by By Ellis Simani, ProPublica, and Lexi Churchill, The Texas Tribune and ProPublica
On paper, Salvador Cavazos earns less than $300,000 to run Valere Public Schools, a small Texas charter network. But taxpayers likely aren’t aware that his total pay makes him one of the country’s highest-earning superintendents.
On Thursday's show: Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Rep. Lizzie Fletcher share their memories of working with Sylvester Turner, who passed away at age 70.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. Was talking about a march for science too political for work?
I’m hoping you can help settle a disagreement a friend and I are having about a situation that came up in my work today.
I work as a physician at a large academic hospital, and my department had our monthly faculty meeting today. As part of the meeting, our department chair discussed the current state of NIH funding going to our department. We do a large amount of research and have a number of labs dependent on NIH grants that may be affected by the current administration. He told us that there is a march for science this Friday (they are being held simultaneously in cities all over the country) and suggested that anyone who is interested and able to attend should do so, but not to wear anything that would identify us as employees of this hospital or to give any comments that could be seen as being on behalf of the hospital.
On a basic level, losing funding risks labs getting shut down and my colleagues losing their jobs. I would argue that most, if not all, of us work here because of the reputation of this institution and the research performed here is a big part of that. (Trust me, we get paid less than we would at many other similar hospitals because we believe in what we do).
My friend thinks that this was wrong for my chair to do because it is mixing politics in a professional environment. I see this as the chair providing us with information about the situation and encouraging us to advocate on behalf of our hospital, colleagues, patients, and research. What do you think? (I’m planning to march.)
I’m with you. Your chair was providing information that many of you would find relevant to your jobs, and was also providing info you might not have had otherwise (to not identify yourself as employees of the hospital or appear to be speaking on its behalf). “Don’t mix politics in a professional environment” applies when it’s something like announcing a campaign rally for a candidate or promoting a pro-choice march if your jobs had nothing to do with reproductive health care. It doesn’t apply when the issue in question is so tightly entwined with your labs’ ability to survive.
2. How are these layoffs happening so quickly?
I used to work at a large NGO that receives a lot of government funding. With the recent administration change, I’ve seen many of my old colleagues, including many who work in non-government-funded positions, announce that they’ve been laid off.
How can these layoffs be happening so quickly? It seems like within one week, funding that took months to secure has vanished. Is the funding truly gone? Or are these companies using this as a reason to let people go? Plus, how can it be affecting non-government-funded positions so quickly? I thought WARN notices were required before eliminating jobs.
Yes, it can happen that quickly (and is). First, while a position may not be directly government-funded, it can depend on grants or other sources of funding that have government funding somewhere in the chain. Second, some funders are changing their funding priorities in response to the new administration’s actions. Third, making adjustments in one area can affect a different area; for example, an organization might realize it’s going to lose $X in funding over the next year so they’re reconfiguring staffing and budgets now in order to prioritize programs A and B, even though that will mean cutting programs C and D.
The WARN Act requires most employers with 100 or more employees to provide 60 days notice if they’re laying off 50 or more people at once or to pay the equivalent amount of time in severance. If they have fewer than 100 employees or they’re not laying off 50+ people, it wouldn’t be in effect.
3. Responding to a nosy coworker
My coworker is well-meaning and big-hearted but doesn’t have a lot of personal boundaries. She shares a lot about her own personal life issues such as past family drama and medical issues, also shares personal life and medical issues of her children and husband, and has even shared very personal information from coworkers.
I’ve also noticed her tendency to not just overshare, but pry a bit as well. For example, I had to share the news of a recent death of a distant coworker we did some work with (relevant to our jobs) and she demanded to know who I heard it from (really not relevant). Overall, I like her but she can be really off the wall with certain comments at times.
Today, I sent my team a notification letting them know I’d be stepping out for a dentist appointment for my regular, twice-a-year cleaning. After that, she sent me a private message along the lines of, “We both have more medical appointments than the rest of the team! I’m not trying to pry — you don’t have to share any details — but I’m sending thoughts and prayers and wanted to make sure you’re okay!”
Not only is this a weird comment, but, frankly, I don’t! This year I had a normal annual physical, two dentist appointments, and then the occasional “thing” that might come up for anybody, like seeing an allergist this year. That’s pretty much it.
We have a pretty casual work culture where we’re salaried and free to take off for appointments as long as our work is done, so I’m wondering if she’s confusing personal appointments (car appointments, etc.) for medical appointments? I don’t always give details when I step away for an appointment so she may be assuming what the term “appointment” means.
I responded with a quick “Hey thanks but I’m healthy, just good about getting my checkups!” and moved on. But I would love to hear if there’s a better way to handle coworkers bringing up something like this and setting good boundaries. Do I ignore? Eyebrow raise and say, “How odd, what makes you say something like that?” (I’m not sure she’d pickup on that level of subtly.) Go nuclear and say, “Whoa, that’s way inappropriate”?
We have a cordial but distant relationship on the whole, mainly on my part because of her tendency to overshare or gossip. Given that, although this was definitely crossing a serious boundary, it hasn’t been a persistent issue and I’m not sure how strong of a response something like that would require.
Nah, your response was fine. It allowed you to just quickly move on rather than getting in a discussion of boundaries with her, which is a fine choice to make (unless you want to get into it with her).
