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From the July 2014 Issue Subscribe
The Rick Perry Report Card
How did he perform in eight areas that are critical to the state? The grade book is now open.
By Texas Monthly Staff , Nate Blakeslee , Pamela Colloff , Erica Grieder , Mimi Swartz
and Brian D. Sweany
Photograph by Peter Yang
Our highest executive officer has long touted his record on economics, and rightly so (see the "Texas miracle"). But can he claim the same success in public health? Or criminal justice? Or higher ed? Here's a look at his leadership in eight areas of public policy, letter grades included.
At first glance, Governor Perry is as tough on crime as they come. Not only has he signed off on more executions than any other governor in modern U.S. history (276 at last count), but he has also defended the right to use the death penalty in controversial cases, such as when he denied clemency in 2004 to Kelsey Patterson, a mentally ill man whom the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, in a rare move, had deemed worthy of mercy. When asked about capital punishment during a 2011 Republican presidential debate, Perry offered a full-throated endorsement. "If you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you're involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice in the state of Texas, and that is, you will be executed."
But take a closer look, and Perry's views on criminal justice are more nuanced. A bill Perry signed in 2005 that allows juries in capital murder trials to consider life without the possibility of parole has dramatically reduced the number of people who are sentenced to death. (Jurors previously had to choose between death and life with parole, making them far likelier to pick the former.) The law has profoundly changed the future of capital punishment in a state that has had more executions than any other. In 2002, which was the high-water mark for death sentences during Perry's tenure, 37 people were convicted and sent to death row. Last year, the number dropped to 9.
Criminal justice reform has never been one of Perry's top priorities, but as members of his party became interested in recent years in curbing the ballooning cost of incarceration, Perry signed dozens of reform-minded bills. He authorized legislation that established drug courts around the state, which emphasize treatment for certain drug-addicted offenders rather than prison time, and diverted funds from prison construction to enhancing probation, parole, and treatment alternatives. The subsequent reduction in the number of inmates has resulted in the closure of three prisons—a radical departure from the days of Ann Richards and George W. Bush, who oversaw a massive prison buildup around the state. "I think Perry came to see that Texas was going to break the bank if it didn't get smarter on criminal justice policy," said Marc Levin, the director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. "Rather than spending money on building more prisons, he saw that we should be spending it on proven alternatives like mental health and substance abuse treatment."
Though many people scratched their heads when Perry announced in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he supported the decriminalization of marijuana use, he had already acknowledged that he did not believe incarceration was always the best route for nonviolent offenders. Back in 2007, Perry signed legislation allowing police officers to issue citations instead of making arrests for certain misdemeanors, including marijuana possession. And back further still, in 2003, he supported a bill that mandated probation for first-time drug offenders caught with less than a gram of cocaine, heroin, or other hard drugs. While a more liberal-leaning governor might never have had the political capital to support such legislation—or many of the other issues that Perry signed off on, from sentencing reform to prison downsizing—Perry actually did. "Perry has used demagoguery about the death penalty as cover for being able to do some remarkable things," observed Scott Henson, the editor of the criminal justice blog Grits for Breakfast. "As long as he's pounding his fists over the death penalty, no one can portray him as being soft on crime."
Perry and state senator Rodney Ellis at the signing of the Michael Morton Act, in 2013. (©Marjorie Kamys Cotera)
Because of a wave of DNA exonerations during Perry's time in office and the efforts of state lawmakers to improve the system that had allowed such wrongful convictions to take place, Perry presided over a period in which Texas led the country in its efforts to improve police, forensic, and prosecutorial procedures. He signed into law legislation that improved and standardized the way law enforcement conducts lineups; mandated that the testimony of jailhouse informants be corroborated; required prosecutors to hand over exculpatory evidence to the defense (through the 2013 Michael Morton Act); guaranteed a defendant's right to post-conviction DNA testing; substantially raised compensation for the wrongfully convicted; and established the Forensic Science Commission, which elevated the standards of state and local crime labs. Unfortunately, it was also in this arena that Perry had arguably the lowest moment of his governorship, when, in 2009, he successfully scuttled the Forensic Science Commission's inquiry into whether or not a Texas man named Cameron Todd Willingham—who had been convicted using outmoded science and was later executed on Perry's watch—had actually been innocent.
Given how relatively limited the governor's influence is, except for veto power, how much credit does he deserve for the transformation of the state's criminal justice system during his tenure? "Considering that Texas is a very conservative, Southern state, I'd say he's been above average," said state senator Rodney Ellis, a Houston Democrat who authored many of the bills Perry signed that sought to remedy police and prosecutorial misconduct. "He has not led on these issues, but he did not sabotage these bills either. He gets high ratings for not being an obstructionist."
Former state representative Jerry Madden, a Republican from Richardson who helped lead the effort to downsize the Texas prison system, said, "To his credit, he got on board with us. He didn't lead us into battle with his saber drawn—he basically said, 'Why don't you go on ahead?'—but he signed almost every bill we sent him." At the end of the day, Madden noted, it would be difficult to find another governor in the country who has signed as much reform-minded legislation as Perry. "Some governors are sticking a toe in the water and finding it's not as cold as they thought," Madden said of criminal justice reform. "Perry didn't just stick his toe in the water, he jumped."
Number of inmates sent to death row in 2002: 37
Number of inmates sent to death rol in 2013: 9
Transparency and Ethics
Rick Perry is probably not what Plato had in mind when he wrote that republics should be ruled by philosopher-kings. He has, as governor, been more honorable than many of his predecessors were and more ethical than many Texans would have insisted that their governor be. That's not much of a compliment, though, considering his predecessors and the expectations in question. And so we can't review the governor's record on ethics and transparency without considering whether Texas is seriously committed to the same goals.
The good news first. Perry has taken an interest in transparency, at least as it relates to spending. He has signed a number of measures to make data about state and local finances available online, and the results have attracted national acclaim: Sunshine Week and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group have both ranked Texas at or near the top of all states for government transparency.
Those have been worthwhile reforms, although Perry's leadership on the subject should come with a couple of asterisks. It's true that before he was governor, the state didn't put much spending data online, but that's partly because he became governor in 2000, well before most Americans had computers in their pockets. And in pursuing financial transparency, Perry has seemingly been more concerned about efficiency than ethics. When he has touted transparency as an ethical imperative, it has seemed political, as in 2009, when he issued an executive order commanding strict accounting standards for the federal funds that Texas was due to receive under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. And then, at times, he has set transparency aside altogether, as last year, when he vetoed a "dark money" bill that would have required greater campaign finance disclosure.
Perry's ethical lapses as governor mainly fall into two related categories: corruption and cronyism. He has packed state government with pals and asked them to do his bidding; he has disbursed billions of dollars in state money to private companies, some of which are owned by or affiliated with other pals. Complaints about these practices are reasonable. That is apparent from the disastrous executive order, which the Legislature overturned, requiring that young girls receive a new vaccine against cervical cancer; at the time, his former chief of staff, Mike Toomey, was working as a lobbyist for Merck, the pharmaceutical company that stood to benefit from the program. It's also clear in the ongoing fallout over mismanagement at the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), which was created after the state's voters approved up to $3 billion in funds for that purpose in 2007 and which is under investigation for disbursing multimillion-dollar grants without proper review or oversight.
But Perry's hands-on management style is legal enough, at least in Texas. The state constitution gives the governor fairly broad latitude to appoint people, in keeping with that document's Reconstruction-era ambivalence about government itself: those jobs are supposed to be so easy that anyone can do them. And Perry's so-called slush funds—the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Emerging Technology Fund—were both authorized by the Legislature, which has subsequently appropriated billions of dollars for them. Governors can get away with that kind of thing if the voters don't hold them accountable, which Texans haven't, perhaps for a reason.
It's significant, too, that the most high-profile ethical scandal of Perry's administration may turn out to be one of his least controversial actions. Last year, he used his line-item veto power to remove state funding from Travis County's Public Integrity Unit. He had warned he would do so unless Rosemary Lehmberg, the district attorney, resigned. Democrats argued that the governor's motive was political, that because the unit in question is dedicated to prosecuting government corruption—it is currently investigating the troubled CPRIT—Perry must be trying to sabotage it.
But the governor had never tried to sabotage the PIU before Lehmberg was arrested, two months earlier, for drunk driving. Her blood alcohol content, hours after the arrest, was nearly three times as high as the legal limit. Grainy video footage of her staggering through the field sobriety test and lashing out later that night at the jail corroborated that finding. She was sentenced to 45 days in jail but was allowed to leave early to enter rehab. In his veto statement, Perry said that the district attorney had "lost the public's confidence." That seemed plausible, given the circumstances.
