Thumbs up, down

Kids stay politically active, Astros are off to a good start and McNair regrets apology.

If you see your local teen swiping her thumbs across a smartphone today, don’t presume she’s on Snapchat or Insta. Kids from across the Houston area are looking at townhallproject.com to find their local Town Hall For Our Lives — the nationwide movement to confront election officials about their failure to earnestly engage with calls for better gun regulation after the school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

Let’s hope those politicians at those town halls act better than West University Councilwoman Kellye Burke, who is facing a disorderly conduct charge after yelling at a couple of teenage girls because one was wearing a Trump T-shirt while in line at Tiny’s Milk and Cookies.

If Burke needs a few extra bucks for legal fees, Beto O’Rourke might have some to spare. The Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate shattered fundraising records with his $6.7 million haul the first three months of 2018. Its sad to think that we live in a political system where cash is key — thumbs down to Citizens United — but Republicans and Democrats alike should celebrate the idea of a competitive race. Maybe it’ll get incumbent Ted Cruz to change his focus from Iowa’s 99 counties to Texas’ 254 counties.

Cruz doesn’t plan on making it easy for O’Rourke, of course. He kicked off his campaign this week at the Redneck Country Club, which is located outside Houston and, as Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith put it, sounds like it’s “about five minutes away from the Jew haters country club.” Whatever happened to campaigning at Rotary clubs?

And in the final news of politicians behaving badly, you’ve got to wonder what’s going on in County Treasurer Orlando Sanchez’s office. His second-incommand, Gregory Wayne Lueb, faces a felony theft charge for allegedly stealing about $35,000 from the county credit union to pay off a dominatrix who was allegedly blackmailing him. Talk about being stuck in a bind. Lueb may have been the one fooling around with “Mistress Cindy,” but it feels like taxpayers are the ones getting screwed.

When caught in trouble, sometimes a little apology goes a long way — that’s what Texans owner Bob McNair should have learned when he offered a mea culpa after referring to NFL players as “inmates.” But McNair must have suffered a classic footballstyle blow to the head since then, because he’s now claiming that he regrets the apology. Then again, maybe he’s just gunning for a Cabinet position in the White House.

Forget football — it’s baseball season! And while we’re giving a hearty thumbs-up to the Astros and continue to bask in the glow of a World Series title, we still have fond memories of Bagwell and Biggio keeping hope alive in the 1990s. But apparently those memories are now verboten at Minute Maid. The past pennants from the 2000s, 1990s and 1980s have gone missing. No need for Jim Crane to apologize — just bring them back.

Ever wonder where the hot dog vendors, peanut guys and beer cart gals go after the game is over and the Juice Box empties? Those jobs aren’t exactly your classic 9-to-5, and plenty of the staffers don’t make much. That’s where New Hope Housing comes in. The nonprofit opened its eighth affordable apartment complex this week — a 175-unit building in the East End. Drive by, however, and you might mistake the brightly colored building, complete with first-floor retail, as the next mixed-use project aimed at recent college grads. Houston would be a better place if we spent more money putting roofs over people’s heads instead of just retractable roofs over sports stadiums.