After decades of the failure of insurance reform the Texas Business and Commerce Committee in the Senate will address the rising cost of home insurance. Sort of. Lt Gov Dan Patrick has issued what is called “Interim Charges” to the Senate. Specific committees are asked to research an issue prior to the upcoming legislation session. Here is what he issued concerning home insurance:
Addressing the Rising Cost of Insurance: Assess the impact of rising property and casualty insurance costs on Texas property owners, real estate lenders, and commercial and industrial development. Identify ways to increase consumer transparency to better inform coverage decisions and make recommendations to ensure a competitive and affordable insurance market for consumers.
The entire list of charges can be viewed here. In the past the staff will solicit input from the community. They will have hearings then issue a report later in the year. I intend to provide input as well as attend the hearings. I would be very cautious about this study. The issue is clear. Our premiums are through the roof as well as our deductibles. This isnt about “transparency” or about learning how to choose an insurance company. This is about the failure of insurance reform back in 2003 that was suppose to “ensure a competitive and affordable insurance market for consumers”.
This study will be heavily influenced by the insurance industry and supporting organizations like Texans for Lawsuit Reform, and Texans Coalition for Affordable Insurance Solutions. TCAIS was the main organization formed to influence the 2003 reforms. They were funded by the insurance industry and claims to be advocating for consumers.
The voucher program supported by our local state representatives is pretty simple to understand. The State will give $6000 to a family to send their kid to private school instead of public school. Guess who will pay for this?
You will. (Duh!) Let’s say that family pays $2000/year in school taxes and decides to take their kids out of public schools. They will receive $6000 from the state, $4000 MORE than what they put in. WTF? Why do we, those who pay school taxes, have to subsidize their decision to leave public schools? Look if vouchers are going to pass then those who want a voucher should never get more than they put in. That is also very simple to understand. That is what is called wealthy welfare.
Let’s just call vouchers what they really are. Welfare for the wealthy.
In December 2023, the Bankruptcy & Collections Division of the Texas Attorney General’s Office issued a demand letter to Eric Dick, Trustee of the Harris County Department of Education, requesting payment of the $40,000 in outstanding fines imposed by the Texas Ethics Commission.
The letter demanded payment within 10 days:
If payment is not received in ten (10) days from the date of this letter, or if arrangements are not made within that time to satisfy the debt, our office will consider filing suit to recover the full amount owed plus any attorney’s fees and court costs that can be recovered. This is the only letter you will receive from us relative to the unpaid fines so it should be considered a final demand.
As of today there is no record of his payment. Dick was fined $30,000 for hiding his role in 2019 concerning a misleading mailer and another $10,000 in 2022 for hiding expenditures. He signed an agreement to accept the $10,000 fine in lieu of moving the case to a formal hearing. He has yet to pay this fine. I have searched the civil cases in Harris and Travis Counties and have not found any action against Dick.
So the party of “Law and order” is letting those who break the law off the hook. If he has made arrangements to pay his fines I will update immediately.
Watch it! That was an interesting take on a fictious civil war in the United States. The movie follows reporters who are traveling to Washington DC hoping to interview the President who has turned the military on civilians. It’s graphic at times. Disturbing most of the time. For those of you who are carelessly talking about a civil war you might want to take a couple of hours to see what you might get if it really happens.
Kirsten Dunst was fantastic. Wagner Moura, who played Pablo Escobar in Narcos, had a disturbing scene where he silently screams after members of the press, and his friends, were executed by the President’s supporters. That scene has stuck with me. Sound wasn’t needed for this scene.
But I was impressed with the sounds of the gunfire in the theatre. Unless you have a 7.1 sound system at home you may not experience the same affect. It is worth the effort to see it in the theater.
Go watch it before it leaves. It will not be the same at home.
Concerned about the crazy high home insurance prices and out of control deductibles? Let’s team up and take action! I’m gathering the names and emails of Bay Area homeowners worried about the cost of home insurance and those soaring deductibles. We’re getting organized to meet with elected officials in a casual town hall meet-up.
If you want to stay in the loop on this issue, just sign up here with your name, email, and subdivision. https://tinyurl.com/BayAreaHouston
You have to wonder how much they pumped into these races.
The 1776 Project PAC, based in New York, endorsed 12 candidates in 7 school districts across Texas. They won 7 with 1 going to a runoff. Local Trustee Jeff Larson was one of the candidates and defeated Albert Wittliff. They endorsed two candidates in Katy ISD. Both lost.
