Why Aren't We Talking About Superintendents?

Dallas's new state legislator Stefani Carter weighed in on the crisis facing public education funding in Texas. In doing so, this freshman legislator demonstrated how little she can be counted on to offer practical solutions to the crisis. Her comments came in an interview with The Texas Tribune's editor Evan Smith. Unfair Park's Rob Wilonsky highlights the money quote from Carter on the subject:

"Says Carter, instead of talking about laying off teachers: 'Why aren't we talking about superintendents? Why aren't we talking about administrators?'"

After the jump, why this is wrong in multiple ways.

Late Winter / Early Spring in the Steger Garden (2011)

From Flowers

Lake Highlands Beats Richardson, Makes Playoffs

From 2011 02 LHHS vs RHS Basketball

The Lake Highlands Wildcats boys basketball team won a District 9-5A tiebreaker Friday night against the Richardson Eagles, 95-57. It was all Wildcats all the time. Trey Bingham was unstoppable, leading all scorers with 33 points. Malcolm Oaks led Richardson with 16 points. Richardson ends their season with an 8-6 district record (15-17 overall).

With the win, Lake Highlands (8-6 district, 19-13 overall) secures the fourth and final playoff spot in District 9-5A. The Wildcats will be tested early in the playoffs. They are scheduled to play Garland Lakeview Centennial, the state's #1 ranked team, Tuesday night at JJ Pearce High School. (Berkner plays Garland Naaman Forest in the first game of a double-header.)

For a look at more photos from the Lake Highlands - Richardson game, look here.

"Wal-Mart Lady" Challenges Bob Townsend

Ian McCann reported that a single candidate had filed for the May 14th election for each of the seven seats on Richardson's city council. On Thursday, one of the ballot places became an official race, as Diana Clawson filed to run against Bob Townsend in District 1 (southeast Richardson).

You may remember Clawson as the "Wal-Mart Lady." She was one of the principals who fought against Walmart building a Super Center in Richardson at Arapaho and Jupiter. Instead, we got the Block 24 apartments. I've often wondered how much tax revenue Richardson left on the table due to that successful action. Walmart remitted to Texas more than $1.4 billion in sales taxes in 2010. Richardson gets only a tiny fraction of that, from the Neighborhood Market on Buckingham Rd. No word yet on whether Clawson will adopt a NIMBY attitude on future Richardson growth and development opportunities.

Fact-Checking the Fact Checker

"Why are all the speakers white? ... All of you are white. Go to hell."

By now, everyone has heard about John Wiley Price's racist outburst:

"Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price smiled, glared and rolled his eyes as he listened to several speakers Tuesday accuse him of being deceitful and duplicitous in his behind-the-scenes maneuvering to replace the county's popular elections administrator [Bruce Sherbet]. But when the final speaker, Dallas lawyer Jeff Turner, took the podium and referred to Price repeatedly as the county's 'chief mullah' and used the word 'tribal' in his remarks, Price's famous temper got the better of him."

This part of the story is easily dealt with. Was John Wiley Price out of line? Yes. Was he provoked? Yes. Does that justify his outburst? No.

After the jump, an important detail that was lost in the colorful exchange.

Where Are All the Candidates?

We're into the filing period for the Richardson City Council election (May 14) and the list of announced candidates is slim despite a dozen or more potential candidates having picked up packets from city hall. Where are all the candidates?

After the jump, a review of the field ... so far.

OMG! Back-In/Head-Out Angle Parking

Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates

Now that the commotion over rezoning the open land around the Bush DART station has quieted down, it's time for some housecleaning. Little noticed in the effort to derail the new zoning was one little detail about this potential mixed-use development. And just as the recent introduction of flashing yellow arrows to control left turns brought out the curmudgeon in many of us, expect this latest little wrinkle in how we all drive to stir up the curmudgeons again, if and when the concrete is poured and the stripes are painted on the pavement.

After the jump, the coming distress over back-in/head-out angle parking.

OTBR: A Japanese Restaurant in Paris

Latitude: 48.9445 N
Longitude: 2.2494 E

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

Ever Change Your Mind?

I don't mean deciding maybe you want chicken instead of beef for dinner. I mean something more fundamental. A belief about what's real and what isn't. Like you can't deny any longer that evolution really is the best explanation for the diversity of life on Earth, or that the planet really is warming and humans have something to do with it. I've blogged before on the subject, identifying some major flip-flops in my own thinking over the years. All of those flip-flops were flip-flops in my judgment of the best strategy to deal with certain facts. Kind of like, when faced with a charging bear, changing my mind whether I should play dead or run like hell. None of my flip-flops were changes in my belief in the facts underpinning my beliefs. The bear is still a bear in any case.

After the jump, some recent readings on what it might take to change my mind about some fundamental facts.

Ron Paul and Texas Secession

Joeff Davis

Last spring, it was Gov. Rick Perry slyly suggesting that Texas just might want to secede from the Union if the Tea Party didn't get its way.

This winter, secession is again being talked about, this time prompted by the associations of another Texas politician. After the jump, does Texas Congressman Ron Paul -- and possibly future senator -- also believe in secession?