Sometimes the key with people like this is to just studiously not take the bait. So you also could have just ignored her message entirely (particularly since she said she wasn’t trying to pry! let’s pretend to take her at her word).
4. Should I address a rumor about my company being awful?
I am a payroll specialist who processes payroll for over 1,000 electricians. Today I heard that there is a rumor going around one of our largest sites that my company lays people off after 90 days to avoid paying out any sick time (field employees can accrue and use up to 40 hours per year, but can’t use it until their 91st day of employment).
This is not true! We are a leading electrical contractor in our state and, honestly, the time and resources it takes to onboard employees would hardly make it financially sensible to be laying people off willy-nilly. Not to mention getting such an unethical practice like this past the union!
What I heard specifically was this: a site administrator told me “I heard someone say…,” meaning a current employee. In my experience, these things spread like wildfire among the crew(s). And the admin seemed genuinely relieved when I told her that it wasn’t true so I’m afraid people are actually believing it!
Should I say something? I have a good relationship with both my manager and our director of field personnel. Should I tell them what I heard?
I don’t think there’s enough here that you really need to act on it … but if you’re concerned that there’s misinformation out there, there’s nothing wrong with sharing that concern with your manager and/or the field personnel director and letting them decide if they want to address it. Just be careful to specify exactly what you heard, so it’s clear that you’re not hearing it from multiple people (which doesn’t mean multiple people don’t believe it — maybe they do — but you don’t want to overstate what you actually know).
5. Can I be told to use PTO for partial-day sick leave when I’m exempt?
I’m a salaried exempt computer programmer working from home, which means sometimes I have the luxury of working a few hours beyond the weekly 40 when inspiration strikes.
Yesterday, I wasn’t feeling well so I stopped working at about 10 am. My boss asked today if I was going to file for PTO or if I’d be making it up.
I’ve read your post here to make sure I was right about the FLSA. It’s come up before, but I’m not sure he believed the bit about how working any part of a week means getting paid for the full week. Anyway, he’s a good supervisor and we have a friendly relationship, but how do I tell him he’s wrong about this?
I asked an AI and it said my company could require that I take PTO when I’m sick, but that doesn’t seem right — so I thought I’d ask a real intelligence.
The AI got it right. As an exempt worker, you need to be paid your full salary when you work any part of a week (with some narrow exceptions, like your first and last week at a job), but that’s is only about pay. It doesn’t have anything to do with docking time from your PTO balance, and your company can still require you to use PTO for time that you miss. It’s pretty common for companies to do that, particularly when you’re missing nearly an entire day of work. (I’d consider it nickel-and-diming you if they told you to use PTO for an hour here and an hour there when you’re regularly working extra hours, but in this case you missed nearly a full day of work so it’s not that outrageous.)
The total amount is probably larger: This analysis includes only publicly available contracts, omitting classified defense and intelligence work for the federal government. SpaceX has been developing spy satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office, the Pentagon’s spy satellite division, according to the Reuters news agency. The Wall Street Journal reported that contract was worth $1.8 billion, citing company documents.
The Post found nearly a dozen other local grants, reimbursements and tax credits where the specific amount of money is not public.
“The Pentagon announced that Fort Moore, formerly named Fort Benning for a Confederate general, will again be named Fort Benning, although it will now honor a different Benning.” – CBS News
- - -
It is with immense pleasure that I, King Éomer of Rohan, announce that Helm’s Deep and its fortress shall today revert to the original name of Sauron’s Deep.
No, my loyal servants, not that Sauron.
Rest assured that our beloved stronghold is not named after the evil dark lord hell-bent on destroying Middle-earth, but after a beloved Elven soldier named Elduin Sauron from the Battle of Mirkwood, or something.
This brave warrior, whose name we definitely didn’t spend hours looking for in various scrolls until we found one that matched, sacrificed his life and fought honorably against the forces of Dol Guldur. With this official renaming, we will now be able to celebrate the illustrious military career of the mighty Sauron (again, not that one) in all his glory.
I am well aware of the backlash this memorandum has incurred. Let me be clear once more that the purpose of this is not to offend but to keep alive the memory of the great and powerful Sauron. Elduin Sauron, that is.
Of course, I could’ve chosen the name of a war hero that wasn’t exactly the same as a murderous necromancer. However, that would have stripped Elvin, or whatever I said before, of the chance to have his legacy immortalized in Elven lore. As virtuous citizens of Rohan, I hope you will concur with the preservation of this great man’s story.
Earlier this month, I also changed the name of our fortress, the Hornburg, to the Fortress of Witch-king of Angmar.
Now, before you jump to any conclusions, allow me to explain. Despite its association with the deadly leader of the Nazgûl, many of you may be unaware that the “Witch-king of Angmar” was once the nickname given to Pippin Took by his dear mother. For this reason, I have decided to dedicate this fortress to Pippin—known as the Witch-king to his friends and relatives—for his efforts in the Battle of the Black Gate.
As one of its leaders, I believe it is my duty to commemorate the great people of Middle-earth, no matter how similar their names are to the dark powers that attempted to enslave thousands of innocent men and women. So I vow to you, the people of Rohan, that I shall do my utmost to continue this great tradition for many glorious years to come.
Or, you know, as long as I can find names that match.
According to Turner’s family, he was taken to the hospital after President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress and was later released. He died at approximately 5:45 on Wednesday morning from “enduring health complications.”
