The State of Texas: March 10, 2014

Video of the day

You haven’t truly made it until you’re mentioned on SNL. So congratulations to the San Antonio food truck named CockAsian for making it. The controversy surrounding the truck’s name was mentioned on Saturday night’s live telecast, joining the ranks of other Texas natives RadioShack and Matthew McConaughey, which also were both parodied.

Daily Roundup

We Don’t Like Ike — Looks like Hurricane Ike, which caused billions in damage and destroyed an untold number of lives in 2008 also brought with it some political storms that are still blowing across the land. According to a Texas Tribune investigation, while the original deluge of insurance issues pitted “Democrat-friendly trial lawyers” representing storm victims against Republican leaders who objected to the large [settlement] payouts” new records show that “two top Republican lawmakers, including the powerful lieutenant governor, David Dewhurst, tried to pressure [the head of the insurance association] into fighting more cases in court and complained that the fees paid to lawyers in the settlements were ending up in the coffers of Democratic rivals.” According to the deposition, Dewhurst not only had some salty words about the victim payouts, but may have a much heavier hand in trying to direct tort reform than is appropriate for a sitting lite guv. The whole story is a bit complicated and definitely worth a read, especially as Hurricane Election Season starts coming ashore.

Popularity Contest — Governor Rick Perry continued his recent Maybe-Possibly Presidential Tour with a stop at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington where he “delivered one of the best-received speeches” and brought “the audience to its feet and eliciting loud cheers,” according to Politico. Apart from being a truly rousing political man, Perry also knows how to work his audience, giving shout-outs to other popular conservative leaders as well as the always sure-bet: taking “swings at liberal New York and California.” Politico reported, rather colorfully, that “To thunderous applause, an energized Perry boomed …” Well, it doesn’t really matter what he preached to the choir, only that they loved what he was singing. Maybe national voters in general will feel like giving a listen in the coming months.

Really Forward Looking — Another entry in the Bigger In Texas Department. “Texas has upped its ante in the race to build the world’s largest telescope, which astronomers hope will revolutionize human understanding of the universe.” The project only cost the University of Texas a cool $50 million contribution to the consortium united in its mission to build Giant Magellan Telescope, and UT “hopes eventually to contribute $100 million to the project, which would cost about $1 billion and be built in a Chilean desert.” Texas A&M has also raised $25 million to toss in the mix. Most interesting, is that the project is part of a telescope arms-race with, “two other groups racing to build the first of the next generation of very large telescopes.” Thankfully, we have some experience in this type of thing that goes beyond just looking up at the stars at night, big and bright. Those unfamilar with the McDonald Observatory would do well to read the piece by Texas Monthly‘s own Sonia Smith.

Spring Broken — And Mexico hopes to fix it, a little bit. The drug wars have left many previous spring break hotspots empty of young American tourists. But places like Matamoros are trying their damndest to make the kind of successful recoveries one sees in a twelve-step program. “[A] new tourism director is pouring $2 million into luring Mexican visitors for Holy Week in April, with an eye toward implementing a similar plan next year that would focus on spring breakers who flock to South Padre Island,” according to the Austin American Statesman. The city also “plans to open a children’s water park and build a pier at Costa Azul beach to attract tourists from nearby Coahuila and Nuevo León states.” The effort highlights just have far Mexico locales have fallen thanks to the country’s violence and just how willing they are to get back on their feet. Even if that does mean suffering the violence of another terrible, invading army — that of priviliged, drunk American partiers.