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TexasTowelie's JournalEngineering graduate from UT, A&M donates $20 million to both schools
The University of Texas and Texas A&M University have both received $20 million donations for mechanical engineering from J. Mike Walker, a graduate of both institutions. In honor of him, each school has named its department of mechanical engineering after Walker.
UT and A&M described the dual gifts by the former chairman, president and CEO of Houston-based Dril-Quip Inc., a maker of offshore drilling and production equipment, as “a rare occurrence and an extraordinary act of philanthropy.”
Walker earned a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M and a master’s in the field at UT.
“My experiences at these two universities certainly helped me grow as an engineer,” Walker said, “but they also taught me how to be a leader — how to collaborate on big ideas, persevere through tough challenges and bounce back from failure. My education shaped who I am today, and I want to make that same opportunity available to as many students as I can.”
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/local/engineering-graduate-from-donates-million-both-schools/etVYEozJwf9LNCKqEo2u7K/
Why A 'Hollowing Out' Of Democracy Could Happen If Brazil Elects Jair Bolsonaro
To our immediate south, President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador is set to take office in Mexico in December. Amlo, they call him, rose to prominence by promising to crack down on corruption, despite fears that his ideas about privatization and law enforcement might come with considerable dangers. Now, political observers are raising concerns about the rise of retired military Capt. Jair Bolsonaroa, a seven-term congressman from Rio de Janeiro, who courts the rich and the military as much as he courts controversy. He has said things like he’d prefer a dead son to a gay one, or that he wouldn’t rape a congresswoman because she was ugly. Bolsonaro is leading the polls in the race for Brazil’s presidency, and the vote is just two weeks away.
Kurt Weyland, professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin says concerns about Bolsonaro are justified. That’s because he says in Latin America, populist leaders often use their authority to gradually “hollow out” democracy from the inside. During that process, they can concentrate power, dismantle checks and balances, put pressure on the opposition and fight to bring more hegemony over public opinion. Based on what he’s heard from Bolsonaro so far, Brazil could be on that path should Bolsonaro be elected.
Weyland says Bolsonaro’s deep connections and support from the military could help him weaken democracy in Brazil. However, he says a total military coup and dictatorship, which happened in 1964, is unlikely.
“What is much more likely is this gradual hollowing out of democracy … that we saw from a populist era in Venezuela, in Ecuador and in Bolivia in recent years,” Weyland says.
Read more: http://www.texasstandard.org/stories/why-a-hollowing-out-of-democracy-could-happen-if-brazil-elects-jair-bolsonaro/
Ken Paxton is fighting to kill Obamacare. Can a Democrat win on a campaign to stop him?
By Emma Platoff, Texas TribuneIt’s ignited sleepy attorney general races in Florida, Wisconsin and Arizona. It has pitted two Democratic senators against their own state’s top lawyers. In West Virginia, Democrat U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin shot it down — literally — in a re-election campaign video.
Can a Texas-led lawsuit to kill Obamacare boost Democrats even in deep-red Texas?
Justin Nelson sure hopes so. The well-credentialed Austin lawyer is challenging the architect of that case, incumbent Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, in this fall’s general election, betting that the controversial case can help him overcome the partisan disadvantage that’s proved insurmountable for statewide Democratic candidates for the past two decades.
In February, Paxton — who was indicted in 2015 for securities fraud and has not yet gone to trial — launched a 20-state challenge to the landmark health care law, arguing that after Congress gutted the individual mandate, the rest of the law is unconstitutional and must fall. Critics have cast doubt on the case, from its motivations — many argue it’s rooted partisan politics, not genuine constitutional concerns — to its legal arguments.
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2018/09/25/obamacare-texas-ken-paxton-attorney-general-justin-nelson-pre-existing/
How Asian-American Voters Could Decide The Olson-Kulkarni Contest
Election Day is less than seven weeks away, and control of Congress is up for grabs. Texas has long offered something of a firewall for Republicans, with a majority of congressional districts drawn to favor GOP candidates. The state’s 22nd district seems a prime example.
“We have a lot of professional-class areas. I think it’s ethnically diverse, but conservative. I mean, it sort of represents the state of Texas very well,” says Scott Bowen, a Republican precinct chair in Clear Lake, near the eastern tip of the 22nd. The district includes suburban neighborhoods in Harris and Brazoria counties, along with most of Fort Bend County. Bowen has lived in the district since incumbent Congressman Pete Olson first ran for office a decade ago.
“I don’t think Pete Olson has really had meaningful opposition from the Democrats’ side,” Bowen says. Since beating his Democratic predecessor, Nick Lampson, Olson has won reelection by double digits every time. Before Lampson won the district in 2006, Republicans held it without interruption for 30 years.
But Jay Aiyer, who teaches political science at Texas Southern University, thinks 2018 could be different.
Read more: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/2018/09/19/304508/how-asian-american-voters-could-decide-the-olson-kulkarni-contest/
Investigation Finds Texas Let Gas Company 'Off The Hook' For Deadly Explosions
Back in February, a 12-year-old girl named Linda Rogers died when her home in northwest Dallas exploded as she was getting ready for school. A preliminary report cited a crack in a natural gas line. An investigation by the Dallas Morning News finds that, since 2006, more than two dozen homes across north and central Texas have been destroyed or damaged because of natural gas leaking from Atmos Energy’s aging system. Nine people have died. At least 22 others have suffered injuries.
