Today at noon, Georgetown and Austin area students and community members, in partnership with SEAK (Students for Environmental Activism and Knowledge) at Southwestern University, held a press conference and awareness rally at the Williamson County Courthouse in regards to the proposed nuclear reactors by the South Texas Expansion Project and CPS Energy of San Antonio.
Three speakers presented arguments against the proposal and Georgetown’s support of it. Connor Hanrahan, SU Senior and president of SEAK, spoke about the lack of transparency in the Georgetown City Council’s energy policy process and the inappropriateness of the City’s support of a plan that has public opposition in San Antonio. Matthew Johnson of Public Citizen’s Texas Office spoke about the unnecessary financial risk associated with the plan.
“Given that the estimated cost of the nuclear expansion at the South Texas Project has doubled since Georgetown’s city council approved a 25 year power generation plan,” Johnson said, “there’s a strong case to be made that rethinking that plan with new assumptions would be appropriate to protect ratepayers.”
Noting that LCRA has requested the current drought be classified as worse than the 1950s era “drought of record,” Trevor Lovell of ReEnergize Texas expressed concern about the impact the new nuclear reactors would have on water flowing in the Colorado River.
“In a drought year the 2 reactors currently at STP consume half the flow of the river. Adding two new reactors will put wetland wildlife at substantial risk and may wipe local rice farmers out completely.”
The coalition plans to speak at the Georgetown City Council meeting next week and deliver a letter to each Council member asking them to rescind their support of the project and reconsider their commitment to 30% nuclear in their current 2035 energy plan.
Both sides in the contentious nuclear debate made one last attempt to sway CPS Energy’s board in the face of the upcoming decision to spend another $400 million on the project.
Opponents of the plan to add two more reactors to the South Texas Project outside Bay City continued to hit on the themes of unknown and potentially skyrocketing costs and the lack of a long-term solution to nuclear waste.
Several called for a voter referendum. Supporters for the first time at a public meeting included leaders from three electric cooperatives around the state that want to buy electricity from the expanded facility. These were the Kerrville Public Utility Board, Central Texas Electric Cooperative and the city of Georgetown.
State Representative Diana Maldonado (HD-52) will host a Higher Education Community Forum Thursday October 22nd, to discuss current higher education programs as well as increased opportunities that are planned in House District 52.
The Community Forum is open to the public and will consist of a panel discussion involving experts from the Round Rock Higher Education Center, Austin Community College, and the East Williamson Higher Education Center (EWCHEC).
“Ensuring our students have access to a quality and affordable higher education is paramount to building a strong economy and a vibrant community,” Maldonado said. “With numerous educational institutions located throughout Williamson County, this area is well positioned to become a regional leader for students and educators.”
What: Community Forum on Higher Education
When: Thursday, October 22nd at 5:00 p.m.
Where: Round Rock Higher Education Center, 1555 University Blvd., Round Rock
This is the second in a series of Community Forum’s Maldonado will be hosting to discuss issues of importance facing communities and residents throughout House District 52.
Maldonado is serving her first term in the Texas House of Representatives and represents House District 52 which encompasses a portion of Williamson County, including Round Rock, Taylor, Hutto, Thrall, Coupland and part of Georgetown and Austin.
Texas State Rep. Scott Hochberg (D-Houston) has a page on his web site for getting information on all 11 amendments on the November ballot.
I’ve provided a page of information for each amendment, which you can read by clicking the corresponding link on the right side of this page. On each page, I’ve included a summary of what the amendment does, some arguments for and against its passage, and links to more detailed information as well as the exact wording of the changes to the Constitution that each amendment would make. I do not recommend how you should vote on these proposals, but rather provide information so you can make informed decisions.
The Texas Legislative Council has a full blown analysis (65 pages) and a condensed (13 pages) information. The House Research Office has a Focus Report[.pdf] on the amendments.
This year there are 11 proposed amendments for a document that a long series of cowardly legislatures have thoroughly transformed from a statement of basic governmental principles into a confounding laundry list of miscellaneous regulation that should instead have been confined, for good or ill, to the representative legislative process. (That’s why we elect representatives.) As a result, we generally encourage voters to consider rejecting all the propositions, as exercises in misleading choice and fake democracy, indeed a mockery of democracy.
For those who prefer finer distinctions, we note that of the 11 propositions, only two (Proposition 4, creating a new higher education fund, and Proposition 9, addressing public ownership of beaches) approach constitutional importance. The rest are either ill-considered (1, 2, and 11), or so trivial that it’s a waste of public money and energy for us to be voting on them. Here’s the ballot language, along with our recommendations. Vote as you will.
As with most of these “off-year” constitutional amendment elections in Texas turnout is likely to be very low, and almost all of the propositions pass, unless there is significant opposition. Inform yourself on the propositions and go vote.