Lehmberg remains in office, and Travis County ponied up some money to offset the state cuts, as Perry had predicted they might. In April, however, a grand jury was seated to consider whether Perry ought to be indicted for coercion, bribery, or abuse of power. Democrats felt vindicated. They shouldn't have. Their effort to turn this, of all things, into an ethical scandal suggests a resilient truth about Texas politics. Ethics may be valued, but they are rarely prioritized over more pragmatic concerns, like economic development or partisan jostling. Perry may not have led the state in a more enlightened direction. Did Texans want him to, though?
Quick stat: Estimated amount of questionable CPRIT grants: $56.3 million.
The litany of unpleasant facts about the state's environment is a familiar one: Texas leads the nation in emissions of greenhouse gases and mercury. Houston and Dallas are among the smoggiest cities in the nation. Childhood asthma is reaching epidemic proportions in urban areas. Nineteen counties currently fail to meet federal air-quality standards.
It is worth pointing out that such tallies sometimes reflect a perplexing lack of context: Texas is a large and populous state, with lots of power plants and vehicles. We refine nearly a quarter of all the gasoline used in the country. If every state made its own gasoline and vinyl chloride instead of buying it from us, we'd be much farther down on some of these lists.
Alas, that is a pretty meager caveat compared with the reality that is our state's environmental record. The truth is that Texas deserves its national reputation as a place where business comes first—and public health and environmental concerns come in a distant second. The budget of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state's main regulator of industrial pollution, has been cut by 30 percent since 2008. At times, Governor Perry's fight against environmental regulation seems almost like a point of state pride for him, as though the Alamo were an old revered coal plant. In 2009, when Lisa Jackson, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, announced that greenhouse gases would be regulated under the Clean Air Act, Texas was the only state that refused to comply. In fact, Texas sued the federal government. "This legal action is being taken to protect the Texas economy and the jobs that go with it, as well as defend Texas's freedom to continue our successful environmental strategies free from federal overreach," Perry said at a press conference in February 2010.
That was just one of eighteen suits Texas filed against the EPA during Perry's tenure, a track record that seems aimed as much at garnering national support for his presidential ambitions—fighting off "Washington bureaucrats"—as it is at shoring up support from the industries that matter in Texas. Perry is nothing if not politically savvy, but he has at times seemed shockingly unaware of which way the wind was blowing on air pollution. In 2006 he issued an executive order directing the TCEQ to fast-track approval of new power plants. That paved the way for TXU (now known as Energy Future Holdings) to propose the construction of eleven coal-fired power plants, which are most associated with smog-producing ozone. The backlash came swiftly from prominent Republicans like real estate mogul Trammell Crow; Perry's pro-industry instincts kept him from noticing that concern about air pollution had gone mainstream while he wasn't looking. A state judge ruled that Perry had overstepped his authority, and TXU's plan eventually died. It soon became evident that natural gas, which burns cleaner than coal, was the energy of the future in Texas, and TXU found itself struggling to keep open the coal plants it already owned—especially the old, heavily polluting East Texas plants that couldn't meet new federal regulations.
Perry's tenure has had some bright spots. His appointments to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission have generally been sound, and commissioners have found a good administrator in executive director Carter Smith, who has done his best to run an agency starved of cash by massive budget cuts after the 2008 recession. Texas has also become the nation's leading producer of wind-powered electricity under Perry, though that process was set in motion under George W. Bush and continues to rely heavily on federal subsidies. Given the opportunity to usher in a similar revolution in solar energy in Texas, Perry and his appointees at the Public Utility Commission have largely sat idle.
The same cannot be said for Bryan Shaw, whom Perry appointed to the TCEQ in 2007 and who became its chairman in 2009. Shaw has been nothing if not hands-on in his role as the state's putative environmental watchdog. A climate-change skeptic (like Perry himself), Shaw has at times made a mockery of his agency's own permitting process, overruling staff decisions when industrial applicants come out on the losing side.
A pair of recent reports tells the story as well as any longer analysis could. The official position of the TCEQ is that increased oil and gas drilling in the Eagle Ford Shale and elsewhere in the state has had no significant impact on air pollution in Texas cities. A San Antonio–area planning organization studying the issue with a grant from the TCEQ found otherwise—and had the temerity to announce those findings to the press before sharing them with the TCEQ. The agency's response? Freeze the group's funding.
More recently, TCEQ staff raised eyebrows by joining oil and gas industry officials in publicly attacking a peer-reviewed University of California study linking long-term exposure to ozone with an increased chance of early death. The EPA was collecting comments on a proposed new rule to tighten ozone standards nationwide, most of which, predictably, were from the industries most affected by the change. Among them was this statement from TCEQ executive director Richard A. Hyde: "The available evidence does not support a consistent association between ozone exposure and mortality." As the Dallas Morning News pointed out, Hyde was the only state environmental official in the nation to question the link; it was like a game of "one of these things is not like the other."
After years of finding himself steamrolled by Shaw, former TCEQ commissioner Larry Soward became an outspoken critic of the agency's decision-making during Perry's tenure, despite having been a Perry appointee. He was asked during Perry's 2012 presidential run how the EPA would be affected if Perry reached the White House. Soward replied, "Just look at the TCEQ." For a state that prides itself on its connection to the land and its wide-open spaces, Texas deserves better.
Quick stat:
Change in the TCEQ budget since 2008: -30%
Texas's economy was already performing relatively well at the time Rick Perry became governor. Exports, for example, were flourishing as a result of NAFTA. He would also, as it turned out, have the good fortune to govern during the period of technological innovation that enabled the shale boom. And the heart of the Texas model, which he invokes in promoting the state's business-friendly climate—limited government and low taxes—predates him by more than a century.
In terms of economic development, then, the governor hit the ground running. In retrospect, though, the fact that Perry has presided over the "Texas miracle" has to be more than a coincidence. Jobs and the economy have been his long-standing preoccupations. As ag commissioner, he called for the state to support agriculture processing businesses by issuing loans from a dedicated fund. "We're exporting dollars," he said in 1991. "We're exporting the ability for a young person in Texas to have a good job." Then as now, no industry was too tiny, or too unpromising, to win his support. In 1992 he penned a letter to the Houston Chronicle explaining how the Department of Agriculture was trying to support the state's wine industry. "It's not a novelty anymore," he said—a wildly optimistic comment at the time.
As governor, Perry's focus on business has led him to make sweeping concessions to the private sector. He has kept taxes and spending low, and he signed tort reform laws in 2003 and 2005. But he has also supported investments in public goods like roads and water—the types of investments in infrastructure that benefit the people of Texas as well as its businesses and should not be controversial in a rapidly growing state, even among fiscal conservatives. And at times Perry has taken a more direct role in job creation. In 2003 and 2005 he also signed legislation creating the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, respectively. These "deal-closing funds," as the governor's office calls them, have put billions of dollars at Perry's disposal, which he has used to woo businesses to Texas, specifically in clusters tipped for growth, like manufacturing and biotech.
Critics argue that Perry has been corrupt in his practices, happily dipping into the state "slush funds" to support his cronies and effectively auctioning off Texas's resources at fire-sale prices. It is certainly the case that he has offered incentives that didn't pan out and that some of the industries that have flowered in Texas are weeds. Such criticisms, though, slightly misread his motives. Perry has supported renewable energy as well as oil and gas; he's offered plenty of incentives to companies run by perfect strangers. A more apt analysis is that he's been somewhat indiscriminate in his efforts, like a Hungry Hungry Hippo. Although he's highlighted certain industries, he's been open to almost all of them. If there were a job stuck in a tree outside Texarkana, he would probably mobilize the National Guard to coax it back to safety.
The results have been conclusive. Since 2000, Texas has grown by about six million people, and the workforce has grown by about two million. The state's economy has largely kept up. Almost two million jobs have been added in the same span, and total economic output has grown. The Texas miracle of economic growth and job creation has rightly attracted national acclaim, but the awards and honors matter less than what this has meant for the people who live here. The state's unemployment rate has been lower than the national average every month since February 2007. There has been job growth in every major industry, in every income quartile, and in every region of the state. And this has happened during a time when the national economy has been flailing. Texas is the only large state where the middle class is still growing.
