Karla’s Kickoff!

Here is from her About page from http://www.karlacisneros.com:

Karla Cisneros is a proven leader who gets things done. She was appointed to the HISD Board of Education in 2000, was elected to a full 4-year term in 2001, and served as Board President in 2004. As Board President, Karla led the search effort that resulted in the selection of HISD’s first Latino school superintendent.

A 35-year resident of Houston, Karla Cisneros has dedicated her adult life to working to improve public schools and her community. As a classroom teacher at Northline and Harvard Elementary schools, Karla taught and helped usher children through their lives. In addition to being a classroom teacher, she has worked as a science teacher and as a reading interventionist. She also worked as a Title 1 Parent Involvement Specialist, where she nurtured parental and community involvement in 25 schools in HISD’s North Central District.

As a school activist in the Woodland Heights, she organized numerous community efforts to make improvements at Travis Elementary School. She has been active in the PTA, the Friends of Travis, the Woodland Heights Civic Association, Parents for Public Schools, the Greater Heights Education Project, the SPARK Board, and the board of Multi-Cultural Education through Counseling in the Arts – MECA.

While serving as Assistant Director of the city’s SPARK School Park Program, Karla worked with parents and community members to develop over 20 school parks throughout the city.

Karla and her husband, Tim, have three children, all of whom attended HISD schools.

Karla will be kicking off her campaign this Sunday at 1 pm, at Alamo Tamale on Berry Road.

Yesterday, the Harris County AFL-CIO announced their endorsements in a number of H-Town city races including City Council, District H. Just for the record, the Karla Cisneros campaign received the candidate questionnaire Monday of last week. The completed questionnaire was delivered to the Harris County AFL-CIO a couple of days later. Karla Cisneros was unable to screen/interview due scheduling conflicts in part related to her duties as a third grade classroom teacher. That’s the way it goes.

Rookie Lance McCullers, Jr. is our starting pitcher tonight at The Yard. His dad, Lance McCullers, played in the bigs from 1985-1992 for four different teams. Name at least one of those teams?

I am thinking that we’re going to be hearing a lot about the Clinton Foundation for the next few months or so. I don’t know about that.

We all know that Peter Gammons is a highly respected baseball journalist-columnist-commentator. He is also a rock music aficionado and plays the guitar. Here is what he tweeted yesterday:

Peter Gammons ‏@pgammo 16m16 minutes ago
Spirit – I Got A Line On You (1984) Original Video https://youtu.be/2aKNhvMd_5U via @YouTube

Wow! Spirit! Along with “I Got A Line On You,” there was “Mechanical World” and “Nature’s Way.” Some darn good tunes if you ask me. You gottta know Spirit!

Lance MuCullers played for the Padres, Yankees, Tigers, and Rangers of course.

I am thinking a lot more folks will make it out to The Yard this weekend now that the team is for real and school is out for most ISDs in the area. We got the White Sox for three.

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Darker Money

I don’t know about this quote from the defender of dark money in Texas politics:

From Sen. Van Taylor, R-Plano: “Anonymous political speech absolutely must be something we protect.”

Why must it be protected? Where does this come from? I must have missed that part of civics class back in high school.

To me this is one of the most memorable or forgettable quotes of the session.

I am wondering if he would fall on his sword to protect “anonymous political speech.”

Somebody needs to take away his kool-aid.

Only five days left of this BS!

On the brighter side, go visit http://www.karlacisneros.com. Karla will be kicking off her campaign for H-Town City Council, District H this Sunday at 1 pm, at Alamo Tamale on Berry Road. I will have more to say on this tomorrow.

‘Stros hitters have five triples this season. Two players have two each – name the two?

My pal Alan Bernstein tweeted this yesterday:

AlanBernstein ‏@AlanBernstein 2m2 minutes ago
@HoustonChron: Arabic now 2nd most frequently spoken foreign language of Houston school district students, displacing Vietnamese. #shukran

It won’t be long before the fellas on the fringe start calling it HISIS.

I saw this tweet this morning:

NYT Politics ‏@nytpolitics 48m48 minutes ago
What George Pataki would need to do to win http://nyti.ms/1ezmPpO

How about having all the other candidates drop out.

