Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of May 31, 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.

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1. City Council & LP&L (link)

Electric rates aren't going up. Not yet anyway. According to KFYO News, the Lubbock City Council declined to take action on a proposed LP&L rate increase. That despite Councilman Victor Hernandez trying his best to do so.

“Instead of having it stepped up gradually over time, we’re going to have happen in the LP&L electric rate what happened in the water rate, and that is a huge increase all at one time, which for my constituents, is going to be a lot harder to absorb all at one time as opposed to a little bit over time,” said District 1 Councilman Victor Hernandez.

Robertson, who served on the Electric Utility Board prior to his election as mayor, offered an opposing viewpoint regarding the rate increases immediately. “A year ago in September, we were given very similar numbers. At that point, I was told as a board member, that we were projected to lose $4.5 million and we needed to raise rates. I fought for a rate increase, and as a matter of fact, sent every councilperson an email.”

“The problem was, once we got audited numbers, that $4.5 million projected loss turned into a $1.3 million gain…my concern has been since that point, that I can’t make a decision on rates based on budgets and forecasts, whether they be financial forecasts or weather forecasts. I think it is prudent business for us to set rates after the end of the fiscal year…The reason I am so rigid on this point is I literally felt like I got burned a year and a half ago,” Robertson elaborated.

Hernandez twice attempted to make a motion to implement the full rate increases, but failed to get a second on his motion.

You can read Cole Shooter's full story in the link above. What do you think about the move? Remember, Mayor Glen Robertson will appear on LFN on Friday morning.

2. Holder Warns Black Leaders on Voter ID (link)

Attorney General Eric Holder is an idiot. Holder is now trying to convince minorities that states are passing Voter ID bills to stop minorities from voting. Keep fanning those flames Holder. What is it that you want? Race riots?

Attorney General Eric Holder warned African-American church leaders on Wednesday that a slew of state laws and federal lawsuits threaten to block access to the voting booth for many minorities and young people around the nation.

Holder's short keynote speech to the Council of Black Churches was something of a rallying cry for blacks and their like-minded allies who fear that a state-level push ostensibly aimed at cracking down on voter fraud will, in reality, do little more than to disenfranchise minority voters.

With echoes of Martin Luther King and the 1960s civil rights movement, Holder affirmed the commitment of his office to protecting the "sacred" right to vote of every eligible American, telling the receptive crowd that nearly half a century after Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, "we have not yet reached the Promised Land."

So is the Attorney General of the United States now saying that producing your ID anywhere is an attack on people? Are airports and the TSA teaming up to stop minorities from flying? What about writing checks? What about getting money out of your bank?

Pathetic.

3. Austin Planned Parenthood Clinic Controversy (link)

A South Austin Planned Parenthood clinic is defending itself after a controversy involving sex-selection abortion. According to the Statesman:

A Planned Parenthood clinic in South Austin is at the center of a controversy after an activist group with a hidden camera released a video Tuesday that shows a counselor discussing an abortion with a woman who said she wanted to have the baby only if it was a boy.

Live Action, which describes itself on its website as "a youth led movement dedicated to building a culture of life and ending abortion," said the video is the first in a series dubbed "Gendercide: Sex-Selection in America," which activists said is dedicated to exposing how abortion clinics across the country facilitate sex-selective abortion. The group sent actresses posing as patients to clinics across the country as part of what it called a national investigation.

In a phone interview, Lila Rose, founder and president of Live Action, said the woman in the video was not pregnant but that the video shows that Planned Parenthood in Austin is encouraging the practice.

"The footage speaks for itself," she said. "They are trying to deflect attention away from the real issue, which is that sex selection is posing a huge threat in our country, and they are facilitating the selective termination of little girls."

Planned Parenthood said the activists are engaged in an ongoing hoax campaign that is promoting false claims about the group. The staff member seen in the footage had been in the entry-level position for about six months, did not follow protocol and was fired within days of the interaction on April 11, said Sarah Wheat, interim co-CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Texas Capital Region. All staff members at the clinic on East Ben White Boulevard were "immediately scheduled for retraining in managing unusual patient encounters."

"Gender bias is contrary to everything our organization works for daily in communities across the country," the organization said in a statement. "The world's leading women's health and rights organizations, including the World Health Organization, do not believe that curtailing access to abortion services is a legitimate means of addressing sex selection, and have made clear that gender bias can only be resolved by addressing the underlying conditions that lead to it. And we agree."