There is, however, little room for complacency going forward. Texas's poverty rate is still too high, although it is not much worse than the national average. The wealth of the people, as measured by things like median household savings and access to banks, is well below the national norm, even though Texas has largely caught up to the nation in terms of most income indicators. And growth has exacerbated some old challenges. Our newly diversified economy will require a more educated workforce than we currently have, and Texas will not sustain its prosperity without better roads and reliable water supplies. But a diversified and thriving Texas has the capacity to address those challenges. Perry deserves real praise for that.
Texas unemployment rate in March 2010: 8.2%
National unemployment rate in March 2010: 9.9%
State leaders face no greater challenge than a budget shortfall, and the hole left in the budget by the Great Recession was one for the ages: $27 billion at the beginning of the 2011 session. With a new Republican super-majority in the House, tax increases and other forms of revenue were out, so massive cuts were inevitable. As one of the biggest pieces of the budget pie, public education was a fat target. Still, there was some good news: the state had roughly $6 billion available in the Rainy Day Fund, which is set aside for a crisis. By nearly anyone's standard, it was definitely pouring in Texas. But the governor insisted that it wasn't.
Already an undeclared candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential primary, Governor Perry saw a political opportunity where others saw a public policy emergency. He announced that he wouldn't sign a budget that used the Rainy Day Fund, arguing that the money should be reserved for true emergencies, like natural disasters. This was an unexpected argument coming from Perry, who had signed off on budgets in the past that had all but liquidated the fund. Now, however, he insisted that legislators close the gap by cutting spending to the bone.
And they did. Legislators slashed funding for the 2012–2013 public education budget by $5.4 billion. For the first time since World War II, the state failed to fund enrollment growth in Texas schools. The effects were immediate. Ten thousand teaching positions were eliminated. State law requires a ratio of 22 students to 1 teacher in the early grades, but districts increasingly found that standard impossible to meet. The number of schools receiving waivers from that requirement tripled between 2010–2011 and 2011–2012.
The cuts were unpopular, especially in rural and suburban districts, many of which are represented by Republicans. This perhaps helps explain the steady stream of obfuscation that has flowed from Perry's office over the significance of the cuts, which continues to this day. Perry told reporters at a press conference last year, for example, that state spending on public schools grew at three times the rate of the enrollment increase between 2002 and 2012. But this is true only if you fail to adjust for inflation—a particularly facile gimmick—or account for the tax swap of 2006, which shifted some of the local funding of schools over to the state. The truth is that state aid declined by 25 percent during that period. Texas now ranks forty-seventh in the nation in spending per pupil.
Texas adds around 80,000 school-age kids annually, so nothing is more important than a well-funded public education system. And ours is an increasingly difficult population to educate. Statewide, roughly 16 percent of kids in public schools are not fluent in English, and the problem is more acute in urban areas: in Dallas, one in three public school students is not fluent.
How have the schools been performing under Perry? There have been a few encouraging signs. The graduation rate seems to be improving. Perry likes to tout a recent assessment that found that Texas has the fourth-highest rate in the nation, with 86 percent of our kids graduating. But these figures should be taken with a grain of salt. Another ranking that came out at about the same time used a different methodology and found that Texas was in the middle of the pack, at 79 percent. For Hispanic students, who now make up the majority of public school enrollment in Texas, the dropout rate remains scandalously high—33 percent by one measure. Researchers chalk that up to a variety of factors, but a lack of commitment to quality bilingual education in Texas is at the top of almost every list. Perry has been largely silent on that subject.
In general, scores on state-administered standardized tests gradually improved during Perry's tenure, at least until the state changed to a new testing regime (known as STAAR) in 2012. But many experts believe that such trends have less to do with mastery of the content than with students' and teachers' growing familiarity with a given test. More tellingly, Texas has not fared well on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. Between 2002 and 2013, we fell eleven spots in the nationwide ranking for both fourth-grade and eighth-grade reading. In 2000 our fourth graders' math scores ranked seventh out of 41 states, plus the District of Columbia. By 2013, when all 50 states plus the District of Columbia were tested, we had fallen all the way to twenty-sixth. It is true that black and Hispanic students in Texas have outscored those in New York and California in both fourth grade and eighth grade, the two grades in which the NAEP is administered. But these scores have to be taken with a healthy dose of salt as well. Texas exempts students—citing language deficiencies or cognitive disabilities—from taking the NAEP at a much higher rate than any other large state (on the fourth-grade reading test, for example, Texas's exemption rate was twice the national average). There has been no improvement on SAT scores during the Perry era.
And how about those STAAR tests? Perry is a dyed-in-the-wool proponent of high-stakes testing, and he seems to have been caught unawares by just how despised the tests had become. A simmering grassroots rebellion finally boiled over in 2012, when a group of suburban parents demanded relief from the testing regime. With Perry's support, legislators in recent years had increased the number of tests needed to graduate from four to fifteen—higher than any other state. More than 80 percent of school boards signed a resolution opposing high-stakes testing, and prominent Republican legislators were insisting on changes. Having resisted efforts for years to scale back the program, Perry was finally forced to capitulate in the 2013 session, though House leaders worried about a veto up until the last minute.
The governor proved that he could learn a lesson. No doubt our children could do the same, if we gave them the chance.
National ranking of Texas fourth graders in math on the NAEP in 2000: 7th
In 2013: 26th
National ranking of Texas fourth graders in reading on the NAEP in 2002: 29th
John Connally is remembered for his investments in higher education in the sixties that helped Texas businesses move into the high-tech age. George W. Bush signed HB 588 in 1997, which increased minority enrollment at the state's public universities by guaranteeing admission for the top 10 percent of Texas's high school students. And Rick Perry will be remembered for a 2003 law that forever changed the landscape of higher-education funding: tuition deregulation.
That issue proved the wisdom of one of the most famous sayings around the Capitol: policy doesn't drive the budget; the budget drives policy. Faced with a $10 billion shortfall that session, lawmakers set about closing the gap in general revenue without raising taxes or finding additional revenue, so the ax came down on health and human services and higher education. For the first time in its history, the Legislature stopped its practice of setting tuition rates for the state's public universities and allowed the boards of regents to take over that responsibility. The idea was to empower the universities to drive their own revenue, which would allow the state to lower its appropriations. Democrats fumed that changing the long-standing commitment to funding higher education would make it harder for individual families to bear the brunt of the costs. Republicans, with an eye toward fiscal restraint, complained that the law actually made the situation worse, which was echoed by a report from the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation in 2010. It concluded that deregulation "reduced the incentive for Texas universities to keep spending under control, shifted some higher education costs from taxpayers to students, exposed the lack of price competition in higher education, [and has] not significantly reduced the long-term pressure on state appropriations for higher education."
For example, tuition revenue at the state's public universities increased by 89 percent between 2004 and 2009, but state revenue, despite an initial decline after the law's passage, grew by 25 percent during that same period. What did that mean to the average family? Well, the average full-time undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin, for example, would have paid $2,721 in tuition and fees in the fall of 2001 ($3,579 when adjusted for inflation), during the year of Perry's first legislative session as governor. By 2013 that had jumped to $4,899. By comparison, the expenditures for the UT System, the largest in the state, jumped from $6 billion in 2001 to $14.6 billion in 2013. (Over that time frame, UT System enrollment jumped by 33.9 percent, and at UT-Austin, the flagship campus, the four-year graduation rate increased from 36.4 percent to 50.8 percent.) The question is, Is that money getting the best return on its investment? And did Texas work hard enough to make college accessible, considering that only one in five of today's eighth graders is expected to earn a degree or certificate? "We're not having an open conversation about who should be paying for higher education," says Leslie Helmcamp, a policy analyst at the left-leaning Center for Public Policy Priorities, "and what we need to be doing as a state to create better jobs."
As it turns out, Perry did try to have that conversation, in the form of the Seven Breakthrough Solutions, which were presented at the Stephen F. Austin Hotel, in Austin, to the regents of the various university systems in the state in 2008. The ideas, which were closely associated with the work of the TPPF, were designed to address concerns that universities are inefficient and that the market should help determine costs. "I was at the meeting," says former UT regents chair Charles Miller, "and there had been no previous discussions with the regents. You simply cannot provide the solutions before you identify the problems. Most of the ideas were so weak they died their own death." Texas A&M tried to implement some of the ideas—the infamous red-and-black report measured professors' performance based on how their salary, benefits, teaching load, and research affected the university's bottom line—before abandoning them; UT resisted to the end. But that battle is part of the current war with the UT System Board of Regents. At press time, regent Wallace Hall was facing impeachment charges for massive information requests from the university in an attempt to seek out financial irregularities and abuses of power. Outsiders have seen his actions as a divisive attempt to remake the university and force the departure of UT's president, landing the school in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. As the hearings against Hall drag on, there is little doubt that the publicity has hurt the school's reputation and damaged its chance to hire top talent, including in the position for chancellor, which is currently open.
