If you can’t follow the law how can you enforce it? Remember that if one of your family members is arrested in Galveston County.
Yesterday a hearing was set concerning Sheriff Jimmy Fullen’s lawsuit against the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. (See Galveston County Sheriff’s lawsuit against state licensing agency) The TCOLE had recommended pulling Fullen’s law enforcement license making him ineligible to serve as Sheriff. Fullen successfully challenged the recommendation claiming the Commission had no authority to revoke the license of a sitting Sheriff. So the TCOLE instead recommended a 10 year suspension. Fullen sued. The hearing was set. The hearing was cancelled.
Fullen’s lawyer, Toni Buzbee, and the Attorney General’s office will meet in mediation to resolve the issue. Yesterday Fullen was able to hide the results of his ethics violation for padding his campaign account with a fake $100,000 personal loan. Usually a complaint like this would end with a large fine but we will never know since he successfully lobbied to have the details of the investigation and the fine confidential. He eventually erased the personal loan off his campaign report as if it never happened.
These forums will give you the opportunity to meet the candidates. You can keep track of of all election information at the CCISD Elections Webpage.
South Belt-Ellington Chamber of Commerce CCISD Trustee Candidates Forum – At-Large Position B Date: Tuesday, April 1, 2025 Time: 6:30 p.m. Location: Sageglen HOA Facility (11610 Sageyork Drive, Houston, TX 77089) Visit www.southbeltchamber.com
Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce CCISD Trustee Candidates Forum – District 1 and At-Large Position B Date: Tuesday, April 8, 2025 Time: 5:30 p.m. Location: City of Nassau Bay City Hall (1800 Space Park Dr #200, Houston, TX 77058) Forum will be livestreamed. Visit www.clearlakearea.com
League City Regional Chamber of Commerce CCISD Trustee Candidates Forum – District 1 and At-Large Position B Date: Thursday, April 17, 2025 Time: 6:00 p.m. Location: Grand Living at Tuscan Lakes (1850 E League City Pkwy, League City, TX 77573) Forum will be livestreamed. Visit www.leaguecitychamber.com
This is embarrassing. As a reminder Joe Machol was a high school football referee hence the football analogies and boy did he fumble this one! Again. You can read about Joe’s first fumble at “CCISD Candidate Joe Machol’s Campaign: Fumbling the Kick Off“.
Candidates for CCISD Trustee provided answers to a recent questionnaire covering the issues affecting our school district including funding, retention of teachers, plans for the future and more. The answers, by most candidates, were detailed and based upon their extensive knowledge of the public education system. Seabrook Council Member Joe Machol stood out above the rest, but not in a good way.
His answer to almost every single question focused on the 3 Rs, Reading, Riting, and Rithmetic. Here are some excerpts:
Help students become efficient in reading, writing and arithmetic.
Help the teachers instruct the students in reading, writing and arithmetic.
Getting the Student efficient in Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.
Getting the students the help they need in reading, writing and arithmetic.
Go back to the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic.
Incentives to Teachers when the students achieve the best scores in reading, writing and arithmetic
Go back to the basics Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.
Teachers who are focused on reading, writing and arithmetic.
I didn’t create the issue of schools going away from reading, writing and arithmetic,
Help each and every student become the best that they can be in reading, writing and arithmetic.
ARLINGTON, TEXAS – JANUARY 10: TreVeyon Henderson #32 of the Ohio State Buckeyes scores a touchdown during the second quarter against the Texas Longhorns during the Goodyear Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium on January 10, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by CFP/Getty Images)
Seriously that is his answer to almost every question. While other candidates have thoughtful, detailed, explanations on why they are best for the job Machol is focused on the 3 Rs as if CCISD students are dumber than a rock and teachers are incapable of instruction. His answers are not only embarrassing it is insulting to students, teachers, parents, and taxpayers. His comments about cutting waste is laughable. CCISD, as well as every school district in Texas, has been stretched to the limit due to cuts to education.