Senate Bill 13 would create school library advisory councils largely made up of parents. It would give school boards, rather than librarians, the final say over new books.
The company said the new facilities will serve the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the Texas power grid, and the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM) regions.
WASHINGTON—Promising a glorious future marked by limitless prosperity for the East Asian nation, President Donald Trump outlined a bold vision Tuesday night for a golden age of China. “Under my leadership, a prosperous new era of Chinese dominance will begin, the likes of which have never been seen before,” Trump said in an address to a joint session of Congress, insisting that China, finally unbridled from the foreign policy of former President Joe Biden, would reach its full potential and claim its rightful place as an unmatched global powerhouse. “Mark my words, the People’s Republic will be the envy of the world. That I can assure you. As long as I’m in charge, nothing will stand in China’s way. My newly implemented tariffs will spur China to be more self-sufficient, stable, and affluent going forward. Believe me when I say we’re going to make China a lot of money.” Trump went on to state that people he had talked to were already calling it the second Ming dynasty.
We have a bank of shared desks which aren’t actually general-use hot desks, but hot desks specific to our team. However, as we’re often out and about supporting other colleagues or delivering training out in the field, we’re usually only in one day a week. People realized this and started using our desks as hot desks, and all our equipment gradually failed/vanished, and when we DID come in, there wouldn’t be any desks available. So we put up signs.
One of the other people came in when a colleague and I were in a meeting elsewhere on site but set up at our desks, and about half an hour after the signs went up. When we got out of the meeting, he’d torn the sign down that was at the desk where he was sat, put it face down on the desk, then outright denied it when questioned. No one believed his lie, but our manager had a word with him and put up additional signage. He still sits at the desks apart from one day when the signs state are only for our team, but he refuses to speak to any of us.
2. The phone calls
I am currently living through a desk sharing situation where we both need to work some of the same hours. This requires us to sit on opposite sides of the same desk with laptops. No one can use the monitors for fear of it being “unfair.” That’s bad enough, but it gets worse. Not my setup luckily, but nearby, multiple times per day a neighboring coworker will make or answer very private personal calls literally sitting at a desk a foot from their desk mate. Topics have been: child support (that wasn’t paid), screaming at people she believes to be stealing from her, and some very NSFW inappropriate comments thrown in (loudly). Meanwhile, her desk mate is attempting to be on work calls. My coworker (her desk mate) has requested a move but is currently stuck there with her two days a week.
3. The tickets
I have an assigned desk, but I only work in the office one day a week. The other four days, I work from home. That means my desk is available four days week for use as a hot desk for folks who don’t have an assigned desk.
One gentleman (“E”) who knows my schedule uses my desk as a hot desk frequently. And apparently runs into just an unfathomable number of technical issues. I have lost track of the number of help desk tickets E has opened for the equipment at my desk. But since it is my equipment, I am the one who has to field the help desk techs when they attempt to troubleshoot. Help desk techs often drop by on while I’m in the office to troubleshoot the technical issue du jour. We are, strangely, never able to replicate the issues E claims to experience.
Often times, when I close the help desk ticket, nothing else ever comes of it. Occasionally, he’ll re-open the ticket. Once, a help desk tech wrote down very detailed instructions on how to resolve the USER-CAUSED issue E was experiencing at my desk. I left them on the keyboard for E to read the next day. E sent me an IM on Friday telling me he’d thrown the instructions in the trash (???).
With all the issues he seems to experience using my desk, I’ve often wondered why he doesn’t just hot desk in one of the five other open desks in my cube share. The world may never know.
4. The photos
Coworker #1 shared a desk with Coworker #2, who was going through a drawn out break-up with Coworker #3. We were never quite sure if the relationship was officially over. One day Coworker #1 found multiple photos cut up into little pieces in the desk (our building had a photobooth that printed physical photos). Coworker #1 realized they were all photos that included Coworker #3. That wasn’t the official end of their break-up, but it did add to the lore as they continued to go off and on for years.
5. The committed decorator
I used to work at a place where there was a morning shift and a night shift, so everyone shared a desk with one other person. I brought in a little 8×10 picture and hung it up on one half of the little area because I needed something to look at (no windows), but didn’t want to overwhelm my desk mate.
The night shift guy across from me had no such consideration. The three little walls of his desk area were absolutely COVERED in stuff – photos, a framed Nickelodeon Magazine with Larissa Oleynik on the cover (when she was a child on Alex Mack), the slipcover of an X-Files DVD box set, the sticker they put on the corner of a television set to tell you its screen size … just the most bizarre stuff.
His deskmate finally complained and he was told he could only decorate one half of the space. So when I came in the next morning, he had meticulously measured the space so he was taking up exactly half. At Christmas, he brought in a family photo album and left it open to a different page every day. Then he brought in one child-size dress-up Cinderella high heel. This plus many, many, MANY other things led to him eventually being fired.
6. The pile
When I was hired on at a small social enterprise, my desk was pushed up against my boss’s desk, back-to-back. It meant that we sat directly facing each other all day. I’m a tidy person and never have clutter on my desk, while my boss was a borderline hoarder. She had multiple towers of loose papers, at least 15 tchotchkes, and an extensive nature collection that included feathers, skulls, and a dried bear poop that she liked because it had seeds in it. There was almost no visible desk surface.
