Recent editorials from Texas newspapers

Here are excerpts from recent editorials in Texas newspapers:

Victoria Advocate. Dec. 16, 2017.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

In the case of Congressman Blake Farenthold, the smoke is billowing out of his suite in the Rayburn House Office Building. The best way to extinguish the fire is for Farenthold to resign immediately from office.

His recent announcement to not seek re-election doesn’t go far enough. His constituents deserve better than a humiliated congressman doing nothing for more than a year until his term runs out.

Public confidence in Farenthold was rocked recently by the revelation that he used a congressional slush fund to pay $84,000 to his former communications director, who accused him of sexual harassment in 2014. The use of taxpayer money to secretly settle a personal harassment lawsuit is enough of a reason for the congressman to step down. This is a complete betrayal of the public’s trust.

When Politico journalists broke the story about Farenthold’s secret settlement, he pledged to pay back the money to the government and said he would work to change the law that created a congressional slush fund. Of course, he had no answer for why he didn’t work to change this law three years ago when he clearly knew about the slush fund. He said he would work to change it only because it was politically expedient for him to say so.

The House Ethics Committee is now moving forward with its investigation into the 2014 complaint, which apparently stalled then when the former communications director, Lauren Greene, didn’t want to testify. She said she had hoped to move forward with a career on Capitol Hill away from Farenthold but has found she’s been blackballed from work in Washington, D.C.

Sadly, Greene’s accusations ring truer with each passing day and new revelation. One of her claims was Farenthold “disclosed that a female lobbyist had propositioned him for ’a threesome.’” In a legal response, his office didn’t deny the comment; rather, they said the woman who propositioned him wasn’t a lobbyist.

Even if Farenthold’s denial of wrongdoing is to be believed, his use of the slush fund is enough for taxpayers to be outraged. The congressman had years to make this right and chose not to until publicly embarrassed.

He also kept secret the additional complaints against his office in 2016. One aide said Farenthold’s chief of staff, Bob Haueter, treated women on the staff differently. A second aide, identified by the Houston Chronicle as former press secretary Elizabeth Peace, complained of “inappropriate sexualized commentary in the workplace.”

Yet another former communications director, Michael Rekola, told CNN about Farenthold running his office in 2015 like a brutal version of “Animal House.” The sickening bullying, which included sexually graphic jokes about Rekola’s fiancee, made the aide physically ill, he told CNN.

Before that account came to light, Farenthold told the Victoria Advocate, “I will confess that I treated my employees a lot like friends and less like employees, and what I’ve learned out of this is you’ve got to be a lot more professional in how you operate the office.”

Farenthold, 56, should have learned this lesson long before he ran for Congress.

Peace resigned her position in March because she said the inappropriate behavior in Farenthold’s office never changed even after all these complaints. Peace and another aide told the New York Times that his office routinely subjected workers to “ridicule, rude comments, acts of aggression or rage.”

News flash to the congressman: This is no way to treat a friend, let alone run a congressional office representing the people.

In recently announcing on his Facebook page that he wouldn’t seek re-election after all, Farenthold continued to deny wrongdoing. He admitted only to having “no idea how to run a congressional office” when he was first elected in 2010.

That excuse falls woefully short of the mark. It’s doubtful Farenthold will take the high road and resign after all these years of choosing other avenues, but the bright spot on the horizon is voters have a clear choice for change. Michael Cloud, former Victoria County GOP chairman, is on the ballot in the March 6 primary for the seat.

Even before these disturbing revelations about Farenthold, Cloud announced his campaign to counter the culture of corruption in Washington, D.C. Cloud has proven himself to be a leader of high integrity and strong Christian values. Five other Republican and four Democratic candidates also have jumped into the race since these allegations surfaced.

The smoke swirling around Farenthold is finally starting to dissipate. Sadly, it’s clear congressmen from both parties have been getting away with blowing smoke for far too long. The #metoo movement might have at last lit a fire for real progress.

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Longview News-Journal. Dec. 16, 2017.

One does not need a long memory to remember those days when Longview’s Good Shepherd Health System - now Christus Good Shepherd Health System - was in a dangerously poor financial condition.

Less than a year ago, in fact, there was open concern about how the hospital system was going to navigate staggering losses to remain afloat. In February, after a lengthy search by Good Shepherd for way to merge with another system to ensure a better future, Christus Health agreed to a deal and took over management of the Longview and Marshall medical centers as well as clinics and other facilities across the region.

Earlier this month, Christus Good Shepherd CEO Todd Hancock told us a turnaround most expected would take years had come much more quickly than anyone believed possible.

