DailyKos 8/9/13
Walmart's 'Worst Nightmare' Competition Has Cashiers And Produce Clerks With $1 Million Pensions

WinCo -- a low-cost grocery store chain from Idaho -- is being described as Walmart's 'worst nightmare' in a recent Time Article:

(snip)
WinCo destroys the Walmart-inspired myth -- well, Trader Joe's and Costco do this as well -- that low prices necessarily mean low labor standards.

And, guess what, WinCo is coming to the state so big it's like a whole other country: Texas.

While WinCo does keep its business quiet, we do know one thing: The company is in the process of expanding to new states, with two locations opening in north Texas next year, for example. Flickinger anticipates rapid growth in the near future, with WinCo doubling in size every five to seven years going forward.

Be afraid, Walmart, be afraid. Karma, you know, is, well...

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-is-wendy-davis-abortion-law-filibuster-a-texas-spring-20130627,0,6885101.story
LA Times 6/27/13

Wendy Davis' abortion law filibuster may be a 'Texas Spring'

Abortion rights supporters may as well put away those champagne glasses.

Jubilation probably came a bit prematurely for those celebrating the demise of the Texas measure that would turn back the clock on reproductive rights.

While many thought that Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis’ bold filibuster killed the bill outlawing abortions after 20 weeks’ gestation, it merely served to postpone what many think is inevitable: the passage of yet another state measure restricting abortion and creating an insurmountable regulatory obstacle for all but five of the state’s 42 abortion clinics, by requiring them to offer the same level of care as ambulatory surgery centers.

Terri Burke, executive director of the Texas ACLU and a fierce opponent of the proposed Texas measure, SB 5, told me on Wednesday that, barring a miracle, she expects the Legislature will pass the bill at some point in the special session that Republican Gov. Rick Perry called for Wednesday, the day after Davis’ dramatic 11-hour filibuster. The special session, which will deal with the abortion bill as well as bills dealing with transportation and juvenile justice, is to convene July 1.

“I am the eternal optimist,” said Burke. “There may be something we haven’t though of to stop it but absent that, yeah, I think it will pass.”

NY Times 6/7/13

Texas Woman Arrested in Connection With Ricin-Laced Letters

Federal agents have arrested a Texas woman in connection with several ricin-laced letters sent last month to President Obama, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York and a Washington lobbyist who works on the mayor’s gun control campaign, according to three law enforcement officials.

The woman, Shannon Richardson, 35, was charged with mailing a threatening communication, according to the officials. Ms. Richardson, who was accused of mailing the letters on May 20, was arrested on Friday in Mount Pleasant, Tex. She is the wife of a man in New Boston, Tex., who was questioned by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the days after the letters were discovered.

Rep. Lamar Smith has drafted a bill that would replace peer review at the National Science Foundation (NSF) with a set of funding criteria chosen and overseen by Congress... and he wants to use it as a model for every federal science agency we have.

Rep. Smith's bill would force the NSF to prove the "worth" of their grants men and women who are politicians, not scientists. And take a look at two of the main points those looking for a grant need to meet: securing national defense and answering questions he feels are important to society at large.

If we sit back and let the House pass this bill, we will be handing over our scientific research to men and women whose jobs are about political bias, not objective reasoning.

There's a reason no one before Rep. Smith has tried to pull this off -- because it opens the door to the defunding of research, the suppression of facts, and the injection of party politics into scientific research. Don't let him open that Pandora's box: join us in calling on the House to oppose Rep. Smith's egregious bill immediately.

PETITION TO MY REPRESENTATIVES: Don't let Lamar Smith undo all the NSF has done for scientific progress. Oppose his bill to turn objective research into political fodder today.

AAS 5/6/13
House passes campus-carry bill 102-41

By a vote of 102-41, the Texas House on Monday approved a final version of controversial legislation that would allow concealed weapons on college campuses in Texas.

But the final version of House Bill 972 does not automatically allow guns in dormitories, classrooms and other campus buildings.
Public schools would have the ability to prohibit them, and private schools would have the option of allowing them.

An amendment added to the bill on Monday gives the president of the university or college the authority to make the decision on whether or not to permit concealed weapons. That decision which has to be made with input from students, faculty, administrators, law enforcement and a school’s board of regents has to be ratified on an annual basis, according to state Rep. Allen Fletcher, R-Cypress.

(snip)
The measure now goes to the Senate, where its future is uncertain.

Huffington Post 4/30/13

Texas Judge's Order Upholding 'Bikini Tops For Strippers' Law Is Completely Hilarious

This is one of the funniest, most eloquent court documents we've ever seen.

In allowing the city of San Antonio, Texas, to enforce an order that strippers wear bikini tops instead of nipple-covering "pasties," U.S. District Judge Fred Biery noted that the issue had once again "fallen into the court's lap."

Biery's opinion, titled "The Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Bikini Top Vs. The (More) Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Pastie," said his job was to answer "the age old question, now with constitutional implications: 'Does size matter?'"

Although Biery ruled that San Antonio's strip clubs did not prove their need for an injunction to block a 2012 law requiring exotic dancers to cover their breasts "from the top of the areola" down, he also cast doubt on the city's claim that such regulations would cut down on violent crime, drug dealing and prostitution:

DailyKos 4/30/13

Look, this isn't even funny at this point. We need an intervention. Somebody help this man:


No, I mean it. Is there a number we should be calling? Can someone check for a medical alert bracelet? Because this poor man is seeing invisible Muslims everywhere, and in every federal department:

AAS 4/26/13

Sacramento Bee political cartoonist Jack Ohman caused a stir this week with a cartoon that some are calling insensitive.

The cartoon features Gov. Rick Perry saying that “Business is booming in Texas!” followed by a large explosion. Behind Perry are signs saying “Low Tax!” and “Low Regs!”

Ohman said he stood behind the cartoon, which he said depicted “Gov. Rick Perry’s marketing of Texas’ loose regulations, juxtaposed with the explosion of the fertilizer plant in West, Texas.”

DailyKos 4/18/13
Texas wants federal disaster aid it refused to give others

U.S. Rep. Bill Flores, whose district includes West, called on all Americans to pray for the victims of this tragedy.


How does Flores plan on assisting? By asking for federal aid presumably (his prayers won't accomplish anything tangible), the same kind of federal aid he voted against for Sandy victims.

(snip)
U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas released a joint statement saying they are among those grieving for those who were injured or lost loved ones in the blast.

Both Cornyn and Cruz voted against Sandy aid as well, of course. What kind of aid do they think they are proposing for West? Aside from their prayers, that is.

Laughing Squid

On March 17th, 2013 the steel US 281 Bridge in Marble Falls, Texas was demolished to make way for the construction of two new concrete bridges. Here’s a video showing the bridge being destroyed in slow motion.