Within a day, her clutter had crept over the border and onto my desk. I ignored it, but the flow was unstoppable. By day 3, the slow-moving landslide of junk had taken over the back third of my desk. Since she wasn’t in that day to talk to her, I took all her junk off my desk and neatly piled it back on hers. The next morning she profusely apologized and said she would be more mindful, while commenting on how tidy and sterile my desk was.
This became a pattern: throughout the workday, a paper stack would be nudged onto my desk, or an animal bone would fall from an overflowing basket onto my printer. I started propping up items to create a fence on the border, à la Dwight Schrute. Several times I politely talked to her about needing my desk to be free of clutter. Nothing worked. Every afternoon after she left, I would remove her items and neatly stack them back on her desk. Every morning she would apologize and continue the pattern. I could see her shame growing. About a year later we moved into a new “office” that she had built which was a log cabin with no indoor plumbing, heating, or cooling. There was an outhouse with no running water. I quit a few months later.
7. The unauthorized plant
I was a “rover” at a bank where I was sent to new branches every day to cover for absences — basically a substitute bank teller and banker. One branch had a plant care service where these people would come in and tend to the plants which were, I guess, part of a contracted service. They’d water them, trim leaves, polish leaves, etc. They silently entered offices to avoid bothering the bankers.
I was sitting in a lady’s office working when a plant lady stormed in pointing to a plant and demanding to know where it came from and that it wasn’t their plant and they don’t care for unauthorized plants. I shrugged and told her this isn’t my office nor is this my branch. I’m just sitting here for now. She came back at least twice more to actually reprimand me, essentially her company’s client, and demand answers. It was the strangest thing to happen to me up to that point. I left a note for the plant owner that she had better watch her back with these plant ladies.
8. The log-ins
Years ago, I worked at an office where most of us were in the field all day, and we shared two desktop computers for data entry, payroll, and other admin tasks. One of my coworkers was zealous about cyber security, so he updated the desktops to set very secure passwords (long strings of letters, numbers, and special characters).
Unfortunately that meant that none of us could remember the passwords, so they were written on post-it notes taped to the desks (very secure!). The real trouble began when he transferred to another office and one of the post-its was lost. I don’t know if anyone was ever able to log into the data entry computer again.
9. The desk walk
After I finished my masters, I considered moving from SmallState University to Bigwig University for a Ph.D. (my advisor was retiring and there was nobody else in my area to work with) when I visited the campus, the grad student who was showing me around brought me to the grad student office – a room filled with so many desks that he had to walk over one person’s desk to get to his. I changed my research focus and stayed SmallStateU, where I had a three person office and a couch.
10. The Pop Tarts
I was an expensive consultant back in the dot.com days, brought into a medium sized company that was creating early internet shopping software. They had the full dot.com culture, including lots of free food. What they did not have was a lot of space.
My desk was a laptop sitting on top of a giant case of brown-sugar cinnamon Pop Tarts in the middle of the breakroom.
I’m the adaptable sort – at the rate they were paying me, I had to be – so this was fine. The only challenge was that whenever someone wanted a Pop Tart, I had to lift my laptop and let them into the cardboard case so they could grab some. This generally happened about seven times per day.
On the other hand, I ended up with a 13% raise from that assignment, and I got all the Pop Tarts I could ever want, so I guess it was worth it.
NEW YORK—Astonished by the sheer volume of exhibition basketball knowledge that one person could possess, sources confirmed Monday that foreign man Deniz Büyükuncu knows an incredible amount about the Harlem Globetrotters.
“He saw me shooting hoops at the gym and just started rattling off everything he knew about the Globetrotters and their players,” said 43-year-old Nate Moreno, noting that the foreign-born immigrant, who apparently moved to the United States in large part because of the team, has a near-encyclopedic understanding of the Harlem Globetrotters’s iconography, roster, and history, allowing him to discuss how the team began in Chicago as the Savoy Big Five, to quote with ease from their 1970s animated television show, and to argue that while Meadowlark Lemon may have been funnier, Curly Neal was ultimately the better player. “He claims watching old VHS tapes of Goose Tatum taught him how to slam dunk, and he even got a tattoo of Globie, which I guess is their mascot? Honestly, I don’t know enough about the Harlem Globetrotters to fact-check any of this. But he seems so confident that I’m just going to go with whatever he’s saying.”
According to reports, the foreign man later went silent and refused to discuss the Globetrotters further after mentioning that several women have been allowed to play for the team.
HOUSTON—After two weeks of posing as an underage girl online and exchanging messages with a suspected child predator, Detective Sgt. Gordon Aguero of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office told reporters Thursday he had fallen in love with the pedophile he was investigating as part of a sting operation.
Although he was assigned to the case in order to gather evidence against an alleged child abuser, Aguero, 54, admitted he was quickly beguiled by the charming man he contacted through the gaming platform Roblox while purporting to be a teenager named Zoey. The pedophile, identified only by the username Ken1965, reportedly wrote to the detective’s fake account several times a day and often remarked that his intended victim was special and looked pretty.
“I know he thinks I’m a 13-year-old girl from the suburbs who loves BTS and wants to be a dog trainer when she grows up, but I can’t deny it anymore—I’m deeply, hopelessly in love,” Aguero said of the predator, confiding that he “practically ran” to his computer at the sheriff’s office every day just to view his new messages. “Is he a serial child molester? Yes. But Ken understands me, okay? I can talk to him about problems I’m having with my friends or how much I hate doing math. And he gets it when I complain about my parents, too.”
