Anything Goes

We caught up w/ Houston Mayor-Elect Annise Parker on our syndicated Hard Knock Radio show . She opened up to us about a variety of issues including how and why the political landscape of Texas is changing. She talked about the role Texas' big cities are playing in the political shift from Red to Blue and how Texas' burgeoning Latino population is impacting. She talked to us about how she's been dealing with the national spotlight her victory has brought to her and the city of Houston. She talked about what it means politically that Houston elected an openly Gay mayor.

We caught up w/ Houston Mayor-Elect Annise Parker on our syndicated Hard Knock Radio show . She opened up to us about a variety of issues including how and why the political landscape of Texas is changing. She talked about the role Texas' big cities are playing in the political shift from Red to Blue and how Texas' burgeoning Latino population is impacting. She talked to us about how she's been dealing with the national spotlight her victory has brought to her and the city of Houston. She talked about what it means politically that Houston elected an openly Gay mayor.

WESLACO, Dec. 28 - State Rep. Armando “Mando” Martínez joined leading members of the American GI Forum in the Rio Grande Valley in Weslaco on Saturday to strategize on how best to secure a VA hospital for the region.

The Weslaco Democrat announced he would be filing legislation next session to build upon the foundation laid by Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment passed by voters in November that allows the state of Texas for the first time to assist the federal government in the building and maintaining of veterans’ hospitals.

“We are researching ways to tap into the resources available through the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Emerging Technology Fund to help build and maintain a veterans’ hospital in the Rio Grande Valley,” Martínez said. “We laid the foundations last session with Proposition 8. Now it is time to get the hospital built.”

Martínez’s comments won immediate applause from the GI Forum leaders present.

“This is the sort of leadership we have lacked in Washington, D.C., all these years,” said Placido Salazar, national executive secretary of the GI Forum and a Vietnam War veteran who was born and raised in the Valley Delta.

“We should have had a VA hospital a long time ago. We elect our members of Congress and they forget where they came from,” Salazar added. “We need young leaders like Mando in Washington. They got the tax exemption for veterans passed and Proposition 8 passed.”

Read the full story here.

“Because the community is what makes the future for the kids. If the kids are well rounded then they will make more well rounded citizens. The children are what make this city, the state and a better world. We need to start in the community, if we're going to change the way the world works, we need to start in the community one person at a time.”

 – Gwen Johnson, Alief Community Leader