Commentary is bummed out that the Rockets were eliminated last night. But you know, we still have a pretty good baseball team to watch. They are in first place in the AL West and hold a six game lead. They are for real and they want your love.

Check out what the Chron’s Evan Drellich is saying about our top prospect:

There seems little doubt the Astros soon will promote (Carlos) Correa, either for the homestand that begins June 12 or maybe on the road before coming home, to give Correa a little time away from the Minute Maid Park spotlight to get his feet wet.

It is about time.

Evan Gattis and Jake Marisnick have two triples each of course.

We have the day off and then the White Sox come in for three this weekend.

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On The Bright Side

There is no doubt that on immigration reform, Latino voters pay the most attention. And they know what happened yesterday. Here is from CNN:

A federal appeals court on Tuesday denied a request from Justice Department lawyers to allow President Barack Obama’s controversial immigration actions to go into effect pending appeal.

The decision is a victory for Texas and 25 other states that are challenging the Obama administration’s actions, which were blocked by a District Court judge in February. Tuesday’s decision means that while the issue is appealed, eligible undocumented immigrants will be unable to apply for the programs aimed at easing deportation threats.

This just seals the Latino vote for Hillary Clinton and the Dems. That’s the bright side. No se puede GOP!

This is Day 2 of no “Today” because of local news coverage of the weather.

This is a smart move by the Chron:

Houston Chronicle retweeted
joysewing ‏@joysewing 4m4 minutes ago
Message to readers: http://HoustonChronicle.com paywall taken down temporarily – Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/houston/article/Message-to-readers-Impact-of-weather-on-home-6285905.php … via @HoustonChron

B’More has class for sure! Check out these tweets:

VoteAstros ‏@astros 14m14 minutes ago
Moment of silence prior to tonight’s game for the lives lost in the Houston floods. Thank you, @Orioles. pic.twitter.com/USv753CYvG

Brian McTaggart ⚾️ ‏@brianmctaggart 14m14 minutes ago
Orioles held a moment of silence prior to tonight’s game for the lives lost in the Houston floods.

I guess we can get back to politics and campaigning today.

Name the ‘Stro hitter who leads the team in walks?

Commentary has been watching the History Channel’s “Texas Rising.” It has been pretty interesting once you get past the topography liberties taken by the show’s director and producer.

It is probably too early to call, but Jose Altuve has a commanding lead in early voting in the race for starting second baseman for the 2015 AL All Star Team. Here are some Footnote tweets:

Alyson Footer ‏@alysonfooter 2h2 hours ago
In-stadium balloting gave the advantage to teams who draw well. Lesser teams’ players didn’t get same love, even when deserving.

Alyson Footer ‏@alysonfooter 2h2 hours ago
That’s the long way of saying that Jose Altuve is leading all AL second basemen by a whole lotta votes.

And a tweet from Tags:

Brian McTaggart ⚾️ ‏@brianmctaggart 44m44 minutes ago
Astros first to 30 wins after taking down O’s: http://atmlb.com/1HJVxJN

George Springer of course has 29 walks to lead the team.

30-17 is pretty good. They are a fun team to watch.

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Well, That Wasn’t Nice!

I heard this last night:

“This rain event is of historic proportion,” from Bill Balleza of KPRC-TV.

It was pretty intense as I was keeping up with last night’s flood tweets, like:

Houston Chronicle retweeted
mike mcguff ‏@mikemcguff 21m21 minutes ago
Every #Houston TV station is in live weather coverage currently except #KHOU.

#KHOU did finally get off their arse and come back on.

Then this funny one:

Houston Chronicle ‏@HoustonChron 1m1 minute ago
Harris County rainfall for 24 hours. http://www.harriscountyfws.org/ Yep, this qualifies as a toad strangler. #houwx #hounews

In the middle of last night’s flood evvent I fired off a couple that got some response:

Marc Campos‏@MarcCommentary 8h8 hours ago
@DwightHoward still hanging with #RedNation fans at #ToyotaCenter during #houstonflood. #Rockets @HoustonChron pic.twitter.com/m1gjQQX8NO
77 retweets 59 favorites

Marc Campos‏@MarcCommentary 7h7 hours ago
Now @KPRC2 Houston loses power during #houstonflood. pic.twitter.com/c72WMtC1J1
6 retweets 3 favorites

The gizmo kept going off with emergency alert tweets.

