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TEXAS AND CAMERON COUNTY LAG MILLIONS BEHIND IN THE SPACEX BIDDING WAR
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By Juan Montoya We hate to tell you we told you do, but we told you so. From the get-go we have said that the chances of SpaceX coming to Cameron County were long. And apparently, they getting longer. There's no more talk from the local daily of millionaire astro-whiz Elon Musk favoring the Boca Chica site over the proposed sites in Puerto Rico and Florida. And the Brownsville Economic Development Council's Gilbert Salinas is not talking about how Musk just favors Boca Chica because it's a "Texas thing," whatever that means. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmNHmjYooB1Vu6u33REEnf64rXCoZhhyphenhyphenp9-cPQ3XUm_9-_4j1S4jYJ3RMQJcopx-ZaS8SsY-8SVXEf-Gapilj8eP07fMFNz-sP4oXbrPc_Af_41xG79xukjnp-T_GdPsig28s07CLxj9A/s1600/auction.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmNHmjYooB1Vu6u33REEnf64rXCoZhhyphenhyphenp9-cPQ3XUm_9-_4j1S4jYJ3RMQJcopx-ZaS8SsY-8SVXEf-Gapilj8eP07fMFNz-sP4oXbrPc_Af_41xG79xukjnp-T_GdPsig28s07CLxj9A/s400/auction.jpg" width="400" /></a>Now none other than Mr. Spacey at Cameron County, Commissioner for Pct. 4 Dan Sanchez, is the bearer of bad news by saying in open court that the BEDC and Texas have fallen behind Florida in incentives offered to SpaceX. He said that the $6 million that Texas and BEDC are peanuts compared to nthe $10 million Florida is waving in front of the millionaire's face. What is it about millionaires that makes local yokels crazy and their response is merely to offer him more money? â€œWeâ€™re behind in the race,â€ Sanchez said at the meeting, according to the local daily. Reporter extraordinaire Emma Perez-TreviÃ±o, not one to take a common county commissioner's word at face value, checked with the folks at SpaceX themselves and got a rather ambiguous response, not the public affirmation that Texas was ahead of the game hawked in the week-long series in her newspaper.  â€œSpaceX is continuing to look at all possibilities for a private launch facility, including sites in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico," SpaceX spokeswoman Katherine Nelson told Emma."We are still in the early stages of the review process.â€ Oh, yeah. Nelson told her that SpaceX â€œappreciates the efforts of, and support from, Texas local, county, regional and state elected officials and organizations.â€ Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos tried to put on the best spin he could in the bidding war. â€œThere is more to an incentives package,â€ he said. â€œOur package could well exceed the amount in cash that is being talked about. We are prepared to do whatever we need to do to make it happen.â€ With the county strapped for cash that it has only been able to give its employees two stipends instead of raises over the last fiver years that Cascos has been in office â€" one for $1,000 and the one included in this year's budget of $500 â€" we'd all love to see from what bhat he is going to pull out the greenbacks. For now, the bid is in at $10 million for Florida. "Do I hear $15 million? Going once..." <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-2169784190973717265?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/09/texas-and-cameron-conty-lag-in-spacex.html

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AND UT-BROWNSVILLE DOESN'T EVEN RATE A RANKING?
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By Reeve Hamilton Texas Tribune U.S. News & World Report on Wednesday issued its annual rankings of the country's colleges and universities. For those who followed las year's list, this year's results may seem like a bit of dÃ©jÃ vu. Once again, the only Texas institutions in the top 50 on the list of the country's best national universities are Rice University and the University of Texas at Austin. The former is ranked 17th, as it was last year, and the latter is ranked 46th, which is a small slip from 45th last year. Southern Methodist University and Texas A&M University saw a bit more movement as they virtually swapped places. Last year, A&M was 58th and SMU was 62nd. This year, SMU is 58th and A&M is 65th. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwExveKAZDbSAwHHbly1J601pwnroP16tbvGxCNyOsMa3RTXNsvybUb3fKr_Sh0-4FXxo6Q992NlnsSSLJH0HInGmU6OdqYkNr1XTZ_eYZd_XOwCF8hUKP1F6t0VIvmpIEEAxvaEvMcWM/s1600/julietnew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwExveKAZDbSAwHHbly1J601pwnroP16tbvGxCNyOsMa3RTXNsvybUb3fKr_Sh0-4FXxo6Q992NlnsSSLJH0HInGmU6OdqYkNr1XTZ_eYZd_XOwCF8hUKP1F6t0VIvmpIEEAxvaEvMcWM/s320/julietnew.jpg" width="180" /></a>(Juliet Garcia's UT-B is not ranked among the best colleges or universities, but its nursing program is. It holds the unenviable position of 193rd in the nation.) Baylor University fell slightly from 75th to 77th, Texas Christian University rose from 97th to 92nd, the University of Texas at Dallas fell from 143rd to 151st, and Texas Tech University fell from 160th to 165th. The University of Houston rounds out the Texas schools in this year's top 200, coming in at 184th. U.S. News analysts Robert Morse and Sam Flanigan write that the rankings "allow you to compare at a glance the relative quality of institutions based on such widely accepted indicators of excellence as freshman retention, graduation rates, and the strength of the faculty." Of course, the U.S. News & World Report's rankings are as controversial as they are influential. Last year, Texas Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes told legislators, "The only thing I pay attention to [in them] is peer assessment. I don't think the other metrics U.S. News & World Report uses are accurate or meaningful." Over the years, other rankings have cropped up attempting to provide an alternative to U.S. News. When Washington Monthly released its college rankings last month, Daniel Luzer, one of the magazine's writers, explained the difference this way: "While U.S. News & World Report relies on crude and easily manipulated measures of wealth, exclusivity, and prestige for its rankings, the Washington Monthly rates schools based on what they are doing for their students and the country." Public universities post higher scores in the Washington Monthly rankings than U.S. News, and some institutions that don't even appear on the latter excel in the former. For example, the University of Texas at El Paso is unranked in U.S. News, but it is 12th in the country according to Washington Monthly's metric, which emphasizes social mobility, research and service. Similarly, A&M shoots up to second best in the country, which is a far cry from 65th. With a growing variety of rankings, schools can pick and choose which to celebrate and which to ignore. A&M officials, who naturally lauded the Washington Monthly list when it came out, still found news worth celebrating in the U.S. News results, though. They are 19th overall and the second public university in the U.S. News list of "Best Value Schools." A&M President R. Bowen Loftin issued a statement saying, "Overall, there are obviously many measures of what constitutes a great university, but we are delighted that the editors of the magazine acknowledge that Texas A&M continues to stand out as an institution that is among the very best nationally for offering a high-quality education at an affordable cost."<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-3960605849745693050?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/09/and-ut-brownsville-doesnt-even-rate.html

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Friday, September 14, 2012

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