DYNAMO DO IT AGAIN!! And a few more nibblets

Just now, the Houston Dynamo won the MLS Cup for the second straight year in a row! It was just last year when they came, and now we have a dynasty. They beat the same gang they beat last time...the New England Revolution, 2-1. GO DYNAMO!!

Believe it...good things come when you are a fan of The Men in Orange. Those who belong to the Texian Army and El Batallon ought to consider themselves status symbols in Greater Houston.

BTW, as of press time, the Texans are up as the third begins, 17-10...against our rivals to the east...the Saints. And Mario Williams has a sack and a forced fumble to boot, need I say more. As for the Rockets, don't even get me started...dropping four straight is no fun. Especially with T-Mac out of commission because of a foul elbow.

Oh, and congrats to my old rivals on the west side of the 6...Clements just got 10-0 with a stellar quarterback in Derek Carr. We always used to bash the Rangers all the time as high schoolers, but BASH no more...they've come a long way. Oh, and they advanced this weekend, too.

That's what weekends are meant for...and it's not over yet, because we have the NASCAR Chase for the Cup concluding today (and no it is NOT white trash like some hypocrites will say). Will it be Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon? Stay tuned!

Fort Bend ISD has a new HS...thanks to you, the taxpayer...

On Election Night, Fort Bend ISD taxpayers approved a $428 million bond package that includes a new high school. The new school, currently called HS #11, is going to be built in the Sienna Plantation area.

Now that the new school has been approved, the naming debate will begin. So let's take a look at the process if I were the head honcho. We're going to play a game called Name That School.

First, the following letters will be eliminated: A, B, C, D, E, H, K, M, T and W, because there are already high schools that start with those letters, one apiece: Austin, Bush, Clements, Dulles, Elkins, Hightower, Kempner, Marshall, Travis and Willowridge. Progressive High School doesn't count since it is an alternative school.

Based on that fact, the following names float up:

Presidents (a very obvious choice since Presidents have at least one high school in their name, FBISD's George Bush for instance) with preferred names in bold:

• Thomas Jefferson
• Andrew Jackson
• Martin Van Buren
• James Polk
• Millard Fillmore
• Franklin Pierce
• Abraham Lincoln
• Andrew Johnson
• Ulysses Grant
• James Garfield
• Theodore Roosevelt
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Lyndon B. Johnson
• Richard Nixon
• Gerald Ford
• Ronald Reagan
  

Another potential choice would be to name the new HS after a former Texas governor. Two of them, Mark White and Ann Richards, would be obvious choices, but Richards especially has weight with Texans due to her popularity as Governor, even as she was defeated by George W. Bush. White, however may face questions due to his support of No Pass/No Play. If the school does not open until 2011, Rick Perry might come up if he loses or does not run in 2010. There are qualms with Perry, though, over his failed leadership as our guv.

Being a Texas pioneer also counts. That's why we have Stephen F. Austin and William B. Travis, for instance. They were both members of the Texas Revolution, so I am now going to focus on some of my potential picks below:

• James Fannin
• Anson Jones (the "Architect of Annexation")
• Thomas Rusk
• Juan Seguin

Finally, there are many others that may be considered, such as U.S. Cabinet alums (which explains the naming of Dulles HS), former FBISD officials (Elkins, Hightower were named after such officials), local pioneers (explains the name of I.H. Kempner) and highly regarded members of the Supreme Court (which gave us Thurgood Marshall). After all, some other names may turn up such as:

• Colin Powell
• Jane Long
• Congressman Ron Paul

Of course, as time will tell, there will be updates on what happens. Stay tuned.

More from Election Night

Well, tonight is all but over, but now here are some of the final results, including a special election in the Fort Worth side of DFW:

In HD97, the race to succeed Anna Mowery in Fort Worth:
Democrat Dan Barrett and Republican Mark Shelton will battle for this seat, where Shelton took down five other Republicans compared to Barrett being the lone donkey in the race. Shelton should be assured of Mowery's seat.

