Late Monday, Houston Mayor Annise Parker and City Attorney David Feldman announced opponents of the recently-passed non-discrimination ordinance fell short of the signatures required to trigger a November vote to consider repealing the measure. While they had gathered enough raw signatures, thousands were on pages not collected based on the city charter's legal standards and were therefore discarded. According to Feldman, less than half of the pages of signatures were valid, leaving the petition more than two thousand names short of the required number to trigger the vote.
Division over the ordinance focuses largely on protections for gay and transgender Houstonians who are not already federally protected from discrimination. Opponents of the ordinance now plan to take the city to court.
On this edition of Houston Matters, we talk with the Houston Chronicle's Mike Morris about Monday's announcement, and about the potential next steps in court.
Also this hour: What Bill James is to baseball Josh Blackman and his colleagues may be to the Supreme Court. The South Texas College of Law professor is among those who have developed an algorithm for predicting High Court rulings. We learn more about it, and about Blackman’s long-running Supreme Court fantasy league.
Plus: August is one of the busiest months in Houston for restaurants, thanks to Houston Restaurant Weeks. High-end eateries provide special menus and donate a portion of purchases to the Houston Food Bank. In this month's edition of The Full Menu, we turn to our panel of Houston foodies for tips to navigate Houston Restaurant Weeks. They also discuss their choices for Italian food and pizza in Houston.
And: Our summer reading series continues. We talk with James Bevill, author of The Paper Republic: The Struggle for Money, Credit and Independence in the Republic of Texas.
