City Council Road Trip

Observant audience members at the February 25 Richardson City Council meeting might have noticed this item buried deep in the consent agenda:


If you hoped to learn what that was all about, you were out of luck. It received no discussion (consent agenda items never do). The Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA) remains a deep mystery to me. All council deliberations are supposed to occur in public. In this case, either there was some communication going on beforehand, or the council is a peculiarly incurious bunch, or else mental telepathy is allowed by the TOMA. I'm going to go with prior communication. (Update: I have since discovered a memo deep in the Agenda Handout, not in the consent agenda, that explains the reason for the cancellation. A *very* observant audience member would have noticed this. My bad.) In any case, the council voted unanimously to "consider cancellation" of the March 4 council worksession, by which I think they in fact canceled it, without anyone doing any, you know, actual consideration, at least out loud.

After the jump, what it was all about. Sort of.

RISD Election: Put the Popcorn Away

The deadline to file to run as as candidate for the school board of the Richardson ISD (RISD) was March 1. It turns out that wasn't the only deadline of consequence. Another was March 4, the deadline to withdraw. One candidate who had filed to run withdrew in that three day period. Why didn't he withdraw before the March 1 filing deadline? The more you know about the candidate, the less surprised you ought to be.

After the jump, the disappearing candidate.

Repeat Tweets: Talking Back

Repeat tweets from February, 2013:

• Feb 1 2013: 38 references to Afghanistan vs 178 to Israel in Senate hearing on Hagel. Amazing lack of interest in war by @SenTedCruz and GOP senators.
  
• Feb 1 2013: Headline: "Stocks hit 5-yr highs on upbeat jobs report." Meanwhile, @SenTedCruz introduces bill to repeal Obamacare.
  
• Feb 1 2013: Read and retweet my warning not to believe anything @SenTedCruz quotes, without checking the context for yourself.
  
• Feb 1 2013: RT @BetseyStevenson: "Over the past 3 months the private sector added 624K jobs, while the govt lost 24K jobs." So much for bloated govt.
  
• Feb 1 2013: RT @ryanavent: "Employment now up 5.5m from low in Feb 2010. That's plus 6.1m private jobs, minus 600k govt jobs." So much for bloated govt.
  
• Feb 1 2013: "Reduced govt spending [is] a drag on recovery. The public sector lost 9,000 jobs last month." So much for govt bloat. tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com
  
• Feb 2 2013: High school men's basketball. Final: Berkner 53, Pearce 48. It's a great time to be a Ram! #txhsbb
  
• Feb 2 2013: Little Shop of Horrors at RHS: Intimate setting works well. The macabre has never been this much fun. Feed me! www.marksteger.com
  
• Feb 3 2013: Headline: "Watch the Throne: No. 1 ranking awaits Indiana" after #3 Hoosiers beat #1 Michigan. sports.yahoo.com
  
• Feb 3 2013: Bye Bye Birdie at BHS: A+ all around -- orchestra, lead singers, chorus, choreography, comic acting (Shriners hilarious). Best sound ever.
  
• Feb 3 2013: Caltech's baseball team beat Pacifica 9-7 Saturday. The win ended a 228-game, 10-year losing streak. Go Beavers! www.usatoday.com
  

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

Playoffs: Berkner 66, Austin Anderson 52

State Bound!

Final Four! The Berkner Rams men's basketball team traveled to Waco this weekend and returned with the Region II championship trophy. They'll travel to Austin March 8-9 to play in the Final Four!

Berkner won a thriller Friday night over Spring Westfield 64-58 in overtime. On Saturday the Rams beat Austin Anderson 66-52.

Next stop: the Frank Erwin Center on the University of Texas campus in Austin for the UIL State Championship. 128 teams started this tournament. Only four remain. Two semi-final games will be played Friday and the championship game between the winners will be played Saturday night. It's a great time to be a Ram!

More photos after the jump.

Richardson Idol Canceled

The upcoming season of Richardson Idol has been canceled due to a shortage of contestants. As of the 5:00 pm, March 1, deadline for filing to run in the City of Richardson's May 11 City Council elections, only one race was contested, the newly created elected mayor's position.

After the jump, the winners by default for the other six races and, most important, what will replace Richardson Idol in this spring's TV lineup.