Another signature bill from the Perry era is one that made Texas the first state in the country to adopt in-state tuition for undocumented immigrant students, in 2001. "Perry was the leader on that issue," Miller says. "There was no hesitation in his mind that it was the right thing to do, and he took a hard hit from national Republicans, who turned it into something almost evil, which was too bad." But despite its broad support in Texas, that law may also be up for reconsideration—Dan Patrick, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, has said that he wants to end the practice if he is elected this November.
Average tuition and fees for a freshman at UT-Austin in fall 2001 (adjusted for inflation): $3,579
Average tuition and fees for a freshman at UT-Austin in fall 2013: $4,899
It's hard to evaluate the status of Texas health care without getting into the politics of abortion, birth control, the size of the fiscal debt, party polarization, and a host of other issues—and we have Rick Perry to thank for that. With our population soaring—including expensive young Texans and even more expensive old Texans—Perry has used the well-being of our populace to exploit partisan rage. And, not coincidentally, boost his own presidential ambitions. Needless to say, people who run public hospitals and charitable organizations, along with a statistician or two, do not think highly of his policies.
"Policies" is not actually the right word, since the governor really hasn't had much of a public health plan since taking office—except to get the state out of as much federal oversight as possible. Oh, sure, at the beginning of his tenure Perry had some capable people in charge, but they melted away faster than an ice cream cone in August. Hence, public hospitals and clinics are currently strained to the max, and 25 percent of Texans—6 million people, just slightly less than the population of the Houston metropolitan area—lack any sort of safety net, which means that they have no insurance and go without physicals, mammograms, inoculations, and the like. When and if they finally get care, it is typically only because they have reached a crisis, the treatment for which is likely to be very expensive but not very effective.
Perry's values reflect one hearty strain of Texas tradition, the one that has never been too sympathetic to the poor and downtrodden. The same could be true of his calls for fiscal responsibility on the part of the state and federal government—his assertion that we simply cannot afford to spend vast amounts on public health. Those notions might have sold well when Texas was an underpopulated rural state, but they've now brought modern, urban Texas to the brink. As former state demographer Steve H. Murdock and his co-authors note in Changing Texas: Implications of Addressing or Ignoring the Texas Challenge, "Texas' population is projected to increase by more than 30.1 million people from 2010 to 2050, an increase of 119.5 percent to a total population of 55.2 million people. . . . The number of incidences of disease and disorders in Texas will increase even more rapidly, with the number of incidences increasing by 84.3 million, or 136.8 percent, from 2010 to 2050."
While these numbers were bearing down on the state before Perry became governor, he has done little to address them while in office. Yes, we have a new medical school in Austin, and yes, we have a chance of getting new doctors to ameliorate the shortage here. Yes, in 2007 he mandated that Texas's teenage girls be vaccinated against HPV, a virus that causes cervical cancer, though critics suggested this was due to Perry's right-hand man, Mike Toomey, who went to work for Merck, the developer of the vaccine and a generous contributor to the governor's campaigns. Meanwhile, he hasn't supported improvements in workplace safety, such as a ban on indoor smoking. He did, however, favor a law to reduce taxes on chewing tobacco. The list goes on: He vetoed a law to ban texting while driving and has worked overtime to prevent the dissemination of birth control and sex education in the schools. Merciless cuts to programs for the neediest Texans started in the 2003 session and have continued apace for the rest of his term. Women and children situated well below the poverty line are his most frequent victims. There was, for instance, the devastation of the Children's Health Insurance Plan eleven years ago, which left at least 150,000 children uninsured. Perry made Planned Parenthood public enemy number one, and as a result, access to safe and legal abortions in Texas—along with information and birth control that would prevent them—is becoming a thing of the past. At the same time, he has claimed that Texas has some of the finest health care in the country—meaning that we can find just what we need in emergency rooms all over the state. Ignoring the cost involved, Perry stated that Texans "for decades have decided that this is the way we're going to deliver health care."
But by far the worst move Perry made was turning down the expansion of Medicaid that is a part of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. In short, he has refused $100 billion over ten years in federal Medicaid funds to help the uninsured get the health care they need, with the federal government paying 90 percent of the costs going forward. As former lieutenant governor Bill Hobby said, "Of all Rick Perry's inexplicable antics as governor, none is as puzzling and tragic as his refusal to allow Texans to benefit from the Affordable Care Act. Millions of needy Texans suffer because Perry has refused to participate." Hobby goes on to say that, because of Perry's refusal, Texans' tax dollars will go toward funding the program in other states.
It would be one thing if Perry's belief in fiscal conservatism could be supported—if it were true that, as he has claimed, the ACA was expanding "a broken system that is already financially unsustainable." In fact, as the pro-expansion forces have noted, taking the money makes a lot more sense than refusing it. For example, a report by the economists at the Waco-based Perryman Group concluded, "The state actually makes money by participating in the Medicaid expansion." Among other things, accepting the federal funds would create jobs and ensure healthier, more productive workers. Of course, taking the money will also save lives. Let's hope those factors figure into the next governor's agenda.
Texas's ranking among the states in uninsured residents in 2003: 1
Rick Perry has repeatedly sought to address transportation in Texas during his time as governor, but there is no other issue on which he has been so reliably thwarted. Next time you're stuck in a traffic jam, pat yourself on the back. The transportation system we have in Texas today may not be good, but it's exactly what we've asked for as voters.
The problems—the sprawling congestion, the crumbling highways—were all predicted. They were also predictable, given the various trends over the past ten or fifteen years: the soaring population, the growth in industries such as energy and manufacturing, the stagnant revenue streams, the political torpor. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, over the past 25 years, Texas's population has grown by 57 percent, and overall road use has nearly doubled. State road capacity, however, has grown by only 8 percent during that time.
Perry has called for greater investment in infrastructure since his first year as governor, when he signed a measure designed to create the Texas Mobility Fund, which had the authority to issue bonds for highway construction and other transportation projects. It marked a conceptual departure from Texas's long-standing pay-as-you-go approach to road funding, and voters approved the constitutional amendment in November 2001. Two months later Perry unveiled his master plan. The Trans-Texas Corridor called for the construction of four thousand new miles of toll roads, with high-speed rail, oil and gas pipelines, and utility lines running alongside them. All told, the project would cost about $175 billion. "Nothing is too big for Texas," he said, "when economic security and quality of life are at stake."
Republicans and Democrats alike disagreed. They complained about the fees Texans would pay on toll roads, the expansion of state debt, the unprecedented use of eminent domain, and the prospect that a foreign company like Cintra—a Spanish toll road operator—would stand to profit. Faced with the most sustained backlash of his career, Perry amended his hopes for the TTC, scaling them back many times before 2009, when TxDOT quietly abandoned the idea in favor of a more modest, incremental approach. In retrospect, it was true that there were things to dislike about Perry's sprawling vision for the TTC. On the other hand, it was better than no vision at all, which is effectively what the governor's critics were proposing as a counteroffer—and which is what we have now.
Since that setback, Perry has narrowed his efforts to focus on transportation funding. He has supported some reasonable proposals, such as ending diversions from the state highway fund. He has also supported some creative responses, such as a measure passed during special session last summer that will, if voters approve a constitutional amendment to this effect in November, allocate a portion of future revenues heading toward the Rainy Day Fund to a different bucket of money dedicated to transportation projects. The amendment is worth supporting, but it won't solve the funding problem. TxDOT has said that it needs about $4 billion a year just to "maintain current levels of congestion," and the measure would bring in less than a quarter of that.
Perry's preference, over the course of last year's session, was for the state to take on more debt to build roads. That's not a terrible idea on its face; as the governor has noted, interest rates are low, and Texas's growth is expected to continue. At the same time, there are reasons to be skeptical about borrowing. Drew Darby, a Republican representative from San Angelo, mentioned one last session during a floor debate: the state has borrowed $17 billion for roads since 2001, and it will ultimately cost $32 billion to retire that debt. As an alternative, Darby suggested raising the vehicle registration fee for the first time since 1985. That proposal went nowhere after Perry threatened to veto it. The governor has also dismissed the idea of raising the gas tax, which currently stands at 20 cents a gallon. That's the thirty-eighth-lowest rate in the country, according to the Tax Foundation, and it hasn't changed since 1991. Hiking it wouldn't be a long-term solution, because cars are becoming more fuel-efficient, but by the same token, it wouldn't be a crushing blow to Texas's consumers either.
