Posts Tagged ‘Round Rock’
Thursday, March 12th, 2015
Time for another Texas vs. California update:
In a worst-case scenario, CalSTARS and CalPERS might need an additional $50 billion a year between them to stay solvent.
If you haven’t taken a look at my piece on Stockton’s latest boondoggle, you probably should.
A new ballot initiative to cut California public employee pensions is due out in May, lead by former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, a Democrat.
Even Jerry Brown’s timid pension reforms are evidently too much for the Obama Administration, which is holding up funds over them.
A rare bit of good municipal news out of California, as Rancho Mirage declares that they’re debt free. (Hat tip: Pension Tunami.)
Prime Health Care pulls out of Daughters of Charity hospital acquisition. California Attorney general Kamala Harris may have just insured those hospitals will close instead.
Texas population to explode. (Hat tip: Push Junction.)
Land acquisition for California’s high speed rail boondoggle isn’t going swimmingly.
Malibu Golf Club files for Chapter 11. “An attorney for Malibu Associates said the company closed the golf club after defaulting on a $47-million loan from U.S. Bank, which has begun foreclosure proceedings.”
“In February, the Berkeley Health Center, a clinic that provided medical services to low-income patients, closed down in the wake of serious financial troubles, including allegations that it had mismanaged public funds.” They also left behind sensitive patient records…
Calfornia hikes water rates. Millions for the delta smelt, not one blue drop for you to drink…
Monolith Semiconductor relocates from Ithaca, New York to Round Rock.
Tags:California, CalPERs, CalSTARS, Chuck Reed, Democrats, fraud, high speed rail, Jerry Brown, Kamala Harris, Monolith Semiconductor, Rancho Mirage, Round Rock, Texas, Welfare State, Williamson County
Posted in Democrats, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
Monday, April 14th, 2014
Time for another LinkSwarm:
By the standards of signing up the previously uninsured, “Obamacare may be headed for an epic failure.”
Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius resigns, leaving behind a legacy of incompetence and deception. “Rarely has any single public official done more to undermine the public’s confidence in the ability of government to function than Kathleen Sebelius.”
This just in: People still think ObamaCare sucks the farts out of dead wildebeests.
“Democrats face this reality: [ObamaCare]’s a political loser, and there’s no easy fix.”
New Jersey children lose health insurance thanks to ObamaCare.
The real reason for the Bundy Ranch standoff: Harry Reid’s son is in the pay of a Chinese solar power company that wants the land.
How Harry Reid’s insider trading and crony deals have made him a wealthy man.
Speaking of Harry Reid (via Iowahawk’s Twitter feed):
It turns out that the Overland Park Jewish Center shooter shared two fraternal organizations with late Sen. Robert Byrd.
Left out of all the left-wing Cesar Chavez hagiography: “Chavez had a very strong dislike for illegal immigrants.”
Indeed, we can best honor Cesar Chavez by making his birthday National Border Controls Day.
Backers of illegal alien amnesty may think it’s now or never.
It must have been a sad day for John Edwards, being barred from his sugar momma’s funeral.
Jay Carney is so use to lying, he can’t even resist PhotoShopping his own house. Badly. (Or maybe The Washingtonian is simply desperate to glamorize all Democrats profiled they won’t let little things like “competence” stand in the way…)
Is it just me, or did Hillary Clinton choose a singularly unflattering outfit for ducking shoes in?
The ideological slap-fight between radical lesbian feminists and tranny activists. “But all crazies are not created equal and, as crazy as the radical man-hating lesbians may be, they at least have valid science on their side in saying that ‘female’ is a biological category — genetically determined, rather than being a ‘social construct.'”
Vermonters just aren’t sure they want eyeball-bleeding tax rates just to satisfy the left-wing fantasy of single-payer health care.
France’s ruling socialists get their collective (ha!) asses kicked in municipal elections.
Property prices collapse in China. (Hat tip: Ann Althouse.)
