Houston mayor Annise Parker announced that she filed re-election papers last Thursday afternoon at her campaign headquarters located off Allen Pkwy.

“It’s an honor to serve the citizens of Houston; I am still excited to go to work everyday and I love the city even more with the experiences I’ve had,” said Parker who admitted that she still gets nervous when filing election paperwork though she has done the process eight times.

This comes as Parker made history as the first openly LGBT person elected mayor of a major American city alongside dealing with a first term that saw $100 million in budget cuts along with losing 747 jobs loses for Houstonians yet sees herself improving on her second-term if elected again.

“I’m going to be a better mayor in the second term because of what I’ve learned in the first term but I’m going to have that same passion and enthusiasm that I brought into office,” said Parker who compared her work and time in changing city bureaucracy to turning the direction of an ocean liner.

Former staffer for Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and current night supervisor at the University of Houston Recreation and Wellness Center, Kevin Simms along with Amanda Ulman, of the Socialist Party are the only candidates to have filed papers to run against Parker.

Parker also took time to speak to the new class of her Parker Fellowship Program. The program has interns (better known as Fellows) do all the usual work interns during a campaign but participants are involved in intensive training on the operation of modern political campaign through activities such as fundraising, grassroots organizing and overall strategy.

“Instead of working for free, they’re going to go away learning about a campaign,” said communications director for Parker’s re-election campaign Sue Davis. “I’ve never seen a campaign do this.

According to field director for Parker’s campaign Maggie Nelson, ever single aspect of a campaign from finance to communications will be covered.

“A lot of kids including myself started interning as apart of a campaign so it gets them involved and an overall feel in what it is,” said Parker’s campaign re-election field director Maggie Nelson who interned for Hillary Clinton.

Parker herself hopes that the Fellows who participate in the programs will use what they learn to make a huge difference in the community.

“I’m really hoping that they take their skill sets and use them in the community and if they can get me connected to areas of the city that need help; that need works or where I as mayor can make improvements then we both can benefit,” said Parker.

University of Houston graduate student Kimberly Willis said that she joined the internship basically to have knowledge of what it is like to have a successful campaign.

“I just want to understand government at a city level along with the system of how a campaign is run,” said Willis.

Activist and founder of the National Black United Front died last Thursday from complications stemming from an episode of cardiac arrest last month.

“I considered Ester my friend, my mentor and my champion,” explained P.K. McCary as she was preparing King’s obituary on a laptop computer at S.H.A.P.E. Community Center off Live Oak. “If he could do something to help someone, he would do it.”

Born June 26,1943 in Magnolia Springs to Vergie Mae and David King, Ester Lee King graduated from Carverdale Junior-Senior High School in the Cypress-Fairbanks district in 1962. After leaving the Army, King would later enroll at Texas Southern University to become a social activist, his daughter Tandiwe Kone said in a report.

Along with working with organizations like Afro-Americans for Black Liberation and S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, King’s commentary on KPFT Houston radio programs including “Pan African Journal,” “Connect the Dots” and “Self Determination” was known for King’s outspokenness on various issues. He also supported many causes including environmental justice along with rights of workers, women and more.

“He wore his power as a tool and he used it as a force for good,” said P.K. McCary. “His story is not finished.”

King’s sister-in-law Cynthia King remembers being educated on his movement because of him.

“He was a great soul,” said King. “The first words that come to mind was civil rights when I first met him at a family gathering.”

“King was a true warrior for the people. He loved history and historic movies and he served as the Friends of Emancipation Park Movie Chairperson. King also evaluated political science students’ presentations at Texas Southern University and gave them feedback on their work along with historic comments. I will miss him for his conversations with me at the office and for his contributions to to the students I taught,” said Dorris Ellis, publisher-editor of the Houston Sun.

King leaves behind his wife of 41 years Leallia King, daughter Kone King, son Ahmed Sekou Toure King, and two grandchildren.

The wake will took place at The Shrine of the Black Modonna located on 5317 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Funeral proceedings took place the following day at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church located at 3826 Wheeler Str. with the repast following at the Live Oak S.H.A.P.E. Community Center as a way to celebrate his life.

IRVING, TEXAS – The Texas Food Bank Network, Baylor University’s Texas Hunger Initiative and First Choice Power today released “Hunger by the Numbers: A Blueprint for Ending Hunger in Texas.” The report includes a hunger scorecard for each of the 254 counties of Texas, a state which ranks second in the nation for food insecurity. The report provides a road map with resources for funding and programs to fight at a local, statewide and national level.

“This is the first time one report measures and describes the extent of hunger and its potential solutions in each of Texas’ counties,” said Barbara Anderson, executive director of the Texas Food Bank Network, a coalition of the 19 food banks in Texas.

The report comes on the heels of this morning’s announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that Texas has the second highest rate of hunger in the nation. According to USDA, 18.8 percent of Texas households, or one in five were at risk of hunger between 2008 and 2010.