“God knows he pays more attention to me than they do,” he added, referring to Ruben and Isabella Aguero of Baytown, TX, age 84 and 81, respectively.
Though he can only communicate with the suspect through the guise of Zoey, the divorced middle-age detective explained that Ken1965 nonetheless provides him with a shoulder to cry on, listening to the insecurities he has about his body and about whether anyone could ever find him lovable. Aguero said his confidence is bolstered every time he’s on Roblox chatting with the sex offender, who is always offering to take him on trips and introduce him to his friends.
According to his sheriff’s department colleagues, Aguero’s has grown secretive and withdrawn since he became involved with the sting operation. His supervisor, Lt. Crystal Olmstead, noted that the detective always seemed to minimize his internet browser window when she walked by his desk.
“While I’m glad he’s committed to his work, I’m a little concerned about the amount of time Gordon is spending on this case,” said Olmstead, who furrowed her brow as she described how the detective was using the Roblox account “basically 24/7.” “When he’s not on his computer, he’s glued to his phone, texting madly away. Every time I ask him about it, he gets really defensive, and I’m worried that if I pry too much, I’ll only push him away.”
The besotted detective showed reporters the trove of evidence he had collected in the undercover role, blushing as he opened a manila folder of printouts that contained a message reading “u and me can be best friends,” another that read “don’t tell ur parents about me, beautiful,” a $25 Roblox gift card that enabled the sworn law enforcement officer to purchase a “kick ass” digital shark costume his avatar could wear, and a very persistent series of requests for nude photos.
With the operation expected to end soon, Aguero expressed concern about meeting Ken1965 in person, acknowledging that the pedophile would be unhappy when he discovered Zoey was only an alias.
“I’m just so scared that when we arrest him, he’s going to be mad,” the detective told reporters. “He said he wanted to hold my hand and kiss me, but what if those were lies? What if he doesn’t like the way I look? What if he decides he doesn’t love me anymore?”
“At the end of the day, all I can do is have faith that if it’s meant to be, it will be,” Aguero added. “Besides, if he really loves me, he won’t care that I’m a cop.”
At press time, Aguero was staring into the bathroom mirror of the house where the sting was to take place, still primping and smoothing his hair as a half dozen sheriff’s deputies threw the pedophile to the ground and handcuffed him.
BEVERLY HILLS, CA—Posing for photos as they cleaned cages, filled food bowls, and went on walks around the block, celebrity couple Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher reportedly spent Wednesday afternoon volunteering at their local predator shelter.
“Sadly, there are so many sexual predators without loving homes, but we’ve always found them to make great companions,” said Kunis, adding that she and her husband took the time to volunteer after losing their beloved family predator Danny Masterson last year when he went to jail. “Thousands of predators are abandoned here each year just because they have a credible history of sexual assault. But it’s our job to rehabilitate them, silence their accusers, and get them back into happy homes. Just like this little rascal. His name is Diddy!”
Kutcher was later seen filming a stoic public service announcement in which he remarked upon the devastating effect that believing victims had on all predators in the shelter.
Though he stopped short of urging people to get the shot, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine critic, acknowledged the value of the measles vaccine amid a deadly outbreak in Texas. What do you think?
“To be fair, it’s easier to oppress people if they’re not already dead.”
“Delivering the longest address to Congress in modern presidential history, Mr. Trump reprised many of the themes that animated his campaign for president and spent little time unveiling new policies, as presidents traditionally have done on these occasions. He spoke for roughly one hour 40 minutes… Democrats lodged protests throughout the evening, with one representative getting kicked out and others holding signs in silent opposition.” — New York Times
- - -
Look, I hear you. I was there in the room with all my fellow Democrats. It was a bleak speech. President Nyarlathotep was on his A game last night, and the torrent of malignant incantations, orgiastic cultist moaning, and JD Vance’s wimpy snickering will haunt my ears for the rest of my life. But I can’t say I’m particularly surprised by anything the Dread Lord hissed into our psyches—it was largely his standard retinue of lies interspersed with nonsensical asides and arcane blasphemy. We basically knew what Nyarlathotep had in store for his first primetime Sermon of Sin.
I gotta be honest with you though. I think the Outer God got the message loud and clear. Our tasteful combination of fashionably coordinated clothes, tiny paper fans with BAD! printed on them, and some of our sternest looks of disapproval to date really drove home the fact that we aren’t jazzed by all this cosmic cruelty. I can’t think of anything we could have done differently to inspire our petrified constituents to rise up and take a stand against Nyarlathotep’s unholy resummoning. Sure, the Dungeon Lich-at-Arms tossed that representative from Texas into a Torment Portal after they booed the president, but there’s no way that will play well to anyone beyond his most devout minions.
On the whole, I’d say yet another job well done for us ol’ Democrats. Thanks to our fearless acts of defiance, the tides will turn against the Dread Lord in no time.
Okay, well, at the very least, I certainly wouldn’t describe our efforts as “useless,” much less “infuriatingly embarrassing.” And to call our responses “spineless” is, quite frankly, offensive to the millions of people who have lacked spines ever since Nyarlathotep extracted them to build his Gulf of Carcosa border fence.
