The University of Houston cannot even hire a commencement speaker without screwing up.  UH hired actor and University of Texas alumnus Matthew McConaughey to speak at its commencement ceremony in May.  But, UH refused to disclose how much it intends to pay the actor after the Houston Chronicle requested the information last month.  It turns out that UH’s contract with McConaughey’s booking agency, Celebrity Talent International, includes an almost unheard of confidentiality clause.  UH was required to provide notice to McConaughey’s agency if information about the actor’s fee was requested and give the agency an opportunity to object to the release of their information.  The agency is now attempting to keep the information quiet.

The agency argues that “a reporter or someone else” might create “unfair negatives online and take things out of context.  . . . We all have seen this with reporters and individuals on a daily basis in the news and is very sensitive now with celebrities who are unfairly targeted often.”

One can only speculate whether UH (a bastion of secrecy) is complicit in not wanting the public to know how much money it is wasting on paying for a celebrity commencement speaker.

The Texas Senate passed Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s (TP-Houston) tax relief bill today. Patrick’s package would deliver a total of $4.63 billion in property and business tax reductions over the next two years. Whether it gains traction in the House is another story.  House GOP leaders have said they support at least $4 billion in tax relief, but the details of the House plan are still fuzzy at best.

Tax relief under the Senate’s plan is primarily based on a proposed constitutional amendment that would expand homestead exemptions from school taxes. The homestead exemption currently is a flat $15,000.  The amendment would fix it to 25 percent of the median home value in the state. The exemption would increase as the value of houses statewide goes up, and of course would go down in a declining real estate market.  It is estimated that the exemption would be about $33,000 in 2016 and save homeowners about $206.

Red certainly appreciates that $200 is a lot of money to a lot of folks out there, but many of them are  not homeowners and will get no relief from the bill.  Red’s property tax bill last year was almost $10,000.  The 2% reduction is appreciated but the money could be better spent educating our children, fixing our decrepit roads and bridges, providing health insurance for the disadvantaged and keeping our glorious state parks from falling into further disrepair.  But if the GOP doesn’t care about those problems, then neither will Red.  So when Red gets his $206, its off to Vegas.

Politico reports that Ted Cruz will be signing up for insurance on one of the federal exchanges now that he will no longer be getting health insurance through his wife.  Members of Congress who are not eligible for Medicare must use a federal exchange to obtain their health insurance.  Cruz confirmed that he will be getting his health insurance through a federal exchange in a CNN interview on Tuesday.  Cruz reluctantly admitted that this was a good aspect of the law which he has routinely lambasted.

The Houston Chronicle reports that Houston leads the nation in armed bank robberies.  Why can’t it ever be something good?

Phil Collins was made an honorary Texan after donating his extensive collection of Alamo artifacts to a museum that will be named in his honor.  Collins’ extraordinary gift of his collection will provide researchers and history buffs an invaluable resource for years to come.  Collins says that his fascination with the Alamo began with watching Disney’s Davy Crockett and never left him.  He first encountered a Davy Crockett letter at an antiquarian dealer in Washington, D.C. in the 80’s but thought he could not afford it.  When his third wife gave him a receipt for the purchase of a saddle by one of the Alamo couriers he was hooked.  Texas owes a deep debt of gratitude to Collins for assembling and then generously donating most of his collection to the State.

Image from the San Antonio Express-News that notes the remarkable similarity between James Bowie and Phil Collins.

Rep. Dan Flynn (TP – Canton) has filed a bill that would eliminate Daylight Savings Time in Texas.  The Daily Texan reports that among Flynn’s concerns are the hassle of having to adjust your clocks twice a year and his claim that the trouble associated with the time change outweigh any benefit.

“It was November of last year when we did the fall back, and I’m sitting there changing all of the clocks in my house and in my cars, and I’m … thinking, ‘Why in the world do we do this?’” Flynn said.

