The second impeachment trial of former President Trump started on Tuesday with a debate on the constitutionality of the proceeding. After the lengthy debate, the Senate voted that the trial was constitutional. Expect a verdict next week, and expect it to be disappointing.

Commissioner’s Court: Collin County’s vaccine distribution remains chaotic. Organizers weren’t using unique QR codes the first two days and information was shared with people who didn’t have an appointment. They also didn’t use unique ID appointment links; those got shared too. They turned people away on Thursday (after some waited for hours) because they overbooked to compensate for the 30% no-show rate. Part of the problem is that there’s no central number to call should you need to cancel your shot appointment. Another issue is that they don’t have a good plan for what to do with the leftover vaccine due to no-shows. Why not have teachers, grocery store workers or other essential personnel show up at the end of the day? There are solutions if only the people in charge were smart enough to think of them!

One hub had a lot of Tarrant County Health Department staff working because Collin County didn’t send enough people. Additionally, all hubs pulling from the Collin County waitlist have skipped hundreds of people in each of the thousand groupings (e.g., hundreds in the 3000s, 6000s, etc.). Collin has yet to have a smooth day of operation. This is what happens when you have incompetent leadership! You can tell the Commissioners know it too by how many excuses they offer and the number of lies they tell about the amazing outcomes of their operation. If you have to keep insisting you’re doing a good job, you aren’t.

Collin College: The Board of Trustees held an emergency meeting on Friday. The meeting was live-streamed but, perhaps due to the large number of people trying to watch (close to 3,000), the video quality was extremely poor. I could only watch via an upload on YouTube. All 13 speakers were strongly in support of Dr. Suzanne Jones and Professor Audra Heaslip, the two recently fired professors. Several faculty members spoke, one through a proxy due to fears of retaliation. Things are getting bad at Collin College. It’s clear we need to elect new board members in May. Hopefully, a new Board will support a return to the tenure system which would eliminate all the current fears and encourage a return to intellectual creativity.

McKinney City Council: Council once again tabled the vote on removing the James W. Throckmorton statue located in downtown McKinney (Throckmorton was a Confederate General and former Texas Governor). Freddie Frazer, an incredibly terrible council member (why do we have so many of these in Collin County?), was so rude and condescending to several of the Black people in the audience that one of them strode to the dais after being “invited” to do so and told him to quit talking down to people from the east side. The Mayor had to intercede to prevent trouble. If people, especially Republicans, are so interested in “unity,” why not move the statue to a museum and replace it with artwork (or even picnic tables) every citizen can support? Be sure to tell them your thoughts at [email protected] because they’re mostly hearing from people who support statues of Confederates.

In a positive move, McKinney Police Department added a mental health professional to its civilian staff. This professional will work with the community services unit, particularly collaborating with the department’s homeless and mental health liaisons. Reducing the number of repeated calls for help and connecting citizens with service providers for long-term assistance is the ultimate goal. Hopefully, McKinney PD can model its program after similar, successful programs like the CAHOOTS program in Eugene, Oregon or Denver's STAR program.

Remember how Ken Paxton was at Trump's Pre-Insurrection Rally on January 6th? Wouldn't you like to send him back to McKinney, to face a judge on his three felony indictments? SO DO WE!

Join our event to meet the first Democrat who has declared he will challenge Paxton for Attorney General in 2022!

When: Tonight, Thursday, February 11

Time: 7 - 8 p.m. CST

The CCDP physical office is closed until further notice for safety. Our office staff are, however, working for you from home and available by telephone at 972-578-1483 or contact us on the web at collindemocrats.org