I don’t know why Trustee Bowen recruited Machol. He is clearly unqualified for the job especially when a very capable Trustee is already serving the district. I do not believe Machol’s heart is in this race. Based upon his answers to the detailed questionnaire I wonder if he would advocate for cutting out life lessons being taught in CCISD like band, music, theatre, culinary skills, and auto mechanics.
Property owners in the Bay Area are being hit with the highest premiums in the State affecting homeowners, businesses, realtors, taxpayers, home buyers and sellers, and even insurance agents. What can you do about it? For a start do this:
Join our newsletter and keep up with what is going on in Austin concerning the rising cost of insurance. We have over 850 signed up! Sign up here: tinyurl.com/BayAreaHouston. I will send a periodic email to keep you informed. No spam and I will NOT share your information with anyone.
Contact our elected officials:
Remember this is NOT a partisan issue. Everyone no matter what party you side with are affected by this issue.
State Representative Dennis Paul. He sits on the Insurance Committee. Email him and his Chief of Staff AND call his office voicing your concerns. Dennis.Paul@house.texas.gov and Greg.Bentch@house.texas.gov ((512) 463-0734)
Feel free to call me or email me. johncoby@sbcglobal.net 281-536-2457
There is no simple solution to this issue. There are no knights in shining armor that will swoop in to help. We are on our own on this issue. In the short future I will try to suggest alternatives for those looking for help.
Texas State Representative Stan Gerdes, a republican with the full backing of Governor Abbott, has filed a House Bill 4814 banning animal role playing by kids in schools. (This is NOT satire) Gerdes claims this bill was a result of a complaint confirmed by the Superintendent of Smithville Independent School District. SISD has 5 schools, including 1 high school. They have a total of 1770 students and 122 teachers. The SISD is what we call “rural” like in farmers and lots of white people in Bastrop County. Many would consider this district to be in “Bum f*** Egypt”.
The bill will prohibit dress up by kids in animal costumes, role playing, and even having cat litter available. Seriously. According to his press release “I filed HB 4814, the FURRIES Act (Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Educational Spaces) to ensure that public schools are not accommodating or allowing disruptive “furry” roleplaying behavior.” His press release is below. His bill, HB4814, can be found here. It has no co-sponsors or chance for a hearing.
According to the Houston Chronicle this stupidity was debunked in early 2024 but not after it caused considerable chaos including bomb threats and threats against school districts. Even the farmers in the area were taken back by this bill. “What I do in the privacy of my barn is none of your g**damn business.” said one farmer who wanted to remain anonymous. (Ok. That sentence was satire)
The bill has the full support of CCISD Trustee Scott Bowen.
Last year the Texas Ethics Commission began an investigation into Jimmy Fullen, candidate for Sheriff. Fullen padded his campaign account with a fake $100,000 loan. In an amended report he simply removed it from his reports prior to the TEC completing their investigation.
Today that investigation has been completed but Fullen petitioned the TEC to make it “confidential” and the investigation results, fines, or any other disciplinary action will be hidden from the public. Seems odd since Fullen ran on being Mr Transparency. Based upon other ethics fines I would bet he was hit fairly hard for basically padding his bottom line with a fake loan. As I said before:
As noted previously Fullen has removed his $100,000 loan from this campaign reports as if it never happened, probably because it really never happened. He padded his account making it look like he raised a shit load of money. He actually didn’t. In his latest report he has a loan balance of only $24,052 which came from Mark Henry. The $100,000 loan he claimed to have given himself magically disappeared.
Over the next couple of months there will be a series of forums where candidates for CCISD school board will be able to express their plans and concerns if elected. Unfortunately I believe the questions are just too nice, such as questions about school vouchers and how they intend to adjust to the cuts in funding. Moderators rarely will ask follow up questions. I’m also wondering why the educational community has not arranged a forum. Why do we have to depend on the Chamber or the Southbelt news paper to organize an event. Both are having forums soon.
A group of constituents met with local Congressman Brian Babin’s staff to discuss a range of topics including the tariffs, Ukraine, attacks on Veterans, Elon Musk, education, and the stock market. The meeting was cordial, the staff was nice, but the results were just so-so.