Then, too, it's worth noting that investing in transportation infrastructure shouldn't be such a hard sell. Left to his own devices, Perry would surely have done more for roads, as he has for economic development, and he deserves credit for championing this issue when so many ankle-biters have scoffed at him for trying. But transportation infrastructure, in a state this size, is not an issue that can be adequately addressed via an executive officer, however ambitious. In a 2001 editorial, the Dallas Morning News noted that the new governor had done well in some respects but suggested that Perry might learn from George W. Bush's more engaged approach to the Lege: "More stroking here or there could have yielded greater progress on such issues as transportation." That was good advice. If Perry had taken it, we might not be in this jam.
Change in population since 1989: 57%
Change in state road capacity since 1989: 8%
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Los Angeles— Grupo Comercial Chedraui – the parent company of El Super grocery stores in the U.S. – has reported another quarter of disappointing sales growth. The company's growth performance has been weakened by negative same store sales (SSS) in its El Super grocery store segment as reported over the past year, a period which coincided with the consumer boycott in the U.S. Same store sales at El Super stores in the U.S. declined for the fifth consecutive quarter since El Super workers and their union, UFCW, launched a consumer boycott of the grocery chain in December 2014. The Boycott was targeted at the Company's unfair labor practices, its failure to negotiate in good faith and its failure to reach a fair agreement with its workers.
The El Super sales decline during the first quarter of 2016 is significant because the company added four new stores in the period just prior to the last 12 months. The four new stores—two opened in the 4th quarter of 2014, and one each in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2014. The first quarter 2016 new store benefit represents the largest new store boost to El Super's SSS in more than a year. Inclusion of these new stores leads to an expectation that U.S. SSS growth would increase, not decline.
Recently available U.S. government data on labor hours during 2014 and 2015 at 17 El Super stores in California and Arizona, eight of which were subject to active pickets as part of the consumer boycott during 2015 and nine of which were not, reveals an interesting pattern. The data – maintained by El Super in compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) – shows that El Super cut labor hours at all stores in our sample which were subject to active pickets in 2015, while hours for the non-picketed stores in our sample were relatively flat and showed no consistent pattern. El Super workers have reported some store managers blamed the consumer boycott for poor sales and resulting in the need to make cuts in hours, and further undermines the company's denials that the boycott has had a negative effect on sales.
The Union has continued to seek to hold the Company accountable for its actions with respect to negotiations through all legal avenues. The reporting of negative sales growth at El Super stores coincides with an April 28, 2016 'Formal Settlement Stipulation' between El Super, UFCW unions that represent El Super workers, and the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board. A formal settlement contains a direct order from the National Labor Relations Board itself and is very rare. Consistent with NLRB law and policy the formal settlement can serve as evidence that El Super is a regular violator of labor law and that EL Super has a proclivity to violate the Act.
(b) Failing or refusing to provide UFCW with information that is relevant and necessary to their roles as the unit's bargaining representative.
(c) Failing to timely furnish the Unions with information that is relevant and necessary to their role as the unit's bargaining representative.
(d) In any like or related manner interfering with, restraining, or coercing employees in the exercise of their federal labor rights.
(a) Bargain collectively and in good faith with the UFCW.
(b) Provide UFCW Local 770 with a seniority list for unit employees at its Arleta, California store that includes employees' dates of hire, position titles, rates of pay, and whether they are classified as full-time or part-time.
(c) Provide the UFCW with the a seniority list for all unit employees that includes employees' full names, last four digits of their social security numbers, hire dates, wage rates, seniority dates, and full-time/part time statuses.
El Super workers have been fighting to win a fair union contract from El Super since September 2013. The information the company was ordered to provide is essential to formulating contract proposals that address UFCW El Super members' longstanding goals of winning fair pay and more guaranteed hours for full-time workers.
El Super is managed by the Paramount, California, based Bodega Latina Corp. El Super's business model focuses on serving first, second and third-generation U.S. consumers of Mexican descent. Grupo Comercial Chedraui (Chedraui) is Mexico's third-largest retail chain with over 42,000 employees in 224 stores throughout the country. Through its 84.85% ownership stake, Chedraui controls California-based Bodega Latina Corporation, which does business as the El Super grocery chain. During 2015, El Super opened five new stores – bringing its total to 54 locations. It has 46 stores in California, five stores in Arizona, and three in Nevada.
Nearly 150 brothers and sisters at Main & Vine in Gig Harbor, Washington, were granted recognition to be represented by Local 367.
Main & Vine is a new store concept from Kroger that focuses on fresh local produce and high quality prepared foods. The Gig Harbor Main & Vine is the first shop that Kroger has opened under this new brand.
Their contract vote was held on March 17, and passed by an overwhelming majority.
Becoming a part of UFCW Local 367 was exciting to everyone who works at Main & Vine because it meant an instant improvement in both wages and benefits. As Kroger opens more Main & Vine stores throughout the country, this effort by Local 367 will help to reinforce the message that being a part of the UFCW union family really does lead to a better life.
Sometimes the smallest gestures can make the biggest difference. It's not easy to be personable, upbeat, and polite every day and all the time doing any job, but that's what's expected out of cashiers to give great customer service. However, Kristen Clark, a UFCW Local 75 member, who works as cashier at an Ohio Meijer grocery store went the extra mile with customer Kimberly Grandinette and her 3 year-old son Paul proving that a small act of kindness can have a great effect on more than just those who shared the moment.
Last Sunday, while checking out her items, Kimberly conversed with Kristen about her family's recent hardships that had begun to have effect on 3 year-old Paul. The two continued to chat while Kristen rung up the rest of Kimberly's items until Paul asked if he could join Kristen in ringing up the rest of his mother's groceries. Kristen then picked up Paul and held him while he helped scan the rest of his mother's items.
Kimberly Grandinette detailed the story in a Facebook post about how much that act of kindness meant to her and her son Paul. "She made him feel like a million bucks. He skipped out of the store with a smile on his face," the mom wrote. "Thank you, Kristen, for making my son's day (and my day!) a bit brighter." Since that Sunday, Grandinette's Facebook post has touched the lives of so many others and gathered more than 144K likes, 10K shares, and 3.6K comments on Mejier's Facebook Page.
Although Kristen admits that she was initially surprised by how much attention the story received, she said that way she interacted with Kimberly was ordinary in her day's work. "I try to engage with my customers," she said. "I like to get to know people. Even if it is just for three minutes" as they're checking out.
Yesterday, the UFCW and Making Change at Walmart officially released a series of holiday actions against Walmart, beginning with a call to action during the week leading up to Black Friday called the "Give Back Friday" initiative.
Give Back Friday is all about helping the hundreds of thousands of hard-working Walmart employees who are paid so poorly that they must rely on assistance from food banks and use food stamps. During this entire Black Friday week, Making Change at Walmart, our progressive partners, and countless other organizations will be hosting food drives in cities across the country the week leading up to Black Friday with a goal to feed 100,000 Walmart workers and families though the holidays.
Locals Unions are asked to share and sign the pledge to donate to a food drive or a food bank in their area. By working together, we can help Walmart workers and their families.
Help us feed 100,000 Walmart workers and families and make sure to post about it using the hashtag #GiveBackFriday and #feedhungryworkers.
Together, we can make a difference in the lives of over 100,000 families because no one in America, especially the men and women who work for one of the richest companies in the world, should have go to hungry this Thanksgiving and through the holidays.
It's not easy to be the first person to arrive at our Union's General Membership Meeting. It's even more difficult to arrive eager, excited and alert after riding a bike through the rain for a few miles. But rain or any negativity has never stopped Peter Hoffman, and won't stop him from riding to any meeting, regardless how hard the commute may be. Peter Hoffman is one of the most dedicated, positive union members in UFCW Local 1500.
Peter lives with resounding positivity and pushes solidarity amongst all of his coworkers. "If everyone can stick together we can do amazing things. When people think differently about the union than I do, I tell them why I like the union so much, I've been around for a while, I know and have seen people get in trouble, and the union is the only one there to help you," Hoffman said. He also enjoys raising funds and awareness for various charities like Making Strides Against Breast Cancer or the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.