Atmos denies fault. And what do Texas regulators say? What action are they taking? Cary Aspinwall is one of the reporters covering this for the Dallas Morning News.
She says some of the text messages between people who work for the Railroad Commission of Texas that the paper obtained through an open records request surprised her – including one exchange about how a Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration investigator could “skew” an investigation because the investigator was said to believe “operators are always guilty until they are proven innocent.”
“It was just surprising to us because they’re [the Railroad Commission] supposed to be serving as a public watchdog in this case,” Aspinwall says.
Read more: http://www.texasstandard.org/stories/investigation-finds-texas-let-gas-company-off-the-hook-for-deadly-explosions/
Part of Mesa's hated colonnade to come tumbling down
Mesa’s much-maligned downtown colonnade — a lumbering shade structure installed by the city in the 1980s in front of most Main Street businesses — will be torn down this fall to encourage redevelopment.
The Mesa City Council approved an $852,000 contract last week with Rytan, LLC., the lowest bidder to undertake the extensive project, which will rip down the colonnade from 10 downtown buildings.
Jeff McVay, the city’s manager of downtown transformation, said the project is needed to create more visibility for downtown storefronts, helping businesses attract more customers and helping landlords attract more businesses, particularly restaurants.
Although the project is not cheap, Mesa hopes it will attract a significant number of new businesses and new jobs while injecting more vitality into the area, McVay said.
Read more: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/news/part-of-mesa-s-hated-colonnade-to-come-tumbling-down/article_57073090-bd2f-11e8-a5bf-0707f00bf83b.html
Some of the colonnade like this one in front of the Pomeroy Building along Main Street in Mesa will be torned down soon in the hope of attracting more businesses, especially restaurants, downtown.
Special to the Tribune
Arizona congressman Paul Gosar blasts siblings who back political opponent
PHOENIX — Six siblings of U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar have urged voters to cast their ballots against the Arizona Republican in November in an unusual political ad sponsored by the rival candidate.
The television ad from Democrat David Brill combines video interviews with Gosar-family siblings who ask voters to usher Paul Gosar out of office because he has broken with the family's values. They do not elaborate.
They previously condemned the congressman's false accusation in 2017 that wealthy Democratic donor George Soros was a Nazi collaborator in World War II.
"It's intervention time," Tim Gosar says in the ad, endorsing Brill. "And intervention time means that you go to vote, and you go to vote Paul out."
Read more: https://tucson.com/news/state-and-regional/arizona-congressman-paul-gosar-blasts-siblings-who-back-political-opponent/article_456102de-bf42-11e8-a883-0f08b6a6b0d3.html
As California condors struggle in the wild, more are released in northern Arizona
MARBLE CANYON — An endangered California condor chick was about to suffocate in its shell before it hatched last year at the Oregon Zoo in Portland.
His beak was in the wrong position, said Liz Musich, a condor zookeeper, and he couldn’t crack the shell open. Once he tore through the shell’s inner membrane, the small pocket of air inside would only last a day or two.
The chick needed saving.
Musich watched as a veterinarian slowly chipped open the shell with forceps. The chick emerged fleshy and wet.
He spent the night in an intensive care unit. The zoo’s condor team stuffed him back inside an egg from a collection they’d salvaged from past hatches, infertile eggs and dead eggs.
Read more: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2018/09/23/imperiled-california-condors-released-northern-arizona-endangered/1406376002/
Could Democrats win control of the Arizona Senate? The answer might surprise you
For more than two decades, Democrats have fallen short in their quest to flip control of at least one chamber in the GOP-dominated Arizona Legislature.
But if there were ever a year for them to turn the tide, 2018 could be it.
Talk of a "blue wave" in this fall's midterm elections has renewed Democrats' hopes of winning down-ballot fights for the state Senate, where they last had a majority in 1991-1992.
Their focus is on the Senate because that's where there's a better mathematical possibility they could take power.
Read more: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/09/24/arizona-elections-could-democrats-take-over-state-senate/1308949002/
Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas proposes Christian-based academic standards
A parade of teachers, parents and others lined up Monday to ask the state Board of Education to reject efforts by the state schools chief to alter — and they believe dilute — academic standards.
During a meeting lasting hours, several people testified that Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas is seeking to undermine the science standards crafted by a group of teachers. They specifically took aim at what were last-minute changes she and her staff made in language dealing with climate change and changes in references to evolution.
But they also told board members they should ignore a bid by Douglas to adopt charter school standards crafted by Hillsdale College, a private Christian school, for all public schools in the state.
“Those are standards coming from a politically conservative, religiously conservative school with a Euro-centric sort of base to the world,” said Karen McClelland, a member of the Sedona-Oak Creek school board. “We need our students to have equal emphasis on the rest of the world.”
Read more: https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2018/09/24/arizona-douglas-proposes-christian-based-academic-standards/
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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