Texas Progressives talk schools, national parks, more

Undisclosed bonuses paid to charter school superintendents — along with the state having no cap on such bonuses — hint at another subsea level part of an iceberg in the Lege's possible charter school bill.

Dems in the Lege want superintendents of regular public schools to get louder about their funding needs.

The state Senate wants to do an end run around portions of 2023's HB 900 and create parental councils for school libraries. Sadly, the Lege's website doesn't report on committee votes, so I don't know the Dems, all but one, as well as Rethugs, who passed this on a 10-1.

The Monthly looks at how the Musk firings in the National Park Service are affecting Big Bend.

Atlas Obscura reports on a new plant species found there.

Off the Kuff considers the special election possibilities in CD18 following the tragic and untimely death of Rep. Sylvester Turner. (Note: Re Kuffner's language, Sly Turner's death may have been untimely in one sense, but in the sense of being unexpected, it was not, and because of that, while his —like any death — may have been tragic in a personal sense, it was more ... stupid? in a political sense as he shouldn't have run for the position. In reality, though he wasn't Nancy Pelosi, it's another footnote on the gerontocracy of Congress.)

I am SHOCKED that Mercy Culture Prep is the private school bragging about a vaccination rate below 15 percent for MMR. (The Barbed Wire's homepage tease didn't mention names, just "Fort Worth pastor brags about low school vaccination rates." It linked to WFAA, the link above, with "North Texas pastor celebrates lowest vaccination rate in the state."

SocraticGadfly after perusing last week's must-read longform by Der Spiegel, took a deep dive on the image of Zelensky as Churchill and related issues.

Zionists are getting ICE to do their dirty business with pro-Palestinian college protestors who are not American citizens. (ICE could do the same at UT and Kuff might still ignore it.)

Alice Rothchild, Jewish doctor, and retired Harvard prof, blocked from speaking at Harvard over claims she's antisemitic for supporting Palestinians. That's weaponized anti-Zionism in a nutshell. 

DOGE terminated the lease (later rescinded) for the building housing the New Mexico field office of the Department of Energy that overseas the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the repository for much of DoD's nuclear waste.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project posted about what each of us can do to fight Trump/Musk with a focus on Houston/Harris County.

The Dallas Observer highlights some North Texas musicians with disabilities forging a path for themselves.

Evil MoPac explains why taking a stand against private school vouchers matters.

The Current adds up the cost of the NIH cuts to San Antonio.

The Lone Star Project calls out Greg Abbott for his non-response to the measles outbreak.

Sara Cress gives us notice of the forthcoming mandate for the Ten Commandments in classrooms.