Puerto Rico: 1.2 million workers, $70 billion in debt.
DC Power couple divorcing. Hilarity to ensue for, oh, probably a year or so.
Cowardly Brandeis University withdraws planned honorary degree for Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Who is killing the bankers of Europe?
Ex-Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wants to “fix” the Second Amendment so its easier to disarm citizens.
Alec Baldwin forgets yet again that Twitter is not his friend.
Round Rock incumbent City Councilman Carlos Salinas appears to be benefiting from his position in a way that violates both city and state codes. How nice to pass a city-funded, interest-free loan for a building to a crony, then lease the same building back at below-market rates…
Well, this is disturbing: Kobe Bryant dispensing actual wisdom: “If we’ve progressed as a society, then you don’t jump to somebody’s defense just because they’re African-American. You sit and you listen to the facts just like you would in any other situation, right?” (From a New Yorker piece behind a paywall.) And naturally a firestorm erupted…
Speaking of the NBA: How two brothers owning a failing ABA franchise managed to earn a cool$1 billion from the NBA. The advantages of foresight,,,
PAX coming to San Antonio in 2014.
And remember that your taxes are due tomorrow…
Tags:Alec Baldwin, amnesty, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Border Controls, Brandeis University, Carlos Salinas, Cesar Chavez, China, Democrats, Elections, France, Guns, Harry Reid, Holly Hansen, Illegal Aliens, John Paul Stevens, Kathleen Sebelius, KKK, Kobe Bryant, LinkSwarm, Media Watch, NBA, New Jersey, ObamaCare, Puerto Rico, Round Rock, Supreme Court, Vermont, video
Posted in Border Control, Democrats, Elections, Guns, Media Watch, Supreme Court, video | 1 Comment »
Thursday, June 28th, 2012
Today brings news that Austin just surpassed San Francisco in population to become the 13th largest city in the country. In fact, Texas had six of the top seven fastest growing cities over the past 14 months: Round Rock, Austin, Plano, McKinney, Frisco, and Denton placed 2-7, topped only by a post-Katrina New Orleans. And at only 7,000-odd residents behind Jacksonville and Indianapolis, expect Austin to be the 11th largest city in the country the next time this list is updated.
And that news gives me a great excuse to to another roundup of Texas vs. California!
“Texas has been doing very well. If you draw a triangle whose points are Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, enclosing Austin, you’ve just drawn a map of the economic and jobs engine of North America.”
“California may be dreaming, but Texas is working. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, from 2000 to 2010, California lost a net of 519,600 jobs while Texas gained 1,093,600 jobs.” Lots of additional statistics here make the case for the measurable superiority of Texas’ Red State model over California’s Blue State model.
And they brought their incomes and assets with them. And there are plenty of reasons to move to Texas:
Lest you think this is some kind of fluke, or that taxes are not the determining factor in this “escape from NY and California,” it isn’t just Texas that is gaining all these fleeing residents. The U.S. Census reported that all of the top 15 states for population growth during the past decade are no tax or low tax states like Nevada, Florida, Arizona, Utah, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. It seems Americans are smarter than politicians give them credit for- they are voting with their feet for lower taxes, pro business attitude, and more economic freedom.
Because no state in the union has a better economy, let’s look “up close and personal” at the Texas miracle. Texas practices what I proudly call “Wild West Cowboy Capitalism.” And it works!
Texas has zero state income tax, zero capital gains taxes, and zero death taxes. It is a “right to work” state where employees may choose to join a union, but are never forced to. It is pro business and anti-lawyer (discouraging class action lawsuits and the first state to pass a “Loser Pays” law). Texas is also tight-fisted with welfare and entitlement benefits- unlike New York and California. The result of this limited government attitude is people with high incomes, assets, and ambition are moving into Texas, while those who lack work ethic, and feel entitled to handouts are moving out. Good riddance.