Name the MLB club with the best road record?

More on the color of gravitas with a tweet and a Kuffer take:

Sue Davis @suedavis1974 · 8h 8 hours ago
New sheriff replaces women, minorities w/white men. What did Garcia think would happen when he let Republican become sheriff?

And Kuffer:

Let’s stipulate up front that the new guy gets to put in his people. That’s expected and understood. Garcia’s people had to know this was coming, and Campos is correct that none of this happens if he had stayed put. And he still has some slots to fill, so this isn’t the end of the story. But come on, you can’t have an all-white-guy command staff at the Harris County Sheriff’s Office in 2015. Anyone who claims that the best-qualified candidates in every case so far just happen to be white guys is not in touch with reality. I mean, we all know this, right? Give Sheriff Hickman the benefit of the doubt for now, but let’s keep an eye on this. In the meantime, I agree with Stace: It would be nice to have a Democratic candidate or two announce their intention to run. This is the marquee race now, let’s get it going.

Here is all of Kuffer: http://offthekuff.com/wp/?p=67407

I recently drove the North Rail Line and the East End Rail Line. There sure are quite a few boarded up businesses right next to the tracks. I wonder if folks will reinvest in those sites.

The ‘Stros at 14-7 of course have the best road record in MLB.

Good thing we are on the road. It would not have been pretty with another 17,000 plus in Downtown H-Town last night.

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The Color of Gravitas

Remember when Hunker Down said he wanted the new Sheriff to have gravitas. The Chron has a story today on the color of the new Sheriff’s first hires. I am not surprised and neither should you. I knew this was going to happen and so did you. That’s why some folks didn’t want the former Sheriff to leave. Here is a bit from the Chron story:

Among Ron Hickman’s initial moves as sheriff was filling each of his first eight command posts with white males, a choice critics said shows a lack of vision in a jurisdiction as diverse as Harris County.

These employees range from a major in charge of criminal investigations to an assistant chief who oversees the jail.

Hickman called it insulting to question whether race or gender were considerations in his early staffing assignments.

“I’m still researching the top-level personnel. Given that I haven’t finished assembling it,” he said, “I think it would be unfair for me to say anything.”

However, Adrian Garcia, the county’s first Latino sheriff, called it “unconscionable” that all those on Hickman’s command staff to date are white and male. Garcia resigned to run for mayor of Houston.

If you are going to waste some personal energy and call out the new Sheriff, it is only fair that you call out the former Sheriff. He help create the situation. As for the former Sheriff calling the new hires “unconscionable” – what in the heck did he expect? Oh, well, now that’s what you call gravitas!

Here is the entire Chron article on the hires: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Critics-say-diversity-lacking-in-new-sheriff-s-6284551.php?cmpid=btfpm.

Where does Bleacherreport.com have the ‘Stros in their latest MLB power rankings this morning?

The family got together in Baytown this past Saturday to celebrate my Mom’s BD #89. Some of us were watching the ‘Stros on the flat screen. Some were in the next room visiting. While setting up the family pic the ‘Stros pulled off the triple play. Nice!

How about these tweets from yesterday:

MattYallofMLB 6m6 minutes ago
Since wild card era began in 1995, teams in or tied for first place at Memorial Day have a 51.2% chance of winning division. #Elias

Brian McTaggart ⚾️ retweeted
Richard Justice ‏@richardjustice 23m23 minutes ago
The Astros are an absolute joy to watch. That’s surely one part of this season’s sweetest and most improbable story.

How about this Richard Justice article from yesterday: http://m.astros.mlb.com/news/article/126460264/richard-justice-astros-a-joy-and-dangerous.

We have the second best record in MLB and Bleacherreport.com has us at number 2 in this morning’s MLB power rankings of course. KC with the best record holds the top spot in the rankings.

