday and late-night options to reduce class sizes and comply with social distancing
- $6.5 million invested in safety systems for TTU Museum VIDEO
Pratt’s post for 5/7/2020
May 7, 2020 by Leave a Comment
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