charles
@cjblain10
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Writer, Explorer, Community Builder, Founder @urbanreformorg, Board @peptweets, Host @bcmpodcast_, @usccrgov-Texas, @fox26houston
houston
Joined April 2009
This project started as an essay one random weekend. Never published the essay but now it’ll be a book. An Ode to my best friends. Looking forward to working with @JHUPress to bring it to life.
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CenterPoint next month: “we’re so sorry for the inconvenience caused by Hurricane Beryl here is a credit of $1.50 towards your next bill”.
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Lmaooo my cousin was on Live PD because his truck got stolen and he chased down the guy who stole it.
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September 19th, @LinaHidalgoTX opposes audit of public health department despite claims of corruption . November 19th, former public health director charged with public corruption over $30 million contract scheme
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@ali @SonnieJohnson Somebody needs to be documenting all of these! Setups, staged/coordinated agitators, the media won’t report it.
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My friend from New York is visiting Texas because they’re thinking about moving here. She’s been in Austin for less than 24 hours and this is her take
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Hey @elonmusk can you buy the city of houston, too? We’ve got some issues you might be able to fix.
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Someone said this looks like a field sobriety test and now I can’t unsee it.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi participates in a US-Mexico hug ceremony on the border near Laredo, Texas.
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City council needs to have @centerpoint sit for a hearing and explain why we find ourselves in this situation and what they’re doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
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No one is criticizing the linesmen & women so the “stop attacking the linesmen” is performative. criticism is directed towards corporate comms who spin a tale to distract us and the cozy relationship CenterPoint has with our elected class that allows them to avoid accountability.
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Lmao you know when you’re at a club or a music festival and there’s that person hovering around looking out of place, usually wearing these timbs, and it’s 100% an undercover cop. .
Kamala THEE Harris in Timbs. I repeat, our next Vice President in Timbs
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One thing i love about Houston is no matter how down bad we are people will use their dying breath to talk sh*t in its defense.
How is this even remotely true? We put a man on the moon and y’all shot a president.
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not condoning destroying and looting private property but some of y’all are more upset today over the riots/rebellion than you were with the taking of an innocent life at the hands of government. Good morning!.
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There truly aren’t words for how hilarious I find this whole thing. In 4 hours I will have been laughing for 24 hours.
'I'm a nerd, too' | Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo responds to a comment Houston Mayor John Whitmire made about her fiancé on social media. Full story:
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Austin is ghetto. I don’t want to hear anything about Houston anymore until yall get Austin together.
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Houston is beautiful and luxurious but that’s not why people move here. They move here because it is affordable. At this rate how long is that going to be the case?.
Harris County approves overall property tax increase of 9.53% . (Montgomery County approved an 8.91% increase last month)
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I really wish Pelosi would’ve said “I was hoodwinked, dare I say bamboozled”.
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Until my mom had a stroke last week I didn’t realize how serious ppl were about needing to be your own (or family member’s) patient advocate. Even in the best hospitals things get lost in shuffle, info gaps occur between shifts, records are questioned, and you’re not given all of.
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The main problem is too many of yall think Election Day only happens once every 4 years.
I think all jobs should be closed Election Day. It happens once every 4 years. Let us off of work!.
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@RichardHanania @DavidWohl This is definitely comedy right? Like this whole thread is a bit? It has to be.
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I’ll say more on this later but the fact that in one day 4 Texas GOP chairs have come under condemnation for racist remarks — including MY county — should make it CLEAR AS DAY that we have a problem in this party and y’all need to talk to more black people.
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This needs to be a whole movie.
Father buys his son a brand new baseball bat for his birthday. The reaction is priceless, but the surprise at the end is incredible.
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lol wait. @LinaHidalgoTX’s entire campaign has been to claim her opponent is an election denier but here she is calling into question the validity of the election before it even happens
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How is this shark still terrorizing us this has got to stop.
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This isn’t even a joke but we probably should’ve guessed we were headed in this direction by the way people acted over a chicken sandwich.
