Texas House Votes to Allow Student Organizations to Ignore University Non-Discrimination Policies

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Thu May 16, 2013 at 09:30 AM CDT

The amendment would prohibit Texas universities from requiring student organizations to follow university-wide non-discrimination policies. In the name of freedom of speech, association, and to "promote diversity of thought and the marketplace of ideas" on college campuses, the Krause Amendment effectively nullifies non-discrimination policies-- policies intended in part to create a safe learning environment where everyone's ideas are allowed to be shared in the first place.

If the law to which this amendment is attached becomes law, campus organizations will be able to discriminate based on race, religion, veteran status, HIV/AIDS status, gender, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, and they will be able to use taxpayer resources to do it.

This issue has been a pet project of Rep. Krause who two years ago defended 14-year-old Dakota Ary, who remarks about homosexuality resulted in a suspension and investigation into the teacher who was cleared as the target of the student's harassment. It's the sort of typical "reverse discrimination" legislative reaction one might expect from Republicans, but maybe not a majority in the Texas House.

Equality Texas is actively monitoring the legislation and released the following via email.

The Krause amendment was one of 15 amendments added by the House to Senate Bill 215. It is likely that a conference committee will be needed to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions of SB 215. Equality Texas will be actively engaged throughout that process working to strip the Krause amendment from the bill's final version.

We will keep you apprised of this process as it unfolds.

House Calendars Deadlines Kills Two Anti-Gay Bills in Texas

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Thu May 09, 2013 at 10:30 AM CDT

HB 1568, by Rep. Drew Springer of Muenster, attempted to punish the Pflugerville Independent School District for offering health insurance benefits to the unmarried partners of employees. During the legislative process, the bill was modified into an attempt to massively expand the powers of the State Attorney General by giving him the ability to shut down any school district, without an appeals process or oversight, as we previously reported.

HB 360 by Rep. Matt Krause of Fort Worth, also died last night. HB 360 would have prohibited universities from requiring that officially recognized school organizations abide by the universities' nondiscrimination policies.

AISD Bond Election Turnout Light, Early Voting Ends Today

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Tue May 07, 2013 at 03:33 PM CDT

With unseasonably enjoyable weather (for May in Austin), attention has not been on the election. Devoid of Austin city council races which voters elected to move to November of 2014, the AISD bond campaign has been the only major show in town- and the most organized opposition to it seems to be the Statesman Editorial Board whose failure to endose the bonds this weekend went mostly unnoticed as Statesman content began slipping behind its new paywall.  The bonds have been endorsed by the Austin Chronicle, Burnt Orange Report, and the TCDP for perspective. Be sure to check out the new ad released by the pro-bond campaign Fix Austin Schools.

With hours left to vote, Travis County voters can cast ballots by 7PM at any of these early vote or mobile vote locations. This Saturday's 7AM-7PM Election Day polling locations are available here.

All Things Equal- Austin Traffic Congestion Worse Than New York City

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Mon May 06, 2013 at 10:30 AM CDT

#4: Austin

• Congestion score: 20.7
• Population density: 406.7 people per sq. mile (70th highest)
• Average commute time: 25.8 minutes (45th highest)
• Pct. driving to work: 85.8% (47th lowest)

No metro area with more than a million residents had a greater percentage increase in population from July 1, 2011, and July 1, 2012, than Austin's 3% growth, according to the Austin Statesman. This is hardly news for the area, which has expanded rapidly for more than a decade and, like much of the state, has been unable to expand transportation infrastructure to handle this growth. In 2012, Austin was one of four metro areas with an INRIX index score higher than 20, well above the 6.6 score for the U.S. overall. It was also one of just six large metro areas in which the INRIX index score worsened compared to the year before.

Emphasis mine. But before I discuss why Austin is where it is, let's be sure everyone's on the same page about what's being measured here. Click to continue reading.

HB 1568 Passes Committee, Cuts Funds to Districts Offering Domestic Partner Benefits

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Fri May 03, 2013 at 09:59 AM CDT

While the text of the bill has no mention of domestic partnerships, this anti-gay and anti-local bill would allow the state to credibly threaten school districts like Pflugerville and Austin. It's intended to keep any other ISDs from considering to offer domestic partnership benefits to their employees unless they want to risk having their accreditation and funding pulled by the state. The trigger here is Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's opinion released this Monday where he argues that districts like Pflugerville or Austin would be in violation of the state's constitution if they offered similar benefits in the coming school year.

HB 1568 is a small bill which gives the state a huge amount of leverage. It goes against the very heart of local control and more importantly, goes against public sentiment. According to recent polling, 65.7% of voters support extending domestic partnership benefits to government/public university employees; an increase of 3.4% from 2010.

Should this bill make it out of Calendars and onto the House floor, expect the reality of public opinion and the desire of local jurisdictions to offer competitive benefits to suddenly crash into a wall of Texas Republican ideologues. There are cracks to exploit, but this bill is dangerously close to becoming a flashpoint.  

Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt Announces Run for Travis County Judge

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Thu May 02, 2013 at 10:00 AM CDT

Eckhardt took the opportunity to subtly draw distinctions with Brown in her remarks and later email announcements, casting him as being wet behind the ears and beholden to the local Democratic establishment.

"Serving as the chief executive and administrator of Travis County and presiding over the Commissioners Court is not a job for beginners."

"The people of Travis County are weary of politics as usual, and they long for fair, effective and efficient county government. When the people choose the next Travis County Judge, they will be looking for a candidate with experience, love for public service and the courage for excellence."