Hunger by the Numbers: A Blueprint for Ending Hunger in Texas incorporates the newest national data on hunger made available by Feeding America, the nation’s network of food banks, along with U.S. Census data and statewide data on usage of federal and state programs.

“As Texans read this report, they will learn some startling facts about the size of the hunger problem in their state, which currently ranks second worst in the nation when it comes to hunger,” said Jeremy Everett, executive director of the Texas Hunger Initiative. “They also may be surprised to learn the extent of the hunger problems in their own back yards.”

Hunger reaches every area of the state: 18 percent are food insecure in Harris County, home to the fourth largest city in the nation; 24 percent are food insecure in Hidalgo County, the gateway to Mexico; 16 percent are food insecure in Travis County, where state leaders meet to discuss how to combat these issues. Even Montgomery County, home to The Woodlands and some of the state’s most affluent zip codes, has a food insecurity rate of 15 percent, meaning one in seven residents are at risk of hunger.

Along with compiled hunger data county-by-county, the report lists the resources available in each community to address hunger. Those resources include: SNAP (formally food stamps), free and reduced breakfast and lunch in schools, WIC and other federal programs.

First Choice Power, a retail electric provider in Texas, sponsored the report as part of its Food FirstTM program, which was created to fight hunger in the communities it serves.

“Take a moment to look over this insightful report and ask what you can do to fight hunger in our own backyard,” said Brian Hayduk, president of First Choice Power. “We believe the greatest energy source in our state is its people. And we are convinced that an informed community will be an engaged community.”

For more information and to view your county’s hunger score card, visit www.firstchoicepower.com/HungerGapReport.

By PAUL J. WEBER

Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO (AP) _ Congressional Texas Democrats returned from Washington on Monday to bash redrawn voting districts in federal court, testifying that the GOP-backed map discriminates by crowding blacks and Hispanics into shared districts despite a statewide surge in minority growth.

U.S. Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson, Henry Cuellar and Al Green each asked a three-judge panel to throw out the redistricting map drawn by the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Rick Perry this summer.

Hispanics accounted for two-thirds of Texas’ population growth the last decade. One by one, the elected Democrats testified the new map doesn’t reflect those gains and deprives Hispanics of a chance to elect their own representatives.

“Nothing is more satisfying to any minority group than having someone who looks like them represent them,” said Johnson, who was first elected to her Dallas district in 1992.

The Texas attorney general’s office began their defense later Monday, and made their first witness a Republican mapmaker who testified that the new map actually resulted in more districts with a majority of voting-age Hispanics than plans submitted by Democrats.

Gerardo Interiano, general counsel to Republican House speaker Joe Straus, said the new map gives Hispanics a fair chance to participate in the political process.

“More than ever,” Interiano said.
The prominent testimony from congressional members signaled that Democrats were winding down their case after more than a week of calling experts and minority leaders affected by the new map. They expected to rest later Monday after the scheduled testimony of U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.

The state contends the map is fair and maintains or increases the voting power of minorities.

Closing arguments are expected by the end of the week.

Texas received four new congressional seats following the last census, more than any other state, in wake of a population boom was overwhelmingly driven by Hispanics,

The new congressional map was drawn with the goal of protecting and possibly expanding the 23-9 majority enjoyed by Republicans in Texas’ delegation in Washington.

The Democratic lawmakers said the surge in Hispanic growth warranted those residents getting more representation in new districts. Democrats argue the Republican plan splits Hispanic and black communities, so that conservative white residents would be more likely to win seats in Congress.

Each of the congressional Democrats conceded Monday that the new map didn’t diminish their own chances of re-election. But they warned the new boundaries would create “tension districts” _ overcrowded minority districts split among blacks and Hispanics, and divided over which candidates to elect.
“It’s like throwing a few crumbs out there for them to fight over,” Johnson said.

Interiano said the new map was designed to give all incumbent lawmakers the opportunity to preserve their seats. Along the border, for example, the district of Republican state Rep. Aaron Pena was redrawn to try to include more GOP voters because Pena switched parties before the last session.

Interiano said that while the redistricting process was “member-driven” in the Legislature, not all plans submitted by lawmakers were legal. One Democratic plan to add another so-called Hispanic “opportunity district” in the Rio Grande Valley didn’t work, Interiano said, because it had the ripple effect of splitting counties further north in violation of the Texas Constitution.

Green, the Houston-area congressman first elected in 2004, said his district that currently has a plurality of black voters could be more evenly split with Hispanics under the new map. He said that by contrast, more than two dozen districts controlled by white voters are unlikely to change.

“It’s difficult to believe that it could happen by accident, the type of surgery that was performed,” Green said of the new map.

Under the Voting Rights Act, new Texas maps must be cleared by the U.S. Department of Justice to ensure the changes do not diminish minority representation. That case is pending in Washington.