After roughly seven months - as of August - Christus Good Shepherd was once again operating in the black. That is cause for some real celebration.

Two thoughts immediately come to mind as we consider this news. The first is that some of the steps taken by previous management of the hospital certainly played a part in this achievement. Second, it suggests to us that Christus leadership is as solid as it gets, that it’s willing to take the steps necessary to preserve both the quality of health care delivered and the financial stability needed for the future.

Of course Christus Good Shepherd’s financial health is important to the city, as it is Longview’s largest employer, by far.

While financial sustainability might not seem a prime goal to patients and families, without that key element, quality health care is forever in danger. But the determination to keep a hospital financially viable requires making decisions that are sometimes uncomfortable both for the staff and the community.

Hancock verified as much, and we have heard some grumbling about changes being undertaken, but we’d guess employees did enjoy the first merit raises that have been given in a long time.

Hancock said he believes the health care system can continue to operate above water and when the Christus fiscal year ends in June, that will also show positive numbers for a full year.

He obviously knows his operation, but there are signs pain could be felt in the coming year.

Insurance giant Blue Cross Blue Shield says Christus Good Shepherd’s attempts to renegotiate managed health care plans could bring higher costs to customers. In fact, a Blue Cross representative says the company has sent a letter to Christus Good Shepherd informing them the hospital will be removed from the list of preferred providers on May 1.

That is by no means a final decision but it does show there are bumps in the road ahead.

Those rough spots are nothing compared to the hurdles that already have been crossed, however. We’d say the prognosis is good for a stable, high-quality health system in Longview for the foreseeable future.

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The Dallas Morning News. Dec. 18, 2017.

The flu season is here. And, if an ominous early trend holds up, this could be a bad season for Dallas.

There’s a lot of hacking and coughing going on as anyone at work, school or home can attest. Of course, not every cough and runny nose is a sign of the flu, but Dallas County Health and Human Services officials don’t like what they’re seeing.

As of Dec. 9, about 17.1 percent of Dallas County specimens reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested positive, nearly twice the national average of 8.4 percent. That’s a significant increase from mid-November, when Dallas County specimens reported positive 7.5 percent of the time, also twice the national average of 4.4 percent at that time.

The trend is in the wrong direction, and the spike in flu cases is occurring earlier than in previous years, officials say. The county just recorded its first flu-related death this season a 98-year-old Dallas resident who died from complications. About 100 people in Dallas County were hospitalized with flu-related illnesses during a recent week, and a flu outbreak recently prompted the entire Sunnyvale school district to temporarily suspend classes as sick students stayed home and officials looked for a way to prevent the virus from spreading.

Oddly enough, pharmacies and Dallas County Health locations have ample supplies of the vaccine, says Dallas County Health and Human Service Director Zachary Thompson. He doesn’t know why, but it seems to him that fewer people are getting flu vaccinations this year.

Failing to get a flu shot is asking for trouble. It takes about two weeks for the body to develop the antibodies that fight the flu. So with holiday travel rapidly approaching, Thompson’s worry is that the flu can gain a toehold as unvaccinated people come into contact with people with the flu. The county won’t know for sure how bad this flu season will be until January and February, the peak months for flu infections.

Dallas County officials recommend flu vaccinations for almost everyone, except children younger than 6 months. Most private insurance plans pay for flu vaccinations, and low-income Dallas residents and those without health insurance can obtain free flu shots at county health clinics.

Take advantage of these opportunities and maybe, just maybe, the season won’t be as bad as health officials fear.

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Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Dec. 18, 2017.

It doesn’t take the study underway, instigated by Mayor Joe McComb, to find out what will happen when the old, closed northbound section of Shoreline Boulevard is reopened to vehicular traffic:

- Drivers will use those lanes because drivers like shortcuts.

- Pedestrian traffic will all but disappear because people tend not to walk where they’re likely to be run over by a driver in a hurry. They’re especially averse to the precious cargo in their strollers being mowed down by reckless drivers.

Findings such as these are all the more likely this time of year, when people already are less likely to go outdoors to enjoy the bayfront. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, the stacking of the deck for McComb. It sets him up to question why the city would cut off a convenient, useful roadway when everyone using it is in a motor vehicle and nobody using it is pushing a stroller.

It’s the outcome that can be used to fulfill a vision of Corpus Christi’s bayfront whose time has passed - cruising alongside the seawall in a brand-new 1968 Oldsmobile Cutlass with a four-barrel carburetor.