In case you forgot, we are the opposition party, which means being strategic about where and when we say, “Enough is enough, Mr. Dread Lord.” And tonight simply wasn’t the right time for it. Neither was yesterday, for that matter. Or the day before that. Really, the proper moment just hasn’t presented itself yet in the three months since we learned Nyarlathotep re-shat himself from the fetid netherrealms.
I mean, sure, we weren’t required to attend the Terror Telecast. We could have done literally anything else instead of showing up to the Dread Lord’s freebie primetime propaganda power hour. Maybe we could have all stormed out of the chamber together in an unprecedented display of admonishment and fury. We could have hosted nationwide public town halls to reach out to Nyarlathotep’s increasingly scared and wavering cultists. We could have caught up on The Pitt.
But if you’re so certain that we are “abject failures in the fight against totalitarian darkness,” then riddle me this: Who else would have wagged their fingers at Elon while muttering “Tsk-tsk, Mr. Musk”? Who would have posed for the selfies to include in the next round of ResistBlue fundraising emails?
Check and mate, naysayer.
Listen, this isn’t our first rodeo with the Black Pharaoh. If there’s one thing we know how to do, it’s to get under the Outer-God-in-Chief’s contused, hypnotically throbbing skin. We have nearly a decade’s worth of experience vaguely vexing the Stalker Among the Stars, damn it, and we’re not about to take suggestions from the peanut gallery now.
We remain confident that there’s going to come a time when the Dread Lord’s incomprehensibly grotesque policies finally push this country down to its unfathomably bleak nadir. We (as well as our exorbitantly expensive consultants) feel that it’s best to let Eternal Darkness speak for itself. That, and occasionally remind people that egg prices could be better.
But fine. If you’re really desperate for something tangible, maybe we can get Lin-Manuel Miranda to write an inspiring new song about the first Lincoln-Douglas debate or something. We’re Democrats, not miracle workers, okay?
In brief: In today’s post we review the (very) windy conditions experienced by the region on Tuesday, and look ahead to a week of exceptionally fine spring-time weather. We also discuss why March, for our money, is the nicest month of the year in Houston.
Tuesday’s winds
As anticipated, winds on Tuesday were excessive in the wake of a robust cold front that moved through the area and produced a sharp pressure gradient. The dry air and strong winds led to several wildfires over central and southern Texas. In addition, the winds picked up a large amount of dust form west Texas and transported it into central and eastern parts of the state. It is still present in the Houston area this morning and can be seen in the form of dull skies.
Map of maximum wind gusts over the preceding 24 hours. (Weather Bell)
According to Jeff Lindner, of the Harris County Flood Control District, these are the peak wind gusts observed on Tuesday afternoon and evening across southeast Texas:
Victoria: 63
Palacios: 56
Hempstead: 54
Navasota: 54
College Station: 53
Texas Medical Center (elevated): 53
Lake Livingston: 53
Conroe: 52
Huntsville: 51
Cat Spring: 51
Baytown: 50
Ellington: 49
Galveston: 49
Wharton: 48
Bush Intercontinental Airport: 47
Hobby Airport: 46
LaPorte: 46
Sugar Land: 46
Brenham:45
Cleveland: 44
Cypress: 44
Bay City: 44
Friendswood: 43
Morgans Point: 41
Tomball: 40
March is nice
A few years ago I did an analysis of Houston’s weather to identify the nicest time of the year to hold an outdoor wedding here, and found that the answer is the second half of March. Tuesday’s strong winds not withstanding, the month of March offers the best chance for sunny and storm-free weather, moderate temperatures, and low humidity out of any time of the year. All of that to say, it looks like the forthcoming forecast period will deliver in terms of mild and pleasant weather.
The only downside to this time of year is pollen, as our plants start to awaken from their winter slumber. Tree pollen, in particular, peaks for most species of trees in March and April in Houston, and is already starting to show up in the metro area. So while you’re enjoying the sunshine over the next couple of weeks, you may be doing a little sneezing as well.
Wednesday
We are still seeing some wind gusts in the 25 to 30 mph range this morning, but they should begin to ease off before really dropping by this afternoon. Temperatures this morning are generally in the 50s, and with sunny skies we’ll be going into the mid- to upper-60s today.
If you’re heading out to the rodeo this evening, expect light winds and temperatures in the lower-60s ahead of the show. The only (slight) concern I would have is cooler temperatures after the concert, with may be in the mid-50s. So that’s a bit of a chill. With light winds and clear skies tonight, expect low temperatures to drop into the mid- to upper-40 by Thursday morning.
Thursday
Expect another sunny day, with highs generally in the upper 60s. By Thursday afternoon, however, we’ll start to see a more pronounced southerly wind, and this will introduce some clouds. As a result of this, Thursday night will be warmer, with temperatures likely dropping into the upper 50s in Houston.
Friday
This looks to be a warmer, moderately humid day with partly cloudy skies and highs in the vicinity of 80 degrees. Friday night will be mild, with lows in the 60s.
Saturday
This will be another warm day, likely with highs in the upper 70s to 80 degrees. We’ll see a low-ish chance of some light rain showers as a cold front approaches the area, and pushes through around noon, or during the afternoon hours. I don’t think these showers will prove too disruptive, but we could see some moderately gusty northerly winds (not like Tuesday, however). Low temperatures on Saturday night should drop into the lower 50s.
Sunday
This should be a sunny, cooler day with highs in the 60s. Lows on Sunday night may drop into the upper 40s for much of Houston.
