►This Saturday in San Antonio, 10 am sharp meet us at the Molly Pruitt Library (5110 Walzem Rd) for
petitioning to get Laura Thompson on the ballot as an independent for Texas House. Petitioning not your thing or can’t make it? Use that “Donate” button up above. ►Wed., June 15, 6 or 7 pm, Bastrop City Hall. Attend this VERY! important hearing by the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District on the End Op, L.P. mega-permit for 46,000 acre-feet of groundwater. Show up especially if you live in Bastrop, Lee, Milam or Burleson County…and neighboring friends, we always love seeing ya. Updates, News and Recaps ♦We just sent an Open Letter to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to local papers across the state. It respectfully asks Mr. Patrick to turn his attention from the “bathroom crisis” to take very specific action on the crisis in water policy – quickly becoming a “treasure trove” for water and real estate special interests – to the detriment of all including most toilets. 🙂 Share this with blogs you visit or walk it in to your local paper and leave comment on it at the bottom of the page. ♦Are you following the debate about independent politics in this election? This Texas Tribune piece today explores why Texas isn’t the independent state you think it is. Clarification: we Texans are very independent, our ballot access laws aren’t. This is just one of the reasons we have long advocated for a “bottom up fusion” strategy, discussed in the paper we published in 2010 entitled, “Who Will Organize the Independents?” We’re working on an update for release soon. ♦A remarkable example of the imperative and value of self-governance is the response of local folks to the “Hidden Pines Fire” in Bastrop County in October of 2015, not 4 years after the massive Bastrop fire in 2011. A group of 20 citizens recently produced this outstanding report — and without pointing fingers — provided a clear path for the cooperation of local and state government to prevent future unnecessary fire disasters. Read “Too Little, Too Late: Lessons Learned from the Hidden Pines Fire“. ♦Brief election runoff recap — goodbye to our friend, David Simpson (for now, we expect), hello to Bailes and more — read this quick wrap up here. PS Live in Austin, Buda, Kyle? Contact us to help set up local meetings of independent voters.