T. J. Connolly indicted on more charges

Posted on May 9th, 2008 by Dig ad veritas


Connolly Indicted For Illegal Contributions To City Councilman | WOAI.COM: San Antonio News

T. J. Connolly has been indicted again for illegal campaign contributions.

The indictment, which is against Connolly and his company, alleges he gave illegal campaign contributions to City Councilman Philip Cortez.

This week’s indictment comes just four months after Connolly was indicted for funneling money to a Bexar Met Water Board candidate.

I had to go back in our archives to figure out what this was about. I have to wonder why Gil Olivares and company wanted Philip Cortez on the city council instead of Manuel Navarro Jr. Well, I don’t really have to wonder because if there wasn’t something in it for them then they wouldn’t have cared who took the district 4 seat. The councilman says he is shocked and surprised and has returned the contributions. I find that a tad hard to believe that in such a small race there are that many contributions that you don’t know who is behind them but I am not sure that the councilman could have said anything else. Court starts this month on the Bexarmet indictments.

Connolly Indicted For Illegal Contributions To City Councilman | WOAI.COM: San Antonio News

Connolly’s attorney said the district attorney’s office is targeting his client. He told News 4 Connolly had no idea what he was doing was illegal and obviously would not have done something to jeopardize his company or himself for such a small amount of money.

I tend to believe it is true that Connolly didn’t know what he was doing was illegal but it was his job to know whether it was or not. The idea that it didn’t occur to him that funneling money to pro-Olivares candidates was wrong is almost laughable. Now, wrong and illegal aren’t always the same thing. He should have known better, what a silly thing to lose your reputation for. I can’t imagine it was worth it.

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OLLU fire

Posted on May 8th, 2008 by Dig ad veritas


MySA.com: Jaime Castillo | Politics

On the morning after, the onlookers crowded sidewalks, rode bikes and jammed into cars to take stock of Our Lady of the Lake University.

Like the one motorist who leaned a disposable camera out his window on a slow cruise by, the throng on the outside was trying to comprehend what a fire had taken from the 113-year-old West Side campus.

Techdigger and I have had the cause to be at OLLU several times over the last few years and even though we were always there on pressing business there was never a trip where we didn’t stop and marvel at the beauty of the campus for at least a moment. Whether it be the lake itself or the quilt patterned tile in the main building, the stained glass or the recessed statues the campus always made you take the time to just stop and look for a moment. I know I watched with horror as the spire went down and I almost felt a personal loss as the fire was raging. I hope they rebuild and am glad there was no loss of life and I am thankful that business took me to the campus so that I was able to see what is lost now. Even without the main building the campus is still a architectural treasure in San Antonio. I know this certainly isn’t a hard hitting political piece but I just wanted to put down a few thoughts about the fire.

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Voting on Saturday

Posted on May 7th, 2008 by Dig ad veritas


KVIA.com El Paso, Las Cruces - Weather, News, Sports - San Antonio-area voters to decide on visitor tax

Bexar County voters will decide whether to extend a 1.75% tax on hotel rooms and 5% tax on short-term car rentals to fund four separate propositions. They would make improvements to the San Antonio River, build new youth and amateur athletic facilities, renovate arts centers and upgrade rodeo grounds and arenas, including the AT&T Center.

We have had nothing to say about this upcoming election. I know personally it is because they put it on the ballot in the perfect way for the city to get to keep the tax. We aren’t actually voting on if we will keep the tax we will be voting on 4 different proposals that will all extend the tax. Even if all but one fail the tax will continue and you can expect to see another group of 4 or move measures on the ballot to extend it again when the time comes. None of the four are bad things. I mean I can’t very well tell anyone not to vote for youth athletics or an arts center. I don’t particularly care for the way they have presented it to the voters because it is truly a no win situation for the voters. Of course at least one of these proposals will pass because who in their right minds says no to kids. So, I wouldn’t expect the venue tax to end anytime soon or even in the future because if one of the measures doesn’t pass they will just keep putting it up until it does. A straight up vote to continue the tax or not would be my choice but the powers that be know that gives them a chance of losing and they don’t want that chance at all. So, go to the polls, don’t go to the polls it really doesn’t matter because the tax will continue and if anything doesn’t pass they will just find a more creative way to put it on the ballot next time.

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SAWS may cut ties with utility President

Posted on May 4th, 2008 by Dig ad veritas


MySA.com: Metro | State

San Antonio Water System trustees appear poised to part ways with utility President and Chief Executive Officer David Chardavoyne on Tuesday and appoint an interim chief.

Officials on Saturday would not discuss a pending settlement with Chardavoyne, but the outline was laid out in the agenda posted for the utility board’s monthly meeting this week.

