Rick Perry Indicted On Felony Abuse of Power Counts

Some shocking late breaking news tonight, as a Grand Jury has accused Texas Governor Rick Perry of abusing his Gubernatorial Powers. Here’s the story from the Texas Tribune

A grand jury indicted Gov. Rick Perry on Friday on two felony counts, alleging he abused his power by threatening to veto funding for the state’s anti-corruption prosecutors unless Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, who had pleaded guilty to drunk driving, stepped down from office.

The first count returned from a grand jury, abuse of official capacity, is a first-degree felony with a potential penalty of five to 99 years in prison. The second count, coercion of a public servant, is a third-degree felony with a penalty of two to 10 years.

Perry’s legal counsel, Mary Ann Wiley, said Perry would vigorously fight the charges.

“The veto in question was made in accordance with the veto authority afforded to every governor under the Texas Constitution,” she said. “We will continue to aggressively defend the governor’s lawful and constitutional action, and believe we will ultimately prevail.”

Other than the pledge to fight the charges, the Governor has said very little of the issue himself thus far, instead letting his taxpayer-funded legal counsel speak on his behalf.

As one can imagine, the news has launched a complete frenzy among Texas Democrats. Within minutes of the official news wire, Democrat and left-leaning groups had blasted fundraising emails all over the planet.

Perry’s questionable actions are not about the specific situations here. No one will argue that the Governor of Texas has the ability to issue a line-item veto. He was also well within his power to make a public call for Lehmberg’s resignation, if that’s what he thought would be best for the Office of Public Integrity and the people of Texas. But the problem lies in Perry’s motivation to use that power. You cannot issue a threat to an individual and punish an entire responsibility of government for their actions. At least on it’s face, the Governor has never given any reason for why the entire OPI should be defunded other than his personal preference that Lehmberg leave her job.

There is much left to sort out here, but one thing is for sure… This is an historic event for the Lone Star State. Though probably not the type of history Rick Perry was wanting.

UPDATE: On Saturday August 16th, Governor Perry responded to the indictment, calling it a “farce” and promising to vigorously defend his decision.

 

Wendy Davis on LGBT Issues

By now, most Texans probably know that Wendy Davis is running for Governor, and that she is one of the first Democrats to have a serious shot at the state’s highest office in a long time.  But as more people become tuned in to the campaign, they may be trying to figure out where she stands on certain issues.  Particularly when it comes to LGBT rights, Wendy’s public comments have been limited at best.  There is also no section on LGBT issues or equality on the Wendy Davis website.

In a recent visit with supporters of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance , the Senator took some time to share her viewpoint. The group was gathered to review the recent petition submitted by opponents of the ordinance.  Davis came in for a brief visit and said that she is a supporter of the cause. She also spoke about the importance of promoting full equality for all Texans.  Although Davis did not to single out the LGBT community directly, she did give us a reminder of why this year’s elections are so important for LGBT Texans…

“We are getting ready to face a very tough legislative session next year, with more members than ever that do not support equality.  The next Governor will play an important role in determining what laws get passed, and what does not.”

This message is critical for people to understand.  Even if all of the Democrats running statewide were elected, the Texas legislature is still likely to not only be heavily Republican, but heavily weighted against the LGBT community, as over 60 GOP have already stated in a recent amicus brief.  If elected Governor, Wendy Davis’ most important power may be that of the veto, especially where it comes to LGBT rights and protections.  Davis won’t be in a position to propose sweeping changes, at least not much that can realistically get passed through the Texas House and Senate.  But she can be the last line of defense for anything that is directly malicious to the LGBT community or the cause of equality.

On the other hand, an Abbott administration could be very disturbing for LGBT Texans.  The Attorney General has just recently confirmed his beliefs linking same-sex marriage to incest and  pedophilia.   That combined with the fact that some of his closest donors are virulent supporters of debunked “reparative” therapy, Texas has much to fear if Greg Abbott makes it to the Governor’s mansion.

For those seeking to end workplace discrimination for all protected classes, their vote should be for Wendy Davis this November.  On marriage equality, Davis has made her views quite clear as well. Here’s what she told the San Antonio Express-News when seeking the paper’s endorsement…

Davis, asked if she would push to repeal the state constitutional provision on gay marriage if elected governor, said, “I would certainly open up that conversation with the Legislature.