Monday morning could be chilly next week before we see a warmer pattern set in. (Weather Bell)
Next week
We’ll warm up by the middle of next week, with highs possibly in the lower 80s, to go along with a fair bit of sunshine. Rain chances appear low throughout the period before possibly we see some showers along with a front ahead of next weekend. We’ll see. Enjoy the great spring-time weather, y’all.
This article series takes a closer look at interesting projects that recently landed in Copr.
Copr is a build-system for anyone in the Fedora community. It hosts thousands of projects with a wide variety of purposes, targeting diverse groups of users. Some of them should never be installed by anyone, some are already transitioning into the official Fedora repositories, and others fall somewhere in between. Copr allows you to install third-party software not found in the standard Fedora repositories, try nightly versions of your dependencies, use patched builds of your favourite tools to support some non-standard use-cases, and experiment freely.
Spotify-qt is an unofficial lightweight Spotify client developed in Qt, intended as a faster, smaller alternative to the official Spotify application. Actual playback requires another Spotify client running in the background (for example librespot), which can be easily configured within the app. Note that controlling playback requires Spotify Premium.
Key features:
Low resource consumption
Highly customizable
Multiplatform support
For more detailed information, see the FAQ. For instance, you can find there a step-by-step guide on configuring your own Spotify application in the Spotify Dashboard.
Installation instructions
The repo currently provides spotify-qt for Fedora 40, 41, 42, and Fedora Rawhide. To install it, use these commands:
Ghostty is a terminal emulator that wants to balance speed, rich functionality, and provide a native and friendly user interface. While many terminal emulators choose between performance and features, ghostty aims to excel at both while providing a native look and feel.
Key features:
Supports multiple windows, tabs, and split views out of the box
GPU acceleration
Platform-native UI (on macOS and Linux)
Installation instructions
The repo currently provides ghostty and ghostty-git (for those who want the latest build from the main branch) for Fedora 40, 41, 42, and Fedora Rawhide. To install it, use these commands:
Zen Browser centres its design around vertical tabs. This is a concept shared by browsers like Vivaldi, Brave, and especially Arc Browser. Zen Browser provides features like Split View, Zen Sidebar (a detachable sidebar for quick side-by-side browsing), and Zen Glance (for previewing a site without leaving your current page). You can also organize your tabs with “workspaces,” allowing you to separate personal-related and work-related contexts.
Key features:
Strong privacy focus – blocks trackers, ads, and other unwanted content
Modern interface with focus on vertical tab management
Split View and detachable sidebar
Workspaces to keep tab groups organized
Installation instructions
The repo currently provides zen-browser for Fedora 40, 41, 42, and Fedora Rawhide. To install it, use these commands:
LACT is a powerful tool for advanced control and monitoring of AMD, Nvidia, and Intel GPUs on Linux. It allows you to view detailed information about your GPU, monitor performance and thermal data, configure power limits, customize fan curves, and even overclock GPU and VRAM clocks if supported by your driver. LACT does not rely on X11 extensions, so it should work in any desktop session environment.
Key features:
GPU information display and monitoring
Power limit configuration, fan curve customization
Overclocking
To check whether your hardware is supported and how to configure LACT properly, please take a look at the documentation.
Installation instructions
The repo currently provides lact for standard installation, lact-headless for a setup without GUI, and lact-libadwaita for GUI built with Libadwaita, all for Fedora 40, 41, 42, and Fedora Rawhide. To install it, use these commands:
sudo dnf copr enable ilyaz/LACT
sudo dnf install lact # (or with -headless or -libadwaita)
From Austin city council to the halls of Congress, this lawmaker has been increasingly critical of Musk, saying the billionaire receives special treatment and has conflicts of interest.
Some time ago, I documented the Microspeak phrase to spin up/kick off a build, meaning to start a build, often with the suggestion that the build request comes outside of the normal cadence.
The concept of spinning up a build is linguistically productive, leading to the verb to respin meaning “To request that a new build be spun up”.
There are two common cases where you’ll see this phrase. (There might be others, but these two are most common.)
One is when a build has already spun up, and then somebody has an important fix that just missed the snap. For example, the fix might address a bug that prevents an important scenario from working. Without the fix, the resulting build would be largely useless anyway. In this case, the team might ask to “respin” the build, meaning to cancel the build in progress and start a new one (with the fix).
Another case where you see this phrase is when talking about branches which are very close to release. The proposed final build has been produced, and it is going through validation. To respin the build is to ask for a new build, typically after you make a critical fix.
Can we just release note this issue so we don’t have to respin?
Respinning a build typically pushes out the entire release timeline, since you have to wait for the new build and then go through a new cycle of validation.
A full respin is not feasible because it would disrupt the servicing train.
Note that the verb has been nouned. A respin is an act of respinning.
Even though kick off is a synonym for spin up, nobody ever says re-kick-off a build. It’s always respin (and not respin up either).
Bonus chatter: There is an internal tool for creating virtual machines for testing. It’s called Spin. It almost certainly gets its name from the concept of “spinning up” a virtual machine, meaning to get a virtual machine up and running.
Editor’s Note: This article is part of an occasional series profiling the Texas lawmakers who make up the fringe of an already woefully fringe-y legislative body. These are the elected officials who tend to seek out provocation, anger colleagues, and make more noise than laws—for now.