Refusing to meet with constituents. One of the issues brought to his attention was the complete lack of communication by Babin. They claimed Babin has had a town hall meeting 10 years ago. One. In ten years. None of us could remember it. They said we could listen to him on a “tele town hall” which is nothing more than a recorded message with answers to hand picked questions. It is a one way conversation.
Ukraine. The staff claims Babin has broken away from Trump concerning his claim that Ukraine started the war by attacking Russia. We have not heard that and he could not produce anything that proves this. We questioned whether Babin approved of what Trump and Vance did to attack Zelensky. He had no response. We questioned what his position was on Ukraine. Again no answer.
NASA. We talked about the chaos at NASA and our federal employees. We reminded him that there has been reductions in force at NASA but they were coordinated and followed a process. There was an orderly exit for employees with none being fired by an email.
Elon Musk. We didn’t hold back on Elon Musk and wanted to know if Babin supported Musk and DOGE. Again no answer. We asked specifically if Babin supported Musk attack on war veteran Mark Kelly. Again nothing specific. The staff member was good at deflecting.
Education. We discussed the cuts to the Department of Education, something Babin has supported in the past. Again no concrete answers.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for a town hall meeting. The only way you will be able to actually see him face to face is to attend an event by the Chamber of Commerce. It usually costs $35.
Community Impact is a pretty good local publication. Yesterday they posted Q&A for Rebecca Lilley and Trustee Scott Bowen. Today they published answers by Trustee Cejka and Joe Machol to some generic questions. My thoughts below.
Trustee Cejka As I have said before I just don’t understand why Trustee Bowen recruited a candidate to run against Trustee Cejka. With major funding issues about to hit our district we need stability, experience, and level heads. Unlike other School Districts who have elected chaotic Trustees such as Keller, Katy, and Cypress, CCISD has been able to excel despite Scott Bowen’s political chaos. Cejka’s commitment to the tax payers, parents, teachers, and students has contributed to CCISD being selected as finalists for the HEB Excellence in Education Award. Cejka’s responses to the questions are what we expect from our Trustees.
Council Member Joe Machol As posted yesterday, Seabrook Council Member Joe Machol has a long resume of football referee experience including with the NFL. In his first remarks to the public, as a candidate for CCISD Trustee, Machol fumbled the kick off. The questions by CI are as simple as putting the ball on the half yard line with 1st and goal. CI asked the candidates to keep answers to 50 words or less. Machol took full advantage of this requirement answering with short, generic, unresponsive responses. For example responding to the question:
“Should the district address declining enrollment? If so, how?“ he answered “Declining enrollment could be offset with recruitment.”.
And/Or Duh. I thought Machol would have taken a few minutes to confer with Trustee Bowen and answer the questions with thoughtful responses. He didn’t. Instead he took a knee. Take a few minutes to read the article and bookmark Community Impact for future articles.
Yesterday I called our State Representative Dennis Paul and asked how many calls they have received on HB 3, the school voucher bill. I was told this information is “privileged” and could not be shared. Needless to say I called bullshit and was abruptly referred to his Chief of Staff, Greg Bentch. I have been in contact with Greg for a number of months concerning home insurance and even met with him last week. He also claimed this information is protected from being released. I don’t believe this. He claimed that they have received calls on “both” sides of the argument but refused to say just how opposed to vouchers Paul’s constituents are.
I’ve called other State Representatives and they did not agree with Paul’s position. Poll after poll show nearly 70% of Texans are against vouchers including Democrats and Republics. If his office is taking statistics on this topic it is public information. Period. Even a simple spreadsheet or hand written tally is public record. All emails concerning HB 3 are public information. All of it is.
Paul co-sponsored the voucher bill even though his constituents are widely opposed to it. Even members of his own party are against vouchers. The business community in the Bay Area are against it. A resolution in support of vouchers was spearheaded by CCISD Trustee Scott Bowen and it was NOT a unanimous vote. Vouchers are just not popular. Yet Paul will support it nevertheless.