Peter genuinely enjoys helping customers at work, and talking to them about his union. "The best thing I've learned in life is to never say never, and don't give up your belief in yourself. That's the most important thing in life," Hoffman said.
Last Monday, workers at Wedge Community Co-op in Minneapolis voted to form a union with UFCW Local 1189, making it the first co-op grocery in the Twin Cities area, home to many co-ops, to unionize.
A union drive at the Wedge Table, a cafe and market in the area that is also owned by the Wedge, is still ongoing.
As we continue to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, we're highlighting the story of Fermin Rodriguez, who has bravely stood up for his coworkers and their collective union rights.
Since September, 2013, Fermin and his fellow workers had been working without a contract because El Super refused to bargain with them even after the workers fought off the company's decertification attempt to take away their Local 770 union representation. In response, the workers launched a boycott to protest the company's unfair labor practices at their store. Since then, workers like Fermin have continued to speak up about what the company is doing, and have gained support from other workers and community members from far and wide.
In late July, Federal Distict Court Judge George King granted the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) request for a rare "10j" injunction to stop El Super's unfair labor practices and immediately remedy their unlawful treatment of workers. In the face of El Super's coercive and threatening conduct designed to silence workers, Chief Judge George H. King issued the significant "10j" injunction, ordering not only the immediate reinstatement of Fermín, but the restoration of workers vacation accrua which El Super had taken away. The Company also conceded in the face of these actions that it would return to the bargaining table.
To speak out about how he and his coworkers are engaged in a campaign to stand up for worker rights, Fermin came to Washinton, D.C. this week to #StartTheConvo at the White House Summit on worker voice.
On Oct. 7, the White House is holding a summit with leaders in the various movements to improve the lives of working people across the country, with a focus on how to make sure that economic growth is broad-based and that workers share in the benefits they help create with their labor. Until the summit begins, we'll be highlighting the stories of workers and their struggles to make sure their voices are heard on the job.
Today, we take a look at Lydia Flores.
Flores is a 37-year-old single mother of three who works as a cashier at union El Super market in Arleta, Calif. She and her co-workers have been fighting for a new contract for more than two years in the face of a campaign by the company to undermine the workers' desires for fair working conditions and a voice on the job.
I pay the mortgage and my car and my utilities—and the rest of the bills have to wait. Sometimes I work 32, 36 hours. The 40 hours are not guaranteed.
When Flores speaks up about anything at work, she says that she is met with hostility and disdain. Other workers at El Super have made similar complaints.
Flores knows that coming together with her co-workers can make positive change. She is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 770, a shop steward and a member of the union's bargaining committee.
El Super employs low‐wage and predominantly Latino workers. The workers at the union stores were covered under a contract with El Super that expired on Sept. 27, 2013. For more than a year, the unions and the worker bargaining team sought to bargain to improve their working conditions. In September 2013, El Super imposed what it called its "last, best and final" offer, which did not address the workers' concerns and provided for less paid sick leave than is currently mandated by California state law. On Dec. 12, 2014, El Super workers voted resoundingly to recertify the union and demanded the company return to the bargaining table, a request which El Super rejected. El Super employees and the UFCW launched a boycott in December 2014 to protest the company's actions. The union's boycott lines have turned away more than 100,000 prospective El Super shoppers. In the face of the boycott and after the NLRB issued complaint and sought a 10(j) injunction in federal court regarding the company's unlawful refusal to bargain, the company agreed to return to the table. El Super recently agreed to bargain for the first time in more than a year.
El Super is managed by the Paramount, Calif.-based Bodega Latina Corp. There are 50 El Super locations in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. Bodega Latina Corp. is 81.4% owned by Mexico-based Grupo Commercial Chedraui (Chedraui). Chedraui operates 211 markets in Mexico. It is Mexico's third-largest retailer.
In January 2013, Forbes estimated the personal wealth of Chedraui's chairman of the board, Alfredo Chedraui Obeso, at more than $1 billion. That year the company made $5.1 billion in revenue. The El Super stores make up more than 20% of Grupo Chedraui's income.
A year and a half ago, when Richard Kern was 18, he was diagnosed with malignant Melanoma.
While going through treatment, his medical bills soared to exceed $100,000. Thankfully, Richard's mom is a member of UFCW Local 1059. Because of the collective bargaining agreement UFCW Local 1059 fought for at Kroger where Mrs. Kern works, her health insurance covered a vast majority of Richard's overwhelming medical costs.
Richard can now say he is a cancer survivor. But tragedy very recently struck his family again, when his father had a stroke. Richard's father was airlifted from his local hospital in Lacaster, Ohio, to the facilities at Ohio State University where doctors fought to keep him from having another stroke.
Richard says that by fighting for workers' rights, the union "literally kept me and my dad alive." Help Richard spread his message, by posting on social media, shopping union-made, or simply telling a worker in your local grocery store or in your favorite retail shop thank you for their service.
Together, unions and the millions of hard-working Americans they represent will continue fighting for workers' rights and improving the quality of life for the middle class.


ABSTRACTThis study evaluated and compared the effectiveness of an aerobics-calisthenics (A-CAL) and an aerobics/weight training (A-WT) programs on lower limb strength and body fat (%). Thirty-five adult women (age 42.1 ± 5.2 years) were randomly assigned to A-CAL (n = 14), A-WT (n = 14), or a control group (n =7). The A-CAL and A-WT trained 3 days per week for 10 weeks. Maximal bilateral isometric and iso-kinetic knee extension (KEXT) and flexion (KFLEX) torque, squat jump (SJ), and body fat (%) were measured before and immediately after training. The results revealed nonsignificant differences between A-CAL and A-WT (p > 0.05). Both A-CAL and A-WT improved SJ (p < 0.001). A-WT increased isometric torque of KEXT and KFLEX (p < 0.05), isokinetic torque of KFLEX (p < 0.05), and decreased body fat (%) (p < 0.05) when compared with controls. In summary, the application of a 10-week light-weight training program improved selected strength parameters of healthy women, compared with controls, but the effectiveness of the calisthenics exercises as an independent form of strength training is dubious.
This study evaluated and compared the effectiveness of an aerobics-calisthenics (A-CAL) and an aerobics/weight training (A-WT) programs on lower limb strength and body fat (%). Thirty-five adult women (age 42.1 ± 5.2 years) were randomly assigned to A-CAL (n = 14), A-WT (n = 14), or a control group (n =7). The A-CAL and A-WT trained 3 days per week for 10 weeks. Maximal bilateral isometric and iso-kinetic knee extension (KEXT) and flexion (KFLEX) torque, squat jump (SJ), and body fat (%) were measured before and immediately after training. The results revealed nonsignificant differences between A-CAL and A-WT (p > 0.05). Both A-CAL and A-WT improved SJ (p < 0.001). A-WT increased isometric torque of KEXT and KFLEX (p < 0.05), isokinetic torque of KFLEX (p < 0.05), and decreased body fat (%) (p < 0.05) when compared with controls. In summary, the application of a 10-week light-weight training program improved selected strength parameters of healthy women, compared with controls, but the effectiveness of the calisthenics exercises as an independent form of strength training is dubious.
The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research17(3):590-598, August 2003.


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REVIEW: Over The Moor – Glass Violet
No Comments on REVIEW: Over The Moor – Glass Violet
Band: Glass Violet
Track: Over The Moor
Time: 4:36 minutes
For fans of: Killers, Kasabian, Catfish & The Bottlemen
H2N Rating 81/100
Last month, Bristol based band Glass Violet released their second single Over The Moor, the eagerly anticipated follow up to 2019's Chemicals.
The four piece (Alex John, Tom Hurdiss, Matt West, Josh Walsh and Declan Pollard) formed in 2018 and since then have been slow to release music, but have built their name on the live circuit across the south of England. Since the release of their debut single Chemicals last year, I've been looking forward to their follow up and I'm delighted to say, the lads have delivered far beyond what was expected.
In the most simple form of journalism, Over The Moor is an indie masterclass. If you're a fan of Kasabian, Foals, Killers, all of the above then this is absolutely made for your ears. From the off, the track kicks in with layered guitars over a crashing drum beat before the song drops into a huge synth-guitar soundscape The Killers would be extremely proud of. But that's where the comparisons stop, this track is superb in its own right, and is a track that belongs on the main stages of festivals globally.
"Have you seen the people move, oh dancing to this certain groove. Walk along in single file, resent the things that make you smile"
The energy is clear from the start; the intention of a band that wants to make this year and decade their own is clear for all to see. I love the vocals, they're subtle but powerful at the same time. The symbiosis between the music and lyrics on this track is something I haven't heard from a new band in some time; it's complex yet simple, and is a song I could listen to over and over.
