Posts Tagged ‘Metroplex’

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Dispatches from the Texas Lockdown

Tuesday, March 31st, 2020

It seems forever since Texas went into full lockdown mode over the Wuhan coronavirus, but it’s only been a week. Since I was already working from home full-time, I’m doing fine, but I can understand how more social people might be climbing the walls by now. Here’s a quick roundup of notable Texas coronavirus news.

  • Total statewide coronavirus cases top 2,900.
  • Texas Counties with the highest number of coronavirus cases as of this morning are:
    1. Harris: 563
    2. Dallas 549
    3. Tarrant 238
    4. Travis 206
    5. Denton 191
    6. Bexar 168
    7. Collin 160
    8. Fort Bend 138

    (The “per county” cases can be found on the “Admin2” tab on the lower left.) For those unfamiliar with Texas geography, Denton and Collin are both Metroplex suburban counties, while Fort Bend is directly southwest of Harris.

  • Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered enforcement of the quarantine order at the Louisiana border.

    Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday tightened travel to Texas by ordering some motorists from Louisiana to self-quarantine for two weeks.

    The new restrictions, effective noon Monday, came as President Donald Trump extended social distancing guidelines through April 30, preventing all nonessential travel in the country.

    Louisiana’s status as a hot spot for the novel coronavirus grew Sunday to more than 3,500 positive cases statewide. Under the new rules, drivers with commercial, medical, emergency response, military or critical infrastructure purposes for entering Texas would be exempted.

    A spokesman for the Department of Public Safety said Sunday the agency was not prepared to comment on the details of the new measures.

  • Both Governor Abbott and Travis County doctors are looking for specific hospitals to isolate coronavirus patients in.
  • In Houston, they’re looking to reopen at least one closed hospital, and in Dallas they’re looking at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center as an overflow facility.
  • Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued an opinion prohibiting counties and municipalities from banning firearms sales during the emergency.
  • Houston Methodist hospital is the first to treat coronavirus patients with recovered patient blood.
  • If the local HEB is any measure, the worst of the panic buying appears to be over, though there are still hole in the shelves. Meat was abundant, I was able to find olive oil (missing last week), and everything except toilet paper seemed obtainable.

    • All in all, we seem to be doing a lot better than New York and California. Which is usually the case in non-emergency times as well…

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    Posted in Austin, Texas | 5 Comments »

    Ross Perot Dead at 89

    Tuesday, July 9th, 2019

    Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot has died at age 89. Perot is probably most famous for unsuccessfully running for President in 1992 and 1996, siphoning off enough votes to ensure Bill Clinton’s election over George H. W Bush, and then his reelection over Bob Dole. Perot won 19 million votes (though no electors) in 1992. His run would briefly give birth to the Reform Party, which quickly declined to both ideological incoherence (nominating Pat Buchanan in 2000 and Ralph Nader in 2004) and complete irrelevance in less than a decade. Of the issues Perot championed, doubts about foreign trade agreements would play an important role in Donald Trump’s election in 2016, but concern over budget deficits is a sadly neglected issue.

    As a private businessman, Perot was much more successful, twice establishing powerhouse IT service companies (Electronic Data Systems and Perot Systems) before selling each off to larger companies (General Motors and Dell, respectively). Perot was also an early investor in Steve Jobs NeXT, which would later be acquired by Apple Computer, resulting in Jobs eventual return as Apple CEO and whose NeXTStep operating system would form the basis of MacOS X. Perot also famously organized the rescue of two imprisoned EDS employees during the Iranian revolution in 1979. Perot and his son, Ross Perot, Jr., have also long been big (and frequently controversial) players in Metroplex real estate and development, through a variety of companies (The Perot Group, Perot Investments, etc.).

    For decades Perot Sr. was the public’s idea of “ornery Texas billionaire.” Ironically, he’s probably best known today not as a successful businessman, but as a failed politician whose most enduring legacy is the persistence of the Clintons as national political figures.

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    Posted in Elections, Texas | No Comments »

    Islamic State Inspired Texas Mall Attack Thwarted

    Thursday, May 3rd, 2018

    Another day, another another jihad attack thwarted in the Metroplex:

    Texas law enforcement officials said they have foiled an alleged ISIS-inspired attack on a north Texas mall with the arrest of a teenager whom authorities said tried to recruit others to join his planned attack.

    Matin Azizi-Yarand, 17, of Plano was arrested on Tuesday on charges he was plotting to shoot up the Stonebriar Centre Mall in neighboring Frisco, Texas, Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis announced in a statement.

    Law enforcement officials say Azizi-Yarand had sent more than $1,400 to others for the purchase of weapons and body-armor. Authorities allege that he was planning to carry out the attack in mid-May. Officials say the teen also planned to “disseminate” a “Message to America” explaining the motives behind the alleged plot.

    Azizi-Yarand talked online with undercover FBI confidential sources about his desire to either “make Hijrah [a Muslim term meaning to travel to a more desirable place],” or to conduct a terrorist attack within the United States, according to court documents.

    Authorities said Azizi-Yarand even spent time at the Stonebriar mall planning how he would carry out the alleged plot. A court affidavit details the teen’s alleged communication with an FBI source, in which he’s accused of describing how he would kill a responding police officer.

    This is not the first time the Islamic State has targeted the Metroplex for a terrorist attack:

  • We’re coming up on the third anniversary of the unsuccessful attack on the Draw Mohammed event in Garland that left two jihadis dead and a Garland ISD officer slightly wounded. (A co-conspirator was later convicted.)
  • Back in January, the Islamic State singled out the First Baptist Church in Dallas.

    • By my count, Islamic State-pledged terrorists are 0-3 attacking the Metroplex.

    But it brings up the question: Why have all the Texas Islamic State jihadi attempts targeted the Metroplex rather than, say, Houston, San Antonio or Austin? (There was Ft. Hood jihadi shooter Nidal Hasan, but he predated the rise of the Islamic State. And there was the wanna be Houston jihadi, but I don’t think he even got to the planning stages.)

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    Posted in Crime, Jihad | No Comments »

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