In the first segment:
CPS energy has been reaching out to the public to gain support for a 4.75 percent rate increase they want the City Council to approve. This would be the first rate increase since 2010. The municipally-owned utility has said that the rate increase proceeds, an estimated $66 million annually, will go towards capital investment: replacing old transformers and substations, building new substations and upgrading transmission lines.
The rate increase has been unpopular with many who complained CPS was wasting too much on executive pay and staff bonuses, which an Express-News investigation showed rose 58 percent from 2010 to 2012. Last week CPS stated publicly that it will review its standards for bonuses, adding personal achievement to the criteria.
CPS President and Chief Executive Officer joins us to talk about why CPS needs to raise rates.
In the second segment:
Texas loves its high-school sports. Long Friday nights watching and cheering on its songs and daughters have been the focus of movies and popular television series for more than a decade, so the proposition that these school sports could be harmful the education of youth would likely sound ludicrous to most parents. In the October edition of The Atlantic, Amanda Ripley makes just that case, even using a Texas school district as her example for what goes right when sports are banned.
Amanda Ripley joins us to talk about her article and take your questions.
Amanda Ripley is an Emerson Fellow at the New America Foundation and author of the new book The Smartest Kids in the World--And How They Got That Way.