Each verse and chorus flow really well and the final section of the track is quite stunning. To draw a final comparison, the track feels like it belongs on Kasabian's last record but it has a certain, 2020 spin on it. Over The Moor bends rock genres whilst remaining wholly current and it's that variation of influences that makes it a really listenable track. The vocals are charming, the guitars are mesmerising and the drums carry this track right through to the end in some style. I'd love to see Glass Violet grow and improve this sound in 2020 and if this is just the start, there's an extremely exciting year or so ahead for the Bristol band.
Adam G
H2N Ranking Score
Originality: 15/20
Lyrics: 15/20
Complexity: 16/20
Catchiness: 16/20
Stadium Filler Rating: 19/20
← REVIEW: Enemies – Skylights → LIVE: The Sherlocks – O2 Academy, Sheffield

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Most Advanced SBIRS Missile Warning Satellite Ready For 2021 Launch
Lockheed Martin yesterday announced the U.S. Space Force has determined the fifth Space Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit satellite (SBIRS GEO-5) is complete and ready for launch in 2021.
Built in a record time and at no additional cost to the government for the upgrade, SBIRS GEO-5 is the first military space satellite built on the company's modernized, modular LM 2100™ combat bus. SBIRS GEO-6, launching in 2022, is also being built on the new bus designed for speed and resilience.
"SBIRS' role as an ever-present, on-orbit guardian against global ballistic missile threats has never been more critical," said Tom McCormick, Lockheed Martin's vice president for Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) Systems. "In 2019 alone, SBIRS detected nearly one thousand missile launches, which is about a two-fold increase in two years."
"Completing the production of a complex missile-warning satellite during the challenging COVID environment is a huge accomplishment and is a testament to Lockheed Martin's professionalism and dedication to the security of our Nation," said Capt. Alec Cook, Space and Missile Systems Center's SBIRS GEO-5/6 Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations lead.
Both SBIRS GEO-5 and GEO-6 are slated to join the U.S. Space Force's constellation of missile warning satellites, equipped with powerful scanning and staring infrared surveillance sensors, which protect our nation 24-7. These sensors collect data that allow the U.S. military to detect missile launches, support ballistic missile defense, expand technical intelligence gathering and bolster situational awareness on the battlefield.
SBIRS GEO-5 was officially completed on Oct. 29, 2020.
LM 2100 Bus: Focuses on Speed and Resiliency
The LM 2100 bus is the result of a Lockheed Martin internally-funded, multi-year modernization initiative. It is designed to provide greater resiliency and cyber-hardening; enhanced spacecraft power, propulsion and electronics; common components and procedures to streamline manufacturing; and a flexible design that reduces the cost to incorporate future, modernized sensor suites.
"We added even further enhanced resiliency features to the LM 2100 to create an initial 'combat bus' for the Space Force. SBIRS GEO-5 has proven itself a valuable incremental step towards achieving the resilient missile warning that will be provided by the Next Gen OPIR Block 0 System, the follow-on to SBIRS," added McCormick.
In June 2015, the Air Force agreed to rebaseline SBIRS GEO-5 and GEO-6 to upgrade both satellites to Lockheed Martin's modernized LM 2100 bus at no additional cost. From that point, SBIRS GEO-5 was completed in approximately five years, in line with the government's need to increase production speed and address emerging threats, and still supporting the government's original 2021 launch date.
Besides SBIRS GEO-5 and GEO-6, the LM 2100 space vehicle is the baseline for three Next Gen OPIR Block 0 GEO satellites expecting to launch starting in 2025; and the future GPS III Follow On (GPS IIIF) satellites, which are expected to launch starting in 2026.
Lockheed Martin is proud to be part of the SBIRS team led by the Production Corps, Geosynchronous Earth Orbit Division, at the U.S. Space Force's Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California. Lockheed Martin Space, Sunnyvale, California, is the SBIRS prime contractor, with Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, Azusa, California, as the payload integrator.
Ukrainian channels show a documentary about Turkish drones
Elon Musk ve Neuralink'in Karanlık Yüzü ( Karanlık Bilim #16 )


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Deanery of New Zealand (Antiochian)
3,351 bytes added, 11:44, June 10, 2008
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WITH LOVE FROM EBAUMS WITH LOVE FROM EBAUMS WITH LOVE FROM EBAUMS WITH LOVE FROM EBAUMS WITH LOVE FROM EBAUMS WITH LOVE FROM EBAUMS{{orthodoxyinnewzealand}}The '''Deanery of New Zealand''' of the [[Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia and New Zealand]] is the way of administering the Antiochian Orthodox [[parish]]es, [[priest]]s and faithful in New Zealand. Currently it is headed by the Dean of New Zealand, V Rev Archpriest Fr Jack Witbrock. ==History==The first Orthodox church in New Zealand was consecrated in Dunedin for the Patriarchate of Antioch parish there in 1911. The 2001 Census shows an Orthodox population in New Zealand of 9,588 (all Orthodox included). In January 2003, the first New Zealand Clergy Conference of the Antiochian [[Archdiocese]] was chaired by Metropolitan Archbishop [[Paul (Saliba) of Australia and New Zealand]]. On the Saturday, Dr Ian Nield was [[ordination|ordained]] to the [[deacon|diaconate]] and Fr Dcn Michael Elder was ordained to the [[priest]]hood; on the Sunday, Fr Dcn Ian Nield was ordained to the priesthood and Fr Victor Didenco, previously canonically released from the [[Moldovan Orthodox Church]], was received into the Antiochian Archdiocese and appointed head of mission in Christchurch. In July 2003, in response to a growing Antiochian Orthodox presence in New Zealand, Met Abp Paul created the Deanery of New Zealand. At this point, there are six priests in the Deanery. Due to a request from the Multi-Nations Council, Invercargill, Fr Ilyan celebrates the Liturgy once a month in a borrowed Anglican church near the airport in Invercargill. On [[March 25]], 2005, there was a [[clergy]] symposium in New Zealand. On the next day, Max Athanasius Perkins was ordained to the diaconate to serve the Antiochian Mission in Christchurch. In May 2005, Met. Abp Paul tonsured [[Andrei Grenfell]] to the sub-diaconate. Sdn Andrei is studying externally at [[St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute (Paris, France)|St Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute]], France, and is being prepared for the diaconate to assist Fr Ilyan at the Dunedin parish and the Invercargill mission. On [[December 4]], John Hubbard was ordained to the diaconate to serve at the Antiochian Orthodox Church of St George, Auckland. In May 2006, after the Sixth Clergy Conference of Australia and New Zealand (Antiochian) in Wollongong, Australia, Met Abp Paul presided over a New Zealand Deanery meeting regarding the future of the Orthodox Church in New Zealand. During Met Abp Paul's September visit to New Zealand, 2006, he ordained Dr Keith Morrison to the diaconate. Dcn Keith has been assigned to work with the three churches in the Christchurch area. ==Priests and parishes==*V. Rev. Fr [[Jack Witbrock]], Dean. Rector of Sts Simon and Jude, Ashley, Rangiora.*V. Rev. Fr [[Ilyan Eades]]. [[Rector]] of St Michael, Dunedin.*Rev. Fr [[Victor Didenco]]. Head of the Antiochian Mission in Christchurch.*Rev. Fr [[George Bosauder]]. Rector of St George, Auckland.*Rev. Fr [[Michael Elder]]. Rector of Sts Gregory of Nyssa and Macrina, Diamond Harbour.*Rev. Dr [[Ian Nield]]. Rector of Saint George Wellington, Head of the Antiochian Mission in Lower Hutt, and clergy representative on the Board of Trustees of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese.*Fr Dcn Max Athanasius Perkins. Deacon of the Antiochian Mission in Christchurch.*Fr Dcn John Hubbard. Deacon of St George, Auckland.*Fr Dcn Keith Morrison, PhD. Deacon for the three Antiochian churches around Christchurch. {{AOANZOinstitutions}} [[Category:Orthodoxy in New Zealand]]
Chrisg
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Top handle, quilted leather, metal studs, turn lock fastening, leather strap.
Dimensions: H 21 x W 24 x D 7.5cm. Top handle: 5cm.
Not for the faint-hearted, Valentino's romantic narrative gets a punky twist in the Spike Small Shoulder Bag. Plush quilted leather is studded with three-dimensional metal spikes, framing the petite profile's sleek turn lock fastening combination. A leather bar top handle means you can take this dangerously alluring option on the go - if you dare.