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Imagine if people were this passionate about their city elections. Ya know, the ones where your effort and vote can REALLY make an impact. A boy can dream.
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This story has always been so fascinating to me
Today in 1960, hoping to avoid acts of civil disobedience, 70 Houston lunch counters quietly desegregate.
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FWIW sure we can blame Dems for screwing up a lot of our major cities (it is what it is) but let’s make sure we blame Republicans too for rarely competing earnestly in cities and allowing the political machines to go unchecked for so long.
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“More than half a dozen people or companies gave contributions to Jackson Lee that exceed the city’s legal limit and one donation wrongly was attributed to a dead woman.”
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I’m sorry, but what . “Hidalgo occupies a role within the Democratic Party that is particularly unique. And it’s only set to become more so as appointed Texas judges increasingly skew Republican…”
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.@LinaHidalgoTX has been silent on the day that 3 of her top people are indicted but that doesn’t stop her campaign from asking folks to “rush a contribution”
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To my fellow patriots fighting for visibility in a world that wasn’t built for us:. For ages, we’ve met the challenge of spiral notebooks, school desks, sitting next to a righty at dinner. The world may not be built for us but that has yet to stop us #LeftHandersDay
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Instead of blaming the grassroots for being outspoken and not “falling in line” maybe our elected officials and candidates should do better?.
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Bmore has its issues but I’m a firm believer that no President should refer to a US city as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” . Also. since when do we look to Congress ppl to fix our cities? Mayors/Councils will always have more impact on daily lives than Congress folk.
. As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place.
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When Houston’s chief adm officer accuses its chief financial officer of pay2play, council should investigate, swiftly, on behalf of taxpayers. OIG and FBI investigations are not public, council’s can be. @JMartinez4Hou <- ethics chair @ChronOpinion
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I need to pick something to be outraged about today, what’re y’all choosing?.
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Didn’t he literally just say the opposite.
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“Houston’s tax rate, which is lower than all of the state’s major cities besides Austin, has led to a loss of $2.2 billion in revenue over the last 10 years…”. No. It has led to savings of $2.2B for taxpayers. Not being able to take more money out of taxpayers’ pockets is not a.
A few players have emerged in Houston's discussions on raising taxes: The mayor's office (that's now presented tax raising paths twice), council members who warn consequences of snubbing a hike, and an audit of city operations. More: via @HoustonChron.
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The streets are safe and we can all sleep a little more peacefully now.
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This is why no one can understand their local government. News reports Harris County taxes up 8%, public tax notice says 10.06%, @LinaHidalgoTX yesterday tweets 10.9%, during the meeting @LinaHidalgoTX says 9.53%
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20 years since this iconic, earth shattering, life altering, groundbreaking album dropped and changed the music world. Two decades later it’s still being sampled (see: Drake and Cardi B). Sit back and let me tell y’all the story of #TheMiseducationOfLaurynHill #DearMsHill
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In my old age I’ve started to really appreciate and see the value in spending my time around good people. People who fill my soul. It just hits different.
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Will not be running for Chair of the Harris County Republican Party but this is for those who care.
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You shouldn’t put more faith in a politician than you put in God.
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My mom just called because she saw there were storms in Houston. She said to close my blinds so the lightning doesn’t come through. Then she said she had to get off the phone because the lightning might come through the phone to her. .
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Y’all know you can tweet condolences without including a line about how you didn’t align with their politics. Like, you know the tweet will still send, right?.
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.@LinaHidalgoTX said the state killing Uplift Harris was cruel, I’d contend it’s more cruel to pursue a program that not only doesn’t work but may actually damage recipients' financial position.
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Today we outline our strategic rebrand to allow us to maximize our customer deliverables and build on our core competencies. In the coming days we will leverage our partners, find synergies, and circle back on what value add will move the needle because we know that’s mission.
We apologize to our customers who endured outages from Hurricane Beryl and were frustrated by our communications. We make no excuses. We will get better. Today, we outlined a new action plan to address the areas where we fell short in our response. Click here to see the full
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If we can open all of these places in increments why can’t we open barbershops and other businesses that can be appointment-based?.
