Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

Ted Cruz was becoming a Tea Party darling so the Boston Globe ran a profile of him and found this photo of him while at Harvard. 

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• The Texas Observer has a deep dive article with interactive graphics about the hijacking of local school boards by PACs and . . . 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• . . . after messing around with the graphics for a while, lo and behold I found that Decatur ISD made an appearance due to a PAC funded by Dallas billionaire becoming involved in the last election. (I profiled the whole thing back in August.)
  
  
  
• Wichita Falls just decided to give each of its teachers a $1,000 bonus. 
  
  
  
• Political news. Stay with me yere. 
• #1: Wise County lost a House Representative yesterday. Michael Burgess, who represents the south part of the county in District 26, announced that we will not see re-election. 
• To keep all this straight, Wise County is split. The upper part of the county is represented by crazy Ronny Jackson in District 13 while Burgess has the lower part (in yellow) below.
  
  
  
• The above is not confused with the Texas legislature's House where Wise County only has one representative: Dr. Lynn Stucky. 
• #2: And then we had news that a second local House Rep is quitting: Rep. Pat Fallon announced he is leaving Congress.  He will, oddly, seek to go back to the Texas Senate in Austin in a seat currently held by Drew Springer who is not seeking re-election. 
  
  
  
• This is his congressional district which will now open: 
  
  
  
• If you think that impacts Wise County, you are wrong but understandably so. Fallon used to represent Wise County in the Texas senate. But even that senate district has been redrawn so, even if he is successful in getting his old seat back, he won't be representing us again. We are now in a Texas senate district that includes Highland Park, and that seat is held by Sen. Tan Parker who probably couldn't find Decatur: 

• And we wonder why people are confused about who represents them. 
• Clay County Sheriff's Office with some humor. 
  
  
  
• There's another government shutdown deadline looming this week. It's hard to keep up. I think they'll get it passed. 
  
  
  
• Demographics: If you are interested in this sort of thing, the New York Times has a long article on how Texas is no longer what you think it is. And how it will continue to change. (Free link.)
  
  
  
• The government is coming up with new ways to kill people. 
  
  
  
• The Business Second: This new grocery store, which "will span 123,000 square feet over the 17-acre property", is at Bonds Ranch Road and 287, seven miles from the Wise County line.
  
  
  
• Random real estate note in the Dallas Morning News today:
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Meant to mention this yesterday: The parents of NY Giants QB Tommy Devito are the most New Jersey looking couple ever.
  
• The Decatur City Council voted last night 5-1 to move its regularly scheduled meeting from Christmas Day to one week earlies. (And, yes, the one dissenter was doing a bit.)