Maybe the BexarMet board could take their cue from SAWS. At the end of the article it lists some of the concerns with Chardavoyne, he is a angel compared to Gil Olivares.

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Constable on 410

Posted on April 26th, 2008 by Dig ad veritas

The weirdest thing just happened to me on 410 near Broadway where they have traffic cuts down to one lane. Traffic is stop and go of course and right after they shut down the 2nd lane there was a constable standing there with a radar gun. Now, there is no way anyone was going more than 10 or 15 mph at that point but he made sure he pointed the radar at each and every car and took a reading. Is there something else a constable could be pointing at cars that looks exactly like a radar gun because it makes no sense that he was out there trying to catch speeders?

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Cibrian for Mayor

Posted on April 25th, 2008 by TechDigger

Diane Cibrian for mayor?

MySA.com: City Council

While hedging on her Fiesta medal slogan, Cibrian did confirm that she has been exploring the idea ever since last fall, when she says a group of constituents asked her to consider running.

That would have been when she had logged less than six months on the council.

So what magnificent achievements had she accomplish in six months to warrant constituents asking her to run for mayor? Let’s see, by August she had join Council Member Wolff in calling for a 1-cent reduction to the property tax rate, failed to stop the development of more traffic congestion inducing stores and offices, and expressed her concern that simply synchronizing traffic lights might not be enough to ease congestion. She also demonstrated her ability to manipulate numbers (or just ignore them completely) for her own purposes.

Now why do some of her constituents want her to run?

MySA.com: City Council

She said her short tenure doesn’t reflect her full experience, which includes 20 years in government and nonprofit service.

She wants to run, she said, because “I’ve been part of an effective city government, and I want to continue that progress.”

Okay, even though I have serious questions about the value of her “experience”, if it is so significant, why didn’t she run for mayor to begin with? Maybe she was waiting to demonstrate the “effective city government” part? So she saved District 8 from Booby Rock but wasn’t interested enough in what was happening in other districts to understand the zoning issues related to Toyota.

Some observers think she may have made a mistake:

MySA.com: City Council

Henry Flores, dean of the graduate school at St. Mary’s University and a political science professor, agreed that making her intentions known so early may backfire on the hard-charging councilwoman.

She may have thought an early announcement would run off potential competition, he said, “but it also gives the opposition time to find their own candidate. She has set herself up as a target very early.”

So it would seem. But Cibrian is proof that the delivery is more important than the message. People don’t remember why she was in the news, only that she was in the news. After all, this was the candidate holding up signs of street corners.

In any case, I can’t wait to see her campaign messages, “I’ll do for San Antonio what I’ve done for district 8″–which is????

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CNN selling T-shirts?

Posted on April 24th, 2008 by Dig ad veritas

This might not be new but it is certainly the first time I have noticed it. On their home page, next to several of their video stories there is a little tshirt icon. If you click on the icon it will bring you to CNN Shirt where you can buy a shirt that has the headline and then I saw it on CNN.com underneath for the rock bottom price of $15 dollars plus $4.99 shipping.

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So what do we do now?

Posted on April 23rd, 2008 by TechDigger

Depressing Interesting article on the Democratic candidates, their campaigns, and historical comparisons.

The haunting of the Democrats | Salon

This intra-Democratic conflict is profound and epistemological. It speaks to deeply divergent ideas about the nature of politics, of America and indeed of human life. It dwarfs the so-called divisions in the Republican Party, which always seem miraculously healed by the time Election Day arrives. (You don’t hear Mitt Romney’s former supporters vowing to vote for Obama.) It isn’t a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party; it is the Democratic Party.

Unfortunately, no one seems to be able to point the way forward to something better.

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Early voting starts on Monday

Posted on April 22nd, 2008 by Dig ad veritas

Index

05/10/08 -

Joint General & Special Election

* 03/11/08 Begin Accepting Applications to Vote by Mail
* 04/10/08 Voter Registration Deadline
* 04/28/08 Early Voting Begins -
* Calendar and Locations, Sample Ballot
*05/02/08 Final Day to Accept Applications to Vote by Mail
* 05/06/08 Early Voting Ends
* 05/10/08 Election Day

Check out the sample ballot and early voting information by clicking the links above. Early voting starts next monday.

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Filed under: bexar county | 1 Comment »

They moved the candy aisle!

Posted on April 21st, 2008 by TechDigger

A while back I was ranting about how our newly remodeled HEB had placed the cereal and candy in the same aisle.  Well, it’s gone. The candy now shares the aisle with the juices, still not great but better than the cereal aisle. Now if they would just return my Honey Nuts with strawberries (generic or regular) I’ll stop even considering the idea of shopping at Walmart (which I drive by on my way to HEB).

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