‘The situation was much worse than we were told’ and other revealing quotes of the week

“It turns out the situation was much worse than we were told … People who may have been carrying the virus should have been quarantined.” – Ruhi Çenet, a Turkish documentary maker in an Instagram post. Çenet was a passenger on a cruise ship where at least three passengers have died after an outbreak of hantavirus was detected. (Thursday, The Washington Post)

“Council members will pay lip service to fiscal responsibility, but when it comes time to vote, few are willing to follow through. Each has favored projects and programs to which they will tolerate no reductions” – Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson in his weekly newsletter. (May 3, The Dallas Morning News)

“It’s easy to write a bunch of fiscal statements with zero plan to back it up … Here in Texas, we call that ‘all hat and no cattle.’” – Dallas council member Laura Cadena, reacting to Mayor Eric Johnson’s newsletter accusing the City Council of approving “bloated budgets.” (Tuesday, The Dallas Morning News)

“We need to resist this narrative that this disaster was unpreventable … The disaster is just shaped by policy choices made over [decades].” – Michael Slattery, director of the Institute for Environmental Studies at Texas Christian University, about the high death toll from flash floods in the Hill Country last summer. (Wednesday, The Texas Tribune)

“Last year cut down the net, next year go to The Met.” – Dallas Wings promoting a red carpet appearance by WNBA superstar Paige Bueckers at The Met Gala in New York. (Monday, social media)

“Who do you think is more morally repulsive: Ted Cruz or Nick Fuentes?” – Far right podcaster and conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson regarding Texas’ junior senator vs. an admitted white supremacist. The answer, according to Carlson, is Cruz. (May 2, The New York Times)

“This is a classic, classic unfunded mandate … If there is such a thing, this is textbook definition.” – John Craft, superintendent for the Northside Independent School District in San Antonio, about a new state law that requires all school buses to have three-point seat belts but provides no funding to buy or retrofit vehicles. (Monday, The Texas Tribune)

“… my own sister has been on the HCS [Home and Community-based Services waiver] interest list for eight years. Today, she is number 83,884 out of 132,988 Texans waiting for access to HCS.” – Sabrina Gonzalez Saucedo, director of public policy and advocacy for the Arc of Texas, explaining how long people with intellectual and developmental disabilities must wait before they even find out if they’re eligible for state-funded, community-based support services. (Wednesday, KERA)

“Our working assumption was that the coyote made the swim from San Francisco because it is a significantly shorter distance. We couldn’t help being impressed by his accomplishment in making it to Alcatraz.” – National Park Service wildlife ecologist Bill Merkle, in a news release, about a coyote that stunned biologists by paddling its way to Alcatraz Island earlier this year, a former federal prison. Turns out the coyote made an even longer swim from nearby Angel Island. (Thursday, Associated Press)