Maybe you will have better luck contacting Paul’s office at (512) 463-0734 or via email at Dennis.paul@house.texas.gov. Voice your opposition and ask for statistics.
Community Impact asked Trustee Bowen and his opponent, Rebecca Lilley, a couple of generic questions concerning their positions on education. The article avoided the kind of questions I would ask like “Do you support vouchers?” or “Will you accept money from outside the district PACs?” or “Will you bring partisan politics into the classroom?”. If you read between the lines Bowen answers some of these questions. Here is an analysis of the interview, Get to know the candidates running for Clear Creek ISD’s board of trustees At-Large Position B.
Vouchers Bowen’s opponent voiced her opposition to vouchers. Bowen didn’t even mention it even though he has been the champion of school vouchers for the Republic Party and he was caught on video doing it. Bowen sponsored a resolution in the Party urging passage of the voucher program. It passed, although NOT unanimously. You can watch the video here.
Bringing partisan politics into the classroom Bowen is real proud of stopping “CRT” being taught at CCISD schools even though CRT was never taught and would never be taught since it is a specialized, advanced, graduate course taught in just a few colleges across the country. (Personally I don’t even know WTF CRT is.)
Bowen in his response to the Community Impact repeat the catch phrases being used by his Republic Party, including ” prioritizing traditional education (including phonics), reducing device dependence.” These are the current hot topics his party is pushing. They sound common sense but his party has been in control for 25 years and yet this is an issue now? His comments on property taxes are, again, out of his Party’s playbook. CCISD property taxes were cut two years ago, almost in half. School districts are struggling and vouchers will NOT help. For a party that has been in power for 25 years it is amazing how difficult they have made it for public education.
This article just touches the surface of the important issues. I wish someone would ask the tough questions like “Do you have any association with white supremacists?”. To read about Bowen’s record you might want to read the article “Scott Bowen: A Threat to CCISD Education“.
The Public Education Committee in the Texas House has scheduled a hearing on School Vouchers Tuesday March 11. You can, and should, submit comments to the bill on the House Comment Webpage. Submit your name, address, the bill you are commenting on (HB 3 by Buckley) You are limited to 3000 characters.
My personal issue with this bill besides cutting funding to Public Schools, is that this bill will give parents 10 times more money than what they contribute to public education. If you pay $1000 in school taxes the State will give you $9000 more, all paid for with your tax dollars. This is nothing more than Welfare for the Wealthy.
Why is Seabrook City Councilman running for CCISD Trustee? It’s a valid question and has not been answered.
Joe Machol is a Seabrook City Council Member. Seabrook has been having an internal conflict with the extreme right wing, led by Jackie Rasco, attempting to take over City Council. It seems that Machol is in the middle of this chaos. Yesterday I posted a video of Jackie Rasco, candidate for Mayor, at a CCISD meeting complaining about rainbows in the classroom. It should come as no surprise that CCISD Trustee Scott Bowen endorses both of these individuals.
I have asked CM Machol about why he is running especially against a very good Trustee, Jessica Cejka. Cejka has been a great addition to the Board and has served her community very well. Machol, who was recruited by Trustee Bowen, has no real answer except for one response that was shared with me “I’ve lived in Seabrook for decades [sic]”. He has no website or Facebook page but he has been asked on various social media sites many times. Still no answer.
Unlike the other candidates Machol does not have a treasurer on file, as of last Friday, which means he cannot raise or spend money. That is a big no-no with the Texas Ethics Commission. You must have a treasurer on file with CCISD before spending any money, including your own, on campaign related items such as signs and buttons. It is a pretty easy rule to follow.
High School Football Machol brings a long resume of football referee experience including with the NFL but that seems to have been abruptly ended with the filing of a lawsuit by Machol against the Texas Association of Sports Officials (TASO). (Case #201873227- 7 filed in Harris County)
This suit was filed in 10/2018 and was dismissed (settled?) on 2/2020. The TASO removed him as a high school referee and as President of TASO for some kind of ethics violations. Machol sued for about $1,000,000. According to documents filed with the County, TASO investigated allegations made by Machol against other members of the board and dismissed all of his complaints. Why he was specifically removed as a referee is not clear. You can read the original petition here and the results of the TASO investigation here. All the documents can be found with the County Clerk. The Houston Chronicle also covered this story in 2019.