Terrible things happen inside Planned Parenthood. Terrible things.

4. Bad News, The NFL Will Still Play The Pro-Bowl (link)

The NFL Pro-Bowl sucks. Everyone knows it and no one really cares about it. The NFL really could do away with it and we'd be okay with that. Unfortunately though, it's sticking around.

The players have made it clear through the NFL Players Association that they would like the opportunity to continue to play the Pro Bowl in Hawaii," NFL executive vice president Ray Anderson said. "We look forward to working with the players toward the goal of improving the competitiveness of this season's game."

The Pro Bowl was held in Hawaii from 1980 to 2009. In 2010, the NFL moved the game to the week before the Super Bowl for the first time, and it was held in Miami, site of the Super Bowl that year. The Pro Bowl returned to Hawaii for the 2011 and 2012 games but remained one week before the Super Bowl.

"The players believe that the Pro Bowl is an important tradition," NFLPA president Domonique Foxworth said. "We worked hard with the league to make sure the best players in the NFL are honored for their achievements on the field."

News of the Pro Bowl's return was met with praise by Hawaii tourism officials and Gov. Neil Abercrombie. Both Abercrombie and Mike McCartney, chief executive of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, hinted the state plans to deepen its ties to the league by helping it establish relationships in Asia -- a continent with several major markets for tourism to the Aloha State.

5. Dumb Story of the Morning (link)

Political Correctness hits Prom.

The principal of a Connecticut high school is defending her decision to end the longtime tradition of allowing students to vote for a prom king and queen over fears that the winners might be bullied.

But students at Kaynor Tech High School in Waterbury, Conn. have accused Principal Lisa Hylwa of bowing to political correctness.

In the past, the prom court was selected by a student vote. But Hylwa said she wanted to keep drama out of the prom and stop bullying. Instead, students who attended prom were invited to put their names in a box and the court was selected randomly.

“A lot of kids just think it’s unfair because you know, it’s a prom tradition,” student Jennifer Buonocore told television station WTNH. The station reported that it was flooded with comments from students wondering why the tradition was changed.

The principal said that all the students deserve an opportunity to participate as prom king and queen.

“This method gives everyone the same opportunity o be a member of the prom court and it supports the positive spirit of our school, period,” Hylwa wrote in a terse email to Fox News Radio. “There is no hidden agenda with this, no reason for ‘hurt feelings’ or adding another issue on to a teenager’s full plate that could ‘spark’ jealousy, ‘mean behavior’ or bullying.”

The principal said the new way of selecting a prom court “eliminates the avenue for the pressure to vote for members of the clique in charge or for any other issues that could open the door to amplified drama which may lead to any type of ‘mean behavior’ or equity controversy.”

She said the traditional method of voting for prom king and king was “beyond obsolete.”

“There was no option for the student or students who did the most for the class to win or a ‘noble’ reason such as a child who was terminally ill winning the prize,” she wrote. “This was a popularity contest with no criteria. The fact is, there are enough popularity contests in high school so why sponsor another one that may have negative consequences?”

“Cliques are real bullies by the way,” she added

What a moronic principal. This is part of what's wrong with our schools and our nation. Sorry folks, sometimes there are winners and losers. Hell no one really cares about Prom King/Queen after prom is over anyway.

6. Good Brews Good News of the Day (link)

Now this is a tip.

Generous tipping seems to be the trend of the moment. Right on the heels of a story about a sensational $2922.69 tip on an approximately $12,000 tab at Killen's Steakhouse in Pearland, wherein the customer tipped $1,000 over the the auto-gratuity amount of $1922.69, a server at D'Amico's Italian Market Cafe received a $5,000 tip this past Saturday.

Greg Rubar, an employee at D'Amico's for the last 16 years, was just doing his job as usual.  A couple he'd waited on over the years came in and had a standard meal of soup and wine.  Their tab was just $26.95.

As the meal came to an end, the long-time customer waved Rubar to the table. "Go buy yourself a car," he said. The customers knew that Rubar, who has a wife and young child, had lost his only car in the recent thunderstorms that swept across Houston, and that he'd been struggling with transportation ever since, borrowing a car from D'Amico's owner when he could, and taking a taxis when he had no other choice.

Everyday, Good Brews Coffee & Tea Lounge brings you the Good News of the Day!

Other Top Stories:

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.

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