Capital Highlights
by ED STERLING
Plans are in the works for a Texas role related to the Panama Canal expansion project slated for completion in 2014.
Last week, the Texas Department of Transportation announced the formation of a “Panama Canal Stakeholder Working Group” whose members will give input on road, bridge and port construction here in Texas because of a projected increase in land and sea traffic enabled by the canal project.
“Preparing the state’s infrastructure for such an expansion, in terms of sea and land-based infrastructure, is crucial to accommodating this increased freight traffic,” said state Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
TxDOT said port, agriculture, trucking, manufacturing, government, oil and gas, and rail industries have been invited to join the working group, and recommendations from it are due by year’s end. Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, a former state representative and former member of the Interstate Commerce Commission, will serve as chair, and plans are for the working group to meet monthly for the next six months.
Work is under way in the Panama Canal to open new access lanes, build a third set of locks and deepen navigational channels, with more than $5 billion in funding coming from the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, China, South Korea, most European countries and Israel.
Having reached its maximum sustainable capacity of ship traffic several years ago, the canal, which opened 100 years ago, was in need of the upgrades.
Food, feeding are big issues
The House committees on Public Health and Human Services, whose responsibilities often intersect, met in a joint interim hearing on May 22.
Invited testimony was given by state agencies, charitable organizations and farmers in an effort to identify policies to alleviate food insecurity, increase access to healthy foods, and encourage better nutrition within existing food assistance programs.
Topics ranged from how to eliminate “food deserts” and grocery gaps, encourage urban agriculture and farmers markets, increase participation in the Summer Food Program, to incorporating standards in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Celia Cole, director of the Texas Food Bank Network, discussed progress in feeding more Texans. She mentioned that not being able to afford a healthy diet remains a problem for many and “economic impacts of inadequate nutrition affect all of us.”
Cole testified to the beneficial work of public and private partnerships, such as Texans Feeding Texans, a program linking the Texas Department of Agriculture with growers and food banks.
Drought emergency continues
Gov. Rick Perry on May 21 renewed his emergency disaster proclamation that exceptional drought conditions pose a threat to some 170 of Texas’ 254 counties. The proclamation, which started in July 2011, states that conditions “continue to pose an imminent threat to public health, property and the economy.” Disaster proclamations are effective for 30 days and renewable as needed.
Estimates include Texas data
A couple of years ago, the office of the state demographer described Texas as a “majority-minority” state, meaning in effect that the aggregate count of people who self-identify as Hispanic, Black, Asian, Native American, Pacific Islander was greater than the count of people who self-identify as single-race white.
On May 17, the U.S. Census Bureau released a set of estimates that show Texas is one of four majority-minority states, the others being Hawaii, California and New Mexico, and of the four, Texas has the lowest percentage of minority residents, with 55.2 percent.
Also from set of census estimates is this information: More than 11 percent (348) of the nation’s 3,143 counties were majority-minority as of July 1, 2011, with nine of these counties achieving this status since April 1, 2010. Of those 348 counties, Maverick County, Texas, had the largest share - 96.8 percent - of its population in minority groups, followed by Webb County, Texas with 96.4 percent.
Also noted was that of all counties in the U.S., Starr County, Texas, had the highest percentage of Hispanics: 95.6 percent. And, of all states, Texas showed the greatest numerical gain in Black or African-American population, with an increase of 84,000 individuals between 2010 and 2011.
Ed Sterling works for the Texas Press Association and follows the Legislature for the association.
