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California conservatives eye Texas taxes; doggie Disneyland goes to Discovery Green.
The Los Angeles Times had a story this week headlined “California conservatives leaving the state for ‘redder pastures.’ ” According to the article, half of the state’s registered voters have considered moving. Republicans were nearly three times as likely to want to hit the road — citing the state’s political culture and high taxes — and join the million people whom California lost to domestic migration over the last decade. Want to guess which state is the beneficiary of all this West Coast wandering? Of course, it’s Texas, which saw more than 60,000 Californians come here in 2017 alone. We hate to put a caveat on this population growth, conservative-leaning or otherwise, but numbers from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy show that if you’re middle class, you’ll be giving your money to the government at about the same rate. If you’re poor? Don’t even bother packing your bindle. But if you’re rich, come on down — you’ll be paying up to 10 percent less. Turns out the Lone Star State is a great destination for California’s huddled millionaires yearning to breathe free. All others may want to move here for the barbecue. Houston is already one of the top dog-friendly cities in the country, so it’s only natural that a festival which bills itself as the “Disneyland for dogs” would make a stop here. The Puptopia Festival 2020 is scheduled to visit Discovery Green next March, bringing with it a host of pun activities for the furriest family members, including a “dog spaw” — featuring “peticures” and “aromatherapup” services — and a “pawground” with photo-ops next to a nine-foot-tall fire hydrants and giant dog bowls filled with kibble balls. Tickets go on sale in December. Sorry cat lovers, but as of press time Catopia 2020 continues to be 30 minutes with a bag of catnip. Consider this item a conversation-starter as you ponder your vote for next month’s runoff election. On Tuesday, New York City voters approved moving to a rankedchoice voting system for primaries and special elections, joining more than a dozen other cities that are trying it out, including San Francisco and Minneapolis. Under this system, voters rank candidates in order of preference. When the ballots are counted, if no candidate has the majority, the last-place candidate is eliminated, and their votes are distributed to the voters’ second choice — and so on until there’s a winner. The system isn’t perfect, but ideally it makes candidates reach out to more voters, cutting down on extremism, and it produces a clear winner on election night. That’s a win even if, given Harris County’s slow results, we don’t find out who won until the day after anyway. File this one under “at least it wasn’t blackface.” Three Rice University students dressed up as U.S. Customs and Immigration Agents for Halloween, sparking outrage on campus. A Twitter photo showed the students sporting blue shirts with the acronym “ICE” in big block letters and an official-looking patch on their sleeves. This the same kind of unacceptable “humor” that gave us the Federal Breast Inspector costume and comes at a time when many immigrants are on edge — including fellow students who may be covered by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program currently under court review. According to the Chronicle, the students involved have apologized and the entire incident has been used by Rice as an opportunity to further educate the community on diversity. Here’s hoping next year all that students will regret is that sexy Mister Rogers costume.