Sleuths have been digging up dirt from public figures’ online lives since the internet’s conception. And politicians, especially those who grew up in the digital age, have repeatedly learned the hard lesson that you can never truly delete anything from the web.
Take, for instance, Nate Schatzline. In March 2023, a couple months into his first session as a Texas state representative, someone dug up a video in which a young Schatzline skipped and danced through a park wearing a black sequined dress for a high school theater project. The video spread like wildfire because he had authored a bill requiring bars or restaurants that host drag performances to register as a “sexually oriented business.”
Of course, Schatzline dismissed the video as a joke and said his performance was clearly not a “sexually explicit drag show.” (Anyone who has seen a drag show would agree: He’d probably get booed off the stage if he performed in that outfit.) But, in the bill, he defines drag performances as any in which a “performer exhibits a gender identity that is different that the performer’s gender assigned at birth using clothing or makeup,” which he objectively did in the video. (Since his bill was limited to enterprises that serve alcohol, the park he performed in thankfully would have been spared from registering.) This viral event introduced the new right-wing legislator to many as yet another hypocritical culture crusader.
Before making his foray into state politics, Schatzline was a pastor for nine years at Mercy Culture Church in Fort Worth and then founded For Liberty & Justice, a religious organization that engages in conservative political activism. When he’s not at the Capitol, he’s the director of operations for The Justice Reform, which he says is an anti-human trafficking nonprofit affiliated with the Mercy church.
Schatzline won the 2022 primary for fellow right-winger Matt Krause’s House district in Tarrant County. Ever since, he’s firmly aligned himself with—and become a vocal leader of—the small but very noisy far-right fringe bloc of the House, filing numerous bills that champion their causes. Despite all his provocative legislation and frequent social media crusading, his bark has proved worse than his bite.
Of all the bills he filed last session, only two successfully passed in the House—notably both bipartisan, focused on jailhouse informant reform and child sex offenders. He may be fond of labeling traditional Republicans as RINOs, but he himself is more of a Republican in Performance Only (the acronym is admittedly less catchy). While he’s achieved little legislative success, he’s captured plenty of attention from his target audience. See his drag bill, which, like most of his legislation last session, never got a hearing.
Schatzline’s priorities can be summed up with snappy alliteration: faith, family, and freedom. On his campaign website, he defines his key issues beginning with “fighting for families” (which includes defending children from “critical race theory” in public schools where they’re “robbed of their innocence,” along with a standard complaint about property taxes tacked on). He then moves on to “defending the voiceless” (i.e. “unborn” fetuses primarily, but also foster families and trafficking victims), “standing for liberties” (i.e. ensuring Texans’ freedom to worship without government interference and freedom to expose children to measles by not vaccinating them), and “securing the border” (well, this one’s self-explanatory).
He’s clearly quite passionate about these policies—the “Issues” page on his website has 13 exclamation points.
This session, he’s filed 36 bills. Quite a few align with his goal of protecting children from sex trafficking, like House Bill 1443, which would create a criminal offense for promoting a child-like sex doll, and House Bill 1911, which would add human trafficking awareness education in schools.
He’s also continued showing off to the conservative activist crowd with bills such as House Bill 1655, which would prohibit public school employees from assisting a child with social transitioning, and House Bill 1651, which would criminalize selling or distributing abortion-inducing drugs through the internet. He also filed House Bill 1072, which would create a database of undocumented children in Texas (he filed a similar bill last session with no luck). He also filed House Bill 1491, which would cut off state grants to counties that don’t cooperate with ICE.
Schatzline is also taking another shot at drag. This time, his House Bill 1075 would make drag performers liable for performing in front of minors, because he sure enjoyed a lot of success and no backlash at all with that topic last session. The marquee anti-drag legislation of 2023, Senate Bill 12, that criminalized drag performances was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge. A different bill this session, Senate Bill 18, targeting drag queen storytime events in libraries, received a committee hearing last week.
The Fort Worth firebrand is determined to keep up the faith—as he’s said, he’s helping wage not a political battle but a “spiritual battle.” During the last session, he promoted worship hosted in the Capitol rotunda, so “believers” could “pray that God would put favor on legislation that protects the next generation and pushes back against perversion!” At the beginning of this year’s legislative season, he organized a prayer session (led by Mercy Culture’s pastor) at the Capitol in which attendees blessed the walls to protect lawmakers from the “Jezebel” spirit.
When prayer doesn’t work—for instance, when his chosen House speaker candidate was defeated in January—he turns to social media to let off steam. He declared “war” upon Representative Dustin Burrows’ victory as the new speaker: Via X, he claimed Burrows is “SILENCING Conservatives, KILLING Conservative Reform, & Passing the Democrat Empowerment Act of 2025.” (Note: the “Democrat Empowerment Act of 2025” refers to this session’s House rules, which ban Democratic committee chairs.)
Schatzline did not respond to my requests for an interview. He may not want to talk to me, but that’s okay.
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/ecc9eb7d1b9cf67e0986d6c412391ef8/Superintendent%20Pay%20final_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_quality_95_embedColorProfile_true.jpg)
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/8c913a6ec0b0d61d0abfb64ea43127d2/Library%20File%20JV%20TT%2005.jpg)
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/60ce2f514c31b3f1e72fe466ec1ce0f4/0209%20Delta%208%20Products%20SF%2039.jpg)
