Jump to content

Texas Jeff

Legacy Members
  • Posts

    1300
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Texas Jeff

  1. Casis/O'Henry/Austin High is fine today, but I can understand why people choose another path. A lot of parents feel they have to "make a move" in 5th grade so they go private or try a magnet, but the regular track was fine for our kids. O'Henry is shrinking a bit in population but is becoming "wealthier" because they are mostly losing low-income kids. The band program is great at O'Henry and Austin High. O'Henry does needs some major repairs or a complete redo, like many AISD schools. The AISD master plan has it slated for a "full modernization" in a future bond package, planned for the next 6-12 years. Austin ISD voters are putting up big bucks to improve schools district wide and improvement is really needed.
  2. What makes Anderson different than any other area HS? Test results, demographics, other measurements look similar.
  3. What could possibly go wrong? Is school also shut down? After 9/11, I remember National Guard/Army guys with weapons at checkpoints, something I had only seen before in Europe. We have come a long way...
  4. You would probably first have to explain that there *is* a Big Bend ... start with the basics.
  5. We just passed the mid-point of the eclipse
  6. Live tracker here, if you want to see what phase of the eclipse is happening now: https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2019-january-21
  7. The Earth is going to get between the Moon and the Sun tonight, starting in about an hour or so. Skies in Austin just cleared and the Moon is about to go away for a bit. I think it starts around 9:30 and the maximum eclipse is around 11:12 central time. This is a "blood Moon" so it might turn red or orange during the eclipse.
  8. Unfit Mitt Slovenly Romney
  9. Here's another Hauser (one of the 2 Cellos) piece:
  10. Everyone gather 'round the pole and celebrate, today is Festivus! ... I've got a lot of problems with you people! 🙂
  11. Eventually, thoughts and prayers for some group, same as always....
  12. City of Austin + Wilco ... keep it weird but don't get busted.
  13. The new Apple campus is part of Robinson Ranch, which is the big undeveloped triangle of land between 45, Mopac North, and Parmer Lane. I did some searching yesterday and discovered that the area is already covered by a PUD agreement that allows high density, transit oriented development. The city signed the agreement with the Robinson family in 2004. The Ranch is about 6050 acres, which is about 8-9 times the size of the Mueller development. Some of it is in a flood plain, but there is probably room for at least 7.5 Muellers. The city claims that Mueller will eventually have about 13,000 residents and 13,000 jobs. At the same level of development, Robinson could have about 100,000 jobs and 100,000 residents. That's similar to the number of jobs as Austin has downtown. Capital Metro's Red Line runs right through the property and you can ride it from the Howard Station to Highland Mall in 20 minutes, and all the way downtown in 38 minutes. In the other direction, you can get from Howard to Lakeline in 14 minutes and it's about 30 minutes to the end of the line in Leander. IMHO, the city needs to work with the Robinson family, the ranch owners, to come up with a long term plan for that area and start development, before it becomes a string of unconnected corporate campuses and a parade of slow-moving SUVs up and down Parmer.
  14. There was an earlier plan to rework Red River so that it goes straight north from where it is today when passing the Erwin Center, passes by the swim center (where the parking lot is today in front of the swim center), and connects to Robert Dedman Drive as it goes past DKR, which might become "Red River" and continue through campus. I"m not sure if that is still the plan, but there were a few images around that showed that alignment.
  15. Texas Jeff

    Tax reform

    I think there are a lot of people that though of themselves as "well off" or "upper middle class" because they were able to itemize and get credit for property taxes, mortgage interest, and so on. The new $24,000 standard deduction for MFJ is going to make the standard deduction the better choice for a lot of middle and upper-middle income taxpayers. In theory this is a tax break but I think it's going to piss a bunch of people off. People are going to feel like they spent money on property tax and mortgage interest payments and got no income tax benefit for doing that. It's going to be harder for charities to get donations because fewer people are itemizing. Also, the new re-arranged 1040 sucks. What a lame idea. Move some of the numbers to other statements so that the end result kinda looks like it might be around the size of a large postcard, in an era when more of us are just filing electronically.
  16. Forget it, he’s rolling...
  17. I think there is still a requirement to have coverage, but the penalty for not having coverage is $0. Technically the tax is still there -- it was not repealed, it's just set to zero right now. It could be set to something other than zero by a future Congress.
  18. Please let the pool boy be named Jesus...
  19. All of the living presidents will be there. It's what they do, even Trump. If they showed up for Nixon they will show up for Trump. Trump will ask for the same pageantry he saw Bush get, but I would bet he won't get it.
  20. A threat of rain would keep Trump away... Have we ever in our history had as many living ex-presidents as we did yesterday? (five -- Carter, Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2, Obama)
  21. It's great for an older employee that needs health care but is not looking to move up in the company. I managed a software developer like this that moved from a 40 hr week to a 30 hr week and I saw almost no drop-off in productivity. The employee was one of the happiest people on my team, showed up to meetings on time, did not get on their phone, did not have youtube or facebook up on one monitor during the day. For the right person and job, it's great .... but you kill any progress up the corporate ladder.
  22. I would like to see some reform to the Supreme Court, so that each president shall more or less be able to appoint two judges during each four year term. Perhaps if the Supreme Court reaches the end of its term in an odd year and the president shall not yet have appointed and confirmed two justices to the bench, then the longest serving justice shall be removed from office. I think this would cause the Supreme Court to roll over about every 18 years with 9 justices, and each president should be able to get two on the bench, but maybe more if there is a rash of deaths or retirements. You would not have judges staying until they keel over in the hope that their party would one day control the White House and thus their replacement.
  23. If you voluntarily drive into a parking garage for an event that holds 100K ... and you park anywhere not close to the exit and/or you don't back into the spot... ... and you lollygag your way out of the event at the end rather than sprinting for your car... You friggin' deserve the wait. Either park on the street away from the venue or hustle to get to your car. Or wait. Once you see cars gridlock inside the garage you are toast.
  24. During the CNN town hall, Beto said he would not run for president. He may have meant just in 2020, but he did say no when asked.
  25. I would guess that it’s the people that marked the straight ticket box at the top of the ballot. You can leave this blank or you can mark it, then change individual votes. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
×
×
  • Create New...