No place but Houston ( and Austin )

[Syntyr]

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo in self-quarantine after staff member tests positive for COVID-19

https://abc13.com/health/hidalgo-in-iso ... 9/6278756/

But...wait. She's the one who wants to completely close Harris County down again because we the deplorable population can seem to take the proper precautions. Like maybe...touching our own face masks every 10 seconds! Yeah, Judge Hidalgo; I mean you.

Yeah but she was wearing a mask so everything is okay right???

[iratollah]

Will there ever be an end to Virtue Signalling? Is there a prize for topping the last bit of virtuousity?

Houston Area Realtors no longer using 'master' to describe bedrooms and bathrooms
https://www.chron.com/business/real-est ... 360782.php

The Houston Association of Realtors has stopped using the word "master" to describe bedrooms or bathrooms, a change prompted by a group of real estate agents that requested a review of the term.

The association agreed to update the phrase to "primary bedroom" and "primary bath." It implemented the changes in its Multiple Listing Service and on har.com June 15.

"This topic is currently being debated across the real estate industry, and the national standards organization for MLSs will be considering a similar change that could make 'primary' the new standard nationally," according to a statement from HAR.

Tiffany Curry, a Houston real estate broker who recently became the first African-American owner of a Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices franchise, supports the change.

"'Master' represents a stigma and place in time that we need to move forward from. As a progressive, diverse city, Houston should be reflective of its citizenship," said Curry, a past National Association of Realtors board member.

Some builders have already dropped the term. David Weekley Homes, for example, calls a home's primary bedroom an "owner's retreat."

The National Association of Realtors said it is focused on addressing discrimination that still occurs in housing transactions. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, however, has advised NAR that the term "master bedroom" is not discriminatory and does not violate fair housing laws.

"NAR sees no reason that real estate professionals cannot use the term, as there is also no evidence that it has any historical connection to slavery or any other kind of discrimination," according to a statement from NAR President Vince Malta.

While HAR will no longer use the nomenclature, it will not block agents from doing so through discussions or marketing purposes.

[crazy2medic]

So is the Term Master Cylinder out too? How about use of the term Master Stream in the fire service? How about Master Chief in the military?

[OneGun]

People are getting way out there with this PC crap. These people neeeed to take an enema and relax a bit.

First it was Land O'Lake image of the Indian woman. Next Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben's, Eskimo Pie, Lady Antebellum, and now the Master Bedroom.

What will the management of Master Lock do?? OMG! What about Masterpiece Theatre? Oh the Horror!!!!

[striker55]

Don't get me started, Dixie Chicks, skin whitening it's endless. Every day something is determined to be offensive to someone. NASCAR going bananas. Where does it end?

[Rafe]

Harris County disaster declaration and mask order extended until August 26

https://abc13.com/health/harris-county- ... 6/6281792/

[Rafe]

Mayor Sylvester Turner is doing everything in his power to force the Texas Republican Convention to cancel long-standing plans for the statewide, in-person convention at the George R. Brown July 16 to 18. Earlier today Turner sent an ultimatum letter to Texas GOP executive director Kyle Whatley laying out multiple conditions that would have to strictly adhered to. The mayor's threat is that he will use city health inspectors as enforcement for his list of conditions, and that they will be empowered to shut-down the whole thing if there are infractions.

Mayor Turner is preaching COVID-19 threat. One wonders just how hard he would be fighting this, as a deep blue partisan politician, if this were the Texas Democratic Convention.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/h ... 389940.php

[Rafe]

Well, our blue mayor Turner did it:

City cancels state GOP convention as party vows legal fight

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politi ... 394025.php

Mayor Sylvester Turner announced on Wednesday that the city has canceled the Texas Republican Party’s in-person state convention in downtown Houston next week.

Houston First, the public nonprofit that serves as the city’s convention arm, sent a letter to the party’s executive committee notifying it that the convention has been canceled.

The letter triggers a part of the contract called a “force majeure” clause, which allows one side to cancel for an occurrence out of its control. The definition included “epidemics in the City of Houston,” according to the Houston First letter.

[Rafe]

Montgomery County Judge offers to host GOP convention after Houston cancels

"Moments after the Houston announced the cancellation of the GOP convention at GRB, Judge Mark Keough said Montgomery Co. is open for business."

https://abc13.com/politics/montgomery-c ... -/6307777/

[Rafe]

Harris County commissioners are thinking about raising property taxes by 8% at one fell swoop, and they don't need your approval to do it. They can use COVID-19 as an excuse to legally bypass the state statutes.

https://abc13.com/finance/harris-county ... s/6359652/

[Rafe]

No place but in Kim Ogg's office, the deeply blue and leftist district attorney that Harris County elected.

Harris Co. DA prosecutors resign after documents involving COVID-19 cases leak
https://abc13.com/politics/why-2-harris ... d/6414691/

Former prosecutor Cheryl Chapell said District Attorney Kim Ogg was unhappy after an internal COVID-19 document leaked, so she started an internal investigation into several employees.

Chapell, who worked at the office since 2013, quit this summer. In her resignation letter she said that Ogg's office went too far in the inquiry, even sending investigators to her home, seizing work-issued electronics and trying to get access to data from her personal cell phone.

Then, another resignation happened on Labor Day. Jessica Milligan, who worked on the animal cruelty task force, left after more than a decade.
Her resignation letter was first obtained and reported by a journalist for the nonprofit Marshall Project. It claimed Ogg's leadership was choosing which cases to prosecute based on politics and not justice.

Suhprise, suhprise!

[philip964]

https://news.yahoo.com/execution-nicola ... 41413.html

Many reports show he was on his knees when he was shot and killed.

https://www.khou.com/article/news/crime ... f480c3981a

More.

[C-dub]

Wow!

Arm chair Monday morning response and only 48 seconds of information, but if all he had was a sharpened piece of rebar I gotta wonder how Mr. Gamaldi thinks that was justified.

[srothstein]

Wow!

Arm chair Monday morning response and only 48 seconds of information, but if all he had was a sharpened piece of rebar I gotta wonder how Mr. Gamaldi thinks that was justified.

I only watched a 16 minute video of the incident that was released by HPD and was narrated by Acevedo and spliced from the edited videos of the various body cameras. Since it was from a link where Acevedo announced that he had fired the officers for having such little regard for human life, I assumed it would show something that justified their firing.

After viewing the video from Acevedo, and from an ex-officer's point of view, I cannot see how Acevedo expects to make the firings stick. To me, it was a legally justified shooting. I can see where someone with no police training MIGHT question some of it, especially the first shooting. I can see where the anti-police media would say it was wrong. But the police and their lawyers can explain how it was justified pretty clearly, in my opinion.

Note, there may be something in HPD policy that I am unaware of that would make the shooting a violation of policy and justify the firings for that reason. I am going based on legal reasons as opposed to policy. With that proviso, I expect that HPD is going to start seeing some of the mass exit of officers that cities like Atlanta, New York, and Minneapolis are seeing.