It's "nice" that the Trib, and a reporter in Denton who should know better, think that Sherman is "rural" when reporting on the kerfuffle about the transgender student yanked from performing in Sherman ISD's school musical, then reinstated by the school Board. The fact that the board reinstated him alone shows that the city and ISD aren't stereotypically rural. The rest of the story runs with the "rural Sherman" trope right into strawman territory first, only then getting to the meat — the board has removed oversight of the fine arts program from Superintendent Tyson Bennett and hired an investigator to review his decision. WHY Sherman ISD hired him 18 months ago when he's been a Religious Right Pander Bear since his hiring itself goes undiscussed. And, methinks in other ways that Ayden Runnels is the new Simone Carter and around these parts, that's far from a compliment.
State Board of Ed rejected 7 of 12 eighth-grade science textbooks because climate change.
Off the Kuff has updates on the State Bar disciplinary lawsuit against Ken Paxton and the whistleblowers' lawsuit, also against Ken Paxton.
SocraticGadfly looks at what's behind Pat Fallon's campaign flip-flop.
Did Southwest fix all the problems of 11 months ago that led it to be The Grinch that Stole Christmas? Well, maybe, maybe not. The story notes that Rapid Expansion in Denver, without rapid expansion of deicing gear, triggered delays elsewhere. Problems related to that reportedly have also been fixed, as has its crew-scheduling software, notoriously bad for a decade or more. A biggie unrelated to last year, though, is that Southwest pilots could be striking at the end of December.
David Rothkopf is showing himself to be more and more of a Biden fellator at The Daily Beast. This time, it's praising his summit with Xi Jinping, even though his own Secretary of State, Blinken, is shown grimacing when Biden said he thought Xi was still a dictator.
Wall Street is officially shifting from DeSantis to Haley as "the" anti-Trump Rethuglican.
What if money had an expiration date? An interesting piece.
Anti-abortion laws are reducing domestic violence screenings. Related to that? Those largely White-state folks, with fewer ob-gyns there now, will also face more Great Replacement problems!
Elon Musk: Destroying human bodies in his lie-based chase to land on Mars, as it will do nothing to save humanity. And OSHA, under both Donald the Don and Neoliberal Joe, appears to be doing nothing about Musk not reporting most this information to it. (Reuters uncovered this all on its own dime and mostly off private records and lawsuits.)
DosCentavos offers some week-ending thoughts on Greg Abbott's latest bigoted law; a giving link; and a COVID report as the holiday season arrives.
Neil at the Houston Democracy Project posted the Project's 2023 Houston municipal runoff recommendations.
And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs. Texas Monthly revisits the 1991 mass shooting at the Luby's in Killeen and how it led to the profound loosening of our state's gun laws.
Your Local Epidemiologist points to a worrying trend in the overall vaccination rate.
The Current bemoans the inaccuracies of the reporting on the wingnut immigration bill still working its way through the Lege.
The Bloggess responds to a critic of her San Antonio bookstore.