I’ve written about Katy before. Parents organized and created KEEP Katy Educational Excellence Partners. KEEP “is dedicated to organizing community support to elect school board trustees who are committed to provide excellent public education for all and to maintain Katy ISD’s reputation as an educational leader.” It is unfortunate that parents, teachers, and students have to organize to keep extremists off of their school board but that is where we are today. Maybe CCISD needs to create NOPE! NO Politics in Education! Lucky for us our school board is composed of excellent individuals who leave their political preferences at home. (except for Scott Bowen and Jeff Larson)
So how much did they spend to win these seats? That is a tough question to answer. These PACs have a way to hide their expenditures. For instance this PAC is registered with the Federal Elections Commission and has spent over $3 Million over the last year. Unfortunately we will not see how much they spent in support of Larson until July and the expenditures might be just generic categories like “texting services”.
So the New York PAC won in CCISD. Let’s welcome Trustee Larson back to the CCISD School Board.
The Houston Chronicle, once again, has written about the heated race for two Katy ISD candidates due to political PACs funding and campaigning for them. According to the article two candidates have accepted endorsement from the Harris County Republican Party, The Project 1176 PAC and others. The Party has flooded the district with mailers, of course, claiming their opponents are flaming liberals.
Mailers are not cheap. From the article multiple mailers have been sent out. In a local race where a candidate is depending on support from parents and voters in the district it is very difficult, if not impossible, to compete against. In Keller ISD Patriot Mobile PAC invested $150,000 in three candidates. They all won. School Board races usually requires a couple thousand dollars, a hand full of signs, and lots of hand shaking. Trying to compete against $50,000 is impossible.
Katy ISD Trustee
In CCISD the partisan political PACs meddling in CCISD began with Scott Bowen’s election. In the last election Bowen recruited his friend, Pete Lauzon, to run and found $5000 from Defend Texas Liberty PAC for his campaign. DTL also donated $5000 to Glendora Rogers. She returned the donation. Bowen received $2000 from DTL for texting in his re-election. DTL, a PAC funded solely by two Dallas billionaires, is no longer active after their leadership was caught meeting with a known white supremacist.
In this years election, Trustee Jeff Larson, applied for an endorsement from The Project 1776 PAC, an extreme right wing organization out of New York. I’ve seen the texts they have sent out in support of Larson and heard about phone calls to voters. Both are not cheap. Larson has raised $2858 with $2549 coming from two donors, Scott Bowen and someone in Houston.
Partisan politics does not belong in our school districts. Candidates should be representatives of the community, parents, teachers, and students, not to out of state PACs or political parties.
This was my “after the wedding” trip. It was absolutely awesome!
My wife and I took a trip to Italy to visit Rome, Venice, and Milan. It was one of those touristy trip, hitting all the highlights, the Coliseum, Pompeii, Herculaneum, The Vatican, The Pantheon, the canals of Venice, and the Duomo di Milano. All of the tours we took were just incredibly interesting. It’s all a must see. Here are my notes and travel tips.
Lessons Learned. The hard way. My packing lists has extra clothes in my carry on. I forgot and it cost me. Do yourself a favor and put that on the top of your packing list.
American Airlines. You can’t fault an airline for rerouting you because of the weather but when they lose your luggage for 4 days and there is no way to call customer support for help (because they do not have customer support) it is pretty frustrating. Try calling AA and talking to a real person except for making and paying for a reservation. They will quickly take your money but good luck when you have a problem. Very frustrating experience. I fly Southwest for domestic travel and I can talk with customer support within a minute or two.
Bathrooms. Keep $5 in euros in your pocket because most bathrooms, except for restaurants, charge a euro. Seriously. The airports did not but the train stations did, the public bathrooms, bathrooms at the various tourist attractions did. LOL. You have to love the Europeans!
Accommodations. We stayed a half a block from The Pantheon. Very nice. The Dimora degli Dei. Yes, it is in the touristy area but it was so convenient to all the attractions. Walking distance to most. The staff was wonderful! In Venice we stayed at the Ambassador Tre Rose in San Marco. It was a very small, but clean and comfortable, room. We had a laugh at how small it was. The staff was just outstanding! We have nothing to compare it to but it was small. In Milan we stayed at the Brunelleschi Hotel. It was just around the corner from the Doumo. Beautiful room. Great staff. We returned to Rome and stayed in the Donna Camilla Savelli. Beautiful, wonderful staff, top notch!
Travel. We flew. Took a train from Venice to Milan and Rome to Naples. Rode the boats to Venice. Took a bike tour. And used uber/taxis for travel. When you use your Uber app they will list taxis also. They are cheaper and if you do not have luggage it is a great option. Just an FYI. If you don’t use the app at the airport and get into a taxi line, make sure you have cash to pay the driver. Good tip: Use the Uber app. BTW the drivers in Italy are aggressive!