Over in Kentucky, the Democrats have picked up the Governor's Mansion. Steve Beshear has defeated incumbent Republican Ernie Fletcher by an 18-point margin, not surprising given Fletcher's controversy, despite Beshear's support of gambling which Fletcher tried to play his cards on. Mississippi's Republican governor, Haley Barbour was also up for re-election, and won his attempt over John Arthur Eaves, a Democrat who used scripture in an attempt to sway voters from Barbour, the only lucky one out of a bunch of rotten apples following Katrina.

At last check, Virginia's state Senate has gone blue, to my understanding. Northern Virginia's growth and a standstill assembly back in the Commonwealth drove the voters towards the Dems. This is only a harbinger of what is to come in 2008, with Mark Warner on the Senate ticket. I am personally going to give Warner my all just like I did for Republican incumbent (and retiring Senator) John Warner, because this is one Democrat that can make a difference across party lines, something we lack for the moment nationally. Too bad I'm not in Virginia, though.

Ohio's 5th congressional district is another battle to watch. The GOP is favored to hold this heavily rock-ribbed district that Paul Gillmor left behind in a fall to his death, but the Republicans are in a fight between the penny-pinching Steve Buehrer and the less fiery, more sentimental Bob Latta, whose father held this seat before Gillmor did. And Latta has a slight lead, for now.

Back to Houston, and reality...

All the school bonds I mentioned in the previous post are passed, meaning new schools and improvements in HISD, Spring Branch, Cy-Fair and of course, Fort Bend. (You can now go to sleep little Sienna Plantation darlings, your high school is coming soon.)

Jolanda Jones and Joe Trevino will now battle in a run-off for Houston City Council At-Large Position 5, Michael Berry's soon-to-be vacated seat. There will also be runoffs in District D (between Wanda Adams and Lawrence Allen) and District E (between Mike Sullivan and Annette Dwyer).

Brazoria County is now a wet county...you can now buy beer and wine in Pearland, Lake Jackson or Alvin without feeling guilty thanks to a nearly 3-to-1 margin. Angleton ISD is upgrading its facilities and so is Friendswood ISD.

Finally, in District I back in Houston, James Rodriguez holds on to win Carol Alvarado's seat.

That should do for now. Good night!

Election Night...2007

Tonight is Election Night, and it's an off-year, odd-year one. On this day, all over Greater Houston, bond proposals are up for debate, council seats are for the taking, and a harbinger of what is to come in 2008 may emerge.

Outside of town, voters in Kentucky and Mississippi went to the polls, as did those in New Jersey and Virginia (for their legislative bodies). Louisiana, of course had its cake already, and the victor (Bobby Jindal) ate it too in celebration of what will hopefully be a new day for our statewide neighbors to the East.

In Houston, Bill White is re-elected in a landslide, and there is going to be a run-off in the race below it appears:

AT-LARGE POS. 5
Jolanda Jones 23.3%
Joe Trevino 18.1%
Jack Christie 15.8%
Tom Nixon 15.4%
Zaf Tahir 11.2%
John Gibbs 7.3%
Marlon Barabin 4.9%
Ray Ramirez 4.0%

HISD's bonds are neck-to-neck. Half are favoring it and half are against it, and right now it's barely passing. The bonds in Cy-Fair are passing right now with 56.9% of the vote and 9% of votes in, though. Bonds are also passing to build 12 new elementary schools in Spring Branch (with 59.3% For and 20% votes in).

Finally, Fort Bend's bond issue is not only passing, but is passing with 64.4 percent of the vote. This is surprising since I expected it to be closer given qualms some of the voters in the East End of the district had. I support the bond, though, because there is a need for new schools and improvements plus the need for a new high school. I expect the new HS #11 to be in Sienna Plantation because that area is not only booming, it was divided in two by the last realignment. Four-fifths of the vote is in, by the way.

HCCS BOARD:
District 1 - Yolanda Navarro Flores (51.1) is slightly ahead of Kevin Hoffman 48.9%
District 7 - Neeta Sane, who made a spirited bid for County Treasurer in FBC last year, is slightly ahead right now with over 40%

Finally, over in The Woodlands, all three propositions there are passing overwhelmingly, putting together the building blocks of self-government there.

I will have another update...soon.