Monday, October 19 thru Saturday October, 24 8am to 6pm No Sunday Voting
Monday, October 26 thru Friday, October 30 7am to 7pm
Main Location:
Williamson County Inner Loop Annex, 301 SE Inner Loop, Georgetown
Branch Locations:
Parks and Recreation Admin. Bldg, 101 N. College, Georgetown, TX Sun City Social Center, 2 Texas Dr.,Georgetown, TX McConico Building, 301 W. Bagdad St., Round Rock, TX Kinningham Park, 1000 South Creek Dr.,Round Rock, TX Brushy Creek Community Center, 16318 Great Oaks Dr.,Round Rock, TX Round Rock ISD Performing Arts Center, 5800 McNeil Dr., Austin, TX Anderson Mill Limited District,11500 El Salido Parkway,Austin, TX Cedar Park Public Library,550 Discovery Blvd., Cedar Park, TX Cedar Park Randalls, 1400 Cypress Creek Rd., Cedar Park, TX Pat Bryson Municipal Hall,201 N. Brushy,Leander, TX Taylor City Hall, 400 Porter St., Taylor, TX Hutto City Hall, 401 W. Front St., Hutto, TX
Mobile Temporary Locations 10am-6pm (Location varies daily)
Seton Medical Center Williamson
Monday Oct 19
Granger City Hall
Tuesday Oct 20
Weir Fire Hall
Wednesday Oct 21
Jonah Community Center
Thursday Oct 22
Liberty Hill Annex
Friday Oct 23
Florence VFD
Saturday Oct 24
Andice Community Center
Monday Oct 26>
Bartlett First United Methodist Church
Tuesday Oct 27
Thrall VFD
Wednesday Oct 28
Round Rock Higher Education Center
Thursday Oct 29
Jarrell Memorial Park
Friday Oct 30
Ballot Style 1 (Constitutional Amendment Election) Ballot Style 2 (Constitutional Amendment Election and City of Hutto Special Election)
This Saturday the West Williamson County Democrats and the East Williamson County Democratic Club are co-hosting a guest speaker in the second of our public forum series, “Meet the Candidates.”
What: The October “MEET THE CANDIDATES” public forum
Where: Moody’s Restaurant, 309 N. Highway 183, in nearby Leander.
Date: Saturday, October 10, 2009
Time: 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Our featured speaker will be Dr. Lorenzo Sadun who is running for the Texas’ State Board of Education, District 10. Dr. Sadun will discuss his views on education, his assessment of the SBOE, why he wants an opportunity to change the direction of SBOE, and why it is so critical we remove our current representative.
For those of us who have not yet begun to examine the candidates for SBOE, the current representative for District 10 (which includes Williamson County, Travis County north of the Colorado River, and 14 additional counties) is Cynthia Dunbar who has asserted that she believes public education is unconstitutional and who in her book, “One Nation Under God,” calls public education “tyrannical” and “a subtle instrument of perversion.”
We need a person of reason with a solid background in education to represent us. It is critical that our SBOE representive believes in the public education system and is committed to improving it.
In August you heard Dr. Judy Jennings, the other Democratic candidate for this office. Now come hear Dr. Sadun. Let’s make sure that we each are prepared to make the best decision we can make when we have to decide at the voting booth in the March primary which of these two great candidates we want to represent us on the Democratic Party ticket in the November election!
This is the same location where we met in August. During this meeting we will brainstorm about future projects our group wants to undertake, get updated on Democratic events taking place throughout the county, share news about the latest local Republican doings. We’ll have a great opportunity to order a beverage or snack to enjoy while we socialize with like-minded citizens!
State Rep. Diana Maldonado (D-Round Rock) will host an economic forum next week in Round Rock. Text of press release and details on the event below:
Rep. Maldonado To Host Community Forum on Economic Development
Austin– State Representative Diana Maldonado (HD-52) will host an Economic Development Community Forum Tuesday, to discuss current development practices and future business opportunities affecting House District 52. The Community Forum is open to the public and will consist of a panel discussion involving experts from the Texas Comptroller Office, the City of Round Rock and the Round Rock Chamber of Commerce.
“Economic development is crucial to the growth of our communities and our region,” Maldonado said. “Creating an environment to attract new businesses and retains current ones directly contributes to the success and quality of our schools, health care system and community. Cities across Williamson County are facing similar concerns regarding growing pains and the economy, and I believe bringing experts together for a conversation on ways to deal with these difficult situations will prove beneficial to our leaders and the public.”
What: Community Forum on Economic Development
When: Tuesday, September 22nd at 5:00 p.m.
Where: Round Rock City Hall, 221 East Main Street
This is the first in a series of Community Forum’s Maldonado will be hosting over the next several months to discuss issues of importance facing communities and residents throughout House District 52.
Sen. Baucus’ “gang of six” will release their long-awaited plan tomorrow and it’s not looking promising, Baucus Plan Lands With Thud. Insurance corporation whistleblower Wendell Potter is calling the Baucus bill ‘An Absolute Gift To The Insurance Industry’. In case anyone has forgotten exactly how the insurance corporations operate here’s a little video reminder.