McComb is not fond of the rerouting two years ago of Shoreline Boulevard to push vehicular traffic away from the seawall so people could actually use the bayfront for something other than driving. The reroute was the fulfillment of a 2008 voter-approved bond project to make the area safe for families to use. The bond language didn’t use those words. It was just the outcome.

The closing of the lanes nearest the seawall had its desired effect. People started coming to the bayfront in greater numbers because they felt safe in the absence of vehicular traffic. McGee Beach became a much more popular destination.These days it’s rare not to see someone on a bicycle transporting fishing tackle to the bayfront, a sight rarely if ever seen before the Shoreline reroute. People fished but they didn’t get there by bicycle.

Most promising of all the recent change along the bayfront has been the growing popularity of the Art Center of Corpus Christi and the events held there. The Downtown Farmers Market on Wednesdays at the Art Center has flourished, rain or shine, heat or cold. This has happened largely because the Farmers Market could expand into the dead lanes of old Shoreline, where food trucks have been serving attendees who enjoy a view of the marina while eating.

McComb says he’s concerned about how hard it is for a truck pulling a boat to make a right turn into the marina because of the way rerouted Shoreline curves away from the seawall. We have a frightfully easy solution - make the right turn from nearby Water Street instead. Case closed.

McComb also says he wants to know which “rogue” city employee ordered gates on old Shoreline recently to stop errant vehicles from using it. So do we. That employee deserves a medal and a raise. The real rogues at City Hall are the ones who failed to sod those old lanes with grass and trees immediately, to deter bright ideas like this traffic study.

The so-called traffic study idea is city staff’s reaction to complaints McComb made directly to staff. Going directly to staff rather than convening a City Council discussion contradicts the spirit of the city’s strong-city manager form of government.

McComb’s opposition to progress on the bayfront became all too apparent when he tried to make an issue of the new dog park and the private funding that largely built it. Dogs, their owners and donated money didn’t make convincing villains. The villain he sought to invoke was Destination Bayfront, a $44 million bond proposal rejected by voters in 2013. Destination Bayfront backers donated some of the dog park money.

The recent progress along the bayfront is not a plot to circumvent the will of the people. It’s the actual will of the people. The voter-approved Shoreline reroute changed the built environment just enough to encourage them to get out and use their city’s most distinctive asset as they saw fit. The change has been organic and long overdue.

The mayor should be its biggest cheerleader. Failing that, he at least should stay out of its way. It will continue with or without him.

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Houston Chronicle. Dec. 18, 2017.

Gov. Greg Abbott famously joked that when he served as attorney general, his daily routine consisted of going to the office in the morning, suing the president, then going home.

Texas took the feds to court at least four dozen times during the Obama administration, fighting over everything from immigration to ozone standards to the red snapper fishing season. Now our current AG needs to prove he can battle the government on behalf of the people of Texas even when Washington is run by politicians in his own party.

Attorney General Ken Paxton has an opportunity to sue the feds over a cause that could impact all Texans, an issue that was once a part of the state’s Republican Party platform. Paxton should join his counterparts from other states who plan to challenge the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality.

The Federal Communications Commission recently voted to repeal the rules that required telecommunications companies to give all websites equal access to broadband service. So now, the corporations that provide our internet service will have the power to threaten businesses like Netflix with slower service unless they pay a premium that, of course, will be passed along to consumers. That scenario is very real; Comcast tried to slow down Netflix in 2014.

Net neutrality opponents make a standard free market argument, saying that consumers who don’t like the slower service on one internet service provider can simply switch to another. They also claim that telecommunications companies will now have the freedom to offer options that could reduce consumers’ internet bills. The problem with that logic is that most Americans have to choose between only one or two big providers like Comcast and AT&T broadband service in most of the country isn’t a free market, it’s either a monopoly or a duopoly. And if you think telecommunications corporations with so little competition are really going to lower your internet bills, the Allen Brothers might want to sell you some Enron stock.

Now attorneys general from several states have announced plans to challenge the FCC. New York’s attorney general is leading the charge, arguing that the comment process was corrupted by millions of submissions from bots, stolen identities, Russian email addresses and more than a few dead people. Other legal experts say the FCC’s arguments for repealing net neutrality conflict existing laws.

That’s why Paxton should join this fight on behalf of the people of Texas. Unfortunately, what should be a populist cause has become a partisan fight, so there’s little hope Paxton will do the right thing on this issue.

If he doesn’t, next time you cast a ballot for attorney general, think about your internet bill. Then think about hiring a new lawyer.