Daily Archives: August 26, 2014

Texas Politics

Texoblogosphere: Week of August 25th

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The Texas Progressive Alliance wishes everyone a Happy Back To School Week as it brings you this week’s roundup.

Off the Kuff has had many things to say about the Perry indictments.

Harold Cook sounded some cautionary notes about the Perry indictments.

Libby Shaw at Texas Kaos notes that a little ol’ indictment is not stopping Rick Perry from a POTUS run in 2016. Swaggering through New Hampshire to kiss the Koch boy ring, Rick Perry plays W., redux. Cowboy Diplomacy Redux: Rick Perry Plays the Fear Card.

From WCNews at Eye on Williamson. The media and the Texas GOP keep trying to make Republicans look reasonable when it comes to expanding Medicaid, don’t fall for it, Texas Is A Wasteland For Public Support.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants everyone to remember that damn fence is just a monument to racism and fear. What else does it do except cause trouble.

Why can’t Obama be more like LBJ and just get some things done, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs wondered. But just in a facetious way; if we ever had another president half as badass as LBJ, we’d come to regret it.

Neil at All People Have Value went to the Texas City Buc-ee’s. Neil wishes that trendy restaurants in Houston had a sign up like at the Buc-ee’s saying that staff made a wage higher than minimum wage. All People Have Value is one page of many at NeilAquino.com.

With students and teachers going back to school this week, Texas Leftist has an assignment for everyone. Is your school district one of 600 suing Greg Abbott and the Texas GOP-led legislature?Consult the list and map to see. Here’s a hint… It’s not just the schools in blue counties.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Beyond Bones has a problem with “Shark Week”.

Lone Star Ma is still writing about National Breastfeeding Month.

The Rivard Report is not writing about gun control.

Grading Texas responds to Bill Hammond about school ratings.

Very Very Urban has a photo that’s worth at least a thousand words.

Newsdesk looks at the effort to kick Eden Foods out of the Wheatsville Co-Op.

The Texas Election Law Blog has a historical analysis of the Voting Rights Act, preclearance, and redistricting.

Lone Star Q notes that some companies that have strong LGBT equality policies nonetheless have no problem contributing financially to candidates that oppose such equality.

‘stina puts the Ice Bucket Challenge into some context.

And finally, kudos to Media Matters For America for recognizing the difference between how the Texas press covered the Rick Perry indictment and how the national press covered it. To help some of those national pundits understand what the indictments are about, Craig McDonald and Andrew Wheat of Texans for Public Justice wrote a piece for Politico explaining why they filed their complaint in the first place.

(Photo credit: El Paso skyline by Virtual Tourist)

Houston

No More ‘Daily’ for University of Houston’s Newspaper

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Yesterday for the 87th time, the Houston metropolitan area’s largest institution of higher education began a new school year.  Some traditions remained constant, like the sea of students swarming between campus buildings, the long lines snaking around the campus bookstore and the confused look of new, disoriented faces trying to navigate an unfamiliar maze of learning.

But at the university’s main student publication, there is a sign of the times.  The University of Houston’s Daily Cougar has reformed itself into The Cougar, and has fully transitioned to daily digital publication, and will appear weekly in print.  Here’s more from Cara Smith, Editor-In-Chief…

In 1928, The Cougar became Houston Junior College’s  student publication, to later become a daily publication. After roughly 50 years of tirelessly serving the UH community, The Daily Cougar is no more, as you’ll notice our masthead is 33 percent smaller and 100 percent different. It’s 2014, and there’s a new tradition to get excited about—the return of The Cougar, and the first year of what this has all been building up to.

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The switch from operating as a daily print paper to a print weekly, digital daily publication has been in the pipeline for a couple years now. In large part, it’s a result of changing trends in how readers gather and process news. We’ve completely overhauled both our print and web products, both of which will report on the news as well as the kind of news you care about in creative and compelling formats. Be sure to bookmark thedailycougar.com on your browser, as we’ll still be delivering high-quality content seven days a week.

As the Houston Chronicle points out, this transfiguration of newspapers shouldn’t be a surprise, as it is taking place across the country at all levels of publication.  These are students after all… one has to assume that their experience with news is already more in line with The Cougar than its past predecessor.  If you are reading this, the same can probably be said for you.

Change is always difficult, but as long as there is an outlet to foster good journalism and writing at the University of Houston, the community will soldier forth. I for one will continue to hold The Cougar as a predominant news source for UH, and the Alumni network.