Lewisville Fireworks Saturday Night
8 hours ago
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Corinth City Council vacancy
From the Denton Record Chronicle:
CORINTH — Mayor Pro Tem Joe Harrison canceled an executive session discussion slated for the end of the City Council’s regular meeting Thursday, saying “there was nothing to discuss” in relation to the Place 1 vacancy.
The seat became vacant in May when Paul Ruggiere won the mayoral race halfway through his second term on the Corinth council. Ruggiere was absent from Thursday’s meeting.
The council’s agenda has had the item listed on the executive session agenda for five consecutive meetings since May 21.
Neither Harrison nor interim City Manager Jim Berzina would confirm any names being considered other than Sherry Schneider, who challenged Jim Mayfield’s re-election bid this spring, but lost.
Berzina said the council had advertised the vacancy, encouraging people who are interested in serving to contact a council member directly.
The process was meant to give individual council members a chance to visit with potential candidates and compare notes, Berzina said, so a consensus might emerge and then nominations could move to open session.
The city charter specifies only that the council may nominate a replacement. The charter has no deadline to fill the vacancy.
Health Care Public Option is needed
Paul Krugman, nobel prize winning economist, further explains the need for a health care public option in his op-ed today:
When it comes to domestic policy, there are two Barack Obamas.
On one side there's Barack the Policy Wonk, whose command of the issues – and ability to explain those issues in plain English – is a joy to behold.
But on the other side there's Barack the Post-Partisan, who searches for common ground where none exists and whose negotiations with himself lead to policies that are far too weak.
Both Baracks were on display in the president's press conference last week. First, Obama offered a crystal-clear explanation of the case for health care reform, especially of the case for a public option competing with private insurers. "If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care, if they tell us that they're offering a good deal," he asked, "then why is it that the government, which they say can't run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That's not logical."
But when asked whether the public option was non-negotiable, he waffled, declaring that there are no "lines in the sand."
It would be a crushing blow to progressive hopes if Obama doesn't succeed in getting some form of universal care through Congress. But reform isn't worth having if you can only get it on terms so compromised that it's doomed to fail.
The success of reform depends on successful cost control. We really, really don't want to get into a position a few years from now where premiums are rising rapidly, many Americans are priced out of the insurance market despite government subsidies, and the cost of health care subsidies is a growing strain on the budget.
And that's why the public plan is an important part of reform: It would help keep costs down through a combination of low overhead and bargaining power. That's not an abstract hypothesis, it's a conclusion based on solid experience. Currently, Medicare has much lower administrative costs than private insurance companies, while federal health care programs other than Medicare (which isn't allowed to bargain over drug prices) pay much less for prescription drugs than non-federal buyers. There's every reason to believe that a public option could achieve similar savings.
Indeed, the prospects for such savings are precisely what have the opponents of a public plan so terrified. Behind the boilerplate about big government, rationing and all that lies the real concern: fear that the public plan would succeed.
So Obama and Democrats in Congress have to hang tough – no more gratuitous giveaways in the attempt to sound reasonable. And reform advocates have to keep up the pressure to stay on track. Yes, the perfect is the enemy of the good; but so is the not-good-enough-to-work. Health reform has to be done right.
LINK
When it comes to domestic policy, there are two Barack Obamas.
On one side there's Barack the Policy Wonk, whose command of the issues – and ability to explain those issues in plain English – is a joy to behold.
But on the other side there's Barack the Post-Partisan, who searches for common ground where none exists and whose negotiations with himself lead to policies that are far too weak.
Both Baracks were on display in the president's press conference last week. First, Obama offered a crystal-clear explanation of the case for health care reform, especially of the case for a public option competing with private insurers. "If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care, if they tell us that they're offering a good deal," he asked, "then why is it that the government, which they say can't run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That's not logical."
But when asked whether the public option was non-negotiable, he waffled, declaring that there are no "lines in the sand."
It would be a crushing blow to progressive hopes if Obama doesn't succeed in getting some form of universal care through Congress. But reform isn't worth having if you can only get it on terms so compromised that it's doomed to fail.
