“Election Integrity” or Voter Intimidation?
Texas Republicans are pushing changes to election laws that would let partisan poll watchers record voters in polling places.
Texas Republicans are pushing changes to election laws that would let partisan poll watchers record voters in polling places.
During a March webinar, Bill Ely pulled up a map of Harris County while presenting the local Republican Party’s ambitious plan for the 2022 midterms: building an “army” of 10,000 conservative election monitors. Ely, a local Tea Party leader who heads the committee within the Harris County GOP dedicated to ballot security, pointed to the northwest Houston suburb where he lives, where “almost seven out of 10 homes are Republican.” Ely stressed to other party leaders on the call the importance of recruiting more election monitors from neighborhoods like his, then he dragged the cursor down to the heart of the city. Pointing to majority Black and brown neighborhoods, Ely said th
Political Flyer Slams Texas Candidate Doug Woodward for BLM Sign in Yard
On 4/15/21 at 10:41 PM EDT
A school board candidate in a very wealthy Dallas district has been bashed by a political action committee for having a Black Lives Matter sign in his yard last summer. Doug Woodward, a candidate for Place 1 trustee in the Highland Park Independent School District (HPISD), confirmed he had a sign in his yard.
Woodward s campaign website has a section of questions asked by people, followed by his answer. One of them questioned if he actually had a BLM sign in his yard. I did, indeed, have a sign in my yard briefly last summer which expressed compassion at a difficult time for all of us, Woodward wrote. If you are asking whether my response indicates a support of any political platform you may associate it with, the answer is categorically no and any suggestion otherwise is misinformed and irresponsible.
Let s examine the facts, shall we?
By Tim Rogers
Published in
FrontBurner
February 24, 2021
2:10 pm
I’m going to relay some information to you, and I’m going to be careful about how I do it. This information is about a new online publication in town called the Dallas Express. Its publisher is a man named Monty Bennett. When the site launched, Bennett wrote in a note to readers that his publication is all about the truth, facts, no bias. The first two paragraphs from Bennett:
Truth has become a casualty in today’s media world. News has become a vessel to promote favored world views, and objectivity has been sacrificed. There are many publications in our wonderful city, but none we can count on daily to present just the facts. Readers can’t pick up a local publication without seeing bias in one direction or the other.
More travel executives get their mission-critical industry news from Skift than any other source on the planet.Tell me more
The floodgates opened this week on the second round of federally backed Paycheck Protection Program small business loans for companies struggling during the pandemic.
But a hotel company embroiled in scrutiny during PPP 1.0 has found a different survival plan.
Ashford Hospitality Trust was among a trio of companies tied to Dallas-based hotelier Monty Bennett that took fire for receiving tens of millions of dollars in PPP loans under a $2 trillion relief measure passed early in the pandemic. Critics chided Ashford Trust, a real estate trust owning Ritz-Carlton and W-branded properties, and Bennett, a wealthy businessman, of taking advantage of a program intended to help struggling mom and pop businesses in the global pandemic.
Dallas hotel owner Ashford Hospitality under pressure to overhaul board from activist investor Cygnus
Cygnus, which owns 2.8% of Ashford’s common stock, excoriated the company for its alleged mistreatment of stockholders.
Ashford Hospitality Trust owns 103 properties, including the W and Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta.(Ashford Hospitality)
atop a real estate investment trust led by Dallas hotelier Monty Bennett.
Cygnus, in a letter Tuesday to shareholders of Ashford Hospitality Trust, said it is backing a slate of five “highly qualified” candidates for seats on the trust’s executive board. Cygnus alleged the company’s eight-member board has been structured in a way that allows Bennett, the company’s founder and chairman, and his allies “to prioritize their interests above all else.”