Let’s see. Yesterday we jumped off to a 3 zip lead, then fell behind 5-3, then it was 7-3, then we tied it up at 7-7, then went ahead 10-7, and won it 10-8. Nice!

We could be the first 30 game winner in MLB this season with a win at Camden this afternoon. I like our chances with Dallas Keuchel on the mound.

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A Nice Weekend

My take is short today.

Go check out http://www.karlacisneros.com when you get a chance. Let me know what you think.

The new light rail lines will open tomorrow. Does anyone know the over/under on when the first car will smack into a METRO light rail train? To car drivers out there, be careful, stay alert, and be patient.

I wonder how many folks will use the rail to head to The Yard or BBVA Compass. It drops you off right in front! It beats paying $15 for parking!

The Chron E-Board has a take on the rail lines opening here: http://www.chron.com/opinion/editorials/article/Rail-by-the-numbers-6279717.php.

How are the ‘Stros doing this season against AL West teams – like what is our record?

Stop second guessing please! How many of you actually shouted “time out” in the 6.9 seconds James Harden and Dwight Howard had the ball at the end of the game last night? I just wanted them to get down the court and put it in the basket. It wasn’t until after the game that the twitterverse exploded with the second guessers.

It turns out Blue Bell has been sucker punching us for six years now. Not gonna happen!

The ‘Stros are 18-11 against AL West teams of course.

We made it interesting yesterday by coming back from a 5-0 deficit to tie it up and send it into extra frames. We are still up by 5 ½.

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Recycling 101

I have said it before. The City of H-Town needs to do a better job of letting folks know how to properly recycle. Today the Chron E-Board agrees. Here is a bit from their take today:

We’re better recyclers today, but our inattention and ignorance about what can go in the recycling bin is costing the city money.

And:

Right now, the city and its vendors need to ramp up their educational efforts, and residents need to use available tools to learn to recycle the right way.

I don’t think they get it over at the City if you ask me. That’s too bad.

Here is the entire E-Board take: http://www.chron.com/opinion/editorials/article/Recycling-haze-6276989.php.

How many multi-dinger games do the ‘Stros have this season?

Somebody asked me the other day if I would ever eat Blue Bell again, err assuming they reopen. I answered the question.

I mean GM’s CEO went before Congress a year or so ago to let us know that they weren’t honest with us on their ignition switches and a few folks died as a result and folks are still buying GM cars and trucks. I guess folks need to drive but there are other choices like Fords and Hondas and BMWs.

We have to have transportation. We don’t have to have ice cream.

You can go to the Kroger and they have one whole side of an aisle dedicated to ice cream. You can get the high end stuff, the Blue Bell types, and the store brand stuff. Choices galore. I am guessing that if Blue Bell ever resumes production, there will be a permanent drop-off.

The 2015 ‘Stros are 27-14. The lousiest ‘Stro team in our history were the 2013 ‘Stros who went 51-111.

Just two years ago. After 41 games, the 2013 ‘Stros were 11-30. Can you believe?

We went 7-2 on the recent homie. Not bad at all!

The team has an unusual 12 noon start today at Comerica to start a four game series with the Tigers.

Oh, yeah. Dallas Keuchel is 6-0 with a 1.67 ERA. How about that!

21,000 and change showed up yesterday. That’s good.

The ‘Stros have 17 multi-dinger games this season of course – WOW!

I was wrong yesterday. They don’t do Dollar Dogs on day games. Sorry

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Forum Fodder

The first H-Town Mayoral candidate forum is two weeks from the today. The second one is the next day. One is at the Asia Society Texas Center and the other is at UH. I am guessing all of the candidates will attend. I am also thinking that both forums will be well attended. I am looking forward to hearing how neutral observers grade the candidates.

I really don’t want to hear the back and forth from other candidates on who Rev. Bill Lawson was sitting next to at the forums.

Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Lisa Falkenberg put it on Blue Bell this morning. Here is how she ends her column:

In this case, Blue Bell appears to have chosen profit above the health and safety of customers. That’s a sad truth no singing cow can mask.