The bill, if passed, would mean Texas could opt out of the twice-a-year time change, which the Uniform Time Act of 1966 established.   In 1966, the Uniform Time Act set nationwide start and end times for daylight saving time — the last Sunday in April and October. Since the act’s implementation, daylight saving time has been moved to the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November.The act also allows states not to follow daylight saving. Currently, Hawaii, Arizona and some parts of Indiana do not practice the time change.

Flynn said he has found that removing daylight saving time in the state would not negatively impact farmers or increase energy usage. Additionally, he said mothers have expressed concern about leaving their children at bus stops when it is darker in the mornings because of daylight saving time.

“I think the trouble that [daylight saving time] causes far outweighs any benefits that it could possibly have,” Flynn said.

Put Red down as opposed.  If there is one thing Red likes it is being able to hole out on No. 18 at 9:30 p.m. in the fading twilight of a warm summer evening.

The Dallas Morning News reports that Texans are continuing to sign up for coverage under the Affordable Health Care Act (aka ObamaCare).  Does the Texas GOP give a hoot about the more than one million Texans getting coverage under the Act?  Certainly not your esteemed Senators Cornyn and Cruz who are committed to revoking health insurance coverage for more than a million of their constituents.

Even as they await the Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act, federal health officials continue to praise the people who signed up for insurance coverage, including a record number of Texans. On Tuesday, the federal Department of Health and Human Services announced that 11.7 million people across the nation selected or were automatically re-enrolled for coverage through the federal law as of Feb. 22. That includes 1,205,174 Texas consumers. In 2014, 733,757 people enrolled in the program throughout the state. It represents a 64 percent increase statewide.

A group calling itself the Republic of Texas claims that Texas is a sovereign nation having never joined the United States – an odd claim in light of Texas having once unsuccessfully attempted to secede from that very union.  The New York Times reports on the group of aging misfits pursuing a pipe dream and claiming pretentious titles and issuing ridiculous letters.

Its monthly meetings are called joint sessions of congress. Members have minted their own silver and gold currency and carry ID cards warning police officers they are diplomatic representatives of the nation of Texas. Its vice president, a retired telephone company worker, sent a letter in 2011 to the governor of Oklahoma, informing her that she faced indictment because her state’s counties and territories were “trespassing inside the geographical boundaries” of the nation.

Such letters have failed to convince the authorities of the group’s novel belief — that Texas never legally became part of the United States and remains a separate nation. As a result of that belief, the group claims it had a duty to form a government, with a state department and with a court system run in part by a chiropractor in the Houston suburb of Katy.

Members say their government is neither a mock system nor a prank, but a legitimate authority with executive, legislative and judicial branches. They spend their time sitting through eight-hour congressional meetings and debating legislation. (The letter to Oklahoma refers to Senate Bill No. 1102-1201.) Still, officials who receive one of the group’s many letters typically “just throw it in the trash can,” acknowledged the Republic’s president, John Jarnecke, 72.

We in Texas are remarkably tolerant of crackpots in our midst.

The Texas Department of Public Safety has identified the 20 counties where its officers issued the most tickets for speeding over 100 mph.  Watch your speed when you get past Junction heading west on I-10.

Photo By Google Maps/Kolten Parker

According to a report released by Texas Appleseed, more than 115,000 Texas students were prosecuted on truancy charges in 2013.  The social and economic justice advocacy group is urging the Legislature to decriminalize truancy.  This seems to be an idea whose time is way past due.  The report notes that the number of Texas truancy prosecutions is more than double the number of truancy cases in all other 49 states combined. The Houston Chronicle provides an insight into the problems associated with prosecuting truancy cases in adult court with children as young as 12 facing fines of $500 or more.  The fines coupled with the fact that the vast majority of truancy cases involve poor or disadvantaged youth have even Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht questioning the system.  In urging lawmakers to decriminalize truancy, Hecht reportedly commented: “Playing hooky is bad, but is it criminal?”

It’s a rare day when Red agrees with the Chief Justice, but when he’s right – he’s right.