“I think it’s important, and I think that people across this country are evolving on that issue and moving in a direction that demonstrates support for it, so I think it is time to re-open that conversation and ask Texans where they are on it to see if that’s something that we might change legislatively if it doesn’t happen constitutionally,” she said.

Personally, I think it is sad that LGBT rights have to even be discussed in the Texas Governor’s race, and continue to hope for a time when those rights are no longer subject to party politics.  But 2014 is not that time.  If you are someone that believes in full equality for the LGBT community, the choice this November should be clear in the state of Texas.

Examining Houston METRO’s ‘Reimagined’ Flex Zones

Throughout the summer, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (aka METRO) has been meeting with communities to provide information about the new system reimagining plan. In most cases, the plans have been well-received, and left citizens hopeful that they will see vast improvements in service.

This was certainly the case for a meeting that I attended on July 17th at the Third Ward Multi-Services Center.  Residents mostly listened, and had questions specifically about how the changes would affect their specific travel needs.  Not surprisingly, Flex service was mentioned very little by the METRO representatives, save for questions which I asked after the presentation.  Basically at this point, METRO is not sure how all aspects of the Flex implementation will go.

For starters, there are some questions about the justification for Flex service, especially regarding the 52 Hirsch route.  When combined with its southern counterpart the 52 Scott, this bus service is one of the 10 highest-performing routes in METRO’s current system.  52 Scott does indeed have higher ridership than Hirsch, but between FY 2013 and FY 2014, Hirsch’s ridership actually increased by 3.6 percent, while Scott decreased 0.9 percent.  For a route in what METRO refers to as “an area of declining ridership”, 52 Hirsch is bucking the trend.

Where METRO has seen growth potential with its fixed route services, especially that are already high-ridership, the system reimagining either leaves those routes entirely in place (ex: the 82 becoming the 8), or modifies them with close alternatives centered around major thoroughfares.  But this is simply not the case with the 52 Hirsch… a high ridership route that has been greatly reduced with the Flex system.  Where the 52 Hirsch used to run every 15 to 20 minutes during weekday service, that run time will now be cut back to once an hour.

When I asked the METRO representatives how they could justify such substantial cuts on a high-performing route, they actually questioned their own ridership data about the 52 Hirsch, saying it was probably erroneous due to bus driver entering and exiting the bus at layovers.  Texas Leftist asked METRO board member Christoff Spieler about the disparity via Twitter, but has yet to receive a response.

Beyond the one issue with the 52, it’s just important for communities in the Flex areas to understand that their public transit service will change drastically.  What was once predictable, even if sparse fixed route service will now be replaced by this new hybrid system.  To get a visual of how these changes look, I turn to the transit blog HoustonOnTheGo, which has done some stellar work discussing the proposed Flex Zones, and their potential impact on affected areas. These maps originate from HoustonOnTheGo, but were combined them into a side-by-side comparison.  On the left shows bus coverage before reimagining (overlaid with the Flex Zones), and on the right shows coverage under the proposed changes.  Be sure to view the original work, which includes information about all of the Flex Zones.

Flex corridor northeast changes

 

Under system reimagining, fixed route services will be lost.  

 

 

In some cases, citizens will now be forced to walk several miles if they want to reach fixed route service in the system, and are must follow procedures similar to the mostly home-bound customers that use MetroLift… a call-in service.

To be fair to METRO, they do distinguish Flex from MetroLift in a couple of very important ways.  First unlike a MetroLift van, Flex vehicles would stay in a relatively small service area, therefore giving them the ability to respond to call-in requests in a much faster time frame.  If a customer requests pick-ups from a Flex driver, they should already be in the area, and therefore available much sooner to provide rides.  Even with this likely scenario, it is still difficult to reason how the Flex call-in service will work with people whose travel needs far outweigh those of a typical MetroLift customer.  If the system gets overwhelmed, does that mean the person just cannot complete their trip at all?

These and other questions still need to be addressed before Flex is implemented.  Let’s hope that METRO is doing all it can to see these issues get resolved.