According to the documents Machol was pulled from refereeing 14 high school games. It is not known if he was reinstated after the suit was settled. CCISD has been through a lot of unnecessary chaos created by Scott Bowen. What we do not need is more chaos such as the chaos with Seabrook and TASO. It would be great if Machol would consider staying on City Council.
And Jackie Rasco, candidate for Seabrook Mayor did just that. She seemed to enjoy bashing the gay community and rallying against rainbows in the classroom. It’s all on video. Watch it below. Maybe she should have consulted with Scott before attacking the gay community since Bowen’s family members are gay. It must have been a very uncomfortable 3 minutes for Scott or maybe he actually enjoyed it. Who knows?
I think Bowen is endorsing her based upon the photo above with failed CCISD candidate Misty Dawson, who Bowen recruited, standing next to a Scott Bowen cutout. You can watch Rosco’s 3 minutes of fame below.
The signs are out on the streets yet City Council has not authorized an election to replace Justin Hicks who resigned last week after month of turmoil. Scott Higginbotham, who lost to Council Member Tom Crews in 2024, got a jump on City Council and has put up signs throughout the city. In that election he lost by just a few hundred votes while his buddy Justin Hicks easily won by 10 points, not vote, points. Go figure. I had expected the Higginbotham/Hicks team to win. Maybe Higginbotham didn’t have enough baggage like Hicks had. As I said in a previous post:
Justin ran on his credentials of being a MAGAt conservative and decorated Iraq war veteran. The voters gave Hicks a pass on his inability to be honest about his campaign finance reports, hold a job, pay his bills, or his filing for bankruptcy. Someone with this type of record should never get near an elected office. Yet the same voters who put Hicks back in office also re-elected a true conservative, Tom Crews. They voted from one extreme to common decency.
Higginbotham self financed his campaign with over $20,000 and a donation from Nick Long’s PAC. He has an Ethics Commission investigation for this donation. Higginbotham gave Long’s PAC $5000 who then gave $5000 to Parabellum Media LLC in support of Higginbotham. It’s very strange and worth looking into.
But make no mistake about it. Higginbotham is endorsed by Hicks, the Mayor and Council Member Tom Cones who refused to call for Hicks’ resignation. Higginbotham’s ethics complaint might be resolved this month before the election. Until then it is clear Hicks 2.0 is going to be on the ballot.
Eric Dick, HCDE Trustee and an insurance attorney, was given till March 7th to explain why it looks like a dead guy signed documents that he submitted in a case against Allstate. According to a previous post:
Today a Judge signed an order claiming Dick filed an affidavit from an expert named Richard Gadnow. The affidavit claims Gadnow had inspected a home and found damage. The signed affidavit by Gadnow was filed almost a year AFTER Gadnow died from brain cancer.
Dick claimed the Richard Gadnow who inspected the property and signed the documents was not the deceased but his son who is quite alive. Yesterday Dick filed a response which included his response, a declaration from the son, and a declaration from the Notary Public who witnessed the signature process. None of these documents were notarized but then again I don’t believe that is required. You can view the response from Dick here.
It’s the second time SpaceX blew up within a few months. This is not normal.
One of the last classes I took at NASA was a course concerning Root Cause Analysis. It was a class teaching how NASA conducts an investigation to determine the cause of an accident. NASA has standards to determine if an independent RCA is to be conducted. At the time I believe the standards included the loss of life, or injury to an individual, and/or the loss of a mission that is over $1 Million. The Challenger and Columbia accidents are examples. Unlike these two SpaceX accidents did not result in a loss of life but they have all resulted in huge economical impacts.
