Category Archives: Uncategorized

(Community Matters) I’m pretty sure this (if correctly interpreted) is a much bigger deal than attention received (or maybe everyone else already realized this w/ Windsor): “The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a unanimous decision, held that discrimination based on sexual orientation is subject to heightened scrutiny — a decision the court concluded has been made in action, though not in word, by the Supreme Court itself.” on Towelroad

(Community Matters) I’d missed this in the AAS earlier: Austin’s growing income gap and physical segregation by income, Dan Zehr. 

(Community Matters) Story of the money addiction of a Wall Street trader. Pleased to stumble on the posting on one our godson’s FB page (Will Roman’s) while he’s reflecting on what’s most important in life. 

The commonality of our really rich friends – they are outward focused, invest their wealth, time and energies in ways that help others too – money as a means not an end. Come to think about it, it’s the commonality of our happiest friends whether rich, middle income or struggling.

(Community Matters) way fun at our home Saturday night – Franklins BBQ

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(Community Matters) Toured Seaholm yesterday – love the way they’ve opened up the Power Plant to let in light while preserving the architecture wonder. Super progress on the Traders Joe and residential high rise sites too.

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(Community Matters) Charles Long Exhibit at The Contemporary Austin @ the Jones Center. Attended last night’s opening. Interesting & provocative – need to go back. Enjoyed running into Becky & John Beaver, Dan Bullock & Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, Louis Grachos and other friends.

(Community Matters) Enjoyed attending Wednesday evening reception Lynn & Tommie Meredith hosted for Wendy donors to hear from her campaign manager, Karin Johanson, as well as her co-chairs Aimee Boone & Kirk Rudy plus friends like Adrienne Donato. Julie Blakslee & John Spong, Jeannie & Mickey Klein, Steve Adler & Diane Land, Patsy Wood and many other Wendy supporters on hand too. $12.2mm raised from over 70,000 donors and they are still out gunned financially 3:1 – important to remember they started less than 4 months ago outgunned 20:1. We heard the numbers, a little about the strategy, the probabilities are up from the start – still a climb but doable.

(Community Matters) Had a root canal yesterday. It wasn’t painful, and I liked learning how it works. Dr. Doughty a bit freaked about all the pics – said no one had ever taken pictures before.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work. He drilled and picked down as far as he would but still didn’t find the canal. Now I have to see an oral surgeon about coming from bottom up through the jaw – ughh

pics below the jump not so graphic but more detail than most care to share.

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(Community Matters) Beyond beautiful wedding, befitting two beautiful young friends. What a special night celebrating Alex Winkelman and Adam Zeplain at Brazos Hall. Alex’s mom & dad are two very dear friends, Suzanne & Marc Winkelman.

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(Community Matters) I’m not optimistic that U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia will rule for equality in DeLeon v. Perry case – one of the three Texas marriage equality challenges.  Judge Garcia is vying for a 5th Circuit seat with the backing of Senators Cornyn and Cruz.

Am pleased that Judge Sparks refused Attorney General Abbott’s request to consolidate the three pending cases – Towleroad.

(Community Matters) Favorite line: “All the most successful social ventures are led by a charismatic super-geniuses backed by a friend who is a billionaire.” David Erickson, San Francisco Federal Reserve.

Very successful conference. Kudos to the committee members, including several dear friends: Lisa Davis, Carol Thompson, Roy Alston, Nick Ashburn, Melanie Audette, Jordana Barton, Peter Berliner, Claire England, Rebecca Gonzales, Michael Kellerman, Chelsea McCullough, Terri Preston, Tracey Reichanadter, Teo Tijerina and Margo Weisz.

(Community Matters)  What was the war on poverty? What programs did it include? Why did it start when it did? How long did it last? Did it reduce poverty, actually? Why don’t people think it reduced poverty? What more could we be doing now to fight poverty? What more could we be doing now to fight poverty? Washington Post

The 1962 publication of Michael Harrington’s “The Other America,” an expose which demonstrated that poverty in America was far more prevalent than commonly assumed, focused public debate on the issue, as did Dwight MacDonald’s 13,000-word review essay on the book in The New Yorker.

A recent study from economists at Columbia broke down changes in poverty before and after the government gets involved in the form of taxes and transfers, and found that, when you take government intervention into account, poverty is down considerably from 1967 to 2012, from 26 percent to 16 percent. In 2012, food stamps (since renamed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) alone kept 4 million people out of poverty,

Largely because people rely on the official poverty rate, which is a horrendously flawed measure, which excludes income received from major anti-poverty programs like food stamps or the EITC. It also fails to take into account expenses such as child care and out-of-pocket medical spending. If you look at the traditional rate — which, I’m not even kidding, is based on the affordability of food for a family of three in 1963/4, with no adjustments except for inflation since then — it looks like poverty has stagnated rather than fallen.

Hat Tip: Huffington Post