Chad’s Morning Brief: Lubbock City Council Meeting, Texas Defies Obama, & More
Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of February 24th, 2012. Give us your feedback below and tune in to Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty for these and many more topics from 6-9 am.
1. Thoughts on Thursday's Lubbock City Council Meeting (link)
The Lubbock City Council met yesterday and today on LFN we will speak with Mayor Tom Martin. Yesterday the council denied a street use license for Pete's Curbside Grill. The deck was stacked against him as the owners and tenants of the property were against him selling at their location. Also, he didn't make the greatest of arguments.
“The kids come out there at 2 o’clock in the morning when all these other places are closed, and they get something put in their belly,” said Gotsis. “I give them food, so they don’t hop in their car and run up and down the streets of Broadway and University getting hit by cars or causing car accidents.”
Here's a tip, don't let your main argument to the City Council be based on making sure drunk kids have food. It won't make anyone on the City Council sympathetic towards you.
According to KFYO, Councilman Todd Klein's idea to have at least four evening meeting's a year was met with silence.
District 3 Councilman Todd Klein also introduced a resolution without action this week regarding holding some Lubbock City Council meetings during the evening hours. The idea was coldly received, as no other council members commented on Klein’s resolution. Klein says that he plans to bring the item up for a vote by the Council at their next meeting.
Those opposed to Klein's proposal are out of touch. I already know the arguments that the opposition will make. "We only meet during business hours" and "Meetings might last until 3am". To both of those I say get over it. Elected officials, at all levels, must remember who they work for. They are elected to serve us. Since we are technically their bosses, we the people, should decide the so-called business hours. As for meetings lasting until 3am, how about you become better prepared? Other cities across Texas have evening meetings for the City Council. Why can't Lubbock? Stop meeting behind closed doors for hours at a time and maybe you can get something done. If meetings do last until 3am, tough. Again, you work for us. Surely four nights a year isn't too much to ask of our elected officials. Below are just some of the Texas cities that hold some evening Council meetings:
Ft. Worth, Arlington, San Antonio, Galveston (4pm), Carrollton, Plano, Laredo, Irving, Grand Prairie, Brownsville
So, according to the 2010 census, 9 out of the largest 16 cities in Texas have City Council meetings in the evening. The members of the City Council have no good excuses why they can't hold at least four evening meetings a year.
2. No City-County Partnership on Health Department (link)
Well this won't help out the relations between the City and County.
Dr. Steve Presley, chairman of the Board of Health, told the council that the group found that a partnership between the City of Lubbock and Lubbock County to operate the Health Department was not a feasible move to consider, and that the group should stop investigating the possibility for now.
“There is nothing to be gained by the formation or creation of a City-County Health Department,” Presley said. “If the situation changes and vast amounts of funding come in specifically for health services, perhaps we could reconsider at some point in the future.”
“There’s no money on the county side. I don’t think there’s any money on the city side, and even if there is, it wouldn’t benefit the citizens for us to come together,” said Lubbock County Judge Tom Head. “Those deliverables are determined on the amount of grant money, and we don’t have any control over that.”
Councilwoman Karen Gibson wasn't too happy with the news, but she shouldn't have been surprised. Should the City of Lubbock have a Health Department? Yes, but it might be time to do away with the huge building it's housed in right now.
3. Texas Defies the Obama Administration (link)
The State of Texas has defied the Obama administration by passing regulations barring Planned Parenthood clinics and other abortion providers from participating in the state's Medicaid program starting March 14. The Obama administration has told Texas that doing so would violate federal law.
If the two parties can't reach agreement, the newspaper reports, the state's Women's Health Program could be dismantled, leaving 130,000 low-income women without access to birth control, cancer screenings and other preventive benefits.
"Under federal law, states administer Medicaid and have the right to set the criteria for providers in the program. That is what Texas is doing," Texas Health and Human Services spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman told the Tribune. "We have a state law that our Attorney General says is constitutional, and it clearly bans abortion providers from taking part in the Women's Health Program. We can't violate a perfectly valid state law just to appease Washington. We hope [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] will reverse its position and allow the program to continue."
Let the court battles begin!
4. Severe Apologies (link)
The Obama administration has offered their "sincere apologies" to the Afghans after U.S. soldiers burned Korans. Why the apology? Because the act may inflame tensions. No, seriously.
“One of the reasons that it’s appropriate to express our severe apologies for this incident is the kind of reaction that it could cause that risks putting our men and women in harms way, in further risk than they already are,” Carney said.
Oh please. The United States Government made a big deal out of it and that's the only reason tensions are inflamed. The extremists want Americans dead. No amount of apologizing from Obama will change that. I wonder though, will the Afghan government apologize to the United States for this:
An Afghan soldier, apparently angry over the burning of Korans, fatally shot two U.S. troops and wounded four others, Afghan officials said.
Yeah, don't hold your breathe on that one.
5. Dumb story of the morning (link)
Pretending to be the new GM at Denny's won't get you very far.
James Summers walked into a Madison Denny's on Tuesday dressed in a maroon tie and black trench coat and carrying a briefcase, according to police. He strode into the manager's office, told her he was the new general manager and then fixed himself a burger, fries and a soda before police arrived.
"This is why you don't dine and dash, kiddies," Summers yelled out to diners as officers took him away, police said in a release.
Police found a stun gun in a hip holster under his coat and crack pipes in his briefcase, a criminal complaint showed. Prosecutors charged him Wednesday with disorderly conduct and possession of drug paraphernalia, both misdemeanors, and felony possession of an electronic weapon.
According to the complaint and the police news release, Summers, 52, entered the Denny's and found restaurant manager Tracy Brant counting out the day's receipts in a back office. He announced he was her new general manager and would be starting work that evening.
Brant challenged him, saying corporate headquarters hadn't notified her of any new general manager. She suggested he had the wrong restaurant.
But Summers maintained his story, growing more confrontational after Brant told him she didn't believe him. He told her he was starting and that was final, investigators said in the complaint.
She was able to get Summers out of the office and close her door. She called a hiring manager who confirmed Summers didn't work for Denny's.
While she was on the phone, her cooks knocked on the door and told her Summers had prepared himself a meal. He was in the middle of eating when Brant confronted him again. She told him he didn't work for Denny's and he had to leave.
Summers shot back that he had worked for Denny's for 30 years and Brant wasn't going to tell him he couldn't work there. When Brant asked him how he planned to pay for his $10 meal, he told her he wouldn't - and couldn't - pay.
Brant called 911. Police found Summers as he was walking across the restaurant parking lot. He told officers that he had an alcohol and drug addiction, according to the complaint.
Maybe he should have tried IHOP or Waffle House.
Other Top Stories:
Guests Appearing on LFN Today:
Lubbock Mayor Tom Martin at 7:07am
These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty. Tune in mornings 6-9am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard online in our podcast section after the show at kfyo.com.
More From News/Talk 95.1 & 790 KFYO