At the time of the class SpaceX had just experienced one of their many accidents. I asked if NASA would be involved in this RCA. The instructor was reluctant to address this because the contract between NASA and SpaceX allowed them to self investigate their accidents. So SpaceX has investigated over and over again and yet their RUFUS continue. Something is truly f***ed up.
As with any other NASA investigation an independent group of experts perform a deep dive into the accident and will issue a detailed report. Have w never seen a detailed report from SpaceX? All we read about the accidents are what SpaceX gives to the media and then the accidents continue.
Maybe one day SpaceX will stop learning from their fuck ups and start learning how to prevent their fuck ups. This isn’t a fucking game. This explosion cause air traffic to stop on the east coast. I spewed debris over the launch area. If the root cause of these accidents is not adequately investigated what else could we lose?
OMG if Galveston County’s Sheriff Jimmy Fullen was named Hunter Biden he would have been cancelled yesterday. Instead Fullen has hired Tony Buzbee, the guy who got Texas Attorney General off the hook in his impeachment trial and has filed a lawsuit against the Commission On Law Enforcement (TCOLE). As you might remember TCOLE called for suspending Fullen’s law license because he did what Hunter Biden did, he falsified government documents. This is what TCOLE stated concerning Fullen:
Specifically, Respondent omitted, failed to disclose, or provided false or untruthful information related to job experience, having been disciplined at work, having been fired or asked to resign from a place of employment, having been accused of discrimination, having been the subject of a written complaint at work, having failed to make or been late on a court-ordered payment, having been part of a civil lawsuit, and failing to disclose two arrests.
You can read the entire letter from the TCOLE here. That should be enough for any law enforcement official to be suspended but Fullen is special. He is just like former City Council Member Justin Hicks. He thinks he is above the law and he is willing to file a lawsuit to prevent TCOLE from taking any action against him. It is disturbing that Fullen has NOT denied the allegations against him. Sure he did exactly what Hunter Biden did but then again he is a MAGAt. He is special.
If you can’t tell the truth as an office of the law how can anyone believe anything you say? Hopefully Fullen will be put on the stand, under oath, and have to defend his actions, or lie about them. He still has a pending ethics complaint against him for an illegal $100,000 loan.
It’s over. League City MAGAManiac Council Member Justin Hicks has resigned.
As I have said in the past I have $175 worth of reasons to oppose Justin Hicks but I’m not happy with the results. He is being investigated by the District Attorney and the burden of his fiasco has been put on his wife and kids. Unfortunately that is all on him. He did it. He is responsible for it. Still it is a sad ending to a problem caused by the so called “conservatives” of the Republic Party. You so called “conservatives” put him in office. You did this.
And now it’s difficult to watch City Council and the Mayor call for his resignation claiming they are “committed to to upholding the highest standards of conduct and integrity”, and accusing him of violating rules of procedures and conduct unbecoming of an elected official. They accuse Hicks of attacking law enforcement, being above the law, abusing his power as an elected official and yet they all probably voted for that rotten bastard Trump.
Trump, unlike Justin Hicks, is a convicted felon. He fucked a porn star, paid her off to keep quiet, and then lied about it to his constituents. He stole classified documents, hid them from the FBI, then lied about it. He was indicted for organizing a riot at the capitol which ended in a number of law enforcement officials being attacked, some dying. He watched for over 3 hours as he watched his mob attack law enforcement. He was impeached. Twice. And yet you fucking so called “conservatives” voted to put him in office. Again.
And now League City Mayor Nick Long has the balls to call a special meeting to sanction Hicks and call for his resignation all while he and others ignore what that fucked up Trump has done. What the fuck is wrong with you fucking people? Yes Hicks should have been sanctioned. He should have resigned but the hypocrisy of the so called conservatives on City Council is epic. Just fucking epic.
True conservatives need to admit it. You have lost your party. You have lost your morals. You have lost your balls. You have lost your common sense. But you have an opportunity to take back your party. Restore it to the part of Lincoln and Reagan. Restore it to the party of family values, common sense, and fiscal responsibility,
Posted by johncoby 
Bay Area Houston 