The success of reform depends on successful cost control. We really, really don't want to get into a position a few years from now where premiums are rising rapidly, many Americans are priced out of the insurance market despite government subsidies, and the cost of health care subsidies is a growing strain on the budget.
And that's why the public plan is an important part of reform: It would help keep costs down through a combination of low overhead and bargaining power. That's not an abstract hypothesis, it's a conclusion based on solid experience. Currently, Medicare has much lower administrative costs than private insurance companies, while federal health care programs other than Medicare (which isn't allowed to bargain over drug prices) pay much less for prescription drugs than non-federal buyers. There's every reason to believe that a public option could achieve similar savings.
Indeed, the prospects for such savings are precisely what have the opponents of a public plan so terrified. Behind the boilerplate about big government, rationing and all that lies the real concern: fear that the public plan would succeed.
So Obama and Democrats in Congress have to hang tough – no more gratuitous giveaways in the attempt to sound reasonable. And reform advocates have to keep up the pressure to stay on track. Yes, the perfect is the enemy of the good; but so is the not-good-enough-to-work. Health reform has to be done right.
LINK
New Bridge Fun Run August 1, 2009
Did you know that a road from Little Elm to Lake Dallas was flooded years ago when Lake Lewisville was built? Now, more than 50 years later, Texas has spent $122 million to build a two mile bridge across the lake to reconnect the two parts of the county. Some people like the idea and, of course, some people don't.Either way, it is almost finished and a fun run/walk across the bridge has been scheduled for August 1, 2009. Participants are encouraged to bring canned foods which will be donated to the local food pantry.
For more information about the bridge, the Fun Run and to register, click HERE
Friday, June 26, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Texas less conservative than you may think
A new Texas poll shows interesting results . Texas is more balanced or more evenly divided on economic and social issues.
Poll debunks Texas' conservative image
The conservative tilt of Texas is not as steep on some spending and social issues as many believe – with a majority favoring either civil unions or marriage rights for gay couples and almost half endorsing taxpayer money for embryonic stem cell research.
A new poll by the nonpartisan Texas Lyceum, a leadership development group, asked about economic and social issues, and, as expected, found that jobs and finances dominate Texas concerns right now.
The conservative sway was seen in the polling sample's overwhelming rejection of further bailouts for auto and financial companies.
But Texans by even greater numbers favored more government spending for education initiatives and new energy products, even if it meant increasing the deficit.
Those two topics, along with infrastructure spending, were more popular than tax cuts.
Texas' image as a die-hard red state "has always been exaggerated," said Dr. Daron Shaw, a University of Texas political science professor who conducted the poll. "In terms of public policy, it's always been a practical state."
He said he was surprised by the support for gay unions or marriage (57 percent) and embryonic cell research (48 percent).
It's "more balanced than the caricature of Texas would have you believe," he said.
Read the entire Dallas Morning News article HERE
Poll debunks Texas' conservative image
The conservative tilt of Texas is not as steep on some spending and social issues as many believe – with a majority favoring either civil unions or marriage rights for gay couples and almost half endorsing taxpayer money for embryonic stem cell research.
A new poll by the nonpartisan Texas Lyceum, a leadership development group, asked about economic and social issues, and, as expected, found that jobs and finances dominate Texas concerns right now.
The conservative sway was seen in the polling sample's overwhelming rejection of further bailouts for auto and financial companies.
But Texans by even greater numbers favored more government spending for education initiatives and new energy products, even if it meant increasing the deficit.
Those two topics, along with infrastructure spending, were more popular than tax cuts.
Texas' image as a die-hard red state "has always been exaggerated," said Dr. Daron Shaw, a University of Texas political science professor who conducted the poll. "In terms of public policy, it's always been a practical state."
He said he was surprised by the support for gay unions or marriage (57 percent) and embryonic cell research (48 percent).
It's "more balanced than the caricature of Texas would have you believe," he said.
Read the entire Dallas Morning News article HERE
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