Even if the ice cream comes back, that innocent mystique is gone forever.

I feel for those who lost their jobs. Their leadership let them down.

Name the MLB club with the lowest team batting average?

Tonight is David Letterman’s final show. The Chron reminded us yesterday about the time when he first went on CBS and Channel 11 was one of the stations that used to show it later than most. I had almost forgotten about that. Here is about a time when Letterman visited Channel 11 with the show running at the later time:

That had to be an awkward visit.

David Letterman dropped by Houston on March 9, 1993, as part of a brief goodwill stop at the Houston station that would soon carry his late-night show after a long run on NBC.

Problem was, KHOU was one of a handful of stations that planned to air Letterman’s show a little later in the night. As the Houston Post’s Eric Gerber noted at the time of his visit:

Although the visit to Channel 11 is intended to be quick (90 minutes or so) and cordial, there could be some awkward moments, too. The station has decided to delay Dave’s new show half an hour in this market (till 11:05 p.m.). Dave and CBS aren’t happy about that. But Channel 11, which will put more money directly into its station coffers showing the new syndicated tabloid program “American Journal,” says Dave and CBS should be happy they’re on at all.

Letterman and Channel 11’s folks will both be smiling a lot for the cameras, but it’s not all hearts and flowers, folks.

Back then, Houston was the only Top 10 market that delayed his show by a half-hour.

For Letterman, this was nothing new. In the 1980s, Gerber wrote, KPRC (Channel 2) delayed his show so the station could run “Love Connection” after the “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.” KPRC eventually began showing Letterman at 11:30 in 1987.

KHOU would come around, too. In 1995, Letterman moved to 10:35, where he’s been for the last 20 years. That ends Wednesday as the talk-show host brings his late-night career to a close.

The ‘Stros are dead last in team batting average in MLB with a .229 average of course.

These tweets from last night:

#VoteAstros ‏@astros 13m13 minutes ago
With 3 more home runs last night, the #Astros have 60 homers, most in MLB. #Power

#VoteAstros @astros · 10h 10 hours ago
The #Astros are 26-14. It’s the team’s best record after 40 games in franchise history. #Represent

Only 17,000 and change showed up last night at The Yard. I know, I know – Rockets basketball. The homie wraps up today with Dollar Dogs.

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Open Carry = Open Season

I am thinking if Open Carry goes to the Governor’s desk, why not sign the bill at the Twin Peaks parking lot in Waco.

It is the culture that some folks promote here in Texas.

Here is what State Sen. Joan Huffman said yesterday about the Open Carry bill and the Waco Shootout:

“This bill does nothing to try to legislate against criminal behavior. We have plenty of laws to prevent the kind of incident that occurred at Twin Peaks. This bill does not have anything to do with what went on yesterday.”

How can she say that with a straight face when a contingent of law enforcement officials were at the scene when it happened?

She obviously will never get it. The Chron E-Board gets it. Here is part of what they said today:

Imagine how much worse the Waco mayhem could have been. It took place at a busy shopping plaza, less than 30 feet from a Mexican restaurant at lunch time. True, 19th-century Waco was known as “Six-Shooter Junction,” but 21-century shoppers at a nearby Cabela’s or Best Buy weren’t expecting to be party to a Wild West shoot-out when they left home for the relatively upscale Central Texas Marketplace.

A Wild-West Texas, though, seems to be the ideal for the legislative gunsters we’ve sent to Austin, whose actions will result in more guns in more places with fewer safeguards. They’re besotted with the notion that the Second Amendment confers an absolute immunity against any attempt to protect the general welfare.

They are mistaken. There are sensible limits on every one of our constitutional rights, including the Second.

We’re not saying that the elected officials who have made gun rights their mission condone what happened in Waco. We are saying that the indiscriminate possession of guns is a danger that law-abiding citizens shouldn’t have to tolerate. With all due respect to the Second Amendment, we would expect them to show a little common sense, not to mention a decent respect for the sanctity of human life. Maybe it’s too much to expect those qualities from criminal biker gangs, but most of us expect higher standards from our elected officials.

