Dave Levinthal breaks down everything you wanted to know about the People’s Hotel here. Such as, the People’s Hotel will cost taxpayers directly because to break even, the hotel would need to hve 68 percent occupancy (in a market where it’s at 55 percent) while charging almost double the going market rate. This is what happens when you let government try to compete in the free market. Oh, and the claim that a whole lot of organizations have committed to have their conventions in Dallas if we build glorious state hotel? Phillip Jones, CEO of the Convention & Visitors Bureau, can’t name a single one. Levinthal’s report is even-handed and objective, and in being so is a devastating case against the hotel.
The Innocence Project of Texas, which is fighting to overturn wrongful convictions, is facing shut down because of the Madoff fraud. Make a donation here. (via Grits for Breakfast.)
One thing this story forgot on looking at what’s wrong with all the post-Columbine anxiety: the police uber-emphasis on “officer safety” that has created the brilliant tactic of sealing off campuses and locking the shooters up with the victims. Meanwhile police hide behind barricades outside and wait for tanks. We’ve seen this cowardly practice at Columbine, Virginia Tech, and other places, and it’s time for it to go.