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I usually try not to be THAT guy but imagine if trump told us he broke his foot pulling his dog’s tail? The deep dives, 4,000 word think pieces and columns would be published before he finished the sentence.
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I’d like to thank the Academy.
Congratulations to HRBC member, @cjblain10 for being named in Houston Business Journal's 40 Under 40 this year!. Click here to see full list:.
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Someone should request all of the travel info for all of the big city mayors and county judges in Texas for the past 12 months.
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Being called a nerd as an adult is not even offensive yall doing too much.
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It’s really sad how many people in Houston have heard of the robot sex brothel issue and how few are aware that city council is about to vote on the first tax rate increase in like nearly 20 years.
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Something tells me these past few days are going to do a bit of damage to the whole image Texas has been crafting for a while.
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Did you really have your team put together a graphic to show us you want to raise taxes by 13.9%?.
📉 FACT: Harris County's total approved tax rate is lower than before I took office, despite what some may claim. This new rate includes a $10 million investment in the public improvement contingency fund for disaster recovery. The only reason this year's tax rate seems like
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Since Houstonians at present have no recourse in the free market, they must look to their elected and appointed officials to ensure that CenterPoint starts feeling some heat.
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.@DwightBoykins is right, Houston is not a dictatorship and @SylvesterTurner should give council ample time to review the budget.
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There were a lot of protesters in Houston last night. They were not the ones who vandalized, looted, and hurt people. From what I witnessed, those agitators weren’t there for the cause they were only there to take advantage and wreak havoc in an already tense situation.
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All of these mayors, governors, etc are out here threatening us with walls of shame, reporting hotlines, and fines but they’re out here maskless for photo shoots, jet setting to Cabo, eating good in the neighborhood.
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Why let a little truth get in the way of misinformation
BREAKING: Multiple cats in Houston, TX cut up and mutiIated in recent weeks . No arrests have been made
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Since city council can pass a $43 million tax incentive package for a W hotel, they can surely pass a tax abatement/relief package for the businesses impacted by the local government-mandated shutdown, right?
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Every time a politician does something condemenation-worthy, the news always says “once considered a rising star” . How about we stop turning politicians into “stars” and look at them as what they are, public servants.
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All of our local electeds want us to look at pictures of them eating ice cream and dancing in the park while this place hangs on by a thread.
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This is one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen. If ever a time for ppl on twitter to use their powers to ID someone now is it.
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Sent this to my friends in Jersey hoping to lure them here…our brand is strong
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I’ve been fascinated by this urban cowboy life recently. These are in Nola, but we have them in Houston and I recently read a profile of them in South Central LA.
Urban cowboys in New Orleans like to show off their pimped-out rides as much as their biker and car enthusiast friends
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More news. Over the past year (at least) I’ve been working on a new project and it’s now officially launched. @urbanreformorg is my new org covering city hall and pushing free market, limited gov policies in cities. Htown is in desperate need of reform and it’s time to start!
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Is there an office he won’t run for?.
SCOOP: Beto O’Rourke is preparing to run for governor of Texas in 2022, with an announcement expected later this year, Texas political operatives tell Axios.
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Crazy to see how many people in the media hate to see someone try to make a living.
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This shutdown is probably the longest many of our elected officials have gone without going on an expense paid “economic development” trip.
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The “upside” of this corona outbreak is state and local governments are exposing which regulations are unnecessary and can easily be suspended/abolished without risking health and safety.
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Houston/HC recent local debt+tax 📈.‘22 - $1.2 billion Harris bond .‘23 - $478 million Houston bond .‘23 - $2.5 billion Harris hospital bond .‘24 - $650 million Houston bond .————.‘24 - 8% county tax increase .‘24 - +$60 per yr flood control tax increase .‘24 - $4.4 billion.
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Kinda crazy that the people elected to *serve* are still getting paid, sitting comfortably nitpicking pet projects in relief bills while many of the people who elected them are starving.
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