I love it. If Texas ends up getting a long-envisioned high-speed railway between Houston and Dallas, the Amtrak executive now leading the initiative says it would feature the fastest trains in the world. The plan for the 240-mile route between the state’s two largest cities, first hatched about a decade ago and recently buoyed by support from Amtrak and political leaders in both the United States and Japan, calls for using Japanese Shinkansen technology in which trains move as fast as 205 mph. Passengers would be able to travel between Houston and Dallas in a matter of about 90 minutes. “Peo ..read more

We begin with this from the inbox. The Harris County Clerk’s Office posted the unofficial May 4 Uniform and Special Elections results on the Harris Votes website early Sunday morning, with 56,612 ballots cast in total. About 2% of Harris County’s eligible registered voters cast a ballot in the May 4 Uniform and Special Elections. Official results will be available after the canvass is completed. About 3% of the eligible voters residing in Texas Senate District (SD) 15 voted in the May 4 Special Election to fill the vacancy left by Houston Mayor John Whitmire. This is the first time someone o ..read more

City Controller Chris Hollins throws out some numbers and kicks up a fuss. Chris Hollins Houston Controller Chris Hollins faced fierce criticism from firefighters union president Marty Lancton, after estimating that equalizing past pay for Houston firefighters with their peers in other major Texas cities would cost about half of the $650 million backpay currently under consideration. The city only has a few weeks remaining to finalize a landmark $1.5 billion settlement with the firefighters union, aimed at resolving a years-long dispute and determining the backpay owed to Houston firefighte ..read more

I have three things to say about this. Transportation advocacy group LINK Houston, in its annual “Equity in Transit” report released this week, asked the region’s public transit provider to accelerate a $7.5 billion plan that was backed by Harris County voters in 2019. The idea behind the recommendation was to provide more frequent service, especially in low-income communities of color such as Gulfton, and to ultimately boost ridership. But the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) appears to be backtracking from, if not scrapping altogether, one of its key selling points w ..read more

This is going to get ugly. Houston ISD’s state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles said Friday afternoon that the school district is facing an estimated $450 million gap in funding that will largely be made up by staff reductions as federal pandemic relief money expires and student enrollment continues to decline. Miles has said previously that the majority of the cuts will come from HISD’s central office, and that his aim is to keep them “as far away from the classroom as possible.” His remarks Friday, though, appear to give the first indication of how widespread those cuts may be. “We can ..read more

Maybe 2027 was too soon. Put a pin in that… U.S. Soccer and the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) have withdrawn from the 2027 World Cup bidding process on Monday, only weeks before the public vote scheduled on May 17 at the FIFA Congress in Thailand. Instead, the two North American federations will bid on the 2031 edition of the tournament. A statement released by U.S. Soccer said that by withdrawing the 2027 bid and focusing on 2031, it will allow the federations to fully take advantage of what they learn from the 2026 men’s edition and provide greater support for host cities — many of wh ..read more

Whatever happened to Charlotte Braun, the least popular Peanuts character? “This article attempts to answer the question of why the polls show good numbers for Republicans that don’t always bear out in final results and why current polling might be off.” “MLB fans getting younger as more kids taking to the diamond”. “Conservative Legal Philosophy Was All a Lie, Too”. I’m old enough to remember when being an avowed puppy-killer was considered to be a political negative. Where have I heard that song before? “The Shōgun story has been told. There is no “second novel” involving any of these charac ..read more

Election live results are here. As of the 11 PM update, in which 118 of 151 voting centers had reported, Molly Cook was easily winning the SD15 special election, with about 56% of the vote. In the HCAD elections: Position 1: Kathy Blueford-Daniels had 55% after early voting, but Bill Frazer was catching up thanks to his Election Day performance. As of 11 PM, Blueford-Daniels was still winning outright with just under 51%, but if things continued as they had been she would likely end up in a runoff. It’s hard to say where exactly this race was because we don’t know which centers had returned re ..read more

Take a couple of deep breaths and we’ll have a brief discussion of this on the other side. A Texas man has asked a court for permission to launch an investigation into his ex-partner’s alleged out-of-state abortion, which could lead to one of the first lawsuits against people who help Texans leave the state to obtain the procedure. Prolific anti-abortion attorney Jonathan Mitchell filed the now-sealed petition in Texas state court last month that would allow him to investigate suspected illegal actions before filing litigation, according to a lawyer representing the people targeted. The man M ..read more

Hardly a shock. The leaders of Houston’s largest teachers union approved a resolution of no confidence in Houston ISD’s Superintendent Mike Miles on Tuesday, in a strong but ultimately symbolic rebuke of the state-appointed superintendent’s leadership. The union’s resolution calls for Miles’ removal as superintendent and lays out numerous grievances that have surfaced repeatedly over the course of his 11-month tenure. It now heads to the Houston Federation of Teachers’ 6,000-plus members for ratification, with results of the vote expected next week. “The takeover of Houston ISD, the largest ..read more