But the most important attribute of Texas is that its constitution limits the time that politicians can meet. The Texas Legislature is limited to meeting only 4 months every other year. That pretty much explains everything. Texas and my state of Nevada have no state income taxes and the fastest growing populations in America…not in spite of, but because the politicians aren’t allowed to sit in their seats all year long thinking of new ways to re-distribute income, impede business, and destroy jobs.
How red tape strangles job creation in California.
Tort reform has resulted in a 44% increase in the number of doctor’s in Texas since 2003, or twice the population increase.
Texas factory orders up in May.
California’s pension crisis continues to fester, and Democrats appear to be unwilling to grapple with the issue. (And here’s more on the pension bomb from Walter Russell Mead.)
Gary Farmer, head of the Austin Economic Development Corp. tells California audience exactly how Austin lures business from their state. “The key reason for the state’s success in luring business from other locations is a better political and regulatory climate, he added. Texas has a corporate tax of 1 percent on adjusted gross receipts, while California’s is 8.84 percent of income. Texas has no personal income tax while California’s is 9.3 percent.”
Finally, speaking of California transplants, In-and-Out Burger is headed to Round Rock.
Tags:Blue State, Budget, California, Denton, Economics, Frisco, Gary Farmer, McKinney, Plano, Red State, Round Rock, Texas, tort reform, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Economics, Texas, Welfare State | 1 Comment »
Friday, May 11th, 2012
I missed this from a few days ago: “The Dewhurst for Texas campaign today announced the endorsement of John Gordon of Round Rock, former Texas State GOP Committeeman.”
Unless you live in Williamson County, the name John Gordon might not mean a lot to you. In Williamson County, John Gordon is most know for running as the favorite in the House District 52 race in 2010…and getting trounced by Larry Gonzalez. One reason he got trounced was his reputation as a hothead, like suing former business associates and taking a crowbar to a police boot on his car.
Anyway, that’s all water under the bridge. But it does suggest a certain paucity of Dewhurst endorsements when a guy most famous for losing a state house race is worthy of a press release…
Tags:2012 Election, David Dewhurst, Elections, John Gordon, Larry Gonzales, Round Rock, Texas House District 52, Texas Senate Race
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012
Time for another roundup of this and that:
Media Matters is a paranoid interest group that works as an extension of the Democratic Party, and which many liberal journalists take their marching orders from. In other news, pro-wrestling is fake.
Mark Steyn on Obama as Henry VIII.
Harry Reid and the Democratic caucus totally support Obama’s war on Catholicism.
A goodly percentage of Notre Dame’s professors have rendered their judgment on Obama’s war on Catholicism: Unaccapetable.
Your tears, Rahm. Let me taste them.
Texas ranks top in exporting yet again, with exports bringing in more than $249.8 billion in 2011, up 20.7% from $206.9 billion in 2010.
Is the redistricting fight all about Lloyd Dogget? So black and Hispanic interest groups are fighting a long, drawn-out court battle to protect a single white incumbent.
I got that story from Must Read Texas, which seems like a veritable firehose of Texas news and links.
To support its welfare state, Denmark travels quite a way down the road to serfdom: “A suspected terrorist has more legal protection than the ordinary Danish taxpayer.”
Bin Laden gave up on jihad. Maybe.
Iowahawk takes aim at a certain Clint Eastwood commercial.
Clayton Cramer: A lot more people use guns to defend themselves than you think. (Hat tip: Say Uncle.)
Holly Hansen breaks radio silence to note skulduggery in Round Rock ISD. And here’s Part 2.
Some Marin County residents are fighting George Lucas’ plans to expand film-making facilities. Because California is just doing so well it can afford to alienate job creators.
Tags:abortion, Catholics, Clayton E. Cramer, Guns, LinkSwarm, Lloyd Doggett, Mark Steyn, Media Matters, Media Watch, Redistricting, Round Rock, Round Rock ISD, Texas
Posted in Austin, Democrats, Guns, Media Watch, Texas, Welfare State | No Comments »