The momentum seems to be turning back in favor or health insurance reform after the President’s speech last week. And some great news in the Senate is that a publica option advocate has taken the late Ted Kennedy’s chair in the Senate HELP committee, Key Senate Dem: There will be a public option. No matter what kind of scare tactics those in the “do nothing” crowd try to spread, it’s does nothing to fix the fact that all of us who have insurance, and pay our premiums can still have our insurance taken away tomorrow if we get sick. And that’s wrong.
It’s a familiar script, as old and all-American as union-busting, red-baiting, celebrity-deifying and scapegoating the poor. But Machiavellian corporate shills and feeble-minded right-wing regulars aren’t the only ones with parts to play in this national drama of distraction. It’s the role of high-minded liberals to observe and report it all with a mixture of horror and ridicule and scorn. Which is exactly what we’ve done. We’ve tut-tutted over the tea parties. We’ve organized counter-protests to out-shout and shush the Astroturf mobs. We’ve tuned into MSNBC, nodded our heads in disgust along with Keith and Rachel, and thought: What a bunch of brainless goobers! Will these people never realize that they’re screwing themselves? Did they not read What’s the Matter with Kansas? Can they read at all?
Along the way, we’ve lost sight of the rightful targets of our scorn and our organizing. By letting our attention be diverted toward the rabble—and the evil Armeys rousing them—we’ve taken our eyes off the real villains: the Aetnas, the Blue Cross Blue Shields, the American Medical Association, the profit-grubbing hospitals, the mangy Blue Dog Democrats. (Emphasis added).
Worst of all, we’ve let the clear, pure call-to-arms of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy—health insurance as “a right, not a privilege”—get drowned out by the clamor. Like President Obama, we’ve let shades of gray blur a debate that should be framed in starkest black and white.
So about halfway to Waco, I turned the car around and drove back to my keyboard to bat out a message that ought to be a universal no-brainer: Quality health care for every U.S. citizen (and citizen-to-be) is a moral and ethical imperative. Anything less, whether it goes by the name of “insurance reform” or “health care co-ops,” is immoral and unconscionable.
If anybody ought to have that script memorized by now, it’s Texans. Our state has the sickest health-care system in the nation. The highest percentage of uninsured people (now an ungodly 26 percent.) The stingiest allotments of Medicaid and Medicare. And, as the Observer’s Melissa del Bosque so powerfully reports in this issue, we increasingly abandon uninsured Texans to their sad—and sometimes mortal—fates.
There is no health-care safety net. That’s another truth we need to be hollering from the rooftops—aiming it, right now, at the members of Congress who’ll return on Sept. 8 to reboot their debate. Because, as faint and remote as it might seem, there remains a glint of hope. The irrational venom that the congresspeople have tasted throughout their summer recess has done the corporate cause no good. Kennedy’s passing just might have lent the issue the kind of fresh emotional oomph that resonates among Washington types (as the suffering of the uninsured does not). If nothing else, maybe these people can be guilted, at long last, into doing the right thing and passing an Edward M. Kennedy Act complete with a full-blown public option.
And maybe, just maybe, we high-minded smarties can flip the script and stop being distracted by the stupid tricks of humans who don’t know any better. It might not make the difference this fall. But it sure wouldn’t hurt.
If there’s a moral to this summer of medical discontent, it is a simple one: The first job of a leader is to know where he wants to lead, based on his values, not political considerations. The second is to strategize about the methods and the message most likely to move the nation in that direction. Voters know when their leaders are putting strategy first and principles second, and they don’t much care for it.
There is no doubt the President can get a compromise health care plan through Congress. He has enormous majorities in both the House and Senate, and they all know the stakes. But doing so would leave him with a compromised Presidency, in which a small minority of Republican lawmakers knows they can bully him at will into half-measures on any issue, and that he’ll settle for Pyrrhic victories with the rationalization that he has achieved incremental change.
But the American people didn’t vote for “small change we can believe in.” And I don’t think that’s what this President wants–or needs–to be his legacy. Whatever the merits of the “public option,” it has come to stand for something much larger: Whether this President really means what he says, and whether he’s going to put the public interest over the private interests that dominate Washington and have dominated health care for far too long. We’ll probably know Wednesday night.
The West Williamson County Democrats (WWCD) will kick off their series of forums to “MEET THE CANDIDATES” next week. Each forum will feature a Democratic candidate who has declared his or her candidacy for political office and each will be on the Primary Election ballot in March 2010. Some of the candidates will survive to run for office in the General Election on November 3, 2010.
Our first featured guest, Dr. Judy Jennings, wants to replace incumbent Cynthia Dunbar on the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) for District 10. Please join us when we welcome her to speak at Moody’s Restaurant in Leander on August 15th from 2:00-4:00. She is scheduled to talk about her motivation to run, strengths that qualify her to run, and why she thinks it is crucial that Cynthia Dunbar, our current District 10 representative be replaced.
