Houston welcomes U.S. and Irish rugby teams to town this weekend, for a game that's bound to be filled with scrums, knock-ons, mulligrubbers and falcons. Any idea what any of that means? Producer Edel Howlin visited with the Irish squad, and will share a little rugby 101 during today’s Houston Matters.
Under the Voting Rights Act, Texas and several other southern states need approval from the federal government to change election laws. That includes redrawing legislative district maps. Which is why a federal court threw out an attempt to redraw the lines after the 2010 census, and ordered a temporary map used in the 2012 elections, which some lawmakers now want to make permanent during a special legislative session this month.
There are court battles and political debates galore over how such maps are drawn. District lines of all kinds dictate who can seek to represent you. In theory, those lines should not only reflect populations, but also reflect the community. But do they?
We'll discuss the battle over district lines in Texas, and what they mean for your Houston neighborhood. With ever more sophisticated manipulation of those boundaries can come ever “safer” political seats for incumbents, leading to “red” and “blue” districts. Does it also lead to “red’ and “blue” neighborhoods?
Also, we're just a couple weeks away from the official start of summer. We'll welcome your suggestions for great summer road trips. KUHF’s Laura Isensee offers an audio postcard from Houston-area schools, where teachers and students discuss what they really learned this school year.
And we’ll share some highlights from this week’s memorial service for four Houston firefighters who lost their lives battling a fire last Friday.
Houston Matters gets underway at noon on KUHF 88.7 FM. Call 713-440-8870 or e-mail us at talk@houstonmatters.org to participate.