The trains between Rome and Naples and Venice to Milan were fantastic! If you arrive 30 minutes ahead you are probably going to be early! We had to wait for the train number to be posted on the TV screens which usually was 15-20 minutes before departure. We spent a little more and booked a first class ticket and enjoyed the lounge while waiting. Tickets are checked like the old days, on the train while it is moving.
Food. We tried the pizza. Once. It is not like American pizza and certainly not like Chicago pizza. It was boring. Try it. Once. The lasagna was so much better than the US but don’t expect a lot of meat in your meat lasagna. All the other pasta plates were very different and good! Breakfast was mostly pastries. It made me wonder if the diabetes rates were higher than the US. (They are not) Inflation didn’t seem to have taken over Italy like in the US. We thought everything was very well priced. And coffee was European. I’m not an espresso fan. An Americano was a small cup of instant coffee. They charge for refills. LOL. Even the Starbucks screwed up American coffee.
Rome. We booked tours via Viator. We have had good experiences with them. All the tours we took, except for the boat ride in Rome, were outstanding! Again we did the touristy stuff and toured the Coliseum, The Forum, The Vatican, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the Pantheon. Skip the boat ride in Rome. It was uneventful. Boring. Everything else was just incredible!!!!
Venice. Unlike the other cities there are two ways to travel in Venice, boat or foot. That is it. There are no bikes, scooters, vespas, cars, nothing but boats and feet. We took a walking tour of Venice which is highly recommended. There is a mall that used to be a trading center for Germans that has a roof top viewing platform. It’s free but you have to have a ticket for a 15 minute viewing.
Milan. We stayed just around the corner from the Duomo di Milano. What a beautiful cathedral! Our tour through Milan included the painting of the Last Supper. That was interesting. The two paintings in the room were painted using different methods, fresco and dry. The dry painting of the Last Supper is faded and has required restoration. The other painting is pristine. Beautiful. Tourists are only allowed to be in the church for no more than 15 minutes.
Put on your walking shoes and visit Italy. Next stop for us, Tanzania!
The out of state PAC, The Project 1776 PAC, has endorsed and are campaigning for, other candidates across Texas besides CCISD Trustee Jeff Larson.
According to their website candidates from 6 other Independent School Districts across Texas have applied for their endorsement. Three of those Katy ISD, CCISD, and Spring Branch ISD are in the Houston area. They are also campaigning for candidates in Alabama and Wisconsin.
In order to receive their endorsement candidates must apply and provide answers to divisive issues like their support of “CRT” the unicorn of school courses. They have to pledge their opposition to diversity, and “Social Emotional Learning” what ever the fuck that is. It’s clear these candidates are extreme, white wing, masters of disruption. That is who they are.
This should really piss off CCISD voters. BTW I have asked Larson about this situation. He has refused to respond.
Partisan politics was introduced into CCISD and many school districts across the state a few years ago. CCISD Trustee Scott Bowen led the charge here with Trustee Jeff Larson following his right wing partisan politics. It led to division in the community, attacks on the gay community, attacks on our teachers, attacks on curriculum, and attacks on our librarians. It brought in the ban on the fictional studies called CRT which was never taught in schools in the first place. This white wing, extremist agenda also brought money from out of district PACs funded by billionaires out of Dallas. Nothing good has come from partisan politics in non partisan elections for the school board.
So what does Trustee Larson do? He applied for the endorsement of The Project 1776 PAC, a far right, extremist organization. They are now sending out texts in support of his campaign. How much they are spending is unknown at this time. I will spare you a copy of the multiple texts that have been sent. What is very disturbing about this is that he actually had to apply for the endorsement and some of the questions are more of the same crap we saw over the last few years that caused so much division. Here they are. I can bet I know exactly how he answered them.
Over the last few elections voters in CCISD have turned down the extreme candidates, Parizo, Dawson, Lauzon, and current Trustee who recruited these extremists, Scott Bowen, failed to received 50% of the vote in his last election.
Our Board, besides Larson and Bowen, are composed of great individuals who have put their personal partisan preference to the side. They have served the community very well. CCISD residents are lucky. Other districts such as Keller and Katy are struggling after candidates were elected by billionaire donations. In Keller three candidates won after a PAC spent $50,000 on each!
Larson should be ashamed of himself. Anyone who brings their sorry ass partisan politics into our Board should consider doing something else.
Posted by johncoby 
Bay Area Houston 