Here is the entire E-Board take: http://www.chron.com/opinion/editorials/article/Biker-brawl-6271489.php.

Hey, like I said, it is a culture that is promoted.

Name the three players in our starting lineup yesterday who are hitting below the Mendoza Line?

From the Oops Dept.

This was tweeted this past Sunday:

Adrian Garcia retweeted
Mustafa Tameez @MustafaTameez · 23h 23 hours ago
Rev. Bill Lawson – Adrian Garcia will make the best Mayor for Houston #HouNews #ag2015 #Fox26ForLife pic.twitter.com/1bC9a4xKx1

Then this was released yesterday:

Statement from Rev. William A. Lawson

“There has been a lot of discussion over the past 24 hours about where I stand in the mayor’s race. Upon further reflection, I wish to make the following statement.

“Today, I am endorsing Representative Sylvester Turner for mayor of the City of Houston.

“Sylvester has been excellent as a lawmaker representative of citizens at all levels. He has proven to be a man of passion for all people and a man of integrity. I believe that everyone in the City of Houston, including the lowly and the vulnerable, need a mayor who will care about them. That is where I have always stood.”

I am hearing that the back story on this is a doozy. It is about going overboard, jumping the gun, and making up stuff.

And then this was tweeted out yesterday:

AlanBernstein ‏@AlanBernstein 9m9 minutes ago
This picture from Sunday is probably worth much more than today’s 100 or so words. Thnx for the follow @grantmartin1 pic.twitter.com/k1N3jVY4R7

And then this:

Miya Shay @miyashay · 10h 10 hours ago
Yesterday, Rev. Lawson speaks at @AdrianGarciaHTX kickoff. Today, he endorses @SylvesterTurner for Mayor. #HouMayor tug-a-war! #abc13

And then the Parks Department released the following this morning:

We want to clarify what has transpired over the past 48 hours. There was no rally at Moody Park this past Sunday.

Not really!

Springer (.188), Gattis (.183), and Carter (.160) of course were in last night’s starting lineup. Just think how we would be doing if all three were just hitting at their career average – yikes!

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WOW!

I sure hope Mayor Cisneros is right on this. Talk about Latino voter turnout in 2016. Here is a bit from yesterday’s SA Express News:

Henry Cisneros told a Spanish-language television network that Julian Castro is Hillary Clinton’s first and only option to run as her vice presidential running mate.

Cisneros told Univision’s Félix De Bedout that people within the Clinton campaign have told him that Castro, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and former San Antonio mayor, is “the first person on their list.”

Here is the entire article: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Cisneros-Hillary-Clinton-s-only-option-for-VP-6268491.php.

All I have to say about how much money the Clintons received for giving speeches, nobody put a gun to the heads of those that paid to hear them talk.

Commentary makes it a policy not to talk about folks and some of the personal stuff that should be kept private. Yesterday, the Chron told us way too much about a couple of local elected officials – wowsers!

Nice job, Waco!

The 25-13 ‘Stros have the second best record in MLB but this morning Bleacherreport.com has them at number 5 on their MLB Power Rankings. Name the four teams ahead of the ‘Stros?

In local Mayoral politics, the campaign kickoffs are over so now it is about winning over voters.

The new light rail lines will open this Saturday. This past weekend I ran across them making some test runs. I hope the folks that regularly drive Downtown show a little patience. Be careful out there.

All I can say is when there are only four team left in the NBA Playoffs, the Rockets games start at a normal 8 pm.

Detroit, San Luis, Dodgers, and KC all rank ahead of the ‘Stros of course in this morning’s Bleacherreport.com MLB Power Rankings.

Check these tweets from yesterday:

Alyson Footer ‏@alysonfooter 13m13 minutes ago
It’s May 17 and officially not early anymore. Astros aren’t going away.

Alyson Footer @alysonfooter • 4h 4 hours ago
“Not going away” doesn’t mean “win the division.” “Not going away” means the Astros will be, and are, contenders this year.

The crowds are getting bigger. This evening Lance McCullers, Jr. will make his MLB debut with the ‘Stros. We have a 5 ½ game lead. What else can you ask for?

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