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Author: TriSec Date: 10/10/2017 09:50:06
We'll start this morning with a tale of two hurricanes, or more specifically, a tale of two landfalls.
Many days ago now, Hurricane Maria pummeled the island of Puerto Rico. It remains surprising that the death toll remains as low as it is, but this may yet be because of the total lack of communication around parts of the island. Here is a recent picture from Yabucoa:
The story below is slightly out-of-date (Oct 4), but buried deep in the story is the news that the long-rumoured hospital ship USNS Comfort has indeed finally reached the stricken island.
I'll say straight-out: There are few obvious gaps in the federal response in the timeline. But it does make it clear that the speed and scale of the initial Maria relief effort pales next to other recent campaigns.
After a magnitude-7 earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, President Obama ordered a massive military and civilian response. As The Washington Post describes: Eight thousand troops were bound for the island within two days; 22,000 troops and 33 ships had arrived within two weeks. And five days after the quake struck, former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton joined Obama at the White House to announce the Haiti Fund, a multimillion-dollar philanthropic appeal for the foreign country.
By comparison, only about 7,200 military personnel have made it to Puerto Rico two weeks after landfall.
And while the five living former presidents added Hurricane Maria to One America Appeal, their preexisting campaign for hurricane-relief donations, five days after landfall, they have not visited the White House or gone on television. President Trump tweeted about One America Appeal once, on the day that Hurricane Irma made landfall, but that was well before Hurricane Maria formed.
This speed did not ensure Haiti had a successful recovery, and today the earthquake-relief effort is considered a failure. But the precedent suggests that the U.S. military might have responded with greater speed than it did to Maria. Unlike Haiti, Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory; unlike an earthquake, a hurricane is predictable. The National Weather Service first warned that Maria could strike the island as a "dangerous major hurricane" more than three weeks ago.
Likewise, the first public call to mobilize the USNS Comfort, the only U.S. Navy hospital ship on the East Coast, came from Hillary Clinton on Sunday, September 24, four days after landfall.
The Comfort was not deployed until Tuesday, September 26, six days after landfall; did not leave port until Thursday, September 28, more than a week after landfall; and did not reach Puerto Rico until Tuesday, October 3, 11 days after Maria hit the island. A Pentagon official has told The Washington Post that the Navy considered sending the Comfort before the storm but decided Puerto Rican ports could not immediately handle a ship that large.
I will personally dispute that last sentence, as I was fortunate to see the USNS Comfort with my own eyes this summer. Earlier this year, she was in drydock in South Boston, across the pier from our cruise ship terminal. I did some math.
USNS Comfort is roughly the size of the Titanic - about 890 feet long, and 100 feet on the beam. The Cruise ship "Oasis of the Seas" was also here in Boston this year, just a couple of weeks ago, and I saw that one too. "Oasis" routinely makes ports-of-call in San Juan and other resort locations around the Caribbean. Here are the two photoshopped together:
So make of that what you will.
But there is more - yesterday we had the lingering aftereffects of Hurricane Nate passing through New England. It was sultry most of the day, some gusting winds, and a passing shower or two that were really no big deal. (They were able to "play" baseball at Fenway yesterday.) Nate made landfall back in Louisiana as a category one hurricane. Of course, the response was quite different from Puerto Rico.
Hurricane Nate made landfall at about 8 p.m. local time at the mouth of the Mississippi River and again at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning near Biloxi, Mississippi, as a Category 1 storm with sustained winds of 85 mph.
By Sunday afternoon, Nate had weakened to a tropical depression with sustained winds of 35 mph as it moved inland over Mississippi and Alabama, the National Hurricane Center said.
More than 70,000 in Alabama and 30,000 in Mississippi were without power Sunday in the storm surge and flooding but the region appeared to have been spared the kind of catastrophic damage that Texas, Florida and the Caribbean suffered in the recent series of hurricanes. New Orleans, which had feared a major hit, on Sunday lifted a curfew that had been in effect over the weekend.
"We are very fortunate this morning and have been blessed," Gov. Phil Bryant, R-Mississippi, said while noting that there had been damage to homes primarily from the storm surge produced by Nate.
On Saturday, the amphibious dock ship Iwo Jima and the transport dock New York -- both with Marines aboard from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, left port in Mayport, Florida, to be in position behind Nate if they were needed.
U.S. Northern Command, which was coordinating the military response with the Federal Emergency Management Agency along the Gulf Coast, as well as in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, set up an Installation Support Base at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, over the weekend to stage supplies and personnel as Nate arrived.
The Defense Department also readied relief for states potentially impacted by Nate by putting on standby a search and rescue package of light, medium and heavy-lift helicopters, an Air Expeditionary Group (for support operations), and an E-3 Airborne Early Warning and Control System along with trucks and general purpose boats, NorthCom said.
There doesn't seem to be too much more to say, but I bet we're really good at reading between the lines most days. I can leave you with a musical interlude that may be relevant as well.
19 comments (Latest Comment: 10/10/2017 17:21:27 by Raine)
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Tomorrowland Speedway
Tomorrowland Speedway showcases America's love with fast cars. (These cars only look fast.They have a top speed of 7.5 mph. No that's not 75 mph that seven point five miles per hour.) Yep, those are some fast cars.
Back before the interstate highway system was built. Back when most roads were two lanes. Uncle Walt wanted to show the value of wide lanes of traffic as the future of the highway system, so he designed Autopia for Disneyland.
This is a ride wholly designed for the little tykes (and their parents). Teens and young adults will be very bored.
Great Colors by Jeff_B.
The Preshow
Uncle Walt was great at creating an atmosphere. Here Uncle Walt took all the ingredients (including the noise and smell) of a racetrack and made them part of the ride. This includes spectators watching from a bridge over the track (smile and wave as you go by). Uncle Walt even included grandstands for those wimpy big brothers and sisters.
Here's a video from the big opening day. You've got to see this, it stars Buddy Hackett and Herbie the Luv Bug.
Here are some interesting tidbits –
This ride is called Autotopia in Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland. It's called Tomorrowland Indy Speedway at Tokyo Disneyland.
The Disneyland version was opened in 1955, before the interstate highway system came into being.
The track is four tenths of a mile long.
This attraction first opened at Walt Disney World on October 1, 1971 with the rest of the park.
Originally it was called Grand Prix Raceway with Goodyear as it's sponsor.
In 1994 the name was changed in conjunction with the New Tomorrowland update.
In 1999 Disney partnered with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and added the famous Yard of Bricks as a finish line and added Gasoline Alley logos to the ride.
Dad's Ride Information Table
Description: Drive replica race cars around a replica track
Height Requirement – at least 54″ tall to drive Fastpass:YES Length of Ride: 5 minutes
Type of ride: Motorized cars on a track
Dad's Ratings
Other Information: There are bumpers and rails but rear end collisions still happen
Are You Tall Enough?
Is your child tall enough to ride? Yes, there is a height requirement pn the Speedway, but it's only if they want to ride alone.
You have to be at least 52 inches tall to ride Tomorrowland Speedway by yourself
Dad's Disney World Height Requirements page
Dad also has a cool little tool to measure the kids as they grow and keep track of when they are tall enough to ride the rides. I call it Dad's Are You Tall Enough To Ride?…
Every ride at WDW is on this chart. Mount it on the wall and keep track of the kids while they grow.
Get Dad's Are You Tall Enough to Ride?…
You should be in good health, free from high pressure, heart, neck and back problems.
If you are expecting (yes a baby) you should not ride.
Guests must transfer from ECV or wheelchairs to board ride vehicles.
This is one of Uncle Walt's great creations. Youngsters everywhere all holler to drive these cars. It's always one of the longest lines of the day. Enjoy, but check those rear view mirrors when you come to the finish line.


I was pleased to have been the recipient of the Graphics Award for my pastel "Laundry Day Burano" at the Focus; Exploring our Regional Sense of Place 5th annual exhibition at the Butternut Gallery in Montrose, PA. The show was on display from May 17 - 26, 2013.
My inspiration for this painting came last spring when I visited the Island of Burano, just a few miles from Venice. A tiny island of pastel colored buildings, winding canals and locals painstakingly cleaning their walkways.
It was laundry day when I visited the island......miles of clean laundry hanging along every home and it smelled so wonderful! I was fascinated by the long shadows cast against each home that created interesting shapes and patterns. We were fortunate to have been there on a bright sunny day.