Berkner Rams 67, Richardson Eagles 58

From 2011 01 Berkner Basketball

The Berkner Rams boys basketball team defeated the Richardson Eagles 67-58 Friday night in the Berkner gym. Berkner (19-7), ranked 12th in the state by TABC and undefeated (5-0) in District 9-5A play, led 22-9 after one quarter. Richardson dominated the second quarter, tying the game at 32 at the half. Richardson grabbed the lead 34-32 to open the second half. Berkner gradually regained control of the game, winning by 9.

Richardson's Torrance Carr led all scorers with 27 points. Xavier Thomas led Berkner's more balanced scoring with 22. Four Berkner players finished with double digits in scoring.

It's a great time to be a Ram! To see all photos, look here.

Civility: What's Not To Like?

President Barack Obama, January 12, 2011:

"And if, as has been discussed in recent days, their death helps usher in more civility in our public discourse, let us remember it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy -- it did not -- but rather because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to the challenges of our nation in a way that would make them proud."

Dallas's own Jeffrey Weiss has issued a call for something he calls a "National Political Civility Month" to be honored in January each year. Why just a month and not the full year? He doesn't have a good answer. Still, it's a start. What's not to like? Who could argue against civility, against simple courtesy, against motherhood and apple pie, right?

After the jump, the argument against motherhood and apple pie.

Real Heroes, Real Suspicious: Round Two

A year ago, the Richardson Coalition, a political action committee formed to elect its preferred candidates to city council, created something called the "Real Heroes Award." Many people were suspicious of the PAC's motives (and by many people, I mean me and by suspicious, I mean dead certain). Their voting procedure, requiring the public to submit their email addresses to the PAC, smacked of an email harvesting scheme. I wrote about it here.

After the jump, THEY'RE BA-ACK!

Video Scoreboards: Dumb Idea That Won't Die

Who needs cheerleaders?

The RISD is preparing a bond package to place before voters in May. In early drafts of the package, $2 million was penciled in for new video scoreboards at the RISD's two football stadiums. That was reportedly whittled down to $400,000 by foregoing new video capabilities. In this time of state budget deficits threatening public school education, even that much is best deferred.

Even if I thought the RISD could afford them, video scoreboards are still a dumb idea, for reasons I explained a month ago. After the jump, the RISD refuses to let this dumb idea die.

Richardson to Dentist: This Won't Hurt a Bit

Over a year ago, the presidents of three homeowners' associations in southwest Richardson lobbied the city to stop "half-hearted" development. What is half-hearted development? The answer was kind of fuzzy, but presumably converting old fast food restaurants into doctors' offices is considered to be half-hearted redevelopment. And it's clearly not wanted.

What I said about this topic when it came up in November, 2009, can be read here. After the jump, what's new.

Coming to Richardson: A New York State of Mind

Paul Krugman -- Nobel laureate and New York Times columnist (I don't know which of those makes him more suspect to Texas readers) -- has been looking into the conventional wisdom that the Texas economy has been a great success in this recession. He compiles a telling graph showing unemployment trends for Texas and New York for the last decade. I challenge you to tell which state is which without looking at the legend. Krugman suggests that "the miraculous Texas immunity to the recession is mythical."

After the jump, Krugman's explanation for why Texas, for a long time, has had faster-growing employment and population than the Northeast.

Winter in the Steger Garden (2011)

From Flowers

Twitter Tracks: Football, Lame Ducks and More

Twitter tracks from December, 2010:

• 2010 12 01 - Where politics, business and sport collide - Nate Silver's blog about TCU and the Big East: http://goo.gl/LiQPo
• 2010 12 02 - Funny how that works. Headline: "If Democrats are the big spenders, why do Republican states get the money?" http://goo.gl/811HL
• 2010 12 02 - The Moral Landscape, by Sam Harris: Science & morality are not different realms. Science has more to say about morality than religion does.
• 2010 12 03 - Coco Avant Chanel (2009): No corset! Anarchy. A portrait of a talented, ambitious young woman on the rise. With Audrey Tautou! See it.
• 2010 12 05 - Northwestern is coming to Dallas this season! and playing in the Cotton Bowl stadium on New Year's Day. Thank you, TicketCity Bowl.
• 2010 12 05 - And Wisconsin is back in the Rose Bowl. God's in his heaven - All's right with the world.
• 2010 12 07 - "Chaos" is Randy Moss's nickname. Headline: "Chaos could end Fisher's Titans tenure"
• 2010 12 07 - 14 years after DART opens, Jacquielynn Floyd discovers commuter rail. Her scoop: It's less stressful than driving. http://goo.gl/aEO8u

After the jump, more Twitter tracks.

Find Cancer Early

Consider that an order. This is a Public Service Announcement:

"Colorectal cancer screening helps people stay well and save lives. Regular colorectal cancer testing is one of the most powerful weapons for preventing colorectal cancer. Removing polyps prevents colorectal cancer from ever starting. And cancers found in an early stage are more easily treated. Nine out of 10 people whose colon cancer is discovered early will be alive 5 years later. And many will live a normal life span. But too often people don't get these tests. Then the cancer can grow and spread without being noticed, like a silent invader. In many cases, by the time people have any symptoms the cancer is very advanced and very hard to treat."
-- American Cancer Society

After the jump, what the PSA above doesn't tell you about colonoscopy.

Read the Bill

It's that every-two-years time again. The Texas legislature is set to meet. Its biggest challenge is to close a projected $20 billion budget gap. I'll let Senator Kirk Watson (D-Austin) explain how the legislators will work their magic:

"Every session, the Texas Senate passes one version of the budget and the House of Representatives passes another. At that point, a few legislators are appointed to what's known as a Conference Committee, and they get together (often behind closed doors) to add some spending and programs to the budget, remove some investment that some folks care about, and make other changes. Then, after a month or so of work, the Conference Committee report - which is basically the final draft of the budget - gets filed in both the Senate and the House. And legislators, advocates, the media, and other Texans generally have about 48 hours, if that, to sort through an almost 1,000 page document. Even with the best of intentions and effort, folks are left scrambling to discover what's been changed, added, subtracted, divided or multiplied as they try to figure out how lots of money covering lots of items - more than $180 billion in the current budget (which includes $87 billion in discretionary money) - will be spent."

After the jump, Senator Watson's simple suggestion for improving the process.

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