Ups, downs
Football fans, you name it.
Forget the Super Bowl. Let’s get ready for the XFL. The second iteration of the alternative football league is bringing a team to Houston and wants fans to vote on the name. Just Google “XFL” and “fan choice” for the site. Then click on one of the recommended mascots, including the Moonlanders, Roughnecks or Wildcatters. You can even write in your own name. The “Houston Chronicles” certainly has a ring to it.
Of course, the real team to watch is the Cougars. This week, the University of Houston men’s basketball team reached the top 15 in the AP poll for the first time since the days of Phi Slama Jama.
Meanwhile, Rice University students were shocked and disgusted when a torrent of ants started pouring out of the light fixtures in their bathroom last week. “They made this sound that was almost like the popping of Rice Krispies in a bowl of milk,” Biz Rasich, a junior, told the Rice Thresher. “It was like a hiss as their little ant bodies hit the edge of the sink and our trash can. We just watched as they accumulated.”
Every politician dreams about having something named after him or her — think airport, convention center or middle school. It’s only appropriate that former Houston Mayor Bob Lanier is getting a stretch of the Grand Parkway — the mega-loop freeway encompassing much of South Texas that he worked to promote. But getting a stretch of road named after you is always a risk. When commuters get caught in bumper-tobumper traffic, it’s your name they start cursing.
Lanier isn’t the only politico getting his name enshrined into history. Blake Farenthold — the disgraced former congressman — is getting a bill named after him: The BLAKE Act. That stands for “Bad Lawmakers Accountability and Key Emends.” The legislation, introduced Wednesday by Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., will bar former lawmakers from lobbying Congress after leaving office until they repay the treasury for any taxpayer funds used to settle sexual harassment lawsuits while in office. Farenthold famously promised to repay the $84,000 he used to settle a suit brought by a former staffer but then reneged after leaving office for a job as a lobbyist. Unfortunately, the law won’t work retroactively. That’s why Walker told the Huff Post that he’ll ask House leaders to refuse to meet with Farenthold on any issue until he pays up.
Newly elected County Clerk Diane Trautman passed her first test with flying colors in the special election for House District 145. Not only were voting locations open for a full 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., but she got the final (unofficial) results in by 9:11 p.m. Then again, it couldn’t have been too hard to count all the ballots: Only 3,460 people voted. Democratic candidates Melissa Noriega and Christina Morales are going to a runoff.