As a current Commissioner, Eckhardt, who serves until her interim replacement is appointed by Judge Sam Biscoe, stressed her experience working on the Court. As County Commissioner, Sarah Eckhardt often plays the role of "policy wonk" on issues ranging from transportation, environmental protection, contract negotiation, civil and criminal justice administration, and the countywide social safety net. In addition to that work she noted her prior 8 years of service at the County Attorney's office, her electoral success having defeated an incumbent (Karen Sonleitner, who plans to run for her old seat in 2014), and recent poll numbers which show her with higher name ID than Andy Brown.  

To read the full remarks from Eckhardt's announcement, continue reading here.

Time Warner Cable Responds to Google Fiber by Offering Austin "Free" Wi-Fi

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Wed Apr 24, 2013 at 11:01 PM CDT

"We've been rolling out our free Wi-Fi network across our footprint for some time now, as part of our larger strategy to offer significantly more value to our Internet subscribers. Austin was in the game plan for 2013. But Google's recent announcement encouraged us to deploy our network more aggressively now," said Jeff Simmermon, Time Warner Cable's director of digital communications

But just like the AT&T announcement of big plans for their own Gigabit Internet in Austin without any actual details, Time Warner's announcement also comes with plenty of caveats. Mainly, it's not actually anywhere close to a citywide network, and it's not free because it's only available to existing Time Warner customers with at least a standard Internet or business class Internet subscription.

Time Warner Cable says that its "free" closed Austin Wi-Fi network will first be made available in areas like Zilker Park, Barton Springs, Lamar Boulevard, Congress Avenue, and the Fifth/Sixth street. That's mostly the same areas currently covered by the City of Austin's actually free to everyone municipal wireless mesh. As you can see from the map, the initial coverage area is relatively meager. And it's not as if Austin is known for having a shortage of open Wi-Fi hotspots.

Another important question is the speed of the network. Austin's free municipal wifi network is not known for it's blazing fast downloads, but it wasn't built for that purpose, nor was it ever intended to compete as a replacement option for Internet service. Time Warner Cable provides no information online as to the speed of their Wi-Fi hotspots, and a call to the company yielded confirmation that they do not give out that information or guarantee any level of speed.

"It depends on your distrance from the hotspot and how many other users are on the network" was what the TWC Wi-Fi rep told me over the phone. That's true of most networks, and with additional questioning, she confirmed that the company simply doesn't have or give out that data.

Why is the speed important? Given Time Warner Cable's clear pushing of downloading their Android and iOS apps, whatever Wi-Fi speeds they are offering need to be competitive with 4G LTE cellular download speeds. And as the chart below indicates, cellular LTE speeds are now competitive with Wi-Fi, often exceeding it in the upload speed category. This info is from 2012, and it's only gotten faster as the carriers have built out their 4G network.

Let's not be naive- Time Warner is competing as much with AT&T as it with Google Fiber. Not that Austinites particularly care given the low esteem they hold for what has been the city's near monopoly player for many years.  

Texas Senate Passes Bill to Allow Online Voter Registration

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Wed Apr 24, 2013 at 05:20 PM CDT

Yeas: Birdwell, Carona, Davis, Duncan, Ellis, Garcia, Hancock, Hinojosa,
Huffman, Lucio, Nichols, Rodriguez, Schwertner, Seliger, Uresti, Van de Putte, Watson, West, Whitmire, Williams, Zaffirini.

Nays: Campbell, Deuell, Eltife, Estes, Fraser, Hegar, Nelson, Patrick, Paxton, Taylor.

Voters with an unexpired driver's license or personal identification card will be able to go to an official state website where they will be able to register to vote online. The Texas Department of Public Safety already maintains records of most of the required information in order to register to vote and more importantly, maintains a database of signatures used on the cards they issue. The issue of a signature has been the stumbling point in previous calls for online voter registration and thanks to advances in technology is one we can now move past.

"Voting is a fundamental right and a public duty in our democracy, yet many Texans don't participate in the electoral process," Uresti said. "Online voter registration will encourage more people to participate by making the registration process easier and more convenient."

For more details and stats on online voter registration, continue reading below the fold.  

Calls for Rosemary Lehmberg's Resignation Are Premature

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Wed Apr 24, 2013 at 01:00 PM CDT

But what happens when the media frenzy runs out or moves on? We already know Lehmberg is guilty and there aren't a whole lot of details left to the imagination. How much of it is political, from both the right and the left? Do people care that the person who filed the petition to discharge Lehmberg from office was a Republican or that Republican Governor Rick Perry would appoint any replacement prior to the next election?

There are a lot of opinions and likely even a few agendas all at play here so let's cut through the noise and look at the very simple reality of what Katherine wrote yesterday and why it matters a great deal.  

Texas on the Brink: Sad State for Democracy

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Mon Apr 22, 2013 at 02:58 PM CDT

First, to orient readers, this is what the population of Texas looks like since representation is supposed to be reflective of the public at large.

Evolving Demographics:

• 12% of Texas residents are African American, 40% are Hispanic, 42% are White, and 7% are Other. (link)
• There are 2.25 million children in immigrant families in Texas. (link)
• 46,401 same-sex couples live in Texas, representing 7.2% of same-sex couples identified in the United States. There are approximately 431,095 LGBT workers who live in Texas. (link)
• 64.7% of all Texas voters support allowing gay and lesbian couples to get a civil union and 68.8% of all Texas voters support gays/lesbians having the same legal rights with respect to their children. (link)

With a diverse population with diverse needs, is Texas keeping up its engagement with citizens when it comes to voting? Not so much. Here are some sobering stats from the report, ranked by state.

• 47th- Women's Voter Registration
• 51st- Women's Voter Turnout
• 47th- Percent of Voting-Age Population Registered to Vote
• 51st- Percent of Voting-Age Population that Votes

To read more about the real state of the state, click here to check out the rest of the report.